HOTS guide collections

https://gfycat.com/BlaringDistantKitfox

For talent reference: http://www.hotslogs.com/Sitewide/HeroDetails?Hero=Jaina
Ring of Frost Combo

Demonstration

https://gfycat.com/PassionatePoliticalIndri

Required Talents

• Level 7: Frostbitten
  
• Level 10: Ring of Frost
  
• Level 13: Icy Veins (Optional)
  
• Level 16: Northern Exposure or Snow Crash
  
• Level 20: Arcane Power
  

Execution

• 2 - Arcane Power
  
• W - Blizzard
  
• E - Cone of Cold
  
• R - Ring of Frost
  
• Q - Frostbolt
  

Damage (Level 20)

• Northern Exposure: 4618
  
• Snow Crash: 4454
  

Water Elemental Combo

Demonstration

https://gfycat.com/UniquePhysicalLadybird

Required Talents

• Level 7: Frostbitten
  
• Level 10: Summon Water Elemental
  
• Level 13: Icy Veins (Optional)
  
• Level 16: Northern Exposure or Snow Crash
  
• Level 20: Arcane Power or Wintermute
  

Execution

• 2 - Arcane Power (if taken)
  
• R - Summon Water Elemental
  
• W - Blizzard
  
• E - Cone of Cold
  
• Q - Frostbolt
  

Damage (Level 20)

• Snow Crash & Arcane Power: 4017 to 6967
  
• Snow Crash & WinterMute: 6051 to 8064
  
• Northern Exposure & Arcane Power: 3580 to 6923
  
• Northern Exposure & Wintermute: 5089 to 7909
  

Defensive Build

Demonstration

Summon Water Elemental

https://gfycat.com/RareDazzlingBluebreastedkookaburra

Ring of Frost

https://gfycat.com/OldSoreAsianelephant

Required Talents

• Level 7: Frost Armor
  
• Level 10: Ring of Frost or Summon Water Elemental
  
• Level 13: Ice Barrier
  
• Level 16: Numbing Blast
  
• Level 20: Improved Ice Block
  

Execution

• R - Summon Water Elemental (if chosen)
  
• E - Cone of Cold
  
• W - Blizzard
  
• Q - Frostbolt
  

Else

• Q - Frostbolt
  
• E - Cone of Cold
  
• W - Blizzard
  
• R - Ring of Frost (if chosen)
  

Damage (Level 20)

• Summon Water Elemental: 3025 to 5762
  
• Ring of Frost: 2304
  

Comments

Jaina is largely considered to be weaker than Kael’thas and Li-Ming in the current meta and hasn’t seen competitive play in a while. However, when talented to be a glass cannon, Jaina still deals a large amount of damage and both her ultimates provide a lot of great CC. Of course, this leaves her incredibly vulnerable without any hard CC (other than Ring of Frost), shields, or the Ice Block at Level 20, but the damage numbers of her defensive build are notably lackluster.

Coming up with the damage numbers for Jaina was particularly intensive because of the variety in her talents. I won’t go into each individual number or each build, but for the Summon Water Elemental (R) builds the first damage number is immediately after Blizzard ends and the second damage number is after Water Elemental ends. It’s worth noting that this will cause some discrepancy as the Snow Crash talent at Level 16 creates 3 waves, meaning that the first number includes more Water Elemental auto-attacks. I tried my best to remove variability by not AAing with Jaina after casting all her skills.

When deciding on any skill rotation I had to take into consideration the bonus damage from Jaina’s trait, Frostbite, as well as the bonus damage from Level 16 Northern Exposure. Speaking of which, Jaina’s Level 20 Arcane Power and Frostbite add together when calculating damage. So if her Frostbite is talented at Level 7 for 65% bonus and Arcane Power’s 15% is activated, Jaina has 80% bonus damage. Also, this bonus 80% damage is calculated on her skills before the 25% vulnerability on opponents hit by Cone of Cold’s Northern Exposure (Level 16).

Onto her offensive builds: if Northern Exposure is chosen at Level 16, one should cast Blizzard (W) first because there is a delay before the first wave falls and that way you can get the most value out of the 25% vulnerability offered by Cone of Cold (E). Also, it is possible to hit Ring of Frost (R) during the 2 second vulnerability window if it is casted quickly enough after Cone of Cold (E). If Jaina talents into Wintermute at Level 20, she should wait for her Summon Water Elemental (R) to appear first as there is a wind-up time and it will not copy your skills during that time.

