Fiora Build Guide by tneZZ

About This Guide

The messages that written in this guide is...

just a basic introduction...
for beginners only...
NOT an absolute guide
not perfect...
NOT AN ADVANCE guide...
just a sharing from my OWN personal experience...

In future, I myself might not even agree with the content in this guide too.
You have to read the guide written by others about Fiora's Build Guide too.
This guide might has something missing which you can find in other guide.

Just serve this as a reference.

Most important thing is...

just forget/throw away everything that you have read. Just play, relax and do what you should do in game.

Items Build

hp = Hit Point/Health PointThis part will explain the recommended items build suggested in this guide.

Starting items:

Option 1: Long Sword + Health Potion x 2

Enable Fiora to buy Vampiric Scepter more faster.

Option 2: Doran's Blade

If you buy 2 Health Potion and Long Sword.
The potions can only heal Fiora for 2 times.
But with Doran's Blade, you hit enemy minions or champions for 60 times, you'll heal Fiora for 300 HP.
This is equal to buying 2 Health Potion
and don't forget that Fiora's passive is self-healing.
Fiora heal more faster when she attacks.
So which means, Fiora will need to hit enemy minions or champs approximate 40 times, she will get 300 HP in return.
Doran's Blade provides extra HP 80 too. This makes Fiora a bit tanky at starting.
The extra 10 damage of Doran's Blade is equal to buying a Long Sword.
Therefore, buying Doran's Blade is better than Long Sword + Health Potion X2
The disadvantage of this build is, there is delaying gold fo 475 for buying advance items.
Doran's Blade build to nothing.

Primary Advance Items:

Ravenous Hydra
The main weapon for Fiora. Essential team fight items.
Fiora starts to rock after getting this weapon.
Combine with Burst of Speed and Blade Waltz will do damage to surrounding objects too.
Killing a group of minions at ease.
Life Steal on hitting object and surrounding objects too.
Activate Ravenous Hydra will do another bonus splash damage attack (100%-60% dmg).
If there are 3 enemy champion stand near to each other, Fiora's Blade Waltz will most likely done as much as 15 times strikes (3 champs x 5 strikes).
This applies the same to Burst of Speed.
This weapon is very expensive.
In most of the cases, by the time Fiora equiped with this item. Team fight & Gang fight have already begun or about to begin.

The Bloodthirster
Increase attack damage.
Heal Fiora while attacking enemy.
Enable Fiora to stay longer in battlefield without returning base to heal.
Must equiped if enemy champ obtained Thornmail.

Blade of the Ruined King
Heavy damage (more damage than The Bloodthirster). Attack speed. Life Steal.
Effective against tank.

Frozen Mallet
provides more HP. More survival rate.
Prevent enemy from escaping.

The Black Cleaver
Provide more HP.
Reduce enemy armor.
Attack damage.

Phantom Dancer
Critical Strike Chances
Attack Speed

Infinity Edge
Critical Strike Chances
Increase Critical Strike Damages for 50%
Attack Damage

Mercurial Scimitar
Remove all stuns and snare.
Very important to vs CC (Crowd Control) Enemy Champion.
Most significant deadly CC is stun and fear.
This item provides additional damage too.

Picture: Fiora at the street

Learn to Use Fiora

Youtube: Champion Spotlight - Fiora, The Grand Duelist
Youtube: League of Legends : Fiora Guide and Impressions
Youtube: League Of Legends Fiora Guide .

aa = auto-attack / basic attack
champ = champion

Basically, there are 4 basic skills to learn:

1. Basic Abilities Combo
2. Blade Waltz + Abilities Combo
3. Turret Dive Attack
4. Farm

Start off by training the skills with non-tank AI Bot.

Create a custom game (Twisted Tree Line) with 1 enemy (non-tank).

1. Basic Abilities Combo

---

Combo 1:

Lunge > aa > Lunge > fallback
or
Lunge > Burst of Speed + Riposte > Lunge > fallback

Dash in quickly and strike enemy and hit it with a aa. Then, Lunge it again within 4 sec from the 1st lunge. Fall back.

Assuming your enemy is non-tank champion.
Each combo will reduce enemy champ for approximately 25% of HP.
Slowly reduce the enemy's HP by repeating the same combo to 30%.
Please note that, AI Bot will return base if his/her HP is lower than 30%.
You must not allow him/her to return. Carefully plan for the next series of attack.
Hit it with a combo to reduce another 25% of HP.
5% HP is left.

