Can we buff Viktor?

I know about the Klepto top tank Viktor shenanigans, and trust me, I hated that. I started playing Viktor at season 6, with decent win rates with him every season, nearing 70%, because I was good at a champion who was good in the hands of an experienced player, and not as good in others. The champion was by no means broken, it was one of the most balanced champions in the game, that had a weaker early game than others, a weaker mid lane, but was becoming very strong later. His lines were drawn, and here is where the experience came into play. If you knew his powerspikes and what you are allowed to do with him until he reaches his real strength, you would carry games.

But not anymore. Ever since the endless nerfs he received to downgrade the tank Viktor, the champion as an AP mid laner is just dog shit. No, wait, Galio is dog shit, Viktor is just much worse. The champion is simply unplayable. I tried, this season, so very hard to make him work, but it just seems like I can never make him work. I tried different runes, different build paths, but it doesn't matter. The games I won, I felt I was not really doing anything, the games I lost, I just felt hopeless, even if I was doing well.

Apart from his levels 1-4, the champion is just horrible, until maybe he reaches 4 or 5 items (his own item, Rylai's, CDR option, damage option). Before he gets access to ANY of these, he is just useless garbarge.

The problem lies in the champions that are around him. There's just so much mobility in the game right now, that a champion without ANY mobility spells is already in a huge handicap. You didn't catch that enemy jungler on your minimap and you were in the middle of the lane? Dead. Rengar ulted and you know he is coming for you? Dead. Zed ults you and your stopwatch is broken and Zed isn't a monkey? Dead. Really, no instant CC or mobility to get out of dangerous situations, like almost in other champion has.

And that is not even the biggest thing. The only thing he can do reliable is wave clear, and that is AFTER level 7 and if he has his first upgrade. If the lane doesn't go well and don't manage to get the first upgrade on the first back, you are fucked, lane is over. You can't do anything. Cooldowns are VERY high, cast ranges are generally low, mana costs are extremely high and the damage output is just minimal. It's very easy to dodge his laser, very risky to walk up and Q enemies and his R is just... I don't know. The only situation where I use his R early game is to push a wave and back to buy items.

They increased the cooldown on his Q. Revert, or at least increase its cast range to make it a bit more reliable. His laser width is horrible, sometimes it doesn't even hit all 3 minions. WIDEN it, so that maybe we can hit enemies with both parts. His ulti is GARBAGE, revert it back to when it used to tick every half second at least. I haven't made a mention to his W yet, because it is even more useless than the previous iteration of Ezreal's W.

Give this guy some love. Don't make him so extremely reliable on CDR, or at least give him more damage on his spells. I can be 30 cs up at 10 minutes and have a couple kills, but I still can't fight. I will still lose most 1v1s and most skirmishes because the champion deals no damage and has extremely high cooldowns early.

How about you widen the width of his E? How about you give damage back to his Q? How about his R ticks every half a second? How about you take some of his scaling away in favor of less CDs on his spells or higher base damage? What if you increase his mana regen, or reduce the cost of his spells? Or what about creating a 7th slot for an extra item for this guy? In the current state, there is no possible way to fit a decent build into Viktor. You can't really fit 40% CDR, with damage, penetration and slows with Lich Bane, because most of the time you need Morellos or Zhonyas or Banshee's to have a chance to survive anything later in the game.

Oh, and don't give me the "but he has 50% winrate, so he is balanced" argument. Bullshit. He is not balanced. Akali had a below 50% win rate and was extremely annoying to play against. Viktor is extremely annoying to play. Compare him with other "similar" mid laners. Orianna, even if behind, can still shield, speed up, slow and use her R to support her team. Lux can shield the entire team possibly, root people, zone with her E and snipe/zone or safely waveclear with her R. Azir has mobility, teamfight setups etc. Xerath / Velkoz have instant CC, huge ranges to poke / waveclear and much more damage early / mid.

Really, what does have to offer that other champions don't? That's the real question. Why pick Viktor over Ori, Xerath, Velkoz, Lux, Veigar? Back in season 6, the guy had better access to his items, had more damage and wasn't getting instakilled by anything and had a chance to fight back. Also had easier access to his necessary favorable stats like CDR and damage.