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Fiddlesticks Scarecrow Update

Stacona·5/14/2019, 10:35:49 PM·1 votes·865 views

VERY EXPERIMENTAL CONCEPT POST!

I want to make something that feels like you are playing as a magical, fantasy, and spooky scarecrow that makes the enemy team afraid to get near him.

I want Fiddlesticks to be more engaging and fun to play as and more depth and skill expression to his gameplay. I also want to fix him to be less reliant on items to succeed, which also make him less feast since his famine is being toned back. The final point to keep in mind is making him healthier for the game overall and not have the feeling of helplessness when playing against him.

Fiddlesticks will be placed in a space of mage jungler and dedicated support as his two positions.

Helping him out in both areas, but for support side, fixing his auto-pushing ways with better control over Dark Wind bounces and no longer needing to deal damage (to minions) in order to heal himself, plus just giving him an additional support ability if he so chooses.

For jungle Fiddlesticks, the better control with Dark Wind bounces makes it easier for multi-monster camp clears. In terms of his ganks, he has no mobility on his abilities whatsoever, but better base movement speed for roaming the map and his fear has some trade-offs and benefit changes. His fear now has a delay to it, which slightly hurts Fiddlesticks and aids in his counterplay, but this allows for multiple buffs to the spell where it can become an area fear, more cast range to it, slightly longer duration, and have the fear based on away from an object rather than Fiddlesticks (so he can fear enemies toward him for kill potential) and add in a new utility option to scout out areas with an object granting vision around it.

Having more cast range and able to fear enemies toward you will help out Fiddle ganks a ton, and no longer makes him ultimate reliant to gank. By adding in the delay also helps with not only the fear's fairness going against it, but grants proper synergy with his silence because if you can land your silence on your target then you prevent their Flash which helps you land your fear and your fear helps land Dark Wind bounces by keeping them in the area for longer.

Of course all of your crowd control is around to help land your bread and butter ability of your ultimate, Crowstorm. Which is now a channel increased to 3 seconds from 1.5 seconds and begins immediately as a wide and long range skill shot in a direction rather than around Fiddlesticks, lasts for as long as Fiddle is channeling in place. By removing the blink on it makes it where Fiddlesticks is no longer required to build Hourglass just to use his ultimate since he can now use it in the position of an immobile range mage, making Fiddlesticks less item reliant and just needing to build ability power, cooldown reduction, and mana instead of hourglass, AP, health, armour, MR, CDR, and mana! You know, more of a normal mage build.

Attack Range: 575 units Attack Speed: 0.644 +4% per level Attack Damage: High to Average Movement: 340 units per second

Tasteful Terror (Passive):

Range: 650 units

When nearby enemies are under crowd control, Fiddlesticks heals for 2(+2%AP) health per second for every enemy affected, increased to 10(+10%AP) health per second for enemy champions and large monsters. Being near an active epic monster heals Fiddlesticks for 15(+15%AP) health per second.

Healing applies every 0.25 second.

Nightcrow (Q):

Cooldown: 16/15/14/13/12 seconds; Cost: 80/90/100/110/120 mana; Range: 800 / 400 units

Fiddlesticks creates a scarecrow at the target location that becomes active after 0.75 second delay, fearing nearby enemies away from it for 1.5/1.75/2/2.25/2.5 seconds. Monsters are feared for 3/3.5/4/4.5/5 seconds.

The scarecrow reveals the area around it and lasts for 3 seconds.

This can be cast against Fiddlesticks instead to instantly fear enemies immediately around him for the same duration. Does not summon a scarecrow.

Drain Blast (W):

Cooldown: 1 second; Cost: 40/45/50/55/60 mana; Range: 750 units

Passive: Fiddlesticks stores Scare Charges whenever he heals from Tasteful Terror at 160/170/180/190/200% of the healing value, up to a maximum of 80/130/180/230/280(+100%AP) Scare Charges.

Active: Fiddlesticks blasts a droplet of frightful magic at the target allied champion or enemy, consuming all of the Scare Charges.

Enemy units are dealt the consumed Scare Charges as magic damage. Allied champions are healed for 75% of the consumed Scare Charges. Fiddlesticks can target himself, but he only heals for 40% of the consumed Scare Charges.

