This is the best Jaina build

General Discussion
1
  1. Lingering Chill
  2. Arcane Intellect
  3. Icefury Wand
  4. Summon Water Elemental
  5. Storm Front
  6. Snowstorm
  7. Deep Chill

You don’t need both Fingers of Frost and Arcane Intellect. Only one is enough. And the reason Arcane Intellect is better is because Lingering Chill is game winning where as Frost Shards and Frost Armor do diddly squat.

Icefury Wand is Jaina’s greatest DPS increase. Blizzard is Jaina’s strongest and most impactful spell by far and the cd reduc for blizzard is insane. Not to mention the double AA damage this talent gives makes Jaina’s AA a true threat. I’ve killed so many heros by AAing them. So turn her AA into nuke damage + bring in a 2nd blizzard hell of a lot quicker (as early as 5 seconds!) makes this the best talent at this level. Ice floes and Ice Shard on the other hand, I’ve never seen them make a difference because cone of cold and frost shard don’t really do much, especially a 2sec cd reduc for cone of cold. Blizzard zones and obliterates creeps. Frost Shard and Cone of Cold is just add on burst. Last but not least Icefury Wand makes Jaina kill camps like a monster. You should see how fast she clears camps.

Water Elemental with Deep Chill will render a hero permanently worthless. You should see the speed at which they crawl. Sick this on a squishy and that squishy is out of the fight either because she’s too busy running away at a snail’s pace or she doesn’t run away and she dies. This combo also lets you land multiple waves of blizzard on the same target. Also lets you kill bruiser camps without losing much hp.

Storm Front makes Jaina’s blizzard’s AoE so big it is actually a very scary zoning tool. In addition the range increase lets Jaina chase and catch heroes. I’ve killed sooooo many heroes by landing a blizzard on them during chase and the 6 second 20% slow lets my entire team catch up. And the range increase also lets you poke. Without storm front Blizzard’s range gets you within jump range of the enemy. With Storm Front you can cast Blizzard safely from a distance and go in when you see an opening. 100% safety poke, phenomenal chase tool and zoning tool. Hands down no contest Storm Front is best talent for this level.

Snowstorm severely boosts Jaina’s macro ability, and it makes her blizzards truly frightening. I’ve seen heroes walk in on her blizzard in order to chase one of my teammates only to die because he is surprised by the snowstorm damage. Even tanks gtfo after you grab this talent. And if you happened to have a teammate with a CC? Snowstorm will guarantee the CCed guy dies. I’ve never, ever, I mean ever seen Numbing Blast and Northern Exposure make a difference. EVER.

Deep Chill is game winning. No one can escape you without an escape skill and even then they’re slow enough that you can catch up. All the games wgere I made the game winning plays was with Deep Chill. Kite enemies forever. They cannot do jack once you got the 2 chills on them. She wins virtually all duels with deep chill. She can kite anyone to death. She can turn heroes in a teamfight into a glorified melee creep.

So lets talk about the elephant in the room called Icy Veins and Winter Mute. These are trap talent. The Water Elemental doesn’t cast a 2nd blizzard immediately. It casts it on the same location you cast after your blizzard ends. So in short, it will never, ever, I mean ever hit anything. Ever. So what winter mute actually does is only a +50% damage increase for frost shard and cone of cold. So the only time ever you should get Winter Mute is if you get Icy Veins. Without icy Veins this talent is not worthy of its level 20 slot.

Icy Veins is actually terrible. Unlike Rewind you still have to wait for your spells to cd so it’s not burst, it’s sustain. In addition, like winter mute, it only lets you throw out more Frost Shards and Cone of Colds, NOT blizzard. And because of Cone of Cold’s range, you are forced to get into melee range when you pop icy Veins and have to stay there for 5 seconds to get value out of your talent pick. And Jaina never survives for 5 seconds while within melee range.

And there are so many counters. A CC on Jaina kills Icy Veins. A stasis kills Icy Veins because Icy Veins only lasts 5 seconds.

