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FIDDLESTICKS REWORK: Scarecrows are supposed to be creepy!

LeifTheExplorer·4/21/2016, 12:06:40 PM·29 votes·6,822 views

Fiddlesticks is one of my favorite champions to play, but he's a thematic miss. His kit is outdated, his in-game visuals are outdated, and his lore is outdated. I think this can be changed with a few revisions. But first, we have to establish a few things.

First off, why are scarecrows scary? They aren't naturally scary, they are just sticks and cloth! And that's the thing. They're not scary, they are creepy. Take this short story for example, a great description of why Fiddlesticks would be scary. Taken from this thread, please check it out!

The sun is setting, and you are looking into the distance. There is nothing for miles apart from the road, the fields and this ugly thing someone has put up to shoo the birds away. You barely pay any attention to it until you slowly notice something. Wasn't this thing supposed to be a little more to the left? Probably not, it's just the summer heat messing with your brain... The next moment you look at it it seems like it's looking at you. You have no idea why, but you could have sworn that it had turned a little towards you. You keep an eye on it, but nothing happens, no matter how long you watch it. A crow flies down and sits down behind the scarecrow. "What a useless thing", you think, "Doesn't even keep brids away...". So you look away again, but when you look back a second later there is no doubt that something is wrong: the scarecrow has moved about fiften steps towards you. There was no sound, apart from the wind blowing through the fields. It's not moving. It just hangs there, completly lifeless - until you blink and it's suddenly even closer to you. Even more crows gather around you, but they are strangely silent, so you don't even notice them at first. Irritated you stumble backwards, keeping an eye on that weird thing that shows no intention of actually moving. You run, leaving that cursed place, but then you notice something and stop. In front of you a murder of crows sits on the ground, all of the birds staring on you as if they are waiting for something. Before you turn around, you realize that it was a great mistake to stop running, as you feel an unnatural breath reeking of hay and cloth on your neck. It's the last thing you notice before the darkness consumes you...

That's quite descriptive, (Thanks Kyoki Shinkuro!) but it gets the point across. Fiddlesticks isn't your generic scary, he's uncanny, like something is terribly wrong. Something moves when it shouldn't. The difficult part is, you don't see it moving. It's just wood, it could never move by itself! But none the less, it does, moving closer, and closer...

Combine the story of the cursed scarecrow along with The Birds, by Alfred Hitchcock, and you have Fiddlesticks. He is the League manifestation of the uncanny. Yet the execution of that in-game is not successful. Fear and life-drain make sense as stereotypically "evil" mechanics, but how they currently work barely has the desired effect, neither does the player feel like commanding a manifestation of fear, nor is the enemy player specifically creeped out by Fiddle - if most he is annoyed because of Fiddlesticks point and click kit.

How exactly a rework would go, that would be something difficult to pull off because it would be somewhat complicated to make this theme really work without reducing him to some kind of horror-carricature.

At first it has to be said that causing fear and life drain are basic mechanics, and his kit needs to somehow interact with crows. A first step would be to change Dark Wind so it works like in the Twist of Fate cinematic: a murder of crows rushes over the enemy, hindering them and reducing their vision temporarely (that last part would go perfectly with his creepy theme).

Another key aspect would be to give him MASSIVE bonuses while the enemy team has no vision on him. That would go good into the theme. Remember the part of the story where you stare and stare yet nothing happens? As long as you can see Fiddle from afar it's not a problem. The problem is when you suddenly DON'T see him...

Thanks to Kyoki Shinkuro, he's thought of a great idea of how to pull this off. >Well I thought of something that could work with this.

>Imagine Fiddles being able to place mutiple scarecrows on the rift and whenever one of these scarecrows is not under enemy team vision he can lose his current "scarecrow" and change into the next one. The spell for that could be a decently long channel, so it can't be used for "lol you can't kill me stuff". He leaves an "empty" scarecrow behind at his current position after teleporting.

>Those scarecrows do nothing, give medicore vision and they can be attacked.

