Nova Hard Rework (2025) by SMILE

9 Votes

Nova Hard Rework (2025)

By: SMILE
Last Updated: May 15, 2025
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Nova Hard Rework (2025)

My Suggestions

Nova, despite her potentially high damage, is weak compared to other assassins even in the right hands.
The goal of this rework is to make the Dominion Ghost more effective in her main role.

Stats
Health increased from 1300 to 1392
Health Regen increased from 2.711 to 2.9
Attack Speed decreased from 1 to 0.5
Attack Damage increased from 105 to 220

Combat Trait

1
C-20A Canister Rifle (New Trait)

Nova's Basic Attacks instantly kill targeted Minions.

The UI and VFX elements of the Anti-Armor Shells talent are now baseline, and Nova's Basic Attack cooldown is now displayed in the HUD in the same way, showing this description when hovered over.
2
Permanent Cloak (Trait)

Movement Speed bonus while Stealthed increased from 15% to 20%
Now also grants Unrevealable for 1 second upon gaining Stealth

3
Ghost Protocol (New D)

Cooldown: 60 seconds
Instantly activate Permanent Cloak and spawn a Holo Decoy at Nova's location.

Activation grants Unrevealable.

Primary Abilities

1
Snipe (Q)

Mana increased from 50 to 60
Damage increased from 230 to 300
Range decreased from 10.8725 to 10
Passive effect removed

2
Pinning Shot (W)

Mana reduced from 65 to 40
Slow duration decreased from 2.25 to 2 seconds

3
Holo Decoy (E)

Mana increased from 50 to 80
Cooldown increased from 15 to 16 seconds
Duration increased from 5 to 8 seconds

Heroic Abilities

1
Triple Tap (R1)

Mana reduced from 100 to 90
Cooldown reduced from 100 to 90 seconds

2
Precision Strike (R2)

Mana increased from 100 to 120
Cooldown increased from 50 to 60 seconds
Damage increased from 435 to 480

LEVEL 1

Longshot
Unchanged.

Rapid Projection (Moved from Level 4)(Reworked)
Basic Attacks restore 10 Mana and reduce the cooldown of Holo Decoy by 1 second.

Covert Mission (Moved from Level 4)(Reworked)
❢Quest: Takedowns grant a stack of Bribe and permanently increase Attack Damage by 1%.
Each Bribe stack can be used to instantly defeat a Mercenary. Does not work on Elite Mercenaries.

LEVEL 4

Holo Stability (Reworked)
Increase Holo Decoy's duration by 2 seconds.
While Stealthed, increase Holo Decoy's cast range by 100%.

Lethal Decoy (Moved from Level 16)
Damage bonus decreased from 30% to 25%.

Advanced Cloaking (Moved from Level 1)(Reworked)
Increase Movement Speed bonus while Stealthed to 25%.
While Stealthed, regenerate an additional 5 Mana per second.

LEVEL 7

Armor-Piercing Shells (New)
Snipe and Basic Attacks against Heroes ignore Armor.

Perfect Shot (Reworked)
Hitting an enemy with Snipe refunds 30 Mana.
Hitting an enemy Hero also reduces its cooldown by 3 seconds.

One in the Chamber
Damage bonus decreased from 65% to 30%.

LEVEL 13

Psionic Efficiency (Reworked)
Reduce Snipe's Mana cost by 15.
While Stealthed, also increase its range by 25%.

Covert Ops (Moved from Level 1)(Reworked)
While Stealthed, Pinning Shot's Slow is increased to 60%.

Ionic Force Field
Now also grants Armor while Stealthed.

LEVEL 16

Explosive Rounds (Reworked)
Snipe and Basic Attacks deal 75% damage to enemies around the target.
Radius: 3

Double Tap
No longer increases the cooldown of Pinning Shot.
Cooldown between charges increased from 1 to 2 seconds.

Apollo Suit (Moved from Level 20)(Reworked)
Reduce the cooldown of Permanent Cloak by 1 second.
Basic Attacks reduce the cooldown of Ghost Protocol by 5 seconds.

LEVEL 20

Fast Reload
Unchanged.

Precision Barrage
Cooldown reduction increased from 25 to 30 seconds.

Phase Reactor (New)
Ghost Protocol teleports Nova to a target location.
Range: 5.5

Ghost Visor (New)
Increase Attack Range by 1.
While Stealthed, Nova reveals area in her vision.

Removed Talents

Anti-Armor Shells

Crippling Shot

Rewind

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1
[-]
dudedaniel | September 10, 2021 8:25am
The problem with Nova isn't that she's too weak, it's that she's an incredibly one-dimensional design that is absolutely unfun to play against if she is too strong, while being useless for literally everything besides hero killing.
1
[-]
SMILE (1) | September 10, 2021 7:26pm
Quoted:
besides hero killing
Because...that's what she was made for?
2
[-]
dudedaniel | September 12, 2021 9:03am
There's a difference between being strong at hero-killing, and being useless at everything except hero-killing. There are plenty of ranged assassins that excel at hero killing while still being usable elsewhere; Siege, waveclear, camp clear, or at least pre-fight poke. Nova has none of that; She's absolutely useless against everything *except* hero killing, so the only way for her to be 'balanced' is by being overpowered at it. But as we saw, that leads to a completely unfun game, where Nova's team has to pick up the slack of lacking a dps who can even remotely clear waves, and the enemy team isn't allowed to play the game.
1
[-]
Lillmy (2) | June 7, 2021 3:12pm
Genuine question, what do you believe is Nova's issue and in what way do you think this concept is solving it for her to be up to par with the other heroes? Because to me, this rework does not fix her core issues.
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