Bug Fixes

• Level 20
  • Triple Tap
    • Fixed an issue that allowed targets to disjoin Tripple Tap's missiles when teleporting less than 20 distance away.
    • Fixed an issue that cased Triple Tap's target to be hit twice if they become targetable in the same instance the Triple Tap missile could hit them.
    • Triple Tap missiles will no longer time out 3 seconds after firing.

Bug Fixes

• Level 16
  • Explosive Round
    • Explosive Snipe's damage modifier is now additive.

Bug Fixes

• Holo Decoys [E]
  • Will now move towards uncollected Experience Globes if they are idle.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that caused Holo Decoy's health bars to display incorrectly after losing Protected.

Bug Fixes

• Difficulty updated from Medium to Hard.
• Fixed an issue that caused Holo Decoys to be revealed to the enemy when their border becomes visible.
• Fixed an issue that caused Holo Decoys to reveal the area around them when slain for 1 second.
• Fixed an issue that caused Anti Armor Shell's Physical Armor reduction to not be removed by Stasis or Invulnerability.
• Fixed an issue that caused Holo Decoy's damage readout in the Target Info Panel to display incorrectly with Anti-Armor Shells selected while their Basic Attack is on cooldown.
• Fixed an issue that caused Anti-Armor Shells to reduce the Physical Armor of the target before the damage is dealt.
• Triple Tap will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds.
• Precision Strike will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds.
• Explosive Snipe will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds.
• Snipe no longer reveals in an area around the target.
• Rapid Reprojection icon updated.

Updates

Talents

• Level 1
  • Covert Ops [W]
    • Required Stealth duration reduced from 4 to 2 seconds.
    • Bonus Pinning Shot Slow increased from 15% to 20%.
  • Advanced Cloaking [Trait]
    • Required Stealth duration reduced from 2 to 1 second.
    • Mana per second increased from 2 to 3.
• Level 4
  • Rapid Projection [E]
    • Cost and cooldown reduction increased from 50% to 60%.
  • Holo Stability [E]
    • Additional functionality: Reduce the cooldown of Ghost Protocol by 15 seconds.
• Level 7
  • Perfect Shot [Q]
    • Changed functionality: Hitting an enemy reduces Snipe's cooldown by 2 seconds and refunds half its Mana cost, doubled against Heroes.
  • One in the Chamber [Passive]
    • Bonus damage increased from 60% to 65%.
• Level 10
  • Precision Strike [R2]
    • Cooldown reduced from 60 to 50 seconds.
• Level 20
  • Precision Barrage [R2]
    • Cooldown reduction reduced from 30 to 25 seconds.

Developer Comment: Similar to Greymane, Nova has generally been in a good spot with her talents, with a few exceptions. We're looking to stabilize some of her talents with changes to Perfect Shot and Advanced Cloaking, so they're dependable in a wider range of situations.

Bug Fixes

• Nova Holo Decoys no longer incorrectly take triple damage. They now correctly take double damage.

Bug Fixes

• Nova Holo Decoy Snipe no longer deals full damage if the Decoy dies while Snipe is in flight.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue causing Holo Decoy's Snipe projectile to be destroyed mid-flight if the Decoy died.
• Triple Tap will now immediately cancel if the target becomes invalid immediately after starting the Triple Tap cast.

Updates

Talents

• Level 1
  • Covert Ops (W)
    • Stealth requirement reduced from 5 to 4 seconds
• Level 4
  • Rapid Projection (E)
    • Cooldown and Mana cost reduction increased from 40% to 50%
  • Holo Stability (E)
    • Duration bonus increased from 100% to 120%
• Level 16
  • Explosive Round (Q)
    • Damage bonus Increased from 80 to 90%

Updates

Talents

• Level 7
  • Perfect Shot (Q)
    • No longer grants an additional stack of Snipe for hitting enemy Heroes
    • New functionality:
      • Hitting enemy Heroes now refunds the Mana cost of Snipe
• Level 13
  • Psionic Efficiency (Q)
    • Hitting enemy Heroes no longer refunds the Mana cost of Snipe
    • New functionality:
      • Now grants an additional stack of Snipe for hitting enemy Heroes

Developer Comment: We are switching some of the bonuses from Perfect Shot and Psionic Efficiency to better align their rewards and to make the Snipe build friendlier to players earlier on in the game. Most notably, players who pick Perfect Shot will no longer have to worry about running out of Mana quickly due to landing multiple Snipes in a teamfight.

