The way the item has to take up a slot kinda limits what Viktor can go for. This also used to be the case with Rengar's Bonetooth Necklace, although that one underwent a lot of reworks and now doesn't give direct stats.
I have to wonder whether or not Viktor's passive should require him to lose an item slot to it. Would it be better if the Hex Core didn't take up an item slot, but you could still pay gold for upgrades?
Teridax682 votesTo me, the purpose of an item is to offer choice to the player, giving them one set of bonuses out of many potential others, which the player has to select based on their intended strategy and playstyle. In this respect, Viktor's Hex Core does not fulfil the purpose of an item, because there is no choice as to whether or not it can be equipped. There is some element of choice in when to upgrade the item, but at the end of the day it's just a way of tying gold to Viktor's augments via a stat stick and an item slot.
Because of this, I would support looking into a different way to implement Viktor's augments. I know the OP is a big fan of quests, and I think a quest mechanic could be an excellent method of unlocking Viktor's augments over the course of a match. In fact, it would likely be much more thematically appropriate to Viktor than gold, because at the end of the day Viktor is a scientist obsessed with research, optimization and adaptation, not material wealth. Implementing the Glorious Evolution in a manner that encouraged the player to research, adapt or otherwise evolve their gameplay over the course of a match via a quest, rather than just dishing out upgrades alongside a gold fee, could go a long way towards letting players embody Viktor's fantasy, and so in a manner that would avoid limiting his diversity of itemization relative to other champions (which itself is antithetical to his character, as he strives to unlock the potential of people via the gift of technology).
darkdill2 votesYeah, come to think of it, giving Viktor baseline quests as a means of getting his augments would be MUCH better than relying on the Hex Core.
ZaneShadow2 votesSo I’ve only played a handful of games as victor but I do watch a lot of pros and listen to the analysts.
The item slot is designed to limit Victor. He has one of the scarier Late games in League once his core is finished and his Archangels finishes stacking. After that, he gets lich Bane and proceeds to murder everyone in the game. Those three items transform Victor into an unstoppable monster. He picks up a Rylize and probably finishes up with Liandries to make it almost impossible to not have him run you down.
It’s one of the slowest build ups and if you get behind it’s better to simply drop Archangels and go for lich Bane immediately. But all of this is based on one balancing tool: his Hextech core. It keeps him from spiraling out of control early and giving the enemy time to punish his abysmal early game.
That’s at least what I have learned about victor so far. Thanks for letting me ramble.
Salron2 votesPerfect hexcore is 151% gold efficient without taking augments into consideration and you want him to lose that?
MorganFreemanBot2 votesHexcore is - augments aside - one of the best items in the game.
Taking it away, but allowing Viktor to retain the stats, would be.. insane. It's there for a reason, as has been said by pros, designs, and people in this thread.
Pokemonred2001 votesI wonder if they could make VIktor's Hex Core a trinket, like Bonetooth Necklace used to be. Not sure how hard that would be, though. With Sweeping Lens being removed next patch and Oracle's Lens being available at Level 1, I wonder how difficult it would be to give him trinkets back (although there might be some difficulty in allowing him to pick up a 
post change, though, since 
line no longer exists)
The Anagram King1 votesNo. Is it required that Viktor have a hex based passive at all?
Not really.
But it's something his fanbase likes; it's something that is super cost efficient; and it's something that can be tweaked in different ways (and to an arguably greater effect) than a non-item passive can.
And that's unique.