Currently Nova classes at the very bottom for competitive play. One of only 2 to be considered C rank. This slight rework takes some of her weak areas, namely wave clear and escapes and buffs them.
Combat Trait
1
Permanent Cloak, Sniper
Nova gains Stealth when out of combat for 3 seconds. Taking damage, attacking, using Abilities, or channeling reveals her.
Passive: Nova's Basic Attack range is 6.5 further than most other ranged Heroes.
Primary Abilities
1
Snipe (Q)
Mana: 50
Cooldown: 6 seconds
Deals 322.4 (+4% per level) damage to the first enemy hit.
2
Pinning Shot (W)
Mana: 65
ChargeCooldown: 12 seconds
Deal 114.4 (+4% per level) damage to an enemy and slow it by 40% for 2.25 seconds.
3
Holo Decoy (E)
Mana: 50
Cooldown: 15 seconds
Create a Decoy for 5 seconds that appears to attack enemies.
Using this Ability does not break Cloak.
Heroic Abilities
1
Triple Tap (R)
Mana: 100
Cooldown: 100 seconds
Locks in on the target Hero, then fires 3 shots that hit the first Hero or Structure they come in contact with for 351.52 (+4% per level) damage each.
2
Precision Strike (R)
Mana: 100
ChargeCooldown: 60 seconds
After a 1.5 second delay, deals 474.24 (+4% per level) damage to enemies within an area. Unlimited range.
Talents
Tier 1:
1. Advanced Cloaking: While Stealthed, Nova gains 2 Mana per second and 25% increased movement speed.
2. Longshot: Increases the cast range of Pinning Shot by 30%. Pinning Shot also increases the range of Nova's next Basic Attack by 2.
3. Quick Scope: Reduces Snipe's cooldown by 1 second.
4. Remote Delivery: Increases Holo Decoy cast range by 100% and its sight range by 50%
Tier 2:
1. Covert Ops: After being Stealthed for 5 seconds, Pinning Shot's slow is increased to 55% and costs no Mana. Bonus is lost after losing Stealth for 1 second.
2. Rapid Projection: Reduces Holo Decoy's cooldown and Mana cost by 40%.
3. Piercing Round: Snipe now pierces all enemy minions and mercs excluding bosses.
4. Covert Mission: Enemy Minions killed near Nova grant a stack of Bribe. Hero Takedowns grant 10 stacks of Bribe. Use 25 stacks to bribe a Mercenary, instantly defeating them. Does not work on Bosses. Maximum of 100 stacks. If a camp is defeated entirely with Bribe, the camp respawns 50% faster.
Tier 3:
1. One in the Chamber: After using an Ability, Nova's next Basic Attack within 3 seconds deals 80% additional damage.
2. Anti-Armor Shells: Nova's Basic Attacks deal 250% damage and ignore Physical Armor, but her Attack Speed is proportionally slower.
3. Snipe Master: Hitting an enemy Hero with Snipe permanently increases the damage of Snipe by 15%. Stacks up to 5 times. All stacks are lost if Snipe fails to hit an enemy Hero. Hitting an enemy hero that is stealthed will deal an extra 10% damage.
4. Ghost Recon: Holo Decoy will now reveal enemy stealthed units in its vision range.
Tier 4:
1. Triple Tap
2. Precision Strike
Tier 5:
1. Double Tap: Pinning Shot now has 2 charges.
2. Psionic Efficiency: Removes Snipe's mana cost and increases its range by 10%.
3. Explosive Round: Snipe also deals 50% damage to enemies near the impact.
4. Holo Stability: Increases the duration of Holo Decoy by 120%.
Tier 6:
1. Perfect Shot: Hitting an enemy Hero with Snipe reduces the cooldown by 3 seconds.
2. Crippling Shot: Pinning Shot lowers a Hero's Armor by 25 for the duration of the slow, causing them to take 25% increased damage.
3. Lethal Decoy: Holo Decoy deals 40% of Nova's damage. If it is destroyed before it expires, it will explode, dealing 212.4 (+4% per level) damage to all enemies caught in the blast.
4. Adaptive Camouflage: Nova reenters cloak after being out of combat for 2 seconds instead of 3. When stealthed, her shimmer is harder to see.
