Can easily interupt any combo you are doing that includes [[Overdrive]]. Can interupt Tripple Tap with multiple skills. Can easily Break cloak with multiple abilities
7
E.T.C.
Can easily close the gap and interupt any combo you are doing that includes [[Overdrive]]. Can interupt Tripple Tap with multiple skills. Can easily Break cloak with multiple abilities.
Best to stay at a distance.
7
Tassadar
Can't break your combos unless his wall displaces you. Can use his Trait to find cloack units. Can use his [[Tempest Storm]] to find cloacked units. Can easily avoid both ultimates.
8
Tyrande
Can easily interupt any combo you are doing that includes [[Overdrive]]. Can interupt Tripple Tap. Can easily Break cloak with multiple abilities
9
Kerrigan
Can easily close the gap and interupt any combo you are doing that includes [[Overdrive]]. Can interupt Tripple Tap with multiple skills. Can easily Break cloak with multiple abilities.
9
Muradin
Can easily close the gap and interupt any combo you are doing that includes [[Overdrive]]. Can interupt Tripple Tap with multiple skills. Can easily Break cloak with multiple abilities.
10
Diablo
Can easily close the gap and interupt any comob you are doing that includes [[Overdrive]]. Can interupt Tripple Tap with multiple skills. Can easily Break cloak with multiple abilities.
10
Stitches
Can easily interupt any combo you are doing that includes [[Overdrive]]. Can interupt Tripple Tap with multiple skills. Can easily Break cloak with multiple abilities. If he eats you are are as good as dead.
10
Tyrael
Very strong engage and chase able to interrupt with two abilities depending on talents.
Pros:
- One ofthe best burst damage in the game.
- Permanent Clock, Sniper
- One of the best roamers and gankers.
- Can assist one lane over on almost all maps using Triple Tap or globally with Precision Strike
Cons:
- Can be reliant on mana.
- Dies easily if caught out. Has no escape other than cloak and Decoy.
- VERY squishy
- Difficult to solo camps. Very vulnerable if she does.
- Very bad at pushing lanes. Can't fight off a large minion wave without Precision Strike.
- Very high risk reward. If you are caught or engage you are likely to die.
- Terrible in lane solo. Since Jaina patch nerfs (as well as the base attack damage bug) her Anti-Armor Shells no longer one hits minions until late into the game) this means you have to damage all minions in the lane down too 5% health then let your minions kill them or your turrets. This is very very inefficient.
Longer slow duration. Is useful with a very well coordinated team. Can be devastating early game on anyone without an escape
ability. Also removes the need to be invisible every time you use snipe. Once you get Crippling Shot at level 16 your damage is the same as picking Ambush Snipe as you can start your
While Nova does suffer from serious mana issues this does not really help her enough to be useful and seriously reduces her burst and harass if you dont pick Abush Snipe.
The range is already long enough to keep you safe. Most of the time you want to be close enough to land all three abilities anyway. This might get you an extra kill once or twice every game. But you are generally missing out on 120% damage every time you use the range because of Anti-Armor Shells and abush snipe
Pretty much the go to talent since the Nova nerfs if you want to secure the kill. Some very nice early game damage that can really increase your burst combo damage and is very strong early game. Damage at L4=350, L10=560, L20=910, L25=1085. Stacks partially with Crippling Shot. The only downside is you have to get almost within melee range to use it, which is very dangerous on Nova. This is only for those with very good map awareness.
Allows you to harass alot longer and really gives you the boost in mana you need to stay in the field. Without this you will find yourself going back constantly or missing mana for a full combo when you need it most. I sometimes find myself out of mana all the time without this, especially in harder matches vs skilled oponents.
Works well with your ultimate's and is easy to charge up. The issue is, it does not add much damage on Nova anymore, and seeing she is also the easiest hero in the game to kill, you will also lose stacks easily. At level 16 this does roughly 250 (or less since the GP nerf) extra with a full combo + precision strike ult. Where as Envenom will add 760 damage. A single extra Snipe if you have the extra mana from Perfect Shot will add around 600 damage. Pick to your play style.
This skill is what makes Nova Nova. Works well on Lethal Decoy Adds alot of burst and insane harass. The downside is you are terrible at clearing lanes although you can one hit some depending on level. Allows insane hit and run surprise damage.
With Anti-Armor Shells you can have one ready to go before a fight. If you are going to take Lethal Decoy pick this. The decoy alone will do 356 damage (at level 16) with two shots. If you stay with auto attack the decoy will only do 144 damage.
(note this skill has changed but it is still a very good talent, in some ways the 2.5 second cooldown is better, but mostly it is not as good as it used to be).
