Hello everyone! My Name is Benjamin, but i am mostly known as Eternal Torment in League of Legends.
I am a S4 Mid-lane Main who has been playing this game roughly since the end of Season 3, so I have gone through many good and bad parts of several champions i love.
Viktor being probably my most Special one. The first champion i ever bought, the first Champion on who i bought a Skin, the first champion with who'm i reached Mastery Level 5 and the champion that introduced me to the fun side of LoL.

So i thought, as a big Thank you for my 4th year anniversary with Viktor, i want to give everyone a thorough Guide on how to Play Him effectively and efficiently.

For Runes I have mostly my personal Favourite Choices of:

Movement Speed Quints
6x CDR per Level adn 3x MR per Level Blues
Full Magic Pen Reds and
Health per Level Yellows

However, I did find myself some useful times with standart midlane Runes, such being:

Flat Armor Yellows for example, or instead of my usual Quints there were times where Flat Ap Quints worked out well.

All in all, Runes are very versatile to use, But i personally prefer my own choice since it compliments the most of what Viktor Needs most.

(PS: I will update this page with the new Runes Reforged once it is released in EuW)

As for the Masteries, These are mostly Typical 12/18/0 Masteries you use on Assassins. They neglect the Lategame on Viktor specifically but offer a much smoother and stronger scaling as the game goes on.
Arguably much can be changed for Viktor, and I have seen comps work with a Viktor using Deathfire Touch, but DFT is way too specific and does the exact opposite of my initial goal. Trade lategame power for dominant earlygame.

Items are very typical Full AP Burst Build honestly. Standart Buid on a Viktor is:

Perfect Hex Core
Sorcerer Boots
Lich Bane
Ludens Echo
Rabadon's Deathcap
Void Staff

Since Viktor has one less Item Slot, his versatility on the Build falls a Little Short, but he compensates by having an Item that grows Massively Gold efficient, hence why you rush your Core first.
The Longer the game goes, the more efficient it is and the more it defines your 2 Most needed stats. Mana and AP.
Why Luden's Echo is on this Build is mostly because of the burst-boost it gives and the extra movement speed. It compliments Viktor so much once you get the hang of how to utilize it.

As for the Summoner Spells, I personally recommend running Flash and GhostBut you can make effective use of Ignite instead of Ghost ecspecially when you have enemy Teams that are either very slow or possess too much sustain for you to deal with. (Cough vlad cough).

Pro's of Playing Viktor:

Very Reliable Lategame Burst
Strong Lane pressure
Smooth transcendence into Mid-Lategame
Nuclear Waveclear
Very strong Teamfight Influences
Badass Russian Boss

Con's of Playing Viktor:

Weak Earlygame
Difficult Playstyle
Has Many Counters
Very Hard to Master
Very fragile once Caught Out
Cannot Sustain Brawls and short duels.

Laning and Farming as Viktor is one of the Things you Need to Master.
Viktor is very lategame reliant due to his Items and his Gold worth, meaning you Need to Keep a high CS score if you want to stay ahead in the game.
This is why you Rush Hex Core to Upgrade your E. it helps you farm very easily and once you hit Level 7 and further you NUKE creep waves.

However, be very careful with Last Hitting. You Need to be able to Farm very efficiently if you want to score a 1250 Gold Amount before you are Level 7. If you take too long, you will suffer heavy inefficiency and the consequences are that your already slow but prominent scaling becomes further Delayed.

Be sure to train very well how to AA as Viktor. His normal AA are very slow and rather unreliable, meaning you Need to master that one first.

As the game goes on, your Farming will be easier, but you still Need a high CS score if you want to Keep yourself Forward.

The Average Gold per minute you Need as a Viktor to gain an S rating is roughly rounded down 550 Gold per minute, rate influenced by early and lategame. Meaning you need 1 Kill and 3 nearly perfect creep waves every minute, so start training the creeping ASAP.

Mid-game, even thought your scaling Begins there, is actually the hardest stage in your Game as Viktor. For one very specific reason.

Picking you out became a lot easier.

Viktor in Midgame starts to normally group with either Bot or the Jungler, which mostly leads to Brawls and Duelings, both of which Viktor sucks at, leading him to suffering fatal damage from simple mistakes that in the earlygame would barely scratch him.

Midgame, your damage is slowly present, BUT it is not yet developed, meaning you are not 0.25 second vaporizing people from the field, and people know to abuse that against you.
A Viktor in Midgame can be shut down the hardest, because the scaling from early to mid and late for viktor goes Awfully Multiplicative in a constantly rising factor. He is not just like most champions where he gains a sudden spike. His power grows as he does, he Evolves over time which his thematic describes. And so, Evolution is most vurnerable on the moment before the big leap. Applying this logic, viktor is most vurnerable in the later stages of Midgame.

Be careful around that time.

The Lategame Topic. Teamwork for Viktor is Core as you Approach and enter Lategame. His Skills are mostly AoE and his damage is High, but he Needs decent Setups to land them.
Viktor is best played with setting traps. Fight the enemy in tight spots like the Jungle where you can zone them with your Ultimate and your W. Coordinate with your team who you want to pick out and where you want the fight to happen.
Since you are Viktor, you may not be the shotcaller, But you are key to the teamfight.
The Less mobile the fighting goes, the higher likely you will do well. Needless to say, tight spots on the Map give you an easier time keeping teamfights Stationary. And while yes you may fly down rift with Ghost and Q movement speed boost, it does not change that being faster only helps you hit your Q and not anything else.
Always Keep a good eye on your enviroment and on the situation before the teamfight. For a Viktor to be useful he Needs to master the calm before the storm.

Viktor is a really Fun champion who offers a great difficulty curve in both Game Knowledge and in Champion mastery and althought he may not be that hard to pick up, he possesses a very wide and vast amount of Things to master.
He is oriented about the Midgame and lategame spike, so Compositions with a lot of CC and compositions that compliment a strong scaling are his favourite, whereas short games only favor him then if his enemy suffers from them more than he does.

I personally recommend Viktor to everyone, he is amazingly fun to Play against and with and offers a lot of Things you can learn which are globally essential for League. I personally see him as the "Coach" champion in lol, since playing him means more or less mastering the game's global Knowledge.

I Hope this Little but long and Work taking Guide helped you a Little with Playing Viktor.
It is a lot of fun for me to write this knowing it will help people, and i really wish that this guide will be providing good help for any interested Viktor Player.