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… And Tracer can easily do lane clear. Her having some base kit AOE isn’t a negative either as it helps act as a determinant from low health closer’s/tank groups
Good fixes would be increasing her 1 to 2 seconds AND during that period she can’t be unrevealed similar to other stealth characters vanish. Making it so smart heals don’t also hit Decoy’s would be a good fix (although not a direct nova fix per say). The largest fix they could do is her mana scaling at low levels… 2 combo’s and she shouldn’t be nearing mana starvation. Also making triple tap less easy to break (like Ice blocking before the first charge goes off wasting the entire ultimate) and also reducing the wind up on precision strike so it falls more in line with the lack of skill needed to do a good land like Mephisto’s ultimate can.
Also removing the effectiveness/duration of stealth reveals across the board should be probably looked at… If Tassadar casts his reveal I’m not in it than wander into that area it shouldn’t retroactively reveal nova (or a stealth)
As it is, you can easily avoid nova’s direct hits in lanes (more so in friendly area’s) with minions/walls (especially now that she can’t go near keeps)
Nova throws a grenade that creates her copy, making the closest (1) enemy AA clone. Doesnt work on enemies that channel an ability.
Weak taunt basically.
I might have to check this today then, as to my understanding Lethal Decoy gets +30% of Nova’s AA damage as well. So if Nova deals 500 dmg with AAS, decoy should deal 150 dmg. It might be that the phys. armour reduction effect is not carried over, which translates to missing 15% damage.
But if it indeed does not properly apply the AAS damage buff, it might be a bug.
OitC effects are correctly applied to decoy after all.
This I agree with and it is a shame that snipe stack is not carried over anymore to the decoy as it is a severe (burst) damage loss.
It is understandable, but still a shame.
/
What I would like to see with a decoy talent buff (stable decoy / lethal decoy) is that it takes less damage to increase the uptime.
Currently it receives double damage, but if one of the talents lowered this self-inflicted damage, decoy will survive longer and be stronger in general.
Since it takes over many of Nova’s talents as well (to an extend), it would make Nova also more viable in team fights.
For example, going with snipe build + lethal decoy will chip away a good deal of health to clusters of enemies.
Or longer survivability with camps, lanes and boss assists.
Level 16 is too late to have such option in my opinion and even Precision Strike at level 10 it’s still a 60 seconds CD ability that shouldn’t be wasted on wave clearing except perhaps at 20 which is again a very late option and it has very different design than Ragnaros ult in mind.
Like many others already stated, Nova job is mostly to roam and get some kills. In my many games with her however, I wish on my way to objective to be able to clear a wave without difficulty or when our solo laner had to retreat or died that I could take over the job for a bit at ease.
AoE damage isn’t necessary only beneficial for just wave clearing, but also during a team fight, something that she really lacks in base kit, unlike Zeratul for example. (again Precision Strike is a fantastic choice on 60s CD).
Those games are my favorite especially if you have more siege than Heroes who are supposedly better at it , but in my case those numbers mostly come after 16.
That’s why as some one who really enjoys playing her, I’d love seeing her have such options earlier at 4 for example. While it isn’t a must like many already stated, for me it would be a welcome buff.
P.S I’m really enjoying this thread reading all the different opinions. I like making concept ideas in my spare time and wanted to do one for Nova but always wondered what changes Nova “main” players wanted to see in her. So far all are agreeing on giving her more control over her Decoys which is something I wouldn’t disagree with. That in theory also acts as a buff to Lethal Decoy without even reversing its numbers nerfs.
Nova dealing 500 damage with AAS talented would result in decoy dealing 60 damage if my calculations are correct.
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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
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).
, but in my case those numbers mostly come after 16.