Ana Build Guide “Mother knows best.”

Last updated on Dec 12, 2023 at 12:45 by Elitesparkle 39 comments
General Information

Welcome to our guide for Ana, a Healer in Heroes of the Storm. Within these pages, you will find everything required to understand how best to play this hero, in both different map styles and team compositions.

1.

Ana's Overview

Ana is a Healer who excels at manipulating the course of battle from a safe distance. She is particularly efficient if protected by a solid frontline, since she does not have any real escape mechanism. Consequently, knowing how to position Ana during a team fight is crucial when it comes to staying clear of danger, but also when it comes to healing allied targets from the right angle.

2.

Ana's Strengths and Weaknesses

V Strengths
X Weaknesses
3.

Ana's Talent Build Cheatsheet

Sleep Dart Build

Recommended
Level 1 Slumber Shells Icon
Level 4 Overdose Icon Debilitating Dart Icon ?
Level 7 Night Terrors Icon
Level 10 Nano Boost Icon Eye of Horus Icon ?
Level 13 Smelling Salts Icon Purifying Darts Icon ? Speed Serum Icon ?
Level 16 Active Reload Icon
Level 20 Nano Infusion Icon Deadeye Icon ?

Ana's Sleep Dart Build improves your offensive tools, to help your team find and secure kills with Sleep Dart Icon Sleep Dart, and slightly increases your survivability, by Slowing enemy Heroes and giving you Movement Speed to reposition, dodge, or flee.

Night Terrors Icon Night Terrors at Level 7 adds a considerable amount of percent-based damage on Heroes your team intends to take down. Use it in conjunction with Biotic Grenade Icon Biotic Grenade to help your team kill even the most durable Heroes (such as Diablo).

Shrike Build

Situational
Level 1 Contact Healing Icon
Level 4 Overdose Icon
Level 7 Mind-Numbing Agent Icon
Level 10 Nano Boost Icon Eye of Horus Icon ?
Level 13 Smelling Salts Icon Purifying Darts Icon ? Speed Serum Icon ?
Level 16 Active Reload Icon Sharpshooter Icon ?
Level 20 Nano Infusion Icon Deadeye Icon ?

Ana's Shrike Build is particularly good at trading resources with the enemy team. You can do this by reducing their damage and healing output when affected by Shrike Icon Shrike.

The debuff comes from Mind-Numbing Agent Icon Mind-Numbing Agent at Level 7 and can be applied in two ways: via Basic Attacks, when safe to do so, or via Sleep Dart Icon Sleep Dart, thanks to Overdose Icon Overdose at Level 4.

Biotic Grenade Build

Not recommended
Level 1 Contact Healing Icon
Level 4 Biotic Enhancements Icon
Level 7 Anti-Healer Icon
Level 10 Nano Boost Icon Eye of Horus Icon ?
Level 13 Smelling Salts Icon Purifying Darts Icon ? Speed Serum Icon ?
Level 16 Active Reload Icon Sharpshooter Icon ?
Level 20 Nano Infusion Icon Deadeye Icon ?

Ana's Biotic Grenade Build empowers Biotic Grenade Icon Biotic Grenade in various ways: more healing and damage when hitting clumped Heroes from Contact Healing Icon Contact Healing at Level 1, less cooldown and longer healing bonus from Biotic Enhancements Icon Biotic Enhancements at Level 4, bigger area and longer healing reduction from Anti-Healer Icon Anti-Healer at Level 7.

Despite being easier to play than other Builds, we do not recommend this Build because it barely increases your healing output at the cost of significant damage (see Night Terrors Icon Night Terrors) and/or valuable utility (see Mind-Numbing Agent Icon Mind-Numbing Agent).

ARAM Build

ARAM
Level 1 Slumber Shells Icon
Level 4 Overdose Icon Debilitating Dart Icon ?
Level 7 Night Terrors Icon
Level 10 Nano Boost Icon Eye of Horus Icon ?
Level 13 Smelling Salts Icon Purifying Darts Icon ? Speed Serum Icon ?
Level 16 Active Reload Icon
Level 20 Nano Infusion Icon Deadeye Icon ?

Ana's ARAM Build is designed to compensate the Slow provided by the Aim Down Sights effect included in Shrike Icon Shrike by giving Ana some Movement Speed and by Slowing enemy Heroes, using Night Terrors Icon Night Terrors and Slumber Shells Icon Slumber Shells respectively; furthermore, the former Talent adds burst damage in the form of percent-based damage.

4.

Ana's Synergies and Counters

V Ana synergizes with

Nano Boost Icon Nano Boost possesses outstanding synergy with Mages (such as Mephisto) or, more in general, Heroes who deal the majority of their damage with Abilities and not Basic Attacks.

Even if they can also be used on their own, Sleep Dart Icon Sleep Dart and Biotic Grenade Icon Biotic Grenade benefit from allied Heroes who can provide reliable crowd control with their Basic Abilities (like E.T.C.) that will make them impossible to miss.

X Ana is countered by

Since her self-healing is limited, Ana usually struggles against Heroes who can ignore her team and dive her instead (such as Chen with Storm, Earth, Fire Icon Storm, Earth, Fire).

Abilities that can isolate an enemy Hero (like Cocoon Icon Cocoon by Anub'arak) or disengage (like Mighty Gust Icon Mighty Gust by Falstad) can be used to counter Nano Boost Icon Nano Boost in two different ways.