If the enemy champ has no boots. Chase him/her to do another aa.
If the enemy champ has boots. Use Flash to chase him to do another aa.
If the enemy champ run into his/her turret area. Use Flash to chase him to do a aa and use Heal to tank yourself from turret attack and escape.
If you have Ignite as one of your summoner's spell, Ignite can help you to do the final attack.

If you are lucky enough, you won't have to do final aa. Last combo 1 will kill the enemy champ either.

The above section described the scene when you are fighting a AI Bot (Computer). It might be a different story if you are fighting a human. However, from the above training, you gained the concept of how Fiora kill an enemy champ which will be helpful when you fight a real human.

You must know that the aim of this training is not breaking the turrets or nexus. You are learning to kill a champion.

2. Blade Waltz + Abilities Combo

---

Combo 2:

Lunge > Lunge > Blade Waltz
or
Lunge > Burst of Speed + Riposte > Lunge > Blade Waltz
or
Lunge > Blade Waltz > Lunge (Chase escaping enemy champ)
or VS heavy CC enemy
walk towards enemy. Let him cast CC > wait for CC lose effectiveness > Lunge > Burst of Speed + Riposte > Lunge > Blade Waltz

(The 2nd Lunge can be done if you do Blade Waltz fast enough after the 1st Lunge.)

Assume that Fiora is same level as the enemy.
Combo 2 will reduce about 40%-50% of enemy champ's HP.

Use combo 1 repeatedly to reduce the enemy champ's HP to LOWER THAN 45%.
Then, do combo 2.
This will kill the enemy champ.

3. Turret Dive Attack

---

Use combo 1 to reduce the enemy champ's HP to lower than 45%.
Then, the enemy champ walk into his/her turret attack range.
When the enemy champ is protecting himself/herself under the turret,
do combo 2 to kill the enemy champ.

After killing the enemy, use:

Flash to escape from turret attack
or
Heal to tank yourself from turret attack
or
Flash + Heal to escape and tank yourself from turret attack

Note: During Fiora is doing Blade Waltz to enemy champ, turret is unable to attack Fiora.

What if Fiora's Flash and Heal is under cooldown state?
Fiora will receive very less damage from turret when she dives in.
You have to make sure that Fiora's has enough HP to tank the turret's attack when retreat.
After killing the enemy champ with Combo 2,
fallback, receives turret hit, back to base and heal.
If you estimate that Fiora's HP is not enough, just abondon the turret dive mission.

Sometimes, enemy's champ is hiding behind turret and channelling recall (with less than 35%-40% HP). Lunge cannot reach the enemy. So, what you can do is:

Walk near turret > Flash > Lunge (reach enemy's location) > Lunge > Blade Waltz > kill the enemy and escape from turret attack.

The easiest situation is when your minions is under the turret. Turret is busy attacking minions and will ignore existence of Fiora. Just walk across the turret until the enemy is within the attack range of Lunge:

Lunge > Lunge > Blade Waltz > kill the enemy and escape

Note: Enemy champ's HP is less than 35%-45%.

Train a couple of times with AI Bot, you will eventually do more accurate estimation.

There are many killing strategies which could not be covered here as there are many conditions in real game fight. Sooner or later, you will discovered your own killing style.

4. Farm

---

To farm is easy, you just try to ensure Fiora do the last hit on killing a minion.
Earn more money, buy advance items, increase Fiora's Performance.

After obtaining Ravenous Hydra, combine with Burst of Speed, Fiora can kill a group of minions in 1 or 2 seconds. Farming has became very easy for Fiora.

Another important point for farming minions is: always has wards put in the forest to avoid gang. Safe Farm.


Picture: Soul Reaper Fiora.

Important Notes:

---

Champion's Level

Always notice the champ's level of Fiora and her opponent/enemy champ's level.

If Fiora's level is higher than enemy champ,
Fiora will hit the enemy as she is hitting on a paper.

But if Fiora's level is lower than enemy champ,
Fiora will hit the enemy as she is hitting on a stone.
More efforts will be needed for Fiora to kill an enemy champ which has higher level than her.
This is because of the armor. Leveling up will increase the armor of a champ.
The more armor the less damage dealt.

Enemy's Champion's Armor or Tank Characteristic

Always notice what items are bought by enemy champ.
If enemy buy armor and healing potion,
Fiora will need more efforts/combo to kill the enemy.
You need to re-estimate the damage that will be dealt to the enemy.

Doing combo 2 too early might not kill the champion.

Enemy's Boots or Walking Speed

If enemy has boots or better boots. You have to predict that enemy is hard to chase.
So you can plan your attack more strategically to kill the enemy and avoid him/her to escape.

Predict the chasing time. If you are going to chase the enemy champ for a very long distance, you have to reconsider that will you be gang by enemy's teammates, as they will try to save their teammate too.

