Jaina Talents

1. Jaina's Talent Build

Level	Choices
1	✘ ✘ ✔
4	✔ ✘ ?
7	✘ ✔ ✘
10	? ✔
13	✘ ? ✔
16	✘ ? ✔
20	✘ ✔ ? ✘

2. Jaina's Talent Build Cheatsheet

3. Level 1 Talents for Jaina

3.1. Discussion

Winter's Reach has very little practical effect. Very rarely will there be a situation where the increased range on Frostbolt makes a difference, especially considering you need to be very close to hit enemies with Cone of Cold. Furthermore, Frostbolt's relatively slow projectile speed makes it difficult to fully exploit the range increase.

Although Lingering Chill turns Frostbite into one of the longest Slowing effect, it fits rather poorly with Jaina's bursty approach to solving problems. In other words, it is difficult to benefit from the Slowing effect when your typical plan involves using your Abilities very quickly in order to force kills.

Fingers of Frost provides Jaina with more damage and Mana. Very nice.

4. Level 4 Talents for Jaina

4.1. Discussion

Frost Shards improves the reliability of Frostbolt by making it more difficult to block. It is particularly useful for hitting enemies that are hiding behind Minions, Structures, or Summons. It also helps with dealing with Mercenary Camps; just make sure to line up your Frostbolts properly.

As we recommend Fingers of Frost, which provides a generous amount of Mana, we judge Arcane Intellect to be unnecessary. If another Hero Level 1 Talent were to become popular, Arcane Intellect could be justifiable.

Frost Armor has niche use against nimble melee Assassins. Although the Armor provided by the Talent is passable, being able to Chill any attacker allows you to retaliate with full force, through Frostbite, without having to initially hit with an Ability. The Slowing effect makes Frostbolt and Blizzard much easier to land, on top of greatly improving Cone of Cold's damage. This becomes particularly useful when using the Numbing Blast Talent.

5. Level 7 Talents for Jaina

5.1. Discussion

Ice Floes provides Cone of Cold with a very respectable Cooldown reduction. The Talent, however, competes with Ice Lance, which improves Jaina's main Ability in a similarly meaningful way.

Ice Lance provides most damage potential at this Talent tier. This is particularly true when coupled with Frost Shards. Ice Lance also allows you to chase and kite enemy Heroes more effectively through reapplying Chill. Ice Lance is also the only Talent on this tier that works against Mercenaries and Structures, making it much more versatile than its alternatives.

Icefury Wand has the unfortunate downside of functioning only against Heroes, as stated above. Although the damage increase to Basic Attacks is notable, the Blizzard-related Cooldown reduction aspect is underwhelming at best, as it is typically difficult to deliver enough Basic Attacks safely as Jaina.

6. Level 10 Talents for Jaina

6.1. Discussion

At this level, Heroic Abilities become available. Both Heroic Abilities have already been described in the abilities section; refer to it for more information.

Summon Water Elemental is Jaina's versatile go-to Talent, as it does not require any kind of setup or specific team composition to make use of, unlike Ring of Frost.

Ring of Frost is an Ability that is generally used as part of a combo, or as a means of punishing team compositions with 3 or more melee or otherwise immobile Heroes. Numbing Blast can help with setting up your own Ring of Frost hits.

7. Level 13 Talents for Jaina

7.1. Discussion

Icy Veins is a fantastic activatable Talent that allows you to have a "second wind" after using your Basic Abilities. Besides a hefty 50% Mana cost reduction, Icy Veins also reduces the Cooldowns of your Basic Abilities to 1.33 seconds, 5.33 seconds, and 3.33 seconds for Frostbolt, Blizzard, and Cone of Cold respectively. Icy Veins works particularly well with Ice Lance.

Ice Barrier is the defensive alternative to Icy Veins, and is typically picked as a means of surviving against melee Assassins. It also somewhat allows you to play more aggressively, and particularly if you are able to hit Minions or Structure with Abilities, as they also trigger Ice Barrier's effects.

Storm Front is an interesting but ultimately ineffective Talent when compared to its alternatives. Generally, you need to be within the casting range of Cone of Cold and Frostbolt to kill enemy Heroes. Although Storm Front may catch opponents by surprise, Icy Veins will yield much more team fight damage.

8. Level 16 Talents for Jaina

8.1. Discussion

If Snowstorm makes it easier to reliably hit with Blizzard, its Numbing Blast alternative does so as well, on top of providing more utility. Snowstorm used to be a Hero Level 4 Talent, and effectively feels outdated as of Jaina's current state.

Although Northern Exposure provides a reasonably powerful Armor-reducing effect, Numbing Blast is generally more effective at indirectly improving Jaina's damage output. The main issue with Northern Exposure is that its effect do not affect Cone of Cold's own damage, making it less powerful than it may seem.

Although Numbing Blast provides no upfront damage, its Rooting effect will generally result into much more burst than the alternative Talents by allowing you to unconditionally hit with at least two Blizzard waves, on top of allowing your allies to follow up. It is worth noting that Numbing Blast is Jaina's only source of hard crowd control besides Ring of Frost. Numbing Blast also has some defensive utility to it, but it will actually out-damage Northern Exposure in most situations, simply because of its utility, particularly against melee Heroes.

9. Level 20 Talents for Jaina

9.1. Discussion

Cold Snap's additional central effect takes an excessive 6 seconds to trigger after first casting Ring of Frost, making it generally very unrealistic to rely upon. The Cooldown reduction aspect is interesting, but is ultimately winmore.

Wintermute provides an impressive potential short term damage increase of 50%, though in practice it is often a bit less, especially if the Water Elemental is killed. If you feel like your survivability has not been an issue throughout a given match, Wintermute will certainly pay off, especially with Icy Veins; both Cooldowns should always be timed, especially considering they are exactly the same length.

Ice Blink has both defensive and offensive utility for Jaina, and is reminiscent of a short-ranged Bolt of the Storm which can be used to apply Frostbite. Ice Blink is especially useful when being heavily pressured by melee Assassins or otherwise dived repeatedly, but may also be used to combo with Numbing Blast for a reliable Rooting effect to burst down Heroes who are out of position.

Deep Chill can be debilitating to melee-heavy team compositions, but must compete with more powerful Talents. Deep Chill was recently moved from a Hero Level 1 Talent to this last Talent tier, making it somewhat of a misfit.

10. Changelog