Bug Fixes

• After learning Anti-Armor Shells, the Target Info Panel now displays the correct amount of Basic Attack damage dealt.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that could cause Holo Decoys to stop attacking nearby targets.
• Fixed an issue in which Holo Decoys would not Basic Attack enemy Heroes if Nova did not have enough Mana to cast any of her Abilities.
• Armor reductions granted by Anti-Armor Shells and Crippling Shot now stack correctly when applied to the same target.

Updates

Talents

• Level 7
  • Perfect Shot (Q)
    • Added functionality:
      • Each Hero hit also grants an additional Precision Sniper stack.
• Level 13
  • Ionic Force Field (Trait)
    • Armor duration increased from 2 to 3 seconds.
  • Double Tap (W)
    • Added functionality:
      • Also increases Pinning Shot's cooldown by 2 seconds.
• Level 16
  • Lethal Decoy (E)
    • Holo Decoy damage bonus reduced from 35% to 30%.
  • Crippling Shot (W)
    • Armor negation reduced from 25 to 20.
  • Explosive Round (Q)
    • Area of effect damage increased from 50% to 70%.

Updates

Abilities

• Snipe (Q)
  • Damage reduced from 245 to 230
• Pinning Shot (W)
  • Damage reduced from 105 to 100
• Precision Strike (R)
  • Damage reduced from 456 to 435
• Precision Sniper (Trait)
  • Damage per stack increased from 5 to 6%

Talents

• Level 7
  • Perfect Shot (Q)
    • Cooldown refund for hitting Heroes increased from 2 to 3 seconds
  • One in the Chamber (Passive)
    • Damage bonus reduced from 70 to 60%
• Level 16
  • Lethal Decoy (E)
    • Clone damage reduced from 40 to 35%

Developer Comment: It's nice to see that the recent changes to Nova have been so widely embraced by players. However, with the addition of some new escape tools and her ability to have multiple clones out at once, we feel like her damage potential against single targets is still a bit too high. Our data is showing that her talent tree is in a very good spot balance wise (besides a couple outliers, which you see here) so we are also lowering her base output and compensating by increasing Precision Sniper's damage.

Updates

Stats

• Health reduced from 1350 to 1300
• Health Regeneration reduced from 2.81 to 2.71

Abilities

• Snipe (Q)
  • Damage reduced from 255 to 245

Talents

• Level 16
  • Lethal Decoy (E)
    • Holo Decoy damage bonus reduced from 50% to 40% of Nova's damage

Updates

Abilities

• Snipe (Q)
  • Damage reduced from 310 to 255.
  • Baseline quest added:
    • Hitting an enemy Hero increases the damage of Snipe by 5% stacking 5 times. When at max stacks (5) it gains an additional 25% damage. If Snipe fails to hit a target, all stacks are lost.
• Pinning Shot (W)
  • Damage reduced from 110 to 105
• Holo Decoy (E)
  • Added functionality:
    • Decoys now deal 10% of Nova's damage
  • Improved A.I. functionality
• Permanent Cloak (Trait)
  • Added functionality:
    • Gain 15% movement speed while Stealthed
• Triple Tap (R)
  • Damage per shot increased from 338 to 372
• (New) Ghost Protocol (1)
  • Activate to instantly cloak, leave a Holo Decoy at your feet, and become unrevealable for .5 seconds.

