Ana Abilities and Strategy
Welcome to our Abilities page for Ana. Here, we give you an overview of every ability in Ana's kit. For each of them, we explain what it does, how to best use it, and how it works in combination with Ana's other abilities. We also give you strategy tips to play Ana efficiently.
Ana's Tips and Tricks
- Due to her limited survivability, Ana needs to pay special attention on where she positions herself during a team fight.
- Do not wait too much for casting Nano Boost because it lasts 8 seconds.
- Hold Biotic Grenade as much as possible because it can easily secure a kill or save an allied Hero.
Healing Dart
Fire a dart which heals the first allied Hero hit for 195 (+4% per level) Health. Does not affect full Health Heroes.
Healing Dart is a Basic Ability that requires good aim in order to hit the intended target Hero and heal them.
If there is another allied Hero in between you and the target Hero that you want to heal with this Ability, you either change position accordingly or activate Shrike to make the projectile pierce one allied Hero.
Even if it is rarely useful, it is good to know that Healing Dart will pierce any allied Hero who has full Health or that is immune to allied effects (such as Deathwing due to Aspect of Death).
Biotic Grenade
- Mana: 50
- Cooldown: 16 seconds
Toss a grenade at the target area. Allied Heroes hit are healed for 152 (+4% per level) Health and receive 25% increased healing from Ana for 4 seconds. Enemies hit take 60 (+4% per level) damage and receive 100% less healing for 1.75 seconds.
Biotic Grenade is a Basic Ability that completely denies enemy healing and amplifies Ana's healing.
Ana needs to carefully assess the course of battle and decide whether it should be used to prevent enemy Heroes from healing or to boost her own healing. While there is not a hard rule, using it on enemy Heroes has a higher impact than using it on allied Heroes because the healing reduction is stronger than the healing increase.
Sleep Dart
- Mana: 50
- Cooldown: 14 seconds
Fire a dart that puts the first enemy Hero hit to Sleep, Stunning them for 3 seconds. Sleep's effects end instantly if the target takes damage after the first 0.5 seconds.
Cannot be used on Vehicles.
Sleep Dart is a Basic Ability that applies a Sleep effect to any enemy Hero hit.
While it requires good aim, the best way to use this Ability is to catch enemy Heroes from the distance so that your team can engage on them while they are Sleeping. It does not matter that the damage will wake them up if your team adds crowd control.
Due to Ana not having any form of mobility, Sleep Dart is best used against enemy melee Heroes, who will likely try to pressure Ana.
The fact that any Sleep effect provides at least a 0.5-second Stun allows Ana to contribute to crowd control chains on the focused enemy Hero even if the rest of the Sleep effect will go to waste.
Nano Boost
In this section we discuss how this Heroic Ability works and give some tips on how to use it. If you are looking for a detailed explanation on when and why you should pick it, check out the dedicated section in the Talent Build page.
- Heroic
- Mana: 60
- Cooldown: 70 seconds
Instantly boost an allied Hero, restoring 200 Mana. For the next 8 seconds, they gain 30% Spell Power and their Basic Ability cooldowns recharge 150% faster.
Cannot be used on Ana.
Nano Boost is a Heroic Ability that can easily boost the damage provided by the Mage in your team (such as Li-Ming) by giving them Spell Power and cooldown reduction for 8 seconds.
Since it comes with a relatively long duration, make sure to cast it at the beginning of a team fight rather than keeping it for too long, but also make sure that the team fight already started or the enemy team will just disengage and wait for it to expire.
Eye of Horus
In this section we discuss how this Heroic Ability works and give some tips on how to use it. If you are looking for a detailed explanation on when and why you should pick it, check out the dedicated section in the Talent Build page.
- Heroic
- Mana: 45
- Cooldown: 60 seconds
Assume a sniping position, gaining the ability to fire up to 6 specialized rounds with unlimited range. Rounds pierce allied and enemy Heroes but collide with enemy Structures in their path. Allies are healed for 225 (+4% per level) and enemies are damaged for 135 (+4% per level). Deals 50% less damage to Structures.
Ana is unable to move while Eye of Horus is active.
Eye of Horus is a Heroic Ability that allows Ana to heal allies and damage opponents from anywhere on the battlefield. The projectiles will pierce allied and enemy Heroes, but not enemy Structures.
The global range comes with a major drawback: it forces Ana to temporarily take on a stationary position, something that makes her an easy target to take down if used too close to the action or makes her late to the second part of the team fight if used from too far.
Shrike
- Passive
Basic Attacks apply a Dose to enemies, dealing 40 (+4% per level) damage over 5 seconds, plus additional damage equal to the current number of stacks on the target, stacking up to 5 times. Every 0.5 seconds, Ana is healed for 60% of the damage dealt by Shrike.
Aim Down Sights
Activating Shrike reduces your Movement Speed by 25%, but increases the Range of Healing Dart and Sleep Dart by 25% while also allowing them to pierce one Hero. Lasts until canceled.
Shrike is a Trait that allows Ana to apply Doses on any enemy and heal herself for a considerable amount based on their number, something that slightly compensates for the fact that Healing Dart, her main healing Ability, cannot be self-cast.
Since every Basic Attack does not only refresh Shrike's duration but also deals damage and healing based on the number of Doses on the target, there is no reason to stop attacking after reaching the maximum amount of Doses on a given target. All that said, always maintain a healthy distance from enemy Heroes.
Shrike also has an active component called Aim Down Sights. While this is active, the range of both Healing Dart and Sleep Dart is increased and they pierce through the first valid Hero hit. All of this comes at the cost of being Slowed down. Even if its tooltip does not mention it, activating Shrike will trigger a 4-second cooldown on both Trait and Mount, making her a vulnerable target due to the Slow mentioned above.
Changelog
- 28 Sep. 2021: Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
- 08 Oct. 2020: Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
- 12 Aug. 2020: Abilities and Strategy page updated.
- Minor fixes.
- New layout.
- 31 Mar. 2020: Abilities and Strategy page fully revised to match new standards.
- Tips and Tricks modified to add important tips that were missing and to remove obvious ones that were not worth mentioning.
- Ability Descriptions modified to better explain how to use Abilities effectively.
- 03 Jun. 2019: Applied minor updates to Ana's ability descriptions.
- 13 Feb. 2019: Updated Ana's abilities in accordance with the latest rework.
- 07 Mar. 2018: Updated Shrike (and Biotic Grenade, very slightly) text to account for the latest patch.
More Healer Guides
Elitesparkle is a multiple times Master player in Europe who plays Heroes of the Storm since its release. He is an active member of the community who likes to teach new and veteran players all he knows about his favorite game.
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