Dark Wind (E):

Cooldown: 7/7.5/6/6.5/5 seconds; Cost: 65/70/75/80/85 mana; Range: 1000 units

Fiddlesticks sends a crow in the target direction, dealing 60/80/100/120/140(+45%AP) magic damage and silencing for 1.25 seconds to enemies it passes through. Deals 100% increased damage against monsters.

If the crow makes contact with Nightcrow, then it randomly bounces around its effective range 5 times even after it expires, dealing the same damage to struck enemies and slowing by 20/25/30/35/40% for 1.5 seconds. Enemies can only be silenced once. The crow will make an attempt to bounce toward enemy champions and epic monsters, and then large monsters. The crow always flies in a straight line.

Crowstorm (R):

Cooldown: 140/110/80 seconds; Cost: 100 mana; Range: 2000 / 600 units

Fiddlesticks channels in place for 0.75 second and then unleashes a murder of crows at the target location for 5 seconds, dealing 60/80/100(+15%AP) magic damage per second.

Fiddlesticks gains 120% total movement speed when moving toward the Crowstorm and if he is inside, then the damage is increased to 240/320/400(+60%AP) magic damage per second.

UPDATE NOTES (2):

Nightcrow: Range increased to 800 from 750 Radius decreased back to 400 from 425 Delay increased for the fear back to 0.75 from 0.6 second

Now has an instant fear effect (but does not summon a scarecrow) if self-cast against Fiddlesticks himself, fearing enemies within 400 range to him for the same duration. (This is because people really wanted the jump scare approach, so at a much reduced range should be healthier than what it is now, still has a cast time. The delay allows it to be cast at a much greater range and have the fear have the enemy walk into Fiddle rather than always away.)

Crowstorm: Ability changed to feel more jump scary, but better counter play than a blink, also have it more viable at high elo / competitive play and less oppressive in low elo with more intel to it because low elo does not believe in wards or a mini-map Cooldown increased to 140/110/80 from 120/100/80 seconds Now is a cast range of 2000 units to a target location from 1400 units as a line skill skill shot Now has a radius of 600 units instead of its width being 500 units

Channel time reduced to 0.75 from 5 seconds Ultimate now applies after the channel instead of while channeling Ultimate duration is back to 5 seconds Damage per second reduced to 60/80/100 +15%AP from 150/225/300 +50%AP magic damage per second

Fiddlesticks now moves 120% total movement speed faster when moving toward the murder of crows, fast as F scarecrow mother F-ers While inside the murder of crows, the ultimate damage is massively increased to 240/320/400 +60%AP magic damage per second; reminder, this ultimate is stationary in place, so need to use your crowd control to keep enemies inside!

(This is to address the issues of the ultimate feeling too safe, but I also want to make sure Fiddlesticks is not hourglass reliant just to use his ultimate. So the area does not move with Fiddlesticks so he can be a little further away from the enemy for its significant, team fighting winning, damage and with the ultimate being stationary means it offers better counter play for the enemy team rather than "just do not stand near the Fiddlesticks brah".)

(I am trying to have the compromise of the feeling of jump scare Fiddlesticks ultimate that is massively impactful for teamfights when used well, while being more fair to go against, more viable for high elo, and less item reliant / does not need to buy hourglass to use one's ultimate.)

(The movement speed and very short range insta-fear Q are to work together to create that "F-ing hell, I just shat my pants" feeling as this scarecrow with sticks for legs is running like Sanic toward you. The longer range, delayed fear is for non-ultimate reliance.)

6 Comments

Xidphel5/14/2019, 11:45:42 PM2 votes

I'm a bit confused by his E. At first, it removes the bouncing unless it hits the scarecrow. Then it can bounce. Also, while you kept the damage to heroes the same, you removed the monster damage. Odd considering his jungler position.

His Q is also weird. 1000 seems like a pretty safe distance to plop down a scarecrow that covers half a lane and fears everything after an "osh-".

Drain Drop Distance bugs me the most. His W is what lets him survive encounters and that's been moved to his passive and nerfed to hell. Instead, we get Auriel's W but worse. Not only does it not have the AoE heal but your allies heal for less at full charge and you heal even less than that. Looking at your passive and you're not gonna get a third camp before needing to fall back if you jg.

