Detailed Feedback on Fiora's Update from a Fiora Main

Hello Riot Games, first off let me thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts about the Fiora update and ask you not the be scared of from the giant wall of text in front of you! I have spent a lot of my time in order to give detailed feedback that I hope will be able to help you as a company. Once again thank you for taking the time from your busy life to read my feedback, it actually means a lot to me. Also please know that I took the time to write an honest detailed feedback about the update. It’s also to take note, that I am a Fiora main for at least two seasons so far and I have experienced her play style and methods through the growing meta, as well as seeing how Fiora is able to played at higher elo (only a platinum elo, but I figured that this was above the average player and so this input would be valuable feedback none the less) this allows for feedback that you previously not able to get.

Now the first thing I would like to talk about is why the current Fiora is so much more then she seems. At a higher elo, Fiora is considered a more or less, a bad pick; the reason for this, is because on the surface, she can be easily beat. What I mean about this, is that lots of champions are strong against her and can easily demolish her in lane. Now what makes this actually an interesting thing, is many champions can in fact beat her, but then there’s the champions that can’t beat her. This makes is so by simply picking Fiora the player has already entered a high risk – high reward situation. Within this high risk – high reward situation there are many variables that come to play, the most important is the skill that the Fiora player has. This is what I thought made Fiora one of the best champion experiences in the game and the main reason she is my favorite character – I would even go as far as saying the most enjoyable video game experience I have ever had. Now I know, at this point you might be thinking that Fiora doesn’t take much skill; all you have to do is button mash q the press r. This is where I would have to argue that point indefinitely. A player with good mechanics and game awareness could play Fiora, win the easily matchups, but only a Fiora player that took the time to learn Fiora and the full extent of her abilities along with being able to read what your enemies are thinking can be matched up against a Jax, Riven, Pantheon and other champions that were thought to counter Fiora and win the lane. To try and explain this further, when Fiora is placed in an unfavorable situation she can use the mechanics, animation canceling and extremely good positioning to turn the tides of the battle. She is able to use her ultimate as device to re-position herself, move from enemy to enemy and to even retreat. Played right she can be played as someone who can deal some damage, then retreat and peel for her team. Her kit allows for her to do much more then is just scene on the surface – allowing her to be a true duelist.

I would like to now present what I personally think about the update you have been planning. I will start this, with I have not played her update, so I don’t know exactly how she plays, but with my advanced knowledge about pre-updated Fiora, I think that this feedback can still be extremely valuable. First, is her E, passive and her ultimate which I personally think are the most shocking ability changes. The best way I can discuss what these new abilities feel like to me, is that rather than updating Fiora, you deleted her and created a new champion. I think this so heavily is because her ultimate and her E were what defined this champion. I already explained a little bit why I like her ultimate currently, so I’ll stick to why I don’t like her new ultimate. The first thing is that with her new ultimate, she no longer has any team fight presence, she can no longer use her ultimate to keep her alive, dodge cc etc. All she can do now is place down her ultimate and try and slap the single person you targeted. The second thing is that her ultimate will actually never be able to be used to its full effect -- simply there is no instant in any team fight where you will be able to hit a single target the four times that are required. Even with a Morgana shield there won’t be an instance where you can effectively use her ultimate before you die or the target retreats. Now on to her passive, it personally feels like you took her passive in the opposite direction or what it is now (which may be a good thing honestly, her passive is one of the thing I can see being changed but, I’ll explain why her current one is good to her kit) , originally her passive allowed her to duel with someone and be able to regain health, now used correctly you were able to win trades, and then back off like a duelist should be able to. Now to her E, her E was one of her abilities that allowed Fiora to trade effectively and be able to split push. Now that is has a slow and a crit, it feels like it doesn’t belong to Fiora at all, it feels like it’s an alien ability to her. An important thing to mention as well is that her q can now be used as an escape and only has one dash. This takes away from Fiora having to positioning herself well and that if you want to chose to fight with her you have to fully commit to it in certain situations. All of these changes make it so Fiora is a completely new champion with nothing even making her feel like the same champion that all Fiora players have grown to love. She originally was a high risk – high reward champion with fearsome damage, but no escape and weaknesses that have to be avoided by staying one step ahead of your enemy – making Fiora feel like a true duelist. The updated Fiora feels nothing like the old one, leaving nothing for the Fiora fans to hold onto. The Fiora update feels like you, Riot, were trying too hard to cover her weakness by changing her to be a lower elo friendly champion making her not a duelist, instead of allowing the players to fully learn what she is capable and using not only their skill but their ability to read what the enemy is about to do and position themselves accordingly so that they are able to win a battle – what a real duelist champion should feel like. In a shorter, less complicated way of saying it, the current Fiora is a true duelist to the fullest extent of what a duelist champion should feel like and the new one feels like a foreign champion with nothing left in it for the old Fiora fans.

P.S. I fully know that you have put a lot of hard work on updating Fiora, I know that my single comment won’t change you from updating her, but I hope this feedback from a person who has played the champion to a great extent will be able to help in some way, or at least helps you view things in a different aspect.

P.S.S. One last thing, sorry I just found about it. The last thing (I promise) is the Fiora skin updates you have done. I know that you have to done a lot of hard work on them, but I’m asking you, well really I’m begging you, that you don’t use the new skin updates, especially the crusader one. I beg for this because I think that the skins right now are beautiful and that the new ones look completely uncharacteristic to Fiora and the character she is. I know that it’s a very slim chance of this happening, but I ask that you keep the traditionally skins so that all of the dedicated Fiora players can have something left of her; it would mean so much to me. Thank you for taking the time to read this Riot and I hope that I was able to help you in any way possible and I look forward to how League of Legends will continue to grow!