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My Thoughts on Fiddlesticks, The Demon Scarecrow

DarkSoul1994··2 votes·723 views

Let's face it, Fiddlesticks should have been reworked years ago - Demon Scarecrow translates incredibly well into a Champion kit.

##My Thoughts & Suggestions on Fiddlesticks' Current Abilities/Champion Identity (I'll try to break this down like I'd expect a Rioter to)

Terrify (Q)

  • You cannot have Ranged CC this powerful and make it a point-and-click.
  • Terrify in its current state actually takes up a lot of Fiddlesticks' power budget.
  • The fear could honestly stay if Riot could come up with a better way to apply it that that has more counterplay.

Drain

  • Drain should not be core to Fiddlesticks' gameplay.
  • It is legacy content.
  • It is a relic from a game that no longer exists. There are more than 5 champions that can clear the Jungle and a billion more champions with Hard CC that can make this Ability worthless. It's not 2011 anymore.
  • Fiddlesticks should be some unstoppable, Spooky f*cker fearing people and hurling Crows at them in the thick of a fight.
  • He should not be 100% reliant on Drain to clear his Jungle.
  • Drain to Fiddlesticks should be what Spiderlings are to Elise - a nice little heal and a touch of extra damage.
  • It should not not root him and stop him from using Basic Attacks - ideally Drain would become his Passive or a Passive component of another ability.

Dark Wind

  • Pretty much all that's good about this ability is that you get to hurl crows.
  • The fact that it's a point-and-click silence has always seemed pretty unhealthy but at least it's a projectile so the handful of champions with untargetability or Braum/Yasuo wall have a chance at making it fizzle.
  • As a side note, why don't spellshields make this ability fizzle instead of bouncing to teammates?

Crowstorm

  • I'd actually like to see the channel removed and the blink removed. That part of the ability just makes me think 'what if Zac was a D-Tier Jungler that could get 1-shot'.
  • Maybe increase the ability duration, give him some MS and just let him hoon at the enemy with a literal Crow Storm.

##Summary

I really think Fiddlesticks could be a champion worth picking if he was reworked into a Modern Battle Mage (think Swain crossed with Fiddlesticks). I think his Q and E being unconditional point-and-clicks takes up way too much of Fiddlesticks' power budget. I think that having his Passive, W and R revolving around him standing still is incredibly boring and requires very little interaction. Thematically, I think he should have more crows (think about the Twist of Fate Cinematic Trailer when TF gets swarmed by Crows) and I would really like to see Drain become an auxiliary, passive ability on another ability rather than what his entire Jungle clear revolves around.

6 Comments

DarkSoul19941 votes

Does bumping thread work on these forums?

Friendly Ram1 votes

Nope. /S

I still like middlesticks but could see fiddle getting some ability changes.

DarkSoul19941 votes

I think it could be really cool if Riot took what's iconic about him and implemented into a Battle Mage Kit that could function well in the modern game.

Let's use Warwick as a case study. He had 2 Major Gameplay Hooks, and 1 Thematic Hook.

  1. Hungering Strike (Old Q) + Eternal Thirst - These abilities made Warwick one of the first 'Drain Tanks' in the game. They were also difficult to balance because any changes that Riot made to them could only be direct buffs or nerfs because they had no conditions that could be changed.
  2. Infinite Duress (Old R) - This was and is Warwick's ultimate ability (and I mean that both literally and figuratively). However, just like Fiddlesticks' Terrify (Q) having an unconditional, point-and-click hard CC is both incredibly toxic design, and it takes up a lot of the champion's power budget.
  3. Blood Scent (Old E) - Blood Scent was a really cool theme for Warwick that made him distinctly a hunter.

Post-rework, all of his abilities still exist to some extent - in fact, Warwick's skill ceiling (and therefore potential strength) is now much, much higher than it used to be. By giving more counterplay to Infinite Duress (R) and adding conditions to most of his Primary Abilities, Riot actually managed to free-up a lot of his power budget and make his kit as a whole much more effective.

By adding conditions to Eternal Hunger (P), Warwick can now potentially heal for a LOT more than Old Warwick. By adding a condition to Blood Hunt and making the Active component of the ability single-target, Riot was effectively able to combine Hunter's Call (Old W) and Blood Scent (Old E) into one ability. Finally, by giving Infinite Duress (R) counterplay, the Utility of being able to follow a Champion's Dash/Blink with Jaws of the Beast (Q) was added making him a hunter to be truly feared.

Jmman1 votes

It does but people only seems to post on fiddle if they want to nerf him. Or keep him from getting buffs.

No one wants to talk about him because only a handful of people actually play him. Look at all the threads because they nerfed middle. Everyone that played Fiddle told Riot this would destroy mid and not really address fiddle issues in the jungle. Everyone saying how great it was had less than 10 games totally played on him.

I agree with the issues you have posted. One thing I have found is he fear has a delay or travel time. I have test and test this. You can cast your animation from about .5 secs after the fear "hits" and makes the noise and still get it off.

Sights don't list fiddle as mid anymore and I can't find a same number for win rate in the jungle now. It list from 48% to 49.7%. Mid went from 53% to 50% and still dropping. Support went up .5% I believe.

They just have no idea what to do with him and they can only remake AD champs. AP champs are always way way to strong or trash tier. there seems to be no middle ground with them.

DarkSoul19941 votes

I feel like Fiddlesticks and Shaco are the two MOST unhealthy Junglers in the game (and when I say unhealthy I mean that that they aren't allowed to become viable, and when they have been they've been the most toxic champs in the game).

Like, best-case scenario you get a handful of one-tricks (who you rarely encounter) that remind you why Riot has left them weak for the last 6 years.

Jmman1 votes

True but in part since people don't see them they don't know how to play against them. So that adds to people complain about them.

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