Jaina is a ranged assassins and the first true mage to set foot in Heroes of the Storm. A mage who specializes in controlling her enemies with slows, sustain damage with low cooldowns, and burst damage thanks to her passive, Jaina is a force to be reckon with every single game. Be careful though, with no movement abilities and a low health pool, she can also be taken down quite easily.

Jaina's passive is Frostbite. All of her abilities apply chill to enemies hit, reducing their movement speed by 25% and increasing the damage they take from your abilities by 50%. The chill lasts for 4 seconds.

Her first ability is Frostbolt. Jaina fires a projectile in a straight line that will damage the first target it hits.

Her second ability is Blizzard. Jaina calls down two waves of ice from the sky at a targeted location, damaging all enemies caught in the blast.

Her third ability is Cone of Cold. Jaina shoots frost out of her hands in a cone, damaging all enemies hit.

Jaina's first heroic ability is Ring of Frost. Jaina places a ring at a targeted location which explodes after a short delay, dealing damage and rooting enemies caught in it for 3 seconds. Any enemy that walks over the ring after the explosion will be affected by Frostbite.

Finally, her second heroic ability is Summon Water Elemental. Jaina summons a Water Elemental at a targeted location to fight by her side. It deals splash damage and applies Frostbite on every basic attack. The Welly lasts 20 seconds.

For this guide, I'll be going over the "Shatter Lance" build. This build focuses on maximizing the use of your passive Frostbite and spamming as many abilities as possible, for optimal damage output.



Best Choice:

For the first talent, you'll want to grab Deep Chill which increases the slow of your Frostbite from 25% to 35%. This will make your kiting and chasing potential stronger and will make it easier to land your second wave of Blizzard.

Best Choice:

At level 4, I go with Arcane Intellect. Whenever you deal damage to a chilled enemy, restore mana to your hero. Basic attacks restore 5 and abilities 25. This talent allows you to use your abilities in lane without having to worry about not having enough mana in case a fight starts. It'll also guarantee that you'll be able to spam your abilities during fights without having to worry about going oom.

Other Option:

If you are extremely comfortable with your mana consumption and are never in fear of running out of mana before or during a fight, I suggest going with Snowstorm for the increase Blizzard radius. This will make pushing waves a bit easier, and give you higher chances of landing the second wave of your Blizzard.

Best Choice:

At level 7, your build starts shaping up when you pick up Ice Lance. This talent reduces the cooldown of your Frostbolt by 2 seconds every time it hits an enemy affected by chill. You should be aiming to turn every Frostbolt into an Ice Lance so you can pump out as much damage as possible.

Best Choice:

At level 10, Summon Water Elemental is the better choice. Welly's power is absolutely devastating when used correctly and is your primary source for applying Frostbite to enemies. You can control your welly by activating the ability again and then clicking on the map to move it, or on a enemy to attack it.

Best Choice:

At level 13, grab Icy Veins. When activated, you basic ability's cooldowns will recharge three times as fast and reduce their mana cost by 50% for 5 seconds. You'll notice a huge boost in power this level when you're shooting Frostbolts out every second.

Best Choice:

At level 16, Numbing Blast is what you'll want. Any chilled enemies hit by Cone of Cold will be rooted in place for 1 second. This talent serves two purposes. First, it becomes the only reliable source of hard CC that Jaina has which will allow you to peel for yourself and your teammates. It also guarantees you'll land your second wave of Blizzard on your targets.

Other Options:

If your team has a lot of hard CC, your carries are not in need of peels, and you're having trouble getting through the enemy's front-line due to lack of damage, pick up this talent instead. It'll give you the little bit of extra damage you need to be able to burst down their front-line at the start of a fight.

If your team is lacking sustain and you're taking a lot of unavoidable collateral damage from abilities like Strafe, try out this talent. It'll provide a lot of self sustain through constant shields that last for 3 seconds. It's a very strong talent.

Best Choice:

Finally, at level 20, I highly encourage going for Wintermute. This talent will turn your Summon Water Elemental into a beast. Its cast range is increased by 50%, but more importantly it will now mimic all your abilities for 50% of their damage. This means double Frostbolt, double Cone of Cold, and 4 waves of Blizzard. Welly also applies talent effects such as the root from Numbing Blast.

Other Option:

If you feel like you don't need the extra damage from having your Summon Water Elemental replicate your spells, I highly encourage you to take Bolt of the Storm. One of Jaina's main weaknesses is her lack of mobility and this is arguably the strongest movement ability in the game. You can use it both defensively, to get away from danger, or offensively, to secure a kill.

There's a few golden rules when playing Jaina that you should be aware of. First, never start a fight with a Frostbolt after level 7. You'll want to make sure every target you're hitting with frostbolts is already affected by Frostbite so that it turns into an Ice Lance and has the increased damage multiplier.

Second, Jaina isn't about mindlessly hitting your abilities as they come off cooldown. In fact, in many occasions you'll find yourself holding abilities until other ones come off cooldown to make sure you keep the 4 second Frostbite rolling on the target.

Third, you're not an assassin in the sense that you go into a fight, blow someone up, and your job is done. No. You're a mage that focuses on consistent damage for long periods of time. Stay in the back pumping out those Ice Lances and use Cone of Cold almost exclusively defensively.

Finally, your Summon Water Elemental is not something you summon and forget about. Microing the elemental properly is one of the most important aspects of playing a successful Jaina. Keep it moving, out of danger, and constantly attacking targets that you need the Frostbite debuff on.

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.