Agent of the Kirin-Tor by TheFreind

Agent of the Kirin-Tor

By: TheFreind
Last Updated: Dec 11, 2023
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Jaina

Build: Generalist

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 Jaina Sporting a variety of talents that improve your CC and damage, the generalist build is a swiss army knife. It'll work well in all circumstances and can be easily modified on the go.
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Jaina

Build: Melee-Dozer

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 Jaina Time and time again, you will be picking Jaina into enemy teams predominantly made up of melee heroes. Most melee heroes fall under the category of Tank/Bruiser, so Arcane Intellect for additional mana is very necessary. You'll always be in range of multiple enemies for Cone, so it is important to buff it as much as possible. Finally, include Armor shred.
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Jaina

Build: Machine Gun

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 Jaina If you do not envision being able to hit 2+ enemies with your Cones, then you should opt for a more single-target focused build. You'll deal less overall damage in teamfights, but your Fort sieging abilities and single target damage output are even stronger than Cone builds. Good positioning with Frost shard piercing can make up for a lack of AoE damage, so be on the lookout for good lines of fire.
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Jaina

Build: Artillery Harasser

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 Jaina Enemy team filled with artillery mages? Chromies, Hammers, Junkrats giving you headaches? Then you must match the playing field! Your Frostbolts are the longest reaching abilities, so pour all resources in amplifying it. So long as you can apply a source of Chill via Elemental or other, you can relentlessly pursue and chip down an enemy of your choice.
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Jaina

Build: Blizzard

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Threats to Jaina with this build

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 Jaina WARNING: Non-serious build. This is for fun. Do not pick in wide-open maps with no corridors or tight choke points, nor without a frontline, nor without team CC. Blizzard-focus is all about sieging enemy structures and following CC setup. Your tank is the anvil - you bring down the hammer. So long as your opponents are unable to move, you can do some serious devastation at no risk to yourself. This build is extremely team dependent and you'll find yourself rigid in talent choices. It doesn't help that you're basically defenseless if you get caught out!
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Warm Salutations Top

"It's your inquisitive nature that I've come to rely on, child. That crazed fool's convinced that the world is about to end."
-Antonidas

Welcome, welcome everyone! My name is TheFreind, and I'm here to give you strategies on how best to exploit Jaina's power.

Why does my opinion matter? Haha, truthfully, it doesn't! I do not know everything under the sun about Jaina, nor am I professional player. I'll tell you about myself, though, for the sake of establishing my authority.
I've been playing Heroes of the Storm on and off for 9 years. I was accepted to play in the Beta, back when Sylvanas and Tomb of the Spider Queen were new. Last ranked season earlier this year, I got to Diamond 5 in a span of 18 games primarily playing Jaina and flex picking. If it weren't for high-MMR queue times being average ~10 minute wait time, I'd play more games.
Not only that - I've spent a gargantuan amount of time playing League of Legends. I'm a proud Veigar main. I was the former #1 NA Veigar player in 2021. With my spare time, I authored the #1 top-rated Veigar guide on LoLKing before the website was shutdown, titled "The Mastermind of All Evil."


If you're not familiar, Veigar is a medium-ranged mage that can unleash a catastrophic amount of burst damage. He's defenseless and needs setup from his team, but he can offer back substantial CC in the form of ring-based abilities. Should he have the tenacity and support to reach the late game, his victory is certain.

Sound familiar? That's basically Jaina! And although Veigar may be from a different game, the lessons I learned are relevant. My patience, positioning, and experience with burst mages gives me unique insight that I want to share with you.

Going forward, you should refer to my guide as only a starting point. You will develop your own opinions, methods, and discoveries on your path to mastering Jaina. Besides, the fun is in the play. Not in the books. May my ramblings and field-testing kickstart your learning process!

Ability Sequences Top

Jaina's abilities are extremely straight forward and I honestly have no further comments on them. All of your abilities must be aimed and only do damage. Jaina's Frostbolt hits the first enemy in a line. Blizzard calls down 3 damaging waves in a small area. Cone of Cold is a shotgun that blasts everything in front of you. Her ultimates, though? I'll leave that for a later section in this guide.

If there is one thing I want to talk about, then it is about Jaina's trait. Frostbite is vital to her damage output and utility. All of Jaina abilities inflict a 25% slowing chill to any enemy struck. All of Jaina's spells will deal +50% bonus damage on chilled targets. This property intrinsically establishes Jaina as a burst mage. She wants to unload her entire combo in an instant to take advantage of that damage boost.

