The problem with Fiora is she has a passive designed for a poke champion and active abilities designed for an all-in duelist (if you know the history - at the time Riot was trying to nerf passive sustain lanes and Fiora's passive wasn't designed to fit her theme, it was an experiment to link sustain to aggression for esports - they ended up with a champ that sees 0 competitive play).
Your suggestion gives Fiora a poke option to accompany her passive. Unfortunately, that makes her too strong in lane, because she can poke, poke, burst. To compensate, they will nerf her burst. In the end, instead of a high damage, no cc, no escape assassin, you end up with a average damage, no cc, one escape champion. I think that makes Fiora worse.
What Fiora needs is a duelist-centered passive similar to Kha'Zhix's isolation or Xin Zhao's challenge. Something that would amplify Fiora's damage the longer she attacks a target and reduces incoming AA damage from her target. That fits her theme - the longer the duel lasts, the more she learns about her opponent and the deadlier she becomes. It transforms her into a burst champion and gives her a noticeable weakness - fighting more than one champ. Not only will the second, third, etc... champ hit Fiora harder, but if she tries to switch between targets her stacks will fall off and she will do less damage. Let's call this passive "Right of Way" because Fiora's AAs gain priority over her opponent, both increasing her own damage and reducing damage received.
Q is perfect. It already has a nice amount of strategy - lunge to minion then to champ, two quick Qs for burst, or save the second Q for chasing.
W is where we can give Fiora a situational escape. The ability becomes Parry-Riposte-Disengage. First click causes you to parry attack. At that point, you have 2 seconds to cast riposte. If you do, you deal damage to the champion/monster whose attack you parried. If you fail to riposte, you automatically disengage, which causes Fiora to leap away from the target whose attack she parried (similar to Caitlyn's net). Both Fiora and the opponent she parried have 2 seconds to change positions to control the direction of the disengage. Fiora can save a lunge to assist her, while opponent's can also use hard cc to prevent the disengage. Disengage will also cause her passive stacks to fall off (which means she will take more damage if her opponent chases).
I think making the escape situational, combined with the loss of the passive healing (in favor of damage reduction from her main target) means Fiora won't need to be nerfed to justify the potential for poke-disengage-poke-disengage-burst.
I'm not sure what to do with E, other than change its name to "Redouble". It might stay the same as a way to quickly apply passive stacks. One option is to have it increase the damage-amplification effect of her passive, while removing the damage reduction component. Again, this adds strategy. Against a fleeing opponent, Fiora wants to use E to maximize her damage, against an opponent trying to fight back, she shouldn't. Similarly, the opponent might want to turn and fight if Fiora uses E. Another option is to have it consume stacks and provide a base AS/MS bonus + additional AS/MS based on the number of stacks consumed. The first option keeps her focused on a single target. The second option gives her a bit more versatility to switch targets, but only if she does so before killing her first target. In both cases, it nerfs her split-pushing since towers won’t get stacks.
I also like her R, as thoughts of fencing bring to mind the 3 musketeers, who are quite capable of fighting more than one opponent. However, I would change it to apply the same damage over 3 hits, with each hit escalating in damage. Again, this gives Fiora more choice in a team fight. If you ult a champion near a carry, you do more damage to the carry, but finish your ult in a bad position. If you ult the carry, you do more damage to the nearby tank, but finish standing next to the carry. As always, if you catch the squishy alone, the squishy dies to the Grand Duelist, as it should be.
The above changes help contribute to Fiora's theme as a duelist who specializes in single target damage, but is skilled enough to not be helpless in a group fight. Someday I'll put this in a full work-up.
or something.
. You do good in the beginning, get fed, and carry the team to victory. Or you don't do so great and turn into a walking kill for the enemy team. It's a high risk high reward type deal. You gotta accept the risk and hope for the reward.
