Nova Talents
Welcome to our Talents page for Nova. Here, we give you an overview of how strong each of Nova's talents is. Then, we present several viable builds, before analyzing each talent row separately, so that you can make informed decisions.
1. Nova's Talent Build
Level | Choices |
---|---|
1 |
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4 |
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7 |
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10 |
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13 |
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16 |
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20 |
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2. Nova's Talent Build Cheatsheet
Decoy Build
Talent calculator »New to Nova? The Holo Decoy Build is for you. It revolves around
improving Holo Decoy and your general ability to deal unavoidable damage. Key
Talents include
Holo Stability, which greatly increases Holo Decoy's
duration and range to allow you to threaten vulnerable Heroes from afar, and
Lethal Decoy, which allows Decoys to inflict a significant amount of damage.
Rewind allows you to deal bold amounts of burst damage.
Snipe Build
Talent calculator » Snipe Build revolves around improving the eponymous Ability to
maximise Nova's burst damage potential. Although more difficult to play than
Nova's other builds, its overall damage potential is higher in the hands of a
skilled player.
One in The Chamber Build
Talent calculator » One in the Chamber Build revolves around the idea of exploiting the
eponymous Talent to maximise Nova's offensive utility and damage potential. This
is achieved by weaving Basic Attacks in between every Ability cast. Since the
build's effectiveness is a direct result of how many Abilities you are able to
cast, its Talent choices provide Cooldown reduction or Charges,
such as
Rapid Projection,
Double Tap, and
Rewind. This
build also provides aggressive utility for your teammates to capitalise upon
through the aforementioned Double Tap Talent and
Crippling Shot.
3. Level 1 Talents for Nova


Increases the cast range of Pinning Shot by 30%. Pinning Shot also increases the range of Nova's next Basic Attack by 2.


After being Stealthed for 4 seconds, Pinning Shot's Slow is increased to 55% and costs no Mana. Bonus is lost after losing Stealth for 1 second.


After being Stealthed for 2 seconds, gain an additional 10% Movement Speed. While Stealthed, regenerate 2 Mana per second.
3.1. Discussion
Longshot improves the reliability of
Pinning Shot, which
in turn improves the reliability of your other Abilities and Basic Attacks. The
increased Basic Attack range clause of the talent synergises particularly well
with
Anti-Armor Shells.
Covert Ops's effect is reasonably powerful, but must compete with
other Talents we feel better complement Nova's playstyle.
Advanced Cloaking provides a reasonable amount of Mana
regeneration, allowing Nova to roam with Health as her
only true limiting factor. The Talent also enables the use of Abilities in
PvE situations, whereas Mana would otherwise be a major concern.
The added mobility is also welcomed in combat, as it allows you to reposition
quickly between bursts. You should still, however, see to remain Mounted
while generally traveling, as your Mount still proves to be faster than walking.
4. Level 4 Talents for Nova


Reduces Holo Decoy's cooldown and Mana cost by 50%.


Increase the cast range of Holo Decoy by 100% and its duration by 120%.


- Cooldown: 0 seconds
Enemy Minions killed near Nova grant a stack of Bribe. Hero Takedowns grant 10 stacks of Bribe. Use 25 stacks to bribe a Mercenary, instantly defeating them. Does not work on Elite Mercenaries. Maximum of 100 stacks. If a camp is defeated entirely with Bribe, the camp respawns 50% faster.
4.1. Discussion
Rapid Projection improves
Holo Decoy by allowing it to be cast more often.
This allows you to absorb skillshots and generally confuse opponents
more often.
Rapid Projection is recommended along
One in the Chamber.
Holo Stability improves
Holo Decoy by increasing its range and generally
increasing its damage output. The range increase is particularly useful for
threatning Heroes that would otherwise be positioned out of your effective
range. Holo Stability synergises particularly well with
Lethal Decoy
and
Rewind, as it essentially doubles your damage output against
isolated targets.
Covert Mission stacks are rather difficult to acquire given Nova's
role as a roamer. Even if you do manage to get enough kills to readily make use
of Covert Mission, you still end up sacrificing significant utility and damage
potential for a few Mercenary kills. The tradeoff is difficult to gauge, but
the Talent may find use on Battlefield of Eternity and Infernal Shrines, where
capturing the Fallen Shaman Mercenary Camp can be effective when timed right
before the Maps' respective Objectives.
5. Level 7 Talents for Nova


Hitting an enemy Hero with Snipe reduces its cooldown by 4 seconds and refunds its Mana cost.


