Nova Build Guide : Comprehensive Nova Guide/Strategy :: Heroes of the Storm (HotS) Strategy Builds

Nova

Build: Clone Burst

Level 1

Level 4

Level 7

Level 10

Level 13

Level 16

Level 20

Threats to Nova with this build

Threat

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High

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Threat		Notes
1	Abathur	As Nova, you're job is to eradicate Abathur's existence from the game. You're excellent at sneaking behind walls, forts, towers, and gates. To quickly and effectively assassinate him, do so regularly.
1	Murky	Murky; much like Abathur. Murky has dropped off the played spectrum almost completely as of this patch. However, if you do face one, you're on egg duty. And you can 1 shot him with snipe typically.
1	Nova	Nova; typically I will destroy enemy Novas. The entire strategy to enemy novas is to out nova them. Snipe them before they snipe you. Focus them down before they can find you, etc.
1	Tyrande	Tyrande; she is very similar to Malfurion. She is squishy, cannot fight you. And you get free exp for your team. Just nuke her to pieces.
1	Valla	Valla; HAHAHAHAHAAHAH.. Oh sorry. Umm, you just are better in everyway. Just remove her from existence when you see her. Thats about it.
2		No Threat
3	Malfurion	Malfurion; he cannot kill you, and you usually can drop him. Just burst all out, avoid his root. And try to avoid his moonfire and this can remove your ability to escape with cloak.
3	Rehgar	Rehgar; can kill you somtimesishkinda. Rehgar is not going to usually go for you, but you're not going to go for him. Hes very tanky for a support and has so much healing its pointless. AVOID HIS TOTEM. Thats about it.
4	Sgt. Hammer	Sgt. Hammer; this is again another horribly funny enemy. She is a sitting duck for your triple tap, precision strike, snipe etc. Shes the PERFECT enemy for you. "Shoot ducks in a barrel?" Yup this is Sgt. Hammer. Enjoy your fun kills. WARNING: If you engage her out of cloak she can blow you to pieces before you can kill her.
5	Gazlowe	Gazlowe; ehh.. you can generally destroy him. Be very careful of engaging him with his turrets. If he runs in a bush, disengage or use your clone to scout. Just kite him and avoid his bombs and turrets.
5	Sonya	Sonya; has seen a few nerfs lately. She can generally not kill you just annoy the S&%^ out of you. You cannot really burst her either. Just try to steer clear and burst when you can.
5	Tassadar	Tassadar; incredibly, stupidly, freaking annoying. You cannot burst him he will invincible. You cannot triple tap him. Basically you cannot anything. Avoid him. And try to pick of squishes he isn't protecting.
6	Arthas	Arthas, depending on the skill level he can be a threat or not. This goes with your skill as well. If you can properly dodge his root. You'll be fine. Kite to your hearts content. Never focus an Arthas as his damage isn't worth the attention. Typically ignore him. A side note, be careful of his health regeneration, this may deceive you into engaging him and dying.
6	Brightwing	Brightwing; You will not kill him. He will not kill you. He will interrupt your triple tap, he will morph you, he will shield his allies. He will escape before he dies. You WILL NOT KILL HIM. Just ignore him, and position away from him.
7	Muradin	Muradin; you cannot kill him. He can kill you. However he is very slow and has 1 gap closer. Keep that in mind and use your clone wisely. Also if he stuns you, you die.
7	Raynor	Raynor; hilarious to murder. Nova has a special voice emote when you kill Raynor listen for that. However, keep your distance and just burst him down. He will do the same to you if you let him. Just keep your distance and position.
7	Tychus	Tychus; refer to Raynor. Tychus is very similar to Raynor. The only major drawback if, his viking he can transform into.That can completely screw you up, be careful of it.
8	Azmodan	Azmodan; depending on his skill level this may be a nightmare or a bad dream. Either way you will not like it. He's quite beefy, can shove lanes on you, and can easily kill you. However, you can easily kite him and escape. Never engage an Azmodan alone. EVER. Just engage with teammates and under certain circumstances you can rush him down. Be aware he does heal quite a lot of his lazer.
8	Falstad	Falstad; your glass-cannon friend from Warcraft. He is played very much like you are. So, attack him as if you're attacking yourself. He can kill you just as fast as you can kill him. You MUST use your clone as a trick, surprise attack, and triple tap. NEVER. EVER. ENGAGE HIM head on, he will always win. Note, he may choose his stun. When his bird rises face first into the air, get out hes is stunning.
8	Li Li	Lili; she cannot kill you, you cannot kill her. She can outrun you, but this is a major issue. If you try to snipe her she will typically live. Just don't even bother. If she sees you a good Lili will follow you to keep you from cloaking. Keep that in mind.
8	Zagara	Zagara; having a skilled Zagara made me re-think his rating. She is extremely powerful against nova. By blocking my snipes with her pets, blowing me to pieces with her banelings and hydras, and catching me in a timed maw. It's stupidly powerful. But the upside to us is that she is VERY easy to nuke down. And cannot escape.
9	E.T.C.	ETC; Why? He can generally not kill you, you generally cannot kill him. Once again, ignore and position away from him. NEVER. EVER. ENGAGE HIM. Just ignore him.
9	Kerrigan	Kerrigan; similarly to Illidan. If she sees you first. You die. Snipe her from a distance, you cannot kite her. NEVER engage head on.
9	Zeratul	Zeratul; similar to nova, but melee basically. If you fail to see him coming its probably too late. Most Zeratul's will destroy you, if you get lucky and burst him, he can usually escape. Just very careful.
10	Anub'arak	Anub'arak is your worst nightmare. You cannot burst him, you cannot kite him, you cannot outrun. He will destroy you no matter what. Avoid him at all costs. Be careful attempting to finish a low anub'arak as they are tankier than they appear.
10	Chen	Chen; extremely durable, extremely tanky, decent damage. Those 3 words, damage, tanky, durable. Spell out danger for a Nova. Just ignore him and position away from him. Do not engage him directly, NEVER ENGAGE ALONE.
10	Diablo	Diablo; a nightmare over and over. He's currently very overplayed. He can interrupt you your triple tap more ways than you can imagine. He can actually kill you, and you can usually not kill him. NEVER focus him. Just ignore and position away.
10	Illidan	Illidan; Just no. Unless it's illidan free-week just no. Cannot even begin to tell you why. He will kill you before you can blink. If he sees you first, you will die. Only snipe him from a distance with Snipe or Triple Tap.
10	Nazeebo	Nazeebo; He's the devil for you. His spiders keep you out of cloaking, his zombies can destroy you alone, and his frogs make you get warts. NEVER face a Nazeebo alone, and NEVER get caught in zombie wall, if you do, you will die.
10	Stitches	Stitches; for this... NOM NOM NOM... Okay basically thats the life of nova. If he hooks you, you die. If he eats you, you die. If he breathes on you, you die. AVOID HIM AT ALL COSTS.
10	Tyrael	Tyrael; very very annoying. Similar to Diablo. He has so much absorb and damage and annoyingness you cannot even compute.
10	Uther	Uther; like Tyrande but BEEFYYY. You will not be able to kill him. His stun will screw you up, his afterlife ghost will keep your from escaping. It's all just terrible news.

