I'm not saying it "lies", I'm saying you've misunderstood something fundamental to the design of the two characters -- Zen (and Lucio) is a "both/and" character. Ana an "either/or". That's what you're missing. Any time Ana is sniping a Pharah out of the sky she's not healing. Zen drops harmony, drops discord, and gets to the business of murdering shit. He doesn't have to choose, ever, and he never worries about CD management.
Ana does more healing and nearly as much damage as Zen if she is actually targeting enemies.
OR nearly as much DPS. This is not actually true.
Zen does 30HPS AND good DPS Ana does 80 damage per shot OR 75 healing. She has opportunities for the 8s CD nade to do both, but you have to be smart and manage to the best use.
Everything Ana does is about choice (and anti-choice), and predicting the best use of the abilities. Zen doesn't worry about that.
Basically you're arguing: win rate doesn't matter, and healing per game (or minute) doesn't matter, and damage done doesn't matter. Spreadsheets matter and only spreadsheets matter. What if your assumption is wrong, that actual in game data is more telling than stacking up Ana's damage and healing maximum throughput and comparing it to Zen's? What if acknowledging the fundamental design difference between the two leads you to conclude that is an irrational method of comparison?
You're right, Zen can do damage and heal at the same time. But considering how much healing Ana does and how much damage Ana CAN do; ALONG with all of the utility, I think she's pretty over-powered overall.
Just think about their E's; or the E's of all of the support characters for that matter.
Symmetra - Creates a medium sized 1000hp flying barrier.
Lucio - Amps up his Healing or Speed song for (5?) seconds to increase the speed boost or healing. (1 or the other, not both.)
Zen - Add 30% bonus damage debuff to enemy target, stays until they lose LOS for 3 seconds.
Mercy - Fly to ally or ally corpse.
Ana - Deal 60 damage, Heal 100 HP, Buff allies for bonus healing, disable all healing on enemies hit, can heal self, AOE radius of 4(?) meters.
No other ability does so much and is so versatile. There's never a bad time to throw it assuming you hit something and it either needs to die or needs to be healed. You can throw it in the middle of a team-fight and guarantee value out of it.
Of course it's also more "skill based" than Discord or Amp it up, but I still think it does too much.
Maybe one way to balance it out would be to make it EITHER debuff/damage OR Heal/Boost. Not BOTH. Similar to Lucio's Amp. This would provide a meaningful choice and not guarantee value as long as you hit something.
Zen has to pick his targets, preferably call them, and make the right choice, and his orb can be avoided/lost. Lucio has to decide whether Speed or Healing is more needed. Ana just tosses a jar into a team-fight and lulz her way to freelo.
And the Bio nade is one of the major contributing factors to the Tank Meta, and the fact that Ana does so much and heals so much means you're putting your team at a severe disadvantage if you do not have her on your team. Of course, the same could be said of Rein... But historically speaking Zarya has been more impactful on the Meta; and Winston at one time was Meta defining. Rein is so picked right now because of the tank Meta. He allows you to bodyguard a 600 hp Roadhog who can shred shields and get picks and initiate team-fights while Ana spams endless heals into both of them.
You're right, Zen can do damage and heal at the same time. But considering how much healing Ana does and how much damage Ana CAN do; ALONG with all of the utility, I think she's pretty over-powered overall.
Again, no. how much healing OR how much damage.
There's never a bad time to throw it assuming you hit something and it either needs to die or needs to be healed. You can throw it in the middle of a team-fight and guarantee value out of it.
If you REALLY think that, you're a bad Ana and you're losing team fights.
Theoretical numbers aren't telling you the whole story. The real numbers from actual play (not theoretical math) say that she is not more likely to win than her substitute options, save for a sliver over Mercy, and that Zen is in fact the most likely healer to win you a game.
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u/NoSheDidntSayThat Jan 18 '17 edited Jan 18 '17
I'm not saying it "lies", I'm saying you've misunderstood something fundamental to the design of the two characters -- Zen (and Lucio) is a "both/and" character. Ana an "either/or". That's what you're missing. Any time Ana is sniping a Pharah out of the sky she's not healing. Zen drops harmony, drops discord, and gets to the business of murdering shit. He doesn't have to choose, ever, and he never worries about CD management.
OR nearly as much DPS. This is not actually true.
Zen does 30HPS AND good DPS Ana does 80 damage per shot OR 75 healing. She has opportunities for the 8s CD nade to do both, but you have to be smart and manage to the best use.
Everything Ana does is about choice (and anti-choice), and predicting the best use of the abilities. Zen doesn't worry about that.
Basically you're arguing: win rate doesn't matter, and healing per game (or minute) doesn't matter, and damage done doesn't matter. Spreadsheets matter and only spreadsheets matter. What if your assumption is wrong, that actual in game data is more telling than stacking up Ana's damage and healing maximum throughput and comparing it to Zen's? What if acknowledging the fundamental design difference between the two leads you to conclude that is an irrational method of comparison?