After using an Ability, Nova's next Basic Attack within 3 seconds deals 60% additional damage.


Nova's Basic Attacks deal 250% damage and decrease the Physical Armor of Heroic targets by 15 for 3 seconds, but her Attack Speed is proportionally slower.
5.1. Discussion
Perfect Shot essentially amounts to a 66% damage increase for
Snipe.
Out of all the Talents available at this tier, Perfect Shot provides the highest
damage output, provided you can reliably hit Heroes. The added Mana is also
helpful for resource management, especially due to the Cooldown reduction effect
provided by this Talent.
One in the Chamber provides more DPS than
Anti-Armor Shells, but comes
at the cost of requiring better uptime and weaving Basic Attacks
in between every Ability cast. One in the Chamber tends to be better against
teams that do not have the means of pressuring you so that you may maximise the
efficiency of your attacks.
Although Anti-Armor Shells may seem like an unintuitive choice at first, the
usefulness of delivering nearly 3 seconds worth of Basic Attacks in an instant
is indisputable. Leaving aside the fact that burst is harder to respond to than
sustained damage, the attack speed reduction allows you to freely move for ~2.5
seconds between each and every attack all while sustaining optimal damage per
second. This indirectly increases your survivability. Anti-Armor Shells is
particularly powerful against nimble Assassins such as Genji,
Li-Ming, and Tracer, as burst damage tends to force such Heroes to play more
defensively.
6. Level 10 Talents for Nova


- Mana: 100
- Cooldown: 100 seconds
Locks in on the target Hero, then fires 3 shots that hit the first Hero or Structure they come in contact with for 372 (+4% per level) damage each.


- Mana: 100
- Cooldown: 60 seconds
After a 1.5 second delay, deals 435 (+4% per level) damage to enemies within an area. Unlimited range.
6.1. Discussion
As mentioned on the Abilities page, Precision Strike deals a significant amount of damage in a large area from global range, meaning that you do not to be physically present to partake to
large combos. Its Cooldown is also relatively short when compared to most other
Heroic Abilities. Successfully hitting with a Precision Strike,
Snipe and
Anti-Armor Shells Ability chain will outright kill most non-Warrior class
Heroes. However, Precision Strike's 2-seconds delay makes it easy to avoid.
Pinning Shot, as well as crowd control effects provided by your allies, can
ease or secure hits.
The Abilities in the list below can combo nicely with Precision Strike to yield
deadly results.
Howling Blast (Arthas)
Apocalypse (Diablo)
Mosh Pit (E.T.C.)
Grav-O-Bomb 3000 (Gazlowe)
Ring of Frost (Jaina)
Primal Grasp +
Impaling Blades (Kerrigan)
Entangling Roots (Malfurion)
Storm Bolt (Muradin)
Zombie Wall (Nazeebo)
Leap (Sonya)
Earthquake (Thrall)
Divine Storm (Uther)
Devouring Maw (Zagara)
Graviton Surge (Zagara)
Void Prison (Zeratul)
As mentioned on the Abilities page, Triple Tap, while able to deal an unparalleled amount of single-target damage against isolated targets, suffers from the fact
that its projectiles can be intercepted by undesirable targets such as resilient
Heroes and structures. This makes the Ability only situationally powerful.
Furthermore, its lengthy channeling time — which you may not manually
interrupt, should you be endangered — leaves you open and vulnerable. Its
Cooldown is also much longer than that of
Precision Strike.
7. Level 13 Talents for Nova


Snipe's range is increased by 15% and hitting a Hero grants an additional stack of Precision Sniper.