Again not very useful because you rely on burst. Adds very little damage (95 at level 16), so a total of 285 if you damage to use it after every ability. On Nova that is very unlikely. You need to offload your combo as fast as possible and run, sticking around to auto attack after each cast is going to get you killed or miss your combo. Also as mentioned earlier, picking Anti-Armor Shells gives you 356 vs 144 damage, just off the Lethal Decoy so you are going to lose damage all round picking this.
Level 10:
PERSONAL PREFERENCE Triple TapVery powerful single target ult. Does over twice the damage of Presicsion Strike but is missunderstood. See spoiler for for common misconceptions.
Details
Very High damage, L10=1230 L16=1824.
Most players will avoid using this skill because it requires more skill and thought to use and is misunderstood. For example you don't have to land the killing blow for Fast Reload to reset,
just one hit is enough, but it must die before the last hit, or from the last hit. Stealth does not cause this ult to fail, in fact it will keep them from stealthing. Fast Reload will also
reset if you kill someone that is not the target of your Triple Tap such as someone trying to block it.
It is easily blocked by other heros or structures so it can be less useful on maps with alot of walls and buildings. This is were map awareness and player restraint and skill comes in. Some heroes can cause this ultimate to fail completely if timed correctly Tassadar.
At level 10 you only need a very basic Q+W combo followed up by this to kill any squishy character like Valla or another Nova you will need more complicated combos and talents for stronger
Heroes. On Heroes that have interrupts such as Brighwing you want to do your best combo so she starts to run then use your ult so she is not in range to Polymorph you. The benefit of Triple Tap is you use it at the end of a combo so you can make a choice whether to use it or not, where as precision strike is used mid combo usually.
PERSONAL PREFERENCE Precision Strike - Medium damage AOE, L10=650 damage, L16=860.
Details
Very good pick. Takes less skill to use. Can be very useful on objective based maps for stopping hand ins or tribute grabs. Doesn't require channeling. Can be used to Zone Heroes. AOE damage. The downside to Precision Strike is you must use on CC'd targets or they will very easily avoid it. Anyone with dodges or escapes will almost certainly avoid it. It does roughly half the damage of [triple tap]. Needs to be used mid combo which sometimes means it gets wasted if they target gets a shield or heal/dodge. Can be avoided even with Pinning Shot applied by heros with slightly faster than normal walk speeed.
By far the best talent Nova can get. Take this ALWAYS. At level 13. Can do 335+ damage alone if both skills hit ( Snipe=139
Pinning Shot=71 AA=43x3. Can do aoe damage with Explosive Round or Railgun. Activates Pining Shot talents which also add a further damage to your combo, around 675 at level 13
1v1 and you land your full combo and auto attacks, which is very easy to do if a target is by themselves. If you are not by yourself even better extra damage for your team mates. You can use
drone to slow fleeing heroes that you cant get close enough to slow.
An extra 400+ damage to creep camps this is not including Crippling Shot bonus for yourself or team mates. Also does not include the small be extra AOE damage from Explosive Round all the while it is tanking.
Can be used to drop players off their Mounts. Can be used to block skill shots. Can be used to scout. If you and your close do not move it can be very difficult to tell which is the real one as
they both use skillshots. Often gets mistaken for the real nova because of ability use. Can be used to bait abilities especially if the clones moves. Can be used to deal damage without breaking cloak. Very underrated skill, see tips and tricks for more details.
If you want to play super safe and never be able to burst anyone down pick this. You will always stay max range and basically just snipe and run over and over, is good vs chars like Murky and The Lost Vikings.
Kinda Cool but not as good as the other two. Would be extra harass but much less damage and burst. Also since the 3 second cloak was introduced, this will almost never save your life when you are running.
One of nova's best talents but only when used with Lethal Decoy and team co-ordination Tazer Rounds not required.
You can start opening with this instead of abush snipe to amplify your abush snipe because of the 1 second delay on ambush. Anyone hit by this in a team fight and focused is dead in
Can add some serious damage to your combo. But again around the same as getting crippling shot which also applies to team. The 40% mana cost is a deal breaker for me. You already have mana issues. After pulling these combo's with or without rewind it leaves you without much options. Overdrive is not worth the effort.
Very nice skill perfect for approaching minion waves all lined up. Not so great if they aren't. Can make hitting
heroes behind waves very easy. Good in team fights. If used on a minion wave cooldown is very short. Might be useful in team fights but Crippling Shot would likely add more over all damage than two snipes
Excellent level 2 ability. Can be devistating with the right team mates that know to make sure at least one of your projectiles have hit before they finish off a target, or not do something stupid like Stitches eating your target.