Talents

• Level 1
  • Advanced Cloaking (Trait)
    • New functionality:
      • Increase your Stealth movement speed by 5% after remaining stealthed for 2 seconds. While Stealthed, gain 2 additional mana regeneration per second.
• Level 7
  • Snipe Master (Q)
    • Removed
  • One in the Chamber (Passive)
    • Bonus damage reduced from 80 to 70%
  • Perfect Shot (Q)
    • Moved from Level 16
    • Cooldown reduction on Hero hit reduced from 3 to 2 seconds
• Level 13
  • Psionic Efficiency (Q)
    • Bonus range increased from 10 to 15%
    • Adjusted functionality:
      • Now refunds the cost of Snipe on a successful Hero hit.
  • (New Talent) Ionic Force Field (Trait)
    • Gain 25 Armor for 2 seconds after losing stealth
• Level 16
  • Lethal Decoy (E)
    • Damage bonus from clones increased from 40 to 50%
  • Explosive Round (Q)
    • Moved from Level 13
• Level 20
  • (New Talent) Apollo Suit (Trait)
    • Reduce the cooldown of Permanent Cloak from 3 to 1 second
  • Precision Barrage (R)
    • Added functionality:
      • Now also reduces the cooldown of Precision Strike by 30 seconds.

Updates

Abilities

• Holo Decoy (E)
  • Sight range increased from 6 to 12 (now matches Heroes)

Talents

• Level 4
  • Remote Delivery (E)
    • Removed
  • Holo Stability (E)
    • New functionality:
      • Increases the cast range and duration of Holo Decoy by 100%
• Level 7
  • Anti-Armor Shells (Passive)
    • Added functionality:
      • Basic Attacks also decrease the physical Armor of your target by 10 for 3 seconds
• Level 13
  • Psionic Efficiency (Q)
    • Range increase from 10 to 15%

Developer Comment: We made a few changes to our resident Ghost - mostly targeted at fixing some under-performing talents. Alongside that, we figured that we may as well point Anti-Armor Shells, you know, into a direction more befitting its name.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue preventing Holo Decoy from being cast in several locations on Garden of Terror and Infernal Shrines.

Updates

Talents

• Level 7
  • Anti-Armor Shells (Passive)
    • Custom UI has been added to show the cooldown before your next attack

Updates

Talents

• Level 7
  • Snipe Master (Q)
    • Stacks are no longer lost when hitting non-Heroic targets

Bug Fixes

• Nova's status bar will no longer pop above her head while running.

Bug Fixes

• The Holo Decoy's Pinning Shot will no longer reset Nova's Covert Ops Talent stacks.

Updates

Talents

• Level 1
  • Tactical Espionage (Passive)
    • Removed
  • Advanced Cloaking (Passive)
    • Now also restores 2 Mana per second while Stealthed
  • Covert Ops (Passive)
    • Functionality changed:
      • After being Stealthed for 5 seconds, Pinning Shot's slow is increased to 55% and costs no Mana. Bonus is lost after losing Stealth for 1 second.

Developer Comment: The functionality of Covert Ops was overly complex for such a simple concept: Buff your Pinning Shot if you've been cloaked for a while. The talent was performing well, so this isn't an attempt to make it worse or better, but rather make it more clear when you have the bonus and when you don't. Tactical Espionage, however, was underperforming quite a bit, so we decided to roll some of its components into Advanced Cloaking, since the fantasy and flavor of both talents were so aligned anyways.

Bug Fixes

• After learning Cover Ops, Pinning Shot will now correctly Slow the target's Movement Speed by 60%.

Bug Fixes

• Nova: Fixed an issue causing Nova to retain Pinning Shot's fully stacked slow amount for the remainder of the match after choosing the Covert Ops talent.

Bug Fixes

• It is no longer possible for Nova to target Invulnerable Heroes with Triple Tap.

Updates

Talents

• Level 1
  • Advanced Cloaking (Talent)
    • Movement Speed while Cloaked reduced from 30 to 25%
• Level 4
  • New Talent: Covert Mission (Active)
    • Enemy Minions killed near you grant a stack of Bribe. Hero Takedowns grant 10 stacks of Bribe. Use 25 stacks to Bribe a Mercenary, instantly defeating them. Does not work on Bosses. Maximum of 100 stacks. If a camp is defeated entirely with Bribe, the camp respawns 50% faster.

Developer Comment: See for Bribe changes.

Bug Fixes

• The Novazon skin will now properly throw a Javelin when casting Snipe.

