"My magic will tear them apart!"

Jaina Proudmoore is a mage from the Warcraft universe. First introduced in Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos, she was an apprentice to Archmage Antonidas. She was with Arthas and Uther in Lordaeron during its fall to the Scourge and fled to Kalimdor with her people. Jaina befriended Thrall and formed an uneasy alliance with the Night Elves and the Orcish Horde to stop the Burning Legion at Mount Hyjal. She then founded the port city of Theramore and worked to ease relations between the Horde and Alliance. After Theremaore's destruction by Garrosh, she became the Grand Magus of the Kirin Tor and rules Dalaran as the most powerful human sorceress in Azeroth.

In Heroes of the Storm, Jaina is a frostmage ranged assassin. Although she has low mobility and health, she makes up for it in pure aoe burst damage and control. All of her abilities apply Chill, slowing the targets and making them more vulnerable to her attacks. Jaina is a threat in every fight and has enough damage herself to greatly influence outcomes. She is a strong pusher in lanes and can clear any wave of minions or mercs in no time. Very few heroes want to go toe to toe against Jaina without allies, but the more enemies there are, the more damage Jaina can do.

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Frostbite (Trait)

All abilities Chill targets, slowing Movement Speed by 25% and amplifying damage from your abilities by 50%. Lasts 4 seconds.





Frostbolt (Q)

Mana: 30
Cooldown: 4 seconds

Deal 50 (+15 per level) damage and Chill the target.





Blizzard (W)

Mana: 75
Cooldown: 15 seconds

Bombard an area with 2 waves of ice, dealing 45 (+16 per level) damage each. Damaged enemies are Chilled.





Cone of Cold (E)

Mana: 50
Cooldown: 10 seconds

Deal 55 (+18 per level) damage and Chill targets.





Ring of Frost (R)

Mana: 70
Cooldown: 100 seconds

After a short delay, create a Ring of Frost at target location that deals 200 (+24 per level) damage and roots enemies for 3 seconds. The ring persists for 3 seconds afterward, Chilling any enemies who touch it.





Summon Water Elemental (R)

Mana: 75
Cooldown: 80 seconds

Summons a Water Elemental at target area, dealing 65 (+7 per level) damage upon impact and Chilling nearby enemies. The Water Elemental's Basic Attacks Chill enemy units, do 50 (+6 per level) damage, and splash for 25% damage.

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Winter's Reach - This talent lets you sling Frostbolts pretty far. It's great for picking off enemies, checking bushes, and being annoying. It's only real place is in Frostbolt builds since you'll be relying on burst and won't need the extra mana or chill effects from the other talents at this tier. If you get Frost Shards at level 4 you will want Winter's Reach as well to have a better chance at the piercing Frostbolt hitting another target in a team fight. The higher rank you are the better chance of playing against people who will be able to dodge it when they see it coming so far away, so it loses its impact at higher levels of play.
+ Show Spoiler [Frostbolt Range comparison] +

Lingering Chill - Mostly tempting to get to chain Frostbolts early game for infinite Chill and constant crits since Frostbolt's cooldown of 4 seconds barely lets Chill wear off before the next one hits, losing out on the crit damage. But how useful is it really? If you are fighting someone the first two Frostbolts can both hit with Chill up because you use Blizzard and Cone of Cold between the first 2 casts. But after the second Frostbolt hits, the fight has already lasted at least 4 seconds. Your next Frostbolt is up at 8 seconds and the next at 12, when your other abilities are back off cooldown to proc Chill anyway. So in an entire 15 second fight (assuming it lasts that long), Lingering Chill kept up Chill on your target for an extra single Frostbolt crit at the 8 second mark and kept them Chilled for about .5 seconds longer. How game-changing.

If you are constantly hitting a target, Lingering Chill will not give you any benefit whatsoever, because your cooldowns will allow you to keep even a 4 second duration up constantly. You could argue that the extra duration on the slow makes a difference for chasing enemies or running away when you can only apply Chill once, but Deep Chill is better in almost every situation (comparison of the two found below).

