In Heroes of the Storm,
Jaina is a ranged caster/assassin that utilizes high burst damage and constant slows to beat her opponents.
Trait
D - Frostbite
Frostbite is the main source of the burst damage and lockdown that
Jaina provides for her team. Basically, whenever you land a spell on someone, they get slowed and the next spell you land has increased damaged due to the chilled effect. This effect has great utility with
Summon Water Elemental, since your elemental's auto attacks chill the target and you can keep landing increased damage spells.
Basic Abilities
Q - Frostbolt
Frostbolt is your main harass spell. It is quite difficult to land, so try to use it in lane, if you find your opponent out of position. If you find yourself chasing someone, landing back to back
Frostbolts, will allow you to lock him down, since the slow from your trait expires at the same time your
Frostbolt gets off cooldown.
W - Blizzard
Blizzard is your main AoE spell. It provides great wave clear and tons of damage in a teamfight. It is usually more effective when your targets are already chilled, so that both waves can land on them. Your team can help you land an awesome
Blizzard through stuns or body displacements. Always try to land a
Blizzard when you see the enemy team stacked up.
E - Cone of Cold
Cone of Cold is also an AoE spell and it's quite easy to land. It provides a great damage increase with
Northern Exposure or a reliable root effect with
Numbing Blast. Be careful though, cause its range is not that big compared to
Frostbolt and you might find yourself overextended in order to land it.
Heroic Abilities
R - Summon Water Elemental
Summon Water Elemental is your opening spell for your combo and it provides a constant chill effect and damage increase on the target it's hitting. It makes it easier for
Jaina to kite or zone out her enemies.
R - Ring of Frost
Ring of Frost is mostly used for zoning and taking someone out of a teamfight or for the root and lockdown, so that
Jaina can easily land her spells. It is one of the most difficult spells to land though, so it is not that reliable.
Tips
To be successful with
Jaina, you need to be aware of your position at all points in a fight. You have to know when you can go in to land your spells and when you are getting focused. You need to utilize your spell combo at its full potential. I would suggest using
Summon Water Elemental to start off and then landing all your other spells back to back. Try to hit as many targets as possible with
Cone of Cold and
Blizzard, but don't die for it. In 1v1 situations, you can burst anyone down with your combo. Don't forget to use
Envenom to secure the kill though.
Level 1
YES:
Deep Chill
Deep Chill provides
Jaina with a reliable crowd control with the increased slow effect. This effect can stay on your target indefinitely as long as you are landing your spells, which makes this talent choice crazy good.
SITUATIONAL:
Winter's Reach
Winter's Reach is usually used when you feel like you will get zoned out or you need more range to catch tagets like
Sgt. Hammer which stay in the back line and do their damage. In other cases, it is irrelevant.
NO:
Lingering Chill
Lingering Chill's effect is also irrelevant because of the cooldown on
Frostbolt being the same as the duration of the chill effect. This means that if you can land your
Frostbolt on the target, the chill effect will stay there indefinitely, thus the extra duration is not needed.
NO:
Conjurer's Pursuit
This talent is generally good, but in
Jaina's case, it doesn't provide much. What is more, if you feel you're getting mana starved, you can always get
Arcane Intellect as your level 7 talent.
Level 4
YES:
Envenom
Envenom is the safe choice here. It offers you that extra damage and burst you need to kill someone and it is usually a great counter to stealth heroes.
SITUATIONAL:
Snowstorm
With the Butcher Patch,
Envenom received a minor nerf, which makes this talent somewhat of a better choice in many situations.
Snowstorm makes it easier for you to land your
Blizzard and if you can hit 3 or more targets in a teamfight, it is definitely more useful than
Envenom.
SITUATIONAL:
Arcane Intellect
You can get this talent if you feel you are spending too much mana on the lane and you are always OoM for teamfights. Just remember that you are giving up that extra damage from
Envenom and you may lose some kills this way.
NO:
Frost Shards
In order for this talent to be worth taking, it has to hit two targets, which is quite difficult to do. Even then, it is controversial if damaging two targets is better than the kill potential on one target
Envenom provides. I wouldn't suggest picking this talent.
Level 7
YES:
Frostbitten
Frostbitten is the solid choice here. Going up from 50% to 65% damage increase might not seem like much, but it provides that extra damage you need to burst someone from full health to zero. You can't go wrong with a pure damage increase talent.
NO:
Ice Floes
This talent sounds quite good, but if you think about it, it is somewhat unnecessary. Even with the increased width, you will have to go aggressive to land a
Cone of Cold, so it doesn't really make a difference. The cooldown reduction is irrelevant, because after you land your burst combo, you will have to wait for all your cooldowns to land it again.
NO:
Frost Armor
Frost Armor is a defensive talent for
Jaina, so it doesn't fit in to the whole "combo equals kill" thing she has going on. She is a squishy target whatsoever and one defensive talent is not going to make a difference.
NO:
Ice Lance
Again, the cooldown reduction on a single spell doesn't give
Jaina that edge, the damage increase does, because she depends on all her spells to be comboed in order to kill someone.