The one and only time Icy Veins actually does something is if you’re part of a wombo combo team. As part of a wombo combo Icy Veins is fantastic but outside of wombo combo this talent is a trap. It will get you killed and you won’t really do that much more damage and damage doesn’t win games. Control wins games and zoning, catching, and slowing is control. Icy Veins is just sustain (NOT burst). Terrible talent.

So in conclusion:
Stay back, zone with blizzard, and go in for a burst when you see an opening. If not continue to poke and zone with blizzard while staying back so you don’t get popped. And look for AA opportunities too. If a Jaina is allowed to AA she wins the team fight.

And Icy Veins is a trap. Don’t get outside wombo combo.

1 Like
2

Personally, I’m a fan of
Lingering Chill
Arcane Intellect
Ice Floes
Either ult
Ice Barrier or Icy Veins
Numbing Blast
Any 20 depending on the game

Pre 13 you be careful and just nuke people. Poat 13 your nuke becomes somewhat safe sustaines damage.
Also over 50% up time on the root at 16 is silly.

3 Likes
3

It isn’t a trap. You’re build just doesn’t require it. Icy Veins typically goes with her machine-gun-Frostbolt build, which does not require any wombo, but that you be good at landing her frostbolts, especially while the enemy is frostbitten.

You won’t typically find it in the lower leagues because of how difficult the build can feel at first attempt. The lower tiers tend to not be good at landing abilities to begin with and so most will go with the Blizzard build. It’s more forgiving and easier to pull off but in terms of dmg, Frostbolt build tends to have higher burst in the form of DPS because of icy veins. You basically have access to a secondary ultimate every 60 seconds. However, if you cannot utilize it properly, it then becomes useless.

It’s more of a question on whether or not you’ll be able to actually pull it off and since Blizzard (the company) has applied multiple fixes to her blizzard (the ability) build, blizzard (the ability) is now much more appetising of a choice. You have better macro and you feel less useless with it since the build requires you to AA for CDR. It promotes active play, which is good.

However, I would not so easily dismiss her machine-gun-bolt-build. Somebody who can pull it off will win teamfights much quicker than somebody rocking the blizzard-build.

4 Likes
4

this is a good comment. too many posts of these have some point to make but just become absurd.

as for op the build is fine. personally its one of my favorites. def not her best build and when you say that icy veins is a trap talent you lose most of your credibility.

6 Likes
5

Could you show me the math here? Because I don’t see it. If you do show that machine-gun-bolt-build is in fact significantly more bursty than her blizzard build then I will concede and admit I was wrong calling icy veins a trap.

Single target not two. The only time I saw her machine gun build do anything was with an ETC stunning 2 guys for 5 seconds. Take the ETC out and I don’t see it.

“Machine-gun-build” is basically double frost shards and a short increased sustain with icy veins. I don’t see double frost shards doing more than Blizzard’s catch and zoning.

…maybe with winter mute it might. haven’t considered that. But anyways could you show me the math?

6

I’m not going to do the math but I have seen it in action and it hurts. And Math alone cannot explain everything.

machine-gun-bolt-build is ideal when you’re trying to focus a singular target and eliminate them hence the high burst in the form of DPS. This is what it is good at: Landing that killing blow

In theory, Blizzard build should technically do more burst, on paper, assuming you got 5 heroes sitting underneath her blizzards already frosbitten beforehand. Problem is, this is unrealistic even for one person to sit underneath all 3 shots unless the enemy got CC’d in the process. You could also argue that having multiple enemies just walking through as well would tack on to the dmg which is true, but inflated dmg doesn’t mean it has good value. You see this all the time with Junkrat, Li-ming and Lunara. I’m not saying Blizzard build is bad, because it isn’t, but all you’re doing is taking Jaina, taking her for what she is already good at, and excelling at that, while machine-gun-bolt-build allows you to keep all that without excelling at it, but instead giving her the ability to land kills more successfully. It’s much more difficult to play the machine-gun-bolt-build hence why it’s not nearly as popular.