Deep Chill - Instead of increasing the duration on Chill, Deep Chill makes it a more powerful slow. Slower targets make it easier to land your abilities, and can keep enemies from being able to get out of the second wave of Blizzard. The main attraction of the talent is that it gives control over the battlefield in team fights and in essence gives your team more relative mobility compared to your opponents you hit. Especially when combined with Snowstorm, a Blizzard in the middle of your enemies can wreak havoc on their coordination and allow your team to engage.

Lingering Chill vs. Deep Chill
When comparing Lingering Chill and Deep Chill directly for overall impact to movement speed for one proc of Chill over the duration, they both come out nearly identical. Let’s assume that a Hero moves 10 spaces per second. This means that the base slow on Chill slows by 25%, to 7.5 spaces per second. Lingering Chill has a duration of 6 seconds and limits their movement to (7.5 spaces per second x 6 seconds duration) 45 spaces in 6 seconds. Deep Chill changes the rate to 6.5 spaces per second over 4 seconds, meaning a single Chill application will allow them to move (6.5 spaces per second x 4 seconds + 2 seconds of 10 spaces per second) 46 spaces in 6 seconds. So a single Chill proc will yield unnoticeable difference in total slowing amount. But since Deep Chill slows for more effect with reapplications, it is the vastly superior talent over Lingering Chill.

Conjurer's Pursuit - Not usually needed unless you are going to go a support/utility role on your team, which was really only used pre-Jaina buffs in pro games. At level 1 this talent gives ~17% increase to mana regen, and gets more significant as the game goes on. Usually if you are having mana issues you might just be spamming too many spells against minions. Don't instantly throw Blizzard and Cone of Cold at a wave to clear it unless you are at full mana or need to go do something else and want the xp from the wave first. If you are in a normal laning phase and not being aggressive there's no point to killing the waves faster unless it's to counter an enemy pushing, and if you are running out of mana to clear waves you need to just call for help or ganks. The talent relies on picking up health globes, which is generally not too much of a problem but if you aren't careful it's sometimes tempting to risk taking damage just to grab that one extra globe. Don't put yourself in harm’s way to get what is worth about 0.08 mana regen per second for a single globe. If you get the talent make sure you are present in Golem objective fights on Haunted Mines and Garden of Terror. Those Golems drop several health globes during their fights.





Frost Shards - Piercing Frostbolts allow you to hit heroes behind minions to harass in lanes (however much longer that phase lasts past level 4), pick off fleeing enemies who think they are safe behind walls or forts (these are really satisfying kills), or just hit multiple targets in team fights. It adds a lot of damage against mercenary camps, especially the giants. It also gives a higher chance to proc Ice Lance since you can hit two targets. To get any real use out of Frost Shards you have to fully commit to a Frostbolt build with Ice Lance. In a real team fight though, the extra damage of a Frostbolt hitting an additional target (which it's not even guaranteed to do) just can't measure up to Snowstorm causing issues for your opponents in such a large area. And for single target it's completely worthless, so you would rather have Envenom.

Snowstorm - Normally you don't need larger Blizzard radius to clear out a minion wave, but this makes it much easier to kill a group of multiple waves or ones that just spread out awkwardly. It's a significant increase that doesn't directly add any damage versus other players, but indirectly can change a team fight on its own. Best when combined with Deep Chill, this applies a huge slow over a large area that often makes enemies move, even if they can't get out of it before they take damage from both waves. This sets up your team to take control of the battlefield while the other team is scrambling. With this and Deep Chill, your Blizzards should almost always be able to hit your target with both waves unless they dash out of it.

By getting the radius increase of 30%, you also increase the maximum range you can hit someone with a cast of Blizzard. Since the cast spot is the center of the circle, the far edge of the circle will stick out even farther past your max cast range, slightly increasing the odds of hitting that last spell on a retreating enemy. Usually it won't make a difference, but it's worth noting.
+ Show Spoiler [Blizzard Radius comparison] +

Arcane Intellect - The mana regen from this talent is pretty crazy and you will not be able to run out of mana with it if you try. But here's how I view it: why get more mana regen to cast more spells when you can just get more damage or control so you don't need to cast additional spells to kill someone? If you are ever chasing someone who is almost dead but you have no mana for the one more spell that could kill them Envenom will finish them off just as effectively as having more mana, but also gives the option for use in front-loaded burst damage combos. Snowstorm might have let that second wave of Blizzard hit and get off that last bit of damage needed. The other talents in this tier are better than level 1 talents, so if you really want that extra mana just get Conjurer's Pursuit or wait until level 20 to get Arcane Power.

