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Fiora is incredibly unsatisfying and unfun to play right now. Needs buffs? A rework?

gubigubi·3/29/2019, 9:17:38 PM·16 votes·13,528 views

Is Fiora going to get some buffs or a rework or something at any point this season? A lot of things going against her right now and its very frustrating even attempting to play her.

https://i.imgur.com/coUOhS8.png

Major Season 9 Nerfs

Tiamat nerfs. This nerf hurt her early game and her transition into a second item. Going Tiamat into ER or Tri Force was a fairly good strat and because other champions were abusing it Tiamat had its upgrade cost gutted to nerf them.

ER got deleted as an item for her. Essence Reaver got reverted to be more useful for ADCs again. Makes sense because it was an ADC item to begin with and was being abused by champions that maybe it shouldnt have been abused by. Only problem was the biggest abusers like Riven have much better synergy now with Spear of Shojin than Fiora ever will. Fiora benefited greatly from the mana and mana sustain on Essence Reaver because her split pushing sucks up a decent amount of mana in order for her to clear quickly. And if Fiora runs out of mana she loses all of her fighting ability. Fiora is shockingly one of the most mana dependent fighters in the whole game. Without mana she is very squishy and has low auto attack damage due to not being able to buy crit or attack speed items. People will say "Well just manage your mana better" and while that is true Fioras split push speed is actually extremely slow if you are not casting abilities. Because she cannot buy attack speed or crit she clears minion waves slower than pretty much every other split push champion in the game.

Conq got massively nerfed for her. This is fairly straight forward. Conq has less AD now. Less AD means less true damage for Fioras passive. The healing is nice but the AD was better. Its overall a weaker rune on Fiora now than it was before. The sad part is its still probably her best rune for various reasons.

Issues with Fioras gameplay

Right now Fiora is really unsatisfying for a large range of reasons. I could probably break it down into 2 or 3 main things.

Win conditions

Her main win condition of split pushing is not working out right now. Her mana restrictions and slow clear speed make split pushing feel like as Fiora I am never putting on any real pressure or having an impact. On top of that she never feels like she has any kill pressure or 1v1 priority that can be exploited to advance your teams progress towards winning a game. Even if you are crazy fed her clear speeds and tower taking are not impressive for a champion whose main and really only win condition is split pushing.

The other way you can try to win on Fiora is by team fighting. And thats really not a great option. You can either ult the frontline and try to get the heal for your team and do a little bit of % damage to the tank. This will likely end with you getting shredded in 3-4 auto attacks by the enemy ADC because you are very squishy. But maybe you can get your ult heal off and your team can pull a team fight win off of that. Or you can try and go for the back line. Again this will likely end with you getting kited and shredded in 3-4 auto attacks by the ADC. I think Fioras biggest team fight weakness is just her lack of engage or good gap closers. Her only real way to get into the back line is flank or flash + Q. And if you mess up even slightly on either of those things you will get killed for free almost instantly. If the enemy bot lane won their lane and you try this the majority of the time you will die. Fiora does not do enough damage fast enough or have the survivability or escapes to successfully team fight.

Power Curve

Fioras power curve is just utter garbage.

https://i.imgur.com/VaOfoVk.png

Theres no real other way to explain it. I'm sure other champions have a power curve similar to this but idk. It feels like her play style combined with this weird power curve results in an unsatisfying experience for pretty much everyone involved(Her and her opponents). She is fairly strong from levels 1-4. Then from levels 6 until she has 2+ items she feels really weak most matches. Her items are Hydra and Tri Force. 2 of the most expensive items in the game. So getting those 2 items takes a lot longer to get to than some other champions. Her early/mid game are very weak and her late game does not really justify that. Because once it gets into late game team fights she falls off again because her team fighting is so bad that she becomes even weaker than she was mid game. This leads to never really feeling that powerful the majority of games or having a clear sense of strength. When I play someone like Renekton or Kayle the power window is very defined and you know how strong you are pretty much every game without fail. Even after 1 million+ Fiora mastery it can be really hard to judge if you are actually strong at this point in the match because your power fluctuates up and down so much relative to what else is going on in the match. A lot of the time you don't know until all of the sudden you get dropped in 3 auto attacks by someone you thought you had finally outscaled 10 minutes ago but now they have outscaled you again even though you are still ahead on gold on what you thought was a late game champion.