Quickly becoming the must have ability on most characters that do not have escapes. This is very useful on Nova and makes her very hard to kill. The downside is it also makes her much less of a threat and it won't always save you especially from other characters that picked this ability.
Very nice upgrade. You can always have one in the chamber for emergencies while the other is reloading./spoiler]NEVER Fury of the Storm
Explanation
Useless. Your auto attacks do very little DPS, especially to tanks. At this stage of the game others can clear minion waves in seconds so leave it to them. You don't want to be auto attacking you want to be cloaking.
It's back but is it worth it? Rewind was very worth it before as you could do very similar damage using Lethal Decoy combo, but now that it is at level 20 Rewind is now back. Double letal decoy combo using rewind is very powerful. everthing you do will be applified by Crippling Shot. You should be able to take out even the strongest tank using this followed by Triple Tap or Precision Strike you may even not need it. Do you need it? not really Blink is probably still better. Better to be alive to boost your team mates damage.
Early game the only ability you should be using is Ambush Snipe to harass. It is by far the most mana efficient ability. Only use Pinning Shot if it will result in the a kill.
Only use Holo Decoy if you think it will block a skill shot or save you. Do not use holo decoy to bait skills or abilities until much later. Can no longer be used to block a players movement.
At level 4 you make the choice to either go for Perfect Shot Envenom or Gathering Power. Perfect Shot allows you to harass and stay in lane all day. The other two make your 1v1 stronger but your team presence weaker.
See the talents section for more details.
Generally you will want to start each map in the middle lane, even if someone else is there. Harass mid lane a bit, then sneak off to gank either top or bottom lane. Repeat this cycle from whatever lane you are in visiting fountains on the way.
Try not to stay in any particular lane too long. Always keep the other team guessing. What this does and is one of the most important parts about playing Nova, is force the other team to play safely. Where as your team can take risks (unless they have a stealth too). So try not to show yourself on the Map unless you have to or you are ganking.
Example: Say you are top lane and it's pushed. You notice bot could be en easy gank soon. Head mid. Harass only long enough for one or two auto attacks then walk into a bush and head bot lane.
Other players hate Nova, always have map awareness and continiously poke someone and then move back and come at them from a different direction. You will be able to bait players often as Nova.
Try to stay just on the outskirts of team fights. You should not be initiating fights and you should hang around other squishys to protect them. Once two or three of your team mates have engaged you can enage. Use Lethal Decoy to bait opponents.
All damage worked out at level 16. Note some of the math might have old values, but the totals are accurate and tested ingame. (may not reflect slightly lower values to Anti-Armor Shells.
There is really only one viable combo on Nova now fortunately it is also the best combo and only ever did slightly less damage than rewind combo.
HOLO COMBO(Usable at Level 13)
Lethal Decoy-> Crippling Shot-> Snipe-> Anti-Armor Shellsx2 =3035 (you must cripple imediately after casting decoy, this combo requires you to do all abilities as fast as possible. This combo is for baiting with decoy.
Crippling Shot-> Snipe-> Lethal Decoy-> Anti-Armor Shellsx2 (for extra slow and extra cripple for your team mates, space out your decoy a second after you engage. Decoy last also means your ult will be amplified.
Place a Lethal Decoy close to the target. Wait for drone to apply Crippling Shot. Then complete combo for full damage amplified at 25%.
Drone will do a minimum of 400 damage with three Auto Attacks or one Anti-Armor Shells and both skillshots hitting.
So at level 16, a very simple three key combo will deal ~3030 damage depending on your timing and how many auto attacks you pull off. Usually you can chase and Auto Attack a few times if needed. This is enough to kill the most squishy champions like Valla and Nova who at level 16 have 246000hp. Finish others off with Envenom, Triple Tap or Precision Strike.
Triple Tap Damage Range Explanation
On occasion one of your shots will not be empowered by Crippling Shot
Pros
-Can be done every 15 seconds.
-Very Low Mana Cost.
-Only 3 or 4 key presses.
-Very simple to execute.
- Lethal Decoy+ Ambush Snipe a very strong cheap combo.
-Provides bonus damage from Crippling Shot to team mates for 3-4 seconds.
-Ultimate is cast at the end of the combo allowing you to choose wisely if you do it or not.
-Usable at level 13, with slightly reduced damage until you get Crippling Shot.
-Works well with both ultimates.
-Check out tips and tricks for more uses.
Cons
Requires use of decoy, so you can't use it to block if you need to run.
