Nova needs a buff

[Planar-11507]

@Innocence-21111

Precision Strike at level 10 it’s still a 60 seconds CD ability that shouldn’t be wasted on wave clearing

The it’s some where in the range of 55-65% the effectiveness of rags ult for soak/pushing, except it has utility in team fights*. It is perfectly fine for soaking/pushing.

*lava wave can obviously be used in team fights, but only at core or if enemy team is very stupid.

[Syrnis-2802]

@Planar-11507

I have confirmed with the HotS QA team that it not getting extra damage, but gaining the decreased attacked speed is intended. Iirc my tested showed that it giving -10 armor showed it working, but confirmation from another source would be great.

But this is the kind stuff that makes holo decoy a PITA. Why attack when there is a General or Hell or Mercenary in lane, but not when it is just minions?? (No enemy hero present in either case)

The fact you, a Nova who is probably level 100+ Has not realized this showcases the issues with holo decoy’s lack of transparency very neatly.

I normally don’t combine Lethal Decoy + AAS, despite my many games with Nova.
But it is indeed bullocks if what you say is true … just in case I will test this evening.

Decoy’s retaliation AI is based on your own activity.
First it will spawn in the same stealth status as you are, so spawning from stealth causes it to spawn stealthed.
Secondly, you need to engage in combat properly (0.5s - 1s / 1 tick) in, before it recognizes you are in combat and then starts retaliating.

Bosses, lane mercs, summons all take special priority and decoy will retaliate versus those automatically. Though I might need to test this more thoroughly just in case.

Mercs (camp and lane) + minions prioritize decoy as an attack target if spawned unstealthed.
This can be extremely useful to mitigate damage to yourself or allied minions.

Decoy’s attack priority is not fully clear to me yet, as it does not always attack the closest heroic target … which messes up my interruption attempts on channel based objectives more often than not

[Syrnis-2802]

@Planar-11507

@Innocence-21111

Precision Strike at level 10 it’s still a 60 seconds CD ability that shouldn’t be wasted on wave clearing

The it’s some where in the range of 55-65% the effectiveness of rags ult for soak/pushing, except it has utility in team fights*. It is perfectly fine for soaking/pushing.

*lava wave can obviously be used in team fights, but only at core or if enemy team is very stupid.

Agreed with this.
I almost always use precision strike for pushing waves.
At around lv 15 / 16 you can one-shot whole waves after all.
If you have plenty of specialists to push lanes for you instead, it of course is less needed

[Planar-11507]

@Syrnis-2802

Decoy’s retaliation AI is based on your own activity.
First it will spawn in the same stealth status as you are, so spawning from stealth causes it to spawn stealthed.
Secondly, you need to engage in combat properly (0.5s - 1s / 1 tick) in, before it recognizes you are in combat and then starts retaliating.

Bosses, lane mercs, summons all take special priority and decoy will retaliate versus those automatically. Though I might need to test this more thoroughly just in case.

if you’re attacking a minion wave without mercs/summons/heroes/buildings nearby and cast decoy it does not attack the wave. Just soaks damage as you state.

Now, there aren’t many great reasons to cast it like such, but it still is an odd interaction, as if there is anything besides a minion at at all, it will take offensive action.

@Syrnis-2802

normally don’t combine Lethal Decoy + AAS, despite my many games with Nova.
But it is indeed bullocks if what you say is true … just in case I will test this evening.

I should clarify, I did not test with lethal decoy itself, but baseline decoy+AAS. There is no reason I can think that lethal decoy would change this, as it is just a damage increase.

[WereElf-2100]

Okay, I tested it. The decoy does NOT get bonus damage from AAS, and it doesn’t get bonus damage from SM stacks.

[Syrnis-2802]

I just made a discovery.

When you go to try mode, the AAS bonus damage is indeed not applied to decoy.
The Decoy AI does not interact with minion waves as well … initially.

HOWEVER, here comes my discovery.

After you used B or respawned for the first time in a game (or try mode) , the effects start being applied.
Please see this image:
https://imgur.com/a/VJ7CKmV

It shows my AA + decoy’s damage to a minion it interacts with.

[WereElf-2100]

So it’s a bug… how about SM, does it also start working for the decoy at some point, or is it “working as intended”?

[Syrnis-2802]

Snipe stacks don’t carry over and is sadly ‘working as intended’.

And for those curious, Pinning Shot (W) applies a -5% speed reduction to the target (as opposed to -40%).

(Also, try mode is not very reliable with decoy if you make changes to talents / levels inbetween, so it glitches out a little bit)

[Planar-11507]

@WereElf-2100

So it’s a bug…

If you’re talking about holo decoy… the interaction that Synris found with respawmrespawn/hearth is a bug.

Decoy uses Nova’s base damage… AAS, despite modifying what you see under character details, is not Nova’s base damage.

[KillerXDLZ-1629]

I hate to have a Nova in my team:
NO WAVE CLEAR
HIGH SKILL FLOOR (You can’t miss snipe)
NO BASE AOE DAMAGE FOR HEROES (Low damage potential in Team Fights compared to 90% of assasin rooster)
ONE OF THE SQUISHIEST ASSASINS

A straight buff wouldnt fix this, it would result either in making Nova extremely broken one shoting anyone or fixing nothing.
She needs a rework that would make playing her less punishing and somewhat capable of dealing with waves

[BastilaShan-1561]

yep…nova is so weak compared to say Sgt hammer.
Not even close…

[Planar-11507]

@Syrnis-2802

I just made a discovery.

When you go to try mode, the AAS bonus damage is indeed not applied to decoy.
The Decoy AI does not interact with minion waves as well … initially.

