[Champion Rework] - Fiora the Grand Duelist: Delivering the Fantasy of the Fencer.

Stokes52·12/5/2014, 9:23:28 PM·3 votes·744 views

Introduction

Hello everyone. Some of you may be aware that a few months ago, Riot communicated that Fiora was scheduled for an upcoming rework The rework has since been delayed, but is likely still scheduled for sometime in the future.

Here is a post talking about the rework if anyone is interested in the context:

http://www.surrenderat20.net/2014/04/red-post-collection-guinsoo-and-his.html

My goals for this post are to spark some discussion about the best way to rework Fiora, and propose my ideas. My absolute ideal would be to provide something in this post that brings some inspiration to Riot as they work on Fiora.

Riot’s Proposed Rework Goals

Riot has communicated that their goal with the rework is not to “nerf” or “buff” Fiora’s power, but rather to reshape Fiora to fit the “Fencer/Duelist” archetype. The goal of the rework is to make her “feel” like someone who is satisfying to play in a duel and who has plenty of room to outmaneuver and outperform their opponent. They have used the word “Light fighter” to describe their vision of what Fiora should be. Fiora as a duelist, should win not via brute strength like a bruiser, nor should she win via instantaneous burst, like an assassin, but via finesse, grace, and the proper balance of engage and counter engage, dancing in and out of combat, like a fencer. The description brings to mind mechanically intensive melee champions such as Riven or Yasuo. Neither of them can really be called a bruiser, nor can they be called an Assassin (Unless they are very fed).

Riot’s goals can be stated briefly as such:

Make Fiora’s kit fulfil the fantasy of the “light fighter” or fencer
Give Fiora a playstyle that is not just assassin and not just bruiser
Keep her relative power similar to what is currently live.

I’ll add my own goal of trying to accomplish the above while also making sure Fiora’s kit feels familiar to anyone who already plays and enjoys the current Fiora.

Bringing the Fencer Fantasy to Fiora

So how do we make Fiora fulfil the fantasy of the “light fighter” or fencer?

One need not be an expert at fencing to recognize that a large portion of fencing revolves around footwork and positioning yourself, reacting to your opponent, and timing your aggression well. If you watch fencers spar, they are constantly engaging, disengaging, and counter-engaging. The whole process is fluid and involves a lot of back and forth footwork. Movement is the primary thing one notices about fencers. More than anything, fencing looks like a dance.

You can break the feel of fencing down into the following attributes:

Fluid movement and repositioning while in combat
Plenty of engage and disengage (Lunge and thrust into parry and disengage)
Reacting to what your enemy does
Appears fluid and quick, like a dance
Ability to remain in a sustained fight via agility, rather than protection/armor)

These attributes can be further distilled down to two basic game mechanics:

Movement and mobility while in combat
Active defense, as opposed to passive defense. (Having extra health is passive defense. Using Sivir’s spell shield to block an ability is active defense).

Our rework of Fiora, then, should incorporate Fiora’s current attributes while also heavily emphasizing the two core attributes of the fencer: Agility while in combat and active defense. We also want to keep Fiora’s current weaknesses. She lacks crowd control and she lacks any out of combat movement. We want her to feel incredibly mobile in a fight, but still be vulnerable to ganks. We want Fiora to be less of an assassin, and more of a sustained fighter, which means increasing her mobility, active defense, and sustained dps, while lowering her immediate burst to compensate if needed. We want Fiora, the Grand Duelist to excel in 1v1 fights, but we also don’t want her to be completely useless in teamfights. We want to give Fiora an ultimate that is satisfying, feels skillful, feels powerful, and gives everyone in the game a “Wow” moment.

Our goals for a Fiora rework now look like this:

Make Fiora’s kit fulfil the fantasy of the “light fighter” or fencer
Mobility while in combat/immobility when not in combat
Powerful active defense (weak passive defense)
Powerful sustained single target damage
Primary damage from auto attacks
Limited, but respectable AoE or “teamfight” damage
Gap closer and ability to stick to a target without CC
Kit includes Iconic WOW moments

With these goals in mind, I have created a kit that I think hits all the points above and makes Fiora interesting in fun while also making sure that the kit will feel familiar to anyone who knows and loves Fiora as she is now.

