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Restuffing the Scarerow: Improving Fiddlesticks

MrHaveANiceDay··28 votes·2,461 views

I'll drop most of the flowery fluff: Fiddlesticks is not a particularly viable champion in any area right now. Here are some brief thoughts/suggestions for a tweaked kit that improves viability while maintaining thematic identity:

-Passive: Growing Dread. Dealing magic damage to enemy units adds stacks of Growing Dread. At 3 stacks units become Terrified for 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2 seconds (1/4/7/11/15). Terrified targets are immobile for half of the duration and flee for the second half. Once a unit has been terrified it cannot become Terrified again for a short time.

Why move Fear to the passive? One, because Fiddle's current passive is mediocre and doesn't scale well. Fear iconic to the character's theme, and constant threat of Fear should be central to his character. At early levels in lane or while jungling, Fiddle will use Drain to rapidly build stacks and quickly fear solo targets. In mid to late game, a combination of Crowstorm, E, and a new Q will make him a terrifying fight disruptor due to rapid-building AoE stacks.

-Q: Scarecrow's Scythe. A medium-speed left to right sweeping AoE. Deals 25% bonus damage to Terrified targets.

Something along those lines. Another AoE would greatly aid his wave clear, as well as allow him to quickly build stacks of his passive on minions in order to slow/control them.

-W: This should be reworked to allow Fiddle to move while channeling the ability at 40-60% speed.

Also...that voice. Those lines . Please no.

42 Comments

Spoofghoul16 votes

How about turning Fidlesticks into a juggernaut and renaming him into Fiddlelogs

Troll for Trump1 votes

FiddleNaut. Because it's not Fiddle.

MetaAwesome1 votes

Fiddlesticks item 1401 item 3027 item 3116 item 3151 item 3020 item 3065 here we go bois

Illâoi Evê Siôn12 votes

Dealing magic damage to enemy units adds stacks of Growing Dread. At three stacks [...]

This is not well-worded at all, since it would imply that Fiddlesticks can fear someone with 3 ticks from Sunfire or three basic attacks with Wit's End, or even just hitting them with one spell and have Deathfire Touch.

I'd rephrase it to: "Fiddlestick's abilities apply stacks of Growing Dread." Then you simply need to determine which ability applies how many stacks at what rate. If Drain applies a stack with every proc he would fear his target in 0.75 seconds (since Drain applies in half-ticks), leaving no room for counterplay.

If you want Drain to be able to apply multiple stacks, I'd increase the stack amount to 5 or so, and have it apply one stack per second up to 3, similar to how Vel' Koz's ult works. His Birdies (E), new Q, and Ult could also all apply two stacks, meaning he can fear someone with two abilities -- Drain and one other -- or three -- everything but Drain.

Depending on how long Growing Dread lasts, he would become a combo or poke Mage in lane.

I like your ideas for his new passive and Q, though. Of course, Riot would need to find the optimal balance for everything, but the concepts are nice.

I would not support him being able to walk while draining a target. Not immediately, at least. If he had to stand still for 3 seconds, then the target would get health sapped automatically per tick in the last 2 seconds, that would be great. Like Trundle's ult, but with a three second rooted channel time and life-stealing tether.

Overall, +1 for controversy.

MrHaveANiceDay4 votes

Completely right on wording and Drain ticks. It would be simpler to say "Abilities add stacks" and each ability lists how many it adds. 1/2 for Q, 1 per second on W, 1 per E hit (might be interesting if E's first target hit added 2), 1 per second in R or every OTHER damage tick.

Shroom Junkie2 votes

{quoted}

If Drain applies a stack with every proc he would fear his target in 0.75 seconds (since Drain applies in half-ticks), leaving no room for counterplay.

To be fair, his current fear is point and click and activates instantly anyway so...

Leeroy Graycat1 votes

{quoted}

This is not well-worded at all, since it would imply that Fiddlesticks can fear someone with 3 ticks from Sunfire or three basic attacks with Wit's End, or even just hitting them with one spell and have Deathfire Touch.

Screw it, let's go with the OP's wording. I want to chase people down with cinderhulk and permafear them away from myself and into my well. If they have a Rengar and a Nidalee, I can be a cat-herder.

#respondingtooldstuff

Auryiel5 votes

This passive is Kennen's... except better?

undesirable team4 votes

middlesticks csing still wants me to kill myself

Pierce The Veal1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Penguin Smasher9,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=LaxMGVEt,comment-id=0000,timestamp=2015-11-29T19:02:42.680+0000)

middlesticks csing still wants me to kill myself

I agree so badly.

