How to level/augment Viktor (And Lich Bane talk)

So I've mained Viktor since S3 (only played one game since the new AP items came out, so I need to brush up a bit in that sense) and I've seen some very, very odd things that other people do when they play Viktor. I don't want to say they're wrong, but there is almost always a better option to these examples, so if your goal is to be the best you can be...It's wrong.

For leveling: Never max Q. Always max E. I see people trying to max Q way too much, don't do it. It doesn't give as much damage as your E. Not NEARLY as much damage as your E, unless your later in levels.

E gives you 35 damage each time you level it, Q gives you 20. The auto attack part of his Q, you know? The part everyone thought was OP on release because it made it look as if he one-shot people? It scales with champion level. Leveling Q does nothing for it. The only argument to make is that E costs more mana than Q, which is true. However, E gives you insane amounts of wave control and poke, and well as raw damage.

Now at level 1, it's debatable. 90% of the time, get E. But there are a few matchups you might want to trade or something like that, I chock that up to personal opinion.

Now, AUGMENT time.

Simple. Get E first every time. You can rush Q immediately after, that totally isn't wrong, but ALWAYS get E. In the early laning phases, you don't need to kite as much and while Q speed boost is great, definitely, it doesn't come close to 40% extra damage on a long range, AOE, high-damage vectorable skillshot. Getting E gives you insane wave clear potential, if you farm up well before you go back to buy, you'll be 1 shotting the castor minions AND hitting the melee minions at the same time. Very few mid champions can deal with such insane wave clear at level 7.

I get my Hex Core Mk-1 every single game first item whenever I have 1000 gold (preferably more, 1500 is a good number because you can get a and some potions) and I always augment E. No matter what match up it is, if I can get something that increases my main damage source by 40%, I don't need the movespeed. It's perfectly OK to rush your next augment after you get this, (I usually get an item or two before hand, but there are plenty of high-level Viktor mains that get their second augment next. I just don't personally prefer it.)

As for your third augment? I see some people rush this item. That is not a good thing to do. This item gives you AP that SCALES WITH LEVEL, getting it as early as possible is just throwing away your money. You don't need the augments. I personally just don't like the W augment. Nothing against it really, it just isn't helpful. It doesn't leave targets 'airborne' so you can't wombo it with yasuo, and since it's up to your opponents when they get stunned (as they can walk out of it) you can't really time it correctly to do any combos. I've missed skillshots in the past because of this augment moving the enemies out of the way.

And getting the Chaos Storm upgrade (by augmenting everything else) isn't as cracked up as it sounds. It gets 20% more movespeed, yippee. It's still too slow to catch fleeing targets that have gap closers, and his rework shifted most of the damage on the DOT to the initial burst anyway. Moving it around is useful, but it isn't high on the priority list. You might as well forget about it in the middle of a teamfight until your cooldowns run out and you have time to think about it.

Now about Lich Bane. I see people rush this. Please don't. I see people getting it 2nd or 3rd item. ehhhh...

The problem with Lich Bane is that it IS good on Viktor, but it takes power away from his other abilities in favor of his Q. And his other abilities do more damage anyway. You are MUCH better off buying items that will benefit ALL of your abilities to a good extent before picking up Lich Bane. I don't even save a slot for it, I usually get a CDR item early game (usually Morellonomicon) and sell it late game in favor of Lich Bane. After my entire kit is complete. Because while this item is good on Viktor, it gets even better as time goes on, and the earlier you get it, the less power the rest of your abilities have.

I'm not a high level player, but I do know my Viktor very well, and I've been studying high-level Viktor players and comparing things for a long time. I'm not the kind of champion main who just blindly copies, either. I experiment as much as I possibly can, changing build orders and braintstorming new stuff. I might've done it all in terms of item builds over the years, and I can guarantee you that what I've said holds true (as of this patch) except the things dealing with personal opinion (like how late to get your second hex core).

tl;dr: Always level E first, almost always augment E immediately, don't upgrade your hex core fully until late into the game (second upgrade is fine, get it when you want it), don't get Lich Bane until late into the game.