Hi, I’ve recently started to get well with Nova again however, I’ve notice one very big problem with her which is her snipe having poor range around 10,88. For e.g. Cassia Lighting Fury have 11,1. Excuse me? Nova snipe range should be like Ana healing dart range - 12,75 or at least range of Ana sleeping dart - 11,75. It is ridiculous that sniper have lower range than average ranged character skills. Of course there are similar skills with lower range but for sniper range should be its ace. Imagine hammer siege tank being beaten in AA range by some random ranged character - it would be hilarious but at the same time stupid. So please increase snipe range to at least 11,25 (which is 0,25 more than twice of average range character AA).
6 Likes
imagine how imba a stealth hero would be, if they had that kind of range.
poke, vanish. poke, vanish. rinse repeat
5 Likes
I mean even with full stacks nOva’s DPS is bleh so I can’t really imagine her being an issue
That said me personally I never saw Nova as a Sniper, when I play her I always get more of this operative feel for her, in part because on the rare occassion I can take her into draft it’s always in a similar kind of support mage position where I’m drafting for the utility rather then raw output
And second because of how mobile I like to play her.
4 Likes
If she loses her clones or stealth (loses her characteristics that make nova herself) I’d be willing to buff the rest of her kit to be better at assassination
I hope this is you making a joke…
I mean I guess that can be a way to buff her a little, make her a saboteur and opportunistic killer?
4 Likes
Glances at the half finished Nova rework concept that incorperates elements from her Co-op commander like Defence Drones and making things like anti armour a more intrinsic part of the kit
I agree
3 Likes
Take Psionic Efficiency and then she has 12.5 range. That’s a required talent for Snipe build anyway. Problem fixed.
2 Likes
Snipe is more accurate than Lightning Fury because it has a faster missile speed. Lighting Fury could have global range, but that does not mean it would hit stuff often.
3 Likes
And you would put talent power into an ability that if you miss a single shot gimps your output for an entire fight why?
1 Like
Because that build is pretty strong. Why play Ana if your whole team depends on you hitting skill shots? Same thing with Nova.
Perfect Shot (Level 7)
Hitting an enemy Hero with Snipe reduces its cooldown by 4 seconds and refunds its Mana cost.
If you hit, you can hit more, which means more stacks.
Psionic Efficiency (Level 13)
Snipe’s range is increased by 15% and hitting a Hero grants an additional stack of Precision Sniper.
If longer range to hit, stacks quicker
Explosive Round (Level 16)
Snipe also deals 90% damage to enemies near the impact.
As long as you hit something you will deal damage to a nearby enemy or multiple enemies, waveclear.
Yes if you completely miss you’ll lose your stacks but with this build, but…
- its fairly easy to stack back up.
- longer range so you have better poke
- its a lot harder to miss once you have all 3 talents. Snipe build is good for a reason.
- you probably aren’t going to want to play Nova much anyway if you consistently miss her snipes, or you’ll choose her other builds.
This is why Nova is “niche”, for lack of better words.
1 Like
Fights are won and lsot in the time frame it takes tobuild back even with the cooldown reduction
I don’t recall any of those talents increasing the speed of the projectile so I fail to see how it gets better
Even Pro’s are going to miss the occassional shot once in a blue moon unless you literally never take a shot without a CC.
And again that build is also more mana hungry then even One in the Chamber which has much more consistent sustained damage.
1 Like
I agree as it is build for which I am going for usually my problem is that at early game - like below lvl 13 of my team is that as Nova I have small problems to hunt down even wounded heroes, simply due to lack of range.
This build is fine, but I also like the easier version with Platebreaker, especially when you have AA-Heroes like Sonya, Raynor etc. 15 armor reduction on autos is huge burst benefit. 
Well this build rewards good players and is basically useless for players who can’t hit anything. With snipe build you also get more stacks per hitting snipe and you can snipe every 2 seconds if you hit a hero → you can get the dmg bonus back very fast.
1 Like
But Melke said also:
I think Melke means that this “Sniper-build” is too inflexible compared to the platebreaker build for example, because it’s depending on hitting skillshots everytime.
But I would be interested to know what build is more successful due to some data?
4 Likes
That’s like the point of this build and also the reason there are other builds that aren’t that risky to play. Snipers should not just be spraying around - every shot counts and better take your time to aim right.
Its similar to Medivh’s Q. When you miss you will gimp your dmg and quest progression.
I think it’s totally fine to have such high risk abilities in the game.
This is free from how well the build is performing - The idea/design is fine in my opinion. How well it performs can be tuned easily with some number adjustments.
1 Like
Yes, I agree, but that’s why good Nova’s position themselves so that they are hard to focus. And they also shouldn’t Snipe unless they have a clear shot, like a sniper would. With the CDR and the 2 stacks for 1 Snipe it shouldn’t take too long. And while you’re stacking up you’re still dealing damage. I agree missing a Snipe isn’t good for Nova, but because it isn’t super difficult to stack back up, its not the end of the world.
They don’t, they just have more range, splash damage (if the splash damage hits anything it doesn’t make you lose stacks. I’m just unsure if it gives a stack if the splash damage his a hero), and lower CDR, which means you’re hitting harder and more frequent with each shot you hit until it caps off.
I agree. 100%, but every hero has the ability to miss a skill shot. I’m just arguing that Nova has a little more forgiveness when it comes to missing.
That’s why you take the mana talent at level 1, don’t soak lanes unless you’re in stealth the whole time (since stealth is how you regen mana quicker), don’t use your abilities on anything but heroes unless you desperately need to defend, or if you have the AoE Snipe talent and need to quickly clear something. This is also why Nova isn’t expected to lane. She doesn’t have the mana for it.
And it only has more sustained damage if you can’t hit a snipe to save your life. When Nova can dish out a Snipe every 2 seconds, its hard to beat, especially since the damage gets stronger after every snipe (capping off at 5 stacks).
Nova’s early game is not that great, but late game she can be a beast. Reminds me of Butcher (even if he gets his meat 20 mins in, Nazeebo (if he gets his stacks, Alarak (assuming he doesn’t die every time he stacks his sadism), W build Sylvanas (assuming she gets her stacks). Nova isn’t a 100-0 hero until later in the game. Playing her like that early game can be the death of you. Early game its better to try to finish off heroes, not burst them down from full health.
The only thing I don’t like is that you now miss out on a huge CDR talent, and your AA speed suffers because of it. The only real benefit is the armor reduction but that requires you to stay in the fight long enough to take advantage of it. Against Ray or Sonya, that’s not always easy because if they focus Nova, she will probably end up dead. Raynor is a really good duelist against squishes.
I’ll just jump in and say that there are a lot of heroes that rely on hitting skill shots. Ana being one of them in the same way.
Skill shots are a core skill to have when playing Nova. You need to get the hang of it if you want to be good at the hero. Picking other Nova builds does not mean you should never use Snipe. Missing Snipes affects Nova’s damage across all builds. Its just crucial that you are able to reliably hit skill shots with Snipe build. High risk, high reward.
2 Likes
Stealth isnt what it used to be. Stealth currently just means that by default you are untargetable, but can be revealed by abilities (damage or standard reveal).
Nova doesnt realy vanish.
5 Likes
giving what OP wants for a range increase. You would basically never even be visible to the enemy(on the same screen), and you would just need a spotter to spam snipe on something
But yes, the rework on stealth, makes stealth heroes no longer stealth… so stupid
EDIT i was a zeratul main, until that change
2 Likes
Zerathul is still very good in what his doing as dive-hero. There are some voices in the forums who calls him op.
1 Like