>Now, let's step this up a little. Remember what I said about dark wind before, about turning it into a vision denial tool? Now the twist: Dark Wind can now be cast from ANY scarecrow position, no matter how far away fiddle is. The vision block should be enough to allow him a "warp in". It would also disable nearby enemy wards temporarily and you can pull off the thematic.

>Of course for this the rest of the kit would require some changes too, but I think the result could be extremly terrifying (and awesome).

>Imagine suddenly finding a scarecrow in your jungle. Do you attack it and risk fiddle going Dark Wind -> Warp in? Or do you leave the area as fast as possible, but then risk to fall behind in your jungle? A passive token, yet it can have such an psychological effect.

So after reading this over, here's an idea of how his new kit would work:

**Skills:

Passive - Effigy If Fiddlesticks is not visible to the enemy team, he may begin to channel for 2 seconds. After completing the channel, Fiddlesticks leaves an Effigy in his current location. Effigy's Effigies grant vision around them in a 1000 radius, and last 240 seconds before despawning. (Max of 2 Effigies on the map at any given time.) (Ally units cannot teleport to Effigies)

(Static: 40 second cooldown)

Q - Lifeless Effigy Active: If Fiddlesticks or is not visible to the enemy team, Fiddlesticks can channel for 3 seconds, switching locations with the target effigy that is not visible to the enemy team. The channel is immediately interrupted if an enemy gains vision of Fiddlesticks. (The mana cost is refunded if the channel is interrupted.)

Spell Type: Teleport Cooldown: 40/35/30/25/20 seconds Mana Cost: 80

W – Drain Active: Fiddlesticks tether's to a target unit and begins to channel, draining the courage out of of it. This spell deals magic damage per second to the targeted unit for 5 seconds. Fiddlesticks heals for a percentage of the damage dealt.

Spell Type: Tether/DoT Cast Range: 500 Tether Range: 625 Damage Per Second: 70/90/110/130/150 (+40% AP) (+5% of target's missing health) Heal Percentage: 50/55/60/65/70% of damage dealt Cooldown: 10/9/8/7/6 seconds Mana Cost: 80/85/90/95/100

E - Uncanny Wind Active: Fiddlesticks sends a crow to a target target unit, dealing magic damage and bouncing to nearby enemies up to 3 times. Enemies damaged by this ability are afflicted with nearsightedness for 3.5 seconds and a 50% slow that decays over 3.5 seconds. This ability can be cast near Effigies. (The CC effects do not stack with multiple bounces on the same target.)

Cast Range: Up to 900 units away from Fiddlesticks or any Effigy (Semi-Global) Bounce Range: 500 Damage Per Bounce: 70/80/90/100/110 (+60% AP) Magic Damage Cooldown: 16/15/14/13/12 seconds Mana Cost: 70/75/80/85/90

R - Crowstorm Active: After channeling for 1.5 seconds, Fiddlesticks blinks to a target location, fearing everyone around him for 1.5 seconds. A murder of crows flies wildly around Fiddlesticks during this time, dealing magic damage per second for 4 seconds.

Spell Type: Blink/AoE Range: 800/600 Fear Range: 1000 Damage per Second: 110/210/310 (+40% AP) Cooldown: 160/140/120 seconds Mana Cost: 100

DISCUSSION:

Now, why these abilities? I will explain.

Passive: Gives Fiddlesticks map presence, making the enemies uncertain about where he is. A real spooky factor as well. Imagine running into a Effigy in your jungle. What do you do? He could become active at any given time, and you can't predict when. Do you risk Fiddlesticks jumping in, or do you leave the area, potentially losing farm.

Q: Basically goes hand in hand with his passive, giving the intimidating global map presence. The thought going through the opponent's heads constantly is "Where is Fiddlesticks? He could be anywhere..."

W: I think this is a key part to Fiddlesticks, and it would be hard to change this ability without losing the current potential Fiddlesticks has in the jungle.

E: We all know Illaoi's tentacles are not intimidating in any way. They are weak, and they provide nothing by themselves. So, with this new E, you actually have a reason to be afraid of Fiddlesticks's Effigies. Why? Because if you go near one, you don't know whether or not Fiddle will come in, because of the cover that his E provides.

