Fiddlesticks and Volibear: Dev Update #1

Posted this over in the nexus section, but since that has it's own posting area placing my response here too --

Giving my feedback as a huge player of both these champs!:

On Fiddlesticks -

Back when Riot previewed the first set of concept arts I think one of the best ones by far was the scarecrow that has eyes inside it (the closest one being concept art C in the above image). That works really well in game for the "creep factor." You could have moments like where Fiddlesticks dead stops and freezes when your not moving, but then a single eye peeks out and looks around then closes again. Also, it hints about there being an entity inside the scarecrow, which could make for a really cool animation on fear by having the shred cloth momentarily open and the screams of his victims sound out. You never see get to see what's in there, but the champion does and it drives them away in fear. Little bit more worried about the kit direction seeing as there wasn't much information given here except ambushes are the focus. Fiddle has never been an assassin, keeping people close... but not too close has always been part of his game play. It's one of the reasons you might want to pick him (the crowd control, playing keep away with divers etc) other than crow storm.

On Volibear -

Funny thing is sounds like posts I've made about this champion in the past having suggested moving the lightning to a passive. However, let's start with the visuals. The lightning mane really works, the hulking shoulders work, having a few spears sticking out of him is cool. Also like the idea of having a skull for his head gear and plated armor (like bone plating?). The ones I don't feel work are changing him to be more of an elemental/demon. If you go that route stick more to the C version, because giving him a head of fire or tree bark doesn't quite look right and is not the Volibear we know even modernized. For the kit I suggested a long time ago making a deadman's plate mixed with statik shiv ability where he would become "energized" as he moves (also giving him synergy with the energized item line) allowing him to build up movement speed and deal damage when he connects, then lightning strikes for his first 3 attacks afterwards. Then as already stated in the article that leaves R open to do something fun with. I wouldn't change his Q, W, E though, I would just modernize those abilities to be more interesting and have better visuals. Volibears "chase and chomp" (I'm coining that term now!) is iconic at this point.

I wish I could help play test the champions! I've played both of them since season 4, with 246k mastery on Fiddle and 284k mastery on Voli. Excited for the reworks!

Honestly, Fiddlesticks old lore is short, but it captured a lot of what I like about him. I still keep the Institute one canon in my head to a degree. To Our End, and his Institute of War lore were both good. However, the Institute one always gets me, because it sheds nothing. Mysterious, terrifying, and malevolent, but with a purpose that can't be deciphered by any other creature. There's a taboo that has been breached and we don't know what, that brought something we named as Fiddlesticks into our domain from somewhere beyond human reckoning, that mages and beasts alike, fear.

And that really is the biggest thing about him, is fear. I don't think he can evoke the best amount of terror, if he is a byproduct or creation of something else because it implies he is lower on a hierarchy. That he is alone in his advent of horror is part of what creates that mystery around him, and that he is an anomaly, makes him uniquely terrifying because there is no way anyone else can know about him.

Imagine Swain trying to understand Fiddlesticks and failing, that even a demon cannot comprehend but feels a foreboding dread, wildly flailing about without rhyme or reason, because he is just so alien, so different from what exists that it is not even comprehensible. That Jax would hesitate because he has no idea how to even begin engaging such a foe, that the Void itself cannot take him, that Sylas trying to take Fiddlesticks power results in the shackles growing ice cold and burning his skin, that Rengar feels true fear on the prospect of jumping on what seems like an unassuming scarecrow from a distance, that Cho'Gath even avoids him out of natural instinct, that Illaois god begins to whisper of times long forgotten, that Lamb tells Wolf this is not a creature that can be taken, and Aatrox halts in his tracks to snarl and call Fiddlesticks an abomination that does not belong here, etc.

We fear the unknown, and Fiddle retaining that air of mystery and terror like the Institute lore, is what I think should be more closely looked at. As it is though, I'm glad Fiddlesticks and Volibear are being worked on and hope it's going well.