Hey, guys! I am Tyler "ecco" Spesick and I am a former LCS mid laner! I'm here with a guide for a fairly old champion who has always been underestimated.

Viktor is a very unique champion who has a very strange kit. He has strong trading with his Q, strong disengage with his W, solid poke with his E, and immense burst with his ultimate. Once he has his core items, he will one-shot anything that isn't building tank. Even with his insane burst capability, he actually has very strong consistent, AoE damage as well. His major downfall is his lack of mobility and punishment for being out of position. I hope this guide inspires some to try out their luck with Viktor and for those who already have to become even stronger with him!

Pros

1. Strong laning.
2. Consistent damage with AoE capability.
3. Heavy burst.
4. AoE CC.
5. Good dueler.

Cons

1. Low mobility.
2. Susceptible to burst.
3. Weak to mobility champions.
4. His abilities are overall fairly underwhelming.

The team composition I have setup above is very team-fight oriented. It has a lot of AoE and AoE engage that clumps people together for maximum efficiency. If the proper engage happens, a quick 5-0 ace could occur. Rumble is arguably the strongest team-fighting top champion in the game. He isn't the strongest laner but when it comes to objective fights/dances he has by far the most impact. His ultimate in conjunction with Jarvan IV's is devastating. Now, imagine a Hextech Ray and Arcane Storm thrown on top of that. And now imagine a Collateral Damage and Crescendo thrown on top of that. Yeah. They're all dead. Very, very dead.

You want champions that are going to compliment Viktor's kit well. Lots of AoE setup with lots of AoE damage. Decently strong laners who can force lots of objective fights, who have the ability to siege kind of well and be able to stall out until other objectives. The game is going to be won in objective dances. Either you get free objectives because they're too scared to fight your incredibly strong team-fighting composition or you win engagements through chaining your AoE spells properly.

Although I rarely take ignite on champions that aren't assassins, I do take it on Viktor. This is because his laning and burst is strong enough where Ignite can give him that extra little bit of damage needed to pick up a kill in the lane and completely snowball out of control. If you were against a real assassin and an aggressive jungler combo (such as Kha'Zix and Fizz) then taking Exhaust to help survive potential burst in lane as well as team-fights would be your best option.

9x 9x 4x 5x 3x

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greater mark of hybrid penetration Greater Seal of Scaling Health Greater Glyph of Magic Penetration Greater Glyph of Magic Resist Greater Quintessence of Ability Power

Lately I have begun running my combination of hybrid penetration marks and four magic penetration glyphs for the strongest laning and trading I can achieve. Viktor is a very lane focused champion where if he gets a lead it can create a very, very massive lead quickly. On these kind of snowballing champions it is best to use your runes to take the highest advantage of this as you possibly can. I realize that I am running scaling health seals which are /not/ early game runes but really they just scale so damn well for him being an immobile AP caster that they are still the best choice in my opinion.

These are fairly standard runes that I run on almost any AP mid champion currently. The only thing that would be controversial is that I am not running Double-Edged Sword on a champion where I was just emphasizing snowballing/bursting. This is for the same reason that I am running scaling health yellows... kind of. Viktor is so immobile and vulnerable to being bursted /himself/ that I don't think the trade-off is worth it.

The skill sequence I have setup is very straight-forward and a little bit greedy early game. I put off getting a point in Gravity Field until level 4 for stronger trading and wave-clear. If you feel like you might get ganked early game or just want the defensive ability of it then you are more than welcome to put a point in it at level 3.

Evolving Technology (Passive) Evolving technology is a very interesting passive. It takes up an item slot which sucks but it is actually /stupid/ cost efficient and is just an overall great item that gives a very early power-spike to Viktor. They tried to make it to where there would be variation in when you would get different augments but they all kind of suck compared to Augment: Death so that's the only one we'll be buying.

Power Transfer Power Transfer is a very basic ability. It is a click ability that does damage to a target and shields yourself. You typically use it for trading, consistent damage, and last hitting. It is great for trading in lane as the shield is giving you artificial health. Overall a very simple ability that does what it's intended for. No more, no less.

Gravity Field Gravity Field is a pretty mediocre ability. It is extremely short range so it can pretty much never be used aggressively and the stun can easily be flashed/dashed out of even when it is used properly. It can be strong for disengages and helps you live through most ganks but it just isn't as strong of an ability as it could be.

Death Ray Hextech Ray is by far Viktor's strongest spell. That isn't really saying /too/ much because as we've gone over with the last two spells, they aren't really anything special. Since it is our most potent ability, we invest into it further buy purchasing the Augment: Death to increase its damage The damage it does is insane and is also AoE which means you can be doing this insane damage across multiple targets. It is also great for wave-clearing, has long range for poking, and then as aforementioned the burst. Just overall a great move.