Here's the catch: the "applicator" spell that inflicts chill won't be boosted by the bonus damage. So - what's the best sequence for your abilities? For all scenarios, seek to inflict chill using your free sources, and weakest abilities if otherwise. Water Elemental, Frost Armor, Iceblock expiration, and Blizzard are excellent "initiators" to the rest of your combo. Ring of Frost can kick down the door to a huge fight - though it is noteworthy that it deals extreme base damage and can benefit from being chill-amplified by another source.

Your fastest and most frequent combo is casting Blizzard >>> Frostbolt >>> Cone of Cold. By the time the 1st wave lands, your Frostbolt will immediately connect afterwards and your E is instant. You'll get ample practice every game.

You must think of your talents for chill-priority. Cone of Cold is significantly more powerful when hitting chilled targets via Ice Floes and Numbing Blast talents. Meanwhile, Northern Exposure is best used as either initiator or 2nd-to-initiator. If you were to go for a Icelance heavy build, then it should be used last to ensure hitting a chilled target for refunding the cooldown.
Chaining together your abilities for the frost-amplified damage and bonus effects is so important that I wait for my cooldowns, rather than flinging them raw w/o chill. Until I have a minimum of 2 abilities ready (or Elemental is in play), that's when I get casting.
TIP: You may hold off on casting a ready ability until your second ability's CD is < 3 seconds. Since Frostbite's chill is 4 seconds long, you'll have it ready in time to do a critical hit.

When you have Icy Veins, you can almost forget about combo sequence. Just smash your head on your keyboard and you'll do great.

Ultimates Top

While Jaina's abilities are straightforward, I wanted to talk more in depth about her heroic abilities since they are rather important.

When to Pick:


Water Elemental
Water Elemental is highly versatile and will work well anywhere, anytime. There's never a bad scenario to pick Elemental. If you were pressed to make a decision, then I pick Elemental in order to cover Jaina's weaknesses.
- 1) Jaina does not do well when she's zoned away from a fight by a highly dangerous duelist. She wants to be amongst her team and her abilities to be affecting multiple enemies. Elemental is essentially a second hero, wearing 70% of Jaina's stats whilst repeatedly applying a nasty slow to your aggressor.
- 2) Tanks, in particular ones with spell armor, are big problems. Jaina's burst damage is exceptional and can kill many heroes in one swoop, but she won't have the endurance to threaten anything when it's still standing tall and healthy. Elemental contributes a gargantuan amount of single-target focused damage to take down the tank. Furthermore, tanks cannot kill the Elemental, and are highly unwilling to spend their CC on anything that isn't a hero.
- 3) Highly mobile assassins can run circles around a Jaina. All of her abilities are skillshots and are dependent on one another's hit chance. Once she blows her cooldowns, there's not much Jaina can do to stop them from killing her. Water Elemental can apply continuous, reliable pressure without any fear of missing its damage. Should the worst happen and Jaina does die, she can command the Elemental from beyond the grave to still contribute to a fight.
- 4) Open maps with a lot of ground to run are not in Jaina's best interest. Such maps give opponents freedom to spread out and avoid her devastating area damage. Elemental too benefits from having more places to run -- the Elemental rarely dies to focus fire, but very frequently suffers a lot of stray area damaging abilities that so happen to harm it. Giving it full freedom to run off the leash gives you options to chase the healer or other heroes.

Ring of Frost
On the other hand, RoF is a lot more team and map dependent. Almost the inverse of Elemental. Should your team have a reliable way of bringing enemies together or to keep them CC'd, RoF can be utilized to devastating effect. It is simultaneously the damage and CC payoff for such a combo, especially when chill-boosted. I love picking RoF when...
- 1) I have friendly heroes with AoE CC ultimates. ETC, Garrosh, Uther, KTZ come to mind. These heroes act as initiators so the hard-to-hit RoF can extend the suffering. This is called being the "Hammer" to the "Anvil."
- 2) Rather than being the "Hammer," RoF can instead set up your team for their damage. Falstad, Orphea, Maiev, Mephisto love seeing clumped up and crippled opponents. This here is the "Anvil" where your team does the hammering.
- 3) Maps with tight corridors and limited walking space are prime candidates for Ring gaming. A Jaina that can flank from the shadows will have a high chance of landing an unfair Ring that opponents cannot run out of.