Envenom - Combined with all of Jaina's slows, Envenom makes her a very potent ganker. Rushing out of some bushes at someone at any level and getting off an Envenom/CoC/Blizzard/Frostbolt combo will quickly work down an enemy's health before they can really respond. Use Icy Veins and Envenom together and your burst can rival anyone. The only problem is that Envenom on Jaina is almost overkill. Her damage is already pretty good, and since everything she does has Chill usually she doesn't need to kill faster. If you are going a Frostbolt burst build Envenom can be great, but Frost Shards can be a decent option as well. For any other build your goal is to have a strong team fighting AoE presence, and Envenom does nothing to add to that. Envenom can be used in team compositions with stuns and control where you rotate lanes a lot, but in solo queue it's not as useful unless it's just a super scrappy game (but still always a solid choice). Envenom's damage is amplified by Northern Exposure.





Note: I'll save you some time here. Don't read any of this tier and just get Frostbitten every time. Maybe try out Ice Lance in a Frostbolt build if you want to.

Ice Flows - There's just no situation where this talent does anything except against a very huge minion wave, but why not just Blizzard that? If it made Cone of Cold 360° it still wouldn't be as good as Frostbitten most of the time. If you are close enough to enemy heroes where width on Cone of Cold will let you hit more of them, you are way too close or just got hooked and are probably dead anyway. In a fight you might hit a few things and get maybe 2 seconds off the cooldown, but what does that do compared to the damage of Frostbitten? 2 seconds off of Cone of Cold's cooldown is a 20% increase in casts of Cone of Cold and slightly more uptime on Northern Exposure or Numbing Blast, but is it worth it over a flat 15% increase to your passive? Nope.
+ Show Spoiler [Cone of Cold Width comparison] +

Frostbitten - It's just a flat damage increase to your passive. It's almost as good as having a passive Arcane Power active.

Frost Armor - Whoever attacks you is Chilled by Frost Armor. Shouldn't they be Chilled anyway? Why aren't you Chilling the enemy heroes when they are near you? This talent would have to freeze people the first time they attack you for 0.5 or 1 second to be worth it. It can be great negating that first auto attack from Novas with Anti-Armor Shells, but it's not worth gimping your own potential damage to try to block some damage from one hero on the enemy team. It's not even guaranteed to block that auto from Nova as someone else might hit you and trigger the 8 second cooldown on it. + Show Spoiler +

Ice Lance - It can actually be solid and pretty fun in Frostbolt builds to chain spam them all day. The problem is Frostbolt builds aren't too good in general, and even with a Frostbolt build, sometimes Frostbitten can still be more damage.





Ring of Frost - If you can land this talent you can burst down more than half a team's health in 2 seconds just yourself. The problem is that it's really hard to land it unless you have a team that can set it up for you. A team that has Uther or ETC can keep several people stunlocked for a long time, and if you follow it up with Ring of Frost they will melt (pun intended). The thing is, if you get Water Elemental and just summon that right off the bat it will sometimes be able to match the amount of damage anyway during Divine Storm or Mosh Pit without the chance of missing altogether and wasting an ult. When using Ring of Frost, just make sure that the enemies are either stunned or at least Chilled for a better chance at hitting them. Note the cooldown is also 100 seconds. It's a long time to wait if you miss.

Summon Water Elemental - The best summoned minion in HotS. It does damage and Chills all enemies in an area upon summon and then you can control who it attacks. No one really targets it down in a big fight either so if you cast it on the fringe of the fight it'll mostly be ignored, as most people go straight for heroes. It's pretty fast on its own and slows enemies with a ranged attack so it's pretty annoying to have it following you. The Water Elemental should be picked the majority of the time. Even though Ring of Frost has more up front damage, if the Elemental lives any length of time its auto attack will do more damage anyway, and its initial summon can let your first wave of Blizzard or Cone of Cold hit Chilled targets, making sure your frontloaded aoe burst is even stronger.





