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 |
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1 |
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4 |
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7 |
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10 |
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13 |
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16 |
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20 |
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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
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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
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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.
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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
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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.
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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).
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- 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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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- 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.
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- 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
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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.
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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).
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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
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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).
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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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