Hey there! You came here to learn how to play the coldest chick in Warcraft, and I'm going to teach you! First thing that I want to mention is the best tip to learning to play Jaina in 3 easy steps: The first is to click settings in the bottom right of your screen. Second is to go to controls. And finally, change the quickcast setting to "on". Jaina's kit is all about landing skillshots and bursting someone down, if you take that extra time to line up your skill, more times than not, your window of landing it will disappear, making Jaina very difficult to burst someone with. Second thing i wanted to mention is the difference between the burst build, and the adc build. The burst build is what is considered "meta". Jaina is a burst assassin, and this build is how to optimize her burst. ADC Jaina is a theorycraft that I have developed after playing her a bunch. ADC is my situational solo que build. It has a slight bit more defense, a sustained damage output instead of a burst, and a much higher skill cap which is something I enjoy. If done correctly, the build at lvl 20 will put frostbolt on a .75 second cooldown for 5 seconds and the potential to hit 4 people with each one (this is done with and ). Now, let' dive into her skills!

Frostbite (passive trait)
This trait is very important to everything Jaina does. The slow by itself is very strong, and on top of that the damage bonus it offers is nothing to laugh at. This passive is weaved into every part of her kit, and proper knowledge of using this passive is essential to playing Jaina well.

Frostbolt (Q)
Very simple, single-target nuke. It does alright damage, but it's real strength is when chasing. It is the easiest skillshot Jaina has to land while chasing, and keeping that slow on someone will make landing more skills a piece of cake. Be careful when using this ability since it is single-target it is very easy to hit specialist minions when you meant to hit the hero instead.

Blizzard (W)
Blizzard is Jaina's highest damaging skill. Blizzard rains ice down on an area in a circle for two waves. Each wave has the ability to take a chunk out of anyone's health bar, while landing both is a very very noticeably amount of damage. The size of blizzard is not very large, but after a few games it gets easier and easier to land. With at level 1, landing the first wave makes it much easier to land the second one. Also remember that blizzard does damage on two SEPERATE attacks. So for example, if your target does not have Frostbite on them, the first blizzard wave will do, let's say, 300 damage and apply Frostbite. If the second wave hits, it will do 450 damage thanks to the passive, and it will also refresh the duration.(Pro tip: When in lane, try to aim the circle so that the majority of it is behind the intended target. Most players instinctively take a step back after getting hit by the first wave, if they walk backwards with the slow further into the blizzard circle, it will almost guarantee the second wave to land).

Cone of Cold (E)
Cone of Cold shoots ice in a cone (who would've guess) in front of Jaina. This ability has a wide hitbox and is great for when enemies try to get in your face. Alternatively, if you're feeling confidant, running forward and initiating your combo with Cone of Cold will ensure a very large damage output, especially if you take at 16.

Ultimates:

Ring of Frost (R1)
Contrary to popular belief, I love Ring of Frost, the amount of cc it brings is huge, especially if you can land a good one in a teamfight. The problem with this ult is twofold. The first problem is that it is VERY hard to land in a teamfight. After about 70 games on Jaina I managed to start using it effectively, but I still could not reliably land huge ults. The second problem is that her second ult is also a really great choice and makes Ring of Frost not worth the trouble. If you can land 3 man or more Rings reliably then take Ring of Frost, but it will take a lot of practice before you can manage that feat. One suggestion I have is changing the settings on your skills to quick cast on release, that way you will still be able to see the indicator.

Summon Water Elemental (R2)
Water Elemental is the preferred choice for most Jaina players and I have to agree. It does good damage, provides nice utility/zone, and is much easier to use than Ring of Frost. Simply point-click and watch as the enemy is terrified of the new addition to the battlefield. (Pro tip: Remember that if you hit R again while it is active, you can re-target the elemental. This is huge. If there is a stealthy on the enemy team, have the elemental target them, and they will be forced to deal with it before they can re-stealth.)

Deep Chill: I like this talent for burst Jaina due to the chase potential and overall utility of a 35% slow. 35% is huge, and it makes landing skillshots so much easier. After landing the first skill, usually the rest are very easy to land.

Other Talents:

Winter's Reach is really helpful against Sgt. Hammer. Against Sgt. Hammer it allows you to poke her without sitting inside of her siege range, it could also be very useful against a heavy dive comp when you need to stay in the back. I don't take it in ADC Jaina build because the slow allows you to land more frostbolts than the increased range does.

