Some thoughts from an Ana main. Hear me out! Nerfs were deserved, just not implemented correctly.

One: if Ana is damaging the Pharah, she is not healing her team.

Why do more people not get this? Ana is built around the core principle that she can neither damage and heal at the same time, and that both damaging and healing take the same resources. If she is damaging she isn't healing, if she's healing she isn't damaging. If she uses ammo to heal she doesn't have that ammo to damage. If she uses ammo to damage she isn't use that to heal. To make this harder none of her abilities are automated, since her healing isn't a lock on like other supports and goes away if she is doing something else like shooting at flankers or dealing with a shield dropped in front of her by a Winston.

Managing these resources is one of the most important parts of playing Ana and one of the key features that separates a good Ana from a bad Ana beyond flat accuracy. If Ana is constantly the only person shooting at Pharah or a flanker on her, that means the team doesn't consistently have her healing and good teams will punish this weakness. It's one of the main reasons Ana isn't actually a hard Pharah counter. You don't need to kill Ana to stop her from doing her job. I'm getting so tired of people who don't play Ana or other supports and don't understand their kits beyond the surface level suddenly deciding they know exactly what needs to be done to balance them.

/r/Overwatch Thread Parent