Simple Concepts to balance Fiora
Okay its pretty clear to everyone that she is in an unhealthy state right? Not saying she is the only champ that needs to be toned down where we are right now but here are a few ideas that give her more clearly defined counterplay while her keeping up her title of "The Grand Duelist". (Disclaimer, I'm not a fiora main, I've seen her played in various tiers and LCS and only played her a few times myself, these are my thoughts on a champion as discussed with people that do play her with some consistency and my experience playing league since season 2)
Passive "Duelist's Dance" - Her passive can be quite punishing to play against for those that can and do use it to full effect. For those laning against her it can leave them backing as quickly as they got into lane if they don't play with the utmost care. My solution? well thematically the one that can bring counterplay and make the most sense on how a grand duelist conducts themselves is to make sure that both her and her target have vision of each other. She certainly isn't a coward that should be leaping at you from the bushes and alternatively it can give her opponents the means to hide their vitals from being struck for a % of their maximum health.
W "Riposite" - A VERY powerful ability to be sure. One that if I'm not mistaken has had some attempt at balance by raising its cooldown. Problem is when compared to other abilities similar to it (I'm thinking
's wind wall,
's ultimate, maybe to some lesser degree
's Ultimate, and even a bit
's black shield) they all have means to play around those abilities while Riposite blocks EVERYTHING. Ive heard but have not confirmed that it can block summoner spells? WAT. It should not do that. So in the way that the previous spells are either Ultimate abilities or are able to be played around it made me think that if its not an ultimate ability why doesn't it have the same gaps that allow you to play around it? Simple answer would be that it should have some sort of hole in its power..... maybe something like it cant block ultimate abilities from enemy champions.
R "Grand Challenge" - The first part of the ultimate ability I feel is 100% okay, with alittle maneuvering you have the chance to inflict lots of damage on your opponent. That's great. Where I start to get fuzzy and think it odd is this heal? Not only does it simply feel out of place both from a functional and thematic standpoint, it was stated that Riot wanted to give the fiora player a reward for procing all four points or that same reward upon that champions death. For some reason the exposing all four vitals wasn't enough reward for using the ultimate (Keep in mind that I feel that her W is almost akin to a second ultimate ability anyway that can give you some great reward). Also for some reason that enemy champions death from the large amounts of damage your ult can provide wasn't enough reward. Lets give her a mini
ult. It frustrates me to have seen it included in her kit because its such an oddity. Best thought here would be to scrap the healing passive and perhaps create a zone similar to scuttle crab zones that give you speed boosts more vitals proc'd greater the speed boost..... and you can think of it thematically as inspiring your team to charge forward from a great display of your martial prowess.
Remember that these are just some thoughts and ideas I have on how to balance someone that a fair majority agree is overpowered. **This is intended to spark thoughts and ideas. ** Thank you