Nova

November "Nova" Terra, the Dominion Ghost, is a Ranged Assassin Hero from the StarCraft universe. She is a ghost of the Terran Dominion and one of the most powerful psionic soldiers ever known. Nova is highly focused, determined, and extremely deadly. Even Jim Raynor wouldn't want to be caught within her crosshairs.

Nova is a burst damage Mage who can ambush enemies from Stealth.

Background
spent the best parts of her youth as the golden child of one of 's wealthy who ran the. Though she exhibited signs of burgeoning psionic potential, Nova's parents insisted that she was merely sensitive or "empathetic", hoping to keep her abilities a secret from both the that would conscript their child and from Nova herself.

When her family was violently betrayed by separatist groups and her telekinetic powers became destructively apparent, Nova was forced into hiding in the crime-ridden slums of Tarsonis' Gutter, and was forcibly enslaved by the crimelord. However, the means he used to prevent Nova from using her psionics on him gradually wore on his sanity, and she was eventually rescued by a insurrection in Fagin's own ranks alongside Ghost Academy wrangler. She was taken off world just as Tarsonis fell to the zerg, and the Confederacy fell to give way to the Terran Dominion.

Supremely dedicated, Nova excelled as a trainee in the Ghost Academy on Ursa, eventually earning the questionable reward of a mind-wipe that erased all recollection of her tragic youth – and the majority of her long-term memory with it.

As a full-fledged operative, Nova's duties have included battling zerg, ending the insurrection of renegade enhanced ghosts named Spectres, and even dealing with noted enemy of the people Jim Raynor. Her service record has seen her assigned tasks of increasing importance to the leadership of the, and she stood ready to be dispatched on missions that will make her past pale in comparison at the whim and direct order of Emperor Arcturus Mengsk. At the crux of the, Nova was sent to capture a now deinfested Sarah Kerrigan and Jim Raynor. While Kerrigan escaped, Raynor was imprisoned.

At the end of the war, with Arcturus Mengsk dead, Nova began to serve under the new emperor, his son Valerian Mengsk. While Valerian had a much fairer government, he still required Nova's skills to keep the peace from foreign and domestic threats. Soon a contingent of supporters of Arcturus Mengsk, displeased with Valerian's more peaceful rule and outraged of his connection to Arcturus's death, created a paramilitary group named the, and staged zerg and attacks on terran worlds to erode the people's faith in Valerian. Nova helped uncover the plot, with the assistance of Alarak, and soon cornered the leader of the Defenders of Man, General. However, Nova defied orders to bring her in alive and killed Davis, declaring that her and her special forces group would operate independent of the Terran Dominion's command structure. From now on her and her forces would defend the Dominion their own way.

Gameplay
Nova is a stealthed ranged damage dealer. Her strongest point is her exceptional long-ranged single-target burst damage. She is also permanently Stealthed while out of combat, which makes tracking her position difficult. This deadly combination makes her a prime candidate for roaming. She forces fragile Heroes to constantly have to consider their positioning in order to avoid her damage, which reduces their effectiveness. As a fragile Hero with no movement Ability, Nova must rely on deception and killing her foes before they can respond.

Nova's binary nature of being outstanding versus fragile Heroes and subpar versus everything else, on top of her limited utility, makes her a niche Hero that is easily countered. She is therefore typically picked late into drafts to specifically punish compositions that rely on many fragile Heroes or lack instant defensive tools.

Strengths

 * Extremely good burst damage
 * Long Basic Attack and Ability range
 * Stealthed when out of combat
 * Effective ganks and threatening battlefield presence

Weaknesses

 * Dependent on good positioning to hit skillshots
 * Low base Health
 * Vulnerable to crowd control
 * No movement Ability
 * Excruciatingly poor waveclear and sieging

Abilities

 * See Data page for a table of scaled values at key levels.

Trivia

 * Nova first appeared in StarCraft: Ghost: Nova (November 2006 novel) and StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty (July 2010 game). Her own game (StarCraft: Ghost) was cancelled in 2014.
 * Nova is voiced by Grey DeLisle.
 * Nova may have been a replacement for Leon.
 * Nova was one of the 18 heroes revealed at BlizzCon 2013.
 * In the StarCraft series, Nova has green eyes. Initially, Heroes of the Storm erroneously portrayed her with blue eyes, but this was changed to green in Patch 2.48. However, art and action figures of Nova in Heroes of the Storm created prior to the patch still show Nova with blue eyes.
 * Scarlet Nova may depict Kerrigan before she was infested by the zerg.
 * NECA revealed the Heroes of the Storm Nova action figure at Toy Fair NY 2015.
 * Widowmaker, a character from Overwatch, appears as a skin for Nova. Conversely, Nova also appears as a skin for Widowmaker in Overwatch. Kent-Erik Hagman stated that it is unlikely that Widowmaker will be added as a separate hero.
 * When Cassia was released, the original Novazon skin was recolored from red to black to reduce confusion between the two Heroes.
 * Nova's Permanent Cloak trait is taken from the ability  have in StarCraft and StarCraft II, and the permanent cloak Nova can use in StarCraft II.
 * Snipe is an ability Nova and have in StarCraft II.
 * Holo Decoy ais an ability originated in Heroes of the Storm, but was later added to StarCraft II as an upgrade for Nova in Nova Covert Ops and an ability for Nova in Co-op Missions.
 * Triple Tap is an ability originated in Heroes of the Storm, but was later added to StarCraft II as an upgrade for Nova's in Co-op Missions.
 * Precision Strike may be a reference to Nova's ability in the canceled StarCraft: Ghost call in an orbital strike on her enemies.
 * While Nova uses the ability to call down a nuclear missile in the Heroes of the Storm intro cinematic, this ability is not present in the final game.
 * The Level 1 talent "Advanced Cloaking" is a StarCraft II upgrade Nova can give to her in Nova Covert Ops and Co-op Missions.
 * The Level 13 talent "" is a reference to the StarCraft II: Nova Covert Ops upgrade gained during the mission "."
 * The Level 20 talent "" is an upgrade Nova can earn in Nova Covert Ops in the mission "." It is based off of the upgrade for  in StarCraft.