R: His crowstorm has remained largely the same, because it is the signature move of Fiddlesticks. His fear was moved on to this ability. "But Leif thats OP :(" Not really. The damage on this ability has been reduced, therefore making it less effective at killing and better at disrupting. When Fiddlesticks uses his ultimate, it is the point where he reveals himself and becomes active. Therefore, it makes more sense to have the fear on his ultimate.

NEW LOOK: I think this artist has captured the essence of what Fiddlesticks should be. I didn't make this, but it's awesome.

http://grabilla.com/06415-7b99472b-c237-46be-a627-8dd115db03b8.png

What are your thoughts on this new take on our beloved scarecrow?

32 Comments

GaleWinUnleashed4/22/2016, 1:57:21 AM3 votes

For functionality purposes, I suggest switching his Q and Passive, so that Q places the Effigy, and the Passive teleports/switches to an Effigy. This way placing Effigies can be done by pressing Q, and you can do the teleport by right-clicking on your Effigy.

ShacoVSociety4/22/2016, 2:54:00 AM3 votes

Seems cool. He deffinetly needs a rework, so yeah this might work.

regonas4/22/2016, 8:18:26 AM3 votes

http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/skin-champion-concepts/w5ExXOaA-rework-suggestion-fiddlesticks-terror-in-the-fields my version.

regonas4/21/2016, 1:11:24 PM3 votes

Sound interesting. I am tempted to make my own version.

cyberchade4/21/2016, 10:20:34 PM2 votes

I feel that the new E should be a wider but sort skill shot sending waves of crows out from Fiddle or an Effigy like the Twist of Fate cinamtic fearing anyone realy close (about the same radius as Daruis ult if it kills). also fiddle should be alerted when an enemy is close to an Effigy this would make it ok for it to do more damage and make it eazy for Fiddle to defend them

Stars Shaper4/22/2016, 8:24:00 AM1 votes

You're talking about crows being scary presenting a "literature" piece and it's not from Edgara Allan Poe?

http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/239/167/8df.jpg

Mhihnj4/21/2016, 12:54:44 PM1 votes

Fiddlesticks needs a new model

IMO, I think you should shift his Passive to his Q and make the effigies amount scale with level. Also remove it's health and rather, give it a short timer(30/45/60seconds)

Passive: Clicking on an effigy will root fiddlesticks on the spot if the enemy doesn't have vision on him, and make him look like an effigy himself for 2 seconds. Also enemy's entering fiddle's auto range will slowly lose armor and MR up to a maximum of 10/20/30

Neku214/28/2016, 2:39:50 AM1 votes

Really awesome idea and really fleshed out! So (I really like the idea of placing the effigies with q and can swap with your passive) Azir had a passive active, so its been done before.... but I think that the cooldown should go up 10 seconds (maybe more) at all ranks because otherwise, yea you're going to be flying around the map like none other (think 20 second teleport :l). Mobility is sort of op as you can see.... thats why its usually in ultimates... and adding vision to the scarecrows is maybe a bit much, so I would reduce the range on the vision of the scarecrows to be half that of a ward. I'm a little bit hazy on this part, but if you reduce the vision of the scarecrow, then you can get away with better teleports when they're not in vision. Plus, wards are for vision, sooo wards should be wards, scarecrows... not wards.

I like what you did with the ultimate, making it a smad more utility based, which is really important as a jg.

For his e, I feel like having a slow and a nearsightedness is a bit much on one ability, it might be cool to have Rhylai's as a core item on fiddle, and not having fiddle only... building... zhyonias... then not knowing what to do. I feel like rhylais can help in jg and can enhance his gameplay a bit more. In short, I think the slow should be taken off off his e. Having the effigies be able to use e is a an evil move but I love it :D Its a wonderful concept and I applaud you :3 it feels like a fiddle and makes the game so much more interesting for him.

NoctusLynx4/21/2016, 4:40:35 PM1 votes

I approve.

