Heroes of the Storm Nova

[Guest SomeGuy]

I play a lot of Nova, both prior and after rework. Love her a lot and agree, she's at a terrible spot.

I consider the level 1 mana talent useless. I never remember having mana issues and was never not-large about using my abilities liberally. And since I get the reduced mana and cd decoy talent 100% of time, it adds to that. Advanced Cloaking is a must for me, movement speed/mobility is generally OP. Pre-rework it also gave huge sustain which was great and handy, especially without healers. It's also great for chasing and escaping as mentioned.

Snipe Master, even fully stacked, just seems not worth. It doesn't do that big of a damage as you'd want (yeah, you can 1-shot a squishy with Crippling Shot but you can do that anyway), is very easy to lose stacks and forces you to never use Snipe anywhere else than TRYING to hit heroes with it the whole game- a huge detriment and liability. One in the Chamber on the other hand is much more reliable and scales with game time-level. It is 80%, the largest multiplier of any similar talent on any other hero.

Ghost Protocol is hugely underestimated imho- both on its own and compared to Rewind. You get on-demand stealth with it, which is invaluable; Rewind doesn't give you that. It can help you in many sticky situations that would otherwise cause your death and also helps offensively with the no-breaking stealth no matter what mechanic. And yes, it synergizes well with Advanced Cloaking.

[Valks 2,378]

I know that there hasn't been a reply here in a while guys, but note that we are reading and taking note of your feedback! There are always updates planned, it's just a matter of getting them out in a timely manner.

I can only say thanks for all of your feedback! :)

[Oxygen 446]

Yeah, sorry, I haven't really found the willpower to be watching this thread because Nova is that special snowflake hero everyone seem to think they're the expert at (including myself). And yet, she somehow been hovering at a remarkable 45-48% win rate for the last year and a half. Drafting-wise, she hasn't found a spot in any decent team composition for about as long, both casually and competitively. She's about as polarizing as she is frustrating to have on your team, or against you. We could spend hours discussing her talents and base it all on amazing empirical "evidence", or just admit that she's an ultra-niche counter to double-caster teams on two or three maps, and move on because she's totally out of meta. I somehow get the feeling that most people who end up reading the guide are Nova mains looking for some kind of awkward self-confirmation anyway, and not looking for an actual discussion.

[Niteshadow 20]

Has the Snipe Master change rolled in yet? And if so, is it worth considering something like Advanced Cloaking, Personal Preference, Snipe Master, Precision Strike, Explosive Round, Perfect Shot, Rewind, now that Snipe can be used to clear things other than heroes with retention of Snipe Master stacks? I have seen a video where this was tried on the PTR, but have no idea if it's actually viable.

[positiv2 953]

17 minutes ago, Niteshadow said:

Has the Snipe Master change rolled in yet? And if so, is it worth considering something like Advanced Cloaking, Personal Preference, Snipe Master, Precision Strike, Explosive Round, Perfect Shot, Rewind, now that Snipe can be used to clear things other than heroes with retention of Snipe Master stacks? I have seen a video where this was tried on the PTR, but have no idea if it's actually viable.

Yeah, it rolled in a week ago. However, the talent is still not good enough to be even Situational. It's still not powerful enough and the stacks are still not easy to rack up.

[Fransoa 25]

On 5/17/2017 at 11:27 PM, Niteshadow said:

Has the Snipe Master change rolled in yet? And if so, is it worth considering something like Advanced Cloaking, Personal Preference, Snipe Master, Precision Strike, Explosive Round, Perfect Shot, Rewind, now that Snipe can be used to clear things other than heroes with retention of Snipe Master stacks? I have seen a video where this was tried on the PTR, but have no idea if it's actually viable.

The snipe master with explosive round is quite good, 5 stacks are easy to get and then you will have waveclear and aoe damage in fights. 

[Guest Wavebuster]

Agreed, the Snipe Master change makes the talent viable now in a Q-based build. Explosive Round's range is actually fairly large, so an expectation of this splashing to at least one hero when fighting at a point of interest is not unreasonable.

