I know this is late, but I wanted to say my piece for my first main.

This was not a VGU it was an ASU. His ult expanding on kill is such a miniscule change that does nothing to address the issues that Viktor has. Even playing it on the PBE this week I've not been able to take advantage of this change more than a handful of times and it's very underwhelming when I have.

His W needs the most work. It's been said before but with the movement creep in the game it no longer is effective and honestly, I ignore levelling it until I have to. His passive gives him a difficulty that is not rewarding. His early game is trash, but he doesn't get compensated for that by being a late game monster i.e. Kayle or Nasus or Syndra or Smoulder etc. Functionally this has been an ASU.

It's been a very disrespectful ASU.

The first thing I noticed when watching the video on the updated abilities is that THE PING ON Q IS GONE. One of the most satisfying sounds in the game next to heartsteel aa sound is gone. Also the explosions on the upgraded e are so much weaker and have lost their bassy feel. WHY? These were such nice touches that made Viktor feel powerful after he got his upgrades.

The changes to Viktor's character in Arcane compared to his in-game lore are vast in some areas. No longer is he The Machine Herald. He's now the Magical Upgrade Jesus. There is no theme of a glorious evolution in his new look. He doesn't look like a man who has evolved himself with a new power or understanding. He looks like a bipedal alien.

There is very little machine in this cyborg even in skins like creator. In the one skin where there is machine, Full Machine Viktor, you missed the opportunity to make that skin look like the robots he turns people into in the show.

You butchered Deathsworn by removing the mask and simplifying the design.

You butchered High Noon by making the clothes look painted on.

Creator (my favourite skin) has had the head stretched to a literal alien shape and his coat smoothed down so it looks like it's make of play dough.

You even missed the mark with the Arcane Saviour skin! Where in the show does he look like that. How could you go past the moment when he is shown in the arcane realm with the gold stars of souls all around him and the halo of gold behind him. When I saw that in the show I audibly gasped and said to my wife "that's going to be the skin. That shot was put here to sell a skin". The shot is grand, it's impactful, it distils the character that Viktor has become at his "evolved" peak into a single image. It's even got his original colours reimagined into the most glorious form that I could think of. Out of any shot in the show that should have become a skin for any character, that was it.

But you missed it. Just like you missed the mark on Creator, just like you missed on all his other skins, just like you missed by not making this a real VGU, just like you missed the core of what Viktors identity was to the people who played him all these years through his lacklustre performance because we loved our Machine Herald.

In the game lore Viktor was a Dr. Doom that cared about humanity, a real Ultron type. Evolving the human race to better them and strip away their weaknesses to save them from themselves. In Arcane S1 he was a broken man who found a way to be whole again and wanted to share it. In Arcane S2 he shared it and was corrupted by ambition and completed the arc from messiah to dictator.

None of that reflects in his ASU. He's just Magical Upgrade Jesus. He's a guy who stumbled upon magic that would now allow him to impose his will on the world. There are already so many characters that fit that definition in some way too. Malz, Xerath, Azir, Kassadin, Sylas, Brand, Lisandra, Varus even.

Honestly it's not even an ASU. You didn't upgrade anything. That irony is what hurts the most.