Welcome to my Nova Guide! The point of this guide is to provide builds that while they may not be competitively viable (as her talent rework leaves very much to be desired in the way of burst damage), are still fun and rewarding for quick matches and/or custom games among friends. Also, I would not say these are separate builds but rather variations of the same build using Build #1 as a starting point. Let's get to it.

Tier 1

Your starting talent for this build is Advanced Cloaking. Longshot is indeed enticing as it allows Nova to stay safe and poke from a distance but keep in mind that the increased move speed from Advanced Cloaking allows you to harass sooner and allows you to escape easier if threatened. Also, it has great synergy with Ghost Protocol if you feel that the enemy always has a bead on your blurred stealth image and just makes you harder to hit even if they do see it.

The increased mana regen from Tactical Espionage sounds great on paper if Nova were actually mana hungry. So long as you have enough mana to pull off the combos and then retreat back into the shadows to hit up a fountain, Advanced Cloaking is the better pick.

Covert Ops also sounds great on paper but the slow on the unmodified Pinning Shot is sufficient enough so long as you do not start the combos with it. Save it for mid combo or when they turn tail and your other abilities are on cooldown (If engaging more than one enemy).

Tier 4

I grab Rapid Projection for the reduced mana cost and cooldown. This prevents her from being mana hungry and ensures that you can pull off your combo more often. For this build, Remote Delivery is not efficient as you will want to prop it down next to you and fire off your combo. There is no need for extended sight/range.

Holo Stability isn't necessarily a bad pick as it has synergy with Lethal Decoy(see Lethal Decoy variant below) but 5 seconds is long enough to prop it down and fire off your combo on a hapless target.

Tier 7

This is the talent along with Double Tap at Level 13 that make this build possible. Screwing up these talent tiers will make this build null and void! The added 80% damage on your auto attack is how you will apply your damage in between skill casts (See Build #1 combo below) No need to explain the other talents as this build focuses around this one.

Heroic Ability

This is just the all around better heroic ability choice. Triple Tap leaves you exposed too long and can be body blocked or absorbed by structures and has the longer cooldown of the two. Precision strike is much faster and will not reveal you if you use if from a safe enough distance. This has much more synergy in a team composition focusing on crowd control and area of effect damage.

Tier 13

The second Pinning Shot charge alongside Perfect Shot at 16 are what allow for the complete combo to happen. The other talents are void as we are not focusing on a snipe centered build here.

Tier 16

The reduction of Snipe's cooldown here is very important. The vulnerability of Crippling Shot is enticing as it increases damage from the entire team on the target for 2 seconds but this build's purpose isn't to turn Nova into a support role. She does the damages! (See Build #1 Level 16 updated combo below)

This is the alternative to the main build pick of if you wish to employ your Holo Decoy more offensively than defensively.

Tier 20

As the Build #1 title suggests, this is the main and "safe" build choice pick at level 20. If you are being focused, pop this and get the hell out of dodge! Also, keep in mind the synergy with Advanced Cloaking's move speed. This is what replaced Bolt of the Storm to keep you safe and allow re-positioning.

If you feel you are safe enough without Ghost Protocol and instead want to extend the combo even further, choose Rewind whereas once a minute you will be able to perform the longest version of the combo (See Rewind Variant combo below).

While a lot of burst damage potential has been robbed from Nova, she can still pack a wallop from this build by utilizing the following combo after picking up One in the Chamber upon reaching level 7:

( Snipe>Auto Attack> Pinning Shot>Auto Attack> Holo Decoy>Auto Attack)

This ensures that the extra damage from the talent is applied in between skill casts.

People still want to just spam all the abilities in a short amount of time to get in then get out with Nova. Your new role as Nova prior to Level 7 is to harass the enemy to halt their early advance. If you coordinate well with your team and actually don't initiate with Pinning Shot but rather open with Snipe and save Pinning Shot for when they start to turn tail, you can then secure kills early.

Upon reaching level 13, Double Tap allows the combo to be extended slightly. The upgraded combo is now:

( Snipe>Auto Attack> Pinning Shot>Auto Attack> Holo Decoy>Auto Attack> Pinning Shot>Auto Attack)

This is the combo that will almost guarantee kills against squishy targets and is the starting point for melting down tanks that overextend.

Upon reaching level 16, Perfect Shot extends the combo even further. The final iteration of the combo utilizing this build is:

( Snipe>Auto Attack> Pinning Shot>Auto Attack> Holo Decoy>Auto Attack> Pinning Shot>Auto Attack> Snipe>Auto Attack)

Provided you land all of your skill shots and you are in perfect position, this will definitely kill squishy targets and will definitely take down tanks to half health if not more. I recommend starting this combo against tanks after the fight has initiated and after they have incurred at least 20% of their life in damage.

This is the Rewind variant. If you feel that you are good enough at staying alive and want to crank out full on damage with an extended combo(and that the game lasts this long), then choose Rewind at level 20. The following combo is totally impractical but still fun as heck to pull off):

( Snipe>Auto Attack> Pinning Shot>Auto Attack> Holo Decoy>Auto Attack> Pinning Shot>Auto Attack> Snipe>Auto Attack> Rewind> Snipe>Auto Attack> Pinning Shot>Auto Attack> Holo Decoy>Auto Attack)

This is the Lethal Decoy variant. The change here is that you will spawn a decoy that does 40% of your damage to assist you in securing kills. Also, this changes the combo string to:

( Holo Decoy>Auto Attack> Pinning Shot>Auto Attack> Snipe>Auto Attack> Pinning Shot>Auto Attack)

The idea here is to have your decoy attacking while you apply the rest of the combo instead of bringing in the decoy at the end that did not do any damage before but was instead used to proc One in the Chamber and allow Snipe to cooldown.

Thank you very much for taking the time to view my guide. Hopefully this will make people want to play Nova again at least until they change her for the better. Nova has been my favorite Hero ever since she was introduced and it pains me that little to nobody plays her anymore.

Thanks again for viewing and I will see you...in the Nexus!