YumaS2Astral1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Penguin Smasher9,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=LaxMGVEt,comment-id=0000,timestamp=2015-11-29T19:02:42.680+0000)

middlesticks csing still wants me to kill myself

That's why I stopped playing middlesticks after the last nerfs, it is completely unviable and outclassed right now, why would I use Fiddlesticks mid instead of, for example, Vladimir - which can also sustain well and doesn't have to stand still, he also has waveclear and can last hit with his Q. He doesn't even use mana. The only thing that Vlad lacks in comparison to Fiddle is CC. This can be partially solved with a Rylai.

Other thing that Vlad lacks in comparison to Fiddlesticks is an ult that does massive AoE damage over time (his ult instead is a delayed burst which still does way less damage). However, there are a number of champions that can fulfill this role without having the same problems as Fiddlesticks Velkoz Galio Karthus Anivia MonkeyKing (yes, even Wukong is more viable mid than Fiddle - and Galio's ult isn't damage over time but at least it CCs the enemies)

rmch991 votes

Because we all know how easily Galio cs's mid. And Anivia pre 6 too for that matter. Neither has mana problems or anything gating their waveclear.

YumaS2Astral1 votes

{quoted}

Because we all know how easily Galio cs's mid. And Anivia pre 6 too for that matter. Neither has mana problems or anything gating their waveclear.

Galio has high base AD, which allows him to last hit way better than Fiddlesticks even though his waveclear is heavily gated by mana.

Anivia only has problemas CSing before level 6, while Fiddlesticks has problems CSing the entire game.

The Yetii Rider1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Penguin Smasher9,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=LaxMGVEt,comment-id=0000,timestamp=2015-11-29T19:02:42.680+0000)

middlesticks csing still wants me to kill myself

Should have gone AP Fiora mid.

zmmby3 votes

Im a simple man, i see fiddlesticks i upvote.

Nekusen2 votes

this doesn't solve any of his issues:

  • mobility
  • dies too fast

the damage he deals isn't a big issue and doesn't really need waveclear as he isn't a lanner.

his passive potentially allows him to do what little in the game can, have the target MR below 0.

in this this thread i explained his issues and justified changes to him: http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/fwoFmA18-fiddlesticks-suggestion

MrHaveANiceDay4 votes

AoE fearing in ulti would greatly help the survival issue...

Nekusen1 votes

{quoted}

AoE fearing in ulti would greatly help the survival issue...

actually, it would make him more vulnerable. lets say you are fleeing, you are about to get caught, but you use Fear and run away. With your change, you would have to stop and attack the target 3 times, it would be more unreliable. Problems are that with his fear down is dies in half a second and his lack of mobility.

also, in another discussion, a Riot poster said they wouldn't completely replace abilities from him, thats in part why the ones from the post i liked work better for him.

flibitydoo1 votes

that would just turn his ult into a crummy version of Hecarim 's ult with a 1 second channel delay (+greater since you need to wait for 3 ticks of his ult to hit in an aoe which is about 3 seconds)

Troll for Trump1 votes

How about he gains maxHP based on the amount of targets he hits with his ult initially for a few seconds. Like Illidan's Ultimate in HoTS.

Kuroi862 votes

-Q: Scarecrow's Scythe. A medium-speed left to right sweeping AoE. Deals 25% bonus damage to Terrified targets.

No... just no. Please no. Fiddle is a mage, not a bruiser, this just would not feel right on him.

Swift25682 votes

The problem, as I see it, is that Fiddle was an ambush predator and he was too good at it. You would be farming and suddenly the whole Fiddle combo hits you. you get no options and then you die. That is what his kit is designed to do. But he was nerfed away from that. I love Fiddlesticks, but I agree he is not really viable in Summoner's rift. Take him to twisted treeline or Aram and it's a very different game. I love jumping walls with the ult to ambush the way Fiddle was designed to. Those are environments when he can go back to what he does best. And I say encourage it. Encourage him to be used outside of the Rift. Encourage a breed of non-Rift champions.

DevlinCrow1 votes

I like those abilities, would be good to make the passive actually a passive of his Fear ability and change his passive to:

Passive: Fiddlestick's crows accompany him on the battlefield, dealing a small amount of magic damage to nearby enemies every few seconds.

