@RiotSolcrushed Comments on the not-so-Glorious Evolution

So after having my hands on Vitkor for a few practice sessions and a team builder game its about time we have an initial weigh in on the new Viktor. While any number of games on the first day is too early to talk about power in an empirical sense(I.E. measure of his win rate) we can still talk about the design of the rework, whether or not it achieved the design goals, and whether the changes were positive or negative in terms of Viktor's overall ideal and feel.

As I see it, there were three design goals with Viktor

1. "The Hex Core is the source of Viktor's powers and it should feel POWERFUL"
2. "the updated Viktor should become a strong followup mage that excels as a secondary AOE wombo"
3. Usability tweaks should make gameplay flow better. (inferred from Solcrushed Posts)

To support these design goals Solcrused asked four questions

FEEDBACK POINTS ONCE YOU HAVE THE CHANCE TO PLAY HIM IN PBE

1. How do you feel about his abilities working with each other, do they have a natural flow to them?
2. How enticing are the augments in various points in the game? When / what do you think is the best time / order to upgrade them?
3. Do you notice an improvement in the usability of Chaos Storm? / How does Chaos Storm feel to use for you as a player new to Viktor?
4. Is the damage on the empowered attack on Siphon Power adequate during all phases of the game? If not, when does it feel out of line?

Now we, more or less, have the information to answer them.

Does the Hexcore feel POWERFUL? How enticing are the augments in various points in the game? When / what do you think is the best time / order to upgrade them?

Short Answer: no. The Hexcore is slot efficient, and build efficient. But it is not gold efficient. (For a discussion on item efficiency, see here )

In order to feel powerful, an item doesn't necessarily have to be gold efficient, it just has to be more gold efficient than the relevant options. For a basic item this means that the basic stats need to efficient. For a combined item this means that the power of the combine needs to be more powerful than the power of a similarly priced basic item. Most slot efficient items at the top end of the scale have basic items which are either build inefficient, or gold inefficient, so that the combine power has something to be more efficient than.

However, the Hexcore doesn't have that dynamic. In order for the Hexcore to feel powerful its components need to be more gold efficient than the components of a comparably slot efficient item and its final combine needs to be more gold efficient than the final combine of a comparatively priced item. That is, in order to feel powerful, the Hexcore more or less needs to be the only reasonable first buy unless you absolutely need the utility of another item.

The Hexcore is not anywhere close to that utmost efficiency that we would expect from Viktor's finest creation. Its actually less gold efficient than it was before the remake. Before the remake Viktor had a strong mid game power spike due to the power of his Death Augment. Death Augment was roughly slot efficient (99 total AP + 30% laser bonus damage) and most definitely gold efficient (while it only got 45 AP the passive was easily worth the 32.5 gold difference between it and 45 AP priced at a blasting wands AP). This made the Death Augment very strong and almost always the recommended first buy for Viktor. It was almost slot efficient, gold efficient, and build efficient (only ever took 1 upgrade slot, relatively low component/upgrade cost).

But lets compare with the current E augment. Which gives 20 AP 1 AP/Level and the new laser damage upgrade. Even assuming that the laser damage upgrades are equivalent we can see that we have lost 25-1 AP/Level. If you buy this item first and get it around level 6, you're 19 AP lower than you would be before the remake. The lower AP actually entirely counteracts the slightly higher total damage of the ability meaning that if you're looking for wave clear power only, Old Viktor could clear waves at an earlier level than New Viktor.

So does the Hexcore feel powerful? No. The only reason to upgrade the hexcore is if you absolutely need to have the utility. How much is that utility worth? Well E is mainly good for clearing waves, so if you're not having trouble with that (or you have a large amount of gold on first back) you can ignore it. Q is only good if you have ranks in Q, which you should not(more on this later), and W is pretty meh if fun. Overall the efficient time to upgrade your hexcore is last or second to last. And the only reason you would be upgrading it second to last is because when you have 5 item slots filled the last item upgrade is going to cost about 1500-2500 in one go (so you can get immediate power out of the 1000 gold upgrade).

When you do finally upgrade it you've got a decent amount of AP sitting there. But by then the game is almost over anyway.

This part of the rework has failed the design goal.

Has Viktor become a strong followup mage that excels as a secondary AOE wombo? Do you notice an improvement in the usability of Chaos Storm?

Has Viktor become this? Well probably not, since he always had an amazing secondary AoE wombo. But this part of Viktor's kit certainly isn't lacking. Especially his lategame damage. Indeed his single target lategame DPS got a buff. His max AoE wombo got a buff (if you hit both parts of the laser, and if you're late enough in the game that it makes sense to have purchased your hexcore) and his lategame consistent DPS went up. Enough so that he might actually be a threat to be reckoned with after he has blown his combo (whereas previously you should have ignored him after he blew his combo)

A better question might be "when does Viktor become this" and the answer to that is probably "too late in the game". Viktor, after all, is an immobile mage with almost no pick potential against the majority of champions (which have dashes). Champions which fit this mold need one of two things to be reasonable. A) a large mid game power spike B) amazing poke/siege/clear/safety. Viktor doesn't have these things to get him to the lategame he has been designed for.

