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Experiences with the New Fiora

RenegadeS3·8/7/2015, 4:23:48 AM·3 votes·1,951 views

So after playing several matches with fiora I've noticed several things. She does not have the feel of a top laner anymore, perhaps a situational top laner pick. I've experimented with several builds, full ad, off tank/bruiser, support and jungle.

I fill mid lane is the best lane for her, since many mages have some form of hard cc Fiora can take advantage of. In bot lane I found her to be a very powerful support with Kalista! The double procs on % hp with kalista was VERY strong and the parry against threshes hooks kept him zoned. When the jungle game to gank, we turned on him with Fiora's uli and created a healing zone when we made short work of him and make bot lane regret calling for a gank. Mid game I traded my support item out for a bork and tiamat and went tank afterwords. It was a very satisfying win.

However my top lane games have been well not so great. I have noticed you can use fiora's ulti as a make shift escape if your too deep and get ganked. Ulti the junlge and proc a vital and dash a way with the speed boost. You are very hard to catch and very slippery. However Mid lane provide all the escape Fiora needs during a gank. Or if under the right conditions a great opportunity for a double kill mid lane. When you parry a hard cc and turn on the mid laner with an well timed ulti.

However I've noticed building her full ad doesn't seem the way to go, she cannot surive well organized team fights on the front line. When I play her mid I go full ad. If I play her top I build 1 to 2 defensive items and leave it at that.

Side note, IEitem 3031 at max rank of E you do 250% crit on the second hit, this does not stack with IE Crits were doing the same amount of damage with and without it at max E. I don't think Infinity edge is a useful item on the new fiora.

Triforce not: Does not provide a significant power boost Since most of Fiora's damage comes from proc'ing vitals. I do not feel trifoce has a place in fiora's build.

BORK: VERY STRONG! Fiora has a ton of slows and move speed buffs, anything that helps with bolster that is great! I recommend this as a first buy since it helps with your passive as well! Last Whisper: Eh no, true damage takes away the need for Last whisper I haven't found any need for it.

Important stats on new fiora: Attack speed is not that important. A ghostblade isn't required, fiora's ulti/passive gives her a great boost. Raw Ad: mmm that's hard, in some cases but not every game. You need to decide if you can get awawith full ad or not. You cannot every game. IE Lots of tanks. They will chain cc you to death, even with parry it's not reliable for mutiple cc's in team fights. You need HP and resistances based on their team more then AD. If the enemy team is heavy CC I suggest off tank. with two offensive items. Bork and Tiamat.

Anyway Final conculusion for me is Fiora belongs in Mid lane or in the jungle, her ulti during a gank can really turn things around during a counter gank and team fights. A mid laner, and lots of roaming or making a mid laner regret using any hard cc. Since most mid laners have SOME form of hard cc. Either way I don't think she belongs top anymore unless your build her defensively. and abuse her passive for easy trade. that's my take on it though, please share your experiences as well and where you think she belongs. If your experiences differed from mine I'd love to hear about them and see what you think.

6 Comments

BreadnBagels8/7/2015, 5:57:59 AM3 votes

I too have tried playing around with different builds on Fiora, and I agree with your points. Triforce doesn't seem to provide much of a boost to her, armor pen feels a bit redundant, and IE not scaling with her E is well, bad. Tiamat and bork seem like solid choices, but neither give her a big advantage to play with, at least in lane. I've tried tanky builds with sunfire, randuins, and frozen mallet, but then your damage suffers and you end up behind.

I play defensively early on, only proccing easy vitals facing towards me, as the bonus true damage early on is relatively minor.. That being said, have you found a solid way to trade with her? This is my experience with her at top lane in a nutshell: Q to close gap and proc vital -> auto attack -> E, throwing in a parry when suitable.. You'd think that the slow from her E allows Fiora to harass and get away safely but I end up taking way too much damage in a trade.

For a duelist, Fiora feels very niche right now, specializing at taking down bruisers. I mostly feel like she lacks an ace in the hole. She's so squishy but relies heavily on positioning and dps. Her ult is really just more dps and feels very team-reliant as you need to have good peel, or at least place it on someone you are sure will die to get that healing for your team.

If they could refresh the cooldown on her Q when proccing vitals, I feel like it would help immensely, both for trades and optimal use of her ult (being able to reliably and quickly proc all 4 areas).

RenegadeS38/7/2015, 8:42:08 PM1 votes

So I with fiora I've noticed a few tips that make her a really solid champ and a few skill tricks I think are really neat.

