A little about myself. I am a casual gamer these days. I mostly played MMORPGs starting at age 12 in 1999. I began playing EverQuest and never turned back to single player games. My MMR rating on HotsLog is only 2000, but I decided to write up a little guide anyways. I wanted to share my build and how I synergize it to my playstyle. In no way do I claim this as superior, or very effective in high end or competitive play. It is a build that works for me, is challenging, has a high level of fun to it, and could potentially aid you. This is a work in progress, and I will detail it further this week, so hold tight. Any and all criticism is welcome and look forward to reading feedback and implementing it in the guide and my playstyle. Thank you all.
P.S. Sorry in advance for the poor formatting. I will fix it all as soon as possible. Mostly just pushing the detailed analysis / playstyle descriptions, and will go back to format a little better.
The purpose of this build is to utilize Nova in a more aggressive and sustained way. Nova tends to do a lot of sitting around and waiting in her burst builds. Relying on the team to push enemy health bars below certain points so you can finish the job. With this build, you will be able to poke the enemy from far and do it frequently. Another thing is to constantly use the "On My Way" ping function. This will be vital for communication with the team, and works wonders as a Nova player trying to coordinate with pugs. Your main rotation will rely on timing AA between abilities.
Holo Decoy > auto attack >
Snipe > auto attack >
Pinning Shot. This will help utilize
One in the Chamber to its maximum effectiveness and give you the sustain DPS that this build is meant for. Keep in mind your rotation can change depending on the situation, but the effectiveness stays the same because of the
One in the Chamber utilization. You will notice some enemies even become bewildered by the sustained DPS in lieu of the burst. They will chase you sometimes thinking you are a sitting duck, when in reality, you are just kiting them.
Opening Up
Solo
If you are by yourself in a lane, and just soaking exp, keep a good distance and watch your positioning. Being caught alone, and out of stealth is the doom of Nova. Use your
Holo Decoy >
Snipe > and then back out, re-mount, and change position. Rinse and repeat. The cooldown on Snipe is reduced from
Psi-Op Rangefinder, so by the time you are restealthed, and repositioned, the cooldown should be reset and you should be able to use snipe again right away. Even warriors will have a hard time dealing with a snipe every 8seconds. Be aggressive, but safe.
With A Partner
When you find yourself with a second, or third person, I open up a different way. The opener for 2v2 will be
Pinning Shot >
Snipe. This will give you the opportunity to slow them down first for you or your partner, and set up your
Snipe without missing. I would suggest only opening up with pinning shot if you are 2v2 or outmatching your opponent in heroes present to the fight. If it is an uneven fight not within your favor, open up with the traditional rotation. Remember Nova is still squishy.
With Your Team
By the time level 10 hits, you should be with your team as much as possible unless you and another are on the way to roam and gank someone overextended in a lane. Open with your decoy as much as possible in the team fight. With the
Remote Delivery talent, it allows you to throw your decoy out from a very long distance. Use this to your advantage. Opening with this from far, before the teamfight can set your team up to win the engage. After planting
Holo Decoy, the enemy team will generally blow a lot of their cooldowns trying to burst it down, and even go further and hit AEs in all directions within the vicinity thinking you are close.
Thankfully due to
Remote Delivery, you are positioned a lot further than most enemies are used to. Let your team get in front of you for the engage and get ready to snipe the closest target and start your sustain combo. Use decoy as much as possible to maximize confusion and your ability to stay in the fight rather than ducking out and stealthing again. Of course there will be instances when you back out, stealth, and run around to finish someone off, but this build helps to complement the team fight while staying effective.
Level 1
Psi-Op Rangefinder
The range and cooldown of snipe being lowered greatly increases Nova's uptime and ability to stay as far away as possible. On many occasions i've finished an enemy running away based purely on the increased range and cooldown coming up. This talent is severely underrated for a character who relies on distance and a decoy as her only means of surviving.
Level 4
Remote Delivery
Nova's biggest problem is her lack of an escape. Once caught out, she is in a lot of danger. This talent choice helps to maximize her range and ability to survive. I use it in several ways.