Nova

Build: Single Target Burst

Level 1

Level 4

Level 7

Level 10

Level 13

Level 16

Level 20

About Me! Top

Hey Hey!

Welcome to my Nova Guide! I'm currently a master nova, ranked on hotslogs.com as below current of (11/6/2014)

I have 82 games played.. 42 of which are nova games..

Here are my map stats for my account..

Here is my MMR Trend..

Below is my win history.. (The website is marking me as level 9 Nova.. not sure why.

Thank you for your interest in my guide.. I extend a warm welcome to all of you! And please feel free to contact me with any questions, comments or concerns you may have. You can message me on this site, or add me in-game, please feel free to comment below.

Battletag - McDManager#1169 (US Servers/Americas)

Thanks again and enjoy..

Side Note: If you do find any grammatical, spelling, etc. throughout the guide please comment below and I will quickly fix them. Thanks!

Heroes of the Storm/MOBA Lingo Top

Throughout this guide you will find a lot of terms that may be very unfamiliar or make zero sense, here is a list of commonly used terms and their definitions.

Directional/Landmark/Building Terms
- Top - This refers to the top lane on the minimap.
- Mid - This refers to the middle lane on the minimap.
- Bot - This refers to the bottom lane on the minimap.
- Tower - These are the towers that are guarding the gate in the lanes.
- Wall - These are the walls around the towers.
- Fort/Fortress - These are the first "castle" type things you destroy in a lane.
- Keep - These are the final "castle" type things that you kill in a lane. Destroying one of these causes that lane to spawn siege minions for your team.
- Core - This is your team's heart or center, that the opposing team is attempting to destroy.
- Nexus/Healing Fountain - This is the home of your base where you regen health extremely quickly and are safe from enemies.

Combat Terms
- "B" - This is to hearthstone otherwise by pressing B.
- Recall - This means to use your hearthstone or press B.
- Ult - This means to use your ultimate or R ability.
- Sup - Means to support whatever their talking about.
- Dmg - This means damage.
- AP - Ability Power, or increasing damage from your abilities.
- AD - Attack Damage, or increasing damage from basic attacks.
- Push - To push is to push a lane towards the enemy or to attack the enemy.
- Shove - To push a lane into the enemy base, by going ahead of your minions and quickly destroying the opposing wave.
- Back Door - To destroy a low-hp castle or keep by going around the enemies.

Objective Terms
- Vision - This is a multi-meaning word, typically it means to scout an area or to capture a shrine.
- Shrine - These are similar to Xel'Naga watch towers in Starcraft which grant a large field of vision.
- Sentry/Ward - To use a sentry drone or vision ability to scout an area.
- Dragon - To get the dragon in Dragon Shire

If you know another to be added comment below the word and meaning!

Top

This is Nova's passive, this will automatically cloak you when out of combat for 2 seconds. Minion attacks, dots, channeling, attacking and so on; will prevent Nova from re cloaking.

This is Nova's bread and butter. Most of your front loaded damage and poke will come from your Snipe and or Q.

This is Nova's escape. As silly as it sounds this is pretty much your only escape that you have to try to escape. This also does a decent amount of damage.

This is Nova's damage, escape, trickster tool thing. This in short is the skill nova has for about every useful possible, got a fleeing enemy out of range of your snipe? Holo Decoy snipe. Need to scout ahead? Holo Decoy. Need to escape? Holo Decoy as you run into a bush to trick your enemy. This list goes on.

This is Nova's highest single target damage skill, this is the best choice when it comes to the requirement of removing one specific target quickly and decisively. However in coordinated play with coordinated teams this can be easily shut down.

This is Nova's aoe damage monster thing, basically this is the recommended option for Nova most of the time, for the simple flexibility of the skill. Use it to prevent captures on Black Heart's Bay and Cursed Hollow for example. Use it to take out fleeing enemies, or to turn the tide of a team fight.

Talents Top