Level 10
YES:
Summon Water Elemental
Clearly, the water elemental is the better heroic ability here. The constant harass, zoning and lockdown potential it provides
Jaina with is crazy. It is also really reliable compared to
Ring of Frost, since you can redirect the elemental to hit whichever target you choose.
NO:
Ring of Frost
On the other hand, Ring of Frost is not that good, not because it doesn't provide enough lockdown or zoning potential, but because it is a really hard heroic to land, hence it is not reliable enough. If you feel confident that you will land every single
Ring of Frost, then go for it.
Level 13
YES:
Improved Ice Block
Improved Ice Block is really good when the enemy team has a lot of crowd control or when they depend on a certain combo to take out a target. If you are getting focused and taken out, this talent can provide you with some survivability or at least give some time to your healer to react. Now that
Sprint was removed, it's the only good choice here.
NO:
Storm Front
Storm Front might be used in some variation with a
Blizzard build, and even then I am not sure if it's worth giving up your defensive talent for it.
Jaina is so squishy that any form of escape is mandatory for her survival.
NO:
Icy Veins
The same goes for Icy Veins. The cooldown reduction might be good, but your escape mechanism is more important here. You won't be able to even use this talent, if you can't escape from a dire situation and just keep dying.
Level 16
YES:
Northern Exposure
Every time you land a
Cone of Cold on someone they take 25% increased damage. That is 25% damage increase for your whole team basically, which means that if you manage to focus the vulnerable targets they will get destroyed instantly. This talent is insane.
SITUATIONAL:
Numbing Blast
What this talent offers is survivability against melee targets and lockdown against ranged. I usually only pick it against double tank compositions, but that is purely preference. If you feel more comfortable with
Numbing Blast instead of
Northern Exposure then just go for it.
NO:
Snow Crash
This talent is only used in some variation of a
Blizzard build, but in our case, it lacks the damage increase that
Northern Exposure provides.
NO:
Ice Barrier
Again,
Jaina is so squishy that a defensive talent or a shield won't save her if she gets focused down making this talent irrelevant for our build.
Level 20
YES:
Bolt of the Storm
Bolt of the Storm is a really good talent for
Jaina since she has no escapes. Combined with
Sprint, she can get in a fight, deal her damage quickly and then get out safely. There is no talent more useful when you get yourself in a dire situation position-wise.
SITUATIONAL:
Wintermute
Wintermute can provide some extra sustain damage for extended teamfights with
Jaina. If you feel confident that you can survive for the whole fight without
Bolt of the Storm then go for it. Together with
Wintermute, I would suggest picking
Numbing Blast at level 16, just to get that extra survivability you need.
NO:
Arcane Power
This new talent was a bit of a letdown. 15% more spell damage is not enough for you to give up
Bolt of the Storm at this point and the mana refund is irrelevant if you go for
Arcane Intellect.
NO:
Cold Snap
You can get Cold Snap if you go for
Ring of Frost as your heroic, but I explained the reasons I wouldn't go for it before.
Jaina was good enough before, but with the Sylvanas patch she received buffs in every single one of her spells, making her one of the top tier carries. Right now,
Jaina is a sure pick in Hero League and either pick or ban in the competitive scene. This build is one of the most common in competitive play right now and here is the breakdown.
PROS
- High burst damage and kill potential through her spell combo.
- Her spells can be used for zoning and peeling from a distance.
- Great lockdown, chase and kite potential though the chilling effect from her trait.
CONS
- Really squishy with no real escape mechanisms until late game.
- It is quite difficult to land the full spell combo.
- She is quite mana hungry, if she gives up her mana regeneration talent.
This build gets its power spikes at Level 4 with
Envenom in the early game and at Level 16 with
Northern Exposure in the late game, so you should keep an eye out for those two important talents and for the right time to pick a fight. Please note that until you get your defensive mechanisms,
Improved Ice Block at level 13 and
Bolt of the Storm at level 20, you should play defensively and never overextend. If you do, make sure your team is there to support you.
Variations
- The first variation in this build comes from the level 4 talent. You need to pick the most suitable one, depending on the enemy team composition, on your team composition and on your play style. If you can manage
Jaina's mana pool and the enemy team is stacking on top of each other on teamfights for whatever reason, go for
Snowstorm. If you believe that you will have mana problems, then I suggest switching to
Arcane Intellect. If none of the previous things are true, then just get
Envenom as the safe choice. Note that
Envenom is especially strong against stealth heroes, so you can pick it over the other two talents if the enemy team has a
Nova or a
Zeratul.
- The other variation lies in the Level 16 talent.
Numbing Blast offers a good lockdown of your target and great kiting potential. If you feel like you are getting focused right away and you can't escape, I would definitely suggest going for it. On the other hand, with
Northern Exposure you get a team damage increase to every target that gets hit by
Cone of Cold. If you feel like you are lacking damage in your teamfights, then I would suggest picking this talent.
Youtube video soon to come...
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