Ana Talents
Welcome to our Talents page for Ana. Here, we give you an overview of how strong each of Ana's talents is. Then, we present several viable builds, before analyzing each talent row separately, so that you can make informed decisions.
Ana's Talent Build
Level | Choices |
---|---|
1 | ? ✓ ✘︎ |
4 | ? ✓ ? |
7 | ? ✓ ? |
10 | ✓ ? |
13 | ? ? ✓ |
16 | ? ? ✓ |
20 | ✓ ? ? ? |
Ana's Talent Build Cheatsheet
Sleep Dart Build
RecommendedAna's Sleep Dart Build improves your offensive tools, to help your team find and secure kills with Sleep Dart, and slightly increases your survivability, by Slowing enemy Heroes and giving you Movement Speed to reposition, dodge, or flee.
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 to help your team kill even the most durable Heroes (such as Diablo).
Shrike Build
SituationalAna's Shrike Build is particularly good at trading resources with the enemy team. You can do this by reducing their damage and healing done when affected by Shrike.
The debuff comes from 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, thanks to Overdose at Level 4.
Biotic Grenade Build
SituationalAna's Biotic Grenade Build increases your healing when allied and/or enemy Heroes tend to group. This usually happens when either team has more than two frontline Heroes or when the enemy team is diving and your team is peeling.
The burst healing from Contact Healing at Level 1 is quite handy when enemy Heroes are on top of you. Anti-Healer at Level 7 helps you hit more Heroes, to get more healing from it. Biotic Enhancements at Level 4 lets you use it more often.
ARAM Build
ARAMAna's ARAM Build is designed to compensate the Slow provided by the Aim Down Sights effect included in Shrike by giving Ana some Movement Speed and by Slowing enemy Heroes, using Night Terrors and Slumber Shells respectively; furthermore, the former Talent adds burst damage in the form of percent-based damage.
Level 1 Talents for Ana
Hitting Heroes with Biotic Grenade increases its damage and healing by 30% per Hero hit.
Contact Healing is a good Talent during team fights with several Heroes—regardless of them being friends or foes—clumping next to each other.
You can use this Talent as a survivability tool against dive because of the extra healing and/or to punish multiple enemy Heroes at the same time because of the extra damage.
Being based on Biotic Grenade, this Talent benefits from from Anti-Healer at Level 7 becasue of the bigger area covered and from Biotic Enhancements at Level 4 because of the cooldown reduction
Reduce the cooldown of Sleep Dart by 2 seconds. Upon waking, enemy Heroes are Slowed by 25% for 3 seconds.
Slumber Shells is a strong Talent that slightly improves Sleep Dart by making it Slowing enemy Heroes right after the Sleep ends and by slightly reducing its cooldown.
The relatively small Slow provided is enough to annoy enemy Heroes that are trying to reposition, especially if they lack mobility, and allied Heroes that are trying to damage them, especially if they rely on Basic Attacks.
The cooldown reduction has synergy with Night Terrors at Level 7 because it allows you to get value from that Talent more often.
Quest: Stack 5 Doses on an enemy Hero or Basic Attack a Hero with 5 Doses.
Reward: Stack 5 Doses to increase Shrike's healing by 1%.
Reward: Basic Attack a Hero with 5 Doses to increase Shrike's healing by 0.25%.
Vampiric Rounds is a weak Quest-based Talent that provides self-sustain tied to Basic Attacks.
We do not recommend this Talent because you can increase your own survivability by going for Contact Healing instead, a Talent that does not require you to unnecessarily expose to farm a Quest that is supposed to make you a bit harder to kill.
Level 4 Talents for Ana
Increase the bonus healing duration of Biotic Grenade by 50% and reduce its cooldown by 3 seconds.
Biotic Enhancements is a decent Talent that causes Biotic Grenade to have a slightly lower cooldown and a bit higher uptime on the healing increase effect.
The small cooldown reduction provided by this Talent may be useful to better counter Healers that have Basic Abilities on a cooldown of 13-15 seconds (only Abundance by Alexstrasza).
The increased bonus healing duration works only when you use Biotic Grenade in a defensive way and perfectly time it to empower an additional Healing Dart than usual.
Thanks to the cooldown reduction provided, Biotic Enhancements has synergy with Biotic Grenade-based Talents: Contact Healing at Level 1 and Anti-Healer at Level 7.
Sleep Dart applies 4 Doses. While Aim Down Sights is active, Sleep Dart pierces all enemy Heroes.
Overdose is a strong Talent that makes Sleep Dart apply 4 Doses of Shrike to any enemy Hero hit and makes it pierce any number of enemy Heroes.
