Fiora, the NEW Grand Duelist

Fiora, the NEW Grand Duelist

Before I begin, I'd like to say that this is probably my favorite rework idea of all the rework ideas I've ever done. I think what Fiora needs are really small changes geared at the most frustrating parts of her kit, and not a completely re-design. After all, I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels that Fiora's ultimate is one of the biggest reasons why Fiora is fun to play. I mean she can fly around a teamfight with a B.F. sword being a B.F. boss, who doesn't like that?

Duelist (Passive): When Fiora lunges at an enemy champion; she initiates a duel with that champion for eight seconds. Each basic attack blocked or landed during a duel refreshes the duel’s duration to eight seconds and increases Fiora’s armor penetration and blade waltz damage by 1%, stacking up to 100%. If a duel ends, Fiora cannot initiate another duel for 61 - 2 *(Fiora’s level) seconds.

*-Notes: Fiora is a duelist, and should have a passive that suits her to a T. This passive ensures that Fiora displays all the qualities a grand duelist should display, granting Fiora bonus armor penetration and power on her ultimate on the condition that she constantly remains in combat against her duel opponent. This means that a fighter/DPS tank-style build will supplement Fiora and benefit her more greatly than a glass cannon build will, because Fiora will gain more power the longer she’s in a duel with her target. Over the course of a teamfight, if Fiora can remain in combat and continue a duel with her chosen target (tanks, for example, are prime targets for a duel), she’ll only become stronger and stronger. In lane, she can abuse the power of this passive by weaving in and out of combat with her lunge ability before unleashing her powerful ultimate, Blade Waltz. *

Lunge (Q) -Fiora lunges at her opponent. Fiora cannot be stopped during her lunge and takes 30% reduced damage while lunging. Fiora can lunge again within 5 seconds of her first lunge (costs mana).

Cooldown: 20/18/16/14/12 seconds (Cooldown starts upon using first lunge) Range: 600 Cost: 40 mana Magic damage (per lunge): 35/50/65/80/95 + 0.6 bonus AD

-Notes: Fiora should deal a mix of damage as a duel oriented fighter, so her abilities should reflect such. Her lunge ability deals magic damage, but scales on her bonus attack damage and even reduces damage taken if timed properly. Its cooldown starts immediately rather than when she uses lunge the second time to give Fiora more of an incentive to save Lunge during those 5 seconds and time it to decrease the damage of a champion’s spell or attack (or in some low-mana situations, not to use it again at all).

Riposte (W) -Fiora parries the next basic attack or single target spell to strike her within 1.5 seconds, negating all of its damage and added effects. Successfully parrying an attack halves riposte’s cooldown and and grants Fiora increased health regeneration and bonus physical damage on her abilities for four seconds.

Cooldown: 16/15/14/13/12 seconds Cost: 40 mana Physical damage bonus: 15/20/25/30/35 +0.2 bonus AD HP/5 bonus: 20/35/50/65/80

-Notes: Fiora shouldn’t struggle in any situation with this new riposte. In lanes against ranged opponents, Fiora can use this ability to increase her sustain and survivability. In lanes against melee opponents, she can use it to turn duels completely around (think blocking Udyr’s bear stance stun or Nasus’s Siphoning strike) with the increased physical damage to her abilities. The removal of added effects and blocking of single-target spells (Ryze, anyone?) gives Fiora’s riposte more reliability when it’s used successfully.

Triple Swing (E) -Fiora’s next three basic attacks within 4 seconds have increased attack speed and deal bonus magic damage on-hit. If Fiora lands all three attacks on the same target, the target is stunned and triple swing’s cooldown and cost are halved.

Cooldown: 18/16/14/12/10 seconds Cost: 75/80/85/90/95 mana Attack speed: 70/90/110/130/150% Bonus magic damage: 20/30/40/50/60 + 0.2 AP Stun duration: 1 second

*-Notes: Although some suggest a disengage mechanic to Fiora’s kit, I think preserving most of her current kit is more fair to the players who already love and play her right now. After all, disengage is a mechanic built-in to most assassin’s kits, and Fiora is a fighter to the death, not an assassin. Thus, triple swing comes in. It gives Fiora her much needed crowd control ability and teamfight contribution while carrying all the benefits of the old Burst of Speed. However, Fiora does have to land all three basic attacks within the time duration to reap the full benefits of this ability’s reset potential and power, giving breathing room and counterplay potential to any opponent skilled and wary enough to avoid, kite, or disable Fiora when her triple swing is activated. *

Blade Waltz -Fiora dashes around the battlefield to deal physical damage and apply on-hit effects to random enemy champions 5 times. Targets already struck once by Blade Waltz take 50% damage. The first and last attack will always strike the selected target. Fiora is untargetable and immune to damage and disables during blade waltz.

Range: 600 Cooldown: 160/150/140 seconds Cost: 100 mana Physical damage (per strike): 100/200/300 + 0.6 bonus AD

*-Notes: Fiora’s signature ability. I cannot stress enough how important it is for me personally to keep the mechanics of this ultimate alive, but it simply doesn’t fit in with Riot’s healthy champion design approach with the way it currently works. However, there is a way to keep Blade Waltz, and that is to introduce counterplay from a kit-centered balance approach. With Fiora’s passive change, Blade Waltz can have its base numbers nerfed without leaving Fiora players feeling completely underwhelmed. Previously, Fiora’s low counterplay rested in the ability of her ultimate to deal tons of damage with little say from her opponents’ part(s). Now, it still deals tons of damage – on the condition that she can remain in a duel with her selected target long enough to deal it. To top it all off, she won't be damaged while she's in her ultimate, so it's much more reliable (say good-bye to deaths from frustrating DoTs while you waltz). And she can be given these amazing reliability changes/buffs to her ultimate only because of the increased cooldown and counterplay potential. Happy times for both parties, so that everyone can party! Yay! *

Hope you liked my Fiora rework proposal. I put quite a bit of creativity and thought into it, with most of the rework centered on preserving Fiora’s current kit, but still making her feel like the grand duelist she should be – without being overwhelming for opponents.