HOWEVER, here comes my discovery.

After you used B or respawned for the first time in a game (or try mode) , the effects start being applied.
Please see this image:

I cannot seem to reproduce this (the full damage).

Was this in PTR/can you upload a replay and link as you did?

On the bright side, it does seem that AAS does not reduce the attack speed any longer… at least not in try mode on the live server.

Thank you

[Planar-11507]

@Robulosity-1495

And Tracer can easily do lane clear.

And so can nova.

Tracer baseline does 130 dps at level 1, including reload time. Melee does 27.5 dps (damage/cd) ideally.
Nova does 105 base dps, snipe adds about 38.3 (59.4 if 5 stacks), pinning shot about 8.3.

Which adds up to… Tracer dealing a whipping <4% more damage per second than Nova without any stacks on Snipe Master.
With Nova dealing a whopping about 10% more damage with Snipe Master at 5 stacks.

So, if Tracer can waveclear… it looks like Nova can also. The DPS is about the same. The issue being Nova uses mana… But if you’re in laning phase, and need to soak, who cares?

Or are we counting pulse bomb… Because, well…

@Robulosity-1495

What in gods name are you talking about? If your taking strike for lane clear as nova you need to just ALT F4 and uninstall right off the bat…

(note: your opinion here is one I strongly disagree with).

[Syrnis-2802]

Try mode is very glitchy for this particular problem.

At time of the screenshot it worked correctly (live server), but shortly after making some resets on lvl / talents it malfunctioned again - despite using B or respawns.
Correct functioning fluctuated a couple of times during the testing, after I made my post here …

So I think the problem showing is caused by try-mode area, instead of being an actual bug.

I actually do not know how to upload a replay, else I would gladly upload one of my games.

[Planar-11507]

@Syrnis-2802

I actually do not know how to upload a replay, else I would gladly upload one of my games.

it would have to be via an external service such as dropbox, google drive, mega, etc.

IF you have a replay of the AAS+decoy dealing the damage, you could send it in to the bug report email.
Heroesbugattachments@blizzard.com

I’ve already get a link to your post sent in, but you should probably also link to the following URL (one which has your image of decoy including AAS).
Nova needs a buff - #53 by Syrnis-2802?

As well as any data you have which is mentioned here

Bug Attachment Guidelines

Greetings Heroes, We will often request game logs, replays, screenshots or other diagnostic information while investigating active reports of Bugs in Heroes of the Storm. To facilitate getting this sort of information to our teams you can attachments to the email address HeroesBugAttachments@blizzard.com instead of uploading them to file sharing sites and providing a link. This should help us address your issues more effectively and be less of a headache for you. Below are a few guidelines we …

you will need to quote the url to get the full one, but it just links to your discovery.

Thank you

[PixelPerfect-11274]

The Stack Reset “mechanic” is her #1 culprit.

There’s too many reasons to enumerate in favor of simply removing that archaic method to ‘balance’ her. However, the main reason is because there’s plenty of Heroes with Stacking abilities that do WAY more damage than Nova all game long, from Early to Late, whom do NOT get their Stacks reset because the enemy dodged the shot by literally one single pixel away from the hitbox.

That’s not to mention:

• Lag provoking misses, resetting the stack.
• Teammate’s ‘x’ ability / hero mechanic causing the enemy to be pushed / knocked away / pulled / stunned (and screwing up your movement prediction ahead, ending up shooting where he would have been but missing since he was suddenly stopped), etc.
• In VS A.I. games (especially on Veteran and Elite), having a Resetting ability Versus A.I.s that read input and predict movement is an absolute nightmare and renders her even less useful than she already is in QM and other modes versus people. The A.I. will LITERALLY move away casually by 1 pixel like there’s no big deal about it (on Elite anyway, they do).

These are just the main reasons. I’m sure I’m not thinking about a bunch more right now.

Having to constantly, regularly Re-Stack regardless of builds chosen is the absolute #1 reason why Nova is garbage right now. There ARE other things to improve about her. But The Stacking crap needs to stop.

If not, then Rework ALL other Heroes that do MORE damage than Nova and give THEM a resetting mechanic too. I want to see Cassia’s Q having a Reset and taste the tears of Cassia mains out there who will finally understand how it REALLY feels like to have to re-do your entire work until it resets and having to repeat the process AGAIN.

No matter what ELSE they would bring to the table for Nova, as long as they keep the Resetting mechanic there she’ll remain extremely sub-par. Period.

[Syrnis-2802]

I just checked a replay, but it shows no damage values during the replay itself.
Also, in the live game during normal matches it behaves correctly, so not a bug.
Only in try mode it bugs out periodically, but that has no replay files of course.

If you wish, I can still upload one of my games with AAS + Lethal Decoy

[Planar-11507]

@Syrnis-2802

I just checked a replay, but it shows no damage values during the replay itself.

If the bug is happening in the replay, the developers should be able to get that data out of it.
In case you have not sent it in.

But yeah, the fact you don’t see the damage in replay… why did I forget that lol.

I’m happy to take one still, but I think just sending it in to Blizzard is probably for the best!

Thank you again Syrnis

[Syrnis-2802]

Here a LINK to one of the replays where I choose AAS + Lethal Decoy.

Seems links button doesn’t correctly work, unless you use the quote function so find below URL for replay:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dxm0m221huc7xep/Volskaya%20Foundry%20%28191%29.StormReplay?dl=0

[Planar-11507]

thank you.

I may submit your replay to the QA team, I imagine that is okay, but would still like to run it by you…

… And thank you again!