Q Synergy applies on hit effects right, IF you use your E for the slow, your dash will crit. If you use this on a vital it's a huge damage spike. Very good for chasing as well, IF you E THEN q, your Q will slow instead. also great for chasing. I thought Maximum damage output was reseting Autos. That did not seem to be the case, A Crit Lunge on a vital is a HUGE burst. (With a triforce it's even bigger but I still think there are better options.)

So I've had a lot of success with this build/masters

Flat Ad Marks/Quinns Flat Armor Seals Flat Mr Runes

21/9/0

First buy it Tiamat. Even though Bork really really helps with trades, Fiora lacks wave clear. When it's time to push the tower the enemy can usually make it back in time cause fiora can't push the lane. Tiamat helps with that.

Core Items though: Titem 3074 item 3153 item 3072 I found with a tone of life steal (Just like the old fiora) She win's almost every single trade. Finishing up the build I think this items are great add to wrap up the build. item 3071 : Great synergy with all her on hit effects, and auto resets plus passive move buffs no one gets away. item 3025 Great for extra armor and more slows item 3022 Overall makes escapes impossible item 3139 When needed Boots: item 3111 oritem 3047 Depending on team comp item 3158 or item 3006 if you feel you don't need defensive stats

Then based on the teams composition/fed players if any I choose a defensive item. Frozen heart or Maw.

I always get one defensive item for fiora, the benefits from full ad don't seem worth it. She is a bruiser, and a darn good one. Her kit flows very nicely together, there are some bugs but I'm sure they'll work those out.

Also if you didn't know, you can pop Fiora's passive with Parry. For a top laner without a gap closer it's a great way to heal up and poke him down. with the true damage. Also If the vital respawns on the same side it's a great time to dash in. Smack it, and dance around them with an E combo to pop two more vitals. If you do this, you usually will net a kill. (Get ganked, or die trying.) Also Fiora's kit can kinda forgive tower diving, but there are better dive champs.

stealthfox948/7/2015, 8:58:37 PM1 votes

Is item 3078 or item 3071 better on her? I've heard phage procs are good with her passive.

RenegadeS38/7/2015, 10:59:51 PM1 votes

In my personal opinion after trying both items a lot, I think black clever is a better item. Cool down reduction is very strong on fiora. I thinking I'm going to run a more assassin type rune page on her and give her CDR instead of MR or Armor, depending on my laning phase.

At 40% CD at max rank of Q it's gets a reset of 3 Seconds! and her ulti is closer to 40. Meaning it's up for almost every team fight.

So I like to get Black clever, and Frozen Heart and blue buff will tap me out at 40% 35 without blue. but with some runes I could run at 40% all the time.

And you give the movement speed proc with black clever as well. I think it synergies more with her kit. (I mean Yas has on hit effects and no one runs him with tri really. I don't think fiora is triforce champion.)

Edit; I'd like to note with a lot of life steal my top lane games have been going more smoothly.

Iv'e had very hard times with the following champions:

Garen, Volibear, Gnar (mini form, Mega gnar hates life.), annie (Seriously annie players your just rude.) Kayle Renekton goes either way, but it's in his favor.

I've totally wrecked

Jax, Darius, Shv, Swain, Diana, Gp is hit or miss. His new kit is meh. Made Cho hate picking cho. Jayce

BreadnBagels8/8/2015, 5:06:32 PM1 votes

Huh, I haven't thought of using her Q to proc the E slow, it's a great idea, since you want to quickly do some burst and get out. I'll have to try out item 3072 on her and see how that goes. So far, rushing a item 3153 and then building item 3077 has given me the best results so far. I've also played around with CDR with item 3158 , item 3071 , and masteries, and found that it really helps her out given how you need that Q cooldown to be low. I've tried building item 3022 and item 3025 but found that it takes too long to get that slow effect, gold-wise, which handicaps your damage until you do. It's great utility, but I just make do with the item 3153 active slow.

Btw, I found out a neat way to trade with her: use E (1st hit) on a minion, then Q to a vital and land the 2nd hit critical strike. It's a surprising amount of burst damage, and the movement speed from proccing the vital allows you to get out faster.

As for defensive items I found that item 3026 is nice. Also, if the healing portion of your ultimate happens to proc while you revive, that's a nice bonus.

Also, I just want to say that I love Fiora's riposte. Though the cooldown is a bit high, it can serve as a mini zhonya's. You can dive in a fight and bait out enemy skills, as long as you don't become obvious with it.

RenegadeS38/8/2015, 9:59:24 PM1 votes

Awesome discovery on the item 3026 ! I'll have to remember that!