Speaking of your passive, most of your healing come from being at around 600 range from a CC'd enemy. Still seems pretty close, especially for a sup. Furthermore, combined with that 1000 cast range for your Q, you're not gonna get a lot of mileage out of it.

Finally, we get to his R. Poor thing. Lost its flash and a LOT of its DPS and even more as it levels up. Yes, you can cast it while safely lounging on your engy chair but your Q is barely gonna hit the enemy. E might reach them but again,

Tasteful Terror (Passive): Range: 600 units

To sum up, you're squishy, your abilities that affect your passive go too far and even if you do get close enough, you're not gonna be able to heal fast enough to get 2 lines of prayer done.

Burntcookies15/15/2019, 12:40:08 AM2 votes

Alright, so I've got a lot of thoughts regarding your rework. For a tl;dr, I believe that this rework makes Fiddlesticks significantly safer, loses sight of his thematic as "jumpscarecrow" and his iconic abilities, while not actually fixing some of the problems that you seek to address as stated in your introduction. Now, let's jump into it piece by piece.

First, my passive is based off of one hard CC move unless you're counting "movement impaired" as "under cc", which gets silly because of how easy to activate it is--especially since it procs off of allies' abilities. Also, why does the passive specifically apply to minions/small monsters? it seems kinda silly considering how miniscule of a heal it is, and how I'm never going to want to Q a wave.

Looking at the Q, AoE ranged fear is very powerful, especially at such a distance. I'd think that the increased fear to monsters would make jungling really safe, but it actually isn't since if anything is on CD, it's going to be ridiculously hard for me to clear any camp due to the lack of damage. Not only that, but the healing from the passive isn't actually enough to outweigh the damage I take from the camps.

Moving on to the W, having an active that's based off of my passive is really awkward, and thematically I'm not sure why one would be able to heal allies through fear magic. Yourself I could understand, but you've actually nerfed that! Thematics aside, though, I would have to wait for ages for my W to be useful since it would take quite a bit of time to charge up based off of passive. Effectively, it isn't an ability unless I can sit close by something CC'd for a significant amount of time.

Regarding the E, I don't actually have too many problems, aside from the extended range and removal of monster damage.

With the ultimate, though, I have a good deal of problems. First, does my ultimate require me to sit still now? Even if it doesn't, I have no reason to be near the fight--I can just throw down most of my abilities from far away and watch the enemies run into my crowstorm and team. This version of the ability completely drops the iconic "jumpscare-crow" thematic that Riot specifically stated they wanted to keep in the rework poll. Not only that, but it's actually easier for people to walk out of my crowstorm than before, considering I can no longer change its direction. It's like Xerath ult but Xerath feared me and my teammates for nearly 3 seconds from halfway down the lane, towards his team and ult, while in his ultimate channel.

As far as your redesign goals go, as far as support is concerned fiddlesticks doesn't necessarily need to heal off of minions right now; he can succ a champion. Regardless of that, healing off of one minion once in a while shouldn't affect much, considering fiddle can cancel his W to avoid killing it, and an adc can last hit anyways. I'm not sure it's a big enough issue to be a specific goal for a rework. Not only that, but fiddlesticks works bot lane because of his bounce damage and the utility from his fear. He's mostly there right now because he doesn't have a good spot in the meta, but I don't think that healing others would ultimately be what would cement him into a support role, or really appropriate for his theme. You do succeed in stopping his waveclear "problem" by making his E prioritize champions, though, while still making it viable for waveclear in the jungle... presuming you have Q up. It's very awkward and loses a lot of power if you don't have Q up.

Regarding jungle, there's still equally as little control with E. Sure, i can hit whatever i want once, but then it's just random bounces again, focusing on the large monster I suppose. However, I might find it more optimal to clear the smaller monsters--raptors, for instance. Outside of that, you're already aware of the fact that you got rid of all of his movement, but 5 more points of movespeed doesn't exactly make up for the loss of % movespeed boost or a blink. i'd also like to note that .75 seconds isn't a long enough time to get out of a 400 radius if you're anywhere that isn't the very edge of the range. That's not to mention that Nightcrow has nearly double the range of the current fear, is AoE, and has more utility since you can fear them towards you. I wouldn't exactly call that more counterplay. Certainly does help for ganks, but I'd argue that it might be too powerful compared to current Q.

