Overwatch: Powerful Ana grenade tactic makes attacking Hanamura easy
Blizzard EntertainmentParis Eternal’s Luis ‘Greyy’ Perestrelo demonstrated a powerful line-up for Ana’s Biotic Grenade on Hanamura during an Overwatch League match.
Ana’s Biotic Grenade can be an incredibly powerful ability if used to its full potential. Not only does it deal damage to enemies, but it prevents affected players from being healed for a short time, meaning it opens up a window in which Ana’s team can have an enormous advantage.
One way of using the Biotic Grenade to gain an immediate upper hand heading into a fight is to throw a predetermined grenade, CS:GO-style, designed to land in a location where enemy players are known or very likely to be holding.
During Paris Eternal’s match against Florida Mayhem in Stage 2 of the Overwatch League, Paris support Greyy demonstrated one such grenade that helped the Eternal break through the first point on Hanamura with ease.
Florida Mayhem had set up on the high ground overlooking the courtyard outside point A. While building a full-team set-up at this spot isn’t always the go-to strategy for defending on Hanamura, it’s certainly common for at least one or two players to hold there.
Thanks to Greyy’s grenade, however, Paris were able to turn the strength of Florida’s static defensive composition into a weakness, and easily ran over them after it landed.
While only the result was originally captured on the main broadcast, the player perspectives available through the All Access Pass mean Greyy can be seen as he set up the grenade, revealing the exact positioning and line-up that is required to land it perfectly.
A later replay also demonstrated exactly how the grenade travels and where it lands.
Though the Florida Mayhem didn’t have a D.Va player in this instance – and therefore had no hope of capturing the grenade with the Defense Matrix – the grenade’s trajectory means that it’s quite unlikely most players would notice it coming in time to react anyway.
The other benefit to throwing a lined-up grenade like this is that it actually costs very little. Biotic Grenade is Ana’s only source of burst healing, aside from her ultimate, so it’s usually worth being cautious about throwing it out unnecessarily, but the travel time on a near-vertical throw is long enough that by the time the fight actually starts, the 10 second cooldown will be almost complete anyway.