Storm Front - This makes the range on Blizzard hilariously huge. The range can even go beyond your sight range. It can be used to stop objective capturing safely from a screen away, clearing minion waves from the bushes below your lane, or hitting a perfectly placed Blizzard in a big fight on the damage dealers in the back of your opponents' group. It's tempting to use the extra range to check bushes and scout for enemies, but if possible don't do that. Use a Frostbolt instead because the cooldown on Blizzard is too long to potentially waste it. If you are against a Sgt. Hammer this will allow you to force an unsiege sometimes without taking damage.
+ Show Spoiler [Blizzard Range comparison] +

Improved Ice Block - Although it can be great in some cases, it will not save you most of the time. If you are hooked, out of position and ganked, or running from the enemy, Ice Block will only delay your death. You'll still be right there ready to die when you get out unless your team someone can chase off or kill them first. The best use for it is against a team that has good burst and assassins that jump way into your team to get to you (like Zeratul, Illidan, Kerrigan). If you are alone you're still just a sitting duck waiting patiently for your death, but in a team fight a Zeratul can't just sit there waiting for you to come out of Ice Block. He'll have to either run away, swap targets, or risk being a sitting duck himself for your team. Another good use is to counter big damage dealing ults. Nova's Triple Tap and Precision Strike, Nazeebo's Ravenous Spirit, and Diablo's Apocalypse can all be negated completely by just hitting Ice Block. It also detargets all minions and summons (Banshees, Ultralisk, Gargantuan) that were attacking you. UPDATE: Improved Ice Block is the new go-to talent here over Sprint. There are too many opportunities to burst Jaina since she has so little escape that it's needed now.

Icy Veins - If you want to get a talent that lets you completely unload on a team this is your talent. If you don't need the survivability of Sprint yet in the game and can hold off until Bolt of the Storm, or you just want to go a crazy glass cannon build, this can make your already high damage unrivaled. It lets you cast another Blizzard just 5 seconds after the first, and 2 Cone of Colds within those 5 seconds. Your Frostbolt cooldown will be about 1.5 seconds, or .67 seconds if you can chain Frostbolts with Ice Lance. Besides your own damage, the two Cone of Colds casted so fast with either Northern Exposure or Numbing Blast can really mess up an enemy team. Northern Exposure will have an uptime of 4 seconds of the first 6-7 seconds of the fight, and Numbing Blast will have everyone near you rooted twice, which especially is frustrating for enemy melee like Illidan and Kerrigan. And hey, lower mana costs too? Sure thing.

Sprint - [REMOVED] The utility from Sprint is unparalleled. Does the other team have strong gap closers that keep going for you like a Tyrael with Judgement? Sprint can get you away more reliably than Numbing Blast can. Do you need to chase down some enemies who are scattering after your team's onslaught? Sprint can get you some kills offensively. If need be you can even hit Sprint and get close enough to throw your spells at the enemy to get your team to initiate (not really recommended but again - Sprint gives you options). Compared to Ice Block, Sprint will save you a much higher percentage of the time (unless it's like Triple Tap or a targeted ability that's killing you) and give options to be aggressive as well.





Snow Crash - It can really shine in a full on Blizzard build, but that's about it. You need both Deep Chill and Snowstorm to make any use of it, and you might as well have Storm Front to let you get the perfect spot so the third wave can have a chance to do something. It will let you completely zone an area to force the enemy team to avoid it or take damage, or you can just throw it into an area with lots of action when everyone might not be able to avoid it. There needs to be some sort of tight spaces or fights that cluster up to go this route. In that case though wouldn't you rather have Northern Blast to amplify everyone's damage? Probably, and that's why Blizzard builds aren't used too much. Any time this talent would be useful so would the others, plus they are better in every other situation.