An additional 50% more overall damage done by the ability for just one instance of splash is nothing to sneeze at. This also makes the ability deal damage through undesirable objects and even punishes tight grouping against Nova. It also does wonders for PvE, making her relevant to push a lane especially with Lethal Decoy as it takes on your Snipe Master and Explosive Round traits. Explosive Round fundamentally changes how the Snipe ability works and removes much of its weakness, and with Snipe Master being far less stringent on its mechanics is very much worth taking in tandem.

A note should be made about Covert Mission for the Hanamura battleground. While I think that the talent is mediocre on most maps, it is a must-have on Hanamura. The 50% faster camp respawn for Nova's and TLV's bribes pays dividends for the Support Camps as they only require one Bribe charge. Nova can more easily sneak out undetected to bring a Healing Pulse to every teamfight and rack up significant team EXP in the process.

[Guest Menhir]

I totally agree.

There used to be those games, where you just couldn't get your dmg through to any rather isolated target.

And thus you simply had "nothing to do" but to tickle your enemy... No real benefit for your team at all.

Now, with snipemaster + explosive shot combo you can at least take pressure from lanes and gather some xp and what not.

 

 

[Guest Andrerx470]

Snipe master and explosive round also have the best sinergy with rewind at lv20. You can literally fire 2x1200 of damage in a second and if you opened the attack with pinning shot(-25 armor) it becomes 3000 damage. Add a precision strike on the target tanks to SLOWED and they become 4000.

[positiv2 953]

1 hour ago, Guest Andrerx470 said:

Snipe master and explosive round also have the best sinergy with rewind at lv20. You can literally fire 2x1200 of damage in a second and if you opened the attack with pinning shot(-25 armor) it becomes 3000 damage. Add a precision strike on the target tanks to SLOWED and they become 4000.

This has a few requirements though - you need to be level 20 (and this build is not that great before hitting high levels, and if the opponent team is able to take advantage of this, you will be unable to get there), you need stacks of Snipe Master and you have to hit the Snipe. As you can see, this is great in theory, but is unlikely to work well in reality.

[Guest WereElf]

Although Nova got only 1 talent reworked, I believe that this guide should be updated. Retaining Snipe Master stacks is much easier now, and Sniper Novas are now viable.

[positiv2 953]

22 hours ago, Guest WereElf said:

Although Nova got only 1 talent reworked, I believe that this guide should be updated. Retaining Snipe Master stacks is much easier now, and Sniper Novas are now viable.

Right now, we are torn between adding the guide and receiving negative feedback because of how difficult Snipe Nova is, and not adding the build, but have users asking for it. We are more leaning towards the former than the latter at the moment.

[Guest Allon]

I know there are a ton of comments above, but I did want to ask if there are any plans to update this guide.

Right now, a fully stacked Snipe Master Nova, with Perfect Shot and Explosive rounds, can dish out almost 1,200 primary damage and ~600 splash every three seconds, if they hit a hero, or every six if not.

This, as noted by the moderators above, is still extremely difficult to pull off, but it seems unreasonable for the guide to still list these talents as unrecommended, no matter the situation or player.

 

To be honest, I feel the biggest thing is that the author, Oxygen, is typically a bit more harsh and puts a lot more red X's in then the other authors.

I completely agree with Oxygen--his arguments for the talents are spot on, but the wording used makes it sound like there will never be a good time to take certain talents.

 

This isn't bad by any means, but as someone who loves reading all the guides, it can make certain heroes look like they only have one viable choice at level--or that certain talents are never worth taking--especially when you read some of the other guides that have a lot more situationals.

I feel even just a few more sentences in the guide explaining certain talents like Snipe Mater can work, but still are not recommended, would help make this guide more streamlined.

[positiv2 953]

Snipe Master has been changed from Not Recommended to Situational, and the discussion has been updated as well. If you believe there are any other issues with this guide (or any other, for that matter), please do let us know!

[Allon 2]

On 9/28/2017 at 2:02 AM, positiv2 said:

Snipe Master has been changed from Not Recommended to Situational, and the discussion has been updated as well. If you believe there are any other issues with this guide (or any other, for that matter), please do let us know!

I lol'd when I read Oxygen's comment on Snipe Master; he got that right in one.  "Non-scrub use only".  Very nice change!

