May 9, 2011 - Guide Published
May 11, 2011 - Added Champion Guide
May 12, 2011 - 1K views! Thanks guys!
May 14, 2011 - Updated item guide; abyssal scepter scenario / fixed some typos
Sep 16, 2011 - Updated items and item guide
Sep 22, 2011 - 500k views! Thanks to everyone for viewing!
Nov 21, 2011 - Updated for new mastery tree
Dec 10, 2011 - 1 MILLION VIEWS! Somebody invite Surprise Party Fiddlesticks!
Dec 25, 2011 - Merry Christmas! Updated entire guide to include item/skill info, Updated Skill Sequence ....................... guide, Moved LeBlanc to Bad Against in Champion Guide, Generally made guide look ....................... nicer.
Jan 10, 2012 - Happy New Year! Fixed error in mastery explanation, Fixed everywhere I used "lifesteal" ....................... instead of "spell vamp."
Feb 12, 2012 - Added new champions to Champion Guide, Updated item build due to Will of the Ancients ....................... nerf, Updated item guide to correspond with build, Fixed ability sequence mistake ....................... (/facepalm).
. Mar 5, 2012 - Fixed a wording issue, changed 15% on Hextech Revolver spell vamp to 12% [ Riot y u nerf ....................... my items :*( ], added new champions to champion guide.
. Jul 11, 2012 - Added Tactics section, added new champions to Champion Guide.
. Sep 2, 2012 - Switched around leveling for Terrify and Reap, changed item order and guide, ....................... changed masteries to "21, 0, 9", added new champions to champion guide (Jungle guide WILL ....................... be coming, just haven't had time). I also now have a livestream! If you guys would like to ....................... watch me play, check it out at www.twitch.tv/chiefehtiger
Sep 13, 2012 - 4 Million views. Wow. I never expected my guide to become this popular. I'd like to give a big ....................... THANK YOU to everyone who has viewed my guide. You guys rock. Keep on Fiddling! :)
Oct 15, 2012 - Modified skills ( Reap first) and Skill Sequence section. Modified Summoner Spells ....................... section.

This guide will be showing you how I play Fiddlesticks on almost every game. Whether it be a 5v5 or a 3v3, this build will get you a win as long as you're smart. Let it be known now, the item build is not set in stone. There will be many times where you will need to mix the build up a bit in case you have some guys packing MR. This guide is really effective against squishy characters just because of the amount of damage dealt and health acquired early game. As long as you don't feed the enemies, you'll carry the team most of the time.

Pros:
- Excellent soloist (if they have no CC)
- Great early game tank (because of spell vamp; watch out for ignite!)
- Can stay in a lane fairly long because of spell vamp
- Great team player, especially in team fights (spell vamp + ult = \o/)

Cons:
- Squishy if he gets ganked with CC
- Not good at killing minions/pushing a lane
- Can get UP if enemy starts stacking MR early game
- Not good against champions with farther range than his abilities (or Mordekaiser *shakes fist*)

I don't see this in many guides, but I see it requested all the time, so here you guys go. A guide for what champions Fiddlesticks is good/bad against:

SOLOING

Good Against:


Equally Matched:
- Careful, OP!

Bad Against:


DISCLAIMER: This is from personal experience. Some people may have a higher skill level than I and be able to take these guys down. This guide also assumes both heroes have full mana and all of their skills are ready to be used. Any ultimates that take time to charge were not considered (this includes Fiddlesticks's).

Runes are completely arbitrary, so I'm just giving you what I use. I like having ability power more so than magic penetration because Fiddlesticks's passive automatically reduces nearby enemies' MR by 10. However, that doesn't mean I go completely AP. I get some MP with the marks, and then some mana regeneration with the seals. I then use glyhps and quints for AP.

If you don't want to use this rune setup then I urge you to get AP or MP more so than anything else. They will allow you to rape early game especially if you are facing squishies.

I don't really want to go into masteries that much, but what this build does is give one of the basic mastery setups for any caster, which is full AP offensive tree as well as the summoner's insight, movement speed, and runic affinity for the utility tree. Summoners insight is good for the CD reduction on flash (which basically doubles the range of your Crowstorm) and the reduced cast time on teleport (for those oh-so-hilarious teleport ganks/escapes). Having the movement speed helps for dodging skill shots as well as having a slight extra chase advantage. The runic affinity is always good on a caster so that you can hold blue buff for a longer period of time.

