A Viktor Main Take On Viktor
I've been pretty vocal in my criticisms of Viktor since the leak of what his rework would be. Since the patch landed, I've been playing a lot of it. My results?
Riot has made the same exact mistake they made in his rework a year and a half ago. They reduced the reliability of his damage in exchange for just dialing his numbers up to 11. Once Viktor starts seeing some success, the numbers will get nerfed and he'll just be unreliable. History lesson:
Rework Changes: -Q changed to on-hit effect, damage up -W range nerfed about 30% -E augment changed from 30% as DOT to 40% as aftershock -R initial damage nerfed 25%, full duration damage buffed
These changes forced Viktor to spend long periods of time in Intentional Feeding Range, even getting to 525 to land autos on his main sustained DPS spell. When riot killed the flat AP of his augment, he went instantly terrible. The E damage nerf only furthered it.
Mage Update Changes: Q: shield up, initial damage up, on-air nerf W: unchanged E: initial damage nerf, speed up, 2.5x the aftershock delay but with damage buff R: ANOTHER 25% initial damage nerf, quadrupled tick timer, increased tick damage greatly
Riot has undone their nerfs to his waveclear (and made it stronger than ever), so a nerf is 100% certain here. Riot is frequently open about their dislike of waveclear unless it's on a Marksman or Assassin, so often require it to need 2 or 3 spells from a mage (and half your base mana) to do.
Since we're in a lockdown-heavy tank meta with immobile marksman and mids, people are also getting wrecked by Viktor's ult because they're too dumb to keep away from cc. In Gold and higher this is easily avoided, but below that, not so much. This will get nerfed.
Viktor's high yet easily dodged damage simply becomes "high damage" in Silver and Bronze. Since that's where most players are, Viktor is mostly just annoying and oppressive to the majority of players. Beyond them, all his risk doesn't pay off and nothing the Viktor player can do will change that. Its on his opponent to screw up and fail to dodge his damage.
