Introduction - Early Game Top
This guide is dedicated to helping you understand the mechanics of "Nova the Sniping
Stealth Assassin."
Nova is an awesome ranged assassin. Her early game has incredible burst
if you take Talent #3 on Level 1. The extra 20% damage on Q Skill -
Snipe does wonders and can easily half health a Level 1 Hero. *Remember though, you must be in stealth or a couple seconds out of stealth when using your Q-Skill to obtain the extra 20% damage. This is important to note because in the mid to late game, 20% on a level 20 Nova can mean the difference between 1500 damage or 2200 damage.
Nova should always be on the hunt. Meaning...roam the map and find opportunities to find kills or bully other lanes. However, be weary... the more you roam the less experience you're soaking for your team. Killing no Heros in the early game can be difficult for your team due to the lack of experience soaked by Nova.
Nova is an opportunistic Hero.
Find Opportunities to make game changing plays.
At level 4, Nova unlocks "Gathering Power" Talent 3. This talent can be your best talent or your worst talent. I find that many Nova players tend to over-extend to the enemy teams back-line to kill one assassin or support and then dying because of it. Unfortunately, this is probably not the way you want to utilize this talent. Dying with any amount of "Gathering Power" Talent 3 is a game changer for Nova. Players who like to take big risks should substitute this for Talent 4 "Envenom" if dying in-exchange for another enemy team hero is worth it. (Personally, I would play safe and find opportunities to find game changing kills rather than suicide for a trade.)
Nearing the end of the Early Game, Level 7, you have two talent abilities viable for Nova. In this guide, I have listed
Talent 3 "Anti-Armor Shells" due to the burst damage it provides for Nova. The other viable talent at level 7 is Talent 2
"One in the Chamber."
Pro's & Con's for Level 7 Talent 3.
Pro's: x250 Damage on the next basic attack! (Basically a second Q-Snipe)
Con's: Super Super Super Slow Auto Attack! This is especially bad for clearing lanes or finding objectives on maps such as Haunted Mines where killing the "Mining NPCs" for skulls is a matter of seconds.
Pro's & Con's for Level 7 Talent 2.
Pro's: Basic Attack damage is fast (normal) and if you combine it with Q-Snipe it will do 80% additional damage on the next basic attack. Also good for map-based objectives such as Haunted Mines.
Con's: Lack of burst damage. I find that every time I pick up this talent, I lack an additional 100-200 damage to finish off an enemy.
Mid Game Top
As stated before:
Nova is an opportunistic Hero.
Find Opportunities to make game changing plays.
This concept still applies throughout the early, mid, and late game. Always find those opportunities.
Level 10 Nova, you unlock your Ultimate Abilities!
You have two options here. Only 1 option for the new players who need level 5 or a higher level.
Option 1: Precision Strike
Option 2: Triple Tap
In this guide, I recommend "Precision Strike" over Triple Tap and here is why.
Triple Tap is great at killing assassins, supports, and squishy Heroes. However, it is block-able by a tank or environmental object such as a wall. Almost always...Triple Tap is blocked by a Tanky hero or a wall on an enemy team base. Not good.
Precision strike...however, is like a nuke that shoots down after a short delay on enemy heroes blasting away any heroes in its path. Pretty awesome right? :-) Precision strike is also a game changer. Example #1: Enemy nexus has 4% health left and your team died and you just spawned. Guess what? Nuke it. Win the game. Example #2: A team-fight has occurred and you are somewhere else dealing an over-extended enemy hero. Nuke down on the team-fight while distracting or killing the over-extended hero.
Moving on ~
You find your first combo on Nova. Other than your Q-Snipe & W-Slow then run away "Haha."
Level 13 Talent 1
Level 16 Talent 3
Both of these talents on both levels go hand in hand.
So the combo goes like this:
E - W - Q - Auto Attack - R (if needed)
If you have picked up the talents I have recommended, then you should be outputting at least lethal or over-lethal on enemy hero that is not a tank.
Run-down on the combo:
E - Provides a decoy that now does damage added to your burst and at level 16 it doubles to two decoys adding damage.
W - Provides small burst damage and slows the enemy hero allowing decoys to continuing auto attacking and allowing you to set-up your Q-Snipe.
Q - Provides the most burst damage and it your main damage skill.
R - Only use this if they're running away and you need to nuke them out.
Auto Attack - If you have picked up "Anti Armor Shells," then this auto attack should do x250 than the normal auto attack.
All of this put together...over kill.
End Game Top
Lastly, if your team makes it to level 20... you will have the ultimate Nova ability
Talent 3 Rewind.
So broken that it needs to be "Nerfed." With a 60 second cool-down...rewind allows Nova to use her combo twice.
Twice.
TWICE. Meaning Over-Kill x2. This should be the ultimate game changer on Nova because you will have FOUR decoys on the field after using the combo with rewind which makes the enemy team confused while taking damage and it is easier to kill those tanks. Yes. Tanks are one-shot-able with rewind.
By now, it is game-over as Nova would say herself. Win the game by finding people out of positing or taking on 2-3 enemy by yourself using rewind as a ultimate nuking combo. Don't forget your ultimate as well.
Have fun and stay stealthy. :-)
About the Author Top
Hello!
My name is Scotty from Chaos Vanguard (CV).
My gamer tag is Scotty#1495, however, I will not accept friend requests unless they're from CV. If you're not a member of CV please click the link below if you're interested in applying.
http://thechaosvanguard.co.uk/
Scotty's Heroes of the Storm Stats:
http://www.hotslogs.com/Player/Profile?PlayerID=4349402
Preseason: Rank 1
MMR: 2800 ~ 3000
About Scotty:
I started my competitive gaming in Guild Wars 1 playing monthly tournaments for some of the top North American teams as a Protective Healer. I played every single monthly from 2007 - 2009 obtaining silver trims and one gold trim in 2009.
In 2010 I took a break from the competitive scene and was introduced to the concept of MOBA's. I had two paths... League of Legends or DOTA... I went down League of Legends path. Sorry DOTA fans.
I played league of legends as a casual gamer from 2010 - 2014 obtaining Diamond III in Season 2.
I quit League of Legends at the end of 2014 after hearing Blizzard's release of Heroes of the Storm.
In 2015, I reached Rank 1 in the pre-season of HoTs.
Quick Comment () View Comments
You need to log in before commenting.