La Bello1 votes

to add onto that OP

I would move silence from his E to his Q and make it Silence Terrified targets.

then I would change his E to :Fiddlestucks summons a swarm of crows that first circle him then launch themselves in targeted direction

This way Fiddlesticks would seem like more of a composer when it comes to utilizing his crows

MunchCrunchLunch1 votes

any champion with a flat damage passive. has a bad passive. they need to remove all of these flat damage passive.

Mooninites1 votes

{quoted}

any champion with a flat damage passive. has a bad passive. they need to remove all of these flat damage passive.

Orianna's passive is actually pretty decent

SpecterVonBaren1 votes

Orianna's passive isn't just a flat damage passive, it basically replaces the base AD she'd normally have in exchange for getting more damage if she attacks a target multiple times, it's there to encourage her to interact with her lane opponent like Xerath's passive.

qetzel1 votes

this would be stepping on Kennen a little bit. It is basically the same.

If we decide that doesn't matter then it still needs a large amount of work. You can't buff his CC potential that much without nerfing him a lot. It would require major retuning (a long, long, long cooldown per target, not affecting champions in a large AOE) and probably nerfs to the rest of his kit.

I mean, think about other champions that have that much CC. None of them are as strong (from almost any point of view except CC) as Fiddles is now.

Xela Syab1 votes

Really the best way to buff fiddle would to give him some way to lane.

EROTIC RAID BOSS1 votes

Or give him a way to interact with runeglaive procs meaningfully.

morris11 votes

I've seen an idea recently where it said his E should be an auto attack empower, since it has a very similar animation to an auto.

Xela Syab1 votes

that might work, fiddle is an old champ and may need some graphical updates too.

chide da jungler1 votes

He just needs his fear to cause random movement again + a cheaper jungler item that makes sense for him

Zenfro1 votes

" i havent got a brain... but soon, neither will YOU!" is SO annoying

SirHeavyScrotum1 votes

I feel like that passive with his current W would be too strong, unless you want to take the route of having his abilities apply a stack instead of magic damage in general.

DarthOdium1 votes

another Fiddlesticks thread lmao if i can play Fiddlesticks top of all things just fine then i sure as hell can play him good any were else fiddlesticks is fine as is. dont fix what dont need to be fixed or you might just ruin it instead dont say i didnt warn you

Swift25681 votes

You do not accomplish anything by messing with his fear. He is not a very fast champion and that fear is his only escape mechanic.

It bugs me when people look to "fix" his fear. You are targeting it because you hate it. The truth is that the fear is nowhere near as bad as some of the other CC in the game.

MrHaveANiceDay2 votes

I...love his fear. I'm wanting him to have the capacity to AoE Fear. The trade off for improved laning, more damage and AoE fear should be removing the PointNClick.

Levik1 votes

I think they should just make it so he can move while draining during his ult. That way he doesn't have to rush zonyas to be at all effective.

Ryuku Cruxis1 votes

Riot should totally use this as a draft.

Using his scythe for more than throwing magic rangs? So much better in a cosmetic sense.

Giving him laning power since he sucks with jg items and more viable teamfight strength in exchange for the point and click? Beautiful.

If everything only adds one stack, seems fine, you'll fear your priority target for sure, and have stacks on others. Each e hit can add a stack but can always be removed if it makes his jungle teamfight too strong, though plenty of champions have ways and places you dont wanna fight them at. Can be balanced by changing stack length.

MyBardyIsReady1 votes

or how about this(here comes the cringe ladies and gentlememes)

Fiddlesticks

Passive: Every basic attack removes a small portion of MR and adds a stack of some un creative name I can't think of. If you or an ally uses a spell on the target if the target has 5 stacks, the target will have more MR shredded off of them and the next incoming debuff to them has the duration increased by a small amount. 10 stacks, the effects will double and deal 30% of AP and a portion of current mana as magic damage in your basic attack. This could kinda support support fiddle with MR reductions and debuffs and Ruinglaive Fiddle from on-hit shit.

Q: The Terrify now applies a debuff that makes them take more damage from anything excluding True Damage by 20%. This could be a slightly be more useful for engaging/killing crap in camps because of the debuff.

W: Heals less with a little more tether range and slightly increased cooldown.

E: Places a field which deals damage over time to enemies in it and after 3 seconds, "crow hands" come out and snatch 1 champion/large monster only to bring them to the middle and stuns them. This stun applies passive as if it was 5 stacks. ihate crows This would be great for another good jungle clear tool and a good stun for ganking lanes and pooping on them.

R: nah his ulti is bs, i love it

time to drink bleach TahmKench

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