Overview
Nova is a Terran commander that is all about specialization from what the game tells you. She's the first Terran commander that can be controlled on the battlefield with some rather unique traits. She is much more micro oriented; her base building is very simple. You can only build 1 barracks, 1 factory, and 1 starport. You do not train units, but call them down similar to mercs in the WoL campaign (though you call them down anywhere you have vision). Fortunately your production buildings can store up to 3 charges of each calldown. In addition, you get a free ghost academy.
She also has a 100 supply cap, and her forces are not exactly cheap; think Karax costs, then bump it up a bit more. So you can't just parade push; you need to consider what you need based on what AI you are facing. Even some of her abilities cost minerals!
Overall I think she is rewarding, but hard to pick-up. You need to familiarize with the abilities of all of your units to be successful. Her leveling perks will alleviate some of your woes fortunately. She is the first commander where I have to actively plan any assault on a location instead of just building the right unit composition. It is definitely a nice pace changer.
Units
Nova: A ranged hero sniper as you can guess. Enjoys perma-cloaking and a very powerful snipe that works on any unit, not just biologicals. Her default mode is great for picking off key units and of course, nuking locations. She has the following initial abilities:
- Snipe: like mentioned above, a very long range single strike that can target bio and mech alike. You can fire two in quick succession at full energy.
Cloak: free cloaking, what else is there to say? Be sure to take out any detectors to keep her safe.
- Sabotage Drone: deploys an invincible controllable drone that you can move to a location where it can burrow and eventually detonate for massive damage in an area. Very useful as an opener when assaulting locations.
- Detection: upgraded at your ghost academy, this makes Nova a detector. Not much else to say.
- Elite Marine: Beefy marines that come in sets of four. General purpose units that you will need to micro to keep alive. They do have 150 HP, but don't just A-move them; for 600 minerals for a single calldown, you don't want to throw them away. Initially you can get a nifty range upgrade for them, and an even more amazing one as you level.
- Marauder Commando: Beefy marauders that come in pairs. Can initially upgrade them to gain aoe concussive shells for slowing targets, and another upgrade later for more damage.
- Spec Ops Ghost: Finally, ghosts are in co-op. They come with an auto-cast snipe and can gain access to EMP rounds. Note that they do not have energy, but their abilities are time based. In fact, all abilities except Nova's are timer based. For a pair of ghosts, they are VERY expensive, so pay attention to them!
- Hellbat Ranger: Super hellbats that can gain the pre-ignitier and a "leap" attack similar to a charging strike. Perfect against swarmy enemies.
- Strike Goliath: IMO Swann's goliaths are better due to dual-targeting, but these are excellent in their own right. They can research upgraded range on both of their weapons, and eventually allow them to wreck Terran/Protoss air with a certain level perk upgrade.
- Heavy Siege Tank: beastly tanks to say the least. Taking a page out of Sgt. Hammer from Heroes of the Storm, you can upgrade them to arm themselves with spider mines that can be deployed in front of them. Another level perk upgrades makes them ridiculous on defense and assaults.
- Raid Liberators: libs make an appearance with Nova as well. They work similar to the ones in multiplayer, just with bigger numbers. Can be upgraded to allow their air-to-ground attack to target buildings, and another one later with a level perk.
- Raven Type-II: an extremely important unit regardless of what you face. I'll remind you again that Nova's units are not energy based, so don't be shy in using all of their abilities. Railgun turrets are great against any ground target, as they do 30 damage in a straight line. Bio-mechanical repair drone is basically a flying medic that heals any friendly unit (not just bio). Predator missiles are seeker missiles that have no wind-up time. Later upgrades make them even more useful too. Note that this is the only unit that is called down one at a time; most of the others come in pairs.
Covert Banshee: air-to-ground flying specialists. Best used against heavy ground compositions obviously. You can research perma-cloak for them, and another upgrade with leveling perks.
Railgun Turret: a ground defense turret that shoots railgun shots, damaging everything in a line. SCVs can build them for 200 minerals a piece, and can be salvaged later. IMO they are emergency defense unfortunately.
Missie Turret: because every commander needs static detection.
Initial Calldown Abilities
-Defensive Drone: summons a drone that protects a target with a 200HP shield. Hotkey your cooldown abilities; usage of this ability is required at all stages of the game. Can be improved later with leveling perks.
- Instant Regeneration: should Nova fall in battle, you can pay minerals to instantly revive her at any visible location. The cost is based on how much time is remaining before she revives automatically. Until you max out your supply, you may want to hold off on using this skill unless you absolutely need her out.
Level Upgrades
1) Covert Ops: just defines her traits. 100 supply, instantly trained units that are deployed wherever there is vision, and buffed up units in general.
2) Griffin Airstrike: a new calldown ability. When used, you select where the strike will start and the direction. Then the Griffin will appear and carpet bomb the targeted location for extreme damage (I don't know the exact number, but it's a lot to say the least). Just one catch: it costs 1000 minerals! So always spending minerals on units is not always the best idea.