Northern Exposure - More damage to everyone you hit with Cone of Cold from your whole team for 2 seconds. This talent is amazing with a high damage or aoe team. If your team can take out the enemy's front lines quickly, you can force the rest of them to scatter and take control. Even if you have a single target heavy team Northern Exposure on anyone that gets too far in front will get them to fall back will taking heavy damage, giving your team the initiative. It's also great for giving your team extra damage on forts and golems. This will normally be the choice at this tier, but give Numbing Blast a try too, because it's just as incredible.

Numbing Blast - It's hard to really convey the usefulness of Numbing Blast. It's just so satisfying and effective to root anyone who gets near you. Any time a team has strong melee gap closers who like to dive into your team, get Numbing Blast. It will give them headaches and make them think twice before jumping at you, which makes you safer and able to concentrate on damage. If your team is retreating you can slow everyone and root them then Sprint to safety yourself. Since your Water Elemental with WIntermute gains your talents, it's possible to summon it at max range and hit enemies with Cone of Cold to root them when you aren't even close to catching them, securing kills that would be impossible to get otherwise. In a team with lots of individual stuns or roots Numbing Blast lets you set up some crazy CC chains. Stitches hook into Tyrande Lunar Flare Numbing Blast will finish just about anyone off.

Ice Barrier - If your team doesn't have any healer this can keep you alive a lot longer. Whenever you hit several people with anything the shield can get quite large. It lets you get any merc camp without taking damage, but you shouldn't really be taking them solo very often anyway.





Note - Each of the talents at this tier are viable for Jaina except for Cold Snap. That one sucks. The only mistake when choosing at this tier is if you are dying a lot and don't get Bolt of the Storm. You can't be of any use to your team if you are dead. Blizzard did a good job designing the three non-Cold Snap talents here and by removing Nexus Frenzy.

Cold Snap - It's hard enough to hit what you want to with the first explosion of Ring of Frost, but to then try to line up some damage 4 seconds after your cast is just not possible. If you ever do land both hits the damage will be unreal, but the only chance this will ever hit someone is if they don't realize that someone is dumb enough to get this talent (outside of talent-gating of course) and get caught in it because they've never seen it before. If this was in a tier with Ice Flows and Frost Armor, I would still never pick this talent.

Wintermute - If you are not dying too much and don't need Bolt of the Storm this can add some damage and even utility options. With Wintermute your Elemental will cast all of your basic spells at the same time you do towards the same spot you click. So if you cast a Frostbolt or Cone of Cold to your right, your elemental will cast it to where your cursor is, even if it's to its left (see images in spoiler for more explanation). The exception is Blizzard. If you cast a Blizzard, your Water Elemental will NOT cast one of its own in the same spot when you do. It will wait until yours is over, and THEN cast its Blizzard at that same spot, regardless of how far away it is from that spot. The Elemental will gain the use of most of your talents, but not all of them. Any talent that changes ranges, increases damage, or does something in addition to an ability's base effects will work when casted by the Water Elemental. It is possible to summon it far away from you and then have it cast Cone of Cold on an enemy to root them with Numbing Blast (as long as it had Chilled them first). The talents that don't work involve cooldowns. Ice Flows and Ice Lance both do not lower the cooldowns of your abilities if the Water Elemental was the one to proc them. A Frostbolt from your Water Elemental that hits a Chilled target will not lower the cooldown of Frostbolt by 2 seconds, and any enemies hit by its Cone of Cold will not lower its cooldown either.
+ Show Spoiler [Water Elemental Summon Range comparison] +

Arcane Power - If you get Ring of Frost you probably want to get Bolt of the Storm over Arcane Power since you most likely got Icy Veins for the burst damage instead of Sprint and need an escape. You won't need the extra damage from this anyway. If you got Water Elemental then Wintermute is probably more damage plus gives options. It's a cool talent and well designed, but the others (Bolt and Wintermute) overshadow it a bit.

Bolt of the Storm - If you get Ring of Frost this is probably your best option at this tier. You don't need the extra damage from Arcane Power if your build has Ring of Frost, because you are most likely going a Frostbolt build or a hyper-aggressive build with Envenom, and you need some sort of escape. If you get Water Elemental your choice here depends on team compositions. Are you dying a lot or you have a lack of healing on your team (Quick Match)? Then you probably want Bolt over the other talents. Bolt of the Storm can be used offensively or defensively and to hop tree lines and walls. It's just a great utility talent that you can't go wrong with.

