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Riot. About Fiora. What is her real role and how does her theme connect?

Noxian KitKat·11/13/2014, 1:21:48 AM·1 votes·1,049 views

So I've just looked at the latest PBE patch notes up on Surrender@20, and noticed they changed Fiora's ultimate damage.

Fiora

Blade Waltz (R) base damage lowered to 125/255/385 from 160/330/500
Blade Waltz (R) successive strikes against same target damage increased to 40% from 25%

    [Fun Fact: This means HIGHER single target damage but LOWER aoe damage.]

But something is bothering me here... Riot is wanting to bring characters more inline with the theme of a character, keeping them closer to how the character is portrayed. While this change makes lane phase killing a bit better as you do a small bit more damage to an opponent while ulting... it makes Fiora's later game team fight... weaker later on. The only way she actually DID AOE damage though, was through an item purchase of Ravenous Hydra. You're dictating her damage potential based upon a weapon... do I need to remind you about the Akali and Hextach Gunblade thing a few years back? This is just the reverse where you nerfed an item because of a single champion, so now you're nerfing a champion (Who has ZERO initial AOE damage) because of an item? Noting that the hydra + ult combo is one of her only contributions to a team fight before she's inevitable blown up for being so squishy innately.

Fiora is a duelist. An honorable melee fighter who should want to fight against the strongest opponent. She is the kind who despises dishonorable tactics, such as assassination... yet she's listed AS an assassin in her roles.(Read further down) I know this just because of how her kit is currently, she does a lot of burst damage, which is classified as an assassin. But the way she seems to be going seems to be even more so geared toward the assassin stereotype.

Characters that when you look at them, scream assassin:

Katarina Du Couteau Akali Zed Rengar Shaco Talon Evelynn etc

Now, I understand that Fiora's primary role is considered "Fighter" and the secondary is assassin... but lets see who else have that?

Pantheon Xin Zhao Jax VI All champs who are picked regularly, who can perform both roles very well.

And Fiora is in this weird... middle ground, where if she builds assassin she dies SO fast and to the point she'll do no damage unless she manages to get fed very early and doesn't make a single mistake. If she builds tanky... she does almost no damage, and is still pretty squish. And if you try to hybrid it well... it gets all kinds of weird.

So my question to Riot is, what is it you want to make Fiora into? How does her theme work with her kit? Her story? She's been one of my top 5 fav champs since her release... and I've seen her do good and bad... but she - for the most part - seems to be have been thrown to the way side.

I recall the kit changes you had posted for her at one point and I know that those were tossed out later on. What has been going on in the meantime? What is going on with her passive? That passive is very very bad... it's something that needs to be changed for the health of the champion. Health regen per 5 secs based on when she auto attacks. She'll take more damage in trying to get the passive up then actual use of it. That is the primary thing keeping the Demacian swordfighter down. She should be a FIGHTER as her supposed primary role says... not an assassin like her kit only allows.

What is your vision on Fiora, the Grand Duelist of Demacia, a woman seeking to restore honor and respect to her family name that has been besmirched by her now exiled father's cowardly tactics?

2 Comments

67chrome11/13/2014, 3:11:24 AM1 votes

She should be a FIGHTER as her supposed primary role says... not an assassin like her kit only allows.

Being capable of obliterating a target instantly isn't dishonorable in itself. Samurai perfecting a swing that can cleave a man in two in the blink of an eye, knights angling their blades at the weak point in armor, cowboys aiming a gun at their opponents heart, a Barbarian unleashing a mighty swing that decapitates his foe - glorious and practicle. None of that is under-handed. Most weapons in RL are basically 1-hit kills.

Underhanded stuff is more like shooting an opponent in their back with a poisoned arrow from stealth while they're running away. Fiora doesn't inflict any debuffs, forms of CC, and is pretty much incapable of escaping.

Untargetability is a little sketch, but otherwise her capacity to crit someone in the face isn't out of character. Also important to keep in mind "assassin" is more of a guideline to the general play-style of a character that a set-in-stone rule. Riot could have easily called that archetype "melee carry", "duelist", or "renegade" and it wouldn't have much of a difference.

As for Fiora's roll - her aesthetics and weapon of choice dictate she's pretty much going to be an assassin. She's an agile character with flowing scarf dallies, a thin and precise weapon that favors rapid and skilled uses over neanderthal bashing, and she's wearing what's essentially a catsuit.

That's all high-damage, low defense, with a big focus on speed and skill over bulk and strength.

Readability and clarity in character play-style is pretty massive. Otherwise you confuse new players and irritate a lot of people who've bothered to figure out the mechanics.

The fighter class could more aptly be called "Barbarian", because a barbarian in most games is exactly what the fighter roll is in LoL. Tanks that can deal damage, or in some cases assassins that are fairly tanky.

Fiora has no tank aesthetic going for her at all. It doesn't make sense for her to be on the front lines for extended periods of time, it only makes sense for her to be in opponent's faces in situations she can duel them or isolate them in a fight to duel them, which is precisely what the assassin archetype does. That's their win condition with team-fights, and as a Grand Duelist - it makes sense Fiora would want to go for that play style.

She's not wielding a great-sword ment to cleave spear formations like Garen. She doesn't have a massive shield to lead the charge like Leona, Braum, or Singed. She doesn't have the girth of Jax, Renekton, or Udyr. She doesn't have the heavy armor of Irelia or Darius, or the oversized brute-force weapons of Riven or Trundle.

Fiora's aesthetic shows she's using a fighting style similar to what Yasou, Master Yi, Talon, or Akali is going to be focusing on - pushing an increadibly sharp object at the right angle in someone, over dropping an enormous object on an opponent repeatedly and hoping for the best.

So - Fiora is an assassin, and Riot moving her to be an assassin meets with her aesthetic very well.

Also, Fiora has about 90% of what an assassin needs to function properly at the moment kit-wise, and only about 40% of what a fighter needs. Fiora would need to go through some massive changes to really be a fighter like Jax, where she only needs some minor tweaks to be an assassin like Akali.

UltraRapidFiora11/13/2014, 4:21:16 AM1 votes

I want to be able to go U.R.F on people.