Viktor: All will soon change... or will it?

Recently, League of Legends had one of their Champions, Viktor, disabled from a certain point, up until the latest patch. This got me thinking about him. He’s one of those champions that can deal tremendous amounts of damage in a short amount of time, has decent crowd control, is a more than worthy counterpick to certain champions, and is able to hold his own in a lane.

Despite all of this, Viktor is the seventh least played Champion in the League. This brought a few questions to mind. What makes Viktor a worthwhile pick in Ranked play? And what makes him such an unpopular champion?

Who the hell is Viktor?

So first things first. Viktor is a ranged ability power caster with decently strong crowd control. Although he isn’t the fastest, he would fit among the strongest of Champions in the League.

Viktor's Power Transfer is a single target magic damage nuke, which refunds a portion of the damage dealt as a 3 second shield to Viktor.

This ability makes for easy harassing. It has a low base cooldown and mana cost, and it deals relatively high damage for such a low-cost spammable skill. Only downside to it, is that it is on a pretty low casting range.

Viktor's Gravity Field is a medium-range Area of Effect ability. It places down a trap, which is sprung after 0,5 seconds. Enemy units moving through are slowed as they pass through it, and are stunned for 1,5 seconds if they remain in it for 1,5 seconds.

This is a really strong area control spell, forcing your enemies to make a choice. Do I walk through it, taking a chance of getting stunned, or do I walk around it and waste time catching up to him? Also, throwing it down in the middle of an enemy team during one of those at-tower standoffs makes it so that they have to break up a bit, or get stunned. This stun is a perfect opportunity for your tank to engage, or for you to burst that squishy carry right down.

Viktor's Death Ray is a vector line skillshot, that deals damage to all units it passes through. As far as that goes, it's a relatively simple spell.

This skill provides a strong area control ability. Later in the game, with some ability power and magic pen, you have a 1400 range poking ability which will seriously harm some champions with low resists - a.k.a. carries - that lack sustain. Additionally, you have a really strong ability for your standard spell rotation during the mid game: Gravity Field into Power Transfer and Death Ray. This should halfshot any enemy mage, and it's able to harm AD Carries even harder, considering they rarely build Magic Resist.

Viktor's Chaos Storm is an area targeted explosion of damage which briefly silences enemy champions. Seems underwhelming, doesn't it? However, you can redirect the storm for 7 seconds, and during this time, it keeps dealing magic damage to units in the area.

This ultimate is a pretty good ultimate. Although the AP Ratio on the initial blast is pretty meager - the lowest of all his ratios - the area churn effect pulls it right back up. Additionally, the silence will interrupt channeled abilities, making Viktor a natural counterpick against anything with a strong channeled ultimate (Katarina, Karthus, Nunu to some extent).

 

The Three Faces of Evolution

Viktor's Innate places an item in his inventory, one which he cannot sell. This item provides him with 3 AP/Lv when it appears in his inventory. Later in the game, he may upgrade it into one of three possible Augments, each of which enhance one of his basic abilities.

 

Augment: Power changes the Hex Core into an Augment: Power. This item gives 22oHP and 6HP/5 in addition to the 3AP/Lv. Additionally, Power Transfer is enhanced with an added effect, which increases Viktor's movement speed by 30% for 3 seconds as soon as the projectile is fired.

 Augment: Power is by far Viktor's worst Augment. The movement speed is a good addition to Viktor's horrible mobility, I'll give it that much. However, if you're in range for a Power Transfer, you're in range for all of your other abilities as well, which mitigates the need to actually have the movement speed.

Augment: Gravity changes the Hex Core into an Augment: Gravity. This item gives 200MP, 10% CDR and 5MP/5 in addition to the 3AP/Lv. Additionally, Gravity Field is enhanced with an added effect, which increases the cast range on Gravity Field by 30%.

In my honest opinion, this is Viktor's best Augment. This Augment is the only one that adds something to teamfights, other than raw damage or increased 'mobility'.

Augment: Death changes the Hex Core into an Augment: Death. This item gives him 45AP in addition to the 3AP/Lv. Additionally, Death Ray is enhanced with an added effect, which burns the units struck with 30% of Death Ray's Tooltip damage over 4 seconds.