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Note: Screenshots were from before Envenom and Sprint changes and will be updated soon, just follow the list below.

Talent Choices:

(1) Deep Chill
(4) Snowstorm
(7) Frostbitten
(10) Water Elemental
(13) Improved Ice Block
(16) Numbing Blast (Northern Exposure)
(20) Bolt of the Storm

Why go this build? This is the build of choice 90%+ of the time. It has everything you need to do some serious burst damage, cause havoc in a team fight, or duel someone 1v1.

Opening combo:
(with Northern Exposure) - Water Elemental » Cone of Cold » Icy Veins » Blizzard » Frostbolt
(with Numbing Blast) - Water Elemental » Icy Veins » Blizzard » Cone of Cold » Frostbolt
If you didn't get Icy Veins (most games) just skip it in the rotation.

Notes about the build:

• Snowstorm makes Blizzard a significant area of control during a team fight with a good synergy with Deep Chill. Most of the time both waves will hit multiple targets if placed in a good spot.
  
• Envenom's nerf made it do damage much too slowly for Jaina. She is a burst damage Hero and 10 seconds is cutting in to what should be the target's death timer.
  
• Bolt of the Storm is needed most of the time. It would be awesome to Pick Wintermute sometimes, but with the removal of Sprint you've got to survive somehow.

Talent Choices:

(1) Winter's Reach
(4) Frost Shards
(7) Ice Lance (Frostbitten)
(10) Ring of Frost (Water Elemental)
(13) Icy Veins
(16) Northern Exposure (Ice Barrier)
(20) Bolt of the Storm (Wintermute)

Why go this build? Frostbolt builds give Jaina some strong 1v1 and single target damage if you can keep refreshing Frostbolt's cooldown with Ice Lance. You'll be able to much more easily duel people but why play Jaina for 1v1 instead of picking someone else better suited for that? Jaina is an AoE hero and that's where her strengths lie, so Frostbolt builds are generally not as affective in most situations. They are pretty fun to play in Quick Match though.

Opening Combos:
(with Ring of Frost) - Icy Veins » Cone of Cold » Ring of Frost » Frostbolt » Blizzard (once they've been rooted by Ring of Frost) » auto attack and Frostbolt chain.
(with Water Elemental) - Water Elemental » Icy Veins » Cone of Cold » Blizzard » Frostbolt chain.
Slide Envenom in as early as possible if you have it, preferably when Northern Exposure would be applied to get an extra little boost.

Notes about the build:

• If you hit any enemies with Ring of Frost in a fight, unless you are outnumbered they should die. It's really the only way a Frostbolt build can have a strong presence in a team fight. It forces people on the enemy team to scatter or risk getting trapped and picked off (not to mention it does a lot of damage itself). It's best used when you have an AoE ult from someone else on your team as well, like ETC, Uther, Zeratul, Zagara. Chain any of those ults together and you should be in a great position to win the fight.
  
• If you get Ring of Frost, Bolt of the Storm should be your level 20 talent. If for some reason you just aren't dying you can increase your bust with Arcane Power but Bolt is usually more important. If you die using Arcane Power when Bolt would have saved you, you should have gone Bolt. You don't do damage when you are dead so it doesn't matter if it's increased.
  
• If you are using Water Elemental don't get Arcane Power. Both of the other talents are better for this build.
  
• Envenom is usually better than Frost Shards, but Frost Shards is fun and great for taking out mercs.
  
• Ice Barrier can be a good option if you have no healer or are getting dived constantly by Illidan, Kerrigan, or others. You lose Northern Exposure, but that's 25% increased damage for 2 seconds, versus getting a shield worth 25% of your total damage with no cooldown.

Talent Choices:

(1) Deep Chill
(4) Snowstorm
(7) Frostbitten
(10) Water Elemental
(13) Storm Front
(16) Snow Crash
(20) Wintermute

Why go this build? Short answer: for the occasion fun in a Quick Match. It's not as effective as a Standard build or even a Frostbolt build, but raining Blizzard on people from so far away and just being annoying is its own reward.