Pinning Shot now has 2 charges, but its cooldown is increased by 2 seconds.


Gain 25 Armor for 3 seconds after losing Stealth.
7.1. Discussion
Psionic Efficiency is unimpressive; the range increase is minuscule, and
the added stacks are of no relevance while at maximum stacks, particularly for
advanced Nova players.
Double Tap synergises very well with some of our other recommended Talents, though
notably with
Crippling Shot. The movement speed reduction provided
by
Pinning Shot combined to the armor reduction provided
by the Cripping Shot Talent allows Nova to threaten even tanks,
assuming that your teammates provide some damage of their own.
Ionic Force Field provides nearly meaningless and short-lasting amount of
Armor when you need it the least.
8. Level 16 Talents for Nova


Snipe also deals 90% damage to enemies near the impact.


Pinning Shot lowers a Hero's Armor by 20 for the duration of the Slow, causing them to take 20% increased damage.


Increases the damage Holo Decoy deals to 30% of Nova's damage.
8.1. Discussion
Explosive Round's area of effect radius is too small for the Talent
to realistically be useful.
Crippling Shot provides a significant damage increase for yourself and your
entire team against anything
Pinning Shot hits, which is incidentally almost
always your intended kill target. Crippling Shot is a key talent for burst team compositions,
especially when picked with the Hero Level 13 Talent
Double Tap for
sustaining the armor reduction effect.
Lethal Decoy turns
Holo Decoy, a defensive Ability, into an offensive one.
When picked along
Holo Stability and
Rewind, Lethal Decoy allows you to
put out a large amount of pressure against any target. The damage of a
full Holo Decoy-Rewind-Holo Decoy combo should not be underestimated, especially
with
Anti-Armor Shells to reduce your kill target's Armor.
9. Level 20 Talents for Nova


Triple Tap's cooldown is reset if it kills an enemy Hero.


Precision Strike gains a 2nd charge and its cooldown is reduced by 30 seconds.


Reduce the cooldown of Permanent Cloak by 2 seconds.


- Cooldown: 60 seconds
Activate to reset the cooldowns of your Basic Abilities.
9.1. Discussion
Fast Reload is a winmore Talent that relies on the unlikely event
that you directly kill a Hero with
Triple Tap.
Rewind is simply more useful
and reliable.
Precision Barrage has the potential to inflict a significant amount of area of
effect damage. This damage potential is, however, gated behind
Precision Strike's
archetypal weakness of relying on crowd control for successful hits. Against team
compositions that either prevent you from isolating vulnerable targets for
effective
Rewind kills, Precision Strike's long range is a boon.
When ahead of your opponents in terms of Hero Levels, and especially before
Bolt of the Storm comes into play, Precision Barrage allows for
successive kills that are extremely hard to avoid, something that Rewind does
not do.
Apollo Suit competes with vastly superior offensive Talents.
Rewind allow you to rapidly cast all of your basic Abilities twice in a row. A
proper Rewind chain essentially allows you to kill all but the toughest of
characters. It even has defensive properties in the form of spawning 2 decoys
through
Holo Decoy, making it utterly impossible to tell Nova apart. Rewind
also synergises with
One in the Chamber.
10. Changelog
- 03 Dec. 2018: Updated Updated talent discussions following patch v2.40.1 changes.
- 16 Dec. 2017: Updated talent discussions following Stealth and Nova rework patches.
- 27 Sep. 2017: Updated talent discussions following the changes in Ana's patch.
More Assassin Guides
Oxygen is a veteran of the MOBA genre, which he has been playing for nearly 15 years. He has coached some of Heroes of the Storm's most prominent North American players and teams alike, including Team Liquid. As a Master player, he enjoys playing all Heroes and roles.

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