I am personally not a fan of Lingering Chill only because I feel that the increase slow is more useful than a longer slow. There will only be a few situational moments when you manage to secure a kill thanks to a longer slow, but that also means that you chased someone for 6 seconds probably straight in the direction of their base and you are now out of position. The only way I would endorse this talent is for synergy with at level 7. But even then, the slow will probably still secure more kills.

Bad. Pursuit is not the choice for mana on Jaina. Grabbing globes early is pretty dangerous for Jaina, and this talent requires a lot of globes before it starts to take effect. is by far a better mana talent.

Arcane Intellect is the de facto mana talent choice for Jaina. I play Jaina very aggressively and need this in order to maintain that same level of aggression. This talent essentially allows you to forget about your mana bar starting at level 4. In order to pull the most out of it, make sure that you auto attack as frequently as you can, especially while clearing waves.

This talent is almost mandatory for ADC Jaina build. Since the build relies on landing multiple frostbolts, the largest counter to ADC Jaina are champions that summon minions such as Anub'arak, Zagara, and Azmodan. Frost shards allows you to land more frostbolts and not have them get blocked by minions. Arcane Intellect is not that important for ADC Jaina. Since icy veins will take away most mana problems, two separate talents for mana is pretty redundant

Not needed. Only reason you would ever take this talent is because you don't trust yourself to land skillshots. Believe in yourself more, I believe in you! And to be perfectly honest, if you don't trust yourself to land skillshots, why play Jaina which is only skillshots?

This is the talent to take if you are a true wizard and unlike me, posses the ability to play Jaina without mana problems. If you dont play aggressive or just flat out never run out of mana, the extra damage envenom provides is the way to go. (Fun fact: and do stack!)

Frostbitten is the talent that should be picked every time. Starting at level 7 every spell you cast in your rotation after the first, now does 15% more damage. Much better than any other talent in this tree for burst.

This talent is just not strong enough to warrant picking it. The width of Cone of Cold is never a concern in the first place, on top of that, if you hit an entire minion wave, or the entire enemy team, it still won't reduce the cooldown by very much; 4 seconds off of a 10 seconds cooldown at best.

Jaina is an assassin, not a tank. Her job is to hit others, not to let others hit her. You should never feel like you need to take this talent, and if you do, you need to work on your positioning more than taking this talent. The only situation I could only see it being effective is against a team that has only auto-attack heroes for damage (Raynor, Valla, some Falstads and Zeratuls). But even then, the damage gained from Frostbitten outweighs the survivability from Frost Armor.

This talent is important for ADC build. Since frostbolt applies Frostbite, as long as you hit the enemy with any other skill first, every frostbolt will only be on a two second cooldown. That is a huge amount of sustained damage output, and that's not even considering

Icy Veins is integral to ADC build. In a teamfight you want to ult the enemy to apply your passive, pop Icy Veins and spam frostbolt on a .75 second cooldown. It's immensely satisfying to pull off that many skillshots in such a short time.

With Sprint being taken away from Jaina, this is now the go to escape tool. However, I am still iffy about it because sometimes you can get you killed more than it can keep you alive. This is very strong against the butcher. If the butcher tries to dive you in a teamfight, immediately pop ice block and you will negate all of his burst. Same thing goes with Illidan's hunt or any other dive/burst hero.

If you picked up Kael'thas before Jaina, then I could see your argument for taking this talent. It has a lot of Similarities to his overpowered Flamethrower talent, however, Jaina and Kael'thas are not the same. Kael has one skill that he relies on for the bulk of his damage, but Jaina requires all of her skills to do decent damage, and the range on her other skills are unaffected, forcing the Jaina player to still move into a normal range to do damage.

Northern Exposure is the popular talent choice for 16. It makes everybody take 25% more damage from all sources. That makes this amazing for wombo combo teams. If you have a kael, or E.T.C, Falstad, etc. take this talent. It will also give you a noticeable boost if you start your combo with Cone of Cold

This talent is not very effective for burst jaina because you get the shield all at once and it times out very quickly, since you don't really add to it after the initial skill rotation. However, it works very well with ADC Jaina since she does sustained damage, constantly adding to the shield, and constantly refreshing it.