Chaos Storm Arcane Storm is a pretty decent ultimate. It has really strong base damage as well as a quick little silence that helps interrupt channels. To get the most out of this ability, you want to be using it on cc'ed targets. The more targets that you will be hitting the better but when they are cc'ed (whether by your Gravity Field, a Sona Crescendo, etc) then you are optimizing your damage by forcing the opponents to stand in the consistent AoE damage of the storm. Once the storm is down, you want to have it chase a fairly immobile target who can't simply out-run it. If you are forcing an adc or AP mid to simply run away from the storm then that's fantastic because that is a lot of time that they are not outputting damage. Although it is typically used as a chain follow-up to an initiation, you can use this ability in bursting down a squishy (ie using it single target). It does a very large amount of damage in his rotation and you have the ability in mid-game to one-shot ad-carries.

The basic of all basic. No reason to start anything else on a champion like Viktor.




Building Viktor's core is a little bit weird. His Hextech Ray is fairly high mana cost so you want something other than just Doran's Rings for mana but Athene's Unholy Grail is too low AP for the cost. We meet at the middle ground of Morellonomicon as it gives a lot of damage, the healing reduction debuff as well as decent mana regen. Before we purchase Morellonomicon we have a couple of other things on our priority list. On our first back we're going to want a fair amount of gold (at least 1000, ideally ~1500). This is a good amount of time to stay in lane without a back it is ideal. The 1000 is for a Augment: Death and the rest is for another Doran's Ring and a couple of health potions and wards. Once you have your Augment: Death you are a monster and should be out-trading your lane incredibly well.

Moving on, we purchase at least Boots before purchasing our Morellonomicon. We then get our Sorcerer's Shoes for mobility reasons as well as extra damage. The standard Rabadon's Deathcap and Void Staff combo follows it up to round up our mid-game damage so we can one-shot people as we please!




So after we finish our core, we actually only have one item slot left. 95% of the time I'm going to go for a Zhonya's Hourglass because it is almost almost completely necessary to build this on an immobile champion like Viktor because he is a prime target for an assassin/tank to stick to and attempt to kill. It buys time as it force them to lose focus on you (therefore avoiding damage) while buying time for your cool-downs to come back up. Overall a great item that gives a lot of AP. The other choice is Deathfire Grasp. Fantastic for one-shotting targets and chunking health-stacking tanks. Doesn't give any defensive stats though which is a problem. If you aren't getting much attention in team-fights and feel comfortable staying alive without Zhonya's then this is actually an option. If you purchase Zhonya's (which you most likely will) you can actually sell your Morellonomicon for a DFG if you'd like that extra oomph of burst in a team-fight.

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Laning with Viktor is very aggressive. You want to auto-attack harass them when they're going to last hit, using Power Transfer to trade efficiently, and Hextech Ray to poke/harass. Gravity Field should be used purely as a defensive move unless you are chaining it with your jungler's cc . Going back to Death Ray, it is incredibly long range, AoE ability that clears waves incredibly fast. If you are feeling under pressure and unsafe in lane due to the opposing team's jungler or just in general then you are free to stand at a distance and use this ability to farm. Overall, make sure not to position yourself too forward otherwise you'll leave yourself vulnerable to being ganked. Someone like a Kha'Zix or Xin Zhao can truly ruin your day. Make sure to ward often so you can be as aggressive as you want to be in lane. You need to be constantly looking at your map to keep track of their jungler and to have map knowledge in general. If you get ganked and die, you are in a terrible position. Definitely if you use summoners and still die. Being down on an aggressive snowball champion like Viktor leaves you very open to being abused by even more ganks and forces you to play more defensively. Keep being aggressive, harassing with your Death Ray and forcing trades often while constantly looking at the map. You don't want to be forcing a lot of ganks without a lot of information on where everyone on the map is because you're so immobile. If you get caught out in their jungler the chances of you living without intervention from your teammates is slim to none. Keeping pressure on your lane and extending the lead there is going to be the best way to play out the early game.

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Going into mid-game is where your team should start grouping. Forcing dragon, safely sieging towers, and overall stalling the game until more objectives. You want to moving cohesively with your team, ready to force a favorable team-fight at any moment. As for your positioning during fights, it should be on the outskirts of it, poking with your Hextech Ray and Power Transfer and being ready to follow-up on your team's potential engagement at any moment. If you are too far from the initial engagement (such as a Crescendo onto multiple people, then if you have flash up you need to be able to instantly flash and Hextech Ray and Arcane Storm over them. After the initial engagement, you want to be staying in the backlines, next to your adc and support. You are very good at doing consistent damage and your peeling is decent with Gravity Field. It puts a large barrier on the ground that your adc can kite through freely where he can't be followed.

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Late Game is very similar to Mid Game except the focus is going to shift from Dragon to Baron. Team-fights that can be forced in smaller corridors are fantastic for your team because it gives them less room to spread out against your AoE engages and follow-up. The further the game progresses the more and more it is important that your positioning is as close to perfect as you can possibly achieve. If you get caught out of position you don't have a lot to get you out of it (besides Flash and Zhonya's Hourglass which are both incredibly long cd and Zhonya's isn't guaranteed to even get you of the predicament you've put yourself in). Watch your positioning, look for opportunities to use your burst to its maximum potential, and peel/kite with your adc as the fight progresses.