Fiora - The grand Duelist

Oh you can't have more AD than FIora. You just can't. I have yet to cross blades with a Fiora as Master Yi both with full builds in my time but I imagine Yi would lose at that time.

I would just like to start a discussion on Fiora as I feel the rate of her damage, particularly the true damage coupled with all of her abilities are something that I believe break counter play.

I read a Red post about Garen being able to counterplay her when she goes in for a lunge on the vitals. I would like to point out that Riposte can and will block the decisive strike which would really blow that "If you are skilled you can dodge all of her passive damage" out of the water. Even if she misses the vital she can still punish you greatly because she will have more AD than you, she will have more AS than you, and with the actually pretty low cool down on her lunge she will get away from you if she starts to lose. I believe this to be the case even without her ultimate.

So I can see the benefits of playing Renekton against her. You spin them blades around ya and trade with her as she goes and you can maybe even stun her if she misses her Riposte. But she won't if you the player has played Fiora a dozen or so times and actually practiced that. Certainly somebody like me who has played league long enough to get down skill shots can probably do it within the first few games (Which I did)

That said, Fiora is going to out damage Rene once she blocks that stun. He is gonna have to run away and lose the trade every single time. Especially after 6 when FIora's damage is ramped up Renektons defense won't do anything to stop her. Even I, a skilled Jax player, cannot kill her in a 1v1 even late game unless I forgo most of Jax's damage and build off tank with thornmail and other assorted items. Jax even loses early game and mid game since he is a late game champion.

I don't believe in balance being brought on by "Just gank her" or "Just focus her on teamfight" There should and is balance for every champion in counterplay. You can severely punish a Jax by blowing his Counter strike then engaging him either by a CC or a dash once he leaps or even just a CC and walk away then back when it goes off. That is counterplay. You can also engage him in short bursts if you have the tank to stop his 3rd hit empower sheen. But again you can even minimize that by waiting until the Jax player farms a minion with his waiting 3rd hit you can go in and trade a little because by that time you can probably get away from another 3rd hit when it comes up. That's counterplay. Jax is balanced because he doesn't scale hugely, you don't need items to counter him, you can outplay him.

I am putting this into a 1v1 perspective because that is basically what Fiora is and early in on the game you want to establish Dominance over your lane and since she seems to be able to wreck just about any top laner (Oh Malphite, my only hope... Until lvl 6 that is :) she does not have a counterplay. I have some success using empower against her as Jax (Supposedly a good counter vs her) to proc the Riposte but I still seem to lose because she will not fight me when my E is up and if I use it and stun her, she will simply ulti me and out DPS me.

Let's look at a non Duelling champion VS her.

Pantheon spears can certainly harass her. Maybe even to the point you are going to need to riposte some of those spears. Yes that is going to open you up for damage but you are going to out damage him at lvl 6. So you can actually bait him when he throws a spear or go all in and gouge him out. You could probably even stop him from stunning you so he can get away with your riposte. Where is the counterplay with that? Even missing vitals or never presenting the vitals once you engage her you will lose as Pantheon because you cannot duel her. Then how terrible is the fight once she has one core item? How can you outskill the opponent?

I would like to point something out in Pro play with Fiora. The players who played her top were extremely good at using her. I'm going to admit my knowledge is going to be a bit imperfect as I did not follow every single game played at this years competition, but did not Fiora win most if not all of her games? Did she not win every lane? Against pro players who even played shen and Renekton? Was there not a pro player that said because of Riposte he could probably go up against any matchup?

There shouldn't be a single champion in League that can go up against any match up. How okay is it when Fiora with 15% health left is going to fight you by ultying you and with just how much sheer damage this champion has on top of the lifesteal and true damage she will heal almost instantly to full health simultaneously dropping you from full health.

I think the major problem on why she is so strong is that percent health true damage on anybody. That is just too much versatility. True damage is bad in huge numbers. Especially when it not only wrecks through any defense you have, but also heals you massively. Okay so what if you stun her!? Okay riposte continue with the derping. So basically to keep Fiora in check the counter play is to gank her, chain stun her, and pile her and make sure your team has Frozen Heart, Thornmail, and Randuins omen. That just isn't okay.

I could see her becoming much less powerful and much less a "Duel everybody" champion (Even Jax cannot Duel everybody and up to now he was the best Duellist in the game) is to take away that true damage, take away that percent health, and just add basic damage. It would significantly drop her damage and bring her in line with similar champion roles. Kill their squishies quickly then take our their team. She is certainly a secondary initiator such as Jax, Irelia, Yi(More of a run to the back teleport to squishy assassinate though) and heck, even Riven. You can block parts of Garen and Darius's ults with defense but not Fiora's. If all true damage was taken from her she still has insane amounts of AD but she can now be countered more easily. Having even your base armor do something is going to be good. Having health shouldn't be punished so harshly from a champion. Even Bork doesn't punish you for having health, it was way strong originally but now it is in a really good spot.

If anything I would bring down the true damage much like Yi's which is nowhere near as in your face derp gun and supplant the rest with just AD. She certainly has enough sustain from how much damage she is going to have anyways so what need is there for that health? She shouldn't be a support healing her teammates because she is a duelist. Duelists by definition single somebody out and kill them without help. So that concept of healing teammates.

This would allow her to still deal tons of damage, she is going to have armor pen anyways unless the person is completely new to that concept so adding any true damage is just added on top of the armor pen already there. It would be fine in small amounts but not %HP amounts. You would be less punished for building health and armor as opposed to just blowing her up at the same time you blow up. Your tanks can actually tank, your beefy's are actually beefy. She still retains the ability to duel somebody but now she does not blow up anybody but she is still certainly capable of fighting any target, just the tanks that are supposed to not be killed by the AD champion are not going to get killed by the AD champion as quickly, maybe not at all.

Her raw damage would be brought down from the insane amount it is right now and you can actually build to block her damage with health items, with tank items, and in the teamfight she isn't going to heal her teammates because she is a damage output champion, she is no way a support and should have no semblance of anything supporting her teammates in a way that heals them in an aura.

Really there is just no counterplay other than the Riot approved "We want her to be skill based, skilled to play and destroy your opponent but also require skill to shut her down" which just doesn't make sense. There isn't a champion in league right now that can go up to literally any champion and roflstomp them in seconds and come out with full health. Just face it, players who play a lot are going to have Riposte down. They will have lunge down.

What are your thoughts? Don't just downvote or upvote because you disagree/agree tell me what is going on in your mind. I really feel the counterplay is not where it should be.