While not as effective as the counters that have been mentioned above, poke is also a decent tool against her, but only if you can actually do considerable damage to her from high distance (such as Hanzo).

There are no Healers who can counter Ana, however, you might prefer going for a Hero who offers utility instead of raw healing (like Lúcio that can count on Sound Barrier Icon Sound Barrier to support his team without actually healing them).

5.

Ana's Maps

Ana's stronger maps
Hanamura Temple Tomb of the Spider Queen Towers of Doom
Ana's average maps
Alterac Pass Battlefield of Eternity Braxis Holdout Dragon Shire Infernal Shrines Volskaya Foundry
Ana's weaker maps
Blackheart's Bay Cursed Hollow Garden of Terror Sky Temple Warhead Junction

Ana performs better on Maps where the team fight cannot evolve on different fronts because she suffers from flank and dive strategies a lot.

6.

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 Icon Nano Boost because it lasts 8 seconds.
  • Hold Biotic Grenade Icon Biotic Grenade as much as possible because it can easily secure a kill or save an allied Hero.
7.

Ana's Role in the Current Meta

Ana is a main Healer that fits into a variety of team compositions, but make sure to have a good target for Nano Boost Icon Nano Boost to get the most value out of her, usually a Mage (such as Li-Ming).

Biotic Grenade Icon Biotic Grenade has the power to heavily counter most Healers and even some Heroes that belong to different Roles (for example Arthas with Army of the Dead Icon Army of the Dead).

8.

Changelog

  • 12 Dec. 2023 (talents page): Guide reviewed.
  • 12 Dec. 2023 (this page): Guide reviewed.
  • 20 Sep. 2023 (talents page): Guide reviewed.
  • 20 Sep. 2023 (talents page): ARAM Build added.
  • 20 Sep. 2023 (this page): Guide reviewed.
  • 20 Sep. 2023 (this page): ARAM Build added.
  • 21 May 2022 (talents page): Builds updated.
  • 21 May 2022 (this page): Builds updated.
  • 12 Mar. 2022 (talents page): Builds updated.
  • 12 Mar. 2022 (this page): Builds updated.
  • 28 Sep. 2021 (talents page): Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
  • 28 Sep. 2021 (abilities page): Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
  • 28 Sep. 2021 (this page): Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
  • 08 Oct. 2020 (talents page): Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
  • 08 Oct. 2020 (abilities page): Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
  • 08 Oct. 2020 (this page): Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
  • 12 Aug. 2020 (talents page): Talent Build page updated.
    • Build added.
    • Minor fixes.
    • New layout.
  • 12 Aug. 2020 (abilities page): Abilities and Strategy page updated.
    • Minor fixes.
    • New layout.
  • 12 Aug. 2020 (this page): Introduction page updated.
    • Build added.
    • Minor fixes.
    • New layout.
  • 22 Apr. 2020 (talents page): Talent Build Cheatsheet updated to reflect the current metagame.
  • 22 Apr. 2020 (this page): Talent Build Cheatsheet updated to reflect the current metagame.
  • 31 Mar. 2020 (talents page): Talent Build fully revised to match new standards.
    • Talent Build and Talent Build Cheatsheet modified to reflect the current metagame.
    • Talent Descriptions modified to better describe when to pick them.
  • 31 Mar. 2020 (abilities page): 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.
  • 31 Mar. 2020 (this page): Introduction fully revised to match new standards.
    • Overview rewritten to better describe the Hero.
    • Strengths and Weaknesses modified to give a better idea about the Hero when being played right.
    • Talent Build Cheatsheet updated to reflect the current metagame.
    • Synergies and Counters modified to mention notable Heroes that were missing and to remove misleading Heroes that were listed.
    • Maps modified to focus on the main aspects of the Hero when evaluating a Map.
    • Tips and Tricks modified to list important tips that were missing before and to delete more obvious ones.
    • Role in the Current Meta modified to reflect the current metagame and to remove the unnecessary part about the now fixed Experience Globes.
  • 06 Dec. 2019 (this page): Added an entry about the current Anomaly to the guide.
  • 03 Jun. 2019 (talents page): Changed Eye of Horus from Situational to Recommended and updated the talent builds accordingly.
  • 03 Jun. 2019 (abilities page): Applied minor updates to Ana's ability descriptions.
  • 13 Feb. 2019 (talents page): Updated Ana's talents and builds in accordance with the latest rework.
  • 13 Feb. 2019 (abilities page): Updated Ana's abilities in accordance with the latest rework.
  • 07 Mar. 2018 (talents page): Updated Ana's Talent Builds in accordance with the most recent balanced update.
  • 07 Mar. 2018 (abilities page): Updated Shrike (and Biotic Grenade, very slightly) text to account for the latest patch.
  • 29 Jan. 2018 (talents page): Overdose is now Recommended and Aim Down Sights is now Not Recommended as intended.
  • 13 Oct. 2017 (talents page): Changed Dynamic Shooting from Not Recommended to Recommended and fixed Overdose's description.
  • 29 Sep. 2017 (talents page): Updated talent builds and descriptions after further playtesting.
  • 28 Sep. 2017 (talents page): Added talent discussions.
  • 26 Sep. 2017 (this page): Guide added.
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