Fiddlesticks Rework Concept: Are you afraid?
Feb 2 morning edit: Gave him a new Q with his scythe, clarified W a bit, and updated passive to have less fear duration, but capable of fearing multiple targets. Updated thoughts at the end.
Fiddlesticks does not capitalize on his theme well. He's an old champ, so this is expected, but there's real opportunity to showcase some spooky scarecrow mechanics that I think would be really interesting in the modern League environment.
To me, the scariest thing about the "murder scarecrow" archetype is that you don't know if it's a regular, inanimate scarecrow or a bloodthirsty, stabby scarecrow until it's too late. This concept replaces Fiddles Q, the most uninspired point n' click skill in the game, with Scarecrows that Fiddlesticks uses to scout and to attack his opponents.
In a successful implementation, interacting with Fiddlesticks' scarecrows should be a compelling risk/reward calculation for the opponent. If Fiddles is close-by, approaching them should be a risky proposition. If he isn't, the enemy should capitalize on that and destroy them while they have the chance.
Passive- Terrify After being unseen for at least 3 seconds, Fiddlesticks' next damaging ability fears enemy champions damaged by that ability for (.5/1/1.5, scales with R rank) seconds.
Q- Soul Reap Fiddlesticks summons a spectral scythe in a cone towards the cursor to reap the souls of his enemies. Fiddlesticks deals magic damage (AP scaling) to enemies hit and recovers health for every enemy champion hit (scales with lvl and maybe AP). If Fiddlesticks successfully hits an enemy with this ability, 50% of the cooldown is refunded.
Scarecrows also summon their own scythes directed at the cursor, but these scythes do not damage minions or monsters, only enemy champions (do not refund cooldown)
W- Scarecrow Fiddlesticks erects an inanimate replica of himself after channeling on a location within 200 units for 2 seconds. He may place (1/2/3/4/5) scarecrows that each have 3 health (similar to ward health, autos only), are fully visible to enemies, and reveal a small patch of vision around them (less than wards; similar to Teemo shroom range?).
If Fiddlesticks remains motionless for 3 seconds, he can cast W on a Scarecrow within 3000 range to switch places with it.
E- Dark Wind Unleashes a Crow at the targeted enemy, dealing magic damage (AP scaling) before bouncing to another target. Dark Wind can strike up to 6 times and will prioritize enemies it has not yet hit. Crows can bounce off Scarecrows. Deals 150% damage to minions and monsters.
R- Crowstorm Fiddlesticks channels for 1.5 seconds, then blinks to the target point unleashing a murder of crows that flock wildly around him, dealing magic damage (AP scaling) per second to all enemy units in the area. The effect lasts for 5 seconds. While Crowstorm is active, Scarecrows inside the area do not take damage from being attacked.
I did not include [many] numbers intentionally on this. I'm more interested in critique of the design itself than I am with the minutia of balance. One thing you might miss in this kit on your first read is that I removed the silence on Dark Wind.
The most important idea here is that Fiddlesticks is rewarded to playing intelligently around Scarecrows, but his opponent has some opportunity to play around them, as well. They are mostly useful as limited vision; not much offensive capability with them. I hope that's enough to keep them balanced, but having that much vision might spell trouble, too (though it seems to be okay with Teemo, maybe it's fine).
Feel free to tear into this; I only spent about an hour on it and I'm mostly interested in the discussion that comes out of it. I don't have any attachments to any particular part of this kit. I just wanted to see if I could incorporate scarecrows into his kit in a way that resonated with people.
**Feb 2 morning edit: I think the new Q suits him better thematically and preserves the feeling of drain without requiring Fiddles to be motionless. Enemies should be rewarded for dodging the Q, so I added a refund mechanic to CD that allows Fiddles to use it frequently if he's hitting, but less frequently if he ever misses (I know I didn't specify a CD for it, but I imagine it as 6-10 seconds without the refund).
New passive allows him to fear more people, but for a smaller duration. This might allow Fiddles to have better big moments that he can facilitate himself, though I suspect that allowing a fear on ult will require a reduction in damage from live to be balanced (and I think that's fine).**
