Home

 › 

Articles

 › 

A Guide to Overwatch’s Bad-ass New Character

A Guide to Overwatch’s Bad-ass New Character

Overwatch ‘s first new hero has finally been revealed, and she’s a total badass. The internet had been expecting a support sniper, and we got one, but her name isn’t Sombra. Her name is Ana Amari. Everything about Ana is interesting: she can heal teammates and deal damage to enemies with her sniper rifle; she has abilities that buff, debuff, and interrupt; her ultimate is going to cause mass chaos at the tail end of matches. Apart from Ana being so versatile and useful, it’s just awesome to think that Overwatch’s coolest new hero is a 60-year-old woman.

We all know that for the first week everyone is going to be using Ana because she’s new, but if you’re going to use her, you might as well use her effectively. Here’s everything you need to know about her:

Who is Ana Amari?

Back when the Omnic Crisis was in full swing and taking its toll on her homeland of Egypt, Ana made her reputation as a sniper as part of an elite security force. From there Ana was recruited as a founding member of Overwatch, and after the success of Overwatch’s initial mission Ana continued her tenure as Jack Morrison’s (Solder: 76) second-in-command. Ana was always on the front line, and during a hostage rescue mission a moment of hesitation changed her life. She was shot in the eye by the Talon operative known as Widowmaker, and during her long period of recovery Ana was filled with regret over her life of killing. Still, her conviction and dedication to protect the innocent and those whom she loves outweighs a heart heavy from killing, and Ana has joined the fray once again. Ana is Pharah’s mother.

Primary Weapon: Biotic Rifle

Ana’s carries a scoped rifle that holds six rounds per magazine. The rifle fires darts at a rate of 1 round per second that either heal allies or deal damage-over-time to enemies (75 healing, 80 damage). The rifle is highly accurate and reloads at an average speed.

Abilities:

  • Sleep Dart (12 second cooldown)

Ana quickly draws her sidearm and fires a dart that puts enemies to sleep for up to six seconds. Sleep darts can and will interrupt ultimates such as Reaper’s Deathblossom and McCree’s “High Noon.” Sleeping enemies will wake up as soon as they take damage.

  • Biotic Grenade (10 second cooldown)

Ana tosses out a grenade that explodes in a small area-of-effect. The grenade, which detonates upon impact, will dish out a quick burst of healing to allies or damage to enemies (100 healing and 60 damage, respectively). All allies affected by the grenade will additionally receive increased healing from all sources for a brief time, while affected enemies cannot be healed for a brief time.

Ultimate: Nano Boost

Ana shoots up an ally with some crazy kind of nano-adrenaline which greatly increases movement speed, boosts damage, and raises defense. It looks OP as hell and I can’t wait to try it.

A Guide to Overwatch’s Bad-ass New Character

General Strategy:

As a support hero, Ana almost seems a little too good, but you have to remember that her movement speed is a little slower, and she doesn’t have any kind of sprint. She has a base health of 200, with no shields or armor. She won’t do the team any good if she isn’t alive, so you’ll want to try to stay back and out of the line of fire if you can. Ana’s rifle has a scope for a reason, and judging from the footage we’ve seen headshots don’t give you bonus damage against enemies or bonus healing on allies, so don’t try find that perfect sniping position; just stay safe.

Stay safe, but stay active. You’ll want to charge that Nano Boost ultimate as soon as possible, and thankfully, everything you do with Ana is incredibly beneficial to your team. Try-hards are going to have to remember that dealing out damage is your last priority. You’re there to support the team, and getting kills is only a small part of that. I expect that more times than not, Ana will act as a primary healer. Keep your allies in your sights more often than you do your enemies, and develop a twitch reflex for that sleeping dart – it’ll be up to you to put a stop to enemy ultimates before it’s too late, and that could mean the difference between victory and defeat.

Don’t underestimate your biotic grenade. It’s the perfect compliment to Soldier 76’s healing beacon, so remember to toss your grenade when the team is holding down a point and you see him plant his beacon. Alternatively, if you’re attempting to take a point and there’s a pesky D.Va or Junkrat being healed by a Mercy just out of sight, toss your grenade to cut off that healing stream and take them out. The biotic grenade is undoubtedly going to be one of the most useful items in the entire game, but only for teams who communicate with each other.

Finally, use that Nano Boost to turn the tide. You’ll see in the video below just how scary it can be. This will be the ultimate that makes the losing team squeeze their controllers and curse up a storm in the final moments of match. Can you imagine a Nano-Boosted Pharah in close quarters? Entire teams will be building their strategies around Ana’s ultimate, and you’d be wise to do the same (or start cooking up some counters). Good luck, and have fun!

To top