There are so many reasons Nova player’s get bashed so let’s get into it.
First and foremost Winrate: Nova’s average wr sits a little bit above 44% 2nd lowest in the entire roster and the lowest wr champ in high rank which already paints a clear picture, but lets expand on it more. In high rank plat, diamond and masters nova’s wr is 43% and low rank is about 45%. This means two things. 1 in high rank she’s virtually never picked because of how easily she’s shut down or due to lack of impact and 2 She’s primarily played at low rank because she exploits people that don’t play much against her. So picking her already puts your team at a handicap even if you spec her proper.
#2 Waveclear. Nova’s waveclear is abysmal. Until she gets her 16 or takes Orbital pulse her lane clear is terrible which pretty much means unless she’s getting kills she isn’t contributing meaningful to any early game exp. The game normally starts to snowball at around lv 7 and teams that hit lv 10 first win about 67% time based on MMR stats. Which means in the majority of situations you’re getting outsoaked as nova which then typically leads to chain feeding.
#3 Build problems. Just like valeera she is really reliant on her trait due to a lack of CC since she only has a slow and no real escape options. The problem with this is that there are so many champs with AOE revealing her isn’t difficult and once revealed she can easily be pulled out of position or stunned which is almost always an immediate death. So on top of providing minimal damage if you’re not landing q constantly you’re behind on exp which puts your team at a massive disadvantage. Which is even worse because when you think about it if you’re taking pulse to clear she’s now a champ that also doesn’t get a proper ult for teamfights unless you save it which you shouldn’t be because refer to the point above you’re probably already at an exp difference.
#4 The threshold for you to be good enough to outweigh the cons she produces is insanely high. She’s popular with low ranks who often cannot play her properly which further hurts her reputation as the kills only champ. Even if you’re the exception and still don’t miss frequently she’s still primarily only good into squishy comps. Other champs get more value earlier and most other ranged assassins get better CC than she does.
#5 Her clones ai sucks and you cannot individually control it. This is the biggest issue because it limits nova heavily due to how easy it is to tell which is the clone and which is the real one. I’ve placed clones before that should’ve attacked and gotten me a free kill, but instead sat still and did nothing while a tower shot it to death. If the ai of the clones isn’t bad enough she also provides additional stacks to the enemy team’s quests due to how the clone responds which means in fights against characters that scale you are actively contributing the problem even when you don’t mean to.
#6 ← This is probably the most important reason. The type of players Nova attracts. Nova attracts two primary kinds of people and I personally hate both. The first is the the better than thou who because they have x amount of hours justifies the pick no matter what simply because “They are good with her”. She’s a counter pick champ for a reason and if you’re on my team and fill as nova when we need something with more clear or need a healer and you’re taking another dps then yes I hate you.
-The second kind of player she attracts are the low ranks that either can’t player her or are picking to troll another member on their team. I despise these kinds of players. On top of locking her into situations they should never even be hovering her they normally lock her first. You don’t draft nova as a plug and play champ. You build a team around her or you play her to counterpick their squishies. So whe you fp her like most of the low ranks that do, you are throwing and you should be reported. Same goes for genji. Genji can be strong, but if the comp doesn’t support it you shouldn’t be playing him because just like nova his clear sucks till later, except unlike nova genji actually has plenty of mobility to do what he needs to do. Even valeera gets CC and mobility.
So to summarize if you’re locking nova at all it should be only in the situations where she is already good because her WR is abysmally low for a reason and locking her shows a blatant disregard for your team. You don’t lock nova to win because by referring to her WR you can tell she’s a bad champ. You lock nova to counterpick and hopefully your gut is right and she can win in the situation she’s drafted. If you’re locking nova for any other reason, go to qm.