Well, as a lot of you guys know, Nova is a easy hero to play in low MMR, but it becomes harder to be efficient as we go up in the ladder. So here there are the pro's and the con's:

PROS

-Has one of the highest burst potential in the entire roster.
-Perma Sleath.
-Ranged.
-Hihg zoning power.
-High ganking power.

CONS

-Squishy as hell. You cannot be a lot of time in plain view.
-Experienced players will be able to see you cloacked.
-Fully reliant in her combo. If you miss one single ability, you have to disengage.
-No scapes, fully dependant on inteligent use of decoy.

Permanent Cloak, sniper is your trait and is one of the two in the game that provides sleath. Basically, you can move without being seen in the minimap, and it's somewhat difficult to spot you on tthe field. Kepp in mind though that the most experienced players will be able to locate you thanks to the shimmer of the cloak. As and advice, use Nova as if she was visible for enemy heroes. Use bushes to move without being seen. Try to avoid staying in places where the distorsion of the shimmer is clearly visible. This way, you'll be harder to spot. Also, if you stay still, it'll become even harder to see you, but keep in mind that some people will catch you as if you were in plain sight!

Snipe is your main skill. Imprescindible to land it as it's your main source of burst. Hits like a truck, but it will only hit the first objective it reaches, so aim carefully. Remember to lead a little your targets, as the projectile is fast but not instantaneous.

Pinning Shot is a good skill which slows the enemy and provides a little bit of damage. Do not use it instantly on someone unless you're picking Crippling Shot, save it for the moment they start running so you'll take advantage of the entire duration of the slow. Other than that, it's pretty straightfoward.

Holo Decoy is one of the skills funniest to use (and hardest to master). You create a copy of yourslef which does no damage (unless you have Lethal Decoy. You can upgrade it to spawn two clones instead of one. Here there are some pro-tips:

• When using it to gank an enemy, cast it first and attack him at the same time. This way he won't be able to diferenciate the real Nova. Don't cast it too near, however, as then he'll know that it's not you.
• When you're scaping, enter a bush and spawn a decoy. The enemy will see two Novas and will have no idea which one is the real one at first. This can give you a small time window to move.
• The holo decoys cannot bodyblock, so don't try to do it. It's possible to see if a Nova is a decoy by walking through it.
• The holo decoys can be used as a shield to intercept incoming skillshots. If you're going to attack someone who is solo, spawn your decoy between you and use it as a wall to absorb some damage! Particullary useful against some heroes with hard CC or high damage.
• The Holo gets the same talents than you do. So if you pick Anti-armor shells], the attacks of your decoy will be also slower and hit harder. If you pick [[crippling shot, her shots will also apply vulnerability.
• The Decoy always do the same pattern: Snipe - attack- Pinning Shot - attackx2-3. If you have Anti-Armor Shells, then she'll only give 2 autoattacks, one after snipe and one after pinning shot.
  
  
  
  

  Precision Strike/ Triple Tap: Explained later in the Talent Section.

  
  Basic combo for this build:
  
  
  > Auto attack > > Auto attack > Autoattack.
  
  Then you can also add Precision Strike to finish the enemy off or, if you see that you will not be able to burst the enemy to death, then add Envenom at the final point of the combo. Remember to use holo decoy as a wall to avoid skillshots.
  
  Alternative combo if the enemy has some CC/skillshot you NEED to avoid or if he is capable of identify you between your decoys easily:
  
  > Auto attack > Auto attack > Autoattack.
  
  The idea here is to force the enemy to use his CC after you appeared, and use the holo decoy to absorb it.

Well, now we'll be looking for her talents.

Tier one (level 1)

Personal Choice -

Ambush Snipe Is the superior choice here. 20% more damage is a huge improvement in the base damage snipe has. This means, however, that you have to use snipe as an opener or shortly after opening. With the Holo death build, you'll use this skills as an opener after the decoys, and with the burst, you'll use this as a follow up for Pinning Shot

Somewhat viable

Psi-Op Rangefinder The extra range can be useful, but i prefer having more burst. The 2 second cooldown reduction can be helpful too, but that means that you have to be in the fight for 8 entire seconds to make a good use of this talent. It can be hard to be around a fight this long, and you cannot engage with just your Q -you need your W and your E too-.

The other talents are just not as good.

Tier two (level 4)

Personal choice

Envenom: It gives you more damage, as plain as that. The amount it does is huge and can be used to secure a kill or, in early game, to make some good damage to a tank. The main drawback is its long cooldown, but you should be able to handle it.

