Nova Imperator

Overview

Nova Imperator (NI) is a magical DPS class that deals consistent damage and excels against large bosses.
He sacrifices his own HP through Overheat to increase his damage output (press certain skill keys repeatedly to trigger).

In addition to dealing damage, Nova Imperator provides team utility through damage amplification, attack buffs, and mana regeneration, while also reducing enemies’ defense and resistance.

This guide primarily focuses on PvE gameplay.

Pros

• Extremely high DPS on large bosses.

• Easy to pick up and perform well.

• Buffs are applied naturally, requiring little attention to uptime.

• Very linear and straightforward gameplay.

Cons

• Struggles to deal damage to small bosses.

• Highly reliant on external debuffs, as most skills don’t ignore enemy defense.

• Consumes HP with every skill usage due to Overheat.

• Strongly dependent on proper positioning.

Skill Build

You will always use the same skill set, only adjusting your Transcendence slots depending on boss size.

Skill Bar A (Standard)

Skill Bar B (Small Bosses)

In the shown screenshots, the skill on A (Revolver Cannon) is essentially a dead slot. You only use this skill if you mess up your rotation or if a mechanic requires Strength skills. Otherwise, it can be replaced with anything.

Other recommendations would be to use Napalm Grenade (Level 50 Active skill) instead, as it is a fast skill with a low cooldown. This helps you to quickly rebuild your Exascale Armor stacks, especially after dying or resetting stacks because of Raid accessory.

Passives

This section briefly covers all gameplay-relevant passives for Nova Imperator and what they provide.
By using Nova Imperator’s core mechanic, all self-buffs are applied automatically.
Therefore some of Nova Imperator’s passives are not shown in this section.

Mercenary Behavior

Decrease Overheat damage. Ignore Overheat damage when HP is below certain level. Increase Magical Attack Power and Awakening Duration upon awakening. All skill's physical damage will be converted to magical damage.

This passive ensures that Overheat is safe to use as part of your core gameplay. Your HP will not drop below 40%.

Flames of Victory

Special Active Cooldown decrease when using Ignition Crow - Napalm, Ignition Crow - Incinerator, Ifrit Flame, [Mod] Power Assault: Crow's Hunt, [Mod] Seven Burst: Crow's Hellfire.

All Crow skills will trigger this effect and decrease your Special Active Skill Cooldown by 20%. However, the passive has a 3-second internal cooldown.

Skill Rotation

While dealing damage, you have very few things to keep track of.

• Always Overheat when casting skills — this prevents downtime on your passives.

• [Mod] Bursting Blade is a self-buff that provides 15% Critical Damage. Ideally, you should use it as a filler skill every 15 seconds.

• Ignition Crow - Incinerator (Level 45) and Ifrit Flame (Level 95) are the only debuffs for Nova Imperator that must be maintained consistently. Both have a duration of 10 seconds, so keeping high uptime on them is extremely important.

Your rotation should start like this:

• Ignition Crow

• Ifrit Flame

• Bursting Blade

• Rain of Fire

• Seven Burst / Giga Prominence (depending on boss size)

After using these five skills, your rotation becomes dependent on your group’s Cooldown Reduction. The general principle is:

Debuff → Self Buff → 2–3 major skills (Rain of Fire has highest priority) → repeat

Applying debuffs again will also reduce your cooldowns as you use a Crow skill.

If your group has little to no Cooldown Reduction, you’ll need to use additional skills. In that case, be careful not to mess up your Flames of Victory passive. If you spam all the relevant skills too quickly, you may not have a skill available to consistently reduce your cooldowns every 3 seconds.

Nova’s DPS is simple — the main difference between good and bad Nova Imperators comes down to positioning and having an internal sense of timing for when to reduce cooldowns by using Crow skills.

One very important point: Nova’s damage heavily depends on using Rain of Fire while the boss is debuffed. Rain of Fire has no Defense Ignore from traits or passives, so ensuring that at least your own debuffs are applied makes a significant difference in damage.

Key takeaway:
Nova follows a set rotation. With more Cooldown Reduction, you can skip certain skills. Whenever the boss is fully debuffed and Rain of Fire is available, you should always prioritize using it immediately.

Gear Choice

Both Red Exascale and Blue Exascale are viable endgame options for Nova Imperator.
Ultimately, the choice comes down to personal preference.

