I’m well a were that there are some other Nova rework threads around the forum, but I don’t think that posting this as a comment would be feasible.
I will base this rework concept on my old one: Nova [big] rework concept
But it was written quite badly, since I included my thought process into it and it became too huge and unreadable. Not to mention that I’ve actually started playing SC2 since then. Here I will only use the core concepts from there, but more refined and more balanced:
I will only comment on things that I’ve changed from the old concept.
Core kit
Health: 1350
Armor: 20 (assault mode); 0 (stealth mode).
Damage: 128, with 1,25 aps (assault mode); 120 with 1 aps (stealth mode).
Range: 5 (assault mode); 6,5 (stealth mode).
Reduced the Assault mode range a bit, because I’m planning to give her a new talent.
[D] Stealth/Assault Mode
Cooldown: 12 seconds.
Switch between stealth and assault mode. Each Mode has a unique set of abilities and statuses. Assault Mode has higher damage output and more survivability. Stealth Mode has bigger range, and you enter stealth when you haven’t taken damage, or used abilities in the last 3 seconds.
Any active decoys are removed, when switching to stealth mode.
I think that removing the active decoys will be better for the balance. Novas will have to commit to Assault mode, if they want to rip Assault mode benefits.
Assault Mode Abilities
[Q] Penetrating Blast
Mana Cost: 70
Cooldown: 10 seconds
Radius/range: 6-6,5
Angle: 70-75 degDeal 180 damage to all enemies within the target area.
[W] Holo Decoy
Mana cost: 50
Cooldown: 14 seconds
Range: 7,25 (down from 8)Create a Decoy for 5 seconds that appears to attack enemies, dealing 25% of Nova’s normal damage and taking double damage.
Cooldown reduced by 1 second. Just because I also changed her E ability, and long cooldown is no longer necessary (although one could argue that 1 second is kind a meaningless).
[E] Defensive Drone
Mana cost: 50
Cooldown: 12 seconds
Range: 7
Radius of effect: 3,5Call down a Defensive Drone. It takes 0.35 seconds to arrive and activate. It lasts for 4 seconds. It provides nearby allies with 175 shield and additional 45 shield every second, for 3 seconds (since the last applied shield), while it’s active.
I was thinking about the Nova that I had suggested. She was extremely bland - all she had in Assault Mode was an auto attack and her Q… her decoys too, but how were people supposed to play her? Just auto attack people and use Q on cooldown? If that’s how she was gonna be played, I think that having such a baseline ability would fit her. I will make her Ghost Maneuvers a talent instead.
Stealth Mode Abilities
[Q] Snipe
Mana cost: 50
Cooldown: 6 seconds
Range: 10,8725 (same as now)Deals 280 damage to the first enemy hit.
I reduced its damage, compared to my old concept. While it indeed used to deal 300 damage in the past, I realize that HotS itself has changed since those times. I will compensate it with a talent instead.
[W] Sabotage Drone
Mana cost: 65
Cooldown: 12 seconds
Range: 9
Radius: 2,25
Projectile speed: 20 m/sSend a drone at a targeted location. 0,25 seconds after reaching it, it explodes, dealing 150 damage to all enemies in its vicinity, and rooting them for 1,25 seconds.
[E] Ghost Protocol
Mana cost: 60
Cooldown: 20 secondsEnter stealth, and become unrevealable for 1,25 second.
Reduced the unrevealable duration by a bit, because of the changes that I’m planing.
Heroic Abilities
[R1] Precision Strike
Mana cost: 100
Cooldown: 60 seconds
Range: globalAfter a 1.5 second delay, deals 435 damage to enemies within an area.
I decided to stick with this ult… it works fine, and it’s close enough to SC2 Nova’s nuke.
[R2] Raid Suit
Mana cost: 70
Cooldown: 60 secondsBecome invisible for 3 seconds and gain 20% increased spell power, attack damage and movement speed for the duration. Taking and dealing damage does not reveal you, neither does casting abilities.
Can be used in either stealth or assault mode.
Since defensive drone is now a basic ability, I had to think of what to replace it with. And I thought that this could be fitting.
Talents
Level 1: Mana management
[Q] Operational Efficiency
Hitting an enemy hero with Snipe refunds 35 mana.
Each enemy hit by Penetrating Blast refunds 5 mana, up to 50, doubled for heroes.
[W1/E] Tactical Efficiency
Reduce Holo Decoy, Ghost Maneuvers and Ghost Protocol’s mana cost by 50%.
Also reduce Holo Decoy’s cooldown by 3 seconds.
Ghost Maneuvers is a talent, that will come on a later tier, but I’m planning for it to have mana cost, so I’m keeping it here. Although this might be unprecedented.
[D] Stance Dance
Switching between Stealth and Assault Mode regenerates 10% of your maximum mana and the cooldown between switching modes is reduced by 4 seconds (down to 8).
