I decided to spring for Viktor and his prototype skins regardless of the mass posts labeling him underpowered. I had a few rough games at first, but once I figured out what I could and could not get away with on Viktor I started having great success.

I can go either top or bot, but most teams end up wanting me bot. We all know that AD is stupidly popular on Dominion, which is great for Viktor. His kit pretty much counters most of the popular assassin / tanky DPS / bruiser champs. Death ray is an excellent poke, power transfusion is another fun poke and makes it easy to trade blows, and gravity field pretty much stops all melee in their tracks. Add in the silence from his ult and he also becomes fairly disruptive in team fights.

Sure he may not nuke as hard as Annie or Brand, but the sheer amount of utility in his kit is ridiculous. If someone catches Viktor's full combo it still hurts quite a bit, too.

So why has the playerbase labeled Viktor as a subpar champ? High skill cap? The feel that he needs to do as much damage as Annie in addition to his utility? Machine hatred? I'm curious.

He's honestly one of my favorite champions right now, he's actually really good on Dominion. He's very flexible, and brings a lot to the team.

Gravity Field is way easier to use on Dominion since chokes make placement obvious and avoidance nearly impossible, and Death Ray is a lethal poke. Power Transfer is a pretty good nuke too but imo isn't entirely worth ranking up first in Dom as Death Ray is aoe and hits ridiculously hard at a safer range. The shield is a very nice buffer too, especially when facing melee champs.


The only real complaint I have about him is he may be too reliant on his ultimate. It's is what really makes him a monster, if he has it up he can easily land multiple kills and annihilate aggressors/defenders. Without it though, he's more of a hit-and-run champ being really cdr reliant while also needing a lot of ap to really milk the damage out of his cd's. This makes the earlier stages of the game a bit sub-par for him in comparison to other casters like Brand, but he does scale very well and plays out the guerrilla warfare role competently.

That being said, he's still a great pick in the right hands. He CAN go bot but at the same time I think it's a bit of a waste of Viktor's potential since he is outright devastating once he hits 6, although if you are against a ridiculous bot like Yorick it's definitely something to consider since Death Ray one shots his ghouls and the minions once you get an item or two and the augment.

I get a lot of flak if I'm not playing as well as I should, but Viktor is definitely a strong caster in Dom. Just watch out for Kassadin/LeBlanc, they make me want to tear my hair out in frustration.

Many viktor players suck, he isn't easy to use well.

That laser is ridiculous if you can land it consistently.
edit: its a lot like AP nidalee - either they'll land their spells and dominate, or they'll miss everything and be useless. The 2nd one is a much safer assumption. I don't think he is underpowered, but I'm never happy to see one on my team.

I love to play Viktor. But hate being sent bot. He can only carry after after getting kills, so thats out of the question when solo q'ers put me bot. I only play him with duo+ now.

It really is surprising how many players just walk into his death ray, it's hilarious, and even funnier how they rage at you when they do. AP casters have the easiest predicted movement, so he's a great counter to any caster, even ahri.

Just a small note, rarely do people QQ about champs because of Dominion.

Similar a nerf could make a champion trash tier on Dominion

Why do you need kills to carry? I typically get 1.5-2.5K more gold by the end of a game after going bot.

I find that earlier on Viktor isn't very hard to beat at bot. Get someone with a lot of early pressure and maybe with a promote and he can't stop it. He needs levels/ap for Death Ray to be able to wipe creeps fast enough.

To be honest while Viktor can bot I don't think it's the best place for him to be.

Mostly the high skill cap. He runs in a different direction than his ray, which is a different direction than his ult. He plays bot very well against some champs, but very poorly against others, so it can be a bit chancy.

Mostly not enough people have tried him enough to find his place, so nobody's seen it done well. Certainly better than Xerath, but probably not as good as ahri since he can't keep up with her damage.

I've been playing a lot of Viktor lately, and while I believe he's usable, he needs some small buffs to truly be competitive.

For starters, unless I can build straight AP or Augment Death, caster minions have a tendency to just barely survive a death ray, which is quite a disadvantage in bot lane compared to casters like Ahri and Malz who can clear waves in a single spell with beefier builds.

Secondly, while most caster's ultimates cooldowns lower each level, Viktor's does not. The long cooldown really hurts him in a setting where team fights and skirmishes are constantly occurring.

Lastly, I really think his passive should have a second tier upgrade. This is just hypothetical completely unbalanced or mathed out numbers here, but say the second upgrade costs 2k gold, and it upgrades his ultimate by lowering the cooldown a flat amount (say 20 seconds), as well as an additional benefit based on your previous augment. For example, Augment Power could provide you a shield for 30% of the damage done by the storm lasting until the storm dissipates, Gravity could cause the storm to silence for three seconds, and Death would let the storm last seven seconds longer. Perhaps there would be a more balanced way to do it, but I really think improving Viktor's passive would be the most interesting way to bring him up to par.