Nova Build Guide : Explosive Decoy Sniper :: Heroes of the Storm (HotS) Strategy Builds

Nova

Build: Da Build

Level 1

Level 4

Level 7

Level 10

Level 13

Level 16

Level 20

Threats to Nova with this build

Threat

Low

High

Show all

Threat		Notes
1	Murky	One snipe kills him, plus you get to play, "Where's Murky's Egg?"
1	Rexxar	Unique to this build, Misha is one of the easiest targets to hit with Snipe. He just sits there most of the time, and is my go-to source to build back up snipe stacks.
1	Kael'thas	Any squishy hero like Kael, Jaina, Brightwing, Tyrande, and many more.
2		No Threat
3		No Threat
4	Li-Ming	Because she's so popular, I have to mention that while it's pretty easy to delete her small health pool, her every ability can reveal you and take away half of your health, basically by accident. Be careful!
4	Xul	He's very popular right now, but as long as you keep him at a distance he's not too bad. His skeletons can soak your snipes, which is no fun, and if he roots you, you're basically a goner.
4	Abathur	One one hand, he has global mines that can ruin your day. On the other, nothing is more fun that going behind enemy lines and going "Abathur hunting".
5		No Threat
6		No Threat
7		No Threat
8		No Threat
9		No Threat
10	Illidan	Dive heroes like Illidan (and others, Butcher, Greymane, etc.) are your enemy. If they jump on you, you're dead, so keep your distance!
10	Stitches	Tanky heroes with displacement abilities are also not your friend. Stay away from them!
10	Tassadar	Tassadar is uniquely evil to you, in that his trait reveals you, and his Phase Shift ability is the perfect escape from you. It even cancels Triple Tap!
10	Kharazim	Watch out, he can take a talent that reveals you!

A different way to play... Top

Hey there! Do you want an easier way for /Snipe Master/ to be viable? Are you looking for a super fun playstyle that feels just a little bit like the "old Nova"? Do you like being the highest damage dealer on your team, and having the most kills/takedowns? Well have I got a build for you!

I've been a long time player, and ever since the nerf patch, I've been tinkering with her playstyle and talents to try to figure out how to make her viable/fun. In particular, I've been trying to unlock the potential of , the talent that is supposed to make her more powerful in skilled hands, and I think I've done it with a lethal combination of three talents: , , and . Essentially, once you've got all the stacks, 's damage output becomes significant and sustainable, making her one of the best poke heroes in the game. There's 3 main points about this playstyle you should keep in mind:

1. Land your Snipes. If you miss snipes, you simply won't be good with Nova with any build. I repeat, the first thing you have to do is make it so that 60-80% of your snipes are landing, and after level 7, you train yourself to stop taking random snipe shots so that number goes up to 90-100%. Use W ( ) to make sure that they're slowed and you can easily hit them before you snipe, hide behind friendly walls and safely land Q's whenever you can. Even if it won't result in a kill, or it's a tank like or /Misha, just throw it out there to build up your stacks. When you get to 16, your game gets easier, but until then, rely on reliable snipes and your auto-attack.

2. Hit and Run. Poke the **** out of them. With your holograms and your stealth, you can out-poke most heroes in the game. Land your snipe, then sprint the other direction. Wait for stealth, then repeat. Don't be in the thick of things if you can help it. Operate at maximum range, and keep people at a distance, especially heroes with a stun or root ( , , etc.). If you get caught, you will die, so don't be visible long. And please don't lane. You don't do enough auto-attack damage to contribute, and when you reveal yourself on the map, the enemy team can comfortably over-extend and kill your teammates knowing you're on the other side of the map. Plus, you're way too good at single-target burst damage to waste your time laning.

3. Lethal Decoy. Once you've hit 16, your game gets a whole lot easier, and your playstyle shifts dramatically. You should have a solid stack, hopefully the full 75%, and each decoy will fire off one explosive snipe that hits the primary target for almost as much as an untalented snipe (~400, 500) and also hits everything around it because of explosive snipe for ~200-300 damage. And you can do this every 8 seconds! Without leaving stealth! And once you have the full 75%, your snipe hit percentage should literally be 100%. If the situation is not ideal to snipe, just don't do it. Drop a decoy instead, and do a solid amount of damage. Clear waves with it, interrupt objectives, dismount heroes. Do all the things you've ever dreamed of doing, but didn't because you were too afraid of losing stacks. Your decoy becomes your main source of damage, waveclear, objective taking, everything. Still snipe when you can, since at this point each one does >1000 damage, but coast on your decoy most of the time.

The combination of Lethal Decoy, Explosive snipe, and Snipe Master allow Nova to not only become the best poke hero in the game, but also addresses a lot of her old problems, like laning presence and consistent damage. It takes a unique hit-and-run playstyle with extremely precise snipes, but if you can pull it off, you can wipe teams and win games. Thanks for reading (I know it was kind of long) and feel free to leave comments and feedback below!

Talents explained Top

Level 1
This tier is mainly personal preference. I like so I don't have to worry about mounting up and can reposition more quickly mid-battle. Others prefer the convenience of having high mana regen, or the safety of . The only one I would advise against is , since the extra slow takes a while to build up, and is not incredibly more useful than the initial slow.

Level 4
The "Decoy" tier, with the best option for our purposes being . It has a similar uptime as , but I like the reduced mana cost. More mana for snipes! I'd advise against the scouting talent, since this build relies on hologram uptime later on.

Level 7
Ahh . Ever since the Li-Ming patch, you have split Nova players down the middle. The consensus currently is that the potential is the highest in the tier, but the requirement of never missing a is unreasonable. This marks your first power spike and playstyle shift. If you're not very good at shifting your playstyle from a more general "Shoot stuff and move on" sort of approach, this talent (and this guide) are not for you! There's plenty of Nova guides that talk about how to make the most of .

Heroic Tier
I prefer the global AOE damage of over the single target kill button that is , but to each his own! It depends largely on team comp. If you have an or someone with good stuns, I'd pick Precision Strike for sure. If they have squishy heroes or dive comps, go Triple Tap all the way.

Level 13
Here I take . has become the go-to choice for snipe builds, which I have never understood. The mana cost is large, but by end-game I usually have enough, and what's wrong with increased damage? This talent synergizes especially well with our wombo combo of (scales with it!) and (means dropping a decoy destroys a lane).

Level 16
is the cornerstone of this build, and marks the second major playstyle change. You see, with a full stack of , each decoy is able to do the equivalent of one untalented snipe per use, plus 4 auto-attacks (more if you went with ). So, your decoy can now: Snipe almost as good as you, can't loose snipe stacks, will never miss, clears minion waves in 2 decoys, and does not break stealth. At this point, you have to transition over to maintaining stacks of Snipe Master, throwing out decoys as your main source of poke damage, and only sniping when you're 100% sure of hitting, but this will really spike your damage through the roof.

Level 20
Really, your two choices here are offense or defense? is your only defensive ability, and with the 30% movement speed increase at level 1, it becomes a decent escape. However, and either of the Heroic upgrades are excellent options as well. Your choice!

Free Hero Rotation