[Guest Jonni]

Somebody should write down the Snipe Master build too, while the only one here is god for sustained damage that one is definitely better for rapid hit-n-run burst damage.

[darkdill 4]

Welp, time to give this guide a rewrite now that the stealth rework has been released.

[Leadblast 28]

The One in the Chamber build still exists, but it does less damage than it used to. 

Snipe Master comes now by default at 1, but Snipe will require the full 5 stacks to do roughly the same damage as before without any stacks at all.

I'm pretty disappointed with the treatment Blizzard gave her. In the wake of the whole stealth mechanic nerf, I thought they would buff her damage as a compensation, but we got a damage nerf instead. 

[Guest Dang3r]

Topic not updated yet with new talents of Nova on 13.12.2017

[GideonDelta 1]

5 hours ago, Leadblast said:

The One in the Chamber build still exists, but it does less damage than it used to. 

Snipe Master comes now by default at 1, but Snipe will require the full 5 stacks to do roughly the same damage as before without any stacks at all.

I'm pretty disappointed with the treatment Blizzard gave her. In the wake of the whole stealth mechanic nerf, I thought they would buff her damage as a compensation, but we got a damage nerf instead. 

Yeah, I was a little confused.

They said,

Quote

With these updates, we didn’t want to just do straight number buffs, but rather wanted to see if we could give these characters some new tools and tricks to play with.

And,

Quote

The Snipe Master talent is now baseline to reward careful positioning and aim without having to sacrifice a talent tier.

Which is all well and good, but then they just outright nerfed Snipe so Snipe Master is recovering lost ground.

[Leadblast 28]

Yeah, it's very frustrating. After all these reworks, Nova is still the worst assassin in the game, and it seems that they don't give a damn about it - how can you explain that they gave her baseline Snipe Master, but at the same time they nerf Snipe's damage so that it takes 5 stacks for the spell to do the same damage as it did before without any stacks?

So let's see what do we have now.

> Snipe nerf

> Pinning Shot nerf

> One in the Chamber nerf

> Triple Tap buff (372 per shot, total damage 1116, before it was 338 per shot, 1014 total)

> Holo Decoy buff (10% of Nova's damage)

> Ghost Protocol an extra option to deploy another Decoy

> Level 7 Perfect Shot (Snipe CD reduction improved to 2 seconds)

> Level 13 Psionic Efficiency Snipe range increased to 15% and refunds mana on successful Hero hit

> Level 13 new talent: Ionic Force Field, gives +25 armor for 2 seconds after Stealth is lost

> Level 16 Lethal Decoy damage from Decoys increased to 50%

> Level 16 Explosive Round (same as before, moved from level 13) another nerf of sorts

> Level 20 new talent: Apollo Suit reduces Permanent Cloak CD from 3 to 1 second

> Level 20 Precision Barrage also reduces Precision Strike CD by 30 seconds (so the actual CD becomes 30 seconds per charge)

 

So, Ghost Protocol (key 1) spawns a decoy with the same duration and damage as the E one. Both decoys (yeah you can deploy both decoys) are affected by the talents you take (Anti-Armor Shells for instance will make them hit slower, but harder). I dunno... she might become a "ranged Samuro" or sorts?

 

Level 1 talent choice now seems to go to Covert Ops. Hitting Snipes accurately is gonna be more important now, so the enhanced slow on Pinning Shot will help with that. Advanced Cloaking's bonus movement speed is less important now that Permanent Cloak will provide additional speed on it's own, and Longshot's enhanced attack range will not help the decoys (which seem to be more important as a source of additional damage now).

Level 4 talent choice goes to Holo Stability, because Decoys are more valuable now.

Level 7, One in the Chamber's bonus damage is also triggered if you use Ghost Protocol. Now that One in the Chamber has been nerfed, Perfect Shot could be an option? It's a hard decision but One in the Chamber might still be the way to go.

At level 13 Double Tap is still the choice if you went with One in the Chamber at 7. But Psionic Efficiency favors more Snipe casts. 