I've been seeing this talent rise in popularity, and after some playtesting I like it. It can be picked against any team, since every team is going to want to focus you. This stops any melee in their tracks and allows you to reposition safely, even more so with sprint.

You will never land all three waves. If you did, it was because E.T.C. had a great mosh pit. If you have an E.T.C. for moshpit wombo combo, you should've taken Northern Exposure for more damage. Don't take Snow Crash.

Provides great escape, and is a must have for Jaina. Since she lacks any form of escape, having at least one (either Sprint, or Bolt) is mandatory. I personally like to take both, but if Sprint is enough, then take Wintermute as the alternative level 20.

Wintermute is great because it adds to the threat of the already powerful water elemental. It makes teams have to react to it, instead of just letting it sit there wailing on the backline. This allows you and your team more time to pick off damage dealers in teamfights.

This talent is not worth it, just because the delay is way too long. It activates after the initial root expires, which means that it has a 5 second delay. The only way this is ever beneficial is if you land a great initial root, and then the entire enemy team did not realize you took the upgrade and immediately walked into the middle. I have never seen that situation actually happen, so you are much better off taking Bolt.

Arcane Power is a decent talent, and will turn your combo into a guranteed kill if you land everything, but I personally feel that the potential escape with Bolt is much better than the extra damage from Arcane Power. It is potentially viable on ADC build as an alternative to wintermute. Also, once you hit level 20, you are now in the late game, and any deaths especially on carries (cough cough Jaina) could result in a defeat. That's why I value Bolt so highly, and escape in general.

This is absolutely integral to playing Jaina well. And let me warn you: POSITIONING IS NOT EASY. It make look easy when the pros do it, or when you see someone horribly out of position, you may think it's an easy fix, but it's not.
To perfect your positioning, make sure you do not tunnel vision. If you see a low health in their backline, do not try and make the hero play while the rest of the team is alive. It will result in your death, and at best a 1 for 1 trade. It is better to stay safe, than to dive their backline. Only use Bolt or Sprint offensively if you know that you can escape safely.
The second tip for positioning is to always be aware of your surroundings. Be especially cautious when you may get flanked from behind, or when there's a stealthy. Always hug your healer so they have an easier job. As a healer i've had way too many carries bolt over a wall, get followed and killed, then complain about no heals. If you don't stay in your healer's range, don't expect heals. Hugging the tank is situational. You should not hug an anub'arak for example, since he is just going to dive the backline. But if a Muradin is peeling really well, stay near him. Jaina is decent alone, but amazing with a team that heals and peels.

This is the basic ability combo. The frostbolt easily applies the slow making the other abilities easier to land. Cone of Cold regardless of which level 16 talent was taken, will make Blizzard more effectve


This is the full combo with water elemental. This combo has a huge aoe damage potential, and as such, frostbolt doesn't have that big of a role, except for refreshing passive on stragglers after the initial rotation.



Full combo if you took Ring of Frost. Never engage with Ring of Frost, always make sure the targets are already slowed so that you have the highest chance of landing the ult. If you land it, then the blizzard is guaranteed to land both waves, and the frostbolt serves the same purpose as the water elemental combo. If you took envenom at 4, use it after blizzard. That way it still gets the bonus damage, but it doesn't interfere with the timing of any other skills.

In this build you want to use Blizzard, Cone of Cold, and Water Elemental BEFORE you use icy veins. Icy veins only lasts 6 seconds and won't reduce the cooldowns for any other skill as much as it will for frostbolt. As soon as Icy Veins is popped, start throwing frostbolts. They are on a .75 seconds cooldown, making her frostbolts faster than her auto attacks (hence the name ADC Jaina).

Jaina is a super fun and rewarding assassin to play, and after a few games of learning her rotations, its all about knowing your power spikes, and learning to position. Remember that positioning is not easy, and to not get frustrated. We all make mistakes, but as long as we learn, we continue to improve. Good luck on Jaina, and i hope to see you in the Nexus!

My name is Taylor and I have been playing Heroes of the Storm for 7 months now with a focus on ranged damage dealers and supports. I stream frequently at twitch.tv/taylorgang1338. If you have any questions, my stream is educational feel free to drop a question in twitch chat anytime. This is my first guide, and I am still very new to writing guides but I would love to improve my guides, so if you have any suggestions leave a comment here!!