Surprise Overwatch change makes Ana’s Sleep Dart more powerful

Bill Cooney

UPDATE Feb 26 1:00 PM PST: Blizzard has said on the official Overwatch forums that the Ana Sleep Dart interactions are indeed a bug, and that they’re “actively looking into the issue.”

Full story continued below:

It didn’t take long for Overwatch players to discover a new update for Ana following the February 25 patch that allows her to sleep things like Torbjorn’s Turret in addition to heroes.

Ana’s Sleep Dart is one of those abilities that’s remained basically unchanged since Overwatch first came out. It puts enemies to sleep for 5.5 seconds upon contact but their nap can be interrupted by any incoming damage.

The ability can shut down ultimates like B.O.B., Death Blossom and a lot more, but players have discovered it has even more uses following the February 25 update.

Ana’s Sleep Dart apparently got an unlisted update in the Feb. 25 Overwatch patch.

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There was a section in the February 25 patch notes that updates the interactions between all stuns (including sleep) but there’s nothing in the notes about Ana specifically though.

Shortly after the update came out, Overwatch streamer ML7 noticed while playing a regular round with Ana (not in the new Experimental Mode) that she could now sleep things like Torbjorn’s Turret with her dart.

The effect doesn’t seem to be a bug either since the Turret faces the floor and has the same sleeping animation that appears above a hero when they’re hit.

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But it’s not just Torbjorn’s Turret that can now be “slept” by Ana, boosting self-destructing D.Va bombs can now be put to sleep.

Shooting D.Va’s Mech with the dart doesn’t stop it from exploding though, so be sure to try and hide after you tag it or you’ll still be blown up.

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Symmetra’s Turrets can also be put to sleep, though this might be slightly less effective than using it against Torb’s since Sym’s are usually put together in groups of more than one.

Still, it is an interesting update for Ana players especially, even if it wasn’t included in the official notes. One other thing can be silenced with Sleep Dart is Orisa’s Supercharger, which could definitely turn the tide of a fight.

Sym’s Teleporter and Baptiste’s Immortality Field generator can also be shot with the sleep dart, but other than the sleeping animation appearing, these abilities continue to function normally.

It’s currently unknown whether or not the Ana changes were meant to go live in the Feb 25 patch, or if they were accidentally pushed out early, but it is a nice little surprise for all the Ana mains out there.

About The Author

Bill is a former writer at Dexerto based in Iowa, who covered esports, gaming and online entertainment for more than two years. With the US team, Bill covered Overwatch, CSGO, Influencer culture, and everything in between.