Fiddlesticks Rework Idea
I don't know if I'd declare myself a hardcore Fiddlesticks main, but I am Rank 7 with him, and 65k points. I'm sure Riot already has plans for the guys abilities but I wanted to take a crack at creating a Fiddlesticks that can actually function in todays meta. I'd love any criticism of the abilities, and obviously all numbers would be up to Riot, they are just what I thought would be good amounts currently. If anything else I had fun trying to come up with effective ways to change fiddle boi!
Abilities:
[Passive] Visions of Dread
Every 180-90 (based on level) seconds, Fiddlesticks reveals enemy wards around him when getting near one (and for the next 4 seconds), and his next basic attack within 4 seconds of seeing a ward destroys it immediately, killing a ward in this way gives him 5 Ability Power.
Whenever Fiddlesticks destroys an enemy ward or remains in a bush for 5 seconds without moving, a vision of Fiddlesticks is placed in that location. This vision constantly channels a fake version of Fiddlesticks Ultimate ability*,* as long as Fiddlesticks is at least level 6 otherwise it stands still. The channel times down only when the vision is seen by an enemy or when an enemy gets too close to it (vision or not) and prioritizes casting the ultimate in that person’s direction. Any basic attack or ability that hits this vision destroys it immediately, and the vision does no actual damage. If it does manage to finish the channel, it will follow the enemy that triggered it for the next 4.5 seconds. Visions last for 60-140 (based on level) seconds or 6 seconds total after being found. Fiddlesticks can have an unlimited number of visions spawned via ward kills but only 1 at a time from standing still in brush.
[Q] Terrify
Immediately fear a targeted enemy for 1.5 seconds, and all enemies 75/125/175/225/275 units around it for 0.75 seconds – regardless, all enemies hit take 65/75/85/95/105 (+30% AP) magic damage. Marks the initial target with Encroaching Doom for 3 seconds, causing it to be a priority target of Dark Wind and if it is a monster, take 50-180 (based on level) damage per second.
[W] Draining Spell
Lob a cursed globule of shadow at a target location, it lands within 0.1-0.25 seconds based on distance from Fiddlesticks. Enemies hit by the globule take 120/180/240/280/340 (+90% AP) damage over 6 seconds, and non Draining Spell damage from Fiddlesticks' basic attacks or spells heal Fiddlesticks for 20 (+5% AP) each time it hits affected target(s). This heal is 25% effective when this activates via damage to minions, 100% effectiveness against normal and large monsters, and 200% effectiveness against Epic Monsters.
[E] Dark Wind
Tosses a shadow crow in a straight line, dealing 100/140/180/220/260 (+50% AP) damage to the first target struck and silencing them for 1 second. The crow will then bounce from that enemy to the nearest enemy, dealing 25/35/45/55/65 (+20% AP) damage to them. The crow will always prioritize enemies with Encroaching Doom. Any time the crow hits a target that has already been hit, the crow deals an additional 25/35/45/55/65 (+20% AP) to that target and all targets within 75 units of it. Enemies hit by the actual bounces also lose 1/1/2/2/3 Magic Resist for 25 seconds, stacking up to 10 times. This Magic Resist reduction is 100% more effective on Monsters, and 200% more effective on Epic Monsters.
[R] Crowstorm
After channeling for 1.5 seconds, Fiddlesticks blinks to the target location with a murder of crows flying wildly around him for 5 seconds, dealing magic damage to nearby enemies each second. Total damage: 625 / 1125 / 1625 (+ 225% AP) damage over the duration of 5 seconds around him. Additionally, after Blinking the Magic Resist shred potential of Dark Wind is increased by 200%/300%/400% for 5 seconds.
Breakdown/Thought Process (skip if you don't care why):
Seeing that Riot’s intention for this remake is constant fear of enemies that Fiddlesticks even exists on the enemy team: This new passive Ive thought of constantly keeps enemies on their toes, and can get them to waste valuable resources and cooldowns in fear of Fiddlesticks' new visions. If you played Doombots, this is Fiddlesticks in that gamemode (although this passive does no damage as that'd be broken). I think one of Fiddlesticks' main issues now is that an AP version of Umbral Glaive doesn't exist and being seen by wards is so much worse for him than any other champion. I thinks its also unique, something his current passive lacks. If its too strong it can limited in numbers of visions, time, or anything else honestly.
