I'm a level 61 Awakening Nova. 

I don't bother with quickslots until I unlock all skills at level 60.

I switched to Awakening Nova and tried setting up the base Nova skill "Quoratum's Guard" (the quickslot heal and DP buff). 
It seems I cannot drag the skill into my quickslot, and this skill can only be activated by quickslot so I'm confused...

Is this ability just unusable on Awakening Nova? There's nothing in the tool tip which says so. Would appreciate some clarity on this as I couldn't find info on this on the BDO foundry class guides or on Google or the BDO Forums. 

Hi there,

in Awa, Nova has the skill "Combust Life". If you check the skill description, it lists "Quoratum's Guard" as a preceding skill. Basically, learning that skill stops "Quoratum's Guard" being usable, as you get Combust Life instead. It's basically an awa only evolution to the skill.
In the future, I recommend staying away from BDOfoundry class guides, as they are heavily outdated. If you need class-specific help, I recommend using the Class discords, they generally have the answer for you.
Here is the link for the Nova discord: https://discord.gg/4PrzEHm

Hi,

Thank you for answering the post, that clears up my confusion. I will join the Nova discord as per your advice - thank you.