Counter match ups

Fiora has an incredible, shocking, insane, unbelievable 20+ counters that she has a 45% win rate or lower. As a Fiora main I would need literally 20 bans to ban all of Fioras sub 45% win rate match ups. Why is this a thing. Why is she so utterly useless in so many match ups. This is probably the most frustrating part about Fiora.

Imagine having so many counter match ups that even if both teams worked together to ban every single one. There would still be enough hard counters that the enemy team could form an entire 5 team composition of Fiora counter picks TWICE OVER.

Look at this.

https://imgur.com/M4srwYR

https://imgur.com/RCiXT9D

As a comparison Vayne top lane has 5 bad match ups

https://imgur.com/VR6Tf4s

Fiora is in such a terrible spot right now and she is not even on the radar for any real buffs from what I can tell. At this point she might need a rework or some kit changes because idk if giving her any real meaningful buffs is really going to help the situation without making her super frustrating to play against. I didn't include any solutions to the problems I have mentioned in this post but I do have quite a few ideas. This post was already long enough I thought though and it was mainly to highlight the issues I feel that Fiora is currently having.

As a closer for fun though this is what a 5-2 Fiora vs a 1-5 AD Kayle looks like late game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AX60kY0-1l8&feature=youtu.be

57 Comments

MoldyCheese13/29/2019, 9:32:37 PM24 votes

She basically needs either a minor rework or mass power changes.

She just hard bullies in lane with her vitals and stays full hp off grasp, pots and vitals. while poking for 100+ plus damage every few seconds. playing around it is utter garbage and buffs will more than likely break her.

Hethalean3/29/2019, 9:20:03 PM4 votes

I'm curious how ER got deleted as an item for Fiora. Do you think the same is true for Jax then? His split push requires just as much on the mana I think.

420 grams3/29/2019, 10:20:21 PM3 votes

The game state is just terrible for her. She's a squishy melee who needs to to often get behind her target to do damage. It just doesn't work when everybody can burst you out

Weiner the Pooh3/29/2019, 10:16:57 PM3 votes

Unfortunately for Fiora she is melee, so she isn’t allowed to have a godly late game like Vayne or Kayle, despite being a late game champion.

I’ve been playing Fiora since her rework and I agree she feels extremely unsatisfying to play. Her Q prioitization alone is one of the most frustrating things and feels like it just breaks after 2-3 patches. It feels like it never hits who it’s supposed to hit. So many times I’ve been in a close fight and instead of hitting the 5% hp champion it will kill the minion near it. Or while dashing the champ your ult was just on it will hit the champion next to them. That alone makes the champion feel like shit.

And for a supposedly high mobility character, she feels slow as fuck and her Q has to be one of the easiest cancelled abilities in the game. I swear if cc lands even as the strike from q is going it’ll put it on full cd. Not to mention how every characters dash simply outclasses Fioras. Most are even on cd and have a higher range. Fiora simply doesn’t feel like a high mobility character. She feels like a juggernaut without survivability.

Another problem is even if you get advantage and a huge gold lead it feels like at best you’ll be even in items due to just how expensive her build is.

Everyone remembers when Fiora was released and was really strong due to the tank build that was allowed because of titanic hydra so as soon as they anyone say Fiora needs buffs they start the insults saying how broken she is and always has been, and how she invalidates tanks and blah blah blah and they say that as soon as a tank meta starts up she’ll be really good and broken if she ever receives buffs, but the fact is Fiora doesn’t even counter tanks. Sure given enough time Fiora can kill any tank In a split push duel. But if you’re splitting on a tank vs Fiora you’re playing wrong. Tanks out sale Fiora in team fights and essentially win the game off of that. And in lane they just build bramblevest and Fiora can’t fight them, she can’t push fast enough to get their tower, and one tank and she’s dead, as she has no real easy way to escape a gank. Her dash range is pitiful if used defensively and it’s cd before you get items is stupidly high.