Conclusion and Videos:
Overdrive is more useless than it used to be, Holo Combo is really the only optoin here. Fortunately it was always the best option.
You can do Holo Combo every 15 seconds at a very low mana cost. You can also choose if it is worth doing your ult last or not based on how well your combo went. Did they jump away? Did you miss a skillshot or were they healed or shielded etc? It works well with either Ult.
Nova is very mana dependent so Holo combo is great for that, and she can last almost indefinitely using this combo with perfect shot. Also it is a very easy relaxed 3-4 button combo.
Also you are Crippling Shot for your team mates with Lethal Decoy.
Video showing how to solo kill someone with Holo Combo with slow motion replay. Upto four times in 1 minute.
Video Showing fastest variation of Holo Combo. Instant kill Nova vs Nova.
-Now on a three second timer which makes re-cloaking when running almost impossible.
-It is much harder to see a cloaked unit when they are stationary.
-It is easier to see a cloaked unit who is mounted. It is around twice the size or more.
-At night is is much harder to see a cloaked unit. It is much harder to see a cloaked unit in brush.
-Change direction the instant you cloak. Or stand still especially when entering bush.
-There is an indicator above your head (a white eye with bars) that shows you are cloaked or not visable while in brush.
-This changes to Red if you lose cloak to some reason such as T***idar Trait.
-Useful for moving around the map, finding Murky's Spawn Egg and Abathur inside bases as watchtowers and forts will not break cloak, only Citadel. Can move through creep waves without being attacked.
-If an auto attack is launched and you cloak when it is mid air it will miss.
-High instant high damage and run poke (is basically a free snipe that can't miss every three seconds).
-Resets slightly after you cloak.
-Dodge around until you cloak, then attack again.
-Never sit still and wait for it to attack, as it will show a targeting laser that gives away who you are attacking. (Unless you are doing minion camps or bosses).
-Chests on black hearts bay are hit based not damage based, so Nova with Anti-Armor Shells takes a very long time to kill it.
-Use quick cast on release in hotkey options. You can hold down Q and get a reticle showing you exactly where Snipe will go and the range. (right click to cancel) This allows you to hit targets at the very end of your range as well as slot your shots through or past minions.
(Note: Your decoy uses mana, if you do not have enough mana to do decoy then snipe then pinning shot the decoy won't either. If you don't have enough mana to even Snipe it will sit there and not even auto attack. I believe this might be fixed in the future. Also perfect shot talent is not being applied to the decoy which probably needs fixing too).
-TOP TIP: If running. Place Decoy on top of yourself as you enter a bush. This is highly effective as you will not be visible as you enter the bush and you will not be visible as you exit.
-When it uses abilities it also applies any effects from Talents. For example Pinning Shot+ Crippling Shot and Snipe+ Explosive Round
-Decoy now appears cloaked if you are. Will not auto attack until it uses an ability or if you are not cloak/using abilties/AA. This makes Anti-Armor Shells much more valuable.
-A single drone placed by itself can do around 350+ damage at level 13.
-Can be used to slow a fleeing Hero that you are not within range to cast Pinning Shot on.
-Can be used to kill a fleeing Hero that you are not with range of.
-Can do 400+ damage at level 13 to a creep camp as well as tanking the creep. This does not include potential bonus damage given to your team mates from Drones Crippling Shot. Also does not include any AOE damage the Drone may do from Snipe. Note Double Fake talent will mess up drone's ability to tank.
-Can be used to scout and give vision over walls, gates and in bushes.
-Can be used to knock opponents off their mounts from range and without losing cloak. Often will knock more than one especially if you have Explosive Round+ Lethal Decoy.
-Can be used to slow Heroes you are fleeing from with Drone's Crippling Shot. Works great on heroes stopping to try and mount.
-Can be used to detonate mines or nests.
- Lethal Decoy is often confused with the real Nova because it uses abilities that do damage. Especially if it moves.
-If placed directly on top of you, your opponent can lose track of which one is you or make it hard to target you.
-Can be used to block skill shots including Triple Tap.
-Always Snipes first, then Auto attack, followed by Pinning Shot(since Jaina patch)
-Prioritizes Heroes
-Can no longer obstruct movement.
-Can do most of the above tricks
-Spawns one where you specify and one near you that runs away. Both will use abilties which apply talent effects which is nice.
-They both move but it is very predictable. Players will soon learn how to tell which one is you.
-It actually can work so well that you confuse yourself so be careful.
-Arbathur can give you away.
-Often doesn't add much extra damage compared to a single drone as one spawns and runs in the opposite direction.