Viable

Gathering Power: This talent gives you a 5% (up to 15%) increase of your damage output with skills. It can be useful with precision strike, but you have to keep yourself alive to have the stacks up. Note however that this gives you less damage than envenom (about the same if you do a full rewind combo, counting with all four drones) so be mindful of what you choose. I prefer envenom, but this will allow you to keep more range from your enemy, which can be helpful.

Tier three (level 7)

Personal Preference

One in the Chamber: With the last update this talent whas buffed. A lot of people take anti-armor shells but i just prefer this as it will give you more damage unless you are using the Crippling Shot upgrade at level 16. Some maths:

• Anti-Armor Shells makes your AA speed go down from 1.00 to 0.40. It takes you a little bit than the double of time to take a shot. It will boost your dps for around 40%.
  
• One in the Chamber gives you an 80% increase in your next auto-attack after using an skill. If we're assuming you will use AA after 2 of them (about 2 seconds) [It is possible however do ability-AA 3 times with this build] then:
  
  With Anti-Armor Shells you will do ONE autoattack, wich will hit for 250% damage. The fact that it makes one single AA makes it vulnerable to some talents like Block, and the slow attacks speed makes you also vulnerable to debuffs which decrease it futher.
  With One in the Chamber you will do TWO autoattacks, which will hit for 180% the first and 180% the second. This sums up for a 360% damage, 110% more than with Anti-armor shells.
  
  Another pro of this talent is that it will allow you to clear minion waves a little bit faster.

Viable:

Anti-Armor Shells: The math is up there, but this talent has his uses with Crippling Shot as you won't be able to make 2 autoattacks with skills in-between in the 2.25 seconds. If you pick Crippling Shot Then you should pick also Anti-Armor Shells

Tier four (level 10)

Personal Preference:

Precision Strike: It does a lot of damage and can be used for both killing, finishing and zoning in a team fight. It has a low CD and in a TF it can be decisive. It has a small delay (1.5 seconds) so aim carefully. Note that ANY character with a single scape can avoid the attack even if it's aimed at the center. Use it in TF to zone or on Stunned/crippled enemies to do a high amount of damage. Try to use it on every single team fight as it have a large impact.

Viable:

Triple Tap: It requieres a lot of positioning and skill to use. It does a lot of damage too, but to a single hero, and can be easily avoided by being behind a structure or behind a teammate. Against player that know what they're doind will be pretty much useless. Also, it has a very long cooldown.

Tier five (level 13)

Personal Preference:

Lethal Decoy: A 25% damage boost. Not bad at all, and it synergize well with our next talent, either if we go the holo death route or the bursting route.

I find that the rest of the talents of this tier are lacking. The 25% extra movespeed can be good, but it won't allow you to scape in normal cases, as you have to be cloaked, and it will not help you to burst someone either.

Tier six (level 16)

Personal Preference:

Double Fake: One more nova! Useful for distracting, blocking incoming skillshots, and, ofc, an extra 25% damage!. It's so damn good!. This will allow you to do a lot of damage and keep you a little bit more safe meanwhile you do it!

Viable:

Crippling Shot: One very good talent, this is the base decision of the builds. If you take this you'll be able to amplify the damage recieved from an enemy in a 25% (damage recieved in general, from any source). This will allow you to help in TF killing the focus, and can be pretty lethal in tanks if they're being already attacked. The bad thing is that then you only have one decoy, so it's less safe to pop our and unload your combo.

Overdrive can be a useful talent, but i don't like it. 5 seconds is not that much time and you need to unload ALL your skills while doing it. You have no option to disengage and wait a few seconds to reengage full force. It can be used to create some trully fearsome Precision Strikes, but i don't see it as a good talent as it do not give you survivality or utility and limits your offensive potential to just 5 seconds before entering in a global cooldown.

Tier seven (level 20)

INDISPENSABLE CHOICE IF YOU'RE DYING TOO MUCH
Bolt of the Storm: This will allow you to scape and reposition if you get caught. I always pick either this or rewind (with an ocasional Precision Barrage). Pick this if there is an enemy tyrael or things that can jump on you easily and your team cannot peel for you. This way you'll have more survival. Remember: A dead Nova does no damage!

Personal preference

Rewind: With this you can use your entire combo, rewind and repeat. It doubles your damage. Also, used right will create a situation where there are 5 novas (4 decoys and you)! Not many people is capable of recognize the true one in this situation and it can be pretty ******* hard to land a skillshot on you if you do this. This boosts both survival and damage! Overall great talent!

Other viable choices:

Precision Barrage: Will allow you to use two times your ult. Stong zoning, if you nail both it will do HUGE damage to the enemy team, but they're hard to land properly. Be careful while using it.

