Jaina
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Build: Burst Them to Death!
Level 1
Level 4
Level 7
Level 10
Level 13
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Level 20
Heroes of the Storm Build Guides
Jaina is a ranged mage (assassin) that uses spells to slow and burst down enemies. She is one of the strongest offensive heroes in the game, but is also considered to be one of the 'squishiest', that is easily killed.
Frostbite is Jaina's combat trait. This trait grants 50% ability damage to chilled targets, that is targets that have already been hit by an ability, as well as slows targets by 25% (lasts 4 seconds). By combo'ing abilities together, Jaina can output some ridiculous damage through this trait.
Frostbolt is Jaina's skillshot. It's low cooldown, comparative to her other abilities, make it a great initiate to inflict single target damage.
Blizzard is one of Jaina's AoE spells. It is a circular spell that hits an area with two waves of damage after an initial 1 second delay. This ability provides a lot of Jaina's ability damage, and is quite useful when enemies are clustered, rooted, or slowed in one area.
Cone of Cold is Jaina's other AoE spell. This aptly named spell hits targets in a cone-shaped area for moderate damage. This spell is great to initiate fights against multiple targets due to it being an instantaneous spell that will apply frostbite to all targets hit.
Ring of Frost is one of Jaina's Heroic abilities. This ability creates a ring that roots and damages enemies for 3 seconds. It is considered to be the 'weaker' heroic due to the difficulty of landing it successfully.
Summon Water Elemental is Jaina's other Heroic ability. This ability summons a powerful water elemental to fight opponents. This heroic is widely considered to be the 'stronger' heroic due to it's high damage output, ability to chill all targets hit, splash damage, and retargeting ability.
Zeratul or
Nova to find you when you're all alone and make you go poof. With this build, the difference between an average Jaina player and a great Jaina player is how you position yourself. Deep Chill
Winter's Reach
Lingering Chill Deep Chill) will result in more kills than slowing targets less but for more time with
Lingering Chill.
Conjurer's Pursuit Arcane Intellect) that doesn't revolve around consistently grabbing regen globes. Arcane Intellect Arcane Intellect allows you to spam your abilities with little regard to no regard for your mana bar. Every time you attack a chilled opponent, some mana is returned to you.
Snowstorm Blizzard. While increasing the width of
Blizzard is certainly useful, I believe that more damage output can be achieved by using all of Jaina's abilities as often as possible than by upgrading one ability specifically.
Frost Shards Frostbolt. That being said, it is hard enough to land this skill shot consistently, let alone lining up two targets.
Envenom Frostbitten
Ice Floes Northern Exposure or
Numbing Blast). Again, I usually opt for the increase in damage to chilled targets with
Frostbitten, as it provides a damage increase to all abilities instead of just one.
Frost Armor
Ice Lance Summon Water Elemental Ring of Frost
Cold Snap). It can be useful for locking down enemies, but for this build it is not viable.
Icy Veins
Rewind. It allows you to spam your abilities EVEN FASTER. Popping this talent as a fight breaks out, or even taking mercenary camps allows you to do immense damage. Taking
Arcane Intellect for your level 4 talent helps alleviate the mana cost of spamming, even with the 50% reduction this talent gives.
Improved Ice Block
Illidan with [talent/the-hunt-talent]] or
Tyrael with
Judgment then this is almost must (assuming they're always targeting YOU). Just make sure you realize you're giving up a large amount of burst damage by taking this over
Icy Veins, and will have a harder time contributing offensively to team fights and soloing mercenary camps.
Storm Front Blizzard build, then this is the talent for you. It's easy to get out of position with Jaina, especially when you're trying to land your abilities. This talent allows you to cast your hardest hitting one from 100% farther away. Only take this if you're not listening to me and building into one ability. Northern Exposure Cone of Cold?! By taking this talent you can initiate fights with (
Cone of Cold) and then following up with
Blizzard, while using
Icy Veins to reduce the cooldowns dramatically, all the while spamming
Frostbolt until your heart's content. Numbing Blast Blizzard to initiate (to apply chill), which will then allow you to root opponents with
Cone of Cold. Maybe I'm just used to hitting E first instead of W, but it's much easier to hit a target with both waves of blizzard if the target is slowed first.
Snow Crash Blizzard. If you're building into it (for some dumb reason), then why not continue to buff it more, I guess. If your target is slowed, rooted, body-blocked, or whatever, you can usually land two waves of your
Blizzard, but you probably won't be able to land three (they'll just walk out of the range). But hey, who knows, maybe someone won't be paying attention to your talent selections and stand in it for three waves.
Ice Barrier Wintermute Summon Water Elemental is the scariest damage output you will ever see. Let's recap, if you've taken
Deep Chill,
Arcane Intellect,
Frostbitten,
Icy Veins,
Northern Exposure, you will slow enemies by 35%, never run out of mana, increase your damage to chilled targets by 65%, have your ability cooldowns reduced by 3x, and increase your damage further by 25%. If all of that pure carnage wasn't enough, your
Wintermute will now mimic your abilities for 50% of the damage. OH MY GOD. THE DAMAGE OUTPUT WILL MELT ANY HERO. But for real, if one cycle of your abilities isn't enough to burst down the tank you're facing, your next
Frostbolt will be ready in 1 second,
Cone of Cold in 3.3 seconds, and
Blizzard in 5 seconds with
Icy Veins active.
Bolt of the Storm Improved Ice Block, and you're starting to realize you can't avoid getting blown up, then this talent is very useful. Sometimes you're in a game and you just can't seem to do anything but get blown up as soon as a team fight starts. It's okay, this talent can help alleviate some of the pain. And hey, maybe if the tide has started to turn in your favor, you can use this talent offensively to get in casting range to blow people up like you've always dreamed of.
Arcane Power Arcane Intellect, mana shouldn't be a problem at this point. Increasing your ability power by 15% isn't even comparable to what your
Wintermute can do either. Cold Snap Ring of Frost. However,
Ring of Frost is still not that great of a talent, especially when compared to the power of
Summon Water Elemental. All of the other level 20 talents are more viable than this one.
Improved Ice Block and
Bolt of the Storm to survive. However, if you're looking to blow people up, and put up some ridiculous hero damage numbers, this might be the build for you. I've had decent success with it in both quick-match and hero league, with a win-rate of around 60%.
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