I felt that this talent was somewhat lacking, and not compelling. Also, since I removed the Stance Mastery talent, I baked its cooldown reduction into this one. And that’s why I also reduced the amount of mana it restores per cast, but made it instant.
Level 4: Utility
[Passive] Phase Reactor Suit
Nova moves 10% faster. The bonus is increased to 25% while she’s stealthed.
[Passive] Elite Rifle
Assault Mode basic attacks deal splash damage in a small radius around your target (probably 1,5 radius).
Stealth Mode basic attack range increased by 0,5 (to 7).
This is a new talent. I’m adding it, because SC2 Nova has splash damage in Assault Mode. But I also don’t really want to add a passive talent that benefits ONLY her Assault Mode, and having 7 range seems reasonable for a sniper.
[Active] Ghost Visor
Cooldown: 40 seconds
Activate to reveal all stealthed and invisible heroes/units around you for 5 seconds.
[Passive]: Nova’s vision radius is increased by 4.
I haven’t really touched this talent, but I was considering to reduce the vision radius bonus to 2, and add 2 more while it’s active. However, I didn’t do it, because it seems fine as it is.
[W1] Holo Tactics
Increase Holo Decoy’s cast range by 120% and its duration by 40% (2 seconds)
Level 7: Damage
This used to be a defensive tier, but I thought that Nova already has more defensive capabilities baseline with this rework, yet her damage was coming way too late, and also she didn’t have any interesting damage builds. So I’ll attempt to fix that now.
[Q1] Penetrating Barrage
Each enemy hit by Penetrating Blast reduces its cooldown by 0,5 seconds, doubled for heroes, up to 7 seconds.
Quest: Minions that die within 1,5 seconds from being hit by Penetrating Blast grant you 1 stack. Hero takedowns grant you 5 stacks. Each stack increases your Penetrating Blast’s damage by 2.
Reward: Upon reaching 100 stacks, Penetrating Blast’s radius/range is increased by 2.
This one may (or may not) need a cap on the damage. It’s not more powerful than Orphea’s Chomp quest, or Valla’s barrage quest tho, so perhaps it will be fine as is. I even suspect, that it may actually need a buff.
[Q2] Your Name’s On It
Quest: Every consecutive hit with Snipe on a hero gives you 1 stack. Failing to hit anything with Snipe removes 1 stack. Each stack reduces Snipe’s cooldown by 0,1 seconds, up to 2 seconds.
Reward: Upon reaching 20 stacks, you no longer lose your stacks upon missing with Snipe. Also, Snipe’s cooldown is reduced by additional 2 seconds whenever you hit an enemy hero, and it deals additional damage, equal to 8% of their max HP.
I quite like this talent… It can make her Snipe quite good. However, she’d be forced to stay in Stealth Mode to reap benefits from it, which I think is a fair trade off.
[E1] Assault Drone
Defensive Drone lasts 1 second longer. It also grants 25% increased attack speed for allies within its area of effect, doubled for Nova.
Defensive Drone’s radius is doubled for Nova and her Decoy(s).
Nova can be within 7 (units) radius of the drone to get benefits from it. Nova will have her DPS increased from 160 to 240, which seems fair, if she’s gonna play like an auto-attacker. For comparison, Jimmy with no talents deals around 208,6 dps while his W is active and Zul’Jin deals 294 dps while at 1 HP, with his trait active, again with no talents. While 50% dps increase can indeed sound like a lot, I think that it’s fair, considering that level 7 will determine HOW is Nova gonna be dealing her damage.
[Passive] Anti-Armor Shells
Your basic attacks ignore positive armor.
While in stealth mode, your basic attacks deal 100% more damage, but you attack 50% slower.
Quest: Basic attacks against enemies while in Stealth Mode increases your basic attack damage by 1%.Applies to your basic attack damage in Assault Mode as well. The quest reward is multiplicative with the core functionality.
I moved this one from level 16 and reduced the burst damage. I think that it has a fair competition on level 7, and I don’t want Nova to be able to stack it with the Assault Drone talent. It’s a 100% damage increase instead of 150% because of the baseline buff to her basic attack damage, as well as the multiplicative nature of the quest reward.
Level 13: Defense
[Passive] Caduceus Reactor
Nova regenerates additional 15 + 4% HP every second.
Reward: Collecting 10 Regeneration globes doubles the regeneration.
I replaced the %s with numbers. Also, now instead of starting from 0,5% and getting 0,1% per globe, and additional 0,5% upon completion, it starts from 1,11% and gets straight to 2,22% upon completion. It’s simpler this way. And I buffed it, because it’s now a level 13 talent.
[W1/E2] Ghostly Defense
Using Holo Decoy (or Ghostly Maneuvers) provides you and your Decoy with 250 shield that lasts for 3 seconds.
Using Ghost Protocol removes all DoTs from you and provides you with 30 armor, that lasts for 3 seconds after you leave stealth, or until you swap to Assault mode.
