As requested by our viewers this
week on the Summoners Champion Guide’s Facebook page, we are going to
talk about Fiora, the Grand Duelist from League of Legends. Fiora is a strong melee attack damage
carry that has both high burst and sustained damage; accordingly as a melee ad
carry, she follows a very glass cannon build. Fiora performs best in the top lane because of
her excellent dueling abilities and sustain that she receives from her passive,
along with the excellent synergy with life steal early game that she receives
from the high base attack damage she gets from her W. As the name the Grand
Duelist implies, Fiora is a strong dueling champion able to combat and thrive
against most top lane champions with just the slightest lead turning into utter
domination.
(It should also be noted that although Fiora is typically
regarded as a Duelist she is a very potent assassin who can very easily pick
off almost any carry in just a few seconds.)
Champion
Strengths:
High Base AD (Fiora receives a bonus 15 AD from her first
point in W, and then a bonus 5 for every subsequent rank)
Strong Ability Power/Attack Damage Carry Assassin
High Single Target Damage
Strong Multi Target Damage with Tiamat
Snowballs Well if She Gets Ahead
Champion Weaknesses
Her Late Game is Not as Strong as Her Early or Mid Game
Weak Team Fighting Abilities without Her Ultimate and a
Tiamat
No Crowd Control Abilities
Is Heavily Countered by Crowd Control
Champion abilities
Passive: Regenerates Fiora’s health over 6 seconds each time
she deals damage. Striking champions will cause this effect to stack up to 4
times. The consistent health regeneration when attacking enemies will help with
dueling other champion, so look for good engagements and punish frequently.
Q lunge: Fiora dashes forward to strike the target and can
dash again within 4 seconds. This ability is a targeted ability. This ability
is useful for both its high base damage/scaling, and it allows Fiora to gap
close between enemy champions. What makes this ability especially useful, is
that it is able to be used twice which can be very potent against champions
with either a knockback or a blink. Fiora can also use this ability to quickly
poke down an enemy champion or secure a minion with the first application and
then with the second application, escape to an enemy minion creating a gap
between her and the enemy champion. (Cooldown per rank: 16/14/12/10/8)
W Riposte: Fiora gains passive bonus Attack Damage for every
point in this ability. At rank 1 she receives a bonus 15 AD, while with each
subsequent rank she receives an extra 5 per rank. At rank 5, Fiora will have a
total of 35 bonus attack damage. When activated, Fiora will parry the next
champion basic attack or on hit ability (such as Ezreal Q or Kayle E); dealing
magic damage back to that enemy.
(Cooldown per rank: 10/9/8/7/6)
E Burst of Speed: When activated Fiora gains an additional
60/75/90/105/120 percent bonus attack speed for 3 seconds. In addition Fiora
will also gain a bonus 7/9/11/13/15 percent bonus movement speed for three
seconds stacking up to 3 times whenever fiora basic attacks or damages an enemy
with her Q (Lunge).
R Blade Waltz: Fiora dashes around the battlefield becoming
un-targetable dealing physical damage to nearby enemy champions striking up to
5 times. This ability will do 40 percent less damage to any target that has
already been struck by Blade Waltz. Each strike applies on-hit effects (Life
steal, Trinity Force, Blade of the Ruined King, Wit’s End, Etc…). This item
synergizes very well with Ravenous Hydra.
Recommended Skill Order
High Burst Damage (Recommended against most non-all in
champions and ranged champions)
R>Q>W>E
Maxing Fiora’s Q during the laning phase will provide you
with the highest burst damage, while at the same time giving you the safest
harass through the use of a skill rather than multiple auto attacks. Maxing
Fiora’s Q will reduce the agonizingly long 16 second rank 1 cooldown to a mere
8 seconds. Making good use of Fiora’s Q will create an overall a safe and versatile
lane being able to more frequently close the gap between enemy champions
or to more frequently escape enemy
engages will farming the minions farther away. W is then maxed second to
synergize with Fiora’s strong scaling on
both her Q and her ultimate. E is maxed last because most trades in lane are
quick in and out exchanges that are unable to make full use of Fiora’s E.
However, Fiora’s E is an auto attack reset and should be used as such when you
harass the opponent. An example of a Harass rotation would be as
follows:
Auto-Q-Auto-E-Auto-Q-Auto.