I think the main way Fiora need help is to add a little range onto Q, maybe 50 units to the actual dash. That would help Fioras chase because as it is, one slow and anyone just walks away. Not to mention how ranged champions are extremely strong right now and Fiora has no reliable way to get on one. Most can poke/cc her from outside of her ult range so if she walks up or try’s to dash in range they just walk back and she can never engage on them. Riot justified Sylas’R range by saying if it was shorter he’d never be able to target backline champions ults. If he gets that kind of power to make sure he can play the game while having 3 dashes I don’t see why Fiora can’t have a little bit more range in her ult to help her catch backline champs. That and making the attack speed longer on her E would be super helpful, Fiora is struggling in both tower taking and in duels, her main thing and the reason she sacrifices so much team fight power.

It’s hilarious to me that riot made it so Fiora has no real team fightpowe because she’s supposedly so good in duels, her not only do champs like Vayne and Kayle straight up out duel her, they also out teamfight her. Honestly ATM Fiora feels like a pathetic champion.

preternatural7/30/2019, 12:15:22 PM2 votes

revert this rework. literally one of maybe two or three reworks that should actually sincerely be reverted.

Ahri Baka3/29/2019, 9:42:52 PM2 votes

Upvoted Honestly yeah , she doesn't feel good to play at all anyway

Juice3/30/2019, 1:11:28 AM2 votes

Why are you comparing Fiora and Kayle late game when Fiora is about 10x more oppressive than Kayle in lane?

Not only that, but you also don't show builds or anything

Fiora is fine, she has bad match ups and good match ups.

Stop crying because your champion isn't top 3 insta-win anymore

Targon3/30/2019, 2:47:59 AM2 votes

One major problem with Fiora is that she's kinda high risk low reward. So many champions do her job better and can do it more easily too. When would you ever pick Fiora over someone else? Tank busting? Tanks barely exist right now. Squishy Killer? Most squishies will burst her down before she gets 2.5 items. Strong Duelist? Riven and Vayne are better. Strong Teamfightning? No. Strong Splitpushing? Eh, not compared to some other champions that have better escapes if need be too.

Fiora doesn't really have a role in the current meta.

That said, I think it'd be a bad decision to buff her. Fiora's one of those champions that would be much stronger if damage across the board was tuned down. She excels best when she has the time to dish out her damage and not get instagibbed so easily.

CJ100020003/30/2019, 1:05:02 PM2 votes

Yea ever since I realized mymain has hit that 46% and lower winrate I have moved from Solo/duo Q and just spamming Flex Q with ADC Miss Fortune (cause she is fun and flex is not serious). Once riot decides to bring tanks back and rework Fiora R to something more useful like old Fiora R then I will be happy to olay her.

Killeur3/30/2019, 2:14:12 PM2 votes

Honestly by the years Fiora changed more and more and the problem with her as you mention is that she has really low mana bar and a lot of other weaknesses right now. She is more of a glass cannon rather than a bruiser having herself to over rely on stacking life steak to survive. In pro play you can she her rarely against Aatrox by some players but generally she struggles mana wise to keep up the pressure without a blue buff even with building Trinity. A good change for her would be to low her mana costs to a point where she can stay in lane in early game until she gets pushed out of lane something that can easily happen in early trades and in late game she should be able to reliably push more than 2-3 waves without expending most of her mana bar. Power wise she is not in the worst position but she needs some changes that will not her overpowered for pro play but enjoy full for others

USAstar4/7/2019, 6:41:59 PM2 votes

Fiora does seem to have a very low win rate now. I blame the failed rework. That vital idea was terrible at the first place. After that failed rework 4 years ago, the Fiora game is all about a randomly generated vital angle. The whole game is to chase that randomly generated circle, it feels like being played by the game. And that ult rarely perfectly execute. Imagine the frustration when ult applies to an enemy and it just runs away, or the enemy died before hitting all vitals. It is just not satisfying. The only thing that can save Fiora now is to revert to the good old blade waltz version. She looked better, and she was really fun to play. The old ultimate blade waltz was perfectly ok. A lot of moba games have these kind of invincible strikes ultimate. Why can't league of legends keeps one?