While they not look that powerful, when you do not have time or space to use Basic Attacks, the 4 Doses indirectly increase the damage done via Sleep Dart by 176.
The infinite pierce is useful when you want to ensure that Sleep Dart connects on the enemy backline (for example when you want to interrupt Holy Word: Salvation even if more than one enemy Hero is between Ana and Anduin).
- Cooldown: 20 seconds
Fire a dart which Slows the Movement Speed and reduces the damage dealt by the first enemy Hero it hits by 50% for 4 seconds. If no Heroes are hit, reduce this cooldown by 8 seconds.
Debilitating Dart is a situational Talent that gives Ana what she needs the most: self-peeling. If you hit an enemy Hero with it, they will be Slowed by 50% and deal 50% less damage for 4 seconds. If you miss enemy Heroes, you will get 8 seconds of cooldown reduction.
Other than being usable on its own or as a follow-up to allied crowd control, this additional Active Ability with 20 seconds of cooldown can be used either before or after Sleep Dart:
- When you want to increase your chance to connect Sleep Dart, try hitting the enemy Hero with Debilitating Dart first because the Slow provided will help with that.
- When you want to increase your chances to connect Debilitating Dart will hit, try hitting the enemy Hero with Sleep Dart first because the Sleep will help with that.
In short, use first what you need less and, whether you hit or miss, follow-up with what you need more.
Level 7 Talents for Ana
Increase the area of Biotic Grenade by 25% and the duration of the healing reduction by 0.75 seconds.
Anti-Healer is a decent Talent that provides a bit more uptime on the healing reduction by itself and, more importantly, increases the area covered by Biotic Grenade.
The area extension has synergy with Contact Healing at Level 1, resulting in more healing and self-sustain and, even if not that much, Anti-Healer benefits from Biotic Enhancements at Level 4 because of the cooldown reduction.
The increased healing reduction duration is not needed and rarely useful. A well-timed Biotic Grenade lasts long enough to deny the most powerful healing Abilities used on the focused enemy Hero by themselves or their team.
Gain 25% Movement Speed for 2 seconds for every Hero hit by Sleep Dart. Upon waking, enemy Heroes take 8% of their Maximum Health in damage.
Night Terrors is a strong Talent that provides both a fair amount of mobility, something that Ana lacks, and a high amount of burst damage, something that is extremely powerful when combined with the healing reduction provided by Biotic Grenade indirectly acts as burst damage.
The bonus damage will trigger either when the Sleep lasts for its full duration or when it ends pre-emptively. The damage part is particularly effective on high-Health enemy Heroes, usually Tanks and Bruisers.
The bonus Movement Speed is really good to save Ana from trouble when she has Shrike active and cannot disable it yet due to the 4 seconds cooldown because it will basically make you move at normal Movement Speed 2 seconds earlier than usual.
Every Dose a Hero has reduces their Spell Power by 10%.
Mind-Numbing Agent is a good Talent that allows Ana to reduce both damage and healing coming from enemy Abilities, but only if you managed to debuff them with Shrike.
Pick this Talent when you want to reduce the damage and healing output of the enemy frontline Heroes. Do not see this Talent as a counter to enemy backline Heroes because you cannot reliably use Basic Attacks on them and because they are not easy to hit with Sleep Dart to apply Doses via Overdose at Level 4.
Level 10 Talents for Ana
In this section we discuss when and why to pick a given Heroic Ability. If you want to read how they work in detail and/or you are looking for some tips on how to use them, check them out on the Abilities and Strategy page.
- 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 strong Heroic Ability when your team features a Mage (such as Kel'Thuzad or even Alarak) that can benefit from both Spell Power and cooldown reduction.
- 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 situational Heroic Ability that can be useful on Maps where it is crucial to win the offlane and you want a tool to help with that.
Level 13 Talents for Ana
Healing Dart grants 25% Movement Speed to affected Heroes for 1 seconds.
Speed Serum is a situational Talent that can be used to enable aggressive plays on low-mobility Heroes (for example Garrosh).
While it is not a big deal, you should know that the Movement Speed provided by this Talent can also potentially mess up your aim because the Movement Speed buff will expire exactly when the next Healing Dart will come off cooldown.
Healing Dart removes Roots and Slows from the target, and heals for 20% more when doing so.
Purifying Darts is a good Talent to increase your sustain healing because Slows are really common and it also works against Roots.
Pick this Talent when you cannot get enough value from Smelling Salts or when you really need to remove a Root to save allied Heroes from death (such as against Kel'Thuzad).