As said in the introduction, the items may have to be rearranged or replaced occasionally with different items. However, there are items that must be set in stone to have a good early game attempt at making the other team go "WTF?!" First off, the Doran's Ring and Sorcerer's Shoes are a must. After you acquire your Sorcerer's Shoes, get around 1K, then sell your Doran's Ring and get the Hextech Revolver. This handy little item will give you 12% spell vampirism ON TOP OF your current spell vamp. At one point it was 20%, but in a patch over the summer it was nerfed to 15%. Even so, after you get this item you should be able to turret dive succesfully (if you are smart). Of course, if they have some sort of CC, you'll probably get screwed over unless you have a teammate backing you up. Getting a Rod of Ages is also a must, since it gives you more AP as the game progresses.

DEVELOPER COMMENTARY ON PAST BUILD
(skip this if you don't wonder why I didn't include Will of the Ancients in the build in the first place):

A lot of people commented asking why I didn't put it into the build when I first made it (when Hextech Revolver was 20%), and that's because it was such a small increase in both spell vamp (5%) and AP (10), that I didn't see the point of wasting 900 gold on it rather than using the gold for the Blasting Wand for Rod of Ages (40 AP). If we do the math, say you have Hextech Revolver and Blasting Wand as your only items. You'd have 80 AP and 20% spell vamp, and AP is directly proportional to how much damage you do, so 20% of 80 is 16. Now if we do the other scenario, where you have 25% spell vamp and only 50 AP because you used the Blasting Wand gold on Will of the Ancients, you'd only get 12.5. I realize that if you had a mostly AP damage team that could use the extra AP and spell vamp to an advantage that you'd lean more towards getting it but normally I'd be on teams where we had a tank, 2 DPS, and 2 AP.

The next items you get after you have a Hextech Revolver, Sorcerer's Shoes, and Rod of Ages are completely dependent upon how the game is played out. If you have a heavy AP team, then you may want to rush Will of the Ancients to get them that 20% spell vampirism and 30 ability power as well as an extra 40 ability power for you. If they start stacking heavy MR (or you are getting dominated by the AP carry), then you may want to get an Abyssal Mask, if the AD carry is destroying you or the enemy team kills you pretty much instantly every time you Crowstorm, then a Zhonya's Hourglass would be your best bet, etc.

There may be special occasions where you will want to replace the Abyssal Mask with a Void Staff. One of these occasions is where you get an extremely tanky enemy team that's stacking a LOT of MR, and are focusing their items mostly on keeping you from dealing damage so that your spell vamp will be infective. This is one of the times a Void Staff is wanted rather than an Abyssal Mask because it will lower their MR more so than an Abyssal Mask (If the majority of their team has >50 MR, then get this, as 40% of 50 MR is 20, which is the amount Abyssal Mask gives. Also, since they are tanks, you shouldn't need the MR of Abyssal Mask, as they should deal less damage).

I moved Will of the Ancients to the end of the build because it is no longer viable due to it's nerf in a recent patch. Sure, if you have a team that's mostly AP, (and maybe a Vladimir is on your team who is also getting Will of the Ancients that you can stack with) then it may be viable to get one right after Hextech Revolver. But in my honest opinion, I don't see 40 AP (30 AP for your teammates) and only 8% more spell vampirism being worth 1300 gold if it's only going to benefit you and maybe one other teammate.

You may be wondering, "If Fiddlesticks is so squishy, why not get him items like armor, health, or MR?" Well, with the items you get in this build now, you should have a little over 100 MR AND Armor. Also, if you get enough AP, you don't even need that stuff, because Fiddlesticks drains life so fast with not only his Bountiful Harvest, but also his Reap and Crowstorm. Therefore, the only time you'd be screwed, is if you were ganked with CC, or if you initiated and your team didn't follow you in.

After playing with Fiddlesticks for a while now, I've noticed that your beginning skills (up to level 5) are entirely arbitrary to your situation.

I actually take Reap first when I lane with Fiddlesticks nowadays. I used to take Bountiful Harvest because I made this guide back in season 1 where my friend and I would go Xin Zhao + Fiddlesticks bot lane and he'd get them to jump on him while I just sat there and drained them to death at level 1.

It is good to take Reap at level 1 rather than [Drain, EXCEPT for those special circumstances where you go against a champion that you think you can bait into attacking you that has no interrupt CC at level 1. That would be the only time I ever go Bountiful Harvest first on Fiddlesticks.