In the defensive builds I took into consideration the benefit of locking down an opponent, which is why Frostbolt (Q) comes before Cone of Cold (E) in the Defensive Ring of Frost build. In the Defensive Water Elemental build, the Water Elemental’s (R) attacks place Chill on targets so one should wait for it to attack first before casting Cone of Cold (E).

demo gif

For talent reference
Missile Build Combo

Demonstration

Sample Talents

• Level 4: Charged Blast
  
• Level 7: Seeker
  
• Level 10: Disintegrate or Wave of Force
  
• Level 13: Glass Cannon
  
• Level 16: Mirrorball
  

Execution

• W - Arcane Orb
  
• Q - Magic Missiles
  
• R - Disintegrate
  

Damage (Level 20)

• Missile Build Combo w/ Disintegrate: 4203
  
• Missile Build Combo w/ Wave of Force: 3310
  

Orb Build Combo

Demonstration

Sample Talents

• Level 4: Triumvirate
  
• Level 7: Zei’s Vengeance
  
• Level 10: Disintegrate or Wave of Force
  
• Level 13: Glass Cannon
  
• Level 16: Arcane Orbit
  

Execution

• W - Arcane Orb
  
• Q - Magic Missiles
  
• R - Disintegrate or Wave of Force
  

Damage (Level 20)

• Orb Build Combo w/ Disintegrate: 3730
  
• Orb Build Combo w/ Wave of Force: 2838
  

Teleport Build Combo

Demonstration

Sample Talents

• Level 7: Calamity
  
• Level 10: Disintegrate or Wave of Force
  
• Level 13: Illusionist
  
• Level 16: Diamond Skin
  

Execution

• W - Arcane Orb
  
• Q - Magic Missiles
  
• E - Teleport
  
• R - Disintegrate or Wave of Force
  

Damage (Level 20)

• Teleport Build Combo w/ Disintegrate: 3539
  
• Teleport Build Combo w/ Wave of Force: 2758
  

Comments

The 3 builds I chose for Li-Ming’s combos are not necessarily talent builds that you will see in-game. However, I thought it would be interesting to see how well each “build” (Missile, Orb, Teleport) did in terms of damage. One thing to note, I did not choose Tal Rasha's Elements at Level 20 in order to simplify things.

Game plan: no risk, don't try to burst like the old Nova, remember you're useless in fights before level 7 (still participate) and you're OP at 16 with (double) Crippling shot. Don't abuse flanking, you can stay in the backline an outdps pretty much every hero in the game except a good Lunara, if you play well.

• Level 1: all are good, but the range on pinning shot is the best (Longshot), and the speed boost when you're cloaked is useful too (Advanced Cloaking). Worst talent is the increase of the slow, and it's still quite nice TBH. The mana regen is nice too but a bit too underperforming IMO (but you feel more free to use your mana on waves or camps).
  
• Level 4: all suck, the "less CD and less mana decoy" (Rapid projection) is better since you always have mana issues, but if you go lethal decoy (don't go lethal decoy) pick the "longer lasting decoy" (Holo Stability) as it'll output more damage obviously.
  
• Level 7: One in the Chamber gives you a critical AA after each ability use. Remember to use an ability (even the decoy), do an attack, use an ability, do an attack... Now you have good sustained damage.
  
• Level 10: Nuke of course. So much utility. If you're very good with Triple Tap AND if you go for the level 20 upgrade on Triple Tap, go for it. But nuke is way better, with a really low 60 secs CD (TT has 100 secs) and combo potential (Zag, ETC, Jaina, Zeratul, Tassadar, Johanna's stun...). And nuke has global range. Global range is always awesome.
  
• Level 13: Double pinning shot (Double Tap), because now your combo has 1 more ability and you'll have more critical auto attacks.
  
• Level 16: honestly, if you still have your 3 keeps by now, and are not too behind in levels, it's GG. Crippling shot, with 2 charges thanks to level 13. Now their tank will melt, and if they don't adapt to your pick (they usually don't notice) they won't even understand why they were fine until now and why they die instantly now.
  
• Level 20: Never used the special cloak escape (Ghost Protocol, cool name) more than 1 or 2 times because to me it sucks and I loved bolt of the storm wayyyy more. Now I take the 2nd nuke, because I play "team friendly Nova" (to me nuke = utility and combo). If you take Rewind you'll have the friggin' longest combo ever. Probably too long, but it's a good choice too.
  

