Fiddlesticks Rework Ideas
If you look at Fiddlesticks, his kit, and his visuals, I think we all can agree he needs some (a lot) of love. I mean, his ability icons even still have those weird white corners that are from back in the earliest versions of League. So, here are my ideas on how to, from a gameplay perspective, help fiddlesticks be a better champion.
So what is Fiddlesticks? Who is he? Those are the initial questions needed to be answered in order to formulate what kit he should have in order for him to have thematic consistency. Just for the sake of this post, lets narrow down who Fiddlesticks is into a simple sentence:
Identity: Fiddlesticks is a scarecrow whom has been possessed by an evil entity whom wants to spread its evil.
What this sentence means is that Fiddlesticks himself isn't exactly a scarecrow that is alive himself, rather he is an object which is being controlled by an evil entity. We can use this identity to construct a better kit that allows for more cohesive similarities between who Fiddlesticks is and what he needs to do to be unique, as well as being fun to play and fair to play against. Lets begin.
The current Fiddlesticks passive is really lackluster, lets be honest. It only decreases the magic resist of enemies hit with his abilities by 10, and doesn't scale at all into the mid to late game. Taking a step back, however, what would you do if a possessed, pissed-off scarecrow came running towards you on wobbly stilts-for-legs? Personally, I would scream and either run away as fast as I could or take out a flame thrower and pray to the heavens that it dies. Similarly, one of the weakest parts of Fiddlesticks is his ability to gank. He has amazing jungle sustain and relatively good jungle clear, but without his ult, Fiddlesticks kind of just hobbles around waiting for cooldowns and hoping someone engages for him. We can tie both of these ideas AND help his ganking ability both in one stroke; his passive!
Passive: When moving towards enemy champions within 1500 units of him, he gains a 5/6/7/8% (increased at levels 6, 11, 16) movement speed increase.
This new passive, while getting rid of his passive magic penetration, does allow him greater ganking possibility without having to have an ult to accomplish it. Also, as the mid to late game gets underway and laning phase ends, Fiddlesticks is able to quickly get to/into teamfights and chase down any remaining survivors. However, a passive wouldn't be anything without abilities to back it up, so let us carry on.
As with his passive, Fiddlesticks' Q has so much potential, but it just ends up being an ability which does not have any priority to be leveled up and is very binary without much impact after the fear duration has ended. An ability like this could be so much more satisfying and impactful, yet quite a lot of its potential is not fully realized. To take a look at an excellent use of a fear ability, lets look at Nocturne's E Unspeakable Horror. Beyond doing damage and eventually fearing, it grants Nocturne 335 increased movement speed towards any feared target. This allows him to quickly chase down his target and even ties into his whole theme quite well. The same principle can be used to understand where to take Fiddlesticks' Q. While his passive gives him all the movement speed he should need, Fiddlesticks' Q should be able to capitalize on that movement speed and bring some lockdown which gives him and his team more of an opportunity to capitalize on opportunities. Not only that, but the magic penetration that was taken out of his passive can now be placed back into Fiddlesticks' kit in a much better way.
Q: Passive: Fiddlesticks gains 10% magic penetration to all feared targets for 3 seconds. Active: Fiddlesticks momentarily leaves his physical form and launches out towards a targeted enemy. The target takes 50/80/110/140/170(+30% AP) magic damage, and up to four surrounding enemies are feared for 1.5 seconds. Only one champion can be feared by a single cast of this ability. Fiddlesticks is rooted during the cast time. Cooldown:
10/9/8/7/68/7.5/7/6.5/6 seconds
So what the heck does this do for Fiddlesticks? Well imagine that Fiddlesticks is being boosted by his passive towards a teamfight that is happening in middle lane. His team is struggling to go even in the fight and needs something big to help them turn the tide. Fiddlesticks' R is on cooldown, but he sends out his Q onto the enemy ADC, which inflicts massive damage and fears the enemy Jungler and a few of the minions. This gives just enough time, with one enemy essentially out of the fight for 1.5 seconds, for his team to re-engage and win the fight. Or how about if baron-empowered minions are knocking on your bottom lane Inhibitor Tower? Fiddlesticks can fear them away in order for his team to deal with them in a safer way. Not only that, but the passive magic penetration allows for him to deal massive damage to the initial target hurt by Q and then turn on any Champion feared by it to take them out of the picture. But because the initial target is not feared, there is no longer the "fear the highest-damage dealer then win" mentality in order to add some counterplay.
The next ability to be discussed is the quintessential Fiddlesticks ability that makes him really unique and quite powerful. His W Drain allows for Fiddlesticks to safely sustain in the jungle and inflict quite a lot of damage in fights despite being very lackluster in the tank department. However, how many times have you seen a Fiddlesticks cast his W on an enemy champion only for it to be broken moments later. It is a very powerful ability, but is easily ignored once one gets tier 2 boots and higher. I think we can do better than that without taking away too much of what makes Fiddlesticks great.
W: Fiddlesticks tethers himself to the target enemy and channels for up to 5 seconds. While channeling, Fiddlesticks deals 40/70/100/130/160(+40% AP) magic damage each second, and healing himself for 65/70/75/80/80% of the damage done. Fiddlesticks is rooted for 1.5 seconds when initially channeling, but for the next 3.5 seconds he can move around normally. While this ability is active, Fiddlesticks' passive is not in effect. If a target endures the entire channel of this ability, said target is feared for 1 second.
Movement while channeling is both a new mechanic in League of Legends, but is also a very powerful aspect of such a powerful ability. However, there is still time for a target to get away during the 1.5 seconds of root time that Fiddlesticks puts himself under initially. Also, with his passive not in effect during the channel time, Fiddlesticks will be slow enough to get away from.
Fiddlesticks' E Dark Wind is a very interesting ability seeing that it is one of the few surviving silences in League of Legends. Rather than removing the silence, how about we enhance the entire ability just slightly in order to make it just that little bit better.
E: Fiddlesticks sends a crow to the target enemy that bounces to other nearby enemies up to 4 times, prioritizing targets not yet hit, dealing magic damage with each strike and silencing them for 1.25 seconds once. If Dark Wind only hits 1 target it does not silence, but if it hits 4 targets the silence duration is increased to 1.5 seconds.
As with his W, Fiddlesticks' ult is a very unique and amazing ability. Who doesn't love the Surprise Party Fiddlesticks' ult noises that inevitably bring hexapenta kills alongside it? But, Fiddlesticks is very vulnerable during his ult duration, mainly because it makes him such a target and especially because he will be avoided at all costs so his W will not be able to help him. So, lets help him a bit.
R: After channeling for 1.5 seconds, Fiddlesticks blinks to the target location with a murder of crows flying wildly around him for
54.5 seconds, dealing 100/200/300(+45% AP) magic damage to nearby enemies each second. During the duration of Crowstorm, Fiddlesticks gains 10 armor and magic resist. After the duration of Crowstorm, the resistances Fiddlesticks gained go down by 1 each second.
And that is the ideas I have for Fiddlesticks! Please discuss the items I changed and whether or not you believe them to be good and healthy! Thanks!
