Fiora, Her Rework and the Most Conditional Ultimate in the Game.

I want to begin by prefacing this by saying I am a high plat low diamond player but that I have never been an execution monster. I play the game by creating small advantages through thousands of games of knowledge and exploiting player errors rather than perfect skill and ability execution. I was always fond of the previous fiora was a fun champion I took into threes every so often but I am equally excited by the rework. The reason for stating this is that the issue I take with Fiora in her current state is I absolutely loath her current Ultimate, while the rest of her Kit is very enjoyable. I'm sure that execution monsters can get all four procs of her ultimate reliably but I find as the caliber of your opponents goes up it shifts from being a small execution challenge to a nightmare to try and get value out of. To make matters even worse with good knowledge of how her ultimate works players often just put one side against a tower, or a wall and you cannot get the forth proc ever. Having said that I think with just a small Tweak it would both be much easier to use and yet equally skill testing.

-The proposed problems- The current version of Fiora's ulti is very very challenging to utilize the current issue for Fiora is the issue which used to plague champions like Yorick, and Volibear they just need so many different stats to get value out of their kits. Just to bring everyone up to speed on Fioras ulti you Ulti a champion then it locks in 4 weaknesses in the form of 90 degree segments around their model. You need to attack from each side or you need to break one weakness and have the champion to die, when either condition is met you place an aoe heal on the ground which scales with AD. The issue is that in the complicated team fight situations with peels and quality kiting you cannot reliably get the effect off and without the final spell effect (the heal) the ulti is pretty lackluster. So to take full advantage of her kit you need mobility to out maneuver the opponents, you need damage to scale your passive true damage procs as well as your Ultimate's heal effect, and you need tanky stats to stay in the fight to withstand the inflow of damage to get all four procs off, or to be of much use in the fight. The root of the problem is the ultimate.

This ultimate is just far far too unreliable in its current state, combined with spending half of the lane phase with the random passive weaknesses being placed behind your lane opponent a place you cannot hope to reach with a favorable trade you end up with a champion which feels very stressful to play. You need to block important spells with your riposte, you need to keep track of exposed weaknesses and dash or orb walk to those champions in exactly the right direction to proc those effects, you need to be aware of the effect of those trades and the minion aggro with far less on demand sustain than she used to have. With all of the challenges presented to the player the last thing she needs is an ultimate which can be prevented by placing your back against a wall, or to keep moving away from her.

-Thoughts on her Kit-

1. Just quickly going through her kit I think her Passive is great but I think it could need a slight tweak, maybe make it so the weaknesses can rotate around the model a bit in their spawn location but are locked in afterwords as normal. For example the edge between 2 segments always makes a line between the opposing champion and fiora, so that no weakness is directly behind the opposing model but all four would be on the champions sides in reference to fiora. (Just off the cuff maybe just weighted spawn locations would be enough just hurts to feel like your passive is often a roll of the die)
2. Fioras Q her dash is insane I love it the mobility in combat is nice but its not broken for escapes because it doesnt benefit from the cd reduction as it does from combat. 3.I love her new Riposte I think as a duelist you need to bring in mind games, of reads and really big punishes for outplaying the opponent. I think Fioras riposte is the single most skill testing ability in the game, you need to read the ability parry it and riposte skillshot in the direction of a champion you want to cc, Very fun.
3. Not much to say about her E the steroid, I enjoy her E a slow is a good thing for her to have she would really suffer without it it feels a bit like a filler skill compared to her other more unique skills, but I like it well enough.
4. Her ultimate is extremely difficult to use in a duel, it has a ton of easy work arounds as an opponent. While I dont exactly mind the ability I think its a cool effect I think the extreme level of counter play and the relatively low payoff when compared to a lot of other ultimates leaves a lot to be desired.

-Proposed solution to her Ultimate-

1. To her ulti. I think the change I would best like to see is the same Idea the same basic ability but instead of placing 4 weaknesses on each of the weakness slots on the champion, that instead it would lock in the current weakness location for 4 ultiprocs. This would fix the problem of needing to rotate around the champion in directions which are often impossible. It would be skill testing in that you would need to wait to see a favorable weakness position but this puts Fiora back in the drivers seat rather than being subject to the opponents.
2. Another direction you could take it is scaling effects from each additional exposed weakness proc. I like this route far less but would also go a long way to helping her. You could make it so each subsequent weakness proc further cripples the opponent. Proc one normal effect, proc 2 normal effect plus a significant slow on the opponent, proc three short stun plus normal effect, proc four the AOE heal and normal effect. I think this would be less skill testing and would be prone to the same issues that the current live build is plagued with but It would help her be a bit stronger in the duels she is supposedly grand at.

Ultimates are often champion defining they can create the style of play unique to that champion, they can often make the champion. As a Duelist, a fencer I think her ultimate should be one of opportunity of reading the situation and creating a favorable position out of it. Currently Fioras ultimate is subject to the opposing players knowledge of her kit and ability to exploit its very extreme flaws. I think the champion has enough checks and balances and skill testing abilities that the last thing she needs is such a fickle ulti. I still enjoy the champion despite the flaws but I just think with a few tweaks she would be both more user friendly but would still retain her very high skill cap which I think is the best place to be in.

Sorry for the wordiness and thanks for your time.