TBH I don't find Nova very much effective in QM anymore since you cannot burst the noobs (now it's Zeratul's job) unless you're really ahead in levels, or they really suck. But in HL, I don't even understand how she has 50% winrate on hotslogs, she feels like the most OP hero to me. I hope Blizzard don't touch her until my smurf is rank 1 too. ^^

https://gfycat.com/UnfinishedWarlikeGadwall

For talent reference
Follow Through + Windfury Combo

Demonstration

https://gfycat.com/DirtyDopeyBuffalo

Required Talents

• Level 4: Ride the Lightning
  
• Level 7: Follow Through
  
• Level 13: Grace of Air
  
• Level 16: Tempest Fury
  

Execution

• E - Windfury
  
• AA - Auto-Attack
  
• W - Feral Spirit
  
• AA - Auto-Attack
  
• Q - Chain Lightning
  
• AA - Auto-Attack
  

Damage (Level 20)

• Combo vs 1 Enemy: 2697
  
• Combo vs 5 Enemies: 3477
  
• Frostwolf Stacks vs 1 Enemy: 12
  
• Frostwolf Stacks vs 5 Enemies: 16
  
• HP Healed vs 1 Enemy: 1320 (2 stacks leftover)
  
• HP Healed vs 5 Enemies: 1980 (1 stack leftover)
  

Follow Through + Chain Lightning Combo

Demonstration

https://gfycat.com/AnxiousPassionateAmberpenshell

Required Talents

• Level 4: Ride the Lightning
  
• Level 7: Follow Through
  
• Level 13: Grace of Air
  
• Level 16: Forked Lightning
  

Execution

• E - Windfury
  
• AA - Auto-Attack
  
• W - Feral Spirit
  
• AA - Auto-Attack
  
• Q - Chain Lightning
  
• AA - Auto-Attack
  
• Q - Chain Lightning
  
• AA - Auto-Attack
  

Damage (Level 20)

• Combo vs 1 Enemy: 3142
  
• Combo vs 5 Enemies: 4702
  
• Frostwolf Stacks vs 1 Enemy: 11
  
• Frostwolf Stacks vs 5 Enemies: 19
  
• HP Healed vs 1 Enemy: 1320 (1 stack leftover)
  
• HP Healed vs 5 Enemies: 1980 (4 stacks leftover)
  

Comments

Thrall’s talents at Levels 7, 13, and 16 allow for a lot of options. Level 7 is a toss-up between Follow Through and Wind Shear, Level 13 between Grace of Air and Giant Killer, and Level 16 between Forked Lightning and Tempest Fury. Even though there’s a myriad of combination, for this write-up I decided to focus on Follow Through at Level 7 and Grace of Air at 13 for simplification.

Because of Follow Through and Thrall’s trait, Frostwolf Resilience, the two level 16 talents offer an interesting dichotomy. Whereas Follow Through procs after each skill usage, boosting the next AA by 40% damage, Frostwolf Resilience gains a stack each time a skill does damage, restoring 660 HP for every 5 stacks. It’s worth noting that in the Forked Lightning build that a 3rd possible Chain Lightning is possible soon after the full skill rotation (as it has a pretty low cooldown of 6 seconds). Although this does not take advantage of the 4 stacks leftover, because you only really need one more Frostwolf Resilience stack to heal another 660 HP, it does mean you still have 4 stacks left for the next Feral Spirit or Windfury to proc the heal.

However, if one wants to look at cooldown timers and number of Frostwolf stacks possible to compare levels of sustainability on Thrall’s HP, one would have to take into consideration other talents as well (namely Level 7’s Wind Shear). That could be another post on its own and wouldn’t be all that practical. It might tell you damage and sustain spikes based on how long a fight lasts and how many enemies are around but at that point it’s just numbers on paper. You would be better off playing Thrall’s different builds in-game to get a feel for the pros and cons of different builds and the sort of playstyle that works best for each.

demo gif
For talent reference
Q-Build Combo

Demonstration

Sample Talents

• Level 1: Siphoning Arrow
  
• Level 4: Puncturing Arrow
  
• Level 7: Repeating Arrow
  
• Level 10: Rain of Vengeance
  
• Level 16: Tumble
  
• Level 20: Storm of Vengeance
  

Execution

• Q - Hungering Arrow
  
• W - Multishot
  
• E - Vault
  
• R - Rain of Vengeance
  
• Q - Hungering Arrow
  
• E - Vault
  
• Q - Hungering Arrow
  

Damage (Level 20)