What makes this Augment worthwhile, is that it passively adds a lot of damage to your standard spell rotation. The 45AP is usually worth around 950g~, but the Augment gives is for 1000g, which seems like a bad trade... until you look at the added burn-damage it provides on Death Ray. It's the Augment most commonly found on any Viktor, as it's the only Augment that adds damage to a spell, out of all of his Augments.

True Power!

Basically, there's two ways to build a Viktor and be successful. First, and often the most played, is the Death Ray Viktor. The Death Ray Viktor brings two major things to the table. First and foremost, it brings a lot of early to mid game damage to the table. 45AP plus a burning effect are both really strong damage items, and are not to be taken lightly. On the other hand, this Augment brings nothing else to the table, and is purely made to increase your damage output. As such, a usual Death Ray Viktor build is really glass-cannon oriented. Pure AP items work well with it, with a build ending up something like this:

Sorcerer's Shoes (Alacrity/Homeguard)
Seraph's Embrace
Rabadon's Deathcap
Augment: Death
Void Staff
Liandry's Torment

This item build has a few things included. First, it provides a rediculous amount of damage increases and defense mitigation. 30 Flat Penetration, along with 51% Magic Penetration... it's no joke. Pair this with a sickly amount of burns through Augment: Death and Liandry's Torment and the rediculous amounts of AP you'll get from the Seraph's and Deathcap. However, the downside to this build is that you are really really squishy. A single disruptive spell to the dome cancels out all of your damage, and sadly, you're going to be one of, if not the, top damage dealers on your team.

Consume!

The other build, a build and idea which I myself tend to follow religiously, is a build consisting of some CDR, and focusing on using Power Transfer as much as possible to whittle down your lane opponent, only to catch them off guard with a W-Q-E-R combo. This also couples well with the Augment: Gravitywhich is a core (haha, Hex Core... core...) item in the build. Additionally, the itemized bulk and lowerd cooldowns make you a constant threat in team fights, and the long range on a delayed stun can really catch opponents off-guard.

Sorcerer's Shoes (Alacrity/Homeguard)
Seraph's Embrace
Rabadon's Deathcap
Deathfire Grasp
Zhonya's Hourglass / Abyssal Scepter
Augment: Gravity

This build brings a small amount of tankiness to the table with either a Zhonya's or an Abyssal - it's pretty much a case of whichever you need - but most of all, it brings a lot of utility into the fray. Or at least, that's how I feel about it. I really believe the long range slow-stunfield is a strong area control ability, and to have it on a longer casting range means you have more control over a larger area, which in turn allows for better lane control, fight control, and to some extent, map control. Paired with 39% CDR with an Blue Pot, you'll be able to really harass someone to the death, or really close to.

Consideration

So I'm thinking. Viktor has good area Crowd Control, amazing AoE damage, and if need be, he can most certainly hold his own in a 1v1 - against carries that is. So what is it that makes him  such an undesirable champion? Well, first and foremost, I'm guessing it's because he has no escape mechanism, nor a gap closer other than Flash, which is a sad time. Additionally, aside from his Power Transfer, his cooldowns are all pretty damn high.

He can Power Transfer you to death if need be, but in team fights, the highest damage dealers are usually way in the back, where Viktor would belong as well. To keep pummelling tanks with Power Transfer... it'll work in the long run, but you'll get pooped on by the enemy carries by that time.

On the other hand, there's a few things that make Viktor worthwhile. First off, he has a really low cooldown single target nuke. This provides a really strong zoning ability, as you'll be able to take 20% of max HP with each Power Transfer. Secondly, his ranges are more than decent. I'll admit; without Augment: Gravity, the range on his Gravity Field is pretty sad. His Death Ray and Chaos Storm will cover quite a distance though, and if you keep moving, Chaos Storm will cover enough of the map to have tickled everyone for at least a small bit.

So tell me. Do you like Viktor? Why do you? And if you don't, I'd like to know why not. He's a strong pick, and fits very nicely into the AoE meta which shines nowadays. Hell, he can even assassinate you if you're not careful. Please tell me what you think.