Nova Class Guide

Introduction

The Nova class is a female class that uses a Morning Star (Mace) as her main weapon and a Quoratum (Tower Shield) offhand. Unlike all other classes in the game, Nova is an actual specific person in the main story quest line. She has unique dialogue in the story and some NPCs may interact differently with her. Nova is the last of the royal lineage and was forgotten in history when the republic was formed. She now masters the elite Thornwood Guards and embraces the darkness to help reclaim her kingdom. Her pre-awakening skills have a chess and ice theme as she uses the Thornwood guards to aid her in her battles with aggressive or defensive commands.

At level 56 she unlocks the succession or awakening path. Her succession skills enhance pre-awakening and allow her to summon the Axian monster. While her awakening is unlocked when she acquires the “Sting” weapon in a duel. The weapon has magical power and can switch its form from a sharp rapier-like sword to a scythe. This allows her to make quick piercing attacks and she gains a lot of mobility. Awakened Nova also acquires a new resource called “Star’s Breath”, this is shown under your HP bar and will accumulate when Nova successfully hits an enemy. Once Star’s Breath has reached its full capacity, it can be consumed by Nova to empower her and enhance her skills for a short period of time.

Awakening VS Succession

Nova Succession and Awakening can be unlocked after level 56 after speaking to the Black Spirit and completing the Awakening and Succession quests under the suggestions tab.

• The Awakening will unlock a completely new skill tree, which will be your primary skills from now on. The skills in the pre-awakening are mostly utility skills, and your main damage dealers will be your Awakening skills.
• The Succession skill kit enhances your Morning Star skills instead and only has a few awakening skills.

Most players tend to prefer Awakening and it is the more popular spec out of the two because it is currently much better at PVE grinding.

In PVP in comes down to preference and is difficult to compare the two because they are completely different playstyles.

Succession is much slower and some players feel it is similar to Guardian in that way as well as being more “new player friendly” due to its slower speed. It has good protection and control, making it strong in Arena of Solare PVP.  Awakening is much more fast-paced with far more mobility, and also more of a glass cannon class. She has high burst and the Vacuum skill for group PVP.

Awakening is considered more difficult because there is less room for error and you need to manage your Star’s Breath bar whilst managing cooldowns and rotating your skills well.

Skill Builds

Since the skill point update in late 2022, you can obtain all skills for approximately 1,000 skill points. Focus on your main skills first, then level the passives. The Weight Training skill should be leveled last, since it only gives you weight limit increase.

Protected Skills

It is important to read through your skills to understand which skills have protection and crowd control effects. Read through your skills carefully to get familiar with what each skill does. You can also filter the different effects in the Skill Window (K).

Locked Skills

To lock a skill, press the lock icon on the top of each skill icon in the skill window (K).

These are the skills I recommend locking:
Evasion, Icy Fog (Awakening only)

To lock a skill, press the lock icon on the bottom right of each skill icon in the skill window (K).

Most players tend to lock Icy Fog for awakening to make the awakening dash flow better and then will use the Quoratum’s Closing skill to switch to pre-awakening instead since it has a frontal guard.

Skill Enhancement (Rabam) Skills

Skill Enhancement skills can be obtained in the Skill Window (K) under the “Skill Enhancement” tab at the top. At levels 56, 57, and 58, you will have 2 different options to choose between. These skills have no skill points cost, but you have to have other skills leveled up to be able to take them.

Level 56 – [SHIFT + X]

• Quoratum’s Closing – Requires [Icy Thorns IV] and [Quoratum’s Ascension IV]
  • (Preferred Choice)
• Frozen Chain – Requires [Icy Thorns IV] and [Chain Strike IV]

I would recommend Quoratum’s Closing because the skill is useful for switching into pre-awakening and will debuff the target with Movement Speed, Attack Speed, and Casting Speed -30% for 10 seconds. It has a forward guard whilst moving and stiffness on good hits. The only downside is that the skill cannot be canceled and that you are not protected the entire time, which is quite a large window for you to be CC’d so you need to learn to use it effectively. Frozen Chain on the other hand has a small super armor on the first hit and can inflict a float on a good 2nd hit.

Level 57 – [SHIFT + Z]

• Bitter Star– Requires [Bitter Reign V] and [Vengeful Star V]
  • (Preferred Choice)
• Binding Star – Requires [Bitter Reign V] and [Quoratum’s Binding III]

I would recommend Bitter Star. Neither of the skills have any protection on them and are quite underwhelming, but Binding Star has a long cooldown of 30 seconds which makes Bitter Star the preferred choice.

