Which augment item is the most useful to Viktor? Augment of death or gravity?

Question

I have been playing Viktor lately in League of Legends and I was wondering which augment item was the best to make Viktor a strong force in the team. I have been using the Augment of Death but people have been telling me to to use Augment of Gravity but I'm not sure which would be more useful. Any thoughts?

Answer 1

The question depends on what you want your role to be... or, if you're getting stomped in lane, what role you can be ;-)

Death obviously grants you a ton more damage by giving you the DoT (Damage over Time) effect. In fact (from League Of Legends wikia):

Magic Damage: 70 / 115 / 160 / 205 / 250 (+0.7 per ability power) Total Damage With Augment: 91 / 150 / 208 / 267 / 325 (+0.91 per ability power)

That's... a big deal. Especially for an AoE ability.

However, it does leave Gravity Field a little weak because of how vulnerable you have to make yourself to cast it into a teamfight. Moreover, Augment Gravity doesn't just make Gravity Field stronger:

Gravity Field has an additional 30% cast range. The item now grants him +3 ability power per level, +200 mana, +10% cooldown reduction and +5 mana regeneration per 5 seconds

Now that we know the benefits... Which one is better?

If your team is relying on you to dish out a ton of magic damage, for instance if you have a tankier team or an AD-heavy team (forcing the opponents to build armor to cope), then you almost have to get Augment Death. Viktor's entire damage kit was balanced around that idea. If you don't, you'll be hamstringing your role.

However, if your team lacks a lot of CC; has an initiate that brings the enemy team into a tight formation (Shen taunts, Orianna ults (because you have two AP? I don't know); your team has a lot of gap-closers (Irelia, Xin Zhao, Jarvan, etc.); or if you're just behind and need to be helpful in a different way, you want to get Augment Gravity.

TL;DR: Augment Death lets you crank out the damage, but your team utility will be low. If your team needs the additional utility, or you're too far behind to do meaningful damage, Augment Gravity.

Answer 2

Most people pick Death for the extra damage but Gravity is amazing if you can catch people with it in teamfights . You should pick one or the other depending on the team comp , whether you need more damage or CC . Thats what I think anyway :)

Answer 3

Death will insure you more early kills, thus helping you snowball better into lategame. If there's one thing Viktor likes doing, it's destroying... Well, everything, in the late game.

Answer 4

I've been using Viktor lately and I've found 2 effective builds, using the Deathray augment for harass dps (at later levels this is a very effective tool for creeping and harassing at the same time if you know how to control the path of the laser properly).

The other is using the Overcharge augment where it increases your movement speed every time you cast. Use boots +3 speed and then run people down using field, storm and laser to pick them off.

There are situations where using fields augment would have its advantages but having a range like that makes it an effective ganking tool for lane control. Basically it buffs up a support skill.

Overall, including certain item builds, I would say Death ray augment is by far the most useful of the 3, especially if you have an AP rune and Mastery sheet ready, all those little bonuses add up fast after level 10.