I'm thinking about rolling valk, tried her in trial mode and really liked her awakening: feels fast paced with no-cd dash, skills animations are rather fast and I like her lance, but... at the same time I'm torn between her and succession Nova. What's better in terms of pve (and then 1v1 pvp)?

Both are good (Awake and Awake) Valk/nova

Not easy for starter, Very hard to master, Fps dependants. you have to build a lot of muscle memory for be efficient.

Your hand will hurt.

Valk Succ is brain dead like guardian but with risk comparing to guardian.  Valk suc is a bad guardian that can heal.

Nova Awakening is a strong skirmish/disturber with its realy powerfull vaccum ball.
Nova Succession is a completely useless in any situation.
Even in dp meme build. She remains less effective than a Striker, Mystic, Shai and Hashashin.

For the pve. I have no recent data in memory. I would not speak for the pve.

Otherwise if I recommend valk.

No. I've been playing it for 5 years (since release) (never have any other main) and I love it.
But there are only masochists who can appreciate this class (apart from the FOTM player who will jump on Valk succ * causuwu its stronguwu *

After nothing says that you are not a masochist

So choose as you want. I think Awake valk and Nova Succesion are perfect for those who want to hurt themself.

Good day.

Pretty much what Catastigma said above. Valk is indeed a class for masochists even after the skill changes we got over the last year.

That said, I am, however, deeply in love with the class and never re-rolled since the time I started playing her.

If you really like Valk awakening you can always use her as a lifeskill class, use the vacuum to easily gather mobs to butcher. Sure, she can turn the tides in NodeWars with her Ultimate and 25% BSR or give a lot of classes a run for their money in 1v1, but that comes with the incredible pain of learning the small things that make the Valk move faster than your opponent. The skill ceiling of an Awakening Valk is so stupid high, you barely see anyone playing the class at max potential, let alone moving around mob packs with the proper skills linked ( <-- Although this is just an opinion).

Do you like to block and counter attack? > Nova

Do you like to harrass people with heavy hitting skills and atleast 16 skills on CD at every moment? > Valkyrie

(My knowledge on Nova isn't there, sorry)

Go Valk and enjoy your masochistic ride through the game!

For a quick answer to the question. Valk is currently quite strong. It probably wouldn't be uncommon to see them in people's top5 Lists for both PvE and small scale/1v1 PvP. 

We've had a long history of being unpopular and/or broken (not in a good way) and it has left a bad taste in the mouths of our veteran valks. But we are in a VERY good spot right now. That being said, Succession is far far simpler to play than awakened. Also I'd admit my bias if it's relevant, I play succession. But to my understanding, Succession and awakening have close to the same performance, awakening just requires far more experience to play.