Early game, your ideal position would be roaming all over the map. Let's assume it, with your small hp pool and your poor AoE, you should not be holding one lane.

So now you're roaming over the map. But how to gank properly?

Well, first of all, about the movement itself, it is recommended that you move using the bushes as we explained it in the skills section. If the lane is very pushed to your side (and as a result, the enemy is far from his towers) attack from behind. Communicate with your teammates so they'll be ready to join your assault and unload a Snipe and a few autoattacks on the squishiest of the enemies. Then, follow up with Pinning Shot when they start to run to take the kill.

However, if the lane is in the middle, try to position yourself slightly in diagonal using the enemy as a reference. This will give you more time to land AA's on them, but be sure to have a follow up from your teammates.

If you fear that it's possible that your allies will not follow hard enough your gank, then engage from a safe position (your side of the lane) to be able to scape if the things go wrong.

This early, use decoy only if you need a distraction or to proc One in the Chamber (remember to shoot about the same time as the decoy to not delate yourself) or to block an enemy skillshots, of course.

Keep roaming until the first objectives appear. Then join your team to do them and do not be alone over the map. Be safe and, if the enemy is coming, stop attacking the objective to get your cloak up and prepare to flank. If the objective is almost secured, you can also try to scout near where you are and locate the enemy team.

Note that the early levels (1-3 aprox) you will be doing more of a harrass than a haunting. Appear in one lane, harrass your enemy with a Snipe and a few AA and get out of there. Once you have Envenom you'll be starting to kill a lot more, and with One in the Chamber your damage will start to stack and be high enough to assure kills easily.

In the midgame, things got a little bit more interesting. We have our full combo and we can now kill some of the squishiest enemies by ourselves. From level 10 onwards, keep yourself near your team, with an ocassional scout for the enemy. Try to avoid shooting before a Team fight starts, otherwise, you'll be a very sweet objective for that pesky Diablo and Tyrael. Keep it quiet.

Once the fight starts, you have to be around the edges of the brawl. Be careful with AoE and position yourself flanking his backlane, where the supports and/or carries will be. Then you can start: unload your combo and try to score a kill.

Avoid being IN the backlane or flanking from behind I have seen a lot of Novas trying to position herselves behind the enemy backlane. This is bad and wrong. Let me show it with one imrpovised and bad diagram:


Issue 1: Your are flanking from one side:



Enemy A ---> <--- Ally A


Enemy B ---> <--- Ally B


Enemy C ---> <--- Ally C
^
|
|
|
|
YOU

See that the only enemy you can shoot, or be shot by is Enemy C. Enemy B and A cannot reach you, or have to walk from their actual position to where Enemy C is to be able to attack you. This way, you force them to reposition and group up so they:

a) Lose time moving
b) Are near each other, which makes them vulnerable to AoE.

Or they let Enemy C try to take care of you (which, if you chose well the engagement, should be difficult).

Issue 2: You flank from behind.


B <-Enemy A
A
T <-Enemy B~~~~~~~~~<-YOU
T
L <-Enemy C
E


Note that now that you're inside the attack range of the three enemies. They can now just turn around as soon as you appear and turn what you would expect a "fast 1v1 scenario" into a 3v1. Nova cannot stand her ground against two single opponents, even less against three. If they can nail one stun, then you're screwed and it can even be hard avoid one, avoiding two or three will be pretty damn unprobable. Avoid being in his backline or behind it. Attack from one side.


As a final side note, never try to take merc camps by yourself -especially the knights- but don't you to ignore teammates doing them. Help them out. Your damage is huge and you can lend a hand in that regard.

Late game we will play exactly as mid game, but we'll make use of our strong combo. Now we can try to hunt one of their squishy assassins if they are alone, but our survival is CRUCIAL. The respawn timers are huge, so we can get an andvantage if we kill someone but only do it if you're sure you can finish the job.

Stay in TF and use Rewind to unload a ton of damage (hopefully enough to score a kill) to the enemy if he is poorly positioned. If there is an enemy Diablo Tyrael or any other that can easily jump on you and resist your bust, then Bolt of the Storm is the way to go. Wait for them to jump, then jump elsewere and kite them hard. You're doing your work if you keep them busy, specially if this means that the enemy has no warriors in the fight as they're chasing you around (and not killing you!)

Finally, and most important, stay as a team and never give up when you're behind. In this game comebacks happens fairly often, so don't lose all hope!

Well, that's it folks! This is my first guide and I hope you liked and that it was useful for you all. See you in the Nexus!