Nova is a ranged assassin who specializes in burst damage, stealth play, and picking off squishy heroes. As one of the few ranged assassins in the game without a movement ability, Nova has to be very careful when choosing her battles. With the potential of two-shotting anyone on the enemy team, also comes the chance of getting two-shot yourself. If you're ever spotted out of stealth and your team isn't with you, chances are you're probably dead.

Nova's passive is Permanent Cloak, Sniper. Nova will enter a state of stealth after being out of combat for 2 seconds. The stealth can only be broken by taking damage, attacking an enemy, or through vision abilities.

Her first ability is Snipe. Nova fires a projectile in a straight line that will damage the first target it hits. This is Nova's signature spell due to its incredibly high damage and long range.

Her second ability is Pinning Shot. Nova fires a targeted shot at an enemy, damaging and slowing their movement speed by 30% for 2.25 seconds.

Hey third ability is Holo Decoy. This is Nova's only defensive ability and it allows her to place a clone of herself at a target location. This clone looks and acts exactly like Nova, firing her same abilities but dealing no damage. This ability does not break stealth upon use.

Nova's first heroic ability is Triple Tap. This is a long-raged targeted channeled spell that fires three projectiles. These shots strike the first Hero or Structure they come in contact with, dealing damage each time.

Finally, her second heroic ability is Precision Strike. Nova calls down a nuke at a targeted location that will detonate after a 3 second delay, damaging all enemies caught within its blast. This ability has an unlimited range.

For this guide, we're going to be taking a look at the Snipe Weaving Nova build. This build focuses on nuking down your enemies, one at a time, without giving them a chance to react. You'll achieve this by weaving in and out of stealth, bursting them with Anti-Armor Shells attacks and buffed Snipes.



Best Choice:

For the first talent, you'll want to grab Ambush Snipe which increases the damage of your Snipe by 20% when used from stealth or 1 second after breaking out of it. As your main source of damage, buffing your Snipe is essential to this build.

Best Choice:

At level 4, Gathering Power is the best option. This talent grants a permanent 8% increased ability power, and then an additional 2% for every hero you kill. This bonus can stack up to 12% and is lost upon death. While this does make you play extra safe when you have high stacks, damage is king.

Best Choice:

At level 7, Nova gets a huge power boost when you pick up Anti-Armor Shells. This talent makes your auto attacks 3 times slower, but it increases the damage by 300%. As a bursty assassin who can't afford to get caught out of position, this is great. It allows you to go back in stealth in between auto attacks without losing any damage.

Best Choice:

At level 10, Precision Strike is almost always the better choice. It allows you to deal massive damage without compromising your position, and has the added global range which can come in handy.

Other Option:

You could also go for Triple Tap if your team is lacking CC to guarantee your precision strike hits, or if they have a lot of weak assassins you can get a lot of resets from.

Best Choice:

At level 13, grab Headshot which reduces your cooldowns everytime you kill a hero by 4 seconds. This includes any form of takedowns, including assists or simply being near the target. This enhances Nova's playstyle by allowing her to keep firing snipes constantly.

Best Choice:

At level 16, Crippling Shot is what you'll want most of the time. This talent makes it so on top of slowing your enemy, your Pinning Shot will also apply a 25% increased damage taken from all sources. This is like adding insult to injury. Just in case your damage wasn't strong enough, here's an additional 25%. If you're playing in a team, I suggest using this to burn down a tank quickly in the first few seconds of the fight, especially if they're only running one. The enemy team won't expect it and it'll leave them scrambling.

Other Option:

If you at any point feel like your precision strikes are doing a lot more than your snipes and Anti-Armor Shells, then try playing with overdrive. You can activate it to increase your ability power which will affect both of your precision strikes at level 20. You'll see a pretty big damage difference.

Best Choice:

Finally, at level 20, you'll want to grab Bolt of the Storm. Adding an extra charge to Precision Strike can be useful in some fights, but fixing Nova's main weakness, her lack of mobility, will allow you to stay alive longer in fights resulting in more damage.

Vision > Nova Thank to Tassadar's passive Oracle, he'll be able to actively reveal Nova before a fight breaks out, which can completely throw you off or even get you killed if you're caught out of position.