Level 58 – [Quickslot Only]

• Enter the Darkness – Requires [Command: Frozen Darkness V] and [Command: Frozen Earth V]
• Quoratum’s Earth – Requires [Command: Frozen Darkness V] and [Mauling Star IV]

Quoratum’s Earth can be useful as a filler skill in PVE or closer in PVP if you are succession nova. While Enter the Darkness is useful as an extra protected skill with a small amount of HP regen. I would personally recommend Quoratum’s Earth since it is a useful quick swap and has good damage with a Downsmash in PVP. However, both choices are viable and completely down to preference.

Skill Add-ons

Below are some examples of PVE skill add-ons you can take.

If you would like example skill add-ons for other scenarios, please refer to the Class Discord and its resources.

I recommend experimenting with your add-ons and figuring out what is best for you because it really depends on your personal preference and how you play your class. If you’re simply not sure what to take then you can blindly follow the examples below and they will still be effective.

You can also check our Skill Add-on guide for a complete list of Skill Add-ons.

Example Skill Combos

Weapons

Armor

For your armor, you will make a choice between Damage Reduction or Evasion gear. I recommend reading our guide about the two different DP stats if you want to learn what the two different stats do.

Generally, you are recommended to build Damage Reduction on Nova.

Accessories

There are various different accessories in the game. At first, just focus on using the accessories that give you the highest AP in each slot.

There are also “free” accessories that all new players should get:

Accessory	How to obtain
Tuvala Accessories	Tuvala accessories are starter accessories obtained from the Season Server. Try to push up your accessories to PEN if possible, but if you don’t have much time to play Season, then focus on your Weapons and Armor first.
PEN Capotia Necklace	You can obtain a FREE PEN Capotia Accessory from the Season Servers Special Reward. For your first season, it is recommended to get the PEN Capotia Necklace because it gives the most AP. You then want to create another Season character in the next season to get the PEN Capotia Belt, and finally the PEN Capotia Ring or Earring.
PEN Ring of Crescent Guardian	You can obtain a PEN Ring of Crescent Guardian by completing Jetina’s PEN Accessory quests. These are daily quests that take a minimum of 45 days to complete. Every new and returning player should complete these as early as possible for a highly discounted PEN accessory.

Common Starter PVE accessories:

• TET Black Distortion Earrings or TET Narc Ear Accessory (PEN Capotia Earring)
• TET Basilisk’s Belt (or PEN Capotia Belt)
• TET Ring of Crescent Guardian
• TET Ogre Ring/Laytenn’s Necklace (or PEN Capotia Necklace).

Crystals

Below is an example starter Crystal build for PVE. Some of the crystals are expensive. You can obtain the Rebellious Crystal by completing the main story questline. For more example crystal builds, including an end-game PVE crystal build, and PVP Crystal builds, check our Crystal Preset Guide.

This is an example PVP Build for Novas using Damage Reduction Armors and going full Human Damage (glass cannon). For more example crystal builds, check our Crystal Preset Guide or the Class Discord.

Artifacts and Lightstones

There are a few different viable choices for both Artifacts and Lightstone combos. Nova is the “Melee Damage” type so you want to go for Melee Accuracy and Melee Damage for offensive artifacts.

For PVE Lighstones there are a few different options to min-max. For certain spots, you may want to use Species damage combos (eg. The Wild: Demihumans, The Wild: Kamaslyvia, The Wild: Humans). Species damage combos perform better if you are reaching the monster AP caps at a certain zone.

A more generic PVE combo is listed below that is recommended for your class and will work at any spot.

You can also find more information about Artifacts and Lightstones, and how to obtain them, in our guide. We also have a list of Best in slot Artifacts and Lightstones.

Useful Links/Credits

I highly recommend checking out the Nova Class Discord for resources about your class. The class discords always have the most up-to-date information and tons of experienced players that can help with questions or gearing advice. I would like to give a shoutout to the Moderation and Helper Roles in the Nova discord for all their hard work gathering resources. You can find some of their own guides below. I honestly cannot recommend enough to join the discord.

Useful links to check out:

• Official Nova Forums
• Nova Complete Add-on List by the Nova Discord
• Nova Awakening & Pre-awakening Swaps by the Nova Discord
• Nova Succession Cancels and Chain List
• Nova Awakening Guide by Xiomaro
• Nova Succession Guide by Lyantha
• Nova Awakening PVP Guide by Emmi
• Nova Awakening PVP Guide by Stratisfied

PVP Montage Videos:

• Nova Awakening PVP by FESTIVITIES11
• Nova Awakening PVP by SuWanWan
• Nova Succession PVP by Lyantha

Credits Disclaimer: Since there are now 26 BDO classes, it is impossible for me to keep class guides fully maintained. My main class is Ranger and I don’t claim to be the best in any class. Therefore, I use resources and recommendations from the Class discords since (as all other players would agree) this is the best source. I also ask for advice from friends who are more experienced in the class. Where possible, I credit specific players for information such as Add-ons, and combos. However, sometimes there is no player mentioned as the original sharer. If there are any issues with credit or you would like certain information removed/changed, please reach out to me!