@Solcrushed - Viktor's Hexcores, and the Machine Herald's rework

I know you probably have a lot on your plate at the moment, but I hope against hope that this thread somehow manages to grab your attention.

I'll fly right through the introduction and start out by saying I'm a Viktor 'main'. The term might be thrown around very casually and changed up each month based upon a person's current top pick, but I joined shortly after Viktor's release. His splash art pulled me in; his gameplay convinced me to stay. Viktor, to me, was love at first sight - and he's been my anchor to this game ever since.

I could spend hours just listing the things that make him special: His zone control, his anti-engage potential, his deceptively vicious mid-game power spike... but it's been done a million times before. And so, instead, I'd like to do something different. I want to point out the things that don't make him special. And so, if you'll humour me...

A) His auto attacks lack impact Early game, Viktor's cooldowns are high. '8-13 seconds', high. He struggles to push back against an opponent insistent on getting him onto his turret, and really can't afford to spam his abilities. His AD is respectable - but outmatched - and his AA animation is late/slow. Not only is he relying on AAs to keep mages with more spammable abilities from forcing him to turret farm; his shield's delayed return also encourages him to utilise his AAs to poke and soak (minion damage).

An additional damage source might be pushing it, but a crutch to contend lane early on would dramatically help round out Viktor's kit during the earliest phases of the game. Vik's auto attacks could be a great place to implement something of the kind.

B) The Hex Core (Not Upgraded) doesn't help round out his role Support and Top-Lane Viktor are not very popular. But for dramatically different reasons. Whereas Power Augment is shunned due to its low stats, Gravity is shunned due to its high cost. If you're priming to play a support Viktor, you're not going to invest 1000 gold into an augment straight off the bat. There's just flat-out better buys.

Allowing Viktor to define his role of choice for free (or at a lower cost) from the very beginning of the game would allow the player to 'fit' whichever role he's decided to opt into. I'm not talking 1000-gold augments for free, here - just minor ability or stat tweaks that set him up for the role he wants to play. Switching out AP/level for Arm/level or Mr/level might help Vik with his early game identity crises whenever he decides to try his luck when building towards another role.

C) Viktor can have trouble adapting to game-flow after his initial augment purchase Occasionally, blasphemous though it is, Viktor loses during lane phase. He's invested in damage; and now he's getting bursted by high mobility opponents who he thought he could lock down. But he can't change up his evolution priorities. He can't switch out his burn damage for stun range, or for movement speed. This is a bit of a pain. Knowing you could contribute more with an alternate augment choice, but being locked out of switching (even at a cost), is a little bit frustrating.

Allowing Viktor to micromanage his upgrades to some extent, rather than stacking all the AP on Red, or all the cooldown on blue, would allow Viktor some leeway when dealing with particularly dramatic throws of the game, or just tricky enemy team comps in general. Wanting movement speed shouldn't inherently make you a tank. Wanting a little extra range on your stun shouldn't mean you've committed to utility mage mana stacking. Even if only minor in scope, alternatives to base augments could make Viktor feel just that little bit more responsive when confronting a particularly diverse range of allies and opponents (particularly during non-"meta" matchups).

D) Master Yi He resists Viktor's stun. He resists Viktor's slow. I'm not sure what options are available when your stun relies on slow stacks, but even something as simple as an augment/upgrade designed specifically for Yi-related matchups would be immensely well-received by Viktor's fanbase. Whether this be an instant stun on contact or some kind of suppression effect is not entirely important:

But something to allow Viktor to skew the odds in his (or his team's) favour during a highlander Yi charge is, in my somewhat biased opinion, long overdue.

Something must be done.