-Spawn decoys from cloak then engage at the same time, and it is near impossible to tell which one is the real one if you move too.
-Any basic combo then Triple Tap will kill any squishy if not interrupted or blocked.
-Often worth using point blank range if you know they can't interrupt you.
-Huge Range, use it from behind walls and obstructions.
-Only one burst needs to hit the target for Fast Reload to reset as long as the target dies before the third burst hits the target or if the third burst lands the killing blow.
-Can't be avoided by blink or teleports anymore. Can't be avoided by stealth (infact it will keep a stealthed unit visible for the duration as soon as you lock on).
-T***idar E can waste the cool down if used after the first burst is cast not before.
-Friendly Team mate Stitches will cause your ult to do no damage if he eats them.
-Void Sphere from any Zeratul can be used to stop the damage from this or Precision Strike.
-Does over double the damage of Precision Strike but has a longer cooldown.
-Fixed so it does not go on cooldown if interrupted before the first shot is fired.
-Does half the damage of Triple Tap (but has a shorter cooldown).
-Works best with any kind of CC. Such as Zagara, Zeratul (timing can be tough), E.T.C..
-Works well with Pinning Shot+ Crippling Shot
-Can be used to zone out Heroes
-Anyone with dodge can easily avoid it.
-Anyone not CC'd can easily avoid it, even if aimed directly on center.
-Global presence.
-Works well in a rewind combo.
-Level 20 Precision Barrageis very strong.
-Can be used to interrupt things like tribute gathering, coin hand ins and dragon spawning.
-Some abilities such as Zeratul Blink still cause one and sometimes if done correctly two bullets to miss and disappear into nothing. This was supposed to be fixed several patches ago but it is not.
-Sometimes randomly fails for unknown reasons.
-If standing with your back to an enemy wall sometimes the wall will still take the hits even if you are firing away from the wall.
- Anti-Armor Shells has a slight lag to it's animation. Not sure if this is intended or not but means Nova has to pause for a split second to shoot it.
- Holo Decoy If decoy gets turned into a sapling from Terror Nova also gets the visual impairment on her.
-Not just nova but all champs got a level 1 bug in Jaina patch where their damage at level 1 doesn't get the damage bonus for level ( it used to). So all heroes that rely on auto attacks and skills that scale with attack damage got a slight nerf. Applies to champs like nova and Valla.
Conclusion: Since the Jaina patch Nova doesn't feel right. Her risk vs reward is just too high. She is still by far the easiest Hero to kill in the game.
She can deal some excellent damage and has great harass. But Zeratul is a much safer and probably better pick (he is just harder to get good at). He can easily 100-0 squishies just as well, but with almost 100% safety with the correct positioning. He can also clear mines, clear waves and solo camps and kill chests all of which Nova can't do. He also has one of the best Ults (even with the changes) for team fights.
She is countered by tanky teams and teams with shields and heals. Any damage she does is easily mitigated with heals.
Cloak becomes less useful the better your opponent is (and the three second recloak change really hurts Nova). If they guess you are around they can easily watch out for the cloak blur. Teams calling her position cut down her threat alot as well.
Any stun will shut her down pretty easily. T***idar and Uthur are not required to counter Nova. Any tanky or semi tank team will make life hard for Nova. Any gap closers or characters with AOE abilities such as Stiches and Tychus can be very anoying. Zagara's minions also make snipe difficult.
Any char that can dodge will be hard to 1 shot. Any opponent with a healer or shielder nearby will be hard to one shot. Be very careful of bright wing. She can easily save anyone and polymorph and kill you with Envenom.
She now has pretty much no variation in talent choice other than ult, Perfect Shot gathering power] and [[envenom.
Nova is purely there for killing other heroes. She can't push lanes, kill camps, clear minions waves or kill chests. And she can't siege either.
I think after the Thrall patch has been fleshed out a bit more we will see some buffs to Nova. S
HeroesFire is the place to find the perfect build guide to take your game to the next level. Learn how to play a new hero, or fine tune your favorite HotS hero’s build and strategy.
Triple Tap or globally with
Precision Strike
Explanation
Tazer Rounds
Conjurer's Pursuit
Psi-Op Rangefinder
Envenom
Perfect Shot
Remote Delivery
Explosive Round
Railgun
Covert Ops
One in the Chamber
Fast Reload
Valla
Nova
Polymorph
Headshot
Murky
The Lost Vikings
Spell Shield
Advanced Cloaking
Double Fake
Overdrive
Precision Barrage
Fury of the Storm
Rewind
Blink
Spawn Egg
Abathur
Zeratul
Zagara
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