I don't own Viktor, but I've tried him a bit when he was free.

For me, I personally find that his passive is a bit restricting. You can only choose one option, rather than all three, which makes is a bit depressing when I would like to be able to "upgrade" all my abilities.

The item thing is really cool, but some way to change augments would be awfully nice. I and some friends have accidentally gotten the mana augment when we wanted another, and it really hurt our late-game.

Perhaps once you buy a second-tier Augment, the option is available to "buy" the other ones for 0 gold, which swaps them out and keeps you from being able to sell them as it was before?

I've never got round to playing him, but personally I think he's not even far off, his Ult just needs tweaks and he'll be very viable. His Q, W and E are very strong when utilised properly. Possibly his passive needs buffs, I don't see why you wouldn't ever take the death augment. It also kind of lacks in late game viability, I personally think his passive should be more expensive but give better stats. I feel his augment should feel like a big purchase, like buying an NLR or a BF Sword, and feel as powerful when you receive it.

For his ult, I think it should last a shorter amount of time, and do more damage or have some kind of lasting CC effect. People should be really scared of the big ball of doom!

His passive is what turned me off of him the most, its useful at earlier levels, but i find the augment death the only valuable upgrade later on...and even that doesn't seem to "change" his playstyle as much as you guys claimed that it would. I remember some reds saying that he was going to be all about augment choice and playstyle changes according to your choice. But i don't feel like it does that at all.

Furthermore i find his overall playsyle "boring", like i find his kit boring to play. Aiming lazor is fun, but the rest of it i find pretty meh. But other then that i really enjoy his lore and his charachter.

His laser not showing up is by far my least favorite part about playing against him.

Not a Viktor player:

I always think about buying Viktor next, but then I remember

1. High skillcap, takes a long time to get used to him.

2. Q shield sucks in most trades, since you get shielded AFTER you throw the shield. Maybe nerf the amount and make it spellvamp for 20% of damage dealt, but only against champions or something? Or have the shield come up instantly.

3. Augmenteath is actually the best part of Viktor, early damage for little cost, in exchange for not being able to have a 6th item. I think it's kind of weird that it takes up an inventory slot at lvl 1, but w/e.

4. Viktor's seem to be really great or really bad, and I just see myself as being a really bad one for a long time until i get used to him. Which is actually a good thing, he's cool because he's different and harder to use.

I'm not a avid Viktor player BUT when i play him:

a) death > other augment for the sheer ap power. IMO his augmet should change his skills, but the the AP on death make it such a good choice i rarely picked other.
b) at first glance he seems to be a mage that could adapt his items and playstyle based on the enemy comp, but there isnt much room for adapting him and the fact his augment occupy 1 item slot just make that i have less options to do so.

I dont have too many ranked Viktor games, but I've played him quite a bit (back when I primarily played AP).

I decided to play Viktor because he's one of those champions with tons of potential (like Hecarim) but are really underappreciated. What I like best is his really powerful lane control with Q, and his decent poke with E. His combo, especially his ult, as insane damage, and I think his ult is the highest damage skill in the game.

But why isn't he good? Mana costs. His Q has been changed so that it moves faster to shield quicker, but he still gets beaten by people who have just a slightly longer range (so that projectile reaches first) or people like Vlad, who have instant damage (his transfusion).

Another thing that kind of limits Viktor is that his Augment (costing $1000) is the only skill in the game in which you actually have to buy it. The only trouble is that it delays big items so much, and not getting it severely hinders you. If there was a way to have a two-part upgrade (400 then 600) or something, it'd be great.

The other thing, is he needs to have more choice with his Augments. I don't really feel like writing each thing out, but it just sucks that you can only choose one, and you can't get another partway through the game. If there was a way to switch, or hell, if you take my suggestion above, to buy one Augment: Power (400 gold) and then the second upgrade Augment Death (600gold) that'd be really, really cool.