Vision > Nova [if=Tyrande poses the same level of threat to a Nova's stealth. If you're ever hit with her Sentinel, you'll be revealed instantly. Also, if she picks up Shadowstalk as her heroic ability, it will reveal you anywhere on the map upon activation.]Tyrande poses the same level of threat to a Nova's stealth. If you're ever hit with her Sentinel, you'll be revealed instantly. Also, if she picks up Shadowstalk as her heroic ability, it will reveal you anywhere on the map upon activation.[/if]

All up in your face When fighting a good Tyrael, you'll find yourself getting instantly hit by Judgment any time you reveal yourself in a fight. There's two ways of dealing with this. Let your team know what's happening and blow up the Tyrael, or make sure you destroy one of their carries before you get dove on.

Careful with the Mines! [if=As an early game roamer with stealth, you have to be very careful when fighting an Abathur. If you ever step over one of his Toxic Nest, you'll take damage and be revealed to the enemy team for a short duration. Not only can this screw up a gank, but also get you killed if the enemy is ready to collapse on you. Great thing is that if you ever find an Abathur in the map alone, you can easily two shot him and walk away alive.]As an early game roamer with stealth, you have to be very careful when fighting an Abathur. If you ever step over one of his Toxic Nest, you'll take damage and be revealed to the enemy team for a short duration. Not only can this screw up a gank, but also get you killed if the enemy is ready to collapse on you. Great thing is that if you ever find an Abathur in the map alone, you can easily two shot him and walk away alive.[/if]

Weak vision still > Nova [if=Uther is capable of doing the same thing a Tassadar does, but to a lesser extent. If an Uther picks up Clairvoyance, he'll be able to gain vision of a target location every 45 seconds. You'll be broken out of stealth if you're ever caught within the vision range.]Uther is capable of doing the same thing a Tassadar does, but to a lesser extent. If an Uther picks up Clairvoyance, he'll be able to gain vision of a target location every 45 seconds. You'll be broken out of stealth if you're ever caught within the vision range.[/if]

Weak vision still > Nova [if=Rehgar can also do the same as Uther and Lili with his own unique talent called Farsight, though a bit better since it has a shorter cooldown.]Rehgar can also do the same as Uther and Lili with his own unique talent called Farsight, though a bit better since it has a shorter cooldown.[/if]

Weak vision still > Nova [if=Same as Uther with Clairvoyance.]Same as Uther with Clairvoyance.[/if]

Nova is very weak before level 7, specially if you put her in a lane. Your job early game is to roam around the map, ganking lanes you see open and spotting enemies doing mercenary camps to alert your teammates. The less you show yourself, the more scared your opponents will be.

When using Anti-Armor Shells, sou should never stand still waiting for the 2.5 seconds in between your auto attacks. Instead, you'll want to shoot your enemy, begin movin according to the fight, and then when you see yourself go stealth, shoot again. This will keep you safe between attacks and allow you to chase targets more effectively.

Nova's Holo Decoy is an extremely undervalued ability and it has four primary uses. Because your clone acts like a solid object in the world, you can use it to body-block your enemies or even block a Stitches Hook that would otherwise hit you or a teammate. This ability can also be great for baiting out heroic abilities. Since this ability doesn't break you out of stealth, you'll want to open with it in a teamfight. Sometimes, enemies will jump the gun thinking the clone is you - wasting valuable cooldowns on it. Vision is another great use of Holo Decoy. Instead of face-checking a bush or if your opponents are doing mercenary camps, you can place the clone over the wall for vision. Finally, you can interrupt enemies channeling objectives without compromising your position since the clone will actually stop them.

Nova's ideal burst rotation without her heroic ability should be:
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With her heroic ability:
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Hi everyone, I'm Theselol. I run the YouTube channel GetBonkd and have been playing alpha since the first wave. I make all sorts of content for Heroes of the Storm including guides, spotlights, patch updates, and many more to come.

I've been playing games competitively for a very long time, although never at a professional level. Before I came to heroes I was a diamond league player and a world first raider in WildStar. I managed to reach Rank 1 by only solo and duo queueing and am currently sitting at 4.1k MMR.