Beware of Enemy's Thornmail
Thornmail is a defensive item which return 30% of damage as magic damage to Fiora.
Fiora dies more quickly when she attacks an enemy's who wear a Thornmail.

Lets say a full built damage point of 300 will return 90 magic damage to Fiora.
Blade Waltz (5 strikes) + Speed of Burst (6 strikes) + Ravenous Hydra (1 strike) = 12 strikes

Estimate Magic Damage Produced:
12 strikes x 90 magic damage = 1080 magic damage

See that? The enemy champ can cause a 1080 magic damage to Fiora without doing anything.
By the time Fiora success to kill an enemy with Thornmail, Fiora already lost 1/3 HP.

If 3 enemy champ stick together with Thornmail and Fiora strikes 1 of them with Ravenous Hydra equiped...

1080 magic damage x 3 = 3240 magic damage.

Fiora can be possible get killed and enemy champs just do nothing.

So, in order for Fiora to kill enemy champs whom equiped with Thornmail, Fiora must get The Bloodthirster for the Life Steal effect
or
magic resist items (not recommended).

Picture: The Bride Fiora

Team Fight & Gang Attack

Fiora is a good team fight member.

Heal Your Teammates

---

During team fight, always notice the HP of self and your teammate.
Activate Heal if your teammate's HP is low (even if Fiora's HP is high).
Heal your teammate,
this prevent your teammates to feed, and
allow your teammate to continuously deal more damage to enemy.
This might produce a better battle result.


Key Points of Team Fight / Group Fight

---

Pre-Assumptions:

1. 5 vs 5
2. All champions are at the same level

Key Points:

1. All team members must stick together in small group before attack.
2. All team members' ulti must ready.
3. All team members must fight together.
4. Only retreat when very low HP.
5. All team members' ulti and abilities/skills must cast and almost simultaneously. If the timing is good, at least 2 or 3 enemy champs will die instantly. This ensure the victory of current battle.

When and where is the suitable time for your team to perform a group fight?

1. When all team members' HP are full.
2. When all ulti of team member's are ready.
3. When all team members are stick together.

Then, team fight / group fight can be launched:

1. Anytime...
2. Anywhere...

Don't affraid of dying. Just Fight.

After a team fight, if your team wins...
Example: 5 of enemy champs died. Or 1 escapes...

If possible try to push the minions and break down any turret as fast as possible.
Notice the remaining revive time of died enemy champs.
If enemy champs respawned/revived, estimate the remaining time for the enemy to reach you and fallback quickly to base to heal.


Using Blade Waltz in Team Fight

---

During Blade Waltz, Fiora is untargetable (The Terminator)

To enable Fiora presents fantastic performance in team fight, Fiora must equiped with Ravenous Hydra.

Fiora can always do the 1st attack.

The team fight ability's sequence will be something like this:

Lunge >
Blade Waltz >
Burst of Speed + Riposte + Ravenous Hydra + Heal >
Flash (escape or chase)

After doing Blade Waltz, press the key "Y" immediately.
Default function of key "Y" is Camera Lock.
This will center camera on Fiora.
The reason to do this: There are so many champ (ally & enemy) flooded on screen.
Fiora's Blade Waltz is making her jumping here and there across the map.
You will have no idea where Fiora will appear/land after the last strike.

If we are facing on 1 or 2 enemy champ, it is very easy to catch up where Fiora will land after the last strike.

But if in team fight, too many objects (5v5) moving and abilities effect that might distract the proper focus and tracing the target.

Somtimes, the last strike will not be same as the 1st target when...
the 1st target is killed ...
the 1st target dodged...
the 1st target walked into forest...
the 1st target turned into invicible...

<read more at last part: Something About The Blade Waltz>

Quickly locate Fiora with the help of center camera lock.
Perform Lunge to strike one of the enemy champ.
If Lunge is under cooldown state,
then chase an enemy and do Burst of Speed + Riposte + Ravenous Hydra.

If you find that Fiora's HP is low,
activate Flash + Heal immediately and run away from battlefield.

If Flash and Heal are under cooldown state, its almost not needed to retreat. Even Fiora tries to escape, she has a very high chance that she'll finally be killed. Instead of getting killed in escape, why not do a few more attacks.

If Fiora's Blade Waltz is under cooldown state,
do not be the 1st person (a hero like Terminator) to dive into team fight.
Use Lunge + Burst of Speed + Riposte + Ravenous Hydra to help your teammate.


There is an even more powerful Blade Waltz strikes but risky.