After level 6 follow the skill sequence of the guide because Bountiful Harvest is still what you want most powerful late/mid game because you will have massive spell vampirism. Terrify is not as important to have high leveled until after you max Bountiful Harvest, because at level 1 it allows for 1 second of CC, which is more than enough to secure a kill or escape an enemy.

When you reach level 6, if you are not mid, immediately hide in the bushes. Most of the time, the enemy will not realize you've reached level 6, and so you can run in the bush, wait until they're close enough, Crowstorm on their faces while your teammate comes in to dish out extra damage, and score at least 1 kill using Terrify and Bountiful Harvest. The trick with Crowstorm, when it's still a laning game, is to aim for one person, rather than try to kill both people in the lane. If you can, great! If not, don't risk popping your ult for nothing.

These should be pretty self explanatory.

Flash can be used to get away from people ganking you, as well as positioning yourself on top of the enemy if you are slightly too far away when you pop your Crowstorm. Flash can also be used for more advanced Fiddlesticks tactics (see Tactics).

Teleport is great because early game it allows you to recall, get items, and Teleport back so that you lose little to no experience from having recalled, giving you a great advantage over the enemies in your lane, because the sooner you get your Crowstorm, the better. It also allows you to have a global presence on the map, which is huge. If you're 6 and bot lane is getting ganked and they happen to run past the minion wave to secure kills you can just Teleport in, immediately charge your Crowstorm on them, and (most of the time) pick up some easy kills.

The key to Fiddlesticks's Crowstorm is timing. I can't count how many times I barely missed an opportunity because I was slightly late. You also have to be smart, you can't assume someone's in a bush, you'd better KNOW they're in the bush.

If your whole team is pushing a lane (you should have Hextech Revolver by this time), then when you reach the turret and have minions on the way, even if all of the other team is on the turret, Crowstorm in on them. If your team is good, they will follow you in, because you'll be tanking the turret hits if the other team stays, and, because of your spell vamp, you should be regaining health fairly quickly. If your team is a bunch of chickens and stay back, well, may god have mercy on your soul.

Soloing:

I do not recommend ANYONE to solo a champion that has a spammable CC ability that can interrupt your Bountiful Harvest (unless you have backup on the way and you know you can hold out long enough for them to get there). Without Fiddlesticks's Bountiful Harvest, he pretty much becomes a walking punching bag. If you are going to solo a character, make sure that you can out DPS their damage with your Bountiful Harvest, and also make sure you will have enough time or the right circumstances to escape the possibility of their teammates coming in to assist.

Chasing an Enemy:

If you are attempting to chase an enemy that is either the same speed as you or faster, don't bother. You're just going to end up walking into a set up rendezvous point for the enemy team to annihilate you. If you can manage to catch up with them, the first thing to do is to cast Terrify, then walk towards them slightly (due to Terrify's unpredictable champion movement, this will at least assure you get a little bit of damage). After that, begin to Bountiful Harvest them and bring up the selection circle for your Reap. As soon as fear wears off and they are about to exit the selection circle, do one of two things.

1. If they have low enough HP or they are not in a position where minions are oncoming for your Reap to ricochet off, just cast it and either continue chasing if you feel you can secure the kill or give up.

2. If there are oncoming minions or champions then walk towards the victim and wait until they are close enough to the minions/champion for your Reap to ricochet off of them and cast it. This will give you the highest chance of dealing the most damage possible (I can't count how many times I've pulled off Reap ricochet kills because the enemy champion's teammate got a liiiittle to close).

Being Chased:

One of my favorite things to do as Fiddlesticks is get multi-kills, especially if the enemy has been chasing me. One of the best crowd pleasers is being far enough away from the enemy team that you can enter a bush, immediately begin casting Crowstorm to land on the bush, and watch and laugh as the enemy team enters the bush right as your Crowstorm finishes channeling. Another fun thing to do if the enemy is too close for the previous tactic is to flash into the bush and repeat the above.

For a more advanced maneuver and tight situation where bushes are not available, I recommend flashing over a wall, then Crowstorming back over the wall onto the unsuspecting champion/team.

Of course, these tactics are not worth anything if you are not already fed by them or if your team isn't right there to back you up. Make sure you are strong enough to take the blows the enemy champion/team could possibly do to you, because if you can't scare them and perish at their hands then that's one Crowstorm wasted which could lead to a lost game.

This is my first build, so comments and criticism are HIGHLY appreciated. I'd love to know where to improve my build and/or build upon it.

Thanks for reading!