Professional Fiddle Redesign Thoughts
I believe in an intense audio upgrade for this champion, I would say this should be fundamental to the rework.
Nightmarish theme,maybe there should be a second voice over first of all that responses to the panic that Fiddlesticks releases. Although, this does not have to be champion specific it(resource extensive). Just general citizen male/female (if desired two for each population Noxian/Demacia/..etc probably, or at least male and female victim voices.
Passive: Stacking dread, the dread that a nightmare will occur. All abilities and attacks stack dread, once the dread stacks reach a certain stack on the target that target gets feared(or silence or the effect that is most correct). Or the stack may be consumed by fiddlestick’s abilities, creating an ability specific nightmare( for those of you involved with the new Faithful weapon, I am sure growing complexity won't be too bad...) ;)
Dread 3-5 stacks required to be consumed for a nightmare event. I think experimenting with 2 stacks would be fun(I like faster paced champions), but again balance balance balance. How often can a target experience a nightmare? Fiddlesticks could go nightmare on Elm street style and focus on spreading the dread(especially with the ultimate), although the balance of the nightmare to dread stack ratio seems to be leaning already to low reward for quick stacks or high reward for larger stacks, basically, should it take a low amount of dread stacks before a nightmare to occur or a low number of dread stacks? I do believe in fast champions and think applying a larger number of dread stacks, through life drain ticks, terrify ticks, dark wind hits, ultimate ticks,and basic attack hits would be fast enough to catch up to a 5 dread stack limit, then consuming those stacks with qwe abilities.
Or we could event random nightmares that occur once enough dread is added to a target. In this case, the player would not be afforded the luxury of choosing the nightmare for the victim, I mean haunting is haunting right? But the player may become use to the randomness of the nightmares. I believe this randomness would feel like Fiddlesticks ulting into a massive amount of enemies, always hoping for a good nightmare... just like a good ultimate.
Here are some examples of a final nightmare occurring after consuming the dread stacks.
These are ‘nightmares’ unleashed by the ability, not the ability themselves. We could use any qwer (redesigned ones) to trigger these types of nightmares.
Q: Terrify, the fear is triggered with a loud scream(Halloweenish?) This fear deals burst true damage. Fear duration is the same and true damage scales with ap. Or just a broader line long *** fear. Depending on what stacking dread feels like?
E: Dark Wind, If crows trigger the final nightmare stack. Applies a bunch of evil demonic twisted crows that shadow around the target quickly, transmitting the chaos of a terrible crow nightmare. The effect is a DOT that persists with the animation.
W: If Life Drain consumes a full stack of dread, then the nightmare could produce a fiddlesticks transform, during the drain animation, Fiddlesticks takes nightmarish(Yorick wraith inspired) form. The effect, life drain's duration is cut in half, but applies the same damage and obtains the same amount of life, maybe adjust the cooldown(although dangerous tuning is likely to occur here). Alternatively, this could instead become an instant that consumes all dread stacks within the area of the target being drained, adding damage in aoe and a certain percentage to the life drained, but the target would still be normally drained.This idea would be specific to the idea that Crowstorm the ultimate would be applying dread stacks within an area. Revisiting the nightmare life drain activation: This transformation could be as simple as an increased life drain power or refreshed cool downs(or cool downs reduce) again aiming for a fast pace champion, there is a lot of fun that goes with the speed of a champion. Or the transformation could spread dread stacks as an aura like the ultimate but without the damage that the ultimate would generate, this effect could occur for a few seconds, while fiddlesticks is transformed. I know that Fiddlesticks came up in the Cho’gath era. And it would be cool to see Fiddlesticks have a transformation that is maintained by life drain, maybe as long as fiddlesticks has 75% or above hp he is transformed and applies dread stacks in an area(aura) around him. Or all his abilities gain some type of bonus.
R: CrowStorm would not consume the dread stacks? but add the stacks on everything. If crowstorm applies all the stacks without consuming the stacks, then dark wind would be the best spell to cast, although if the use of a Fiddlesticks spell was a trigger rather the enemy selected, then the crowstorm would be more involved with the entire kit. Again kinda like Yoricks Q(raise the ghouls) but instead of working on graves, it works on targets with growing dread of having a nightmare. For example, q terrifies one enemy selected and would consume the dread on one enemy select, or the kit could be if a target or targets have full dread then fiddle can just trigger the terrify and it would work on all marked enemies. I warrant away from the mass ability spread although fun, might get a lot like auto fire and not skill fire.
Q: Terrify, keep the same, of course buff it up animation like. Strongly love this spell. If I could change it.... I don't think I could or would, but...
Terrify, true damage instant shot, the terrified victim can have one stack of dread, before triggering a nightmare instead of the initial 2-5 stacks(whatever we agree on) for a short period of time, this would make the target take vulnerable to every nightmare very quickly if Fiddlesticks is ulting. Making the ultimate focus a single target(in a traditional Fiddlesticks fashion) and also applying damage to the other enemies as well.
W: Life Drain, this would apply one stack of dread. Life drain would apply a dread stack every tick or two ticks of the drain? You could cancel your drain right before the final dread stack is added (fancy ??? right?), the early life drain cancel could provide the summoner with the benefit of using another ability to trigger the final nightmare, maybe you stack the DOT from Darkwind with Ignite, or you use Terrify to deal a final burst of true damage if the target is tanky or a long fear if that mechanic is favored instead.
E: Dark wind, I would keep this the same(bouncy), but apply an on hit dread stack Each time the nightmare spreads the on-hit effects from the passive. think the bouncy crows can trigger a voice, "Why?!? Why wont they leave me alone." The crow bouncy although slightly less icon, in regards to the life drain, still a defining and impressive poke that should not be ignored, during the rework. Amazing ability and I would keep this in the game.
If I changed this ability, I would change the dark wind as a scythe ability, each attack grows darker and scarier until a growing effect is reached, once the scythe has unleashed enough dark wind the scythe can release a charged up nightmare wind that consumes the dread stacks and bounces like the old skill. Or instead of bouncing the nightmare wind strikes with a horrible crow shadow wind, in a front cone. This final strike would occur after 3+ dark wind attacks. Think of Dark Wind as a toggle ability that works only for 3 strikes then does the front cone, the final front cone triggers the consumption of the dread stacks. Then dark wind goes on cooldown. The final cone strike could apply silence or a small fear when the dread stacks are consumed.
R: CrowStorm maybe renamed to Nightmare of Crows, I think would be fun to add to the scythe/scythes and increase attack speed and apply random nightmares, having each ability ignore the dread stacks and apply on hit nightmares instead of the dread stacks.
R: CrowStorm great the way it is. I do believe in making it apply dread stacks to every champion though.
Overall, I think a dread passive stacking, a dread stack consumption mechanism, and a focus on nightmares,scythes, and transformation would be a great direction for this champion.
Much Love, Renko