There are videos on youtube that explain her build better than I can. I don’t play the build because it’s far too difficult for me to do. I think NotParadox may have made one in the past with it’s intended purpose as to why High tier players play the build.

1 Like
7

Behold, the shotgun build.

You have to land the second E at the right time to proc the central ring and perma root the target.
If you hit at least 5 heroes (3 outers + 2 inners), you get an ult reset.
It’s a hard combo in the heat of action.
Q, W, R, E, 2, Q, Q, E, Q, W, E.

4 Likes
8

icy veins isnt a trap and it has nothing to do with combos. you get it to use with full q build (so called machine gun build) like someone posted.

blizzard build with increased w radius is also kind of noobish, ngl. this build is better for something like ai mode or aram. its not good for storm league.

bingo. nobodys gonna just stand there unless they were mosh pitted, so this 3 wave blizzard damage is purely theoretical unlike piercing Q damage which is very easy to stack up on chilled and slowed enemies on a very low cd.

9

Imma have to disagree on this one. It’s not a bad build, but Jaina has a good amount of build diversity for different situations.

Personally, I love frost armor. Can be real handy against heavy AA hitters. But the real nice thing is the auto chill on ANYTHING that auto attacks you. Combine that with ice floes at 7 and root at 16 and you can do some nasty things to anyone who dares to autoattack you. Combine with wintermute for extra rudeness.

If you decide you don’t need Mana, lingering chill with frost armor makes people slowed for 6 seconds if they hit you.

4 Likes
10

If you hit them with RoF AT ALL, they should pretty much be dying.
You did like 6,800 alone before the second ring went off.
The combo is pointless overkill and doesn’t demonstrate anything.

The other options are good, but Frost Armor truly is under rated.

11

Think of it this way, not even tanks are safe. Also even if you miss half the combo, your still gonna one shot squishies.
You dont even have to use all of it at once either. You could have 2 “one shot level” combos at the ready to use as you see fit. Its like if pyro blast had 3 charges : p

also rip objectives with health bars with this build.

12

Where do play and how successfully to claim such bold things as Icey Veins is a trap?

Because at Masters, Icey Veins is not just more popular, but wins more as well. If something wins most, and is played more… how can it be a trap over something less played and successful?

For Blizzard build you also need to give up on your lvl 16 Root or Armor reduction which are more impactful imo.

Sure, Deepchill with increased and upgraded Blizzard hits hard, but ppl will walk out of it pre lvl 20, so you can get the most out of it in “wombos”/lockdown, in which case Icey Veins does more, does it quicker, and online a lot earlier.

You’re build is nice, but it’s actually far from best. Enjoy it but don’t try to lecture ppl over how a Heroic lvl midgame talent is a Trap…
I also usually skip it, but I don’t claim my option is better. I just like it better. Fits my playstyle.

1 Like
13

Blizzard build isn’t about damage. It’s about zoning and control. If you walk into snowstorm you lose. End of story. So to not lose you stay the **** away from the AoE. And that’s what blizzard does. Not damage but zone. And slow because like I said the range increase lets you slow people from really far away.

I’ve seen it in action too and I disagree. The only time it “hurts” is in a wombo combo. Without Icy Veins (because it’s on cd or you’re saving it) “machine gun build” is inferior to Blizzard build in every way. With Icy Veins and winter mute it still took me like 6 seconds to take out Diablo and this is with cone of cold too. You’re not gonna get 6 seconds of sustain in a real game without a wombo.

If you can get 6 seconds of sustain then you can also get all 3 blizzard waves off on the same guy AND get a 2nd blizzard off from the cd reduc from icefury.

It’s all unrealistic. The literal only time I’ve seen machine gun build work outside of a wombo is when a noob illidan jumps the jaina and she surprises him with it. This is a gimmick.