Baby Ghoul7/30/2019, 3:35:46 AM2 votes

I was a Fiora main in season 4 and season 5, but I just could never get into her new kit personally and she was one of the first major reworks. Don't get me wrong, her rework was necessary. She was a feast or famine champion that would hit a wall near Gold 5, or if someone picked Malphite.

I think she does need a mini rework or something though. It's been quite some time since then, and I almost never see anyone play Fiora, or if I do, it's rather lackluster.

Meteora7073/30/2019, 1:35:15 PM1 votes

fiora should never be good when there are no tanks played top lane, also shes still absolute fucking aids and should never be buffed.

Modl Ryden l7/30/2019, 6:02:50 AM1 votes

She needs innate sticking power outside of relying on phage being built and landing a Q.

Perhaps having her Q cd reduced more on hitting a champion and buffing the movement speed on hitting a vital.

My thoughts: 75% CD return on hitting a champion, keeping the 60% when hitting any unit. OR Upping the movement speed at all ranks on her passive by 10%.

xnotavamp3/30/2019, 3:57:06 PM1 votes

Yea she needs a lot of work. I don't even play her and I always see a fiora top lane abused. It might just not be her meta this season but they gotta buff her in some ways. Like make her incredibly strong as a 1v1 even after laning phase . A fiora shouldn't be able to 1v5 like before but they should make her hell if u wanna stop her pushing top lane and your gonna fight her alone like illaoi

GodlyBane3/31/2019, 12:00:45 AM1 votes

i mean she dominates in laning and 1v1s normally, but her winrate is bad. Not to mention, playing her is hella fun and it p much always will be to me tbh. (btw, if your talking about conquerer fiora, thats trash because she cant abuse her abilities with conquerer, thus cant get its full affect. Grasp is much better, and actually a LOT more fun)

big dawg3/29/2019, 11:48:13 PM1 votes

Fiora's win rate per games played also goes up drastically, so there's that to keep in mind. 200+ games on her the win rate currently sits at 56%, now of course again just looking at pure winrates can scew someone's perception. I don't think she needs a rework, but its a champ hard to buff due to her kit in general. That being said, she does seem to be super matchup dependant.

taleofsonata7/30/2019, 12:07:27 PM1 votes

For her to spike down suddenly, Blame Kled new Q.

Gorgurus7/30/2019, 3:26:12 AM1 votes

Honestly, I hope this champ crashes and burns. I generally enjoy rito's reworks as they tend to improve enjoyability of the champion, but what they did to fiora was an absolute trash tier blunder.

Old fiora was FUN, even she was on the weak side compared to the other champions. And no, her ult wasn't op at all, it was basically a Yi's q with a much longer cooldown. But dashing in with her, proccing the movement speed, dashing out or chasing... You had to know your matchups well to make her work, knowing which counter picks would allow for you to fight on a given situation, when to poke with your dash, when to retreat. That was DUELING, the whole lore shebang of fiora. It was hard and it was FUN, and it was rewarding when it suceeded.

Then, because of low picks or 12 y old idiots who didnt know what her ult did and spammed complaints on the boards saying it was op (it wasnt), they did the worst goddamn thing that could be called a rework of an original champion. NOTHING ABOUT THE NEW FIORA RELATES TO THE OLD FIORA. They wanted to keep the ''Duelist'' thing going, so they added that absolute trash tier, RNG BASED, minigame of the ''vital points''. I've had games where I got smashed in the early game because all my vital points spawned in front of me, others where all appeared in my back and I steamrolled an opposite fiora. Who the hell thought this was a good idea?

