Nova Terra (Co-op Missions)

"Agent reporting for duty. The Dominion’s best Ghost, Nova Terra, joins the ranks as our newest Co-op Commander. Backed by the most advanced Terran technology and the highest tier of trained combatants, Nova controls the battlefield with the speed and power of a nuclear explosion."

- Commander blurb

Nova Terra is a commander in Co-op Missions introduced in Patch 3.7. She takes the field with a hero unit, and has the ability to blink, shield herself and call down nuclear strikes against her enemies. Her army consists of elite special ops units that deploy instantly, but have substantial resource costs over normal units.

Nova was made available with the release of Patch 3.7 and can be unlocked for $4.99 USD.

Overview
Nova has simplified base and production when compared to other commanders&mdash;much of the player's focus will be on combat. She does not require supply depots, and only one of each production ability is available. Her army has a supply cap of 100, and her combat units are called down to the battlefield instantly, without any construction time. Nova herself has high burst damage, but is relatively fragile, and relies on stealth and gadgets to be effective. Part of her covert ops theme is "having all the right toys at the right time." Nova has different equipment sets and can adapt to any situation by swapping between them on the field.

Nova can only produce one barracks, one factory, and one starport. Each functions the way a mercenary compound does, dropping heroic units onto the field. The units are expensive and generally arrive in batches (for instance, Nova can summon four elite marines). When a unit-producing structure is first created, it cannot immediately create many units.

Info

 * Recommended for experienced players
 * Control Nova and her army of elite units
 * Use advanced tech to sustain and support your forces

Mastery
Nuke and Holo Decoy Cooldown: -1s - 30s
 * Power Set 1

Griffin Airstike cost: : -10 minerals - 300 minerals (down to a minimum of 700 minerals)

Nova Attack Speed: : +1% - 30%
 * Power Set 2

Unit Attack Speed: : +.5% - 15%

Nova Energy Regeneration: : +1% - 30%
 * Power Set 3

Combat Unit Life Regeneration: : +1 - 30 life/every 3 seconds out of combat

Game Unit
Nova is able to switch between Assault Mode and Stealth Mode as a hero unit, changing her weapons and abilities. In Assault Mode she is more suited for frontal combat, wielding a hellfire shotgun and wearing a damage-absorbing phase reactor suit. Her Stealth Mode abilities are geared towards infiltration and subterfuge, equipping her with a tactical stealth suit, ghost visor, and sabotage drone. This allows her to infiltrate the enemy base ahead of her army and take out critical enemy forces before her army commits to an engagement.

Units and Structures
Nova has the following units and structures unique to her.

Talent Progression
Nova acquires the following talents as she levels up.

Strategy
Nova demands quite a bit of micro of her units to get the most usage out of her. Proper usage of Nova herself to weaken enemy positions before attacking is crucial, utilizing Sabotage Drone and Snipe to destroy defensive structures and soften up stronger enemies. By herself Nova is rather easily overwhelmed and killed, however. Her base management is very simple thanks to her unique mechanics, so the player can build their base, hotkey their structures, and not have to worry about keeping an eye on them while they are busy managing their army in the field.

Power Set 1: Griffon Airstrike Cost
 * Recommended masteries:
 * Even with all 30 points sunk into reducing their cooldown, Nuke and Holo Decoy have a cooldown of several minutes. By contrast Griffon Airstrike can do just as much damage as them and has a rather short cooldown, but its major drawback is its mineral cost.

Power Set 2: Unit Attack Speed
 * Nova by herself has terrible DPS, even with full mastery. Her army benefits from the attack speed increase far more.

Power Set 3: Combat Unit Life Regeneration
 * Nova is rarely strapped for energy unless the player is recklessly spamming Snipe and Penetrating Blast. By giving her combat units passive regeneration their durability is remarkably improved, saving the player minerals replacing them, and if they wish allowing them to forego ravens which are otherwise their only way to heal damaged units.

Protoss Commanders
Vorazun is a perfect match for Nova, with her Strike from the Shadows passive boosting Nova's damage and that of her ghosts, banshees, and any units cloaked by her healing drones. Black Hole can set up Nova's airstrikes, nukes, banshees and ravens for area damage, and Emergency Recall will save any of her costly cloaked units from death. In return, Nova can heal Vorazun's units with her ravens and provide better ground-to-air damage than Vorazun's stalkers are capable of doing.

Karax is an effective teammate for Nova. His strong static defenses mean that Nova can focus on securing enemy positions while Karax focuses on holding ground. Combining Karax's Spear of Adun calldowns with Nova's airstrike and/or nuke can quickly decimate a fortified position. As they both have relatively expensive units, Reconstruction Beam, Defensive Drones, and Ravens are invaluable for increasing the longevity of units from both commanders. Finally, Nova greatly benefits from the increased research speed granted by Chrono Wave.

Terran Commanders
Raynor is the polar opposite of Nova, relying on a strong economy and a large number of standard units as opposed to a small focused army. However, due to Raynor's use of medics to heal both biological and mechanical units, Raynor can aid with sustaining Nova's army while Nova can aid Raynor's units with defensive drones and the ability to move his large army around the field with tactical airlifts.

Development
When designing Nova as the next commander, the developers knew that she had to be a hero on the field. It was also decided to be a focus of her army composition. The theme of covert ops played a big part of her design (ghosts, nukes, stealth, gadgets), along with the concept of a small but powerful army of elite units, helping bring the feel of espionage.

Trivia

 * Nova's units each have individual randomized names attached to them in place of a kill count rank. These units are given ranks depending on which unit they are.