I think that if an effigy is used by Fiddle's passive, the Effigy should either fall apart (prompting more usage of his q) or fiddle and the effigy swap places instead of Fiddle just blinking to the effigy (meaning he can move his effigies, but he needs to be careful to not place the effigies in a bad spot such that they get easily destroyed.

I will say that I don't quite like the nearsightedness on his E, though. Instead, the crow should be able to bounce off his effigies, making them unable to be used by his passive for 15 seconds, and the crow can only bounce off an effigy once per cast. If the crow attacks a target from behind, the target is instead inflicted with a decaying fear for 3/4 of the duration. I fell that the duration of the fear can be 1/2 of that of the slow, but I would have wanted to make it so that the player can choose to go for the fear or for the longer but less cc potent slow to suit what they are fighting, and not make it so that the slow is the go-to option over the fear; in other words, to prompt the Fiddle player to use the effigy if it's there and punish the enemy for not clearing out Fiddle's effigies, but to make it so Fiddle has to think about not only blinking but also combat when placing the effigies.

Another idea, instead, is arming the effigy with a crow from Uncanny Wind. Whenever someone walks withing vision of the effigy (which I'm assuming looks like a scarecrow) the crow attacks the target, and each effigy can be armed with up to 2 crows- one per shoulder of the effigy- but one target cannot be hit with both at the same time. Instead, the effigy will wait until the slow applied by the crow dissipates before sending out another crow.

The effigies should also ignore the Line of Sight rule in the direction the are facing.

These are just some suggestions, but it's actually a neat idea. Making Fiddle a a bit more of a threat on the rift when he's in the Jungle, but I feel that his stats/scaling should be adustied in light of these changes to reflect his new kit. I think it could work.

CrimsonCobra34/21/2016, 5:20:15 PM1 votes

Notes on cool ideas: W -- Drain could fear after a certain percent of health removed. Q -- Effigies could fear upon first vision.

But that would be too much fear for one kit. (Unlesss the fear was removed from the ultimate.)

Jellycake Demon4/21/2016, 10:01:36 PM1 votes

I actually like this Rework you made for Fiddlesticks, i use to main Fiddle JG but as you have said his kit has become a bit-outdated. this New kit you give diffidently gives him WAY more Map presence & diffidently a better fear-scarecrow factor, i really dig his New Passive instead of reducing a target Magic Resist, being able to leave behind a free Ward & being able to teleport to which effigy with the Q is good gives Fiddle more Mobility in general.

Plus adding the Fear to his ult......that should have happen LONG AGO! I mean come on if you jump & get scared when a fucking scarecrow pops out of nowhere & has a flock of crows start pecking & clawing at you there is something wrong with you.

alfavhunter4/21/2016, 10:30:35 PM1 votes

A few things I would add

Passive should give bonus MS if he is moving toward an enemy champion that has thier back turned to him

Q should switch his location with his passive scare crow dummy not just TP

Passive scare crow should have ward health of 3/4/5/6 based on level of 1/6/11/16

Q should have a passive that buffs his basic attacks to restore mana, example

When fiddle basic attacks an enemy he gains 5/7/9/11/13 mana, this effect is increased to 20/28/36/44/52 if the basic attack kills the target (fiddle won't be maxing this first as its a no damage spell so this is primarily for late game mana regen, this is taking into account the Mage item changes)

W should apply dread to the target for 2 seconds (refreshes per tick of damage)

Dread causes the target to be the most likely target of uncanny wind (W)

R should also let fiddle ult in range of any of his passive clones as if they were him

Keep in mind fiddle would remain squishy with this rework and is a close range Mage so his power would be his utility and map preasance (this is why the change to R isn't op, also remember his passive clones can be killed)

Lastly I would remove the enemy vision conditions on Q because they can just kill it if they see it and that would interupt your Q (no mana refund)

As a side note his Q would have a range to it as well global would be to much

2000/2500/3000/3500/4000 would be reasonable for this ability giving more late game map pressure while still strong early game pressure without being to overbearing