3) Assault Mode: a new skill for Nova. Swaps out her sniper rifle for a shotgun for close range action. Obviously, she cannot snipe, and loses her cloaking, but gains that sweet spread shot from her mission pack. She also gains a blink ability that also give temporary shields. Again, this skill requires planning and knowing what you are up against.
4) Barracks Upgrade Cache: unlocks new upgrades at the barracks tech lab. Super stimpacks heal marines over time instead of damaging them. Marauders can also gain an additional attack which fires every so often (30 seconds?). Doesn't sound like much, but it is free, front-loaded damage.
5) Tactical Airlift: Your other new calldown ability. Summon the Griffin at a targeted location to pick up all friendly units (even your allies' unit) to drop them off at another targeted location. A sorely needed skill for mobility. Oh yeah, this also costs 200 minerals to do. Why does everything cost so much -_-
6) Factory Cache Upgrade: new upgrades for mech units. Goliaths can gain lockdown missiles, stunning air targets they attack. Yeah - if you are against Terran or Protoss air, you want this. Also unlocks the Siege Tank upgrade where being in siege mode gradually increases their range to about double the range! Both of these are crazy good IMO and should not be missed if you go heavy mech.
7) Automated Refineries: just like Vorazun; you get to mine gas without SCVs. In Nova's case, this is even more crucial since that's 12 supply not needed in workers, and with a 100 supply cap, that's sorely needed.
8) Covert Ops Upgrade Cache: unlocks a ghost upgrade to enhance their snipe ability into a "triple tap", where they fire 2 more shots after the initial one, each doing about 1/2 the damage of the first shot. Basically doubles the damage. Also an upgrade for Nova's life regeneration.
9) Tactical Nuke and Holo Decoy: took long enough; you can finally call down nukes in stealth mode (sniper) and create a holo decoy in assault mode (shotgun). The decoy will act on its own. Because free stuff that causes damage is always welcome.
10) Starport Upgrade Cache: unlocks the banshee ability to do an aoe ground attack, and the liberator's transformation time. The former makes the banshee's job a lot easier; before they were simply air snipers. The latter makes liberators a lot easier to use.
11) Research and Development: halves the cost and time of research upgrades. Yes please. Simple and sweet. One big note: this does not affect weapon/armor upgrades. Bummer, but still very useful in getting your troops in top performance.
12) Raven Upgrade Cache: allows the target of their healing drones to be cloaked, as well as to allow an additional charge of all of its abilities. The former sounds great on paper, but consider that many bases will have detection, and that some of the latter Hybrids are detectors themselves. The latter is amazing though; this allows you to spam their skills a lot more.
13) Military Hardware: allows you to store 2 more charges of the defense drone (to a maximum of 5), and lowers the cooldown by 30 secs (initially, it is 90 secs). Can't complain; its a skill you will use a lot, and this lets you use it more often.
14) Nova Upgrade Cache: upgrades for your hero. Snipe will refund 50% of its cost if it kills a unit, and the shotgun's ability gains increased range. Basically, more opportunity to snipe, and a much meaner shotgun blast.
15) Stance Dance: When switching between stealth and assault mode, you instantly refill your energy. The cooldown to switch is also reduced by 15 seconds. This creates some interesting micro potential for Nova, as you can spam abilities, switch, and spam some more. In addition, you get a damage buff when switching to stealth mode and temporary invincibility when switching to assault mode.
Pointers
- First thing to note: no supply depots required. Sounds amazing until you see the costs of everything she owns. Couple that with the fact that she cannot convert command centers into orbital commands; this means no MULES :( I always find myself more mineral starved than gas starved; be sure to saturate your mineral fields before saturating refineries.
- Because of how expensive everything is, you need to figure out what units you need. Units from your production buildings have a cooldown on calling them down, and it always feels like an eternity. In addition, her own calldown abilities have price tags. You really need to plan our your actions before engaging.
- Base management is simple. No need to worry about how many production buildings are needed; just make one of each. No supply blocks other than being maxed out. This means more focus on your army. Losing any unit can hurt a lot, especially in the early game where she still needs to research all of the good stuff.
- Try to be active with Nova at all times. Snipe units and deploy that sabotage drone as much as you can. Don't forget you can control where the drone (and readjust as necessary before it burrows on its own, or manually burrow it early), and that it cannot be destroyed - it appears cloaked, but cannot be attacked at all.
- Planning your attack/defense is crucial for victory. Ravens in particular need to setup their turrets and deploy their missiles; Nova needs to snipe and/or use her drone; defense drones can be set; tanks sieged up, liberators in place, etc. There's a lot of abilities to go around, and you need to use them all. "Classic" stutter-step micro can only get your so far with a low unit count. Practice using hotkeys.
- Similar to the above, planning what to spend your precious resources is also important given the prices. Except for the Raven, you need to know what you need at the right time. Save up for a Griffin Airstrike? Train goliaths for that much needed anti-air and lockdown? Ghosts for EMP against Protoss? Hellbats for zerglings? Fortunately the decisions are not so much based on what production buildings you have, since you need to build all of them anyway.