So here are the major talent paths I see:

Level 7 One in the Chamber -> Level 13 Double Tap

Level 7 Perfect Shot -> Level 13 Psionic Efficiency

Level 16, again we are torn between 3 choices. One for Snipe, one for Pinning Shot (for the One in the Chamber build) and one for the decoys. Pinning Shot reduces armor, Explosive Round makes Snipe an AOE spell, Lethal Decoy improves the damage of your decoys.

Level 20 - Apollo Suit seems frankly "hot garbage" (now that Stealth itself is nerfed) but could help in improving your movespeed if you chose Advanced Cloaking at 1. However, that talent in particular is less prominent a choice now. Rewind does NOT reset the cooldown on Ghost Protocol.

So with that said:

The Snipe build - Covert Ops at 1 (to improve the Pinning Shot into Snipe combo), and all Snipe-related talents afterward - Perfect Shot at 7, Psionic Efficiency at 13, Explosive Round at 16. Advantages: better waveclear, if really late at 16. Allows you to get whatever talent at 4 (can bribe mercenaries for Blackheart Bay for instance). Disadvantages: putting most of your damage in a single spell that you might still whiff. No good for survivability in the long run although you can still try and confuse them with 3 Novas (1 real hero and 2 illusions)

The One in the Chamber build - mostly the same as before but I personally still prefer Covert Ops at 1. Less damage than it used to. Ghost Protocol has synergy with One in the Chamber itself, but Rewind at 20 does nothing for it. If you choose Precision Strike as your heroic, might be better to get Precision Barrage in the long run.

 

the obvious talent synergies:

Covert Ops at 1 + all Snipe-related talents together. Covert Ops improves the chance of hitting more Snipes.

Advanced Cloaking at 1 + Apollo Suit at 20. (there's little reason to do this now, but still...)

Holo Stability at 4 + Lethal Decoy at 16. You could also use these in conjunction with Anti-Armor Shells at 7, which *should* further improve the damage from your decoys. The problem is, Anti-Armor Shells decreases your attack speed which can be for good or for ill (if you die in between attacks, before dealing significant damage).

I'd say you can make a new build by combining these (although how effective this one is, remains to be seen):

- Advanced Cloaking at 1

- Holo Stability at 4

- Armor-Piercing Shells at 7 (maybe?)

- Ionic Force Field at 13 (the armor buff also appears to benefit your decoys, so no worries about your real hero being found too soon)

- Lethal Decoy at 16

- Apollo Suit at 20 (maybe? more for the mobility than the actual stealth).

Note that when you do choose Holo Stability at 4 and Armor-Piercing Shell at 7, the decoys will attack 4 times at most before disappearing. If you do NOT choose Holo Stability but choose Armor-Piercing, the decoys will attack only twice (!!!) at most before disappearing.

 

Armor-Piercing seems horrible choice when the enemy has rather good burst damage and can burst you down easily.

Edited December 13, 2017 by Leadblast

[Oxygen 446]

On 12/13/2017 at 2:42 AM, Guest Dang3r said:

Topic not updated yet with new talents of Nova on 13.12.2017

I'm working on an update. Rough week for me with finals. On the bright side, you'll be able to call me Master Oxygen from now on.

I'll have it roll out later today. Thanks for your patience everyone :).

[Emergenza 6]

1 hour ago, Oxygen said:

 On the bright side, you'll be able to call me Master Oxygen from now on.

GZ! =:o)

The work and efforts of the icy-team are much appreciated.

Edited December 15, 2017 by Emergenza

[Leadblast 28]

After quite a number of (QM) games I played with her I've concluded that One in the Chamber is imho still the way to go. Decoys are still primarily a distraction, nothing more.

 

 

[Oxygen 446]

On 12/15/2017 at 3:05 PM, Leadblast said:

After quite a number of (QM) games I played with her I've concluded that One in the Chamber is imho still the way to go. Decoys are still primarily a distraction, nothing more.

 

 

I like that build as well, but Lethal Decoy is absolutely bonkers when you're facing a zeratul or some other melee hero trying to jump you. It literally allows you to double your DPS for 10 seconds when used with Holo Stability and Ghost Protocol. 2 decoys lasting 10 seconds dealing 50% damage each is nothing to scoff at.