- Enemies Confusion - Using this from far on enemies will help to force their cool downs, get an idea on their position better, and get the jump on them. Try not to engage multiple enemies, even fight or not, without popping the decoy.
- Merc Camps & Bosses - With the roaming tendencies of Nova, lowered cooldown of
Snipe &
Holo Decoy, combined with
One in the Chamber, helping with merc camps and bosses become effective with Nova. The decoy can be used to gain vision where you believe the enemy could pop out and ambush you. You will be surprised how fast you clear the camp, and your survival rate increase from being ambushed at a merc camp. Believe in the decoy.
- Finishing the Kill - Sometimes you will find yourself unable to chase an opponent down who may be running with a sliver of health. Combining
Remote Delivery with
Lethal Decoy will be a clutch way to finish off an enemy running with the sliver of health. Use your ****in decoy.
Level 7
One in the Chamber
As discussed before, this ability will be essential to your sustain and allow you to continue pushing with your team during a fight without having to restealth. I find it far superior to
Anti-Armor Shells for many reasons. There are several instances I found myself helpless to finish a kill because my auto attack was on such a long cool down. Not to mention the synergy created with the lowered cooldowns provided by
Psi-Op Rangefinder,
Remote Delivery, and
Railgun.
Level 10
Precision Strike
I almost always get
Precision Strike over
Triple Tap. Sometimes I might go triple tap depending on the situation, but overall there is so much more utility available with
Precision Strike.
- Finishing a Kill Globally - Nova excels in map awareness. Take advantage of it. Keep an eye on everyone's health. That is your job. Oftentimes you will find an enemy at low health being chased, running from team fight, solo questing at low health, or just overextended. Use
Precision Strike and finish the job.
- Team Fights - One of Nova's glaring weaknesses is her lack of presence in the team fight. The build I am explaining combined with the only Team Fight ability she has makes it far superior in teamfighting. Catching multiple enemies in this during a stun can change the course of a fight. Again, this is can be used globally from anywhere, so pay attention because you could help your team from across the map while you are en route.
- Escapes & Peeling - Another great way to use
Precision Strike is to use it as a means to create space between yourself and the enemy, or a teammate and an enemy. Many times I have saved myself or my teammate by dropping a well placed
Precision Strike to create space. The enemy has to make a choice, do they walk through the damage and keep chasing, or get the **** out. With two charges you can effectively peel and/or get a kill during the peel process.
Level 13
Lethal Decoy
This ability will help to finish kills and further confuse your enemies. Now that your decoy is doing damage, it will be slightly more difficult for the enemy to figure out which Nova is real. This ability also helps you stay up longer with the added confusion and help sustain more damage with the added damage. Sometimes I will pick
Double Fake to go along with this in lieu of
Railgun depending on the situation and honestly it is a coinflip.
Level 16
Railgun
Coupled with the longer range on snipe from psi-op pathfinder, this talent helps to not only increase the amount of damage during team fights, it will help to lower the cooldown of snipe to synergize more with
One in the Chamber. The synergy of
Psi-Op Rangefinder and
Railgun on the cooldown of
Snipe is insane. By level 16, I find myself sniping every 5-6 seconds in a teamfight, if not faster.
- Teamfights - Position, position, position. Not only for your own survival, but to help utilize
Railgun talent. You can easily set up to snipe 2-3 people in a teamfight, sometimes more.
- Chasing the Kill - If the enemies are fleeing, this is especially useful. Pop your
Holo Decoy ahead of them to pop them off mount / start trying to finish. You should be able to catch two enemies in a line, and probably at a low health.
- Kiting & Escape - Oftentimes you will find yourself trying to escape a possible gank with 2-3 enemies on your tail. I generally like to pop
Pinning Shot on the enemy with the most "Dive" ability to create some space. Enemies chasing you generally are in a straight line. Fire a
Snipe as close to your
Pinning Shot as possible so you do damage and begin the countdown for stealth again.
NOTE: I sometimes will pick
Double Fake in lieu of
Railgun if I find myself being spotted more often than not. The extra DPS with
Lethal Decoy more than synergizes with the build.
Railgun takes some practice to get used to.
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