Viktor and why his hexcore should be changed.

THE FIRST COUPLE PARAGRAPHS ARE THE IMPORTANT ONES AND GIVE AN OVERVIEW OF THE ENTIRE THREAD. IT IS MUCH LONGER BECAUSE I GO INTO GREATER DETAIL TO GIVE MY REASONING FOR THE PROPOSED CHANGES

Personally Viktor is one of my favorite champs and this is why I took the time to write this. To put things simply the hexcore item is too strong at all stages of the game and this is exasperated due to the fact the he has a strong laning phase. The item can be completed rather early and is very cost efficient. It not only give him great late game scaling, but it also gives him great mid game as well. The hexcore also makes it hard to build things that you may want to experiment with or things that are currently popular. Sometimes I would like to build frost queen’s claim or ROA on him as first item, but it delays the huge power spikes given by your hexcore.

Basically I think that they need to change the way Viktor receives his augments, whether it be the same way Kha Zix get his or the way Syndra gets hers. Both of these accomplish the same thing: they reduce the strength of his early game and laning phase while still giving him great scaling into the late game. It will also make his build path much more flexible and adaptable to in game situations.

Okay so I think that we can all agree that Viktor's Hexcore is a powerful item giving AP per level and mana per level. With the perfect hexcore and level 18 you are getting 180 AP. If it is combined with a deathcap, which is almost always is, the two together add up to 405 AP at level 18 along with 450 mana from the core. Now it does vary on the timing of hexcore upgrade and it depends on your team needs and personal preferences.

So hypothetically, lets say that you are in the mid game and you are level 13. At this point you have both E and Q maxed and your damage output is incredible with a level 2 ult to boot. Now lets say you have one hexcore upgrade and another item...for now let's say that the other item is either a morello or a deathcap. With the first core upgrade at level 13, it is giving you 39 AP and 195 mana. Combined with a deathcap, this results in 214.5 AP. Now this doesnt seem like a lot, but let us crunch the numbers.

At this point you have both E and Q maxed. E is doing 250 +.7 AP… this is equal to 400 damage on the first hit. on the explosion that follows, it does 40 percent less damage if the target was hit by the first part. So the second part of the death ray will do another 160 damage. All together this is 560 damage, not accounting for MR or magic pen. Now take a common mid lane mage in Ahri….at level 13 she has 1390 health. Most mages have about 1400 health at level 13 if they have no health items. So both portions of his E will roughly 40 percent of their health. This is assuming that they are only getting hit by your E.

Assuming they get hit by more than just the E, more damage will be outputted. Ok so let’s say that you hit a Q on them as well. This will do another 120+.2 AP which equals out to 163. So if they get out of auto range the total damage would be done will be 723. This is roughly half their health. If the subsequent auto is also hit, the damage jumps up by 110+100%AD+50%AP. This equates to 302 damage. This would be 1025 damage, not including mr or magic pen. Now commonly you would hit the Q auto and then follow with an E to ensure most of the damage gets off.

I still have not even included anything about his ultimate. His ultimate does a large amount of damage when it first drop, 250+.55AP. This will be an instant 368 damage. Since his ult also does damage over time ever half a second I will assume that the enemy champion is in it for a half second. this is another 66.5 damage so together that is 434.5 damage. Now let us assume that you are throwing abilities over a wall which you do a lot as viktor; so you are gonna probably use your E and Ult…. you may even be able to get off a Q without the empowered auto attack.

So both procs on the E will do 560 health. Then the Ult will do at least 434 damage. For the sake of even fractions, I will round up to 1000 damage without the siphon power. that is 70 percent of the opposing mid laners health. If you hit a Q with the empowered auto you will do another 465 damage. THis is over 1400 damage which means a dead enemy.

Now obviously it is unlikely to hit this stuff with no retaliation from the enemy. This is not the point though. All of the above was just an example of how strong the item is at all stages of the game. Everybody knows he is a terror late game with his Q scaling with levels. Even if viktor only hits a rotation of Q+empowered auto and death ray the enemy will be chunked quite a bit. If you hit another death ray after that, they can’t fight or they will have to back.

The reason i made this thread is because i feel that the required item is not only too strong for his early game and laning phase but it makes his build path incredibly linear. You only have a few options: 1. you get all three upgrades and then build other items. 2. you get one upgrade and then an item or two and then finish upgrades. 3. you build other a couple other items first and then upgrade.

If you go with option number one you will get that perfect core and you should follow up with a deathcap because of how much raw AP those two items alone grant you.

If you go with the second option you will get an augment for your deathray and you will most likely get a morello or a deathcap second.

If you go with the third option you will do much less early game damage because the deathray augment is so important to his damage. But with this option you will likely get a morello or athene’s first. and then subsequent updates.