How to use:


Water Elemental
  • It will easily boost your damage over the course of a fight by +2000. When you summon it, be sure to keep a second eye on what it's doing to get the most out of it. Let it focus the target you're killing, or have it splash a freezing slow on everyone, or sick it on the enemy healer/tank. You don't want to leave it fighting enemy ranged right-clickers, since they can swiftly kill the elemental without expending any resources. Feel free to move it out of focus fire and re-engage.
  • If you have a feeling you can score a kill on an out-of-position enemy, do not hesitate to drop the Elemental! Fleeing enemies have no time to kill the Elemental, so you can place it as close as possible so they can't escape.
  • I prefer summoning Elemental in bushes if I get an opportunity to. It reveals the bush, hides the summoning animation, is often placed away to the side, and the Elemental will have time to launch an auto attack. When enemy teams see the Elemental come up first in the open, they know a fight's about to break out and will brace themselves. Or they just run for the hills. By concealing the 1 second wind-up time for Elemental, it can catch the enemy team off guard. You can unleash a fully-chilled combo and practically obliterate an enemy before chasing after the rest.
  • Your Elemental's only way of dying is suffering accidental area damage, or by stepping up too far and getting right clicked. The best way to remedy both problems is to cast Elemental as far as you can to the side, but still at max-range from one enemy. This spaces the Elemental far out so it won't get splashed on, and by limiting its presence to the closest enemy (most likely a frontline tank), it won't be in danger. Now it has free reign to apply pressure for the full 20 second duration.

Ring of Frost
  • First thing you should do is to identify how your team could set up a good Ring for you. Most have CC or some sort of knockback. Allow them to do their thing first and then cast RoF on an immobilized enemy.
  • Should you not have any hard CC, I recommend slowing enemies with your Blizzard and wait for the fight to become somewhat chaotic. Then, unleash the Ring! Hitting a slightly slowed opponent helps your odds tremendously, and the chaos can make them react slower to the ring coming up. It may be a slow wind-up with a clear sound effect, but the visual ring is not super visible. Exploit that fact with other abilities flying about!
  • The aiming reticle is trickier than most skillshots. Get a bit of practice in, throw out those Rings frequently! Every inconsequential miss makes the next important Ring more likely to hit. The 70s cooldown is pretty forgiving.
  • Lastly, abuse vision. Humans that get surprised react twice/thrice as slow as those who expect it. If you suspect the enemy team is doing a mercenary camp, ESPECIALLY A BOSS, you have a prime opportunity to approach them unseen. Against a cluster of enemies that aren't expecting you, the results can be horrific to behold.

Arcane Talents Top

For all builds, Level 1 and 4 are your most flexible. You may slot in other options should you deem them better suited for the map and enemy composition. Honorable mention goes to level 13 - Ice Barrier is a respectable pick that can give you a lot of hardiness. Surviving at all is more important than trading your life spectacularly.

I recommend reading my analysis on these key talents - Ice Floes, Icy Veins, Numbing Blast, Wintermute.
-- Show full analysis on all talents --

Stages of the Game Top

The Early Game [Pre-ultimates]


Jaina works best in clearing out a wave and then rotating. She may do pretty OK burst damage and slowing to secure a kill with her team, but she devastates minion waves just as easily! In fact, one Blizzard can kill an entire wave. Very few heroes can kill a wave as easily as she can from level 1! Therefore, you should spend the majority of your early game rotating between lanes just to kill waves for your team.

1. Walk up to a minion wave.
2. Wait until they make a ( o ) shape after clashing, then cast your Blizzard in the center.
3. Pick up XP and the regen globe to regain your mana and stack progress towards Fingers of Frost.
4. Adding a Cone of Cold to execute the melee minions is recommended for the sake of speed, but consider right clicking instead to preserve mana.
5. Start running to the next lane to smash another wave.
6. You will rinse and repeat this core process for the rest of the early and mid game.

Why should you bore yourself playing this game of whack-o-mole instead of, y'know, testing your mettle on the jaws of your opponents? I hear you inquisitively wondering. Let's go over the obvious - the fundamental aspect of HoTs is the XP sharing. Every minute that a lane doesn't have a hero to soak its XP is a 1000 XP lost to the rest of your team. For Jaina, she is a late game POWERHOUSE. Every single talent she adds to her arsenal makes her exponentially more dangerous. But she won't reap her late game fantasy if she cannot reach level 16/20. Someone needs to do the dirty work of getting all that XP. Don't rely on your team to do the macro for you. When you lock in Jaina, you are expected to be the one clearing minion waves. It's a hero-by-hero case on whose wave clear is better than others, but as a whole mages and bruisers got the best. Good news! Jaina's waveclear is strong, fast, and easy. SO UTILIZE IT TO THE FULLEST! You need to guzzle up TWO lanes worth of XP, back to back, whenever safe and possible!