Bug Fixes

• The buff icon for the Snipe Master Talent will now properly display in the buff bar.
• Holo Decoys can now use Basic Attacks against enemy Monsters and Mercenaries. After taking the Lethal Decoy Talent, Holo Decoys will also be able to use Basic Attacks against enemy Minions.
• Will no longer receive an Invulnerability overlay on-screen if a Holo Decoy is affected by Tyrael's Sanctification, but Nova herself is outside its area of effect.
• Triple Tap's visual effects will no longer persist during an enemy Hero's post-death effect, such as Tyrael's Archangel's Wrath.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that could cancel Nova's Triple Tap when attempting to cast it on an enemy Nova who is already channeling Triple Tap on a different target.
• Fixed an issue that caused Nova's Holo Decoys to deal more damage than intended after learning the Anti-Armor Shells Talent.
• Enemies will now be able to more easily distinguish Nova's Holo Decoys from the real Nova when the Decoys are revealed.
• Attempting to cast Nova's Pinning Shot or Tyrande's Hunter's Mark on an enemy just as the target enters a Bush or Vent will no longer cause the Ability's sound effects and animations to play as though it were successfully cast.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue in which the Reset Talents button in Try Mode would not remove existing stacks of Dehaka's Essence or Nova's Snipe Master.
• The graphic effects for Dehaka's Isolation will no longer visually persist on the Battleground if it deals the killing blow to one of Nova's Holo Decoys.

Bug Fixes

• The visual effects for Nova's Precision Strike should now animate more smoothly.
• Fixed an issue that could cause Nova and Tychus to stand while mounted.
• Fixed an issue that prevented Nova from entering Stealth when activating the Ghost Protocol Talent while affected by damage over time effects.

Updates

• Health increased from 1,273 (+4% per level) to 1,350 (+4% per level)
• Health Regeneration increased from 2.65 per second (+4% per level) to 2.81 per second (+4% per level)
• Snipe (Q)
  • Cooldown decreased from 8 to 6 seconds
  • Mana cost decreased from 60 to 50
  • Perfect Shot (Talent)
    • Cooldown reduction decreased from 4 to 3 seconds
• Pinning Show (W)
  • Slow amount increased from 30% to 40%
  • Covert Ops (Talent)
    • Maximum slow amount increased from 50% to 60%

Developer Comment: We have been giving Nova slow and steady buffs in order to increase her viability without pushing her burst damage to uncomfortable levels. Each round of changes has shown us positive results—albeit not large ones. A lower cooldown on Snipe and a stronger slow on Pinning Shot should help Nova players secure kills more frequently while also helping her to contribute more during engagements and skirmishes.

Updates

• Snipe (Q)
  • Damage increased from 295 (+4% per level) to 310 (+4% per level)
  • Snipe Master (Talent)
    • Damage bonus per stack increased from 12% to 15%. This effect can still stack up to 5 times

Developer Comment: We are continuing to tune Snipe Master to make it a more attractive choice, assuming you are consistently landing your Snipes.

Bug Fixes

• The effects of Nova's Explosive Round Talent will now be properly applied to Snipe after casting Rewind and Snipe in rapid succession.

Updates

• Snipe (Q)
  • Damage increased from 268 (+4% per level) to 295 (+4% per level)
  • Snipe Master (Talent)
    • Damage bonus increased from 5% to 12% per stack
    • Maximum stack bonus increased from 50% to 60%
    • Maximum stacks decreased from 10 to 5

Developer Comment: While we are happy with the variety of Talent options Nova has after the rework, her overall damage is too low. We like Snipe Master, and it encourages a different playstyle, but a single miss resets a ton of progress toward the Talent's reward. With these changes, players will get more out of Snipe Master without having to rebuild so many stacks after a miss. We've heard a lot of community feedback and suggestions about not removing stacks as long as your Snipe hits something. We've discussed this, but feel that even if Snipe misses the intended target, it still hits something the majority of the time. By making this Talent sharp, with an obvious downside, it allows us to crank up the tuning and really celebrate flawless Nova play.