Nova’s damage is heavily dependent on his main skill, Rain of Fire (shown in the F slot in the screenshots).

• With external Cooldown Reduction, Red Exascale tends to outperform Blue Exascale.

• Blue Exascale is gambly and only more effective if you get the reset on Rain of Fire.

• If you plan to play around resets, Red Exascale with a reset top is usually the better option. Nova’s other skills contribute relatively little damage compared to Rain of Fire, so relying entirely on reset luck with Blue Exascale can lead to a significant damage loss when resets don’t occur.

TL;DR

• Blue Exascale offers a more RNG-driven approach. Frequent resets on Rain of Fire are the ideal scenario. Failing to reset Rain of Fire results in a noticeable drop in damage.

• Red Exascale (with Reset Top Piece) provides a balance. It allows you to benefit from resets while still maintaining guaranteed damage if they don’t occur.

• Red Exascale (with Continuous Damage) rewards a more consistent and controlled playstyle.

Nova Imperator DPS Optimization

Everything mentioned above covers the fundamentals of playing Nova. This section focuses on more advanced techniques to help you optimize your DPS.

Rain of Fire Positioning & Hitbox Understanding

As you have read, Nova’s damage is heavily dependent on proper Rain of Fire placement. To maximize your damage output, you need to understand both:

• Rain of Fire’s hitbox

• boss hitboxes and positioning in specific raids

Rain of Fire does not deal uniform damage across its area. For smaller bosses (e.g., 21-3), you should prioritize landing the fireballs within the central “red rectangle” zone, as this is where most of your damage comes from. Missing this area significantly reduces your DPS.

Positioning & Party Host Importance

A laggy party host can desync enemy position and skill timing. Because of this:

• Always ask for the party host to be assigned to you if possible.

• Boss micro-movements can ruin your Rain of Fire placement.

• Being even slightly out of position drastically lowers your damage.

If you struggle with positioning:

• Increase your skill visibility settings so you can clearly see where the fireballs land.

• Use this visual feedback to adjust your placement.

• Over time, you’ll develop muscle memory for correct positioning.

Exascale Armor Timing

You should coordinate with your party to activate Green Exascale Armor on your command.

Optimal usage:

• Call for Exascale immediately after finishing a Rain of Fire.

• This allows you to reset and cast another Rain quickly.

• Over the course of a raid, this significantly increases total DPS.

Recommended Raid Positions

Below are standard positioning guidelines for common endgame raids:
(Challenge Mode excluded due to variable positioning requirements.)

20-5 (Orchestra Hall)

• Stand directly on Platform 2

• During groggy: stand below Platform 2, slightly toward the hand

21-4 (Wilting Tower: Flight)

• Stand on the second platform.

• Position slightly toward either the left or right hand (preference-based).

21-5 (Wilting Tower: Fall)

• Stand between Device 1 and Device 3, slightly closer to the boss. This ensures all Rain of Fire hits connect.

Debuff Usage (Main DPS Only)

This section applies only if you are the main DPS.

Nova relies on debuffs because his skills do not ignore defense. This raises the question: should you always use your debuffs?

Ignition Crow - Incinerator

• Provides +12% damage.

• Always use this before dealing damage.

• Skipping this is never optimal.

Ifrit Flame

• Applies -15% defense.

• Slow cast time.

• Mediocre damage.

• Redundant when other players use Wind Orbs and/or in a party with other defense shredders.

In many raid scenarios:

• The defense shred becomes less effective due to excessive overlap.

• The time spent casting Ifrit Flame reduces your total DPS.

• You may struggle to fit all Rain of Fire casts in burst phases.

Conclusion on Ifrit Flame

Ifrit is generally inefficient compared to your main skills, but it still has two situational uses:

1. As a filler skill

   • When all other skills are on cooldown.

2. Cooldown reset combo

   • After finishing Rain of Fire, use Ifrit Flame + The Setting Sun title.

Note:

• This is limited by The Setting Sun’s 30-second cooldown, so you can’t consistently activate it.

Final Takeaways

• Prioritize proper Rain of Fire placement above everything else.

• Positioning and host selection directly impact your damage.

• Optimize Exascale usage to maximize total Rain of Fire casts.

• Use debuffs efficiently and avoid unnecessary setup time.

• Focus on maximizing uptime during DPS windows

If you have any further questions, feel free to ask me on Discord: @tho0