Fiora Rework
Hey.
I am honestly disappointed. You took literally ANYTHING away from her. Not even Soraka has been changed this much, she kept at least her ult. But let's start with my detailed thoughts on my second favorite champion.
Passive.
First of all, you know Fiora has been a squishy champion. She's made for short term fights without escapes. You initiate a fight, knowing you will either win or die. She is not just a "R and gg" champ. You had to be aware of what you are capable of, taking risks, but as well be rewarded if you do so. To sustain the early poke and trade damage on the lane, she had a passive which increased her health regen for a small amount, rewarding her by stacking for challenging little trades instead of afk farming.
You had to to this little trades then and now, to get your opponent to a certain point, where you actually fight them. Fiora simply CAN'T survive long term fights. You go in, deal some damage, and retreat.
Now it is, that Fiora HAS to fight over a longer time. Why? Simply because to proc her passive, she needs to take longer ways, which actually won't make her able to keep trading: While i need one second to walk behind my target, since the new vital spot appeared to be there, i got to take a free hit on me plus the next hit, when i reached the vital spot. I dont think the bonus dmg nor the heal and speed boost is worth the effort.
Positioning has always been important to Fiora in terms of avoiding ganks for example. But due to her squishyness and high risk of engaging, it shouldn' matter when she actually fights someone.
Q.
While i like the buff on it to finally proc on-hit effects, i as well see a degrading in this ability.
First: The animation time. It takes too long time to actually reach the target and to deal the dmg. Let me explain: In some cases, Lunge, only able to be cast on enemies, could have been used as an escape, weather through a minion wave, jungle camps or champs themselves. Pretty neat. Now it's not. I will dash a short range and THEN as well go over into an attacking animation, which i can't cancel. So, dashing over a wall could eventually trigger an attack on jungle creeps, which costs important time for me to escape.
Second: I can't control which unit i will attack. Sometimes Lunge could been usefull to pick up a last hit from a distance, when you couldnt get into auto-attacking range fast enough. Now i can't actually chose the unit i want to pick up. It was often usefull to get a caster minion with Lunge and back off immediatly to the front line again. With the updated Q i can't do this anymore, when the enemy champion is standing in his wave. I possibly need to take free hits from the enemy champ to get to the creeps or accept to lose gold.
This spell is based on the actual fencing step Lunge (as well as Riposte). It is a DIRECT attack (Riposte: successfull counter) onto the Opponent, i don't realize why it has to be changed.
I'm okay with the small refund of its cooldown when striking an enemy unit, yet i miss something about the mana cost. Because you can't recast Lunge for another time immediatly afterwards, and assuming it will trigger a simple autoattack rather than dealing damage with the ability itself, i hope the mana cost for this spell is fairly lowered.
W.
This new Riposte is totally nonsense. Especially with the counter of crowd control. In the video it appears to me, that you can't acutally move or do anything else while casting/charging Reposte. So by this it translates to: I root myself in place for a short time without being able to do anything in this time, avoiding other Crowd Control in exchange. Sounds not really clever to me.
It's stated that current Fiora isn't the Duelist she's supposed to be. But with this W change she is actually even less of a Duelist! Old W proc'ed on the first incoming basic attack, unavoidable. Fiora is/was by fact the only champ capable of this mechanic, making her unique. Now i can cast it freely into any direction, without being actually secured to deal damage to my dueling opponent.
Welcome to the Raka-Club, Fiora.
E.
The slow is a) too short or b) too weak at its current state comparing to the old bonus movement speed. You got to keep in mind that you are not guaranteed to proc your passive. The new E would be better if the attack speed bonus is given for the next 3 attacks, slowing on the first, marking the vital spot on the second, and proc the passive dmg and movement speed on the final hit.
R.
I don't know wheather i should be amazed or shocked by the brazenness to delete her basicly only teamfight ability. She will NEVER be able to reach the enemies back line ever again. Her new ult requires to stick onto the target. In teamfights she won't be able to do so - unless her targets are the front lines tanks. That AoE healing zone sure is somewhat usefull i guess, but i can't understand this would match a duelist better than her old ultimate.
Quote: "In other words, the mechanics didn't match the fantasy of a skill-based and nimble duelist. Grand Challenge is obviously totally different, and is designed to give Fiora players - and her target - this genuine sense of a real time duel, with Fiora moving around looking to destroy the four weak spots [...]"
A duelist doesn't walk around. Have you ever seen a match of fencing? You don't see anyone walk around. The duelists standing face-to-face, literally opposing each other. They do quick attacks which they have to hit, or they will get hit themselfs. It's all or nothing. With the changes Fiora will lose more of a duelist than she will gain.
Last thing: The artwork. You need to change her face. Duelist are supposed to respect their opponents ("I löng för ä wörthy öppönent", as she states herself) and be calm in any situation, but her condescending and annoyed, almost angry, look doesn't fit that mentality.
From the bottom of my heart, i wish that these changes won't be implemented, since they change everything Fiora used to be.