Ghost Protocol also removes DoTs from you, since this is now a level 13 talent.
[W1] Share Pain
[Active]: While enabled, 30% of the damage Nova takes is transferred to her Decoy, and 30% of the damage her decoy takes is transferred to Nova.
Has 10 seconds cooldown, which starts counting whenever you activate Ghost Maneuvers or Holo Decoy.
[Passive]: Decoy no longer takes double damage.
I think I’ve done something interesting with this talent. First I made the damage sharing optional. However, Nova must decide whether she want it or not BEFORE summoning a decoy. Then I reduced the number from the outrageous 50% to 30%. One could argue if 30% isn’t too much, considering that Nova can have a decoy more than half of the time. Her effective HP will be near to that of a squishy tank, without their defensive abilities. However, I don’t think that this would be TOO much, and the damage sharing component is a double edged sword. But if it’s too much, then I suppose that reducing it to 25% would be fine. Any less than that, however, and it will not be able to compete with the other talents on this tier. If it’s reduced to 20%, then it will be just barely numerically “better” than Ghostly Defense, but nobody will be picking this talent, due to its double edged nature.
[E1] Military Hardware
Defense Drone gets a 2-nd charge and its charge cooldown is reduced by 2 sec.
This could have been a level 16 talent, but I feel like its place is here, when it’s not combined with the Assault Drone (lvl 7) talent.
Level 16: Damage & Utility
[W1] Lethal Decoy
Increases the damage of your Decoy to 60% of your damage.
[Q2] Infernal Projectiles
Increases Snipe’s range by 2 (18,4%) and causes it to pierce through the 1-st 2 enemies it hits, hitting up to 3 targets.
Since Snipe’s damage has been baked into the level 7 talent, I thought that this utility will be quite sufficient as a level 16 talent, considering that it can double, or even tripple Snipe’s damage, while also making it more reliable, and less positioning dependent. It can be made to pierce only a single enemy. I made it pierce 2 enemies, cuz a single pierce sounds too meager for a level 16 talent.
[E2] Calldown Crippling Drone
Using Sabotage Drone doesn’t break stealth. It falls from the sky instead. The delay is increased to 0,5 seconds.
It also reduces the armor of enemies it hits by 20 for 2,5 seconds. The root is replaced by a 0,75 sec stun, and it also applies a 35% slow for 1,75 sec after the stun expires.
I combined Calldown Sabotage Drone with Crippling Drone. Just removed the extra range. I also increased the armor reduction to 20, since it’s a level 16 talent, and replaced the root with a stun. But I also reduced the slow amount from 45% to 35%.
I just really like the idea for the Drone to be falling from the sky, and wanted to keep this somehow, but it wouldn’t have worked as a standalone level 16 talent.
Level 20: Storm Tier
[R1] Precision Barrage
Precision Strike gains a 2nd charge and its cooldown is reduced by 30 seconds.
[R2] Covert Ops
Raid Suit duration is increased by 1 second and its bonuses are increased to 30% (from 20%).
I was also considering giving it an unlimited time, but making it drain mana every second, but decided not to, as it may have ended up as a “downgrade”.
[Active] Tripple Tap
Cooldown: 60 seconds
Fire 3 Snipes towards a targeted direction over 0,75 seconds, during which you can’t take other actions (like Diva’s Pew Pew Pew).
Usable while in Assault Mode as well.
Since I started playing SC2, I realized that the “Covert Ops Upgrade Cache” unlocks the “Tripple Tap” upgrade for Ghosts. And it’s a lot more like Diva’s Pew Pew Pew.
[Active] Ghost Maneuvers
Mana cost: 50
Cooldown: 20 seconds
Range: 7,25 (Zeratul has 7,15, Fenix has 9, for comparison)Blink towards a targeted location. If you are in Assault Mode, leave a (free) Holo Decoy at your old location. If you are in Stealth Mode, activate a (free) Ghost Protocol.
Most heroes who have a blink have it as a level 20 talent. While I liked the idea of Nova being one of the few who has it baseline, I thought that I can’t make her kit interesting enough if she did, I also couldn’t quite find another place where to fit it in, and so I made it a level 20 talent. However, judging by how her design turned out, I don’t regret it.
Overall Thoughts
I like this concept much better than the old one. Not to mention that the thread is actually readable. Perhaps I could’ve (and maybe should have) made Ghost Maneuvers a level 16 talent instead of level 20, but I couldn’t really think of another level 20 talent to replace it with. Especially after I baked Stance Mastery’s functionalities into other talents. Yet I don’t think it was a mistake to do so.
I think that this design is more interesting and engaging, mostly due to the new level 7 talents. And the potential builds that she now has.
Usually I’m not a fan of “thematic talent tiers”, especially when every talent tier is like that, but my inspiration brought me to this design 