When you reach level 4, you'll gain access to talents that will help a lot in taking down mercenary camps on your own. I don't recommend soloing them any earlier than level 4, unless you have a teammate. On most maps, the objective's 30 second countdown begins at 2:30. Jaina typically kills most camps by her 2nd Blizzard , so ~15 seconds give or take. Ergo...
  • You should start capturing a camp at 2:15.
  • You'll kill it by 2:30.
  • Recall to restore all your health and mana.
  • You'll arrive to the objective on time, usually 10-5 seconds early.
  • All the while, the mercenaries you took will pressure your opponents in a side lane!


The Mid Game [Level 10+]


Continue your wave-blizzard-rotate cycle just like in the early game, but reevaluate if you have to rotate to another lane. The XP gathering cycle is much less important than joining your team nearing a flashpoint. Unlike the early game, you have an ultimate and several talents to seriously bolster the damage you can provide for your team. Of course, do not skip objectives at this stage in the game. Fight tooth and nail for them.

You should suggest capturing Mercenary camps to your team frequently. Jaina's camp clear speed is amongst the best in the game. And if a fight were to break out over a camp, you're forcing enemies into a narrow chokepoint/tight area of space. Her AoE abilities are significantly more potent!

If you've followed my advice, then your Iceblock progress won't be as far along as when you'd be battling enemies all day. Trust me, Iceblock is a game changing piece to Jaina's kit so it's pretty important. That's no problem - Water Elemental is an incredible catch-up tool. I often summon it on a minor inconvenience so that I can apply Frostbite and have all of my abilities progress the Iceblock. The Elemental also sports a LOT of damage on a single target, easily adding +2000 damage to Iceblock.
The Elemental has such a short CD that I consider this legitimate good use of its powers, even if it didn't kill anyone. Remember, you're a Jaina, your power comes from highly synergistic talents. Getting your quests done before you get those levels is worth it!

Intermission -- Teamfight Etiquette


Let's quickly talk about what you should be doing, since mid and late game have the most important teamfights of the match.

In teamfights, team formation is extremely important. Tank/frontline in front, damage and healing in the back. As Jaina, you must always stand behind your frontline so you can safely apply your damage. Considering that I prefer Ice Floes-based builds, which is essentially a shotgun, I don't have safe reach like other mages do. The body and threatening presence of my tank is what keeps me safe so I can move closer.
Alternatively, flanking is exceptionally deadly as Jaina. You'll have access to the high priority targets so you can eviscerate them. Furthermore, your Cone's wide arc will cover a wider target-saturated environment from the side rather than the front. Just be sure to watch your step if you've been spotted!

Just like a Maiev, I've been conditioned to hunt for 2+ enemies that are clumped together. Always be on the lookout to unload your Ice Floes Cones on multiple, chilled heroes for absolute carnage.

If all you can reach is the enemy tank, that's ok! You will have lots of tools to handle it. Since Water Elemental can last a whopping 20 seconds, that's plenty of time to kill the tank and still have time leftover for something else. Summon it and barrage the tank. I don't recommend activating Icy Veins when focusing down a lonesome tank - I consider it complete overkill. What if you were fighting 2 tanks at once, or someone else was next to the tank, though? Yes, use Icy Veins! Anyways, Northern Exposure is a great tool to shred down tanks with your team. On the other hand, locking him down with Numbing Blast is equally good if your team has lots of single target damage/armor shred as is.

If your backline gets threatened by a flanking assassin, turn around and help out! Your CC will help tremendously, you have a safe opportunity to dish out damage, and you're saving the life of your team. A life saved is as good as a kill.

Coordinate with your tank/bruiser/healer to setup CC. Jaina is exceptionally deadly when she can attack immobilized enemies!


The Late Game [Level 20]


Congratulations, pat yourself on the back for surviving. If you've had a rough game so far, fear not. You traded early game strength for a vastly more powerful late game. You heed only the power of Wintermute, your savior. Your Water Elemental's survival is more important than before. Cast it closer to you or at a range from your target so that its abilities will hit the same target. Furthermore, closer proximity means that the elemental is less likely to get focus fired and taken out.

But with great power, comes great responsibility. By now, your opponents will have suffered enough of your wrath. They will want to eliminate you on sight with extreme prejudice. Always move with your team. Do not linger, do not poke your head out. Your survival is paramount above all. Just because you have unlimited damage doesn't mean squat when you have 2500 health. You're mortal. A single Muradin stun will end your life. You should treat the game more of a chess board, where teams will posture over map vision and control. If you do not see 1 enemy on the map, you know they're all together and are HUNTING. If you reveal yourself fighting a minion wave, bet money they're 10 seconds away from jumping on you.

