Blizzard has been pretty open about the release of a new support character in its latest hyper-popular title, Overwatch. As it turns out, the developer of the highly successful FPS was adding no other than Pharah's mother, Ana, who is a support sniper.

Indeed, the term "support sniper" almost sounds like an oxymoron on its own. After all, the game's most popular support characters, such as Mercy and Lucio, mostly require the player to be in the range of the characters they heal. Also, as is the case with Mercy, support characters have so far been able to focus exclusively on offense or defense at a given point in time.

Ana, however, has the unique capability to deal damage and heal allies at the same time. She does this, unsurprisingly, by shooting people. Her abilities are pretty simple. If her shots hit allies, they get healed. If they hit enemies, they get damaged. Even her grenade, which actually has a pretty decent effect radius, does the same thing.

Oh, and she also has a pretty useful sleep dart, just in case an enemy or two is attempting to attack her directly. True to her nature as a support hero, her Ultimate is designed to boost an ally of choice, providing them with far more mobility, power and defense.

With her abilities, many Overwatch players have already begun to warm up the new character. After all, her skill set is rather unique, and the fact that she could just keep shooting definitely adds to the fun factor in an already extremely addictive game.

However, Ana also comes with a number of compromises. While her healing capabilities and her suite of techniques are very formidable, she is not a character for everyone. Her lack of mobility, for one, means that her use is best suited for players with a fairly good skill level.

Overall, Ana could be considered as a hero that stands in the middle ground between Mercy and Widowmaker. In the world of Overwatch, characters like her are always assets to their teams.

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Blizzard, Overwatch, Support