In conclusion, I will say that you succeeded in making Fiddlesticks less ultimate reliant, and I can appreciate that you made his kit less point-and-click. However, I think that you've ended up removing a lot of the things that make Fiddlesticks who he is, and in the process actually removed some counterplay too. Sure, he has delays and has to land abilities, but he has a lot more safety, and lots more power into his CC.

Stacona5/15/2019, 12:54:44 AM1 votes

UPDATE NOTES (1):

Tasteful Terror: Range to enemies for the healing increased to 650 from 600 units (The abusive 1v1 healing has been dealt with here, so it does not need to be so restrictive anymore, including being free from magic pen to get full value healing and freely move around and still get healed.)

Nightcrow: Cost increased to 80/90/100/110/120 mana Range lowered to 750 from 1000 units Effect radius increased to 425 from 400 units Delay before fear turns on lowered to 0.6 from 0.75 second

Drain Blast: Renamed from Drain Drop (and it is Dream Drop Distance by the way)

Dark Wind: Cooldown lowered to 7/6.5/6/5.5/5 from 10/9/8/7/6 seconds Cost adjusted to 65/70/75/80/85 from 50/60/70/80/90 mana Silence lowered to 1.25 from 1.5 seconds Re-added 100% increased damage to monsters

When the crow makes contact with Nightcrow: The bounce slow increased to 20/25/30/35/40% from 15/20/25/30/35% The bounce slow duration lowered to 1.5 from 2 seconds Clarified that the crow flies in a straight line

Crowstorm: Range lowered to 1400 from 1500 units Channel and duration increased to 5 from 3 seconds for potentially and roughly the same maximum damage it can deal now Stated to end the channel and effect early, you cast the ability again

Stacona5/15/2019, 2:17:46 AM1 votes

UPDATE NOTES (2):

Nightcrow: Range increased to 800 from 750 Radius decreased back to 400 from 425 Delay increased for the fear back to 0.75 from 0.6 second

Now has an instant fear effect (but does not summon a scarecrow) if self-cast against Fiddlesticks himself, fearing enemies within 400 range to him for the same duration. (This is because people really wanted the jump scare approach, so at a much reduced range should be healthier than what it is now, still has a cast time. The delay allows it to be cast at a much greater range and have the fear have the enemy walk into Fiddle rather than always away.)

Crowstorm: Ability changed to feel more jump scary, but better counter play than a blink, also have it more viable at high elo / competitive play and less oppressive in low elo with more intel to it because low elo does not believe in wards or a mini-map Cooldown increased to 140/110/80 from 120/100/80 seconds Now is a cast range of 2000 units to a target location from 1400 units as a line skill skill shot Now has a radius of 600 units instead of its width being 500 units

Channel time reduced to 0.75 from 5 seconds Ultimate now applies after the channel instead of while channeling Ultimate duration is back to 5 seconds Damage per second reduced to 60/80/100 +15%AP from 150/225/300 +50%AP magic damage per second

Fiddlesticks now moves 120% total movement speed faster when moving toward the murder of crows, fast as F scarecrow mother F-ers While inside the murder of crows, the ultimate damage is massively increased to 240/320/400 +60%AP magic damage per second; reminder, this ultimate is stationary in place, so need to use your crowd control to keep enemies inside!

(This is to address the issues of the ultimate feeling too safe, but I also want to make sure Fiddlesticks is not hourglass reliant just to use his ultimate. So the area does not move with Fiddlesticks so he can be a little further away from the enemy for its significant, team fighting winning, damage and with the ultimate being stationary means it offers better counter play for the enemy team rather than "just do not stand near the Fiddlesticks brah".)

(I am trying to have the compromise of the feeling of jump scare Fiddlesticks ultimate that is massively impactful for teamfights when used well, while being more fair to go against, more viable for high elo, and less item reliant / does not need to buy hourglass to use one's ultimate.)

(The movement speed and very short range insta-fear Q are to work together to create that "F-ing hell, I just shat my pants" feeling as this scarecrow with sticks for legs is running like Sanic toward you. The longer range, delayed fear is for non-ultimate reliance.)