There haven’t been a lot of guides recently teaching you how to play Ana, and many people have lost touch with the new ways you should play her within Overwatch 2. Ana has been my main hero I've played for 7 YEARS, as well as at Penn State for the past few years, earning many top finishes and even wins with the team too. There are a lot of important tips in this post, so, buckle up! Let's get started.

Tip 1 - Tempo

Just like with my other recent guides, tempo is always something I feel the need to discuss early on.

In order to really pop off as Ana, you have to understand the compositions she is played within and the role she fills for her team. Ana is not picked for just her damage. That’s what Zen is for. She also is not picked for her healing, that is what Moira, Kiriko, and Baptiste are for. Instead, she is picked for her ability to create opportunities for her team and make plays when needed. This is why she is incredible in ranked, as the enemy generally lacks the coordination to shut the carry potential down.

Because of this role, she needs a bit of time to find value with her grenade aggressively. She doesn’t want to play as slow as Zen in spam compositions that want to elongate the fight as long as possible or Lucio that wants to run in all the time as fast as possible. Rather she needs to have enough time to find the nade, and then quickly finish the fight soon thereafter.

Thus, Ana is paired well with a character like Winston. This allows her to build nano as he takes soft engagements to gain map control for a strong win condition.

Tip 2 - Anti Grenade

There is a reason why I refer to this ability as the anti nade and not the biotic grenade, especially after its recent nerf. This ability should be used aggressively 90% of the time. However, with the introduction of 5v5, it is really easy to mess this ability up. That is not just because of suzu either.

For example, take Orisa. A lot of players will show me VODs on Fiverr where they are being aggressive with nade and are extremely confused why they are losing. They all suffer from the same problem of nading Orisa. You have to take it a step further than just applying the anti effect.

If Orisa has Gold active or still has the cooldown, antiing her when she has full health does not stop her whatsoever. She will not die no matter how many resources you put into her. If she doesn’t have gold, obviously the situation changes, but a lot of people don’t understand that.

The key is that you want to make sure that your team can actually follow up upon the grenade reasonably. This is how you force out suzus early, pressure out enemies, and get the MOST value at the end of the day.

Tip 3 - Biotic Rifle

Stop hardscoping snipers.

Moving on.

You should remain unscoped in close to midrange engagements. This will allow you to move around quickly and maintain a full field of view.

You should remain scoped when the engagement is long ranged or when the shots MUST GET HIT. For example, when finishing off a key target for your team or when attempting to keep up a key teammate throughout the fight.

You should only really quickscope when you are playing off a corner or you have to hit one shot to keep a target up or take a target down.

The BIG tip I can give you for this ability however is to understand that it isn't necessarily the best at killing things. It is really good at PRESSURING OUT THE ENENMY. Understand that you DON'T HAVE TO KILL PEOPLE to TAKE THEM OUT OF THE FIGHT. This is especially true against enemy pharahs and other flankers.

Tip 4 - Sleep Dart

A lot of players sleep enemies but tend to sit around their sleeping target or look at it instead of the fight that is going on around them. Understand that you have time to work with and you should use it to the best of your ability. If you slept a doomfist that is full health and has ultimate, you should probably run to a safe position before you start dealing damage to him again. If you sleep a genji blade, you should probably wait for your team to come help you eliminate him or at least wait for the blade to disappear. You have five seconds against squishies, so, be patient and make sure to keep the bigger picture in mind.

Tip 5 - Nano Boost

Nano boost is the most fluid ability in Ana's kit. Don't fall into the habit of nanoing the classic combo targets. Instead, read the situation.

For example, does nanoing a reinhardt into a Winston, Sombra, Tracer, Lucio, and Moira create any value? No, it does not. Why? All of those characters are going to run away. The same goes for Soldier’s visor into a dva or shield. At the end of the day, when using nano, you are trying to create an opportunity that you win the fight efficiently. Usually the combos are really effective, but understand that they aren’t always the most efficient given the situation and you have to get a good read on it.

Conclusion

So if you were to take anything away from this post, understand that Ana is a support that specializes in creating opprotunities for her team to succeed, and she needs a little bit of time to do so. She does this by utilizing her anti grenades aggressively in situations where the team can follow up on them. Her gun should be used to pressure out enemies while her sleep dart should be used to shut down the enemy’s win condition frequently. Lastly, her nano can be used in a multidude of ways in a pinch to take advantage of any challenging fight they is thrown at her. If you can slow down and understand the theory behind Ana, locking in and performing will be much easier, I guarantee it.

If you are looking for a video with a few extra tips, you have find that HERE! (Transcript)

Hopefully this helps and best of luck ranking up!