New ‘Overwatch’ hero Ana can stop the game’s most powerful attacks

By Gabe Gurwin July 13, 2016

Which ultimates can Overwatch's new hero interrupt? (Ana PTR Gameplay)

Yesterday, Blizzard announced the first post-release hero for Overwatch, a healing sniper named “Ana,” who has the ability to influence battles from across the map and even put targets to sleep with one of her special abilities. But while Ana’s sleep darts are capable of stopping some of the biggest “ultimate” moves in the game, they don’t always work.

Eurogamer released a new video testing out Ana’s sleep darts on a variety of other heroes to determine just how effective they will be for turning the tide of a battle. On Ana’s daughter Pharah, the darts knock her right out of the sky as she rains rockets from above.

Reaper’s “death blossom,” a deadly AoE attack capable of annihilating a team escorting the payload or defending a point, can also be stopped at any point with one of Ana’s darts. Tracer, however, cannot have her ultimate “sticky bombs” stopped at any point, which is probably fitting seeing as it’s one of the worst ultimate abilities in the game. D.va’s self-destruct ability fares similarly.

Defense characters Hanzo and Junkrat are both more difficult to stop. While Hanzo can be put to sleep before he fires his arrow, his ultimate ability will still be fully charged, and Junkrat can continue to roll his deadly tire even if he is hit with a dart, provided that he had already completed the animation.

Perhaps the best news is that Torbjörn, forever the bane of good, hardworking players, can have his “molten core” ultimate stopped immediately and it resets his counter to zero. Perhaps this will reduce the number of all-Torbjörn teams playing on defense in the future. Even Winston, whose “primal rage” ability is easily the most powerful aspect of his character, has his ultimate canceled with a shot from the sleep dart.

Given the panic and frustration that comes along with someone using an ultimate ability late in a game of Overwatch, Ana has the potential to completely change players’ strategies. Expect to see the character on non-PTR PC servers and consoles very soon.

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Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…

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