Lunge into the middle of enemy's group.
2nd, use Riposte + Burst of Speed.
The reason to do this is to attract all enemy champs to come closer to you.
So they are close to each other... and then....
Activate Blade Waltz ... Bingo!
Blade Waltz works best if they stack together.
Everyone will be hit by Blade Waltz.
That is almost equal to doing at least 15 to 25 times Blade Waltz strikes.
Great damage.
But Fiora will be on risk.

The better option will be replaced by a tanky teammate like Pantheon, Shen, Amumu, Garen, Maokai, Rammus, Jarvan IV

Let the enemy focus on your tanky teammate, then you have to be very quickly Lunge into the center and .... Blade Waltz!

Amumu is very suitable in this situation, let him get into the center of group of enemy and do his ulti Curse of the Sad Mummy, followed by Fiora's Blade Waltz.

Picture: Night Raven Fiora.

Know Your Team Member's Fighting Ability

---

Try to aware of your team member's conditions:

What are their level?
What items do they buy?
What are their fighting style?

By knowing this, you make some prediction of the fighting results.

If your team member's level is lower than enemy's team member,
you can predict that the damage that contribute by your teammates might not much.
There is a high possibility that your teammates might left you alone during group fighting.

Besides, from the items they bought, you'll know...
which member is tanky that can resists damages, he can protect you.
which member can produce large damages and you can cooperate with him to kill enemy.

"1 vs 1" is large different to "5 vs 5".

Some team members are lack of experience in team fight and might fallback during team fight.
The reason of this is they predicted that they are out of match to fight 4 or 5 enemy champs and will die if engaged. Yes, that's correct if he/she is 1 vs 4 or 1 vs 5.
But they are not realized that they are actually 5 vs 5.
The total damages done by 5 members can actually kills a lot.

Some of the members will sacrifice in battle. This is normal.
The point is: How many ally and enemy champs are left after battle.

So, don't wait for kills. Join the fight. Contribute the damages.
You have to help out to make more members survive
and ensure enemy champs die more quickly.

If some of the team members are supportive champ, they will continuously cast out their CC (stun, snare, slow, fear, blind, heal, speed, etc). Supportive champ cast out the skills to assist other ally champ. Supportive champ should stay behind fighter champ to avoid getting killed.


Observe Your Teammate's Fighting Style

Besides understanding your enemies, your need to understand your teammates too. This provides you a better idea on how you should act in game to have optimum combat results.

Style 1: Aggressive Attacker/Tanker
This type of teammate suit best to Fiora in team fight.
In most cases, the team fight should be able to win easily.

Style 2: Wait For Kills
They will walk around outside the battlefield and join fight when 1 or 2 of the enemy's HP is low.
This ensure them to kill an enemy when commencing an attack.
In such situation, Fiora is forced to make the 1st attack and risking for dying.
This is because teammates who stand outside the battlefield might not able to give support on time. However, they still have a high chance to kill the enemy champs.

Style 3: Avoid Dying
They will fallback in team fight to avoid dying.
They will not contribute much damages to the team fight.
They might not cover you.
Therefore, the best strategy is performing backdoor attack.
Observe the map. When 3 or 4 enemy champs are identified at certain location,
gather a group of 3 members and head towards the turret directly without minions.
At the mean time, another 2 members do some safe defense to keep the enemy champs busy.
This will buy some time for the 3 members to destroy the turret.
Team members take turns to receive the damages from turret while others keep attacking.
The turret should be able to destroy easily by 3 or 4 champions.
Remember that, the key to win the game is not killing, it is destroying the turrets and inhibitors.
Sometimes, enemy champs are more powerful than your team, then, try to avoid engaging.
Perform backdoor attack.


There are lots more fight styles of teammate which are not covered here. But basically, above are some of the frequently seen fighting style. Sooner or later, you will discover more style in real game fight.

Use Riposte To Dodge Enemy Champs' Basic Attacks

---

After casting Blade Waltz, your teammates should be already involved in team fight. Enemy Champs' Abilities are predicted to be in cooldown state. There will be a short period that everybody is attacking using basic attacks/auto-attack. Riposte can resists multiple basic attack/auto-attacks at the same time. Use it whenever it is available.

Carry Your Team

---

If you are lucky enough to farm more faster than your teammates, perhaps has more kills, try to assist other lanes as well. Always notice the fighting conditions of other lanes. If enemies are pushing very hard, try to gang the enemy champions. Don't let your teammates die. Less die = less feed. You need to protect your teammates and try to share the kills with them. LoL is always not a solo hero game. Fiora won't success and win the game alone.

Training Team Fight With AI Bot

---

Gather a group of friends.
Create a custom game (Summoner's Riff) with 5 non-Tank enemy champs.