Opening Combo:
Your opening combo doesn't really matter with this build. The only thing that does matter is to make sure you hit as much as possible with Blizzard.

Notes about the build:

• It's all about the Blizzard.
  
• Your Blizzard can zone a massive chunk or the battlefield from a long range. You can stop the enemy's path of retreat with the range and force them to take the damage and be Chilled, take another route, or turn and fight the rest of your team.
  
• When solo you suck and don't have the burst that other builds have. This build is a team fighting build and you need partners to be in front of you.
  
• With Wintermute your Water Elemental will cast Blizzard at the same spot you do after yours is finished. This will keep a Blizzard going in the same area for about 4-5 seconds.

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Early Game

In the beginning of the game Jaina is one of the most vulnerable heroes. She has nothing to let her escape ganks or being caught out of position. You don't want to try to get any mercs unless you have help. As good as Jaina is 1v1, you don't want to be in the mid lane. Since mid is the most easily ganked and Jaina is so easily killed, it's best to just avoid the situation.

Solo Lane - Jaina has good minion clearing abilities and can solo a lane easily by just standing back, killing minions, and soaking the experience. Call for help from allies if you are being pushed too far and your towers are starting to take damage. With Jaina’s constant slow and aoe you can often get a kill or more if they had pushed all the way to your walls and were not expecting it.

1v1 Lane - In a 1v1 lane you need to be a bully. Keep poking at the enemy and constantly try to get crack shots off at them from range without letting them actually trade abilities. Don’t bother auto attacking ranged heroes if they try to retaliate because odds are their auto is better. Your goal should be to constantly weaken them in ways where they can’t trade ability cooldowns. For example if you are against a Tychus just use your abilities and fall back a bit before he can use Overkill and Grenade. If you use spells and then try to auto attack Tychus, he will just use his own abilities and the trade will be even or worse for you. Jaina has so much control that you don’t ever need to take damage in return. If you never let him hit you but you hit him and not the wave, he will push and be more vulnerable to ganks with less health and you will be safe near your wall. Then either rush him and chase him down with your slows or get an ally to come up behind and kill him. If he is standing in the minion wave just use a Blizzard/Cone of Cold combo on him in the center of the wave and back up. Once you’ve done some damage to him and force defensive posture you can fully commit to pushing the lane yourself. Don't push if there's enemy stealthies roaming or an Abathur on their team, as you will be hard pressed to live through a gank when you push hard.

Even Strength Lanes - Any lane that has Jaina needs to be pushing pretty hard. Try to drive the waves into the enemy towers to waste ammunition and whittle them down. Your goals should be to keep the enemy team on the back foot so you can have control of the map when the objectives start. If your team is taking too much damage while doing this the point is defeated and you won't be able to carry much momentum into the objectives. When you take damage and keep pushing, the other team can allow their towers to take a bit of punishment while some of them heal right before the first tributes, temples, or whatever. If they do that while your team has used too much mana to push or lost some health, your team can be rushed down and the momentum can quickly go the other way.

Midgame and Objectives

This is where laning and ganking become less important (except on Tomb of the Spider Queen), and more emphasis goes to the objectives. Because Jaina is so squishy and doesn't have any mobility talents yet, you must rely on your team. Make sure you are in a position with your team to slow anyone you see for a potential kill, but don't get out in front of your tank or the same could happen to you. The worst thing you can do for your team is to die at the start of a fight before you've had time to deal lots of damage.

Do your best to watch the minimap and get a feel for where the enemies are before objective phases. Always take safe routes through unknown territory and don't try any objectives alone unless you know where the enemy is or everyone's dead. The key is to not take unnecessary risks whenever possible. Don't be that guy who tries to stop their team from taking a tribute or getting the Golem boss's skulls and basically suiciding when there's no chance anyone can back you up.

Lategame and Team Fighting

Although Jaina is a strong duelist, she usually takes a lot of damage when fighting. Your goal lategame should be to never be solo unless just clearing a wave quickly if you know that you can do so safely. Always look at the minimap and keep track of where the enemy is. If you don’t know where the majority of the team is don’t rotate to a new lane through the jungle. You will be a high priority target. If you die the other team will have control until you respawn. Playing safe and staying with your team is the most important thing you can do.