I also want to mention "staggering deaths." Staggering deaths is the #1 most preventable cause of defeat. If one of your teammates die, then you are at a numbers disadvantage. Do not pick a fight at a number's disadvantage (unless desperate circumstances* or you have element of surpise). Do not even meander at a "safe" distance, poking at your enemies. Should you die when your fallen teammate has 20 seconds before they respawn, well guess what! Now your team must wait 60 seconds for you instead. The enemy team can easily walk over you when it was 4v5, and they will do so again when it's 4v5 for your team.
How to deal with this? Be patient. That's it, just sit your ***es down! If the enemy team secures a fort or boss, so be it! The odds of you dealing with the consequences as a team of 5 is better than risking a 4v5 to begin with.

* Exceptional circumstances may include defending your Core from an assault; fighting over an objective that will without question take down your core (Blackheart's Bay, Battlefield of Eternity, Dragon Shire, Volskaya Foundry).

Mana Management Top

Let's discuss recovery strategies on lessoning Jaina's addiction to mana. By now, you've learned that Jaina guzzles mana by the gallons. When you are out of mana, you are useless.
Let me bestow some tips so you don't run out of gas in a inconvenient time.


Jaina is a combo mage. You deal pitiful amounts of damage if you do not chain abilities together for their chill-bonus damage. I recommend holding off on your abilities unless you have an opportunity to do a combo; OR found a way to apply Frostbite in other ways. If a stray ability's slowing chill helps your team, by all means, go for it. Just note that excessive ability usage will run you dry.


Talent Specialization


In a perfect world, you'll never run out of mana when fighting minions all match long. Your mana consumption rate is directly related to what enemy heroes you battle. The tankier they are, the more abilities you must cast, and hence greater mana costs. In fact, I refer to this mana consumption table as the very first reaction to the loading screen/draft.
Example Enemy Team
Mana Talents
X X
✔ X
X ✔
✔ ✔
Justification Your combo is lethal, no excess casting. Life expectancy's short - utility/range/defense talents more important. Intermittent skirmishes. Mostly waveclearing macro. Flexible talent choices w/ good damage. Prolonged battles. Frequent Mercs and minions macro. Big monster objective. Fighting 24/7. No additional utility; maximum damage and resources necessary.


The Awry Blizzard


Mistake #1 many Jainas make is using their Blizzard for the sake of it. It costs 90 mana and typically only lands one wave's worth of damage. These are the only scenarios you should use Blizzard:
  • Minion waves. One blizzard is enough to kill all minions, save for a few extra attacks on the melee minions. You'll also be refunded a regen globe for mana!
  • Zoning an enemy hero from following, or escaping you. Especially effective strategy in tight corridors. By casting Blizzard in their path, you force them to make an unfavorable decision. Either they walk through multiple waves and suffer massive damage, or try walking around and getting killed that way for other reasons.
  • Follow up on teammate CC. Keeping a hero immobilized for even one second will almost guarantee a second wave to land. Follow up slows and chain CC can upgrade this to three waves, making for a very worthwhile example of Blizzard.
  • You are COMITTING to the kill. No, not poking or trading blows, but I mean GOING FOR THE KILL. You shouldn't let your "mana conservation" be an obstacle to scoring an easy kill. Any kill you can secure is worth all the mana in the world.
  • You have yet to complete your Iceblock quest and you're desperate for progress. In this case, you need some ability to apply chill for your hard hitting Frostbolt and Cone of Cold. Considering how amazing Iceblock is and how vital it is to your survival, I'll let it slide. Only for a bit. This point is invalidated upon completion of Iceblock.


Before the Storm


If an objective is about to spawn, it's in Jaina's best interest to participate. Most first objectives "start priming" at 2:30 before they appear at 3:00. This is your last chance to recall home and replenish your mana. If you'd like to capture a mercenary camp, then you must either be insanely fast alongside your team or give it up in favor of mana. Recall no later than 20 seconds before objective appears and you'll be on time.
Should you fight at 50% mana, it's less than ideal but at least you've got enough to secure the objective before running dry.
If you fight with <40% mana, you're definitely running out of mana mid-fight. You'll be useless and your team's chances of success drop dramatically. This doesn't need to happen. Come prepared to the objective with more mana next time.

Goodbye! Top

Thank you for reading my Jaina guide! I am honored that you spent a portion of your day reading what I had to say. Although the community is much smaller than League, I invite you to leave comments below on what I could have improved or should have included. We can debate talents and team compositions. Maybe you'd like to send me a link to a replay and I can give analysis. I'd do that for free!

If you liked my guide, then do check out my other ones! I try my best to be as highly informative as possible. Don't worry that they're somewhat unfinished, I'll get around to completing them in time!

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