Fiora’s New Kit

Passive - Duelist

Remains the same, but now interacts with her Q.

**Q - Lunge/Recovery **

Fiora stores a charge of En Garde every x seconds. She can store up to 2 charges.

Lunge - Fiora dashes forward to her target, consuming a charge of En Garde and dealing physical damage (600 Range). If Fiora damages an enemy (with auto-attacks or any of her spells), for 4 seconds, Lunge is replaced with Recovery.

Recovery - If cast on a champion it is the same as lunge. If cast on a target area: Fiora consumes a charge of En Garde and leaps to a target area, recovering a flat amount of health based on the number of Duelist stacks she currently has (400 Range).

This change to Fiora allows her to keep her iconic double Q lunge, but it also gives her conditional in-combat mobility, useful for trades or quick disengage while fighting. It also gives Fiora a meaningful choice. Do I use both Qs on my enemy for the extra damage, or do I save my Q to back off from the fight - safer, but ultimately I will do less damage.

This change to Q also mimics the iconic fighting style of the fencer, typified by a lunge forward attack which is then followed up either by a continuation of the attack or by a recovery back into the en garde position. Remember, one of the primary goals of the rework is to make Fiora feel like a fencer

Finally the change to Q gives her passive a way to remain relevant in situations where Fiora just wants to poke and duel rather than all in.

W - Parry

Fiora is granted a shield that lasts 1.5 seconds. While the shield persists, Fiora is rooted. The shield will block the next enemy spell or auto-attack. If the shield is broken by an enemy ability or auto-attack, she receives a charge of En Garde and Lunge is replaced with Recovery for 5 seconds.

Parry is the spell we want to use to give Fiora a rewarding active defense that allows her to brawl without just being tanky - the skill is very powerful, but only if you time it well. If you don’t time Parry well, you’re rooted without any reward, making you lose out on mobility and the ability to chase or run away. As an enemy, if you see a parry, you have the option to ignore it or burst the shield with an auto-attack. I see this skill being used in the same way that skilled Master Yi players cast W right before being hit by an ability to reduce its damage.

E - Burst of Speed

I honestly think that this spell is absolutely necessary for the healthy functioning of her kit. Since Fiora doesn’t have CC and she relies primarily on auto-attacks, she absolutely needs the move speed and attack speed from her E to deal damage because of the way auto-attack animations cancel movement. The move speed allows her to “catch up” with the enemy she is AA’ing. I could write at length about why this spell is good for Fiora’s kit, but I won’t. I think this spell is perfect as is.

R - Blade Waltz

Fiora becomes untargetable and dashes towards a target enemy, slashing them twice and applying on hit effects. After 0.5 seconds, Fiora can cast Blade Waltz again at no additional cost. The third and final cast of Blade Waltz is renamed Coup de Grâce and does increased damage. Damage is reduced for each cast on the same target. Blade Waltz goes on cooldown after all charges are expended or after 10 seconds.

My idea is instead of R doing all its damage at once and bouncing between targets randomly, the player instead has to control the bounces and is vulnerable between bounces. Her ultimate gives her a powerful conditional defense and gap closer. (Mobility and split second active defense: exactly what we want in our light fighter/fencer kit!). Perhaps most importantly, her ultimate allows Fiora to retain an exciting “WOW” moment when she casts her last charge of R. The first two charges of her ult will be primarily for utility and juking, while the very last charge of her ult will be the big wombo finisher that deals the most damage. Ideally, Coup de Grâce would have a unique animation or particle effect.

Overall, her ultimate should do far less damage than what is live now, but that decreased damage should more than be made up for by the increased utility (Three “dodge blinks” in a short time that the player must time correctly).

TL;DR

New kit focuses on adding mobility while in combat and the feel of a fencer while keeping her kit familiar to Fiora players.

Passive - Synergizes with new Q to give a little more sustain

Q - On a charge system like Akali’s R. Your first dash is the same, but your second dash you can use to escape

W - Blocks spells too, but also roots Fiora

E - Unchanged

R - Now on a three-cast system, like Ahri’s ult. First two casts are low damage “Dodges” Final cast is a high damage finisher.

Let me know what you think, and feel free to share your own ideas or criticisms.