Crowstorm Cooldown Refund
Fiddlesticks is a beautiful example of a well-designed champion. His kit may lack modern glitter like three-proc passives or %-health damage, but despite his simple abilities there's a lot of room for complex play for his experienced devotees. His immense damage potential is balanced by the trove of options enemy teams have when it comes to counterplay. A well-timed QSS/Crucible active, proper warding of well-known crowstorm spots, Grievous Wounds, or even the slightest of CCs during his channels can absolutely wreck him.
As a regular Fiddle player in all possible roles I've come to understand how crucial landing good Crowstorms is. With an extremely high cooldown at all ranks however, (150/140/130) misplaying the Ult is incredibly unforgiving. This is understandable considering the sheer DPS Crowstorm brings to skirmishes. However, while it is good to reward the opposing team for crashing Fiddlesticks's party pre-emptively, this long cooldown cripples Fiddlestick for the next two minutes. It is already very easy to deny Fiddle blue buff control, the only access to CDR he can muster prior to finishing his Zhonyas core ever since Magus was deleted. (Unless you opt to purchase runeglaive, which is grimly subpar on the scarecrow)
With how mobile and cc-loaded all his competing junglers are lately, (Rek'Sai Unburrow strongly comes to mind) a bit of leniency when it comes to having the channel interrupted should be considered.** I feel a moderate cooldown refund on interrupted Crowstorm channels would be perfect. **
Let's take a look at two other channeled abilities that DO have cooldown refunds. First, remember Sion's Q ability:
It's an integral part of his kit that requires precise risk-reward timing and is very easily interrupted. When the big man gets displaced or stunned, the skill cooldown (10/9/8/7/6) gets refunded down to two seconds. A base skill like Decimating Smash and an Ultimate like Crowstorm obviously can't be compared too relatively, however there's a clear, recent precedence for cooldown refunding on channels.
Next, consider Pantheon's Ultimate:
A few readers may not know that Grand Skyfall (150/135/120) can be cancelled willingly before Pantheon jumps in the air. This places the skill on a refunded 10-second cooldown. Lesser-known is the caveat that the same rule applies even when the channel is interrupted unwillingly by crowd control from the other team.
This is a fair addition, considering it's so central to Pantheon's engage pattern and keeps him relevant in mid-late game. This is also a more palatable comparison to Crowstorm, since it's such a long-cooldown, high mobility spell on a (relatively) low mobility champion.
An immense part of the thrill of playing Fiddlesticks is knowing that once you press that R button, there's absolutely no turning back. The crumbling disappointment of getting disabled right before that is both part of the experience and ample punishment for not erasing enemy vision. The immense cooldown Fiddle faces after being stunted is brutal though, especially compared to the base cooldowns of more modern Mobility+AOE magic Ultimates with similar timing constraints e.g. Ekko's Chronobreak. (110/90/70)
In conclusion, considering how simple it is for any coordinated team to shut down Fiddlesticks, giving him a moderate cooldown refund (perhaps half of his current-level CD) would go a long way in helping a behind Fiddle stay relevant in consecutive teamfights throughout the early-mid game.
