Overwatch Tips: How to Play Ana Amari

Ana Amari in Overwatch

Ana Amari is truly a jack of all trades if there ever was one in Overwatch. Ana is a sniper character, but unlike Hanzo and Blackwidow, she resides in the support category. Why, you might ask? Well it’s because her Biotic Rifle also shoots healing darts. Meaning you can hang back and shoot enemies to deal damage over time, and shoot allies to heal them.

Remember, though, Ana is more of a jack of all trades than a dedicated bonafide healer. There’s a noticeable delay between her sniper shots, and she can only fire at one person at a time, friend or foe. Meaning she’s not going to be able to quickly patch up an entire team with her sniper when it hits the fan. She is best paired up with someone like Lucio who can do front line area of effect healing while Ana hangs back, does some damage, and also helps with some long distance healing that Lucio can’t safely get to. Together, they can be a formidable support team.

Ana is more than just sniping and healing, though. She also has fantastic support abilities, as well. Her Biotic Grenades fit her DPS/Healer hybrid role well. She can throw it at allies (or at herself) for a quick burst of HP recovery and a temporary increased healing buff to anyone hit by it. If it hits any enemies, it instead does damage, and applies a debuff that prevents enemy healing for a short amount of time. This is perfect for shutting down a push reliant on Mercy healing. If you see Mercy and a buddy coming your way, smack them with the Biotic Grenade and suddendly Mercy is helpless to heal that person for a short time.

Ana’s primary weakness, though, is at close range, where she lacks any reliable close range weapon. Her best bet is to use her Sleep Dart ability to get away, which renders an enemy unconscious until they take damage. It can also be used to shut an ultimate down. Quite handy indeed!

Finally, Ana has her own way of pushing her team forward with her ultimate, Nano Boost. Nano Boost applies to a teammate and, for a short time, turns that person into a killing machine. They will move much faster, do increased damage, and take less damage in return. By using this on a strong offensive character like Solider 76, or even a tank like D.Va, you can create a huge threat the other team will be forced to deal with right away or else they will get rolled real fast.

Ana Amari’s Abilities

Biotic Rifle – Right Mouse Button/Right Trigger to scope, Left Mouse Button/Left Trigger to fire.

Ana’s Biotic Rifle shoots darts that can either heal teammates or damage enemies. It may not have the damage of Blackwidow’s rifle, but its versatility is a great asset. It’s also extremely accurate and forgiving to shoot.

Sleep Dart –  Shift/Right Bumper/R1

With Sleep Dart, Ana shoots a quick attack from her sidearm that puts enemies to sleep until they take damage. This is great for shutting down an ultimate ability or for escaping from a potentially dangerous situation such as being stuck in a hallway with a tank.

Biotic Grenade – E/Left Bumper/L1

The Biotic Grenade has dual offensive and defensive capabilities. The bomb can heal and increase healing from all sources for allies or damage and shut down healing for enemies. It’s great for quickly healing up a group of tightly packed allies or shutting down an opposing team’s offensive push reliant on healing.

Nano Boost – Q/Y/Triangle

Nano Boost is used on an ally instead of Ana herself. When applied to a teammate, it dramatically increases that heroes speed, damage reduction and damage output for a short period of time. Use it to help an ally clear out a group of enemies or lock down an objective. Imagine a souped up Reaper with extra speed to close in?

 Backstory in Overwatch

Here’s Ana’s official Overwatch backstory and background information, straight from Blizzard.

• Real Name: Ana Amari Age: 60
• Occupation: Bounty Hunter
• Base of Operations: Cairo. Egypt
• Affiliation: Overwatch (formerly)

One of the founding members of Overwatch, Ana uses her skills and expertise to defend her home and the people she cares for.

As the Omnic Crisis inflicted a heavy toll on Egypt, the country’s depleted and undermanned security forces relied on elite snipers for support. Among them was Ana Amari, who was widely considered to be the world’s best. Her superior marksmanship, decision-making, and instincts made her a natural selection to join the Overwatch strike team that would end the war.

Following the success of Overwatch’s original mission, Ana served for many years as Strike Commander Morrison’s second-in-command. Despite her responsibilities in leading the organization, Ana refused to step away from combat operations. She remained on active duty well into her fifties, until she was believed to have been killed during a hostage rescue mission by the Talon operative known as Widowmaker.

In truth, Ana survived that encounter, despite being gravely wounded and losing her right eye. During her recovery, she wrestled with the weight of a life spent in combat, and she chose to stay out of the world’s growing conflicts. However, as time passed, she realized she could not sit on the sidelines while people threatened her city and the innocents around her.
Now, Ana has rejoined the fight to protect her country from the forces that would destabilize it, and most importantly, to keep her family and her closest allies safe.