Nova Rework Concept

Nova rework

Nova is in a bad place right now and here is my idea on how she could be reworked into a true sniper assassin, without changing too much about her kit.

Stats:
Health 1200 (+4%per level) (reduced from 1300)
Regeneration 2.71 (+4%per level)
Mana 490 (+10 per level)
Mana regeneration 2.9 (+0.1 per level)
AA damage: 95 (+4%per level) (reduced from 105)
AA speed 1.0
AA Range 7 (increased from 6.5)

Q snipe:
Range 10
• Mana: 50
• Cooldown: 8 seconds (increased from 6 seconds)

(Take aim for 2 seconds, cannot be cancelled when cast and a red targeting line appears. (Visible to everyone)) After 2 seconds fire a shot that deals 500 (+4% per level)(increased from 230(+4%per level)) damage to the first enemy hit.

Baseline quest removed

W pinning shot
Range 8
• Mana: 65
• Cooldown: 12 seconds

(Now needs to be aimed and fired like current snipe)
Deal 100 (+4% per level) damage to the first enemy hit and Slow them by 40% for 2.25 seconds.

E holo decoy
• Mana: 50
• Cooldown: 15 seconds
Range 10

Create a Decoy for 5 seconds with 100% of Nova’s current Health, it deals 10% of Nova’s base damage. Whenever a Decoy takes damage, it deals that amount of damage to itself, effectively doubling the damage it takes.

Using this Ability does not break Stealth.

Changed functionality: Decoys no longer act on their own. Instead, holo decoy now mimics player movement and attack commands. (Ultimate (R) and Holo Decoy(E) abilities excluded)

Permanent cloak
Permanent cloak – unchanged
Added activatable:

Active
10s cooldown
Activate to switch between bolt action and semi- automatic.
Bolt Action:
Basic attack damage is increased by 150%, but attack speed is proportionally slower.
Semi- automatic:
If in bolt action mode: Basic attack damage is reduced by 150%, but attack speed is increased proportionally.

1. Ghost protocol:
60s cooldown
Activate to instantly grant Stealth to Nova and spawn a holo decoy at her location. Nova does a small backflip when activated. Nova is unrevealable for the first 1 second when stealthed by ghost protocol.

Talents
Lvl 1

  1. Explosive round(Q) (moved from level 16)

New functionality:
Quest: hit enemy heroes 10 times with snipe.
Reward: snipe deals 40% damage to enemies near the impact.
Quest: hit heroes 20 times with snipe.
Reward: snipe also pierces the first enemy hit.

  1. Covert ops(W):

Adjusted functionality

Quest: hit heroes 10 times with pinning shot.
Reward: pinning shot deals damage and applies it’s slow in a small area around the target.
Quest: hit heroes 20 times with pinning shot.
Reward: pinning shot slow is increased to 55% when fired from stealth.

3. Advanced cloaking

Adjusted functionality
Firing a basic attack from stealth, after being stealthed for 2 seconds, causes it to hit in a small aoe and deal 4% more damage.

Lvl 4
Covert mission removed
rapid projection removed

  1. 8x Scope:
    Basic attack range is increased by 1.
    Basic attacks deal 6% more damage, but basic attacks within 0-6 range always miss.
  2. Long shot (W)(moved from lvl 1): Increase the range of Pinning Shot by 30%. Hitting an enemy with pinning shot increases the range of Nova’s next basic attack by 2.
  3. Holo stability(E)(changed functionality): Reduces Holo Decoy cooldown by 25% and increase its duration by 60%.

Lvl 7

1. Perfect shot (Q)(unchanged)
2. One in the chamber
After using an Ability, Nova’s next Basic Attack within 3 seconds deals 50% (reduced from 60%) additional damage.
3. Anti- armor shells(E) (changed functionality): Holo decoy basic attacks decrease the Armor of Heroic targets by 15 for 5 seconds.

Lvl10

Triple tap:
Adjusted functionality: each shot now needs to be manually fired. (R target to fire first shot, than tap R two more times to fire the rest)

Precision strike (unchanged)

Lvl 13
Ionic force field removed

1. Psionic efficiency (Q) (changed functionality)
Passive: Increase snipe range by 2.5. Hitting a hero with snipe increases the range of the next snipe by 2.5.

2. Double tap (W) (unchanged)

3. Holo booster(E):
Snipe and Pinning Shot recharge 50% faster while having an active Holo Decoy.

Lvl 16
New talent- 1. (Q)Snipe master:
Snipe range is increased by 2.5.
It now takes 3 seconds to fire snipe.
Gambit: snipe damage is increased by 50%
Lose 10% of this damage bonus each time you fail to hit an enemy hero.