I saw those videos. It was a guy trumping up the numbers. Hitting 2 targets with cone of cold, blizzard, and frost bolt under icy veins and says this number is outstanding and why this build is the best. And that is pure BS. Anyone who doesn’t showcase numbers in a realistic scenario is just a show off. Non-frauds focus on the average scenario, not the stars aligned perfectly scenario.

Let me just make my position clear. No icy veins, your “machine gun” is just double frost shard fire rate and nothing else. Hardly a “machine gun”. Nor is the damage impressive. With Icy Veins you can shoot a shard every second for 5 seconds so that’s 5 shards. Which is what? 1500 damage? On a tank instead of a squishy? And one more cone of cold off and you’re in melee range for at least 3 seconds to get the 2 cones off.

I just don’t see it. Icy veins gets 4 more shards and 1 more cone off. On a tank that’s nothing, on a squishy that’s amazing but you’re not rewind nova. You cant’ comein from the side and unload everything onto a squishy in 2 seconds. You come in the side as Jaina and you’re dead or CCed in 2 seconds.

(actually with wintermute that’s 7.5 shards and 3 cones in 5 seconds which actually is pretty strong, games don’t last long after 20 so I haven’t been exposed to this scenario enough to give a real opinion i guess because I’ve never a QM icy veins jaina do jack. But I still maintain that pre-wintermute machine gun jaina doesn’t do much because I never see anyone being able to sustain damage for 5 full seconds without stasis/cc/etc.)

I tried to do that but you really do need mana. Jaina can’t macro **** without a mana talent.

I had the same idea as you did but turns out, chill doesn’t do anything defensively. It’s an offense only thing because if someone is capable of getting into AA range to you, slow isn’t gonna stop them (Illidan, Genji, Tracer, Diablo, Whiteman, etc.)

QM. I’m a QM guy. So if stormleague mainstays say icy veins or go home for organized play, then I’m gonna concede to that.

But in QM i haven’t seen icy veins do jack ****.

almost 60% winrate on my QM jaina.

14

I’ve found a lot of success with Lingering Chill, Frost Armor and Ice Floes, and it seems to work well in games where you have a balanced team that will spare you of spamming spells for wave clear and mercs. Mind you that the Q build is crazy good for general purpose and camp clearing, no bad choice with Jaina.

On top of the first three talents in previous paragraph, you can comfortably flex between a choice of Ice Barrier and Icy Veins, and they both demolish melee teams. Frost Armor is Straight up bonkers, but a lot of players often seem to prioritize offensive talents.

1 Like
15

Bruh, was that a 7 second root?

3 Likes
16

Lovely. I always liked the E on 7 with the mana talents on 1 and 4.

17

Spheres at 1 lvl, talents at Q - 4,7 lvls, shields at 13lvl + debaff of armour at 16lvl.

18

Im a jaina main with 75% winrate in ranked. Used to be above 80%
Icyveins can delete 1 or 2 heroes every 60s. Especially with water elem its an easy combo to pull off

So please dont give advice if you dont know what your talking about…

3 Likes
19

I’ve never seen someone with Storm front win on my team or lose to one TBH. It also competes with ICY veins which is soooooo good IMO.

I do see the potential in it but I have personally yet to see it’s value.

20

Icy Veins is 300% faster cd for 5 sec and 50% less mana consumption.
Q: 4 sec.
W: 15 sec.
E: 10 sec.

Under 5 sec: 4-5 Q, 2 W, 2-3 E.
Additional cdr from talents.
This is better than some big Blizzards which are only hard to escape once you have Deep Chill. And this is online from lvl 13. 7 lvls earlier.

Still not saying it’s bad, but not the best.

(You don’t need to go Icy in SL, I rarely did.)

How many PvP games?

I stopped divers with the Chill alone, but it also combos. You want self peel? Pick Root on 16 and whoever AAs you get Rooted.

1 Like