Nova needs a buff

General Discussion
57

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

3 Likes
58

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

1 Like
59

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

60

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…

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

2 Likes
61

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 … :frowning:

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.

62

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

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

Thank you

63

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.

4 Likes
64

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 :slight_smile:

65

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

66

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

67

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!

68

Make her E selectable and controllable and she’s better. I know the HotS team are anti-skill advocates so it’s unlikely to happen.

1 Like
69

You are free to send it to QA team as you please :slight_smile:
During my normal games, I did notice decoy not always fighting off minions recently while placing it unstealthed and engaged in combat.
Works properly vs camps / summons / bosses

Honestly, this would solve a lot of Decoy problems.
Pressing E while decoy is up to control it yourself, atleast movement and select targets.
Ability rotation would still be done automatically, which is W > Q > AA.

1 Like
70

she was my mainchar a long time and now i can realy say she is unplayable … over a year ago u could every second game go mvp with her and my KD with her is ultimative … but now … she is a freekill

71

What doesn’t help is people like to speak of the Nova of legend. Everyone needs to play her.

Learn to understand her AA is almost nothing. Go attack a Muradin, a Stitches, any warrior for that matter. Watch them laugh at your AA, your snipe, even your 5 stack snipe. It’s pathetic.

Learn how her every attack is blocked by a minion. No other hero has to play their game outside of minion waves to hit an enemy.

Learn how damn near every hero can walk up and smack you, invis.

She really is in a bad place.

1 Like
72

it’s almost like Nova isn’t meant to take down tanks?

A quick check on hotslogs shows per those games, we’re about equal level of MMR.

And, uh,

Muradin does?
Zeratul does?
Sonya does?
Li-ming does?

I’m sure I could find more.

73

I used to play exclusively nova, back before her invisibility was nerfed. I get on and find out it’s garbage.

Nova was a very skilled class to play and excel at. Hitting the snipe shots and being able to effectively work with your team required thinking ahead and blocking off potential escape routes.

It was a truly unique experinece unlike anything any other MOBA’s offer. Which is why I support blizzard, they lead the pack with innovation and creativity. So why would you get rid of something that made blizzard, itself?

I am leaving HoTS sylvanas black arrows are nerfed, Nova is nerfed. Tracer isn’t feasible. Not only did All the money I sank into the game to be able to afford the heroes that I like got nerfed, so did my time and care in learning their intricacies. Something new and OP is always on the horizon, instead of taking the easy way out and destroying one character making it unplayable, maybe tone it down a little bit, fine tune it?

I’ve always wanted to get into MOBAs but the learning curve is ridiculous the team fights suck and HoTS made the genre better than any before it.

Stop listening to some whining people who want anything they can’t play against to be nerfed. There is nothing uniquely playable on HoTS anymore…

I’ll check back in 5 years, maybe the game will start to go under and they’ll have to rethink some of their decisions.

74

Greetings. I think you like to play Xul.

Necromancer.

1 Like
75

She dont need a rework (20 necromancers)

Nova 4 years ago was stupid enough

76

Imagine scrolling through the thousands upon thousands of threads created by people like us and then you end up finding a thread that calls upon Nova buffs, despite the thread creation date. WeeeeeirdChamp my guy.

I’m not so sure if you realize, but Black Arrows was one of the sole reasons some maps were created around pre-rework Sylvanas because is this rule was not followed, she would literally break the map.

You sound like one of those people right now with how you are saying this.