Against All In Champions
R>E>W>Q
In this skill set, we max Fiora’s E against champions who
very often will full on engage Fiora. Champions like Xin Zhao for instance who
gap close and rely on overpowering their opponent in one go rather than having
many early trades. It is important to max E in these instances because although
Fiora has the most burst damage with her Q, the full duration of Fiora’s E will
provide us with the highest sustained damage. This is especially effective
against all in champions because… you guessed it, they’ll be attacking you!
Rather than you having to chase them you will be able to make best use of your
E and the whopping 120 percent bonus attack speed it gives! We then max W
second not only because of the bonus attack damage it gives, but for the
reduced cooldown which in an all in situation could be the one auto attack
difference in your life or theirs.
High Sustain
R>W>Q>E
This skill set is very similar to the first but instead
having W taking priority over Q. We would max W in a lane where we may not
necessarily be able to kill our laning opponent (lanes vs Malphite or Shen) or
lanes where our laning opponent is much stronger than us early game
(Jax/Riven); where farming safely would be much more beneficial than constant engages. The reason that maxing W is
effective for difficult lanes is due to 3 main reasons. 1. Allocating points
into W will lower the cooldown by 1 second per rank; and although that may not
sound like very much, it is the only active mitigation Fiora has. It is much
better to mitigate damage in the first place and at rank 5 Riposte is on a 6
second cooldown. Meaning every 6 seconds
you can mitigate lets an auto attack for 110-120 damage around level 9. If we
successfully make best use of Riposte for 1 minute we can mitigate 1100-1200
damage every minute compared to if we didn’t max W first we would mitigate
660-720 damage every minute. Of course this may not always be valid against
champions who don’t use auto attacks very often but, for the most part it is
your safest bet for preventing harass. 2. Maxing Fiora’s W gives Fiora bonus
attack damage which will synergizes extremely well with life steal. More attack
damage, more life returned. 3. Maxing Fiora’s W will give her the best chance
to last hit especially under turret due to the increased attack damage… 15 gold
is 15 gold right haha! It adds up!
Summoner Spells
Ignite/Flash
or
Ignite/Teleport
Although in the current Meta taking Teleport is very very
important, Fiora relies very heavily on getting ahead in the early game and if
Fiora takes teleport she gives up a lot of early kill and dueling potential. I
would suggest only taking teleport on Fiora if you are very confident against
your laning opponent.
Runes and Masteries:
Recommended: 2 Life steal Quints/1 AD Quints, 9 Attack
Damage Reds, 9 MR Blues, 9 Armor Yellows
Armor Penn: 3 Armor Penn Quints, 9 Armor Penn Reds, 9 Armor
Yellows, 9 MR Blues
Pure AD: 3 AD Quints, 9 AD Reds, 9 Armor Yellows, 9 MR Blues
Champion build
Core: Ravenous Hydra, Last Whisper, Black Cleaver
Situational Damage: Infinity Edge, Yomuu’s Ghost Blade,
Blade of the Ruined King
Situational Defense: Hex Drinker/Maw of Malmordius, Randuins
Omen, Guardian Angel, Mercurial Scimitar, Banshee’s Veil
Hypothetical Full Build Standard: Ninja Tabi/Merc Treads,
Ravenous Hydra, Last Whisper, Black Cleaver, Yomuu’s Ghost Blade, Infinity Edge
Full Build vs Ap/CC: Merc Treads, Ravenous Hydra, Last
Whisper, Black Cleaver, Maw of Malmordius, Mercurial Scimitar/Banshee’s Veil
Full Build Vs AD: Ninja Tabi’s, Ravenous Hydra, Last
Whisper, Black Cleaver, Infinity Edge, Guardian Angel/Randuin’s Omen
Conclusion:
Fiora is a strong top lane champion and can duel almost any
champion in game when used correctly in League of Legends. She has high burst damage but suffers
from her lack of Crowd Control or escapes. Fiora takes time to master so
practice and practice until your blade waltzing yourself to victory! Special thanks to Alessiia from NA! If you
enjoyed this guide make sure to like share or comment! We are always welcome to
hearing your opinions on ways you would build or play her differently than how
we suggested!