Then, and i'm actually glad they added this so that the potatoes who complained about ''HURR OLD FIORA OP'', they added arguably the most broken skill in the game: Her w. This a skill that makes her Invulnerable to damage and DoT, CC, also deals damage, ALSO SLOWS, ALSO STUNS. NO SKILL IN THE GAME GAVE COMPLETE INVUNERABILITY + DMG + CC (pre kayle rework - and even kayle it's an ultimate skill - AND IT DOESNT STUN).

This isn't a champion. It's an abortion. I'm not even going to mention the splash art + the ingame model, because to each it's own, but as i'm sure i'm not alone in my rant about the kit, i'm also sure that those who remember her agree that the new art is absolutely atrocious comparing to the old one. For those who don't, do a quick google image search ''old fiora vs new fiora'' and see for yourself.

Sorry for the long rant, I usually don't care that much about these changes, and like I said I actually enjoy them. But as I was mastering old fiora, and absolutely loving it, they did this absolutely ''uncalled'' for alteration, and it pissed me off so much I didn't play the game for 2 years after that. I only came back because I saw a friend playing Ekko and it kinda reminded me of her playstyle, and it's currently my main champ. But I never forgot old fiora, how cool she looked, how fun she was, and it baffles me how they made the decision to change her so dramatically, when afaik, everytime they rework a champ, they try to keep it in the same vein as the old counterpart, with it's own ''uniqueness'' - and this can be proven by the fact the more original champs in lol that went through a form or another of reworks maintained this originality in their kits, like Ryze's root, Yi's q, Riven's combo, to name a few. But, someone in rito manage to sell the new kit as ''the duelist'' and they were like ''yeah sure why not'', when gamewise, it has NOTHING to do with the old playstyle.

TL:DR, Old fiora ruled, new fiora sucks, I hope this champion gets all the hate it deserves until it gets deleted or reverted to it's old former glory

Hemulen Magi3/29/2019, 10:41:51 PM1 votes

There are no real defensive top lane champions for her %hp true damage niche to shine against anymore and other tank shredding and overkill pure damage alternatives are commonplace anyways. If Fiora received direct buffs in this disgusting meta, it would be another bull shit Vayne situation. It is defensive champions who need defensive buffs, which should in turn bring Fiora back in her position as a more reliable counterpick.

This meta isn't worth playing in. I ought to stop hanging out on the boards too actually. This isn't very healthy. I'm going to limit myself to only checking in a maximum of twice per week to see if there are any signs of (at least planned) improvement to the game status. This is getting ridiculous and I am just getting more disappointed and revolted every time I look back.

Moekindo3/30/2019, 1:21:48 PM1 votes

Yeah she is unfun due to her straightforward kit but I would not say she needs any kind of buffs. Just ask everyone how they feel about her being mobile af healing from her passive while dealing max hp in true damage and then walking away from the ms boost. Then she can stop any kind of damage and cc and send it back to you and stun you with your own cc while you stay there unable to move while she kills you. Also spear of shojhin just makes her q have no cd while her ult is on you and she oneshots you while healing for all her hp... I also like how you included her winrate when you know there are a lot more top laners that have way worse win rate than she does... But a mini rework would be good after mordekaisers

Anchorit Wracaj3/30/2019, 1:30:46 PM1 votes

Why would you pick Fiora,when you can pick Riven and with death dance,conqueror,black cleaver and spear,have 3000 hp,be unkilable,and do shit ton of damage with insane mobility? Or over Kayle/Jax/Urgot/Vladimir/Kennen on top? There is no single Tank...except Sion...lol..even Sion doesnt exist anymore.So she needs to duel against more powerfull bruisers...well yeah..guess what..she will be in a bad spot. Nerf Kayle,nerf Urgot,nerf Riven if you want Fiora back on the game.Or u can just buff Fiora,then buff GP and ornn and malphite and renekton and bunch of other people,and then buff other roles cause Bruisers and top lane is becoming to strong and etc. Urgot/Riven/Kayle/Jax eventually Heca/Kennen/Olaf are controling the top lane destiny.Rest of champions doesnt stand a chance to these monsters. Riven/Urgot/Kayle especially.