On the other hand the increased range of the initial burst of the Ult is very nice (no more ulting and not hitting champions it looks like it should hit) though the decreased usability due to lack of a silence and the inability to easily follow champions in bushes and stealth(you used to be able to look at the lightning animation and see where obscured champions were standing) reduces its ease. I haven't run into any bugs though some people report it hitting the wrong person/following poorly. Overall I have noticed its much more responsive

Ancillary to the bolded second question is this one

Is the damage on the empowered attack on Siphon Power adequate during all phases of the game? If not, when does it feel out of line?

There is no good short answer to this. Lategame the damage is ridiculous. 330 + .7 AP every 3 seconds is big. If you have a lichbane (which is, interestingly enough, probably a trap item), its 410+1.2 AP. Super huge. But what is it at level 13? About 230+.7 AP damage. This number should remind you of the base damage of the old Q at rank 5. Which was 260 damage. This means that if you, for some reason, wanted to max Q first you would be behind on base damage (and AP due to death augment changes) until level 15. If you don't max Q first you lose out on the CDR advantages but your total damage is higher until you start putting points into it.

This actually creates a really weird power lull from levels 11 to 15. Right when Viktor is/was supposed to be strongest. In this point you're leveling up Q and getting only 20 damage/level for it and you're actually lower in total base damage compared to Old Viktor. (you would need 600 AP to make up the damage difference between new Q + Auto and old Q+auto at level 13 due to the increased ratio)

So is the damage on Q adequate? Well that depends on whether or not Riot wants you to be able to level up Q first. It also depends on if Riot wants Viktor to be the lane bully he was originally intended to be (and if not one has to wonder how Viktor gets to the lategame). If Riot does then the answer is an unequivocal no. E max New Viktor's Q does less damage until level 5 compared to old Viktor. If you put two points into Q was was common for Old Viktor against tough matchups (for the bonus shield and lower CD guaranteed damage) you do less damage until level 15(level 14 is 250 base, level 15 is 270 base) because you hit the point where you will start leveling up Q again before the point where the level scaling breaks even.

Post level 15? Damage is great. Possibly even too much. Pre-Level 15. Damage is too low. I really like the mechanics of Q, making it a bit harder to get everything off in exchange for more utility. But I don't like the level scaling on it. And i feel like it would be better if the per-level scaling were per-rank scaling instead, such that the total damage at each rank was the same as it was before (so at rank 5 it would have 120 damage on the Q portion and 140 bonus damage on the auto attack and it wouldn't go above that, but you could achieve this at level 9 if you were so inclined to rank it up)

What About Usability? How do you feel about his abilities working with each other, do they have a natural flow to them?

This you got right... almost. As discussed at length here you're 1 for 2 in terms of usability.

First the auto attack. You, 100%, got the auto attack right. Some people are complaining about Viktor's auto attack "feeling weak" but don't listen to that. Viktor's auto attack is a billion times better than it used to be. Its responsive, fast, and issues regarding audio and visual cue's have been fixed. Sure it would be nice if it looked more meaty but i will take function over form any day of the week. The auto attack changes are so good that it might wipe out the rest of the errors simply because of an increased ability to trade auto attacks and CS in the early levels. Due to the hard reduction in power of early itemization and the hard reduction in power of the Q ability this is unlikely though.

On the other hand, no progress was made on Viktor's laser behavior. I know you've mentioned why this happened but its still disappointing in terms of seeing Viktor's power come back. If you want the ability to target outside of range and walk up keep the normal cast behavior the same (just like Annie's W!) and let players who are trying to kite and move while using the laser be able to do so without risking re-issuing a move command in the heat of the battle.

With regards to abilities in general, the flow is about the same. His Q timing is a bit eased due to higher range but the old "stutter stepping while trying to get your laser off because you want to cast at max range but don't want to move closer to the fight" effect is still there, reducing flow. The increased range on his W is nice, but not so nice as to be game changing. The changes to the ults handling were good though the changes to the ults visual effects make it less useful(as discussed above)

But What About Overall Feel

Viktor just doesn't seem as defined by his laser anymore. Without the mid game power spike and with the new unreliability of the bonus damage the laser, the core "big power" spell which defines Viktor just doesn't have the oomph it needs to be champion defining. Rather his Q, which doesn't come into its own until level 15 is the largest thing that makes Viktor unique now. Even if the laser wasn't supposed to be the most Viktor thing about Viktor it is strange that the defining spell doesn't come into its own until level 15 and is expected to be leveled second.

TL:DR Overall the Viktor change failed to meet core design goals: Hexcore is the most egregious offender. Q level scaling damage is second Utility changes overall work good: Auto attack and Ult changes especially. Would have been really nice to see laser behavior changes Viktor's feel as a champion has changed significantly in ways many Viktor players will dislike (I.E. away from the laser and away from the mid game)