2. (W)Crippling shot (unchanged)

3. (E)Lethal decoy:
Increase the damage holo decoy deals to 40% (increased from 30%) of nova damage.

Lvl 20
Fast reload removed
Rewind removed

New talent → Penetrating rounds: triple tap missiles now pierce the first target hit (if this wasn’t the target) and ignore armor.

Precision barrage (unchanged)

Apollo suit
Additional functionality: Gain 30 armor for 3 seconds after losing stealth.

New talent: Psionic projection
Gain 1 charge of holo decoy.

60s cooldown
Activate to switch places with an active holo decoy.

That’s damn far. That will be OP AF.

This is a nerf rather than a rework or buff

This is a nerf to the decoy not a rework/buff.

So if I damage a decoy with 200 damage, it takes 400 damage instead?

The point of the decoy is to confuse the enemy to waste their abilities on it and other player behaviours to prevent the real nova taking damage.

Nova needs the speed buff. She can go out of stealth, run towards a low health target quite quickly and finish them off. It’s actually a good trait. It’s not OP nor UP.

No comment, could have its uses in different scenarios

This actually needs changing, this is one of the talents people complain about constantly. Its 0.5 seconds invisibility is not long enough and it’s a useless talent.

I would pick this option at lvl 1. She does need her burst rounds closer to early game.

Disagree, the range is needed to be the eyes in certain terrain, no one would pick this talent when 1. rapid projection is far more attractive

From your baseline AA 10 range to AA 12 range, Nova’s will just AA all day long and combine it with your “Semi- automatic:” perk. No hero can reach nova unless they flank her, and even then she’s far away and can use her “ghost protocol” to run away as a bonus.

This talent will be OP and annoying

Pretty good idea, gives players more control. Though, I suggested in an earlier post, the ult should pierce once per bullet. For example: If the first body hit is NOT the target, it will deal 100% of the damage as normal, but will pierce that hero and the 2nd body hit will deal 25% damage.

Pretty useless as a lvl 20 talent.

Long CD, I would change it to 45 seconds. Also, combine this with her AA 12 range, she can now effectively escape twice with no problems, combine this with her 1 ability then boom, pretty much unlimited escapes.

Conclusion: Some great ideas, some questionable that will make her quite OP in the sense of heroes not be able to catch her. I don’t want another hero like Samu where she can switch all the time (i know its at lvl 20) but Samu is one of the most annoying heroes to catch.

I can see myself picking the AA build and just AA’ing heroes all day long. If someone tries to flank me, then ill just escape quite easily cause I will either be next to a tower/base or just near enough to a tower/base to protect myself. Not many heroes like to flank and Nova will be a very annoying hero to catch.

Hmm, I checked Sgt Hammer and I agree. Sgt Hammer has 11 range while needing to lock down in siege mode, I gave her too much base AA range and nerfed it. I have also nerfed the talent to give 1 bonus range instead of 2.

With my rework of snipe, Snipe deals more than double damage baseline (from 230 to 500) and requires more skill to effectively use. When going for a snipe build with this rework it becomes a lot more powerfull, therefore the delay before firing is needed to balance it.

This is the current functionality of the decoy.

I have now reverted this change.

Agreed, I changed it to something which I think might be good for it.

I removed the range increase since I gave the decoy baseline 10 cast range. I’ve had the idea for another option at this talent tier, so I now merged the 2 talents, but reduced the bonuses by 50%.

Glad you like it. :slight_smile:

You’re right, I added your idea to this talent. Since it’s a lvl 20 talent, I don’t believe it is neccesary for the bullets to deal reduced damage, after they have pierced a target.

Disagree. You get an extra charge of holo decoy and as a bonus you can switch with an active one every once in a while. (+ the lvl 20 bolt of the sotrm talent has 70s cd)

I miss Nova before all the reworks they nerfed her like 3 times already if not more… The beta nova used to one shot kill everything, please bring her back. :smiley:

Thanks for the reply BlindingDoom, I know you put alot of thought and effort into nova.

With great conversation points and how the game is going, the devs don’t care about nova even though I used to play her so much in QM.

As bladerunnner said, she has been reworked a good few times and it seems no player doesn’t really like the changes, she has been improved but she still lacks something and players speculate what’s “wrong” with her…

IMO, I just think she needs a few tweaks rather than full rework. She needs minion wave clearing early on.