Originally Posted by
EJM
In a completely unrelated note, why is viktor so underplayed? He's pretty damn amazing all game long. He can hold a 2v1 lane with no sweat until he gets ganks, he can clear an entire minion wave with his death ray, has amazing burst if you use a good combo, and his late game damage is just beast. While getting chased he can practically spam a shield and W to slow them down and damage them while taking a nice shield until allies come to help. Not sure why people don't seem to like him too much.
Viktor is in a weird spot atm. Although he has amazing damage in both, burst and poke variations, his limits make him unpopular. Viktor was one of Riot's first champions to have an unique interaction with items, as we all (should) know, Viktor has his own upgradable item that enhances a group of stats and skills. Each upgrade either gives utility (W) , damage (E) or a bit of both (Q). Now the upgrades to the skills may sound really good, increased cast range of W or a movespeed buff whenever you land Q on an enemy, etc but the down side to this is the items stats. They don't really get any better. Sure you get scaling AP/lvl, but the gold you invest on the stats are only relative early to mid game.
His Hex Core offers an interesting aspect to gameplay but ultimately hinders his true potential. You have to make an assertive decision on what upgrade to get in each game because once you get it, you got it for the rest of the game. To summarize it, people don't like Viktor because his kit doesn't allow for flexibility. They may want Augment: Power for laning phase but come late game, Augment: Death is vital due to its power spike. Not to mention the late game restrictions of it taking up a slot with no late game upgrade further makes Viktor "unfun".
I believe Riot is in the process of making Viktor better, as they have already showed two champions with better kits who incorporate an unique item or upgrades to skills; Rengar and Kha'zix.