Updates

• Conjurer's Pursuit (Talent) removed
• Gathering Power (Talent) removed
• Envenom (Talent) removed
• Headshot (Talent) removed
• Spell Shield (Talent) removed
• Overdrive (Talent) removed
• Bolt of the Storm (Talent) removed
• Permanent Cloak, Sniper (Trait)
  • Advanced Cloaking (Talent) redesigned and moved from Level 13 to Level 1
    • Now increases Nova's Movement Speed by 30% while Cloaked
  • New Talent (Level 1): Tactical Espionage
    • Regenerate 4 Mana per second while Stealthed
  • New Talent (Level 20): Ghost Protocol
    • Activate to gain Stealth for 2 seconds. Taking damage, attacking, or using Abilities will not break Stealth during this time
• Snipe (Q)
  • Damage reduced from 335 (+4% per level) to 268 (+4% per level)
  • Cost reduced from 65 to 60 Mana
  • Cooldown reduced from 10 to 8 seconds
  • Psi-Op Rangefinder (Talent) removed
  • Ambush Snipe (Talent) removed
  • Railgun (Talent) removed
  • Explosive Round (Talent) moved from Level 7 to Level 13
    • Area of effect radius increased by 75%
  • Perfect Shot (Talent) redesigned and moved from Level 4 to Level 16
    • Hitting an enemy Hero with Snipe reduces its cooldown by 4 seconds
  • New Talent (Level 7): Snipe Master
    • Hitting an enemy Hero with Snipe increases subsequent Snipe damage by 5%. Stacks up to 10 times. All stacks are lost if Snipe misses an enemy Hero
  • New Talent (Level 13): Psionic Efficiency
    • Increases Snipe range by 10% and removes its Mana cost
• Pinning Shot (W)
  • Range increased by approximately 18% in order to match Nova's Basic Attack range
  • Tazer Rounds (Talent) removed
  • Covert Ops (Talent) moved from Level 7 to Level 1
    • Bonus to Pinning Shot's Movement Speed slow increased from 1% to 2% per second
  • New Talent (Level 1): Longshot
    • Pinning Shot range increased by 30%
    • Pinning Shot also increases the range of the next Basic Attack by 30%
  • New Talent (Level 13): Double Tap
    • Pinning Shot now stores up to two charges
• Holo Decoy (E)
  • Double Fake (Talent) removed
  • Remote Delivery (Talent) has been changed
    • No longer reduces Holo Decoy's cooldown
    • In addition to providing 100% increased cast range, now also grants a 50% vision range bonus to Holo Decoys
  • Lethal Decoy (Talent) moved from Level 13 to Level 16
    • Holo Decoy damage increased from 25% to 40%
  • New Talent (Level 4): Rapid Projection
    • Reduces Holo Decoy's cooldown and Mana cost by 40%
  • New Talent (Level 4): Holo Stability
    • Increases the duration of Holo Decoys from 5 to 12 seconds

Developer Comment: Nova is a crowd favorite, and always at the top of our most played list. When we sat down to talk about what we wanted to do for her, we quickly realized that a slight Talent shuffle was not going to be possible. We wanted to keep her playstyle as similar to live as possible while also addressing some of our core concerns with her, which were:

• She can be very frustrating to play against for newer players.
• She isn't viable in competitive play.
• Her Talent pick rates were not great.

This new direction for Nova addresses the first two issues by lowering her overall burst potential, while increasing her damage output overall. The most noticeable way we did this was through lowering both her Snipe cooldown and damage. For the third concern, we decided to do an overarching sweep of her Talents, removing the ones that weren't working, and created some new ones that should offer interesting choices that promote Nova's roaming and ganking nature. We realize that this is a slight departure from her long history of burst damage, but feel it is a better direction for her in the long run. We are watching her very carefully in order to react quickly and tune accordingly.

Bug Fixes

• Murky's Egg will no longer briefly display on the minimap if he is killed by Nova's Pinning Shot.
• Nova's Crippling Shot Talent will no longer allow Holo Decoys' Pinning Shots to make the target Vulnerable without the Lethal Decoy Talent.

Bug Fixes

• Holo Decoy status bar frames are now more visually consistent with Nova's.

Bug Fixes

• Brightwing's Peekaboo, Diablo's Firestorm (returning fireballs), Johanna's Blessed Hammer, Leoric's Buried Alive, Nova's Railgun, Sgt. Hammer's Napalm Strike (impact damage) and Tychus's Big Red Button (the nuke portion)

Updates

• Holo Decoy (E)
  • Nova's allies will now see Minion-sized Health bars for her Holo Decoys