• Q-Build Combo: 6787
  

W-Build Combo

Demonstration

Sample Talents

• Level 1: Composite Arrows
  
• Level 4: Arsenal
  
• Level 7: Repeating Arrow
  
• Level 10: Rain of Vengeance
  
• Level 13: Frost Shot
  
• Level 16: Tumble
  
• Level 20: Storm of Vengeance
  

Execution

• Q - Hungering Arrow
  
• W - Multishot
  
• E - Vault
  
• R - Rain of Vengeance
  
• Q - Hungering Arrow
  
• E - Vault
  
• Q - Hungering Arrow
  

Damage (Level 20)

• W-Build Combo: 6418
  

AA-Build Combo

https://gfycat.com/EarnestDentalBorzoi

Sample Talents

• Level 1: Rancor
  
• Level 4: Manticore
  
• Level 7: Searing Attacks
  
• Level 10: Rain of Vengeance
  
• Level 13: Frost Shot or Giant Killer
  
• Level 16: Executioner
  
• Level 20: Storm of Vengeance
  

Execution

• Q - Hungering Arrow
  
• W - Multishot
  
• R - Rain of Vengeance
  
• 1 - Searing Attacks
  

Damage (Level 20)

• AA-Build Combo w/ Frost Shot: 8281
  
• AA-Build Combo w/ Giant Killer: 9605
  

Comments

So I’ve realized after retrieving all the data for Valla’s combos that there are some things that could be changed for the better. For example, adding Valla’s Strafe (R) versus Rain of Vengeance (R), adding Level 10 versus Level 20 damage numbers, and addressing the unconventionality of upgrading Rain of Vengeance (R) at Level 20 versus talenting into Blink (1). For the sake of this post and for simplicity, I have consistently chosen Rain of Vengeance (R) and its Level 20 upgrade and decided to vary Valla’s other talents for her 3 popular builds (Q Build, W Build, AA Build).

It should be noted that the reason for such high damage numbers in the AA build is due to the many AA’s when measuring damage numbers. Also, Giant Killer assumes a relatively high HP for the target when the target is the Training Dummy (the bonus damage is 121, meaning the target has an HP pool of about 8000). The damage numbers for the AA-build were achieved by stopping Valla’s AA’s when Rain of Vengeance 4 waves completed.

Each of Valla’s builds has its own strengths and weaknesses. Admittedly, I am not a Valla player and have only played her sparingly. Roughly speaking, Q-Build is great for sustain and 1v1 combat. W-Build is good for damage in team fights and wave clear because of the AOE of Multishot (W). AA build is consistent, sustained damage, which is good for long fights.

example

Devouring Maw Combo

Demonstration

Required Talents

• Level 10: Devouring Maw
  

Execution

• R - Devouring Maw
  
• E - Infested Drop
  
• Q - Baneling Barrage
  

Comments

Zagara’s Devouring Maw (R) is awesome for chaining with ally stuns but is also perfect for the AOE/splash damage of Zagara’s Baneling Barrage (Q) and Infested Drop (E). What’s great is that even though her ultimate has a long duration of 4 seconds, which can be hard to keep track of without practice, it has a visual indicator that helps with the timing of any follow-up. The three jaws of Devouring Maw (R) exhibit 3 “squeezes”, including the one that occurs when the jaws first close, before releasing its contents.

As the Zagara player, the optimal skill rotation is Infested Drop (E) first, as it has a small delay, followed by Baneling Barrage (Q). The timing for Infested Drop (E) is relatively straight-forward: as soon as Devouring Maw (R) visually shows the three jaws “relaxing” from the second “squeeze”, cast Infested Drop. The delay of E means that the impact should hit right as Devouring Maw (R) opens, meaning any enemy hero within has barely a window to avoid getting hit. Baneling Barrage (Q), on the other hand, is harder to combo perfectly as it has a travel time, meaning the timing will depend on Zagara’s distance from the target. Roughly speaking, if you keep the same distance as the cast range of Devouring Maw (R) (meaning you don’t move from where you cast your ultimate), you want to cast Baneling Barrage (Q) ASAP after Infested Drop (E).