All ally champs gather at mid.
At start, there will be only 1 enemy at mid lane.
Your team should be able to kill it instanly if all attack together.

After the mid front tower destroyed, all bots will start to gather at mid.
There your team will start to experience and learn team fight.

Remember that the aim of this training is to kill an enemy team (5 champs), not destroying turret or nexus.

After several attempts of killing a group/team, you will slowly understand how a team fight works.
It is no more personal combo attacks, IT IS A GROUP COMBOs.

Under Level

In some unfortunate situations, Fiora might has lower level than others.

Example, all other enemy champs' level are already at level 14-16.
But Fiora is still at level 11-12.

Fiora will be very hard to kill an enemy champ.
She will also be very inefficient and almost not contributing in team fight.

In such situation,

Fiora's task and focus will be changed.
The main role of an under level Fiora is pushing minions and spy mission.

Try to kill any monster on the way that Fiora passed by to raise money and experience.

During pushing minions, you must put a few Sight Ward or Vision Ward at the main path in forest.
Always looked at the mini map, locate the enemy champs and estimate the possibilities of being gang.
This allow Fiora to push the minions safely.
Fallback quickly, once enemy champ is detected heading towards Fiora or the possibilities of being gang is high. Safety first.
By pushing minions continuously, Fiora can gain lots money and experiences and soon she will be able to catch up to current standard champ level.

Picture: Sad Fiora

Something About The Blade Waltz

Something you might not know about the Fiora's Blade Waltz.

The channeling of Fiora's Blade Waltz will break in a few situations:

when the enemy turn into invisible mode...

example:
Akali's Twilight Shroud
Twitch's Ambush

when the enemy run into bushes...
If Fiora start channeling Blade Waltz outside the jungle and if there is no wards or ally champ inside the bushes, there is a high possibility that Fiora will not able to see the enemy in bushes and Blade Waltz will stop.

So, if you are attacking by Fiora's Blade Waltz, hide into the bushes.

when the enemy's used dodge ability

example:
Fizz's Playful / Trickster


The Blade Waltz first and last strike the same target
If you are the first hit by Blade Waltz, you'll receive the last strike too and Fiora will appear next to you.

By the time you first hit by Blade Waltz,
quickly run into the turret area.
Then, let the turret help you to do a few attacks to Fiora.
If you are lucky, turret will help you to gain a free kill of Fiora.

You can run into the middle of you teammate too.
When Fiora appears, all your teammate will do the attacks upon Fiora and kill her.

You will have approximately 3 seconds to do this.

Blade Waltz is Inefficient Against Tank
Blade Waltz is powerful to kill non-tank champions throughout the whole game.

but for attacking tank type enemy champions, Blade Waltz is only effective from early game to middle game. After middle game, Blade Waltz will become less and less effective to kill tank, especially at late game. Therefore, to kill a tank, Fiora needs to rely on basic attacks/auto-attacks + Burst of Speed + Riposte to attack continuously until the tank die. Do Blade Waltz when then tank's HP is very very low. However, Burst of Speed is far more powerful than Blade Waltz at late game.


Blade Waltz Can Heal
If you equipped with The Bloodthirster, Blade Waltz can heal Fiora.

The Grand Duelist

Credits

The pictures shown in this guide are not the work of my own. The pictures are retrieved from the following sources:

http://leaguecraft.com/wallpapers/1231-bridesmade-fiora.xhtml
http://www.lolpro.com/guides/fiora/222-fiora-guide-top-lane-by-sydtko/author-skins
http://phantomsolari.tumblr.com/post/39140486052/fiora-the-grand-duelist-by-4rca
http://www.gamebreaker.tv/esports/league-of-legends/fiora-the-grand-duelist/
http://club.ados.fr/kandyou/league-of-legends-182150/photo/fiora-3860271.html
http://club.ados.fr/kandyou/league-of-legends-182150/photo/fiora-2-3860270.html
http://www.lolreport.com/2012/02/thoughts-on-fiora/
http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=§ion=&global=1&q=fiora
http://hyldenia.deviantart.com/art/Chibi-Fiora-royal-guard-League-of-Legends-305160131
http://hyldenia.deviantart.com/art/Fiora-Royal-Guard-League-of-Legends-318773326
http://yanniplum.deviantart.com/art/Fiora-The-Grand-Duelist-309371982
http://www.curse.com/news/league-of-legends/44146-riot-games-previews-fiora-the-grand-duelist-in
http://defaultprime.com/2012/02/24/new-league-of-legends-champion-fiora-kills-in-three-frames/