Tier 7:
1. Fast Reload: Triple Tap's cooldown is reset if it kills an enemy Hero.
2. Precision Barrage: Precision Strike holds 2 charges with a 3 second cooldown between using each charge.
3. Rewind: Activate to reset the cooldowns of your Basic Abilities.
4. Ghost Protocol: Activate to gain Stealth and become Unrevealable for 2 seconds. Nova's attacks and Abilities will also not break Stealth during this time.
Discussion
As you can see I have rearranged her abilities as well as added some new ones to help her a bit more in competitive play. This restructuring will actually help her have distinct builds which she is severely lacking. Now you can have a Q, W or E build or a hybrid style.
New abilities:
Quick Scope: This is to help her use Snipe more frequently and will stack nicely with Perfect Shot making her a Sniping menace if you are an accurate and aggressive sniper.
Piercing Round: This was the big one. By allowing her snipe to penetrate minions it will let her more effectively clear waves without being exceptionally good at it. Also it won't make her Sniper Master OP as you will still need to hit an enemy hero to keep your stacks. This means you can't use full stacks on just minions and mercs repeatedly, but it will help you deal with teams that use minions for cover and will allow you to stay behind your team during team fights.
Ghost Recon: Nova is by far the hero with the weakest stealth mechanic, by giving her decoy the ability to detect other stealthed heroes it allows her to become an anti-stealth hunter while capitalising on her own stealth. It would also help her deal with pesky Abathur mine builds, giving her a niche that the likes of Zeratul and Valeera lack.
Adaptive Camouflage: This allows her to reenter stealth faster. Entering stealth is key to her survival and this can be very problematic late game given she has no real means of escape. This talent can help in this regard, while also making it harder for enemies to see her when she is stealthed. This makes sense since, being a ghost you would expect her stealth to be 'better' than the other heroes.
Altered abilities:
Anti-Armor Shells: Right now this is a very underused talent due to both One in the Chamber and even Sniper Master in its current form. By giving it a true anti-armor trait along with some shield penetration will give the talent a unique niche of dealing with heroes that often put up a shield just before dying. This will force enemy players to use shields a little earlier in battle making for a different dynamic to team fights.
Sniper Master: Increases Snipe damage against stealthed heroes. Snipe Master is hardly ever taken due to how much utility One in the Chamber gives you in higher level play. By buffing the damage even further against stealthed enemies, it will have a good niche in the meta.
Lethal Decoy: By making the decoy explode when attacked this will give it some wave clear potential and punish enemy heroes that attack it and give you some extra damage if you go for a full decoy build.
* Note about Explosive Round: If Piercing Round is taken, then the explosion only occurs when hitting an enemy hero or structure. This is to prevent multiple explosions from occurring when piercing multiple minions.
MindofSwarm is a veteran of heroes who has been playing since launch. Always available to offer advice to new players. MindofSwarm is currently seeking a new team as his previous team have retired from serious play. If anyone is looking for a new team member send a message.
I like the idea of the armor piercing rounds. My idea to give her a slight buff is to give her decoy 15-20% dmg untalented and 50% with the talent.
Her decoy doing no dmg is not much of a distraction other than in high intensity team fights and even then people can usually keep track of which is real.
Yeah I see what you are saying about the decoy. I was honestly of two minds about it. I was aiming for a more deceptive kind of build, I think giving it a little damage might work, but I am concerned that it would be very powerful alongside the ghost recon talent I gave her.
I like that idea as you then become a thorn in the side of other stealthers in teamfights, it would have to be one or the other you're right. Me personally I'd rather avoid the stealthers anyways though. If i reveal valeera in a 1on1 and try to pop her I can see that fight going very sideways on me unless I'm at perfect range to land all 3 "One in the chamber" triggers and my snipe. But if I can rotate around the map and be a total plague on rotations unhorsing people with my decoy and popping them if the situation allows...that sounds poy-fect to me.
Everyone else has a getaway for their quick pop and run, Nova only has her distraction in the decoy and her range, if they dont fall for the distraction I'm probably licked if they have the slightest bit of CC, add the small amount of damage to it where they can't tell if it's real or not and I can pop and run while they waste the CC on the decoy.
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Her decoy doing no dmg is not much of a distraction other than in high intensity team fights and even then people can usually keep track of which is real.
Everyone else has a getaway for their quick pop and run, Nova only has her distraction in the decoy and her range, if they dont fall for the distraction I'm probably licked if they have the slightest bit of CC, add the small amount of damage to it where they can't tell if it's real or not and I can pop and run while they waste the CC on the decoy.