Healing Dart removes Stuns from the target, and grants them 50 Armor for 2 seconds when doing so.
Smelling Salts is a strong Talent that gets massive value against burst compositions, teams whose main strategy is to Stun an enemy Hero and then follow-up with burst damage.
Pick this Talent every time you play against a team who has at least a Stun and some burst damage to get value out of it because even having 50 Armor for 2 seconds only once per team fight is a big survivability boost.
Level 16 Talents for Ana
Healing Dart's healing is increased by 5% if it heals a Hero, up to 50%. At maximum bonus, further increase its healing by 35%. This bonus is reset if Healing Dart fails to hit a Hero.
Sharpshooter is a decent Talent that greatly increases the amount healed by Healing Dart if you hit allied Heroes multiple times in a row. You can use this Talent in combat and out of combat because it does not require enemy Heroes to work.
The main problem with this Talent is that occasionally missing allied Heroes with Healing Dart will cause you to lose a lot of its value, although it may be useful to heal up allied Heroes which are quite easy to hit thanks to their big hitbox and lack of mobility (such as Azmodan).
Increase Healing Dart's healing by 12% for each Dose active on enemy Heroes.
Concentrated Doses is a good Talent that increases the amount healed by Healing Dart based on the number of Doses you have applied on enemy Heroes via Shrike. You can use this Talent in combat but not out of combat because it requires enemy Heroes to work.
Being based on the number of Doses active on enemy Heroes, this Talent has synergy with Overdose at Level 4 and Dynamic Optics at Level 20.
Activate to instantly gain 3 charges of Healing Dart.
Active Reload is a strong Talent that gives Ana a huge amount of burst healing when needed. It comes with a reasonable cooldown of 60 seconds, allowing Ana to have it available for every important team fight.
The most interesting part about this Talent is that it makes up for occasionally missing Healing Dart, so it slightly reduces the chances you will lose a team fight for a single miss.
Level 20 Talents for Ana
Allies affected by Nano Boost heal for 50% of Spell Damage dealt.
Nano Infusion is a strong Talent with no downsides that increases the survivability of whoever you target with Nano Boost based on the amount of Spell Damage they can deal.
The additional healing it provides can help the target allied Hero to go for a more aggressive playstyle to deliver as many empowered Abilities as possible.
Increase Eye Of Horus' healing and damage by 5% for every Hero hit. This bonus resets after all shots have been fired.
Deadeye is a good Talent that empowers Eye of Horus each time it hits an allied or enemy Hero. If the enemy team composition tends to play grouped, it will easily ramp up in value because hitting multiple Heroes with a single shot will count as a multiple hits.
Increase Shrike's damage by 50%. While Aim Down Sights is active, gain 25 Armor.
Armored Stance is a situational Talent that, other than slightly increasing her damage done by around 20%, gives Ana more survivability in the form of Armor and self-sustain derived from the additional Shrike's damage being partially converted to healing.
Basic Attacks increase Attack Speed by 10% for 3 seconds, up to 100%. While Aim Down Sights is active, increase your Basic Attack Range by 4.
Dynamic Optics is a situational Talent that gives Ana 50% more damage per second by increasing her Attack Speed, something that will also increase her self-sustain thanks to Shrike converting part of the damage to healing.
Changelog
- 15 Oct. 2024: Guide reviewed.
- 12 Dec. 2023: Guide reviewed.
- 20 Sep. 2023: ARAM Build added.
- 20 Sep. 2023: Guide reviewed.
- 21 May 2022: Builds updated.
- 12 Mar. 2022: Builds updated.
- 28 Sep. 2021: Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
- 08 Oct. 2020: Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
- 12 Aug. 2020: Talent Build page updated.
- Build added.
- Minor fixes.
- New layout.
- 22 Apr. 2020: Talent Build Cheatsheet updated to reflect the current metagame.
- 31 Mar. 2020: 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.
- 03 Jun. 2019: Changed Eye of Horus from Situational to Recommended and updated the talent builds accordingly.
- 13 Feb. 2019: Updated Ana's talents and builds in accordance with the latest rework.
- 07 Mar. 2018: Updated Ana's Talent Builds in accordance with the most recent balanced update.
- 29 Jan. 2018: Overdose is now Recommended and Aim Down Sights is now Not Recommended as intended.
- 13 Oct. 2017: Changed Dynamic Shooting from Not Recommended to Recommended and fixed Overdose's description.
- 29 Sep. 2017: Updated talent builds and descriptions after further playtesting.
- 28 Sep. 2017: Added talent discussions.
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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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