Fear is now AoE. The reason for this is being able to normalize the fear duration and not make it increase in duration via skill ranks. This was always an issue for Fiddle as he had to sacrifice huge chunks of his damage for a halfway decent CC time (basically why Supp fiddle can do okay but no other Fiddle can), since tenacity is so easy to get via runes. Now, leveling it will make the aoe larger – something not all too useful early but definitely good enough late game to not make it feel useless to level. Also, this idea of Fiddlesticks removed AoE silence potential, so being able to fear incorrectly grouped up enemies is an offset to that.
Draining spell is also a new ability, I felt old Drain just doesn't cut it in this crazy damage meta – I mean while scarecrow enough, fiddlesticks design theme is veering away from scarecrow and more doomy design from what I gather from the artwork. As a result, I don’t think Drain fits anymore in either aspect. Similarly, drain has been an issue for fiddle for a while as this new era of highly mobile champions and massive damage makes Fiddlesticks way too inefficient to stand still for nearly all his damage and sustain. Now, draining spell will DoT up the targets hit, causing each tick of damage from his ult and crow hits to heal when they hit them. This makes the heal weaker than drain normally, but stronger in teamfights and gives lane fiddlesticks a chance to waveclear, if that becomes a thing, and jungle fiddlesticks faster and more efficient waveclear in an AoE fashion. Just as well, Support fiddlesticks will need to aim so it doesn’t hit minions same as Morgana does with her W (or I guess not care and steal it anyway).
Finally, I changed the crow as well. Giving Fiddlesticks a degree of counterplay by making it possible to dodge the crow instead of being point and click and also making bounces overall weaker. It also will not silence every enemy and deal pretty low damage to targets beyond the first. While I did enjoy constantly throwing crows down the lane, it was pretty bad in terms of gameplay and boring for the player and unfair for their enemies. The crow now will deal pretty bad damage if you just throw it at a minion first, but still pretty good damage when you effectively make the raven bounce between just 2 or 3 champions and now it will prefer your feared target basically the same mechanic as the current Drain-E combo but lets Fiddlesticks move around and reposition while the bounces are happening. Also because it lost its AoE silence, which is pretty big, I added a magic resist shred, its small but lasts a long time, meaning the longer Fiddle lanes against you (Support or Solo lane) the more damage you'll be taking and you can really feel the terror closing in around you. I propose it to have a matching dark shadow effect around affected enemies that gets more profound the more stacks they acquire.
Overall this is the damage combo without ultimate at like level 3: [Q 65 +30% ] + [W full 120 + 90%] [E perfect 225 + 150%] = 410 + 270%
Compare to the above to the current (perfect world) damage at level 3: [Q 0] + [W full 400 + 225%] + [E perfect 180 + 135%] = 580 + 360%
So as a final note, while this new version Fiddlesticks does less damage on paper, far less damage is required via a full duration of W channel, thus making Rework Fiddle's damage lower but more reliable since Current Fiddle barely ever finishes a full Drain and honestly typically would have to die trying so I think the tradeoff is good and fair for his enemies as two of the three abilities can be dodged. Plusthe reworked Dark Wind adds magic resist shred back into the kit that he needs - but again all numbers are easy to adjust up or down if needs be.
TL;DR: This gives some counterplay to the old point and click Fiddlesticks, makes his teamfight potential horrifying, and gives him a spoopy new passive.
**Note: I expressly kept fiddle's Q and R basically the same because that's what the developer comments for him were. I don't know if I'd change them otherwise, but honestly I think they are good as they are too.
***Fun Idea: I believe Swain (new lore) and Fiddlesticks (new lore) are related, the doom Swain foresaw being the doom Fiddlesticks will inevitably bring. It would be cool to have an in-game quest like many other adversaries have at X level, tons of ravens and crows fight eachother in the background until the quest is over. Four "doom portals" open on the map, one in each quadrant of the jungle. Swain must attempt to close them (right click) and Fiddle activate them. They may open/close portals despite what the adversary has done. The winner gets 25 AP and once finished Swain and his allies gains +25 units to their normal vision radius, and +10 vision units to any wards Swain puts down for the rest of the game. Fiddlesticks causes all enemies to lose 25 units of vision and then +10 vision units to any wards Fiddlesticks puts down for the rest of the game. Again not really pushing this, just thought itd be a fun quirky addition of a quest in game that can help support version of these two champs!