Jaina is a team fighter. If you die off alone and take an enemy with you, your team lost the trade unless it was a really important enemy hero. Jaina’s full damage potential in team fights is just that good. With impactful ults, large blanketing slows from Blizzard, and debuffs or roots from Cone of Cold, not to mention your damage, Jaina can influence a fight more than most other heroes.

In a big fight, try not to be on the front line, especially if they have Stitches, Tyrande, Tyrael, or anyone who can initiate. You can poke mainly with Frostbolt while the teams are still posturing up and jockeying for position, but only if there’s no way you’ll get caught by something and picked off. If the other team starts to retreat, don’t chase them unless your whole team is doing the same. Once a fight starts, throw out everything you have. Try to hit their damage or healers to force them to back out of the fight a bit and leave their melee or tanks vulnerable and separated. If they are staying back but their tank is way up front, don’t be afraid to use some spells to slow him. This is a good time to use Cone of Cold for Northern Exposure or Numbing Blast which will both allow your team to wail on them. If they have heroes like Illidan that dive through your team at you or a healer, target them down first. Numbing Blast is incredibly good against this and can really punish that type of play.

Once you’ve used all of your abilities and are waiting on cooldowns, take a quick survey of the battlefield. If your team is being pushed back or the fight looks even, fall back a little into some bushes or around a hedge so you can’t be targeted and wait for your cooldowns. Your auto attack is not going to do much compared to living a bit longer so you can cast your abilities again. Sling some Frostbolts at any of their melee that are close enough, and jump back in once you can cast Cone of Cold and Blizzard again. If the enemy is dying or looks to be losing, stay behind your tanks but be in position to Chill any enemy close enough that is running so your team can catch up and pick them off.

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• In the Mines on Haunted Mines, try not to use both Blizzard and Cone of Cold on the same group of Undead. You might kill the first group faster but the next one will be slower and be able to do some damage to you if it's early enough in the game. If an enemy finds you when you've just used both cooldowns against the Undead you'll only have Frostbolt to try to chase them off. Just rotate using Blizzard and Cone of Cold for each pack and Frostbolt/auto attack the leftovers. The exception to this is in the first Mines phase where you might want to use both against the large Undead group if you are racing the other team.
  
• If you have Ring of Frost, try not to open with it. Use other abilities to Chill them first. Not only will this make the targets slower and easier to hit, but Ring of Frost's damage is the highest of any skill you have, so you want to have its damage boosted by Frostbite.
  
• Ring of Frost's second strike from Cold Snap does the same amount of damage as the first one.
  
• If you are having trouble hitting enemies with Ring of Frost try freezing them with Numbing Blast first, then use Ring of Frost. This will make it hard to miss, but if you have to resort to this you might want to try Water Elemental instead.
  
• Arcane Power does not increase your Water Elemental's auto attack damage.
  
• Northern Exposure does not increase the damage of your Cone of Cold cast that applies the debuff.
  
• When you die you cannot give any commands to your Water Elemental. It doesn't die when you do and will time out or be killed.
  
• Water Elemental with Wintermute gets all of your talents except the ones that lower your cooldowns. For example if you have Numbing Blast you can summon the Water Elemental at a fleeing enemy, have it chill them, and then use Cone of Cold to root them in place so you or your team can catch them. Ice Lance and Ice Flows don't give you lower cooldowns from hitting enemies with the Elemental's casts, but it does get increased width from Ice Flows.
  
• Water Elemental with the Wintermute talent will cast spells toward the same spot you target. The Water Elemental will cast Frostbolt and Cone of Cold at the same time you do, but Blizzard works differently. When you cast Blizzard, the Water Elemental will wait until yours expires and then cast its own Blizzard in the same spot, regardless of how far away from that spot it is.
  
• Envenom's damage is amplified by Northern Exposure.
  
• Snowstorm's radius increase on Blizzard allows you to hit both of the towers in a lane.
  
• Icy Veins increases the refresh rate on your basic abilities, so even if you already have them on cooldown Icy Veins will still let you cast them faster.