Fiora Build Guide by Velediron

Introduction

Fiora

Fiora

Long Sword

Cloth Armor

Health Potion

Fiora - Champion Overview

Fiora Laurent, the Grand Duelist
Cost: 6300 IP or 975 RP
Release Date: February 29, 2012




Statistics
Health 450 (+85 per level, 1980 at 18)

Health regen. 6.3 (+0.8 per level, 20.7 at 18)

Attack damage 54.5 (+3.2 per level, 108,9 at 18)

Attack speed 0.672 (+3.00% per level)

Mana 220 (+40 per level, 940 at 18)

Mana regen. 7.25 (+0.5 per level, 16.25 at 18)

Armor 15.5 (+3.5 per level, 78,5 at 18)

Magic res. 30 (+1.25 per level, 52,5 at 18)

Range 125

Mov. speed 325

Pros / Cons

• Absolutely massive burst damage, and good sustained damage thorough longer fights.
• Probably the most powerful self-steroid buff.
• Easy lasthits with Riposte's AD boost.
• Can sustain her health for a long time in jungle, or in a lane.
• Completely devours most ranged carries.
• A great duelist! (Duh!)
• Good base movement speed.
• Not as item reliant as some carries.
• Good gap closer ability. ( Lunge)
• Great AD scaling in her ultimate, Blade Waltz
• By far the sexiest and most badass AD carry.

• Squishy, surviving in lane needs focus.
• Absolutely no CC from abilities.
• Poor earlygame mana pool if you're spamming abilities too much.
• Silly run animation.

Skills Overview

Duelist (Innate): Fiora regenerates 7 + (1 × level) health over 6 seconds each time she deals physical damage. Striking champions will cause this effect to stack up to 4 times.

While this is a decent earlygame passive for sustaining, it begins to wear off in usefulness mid/lategame. Having one stack of it isn't very effective, but it has it's uses when poking against enemy champions in lane.

Lunge (Active): Fiora dashes forward to strike her target, dealing physical damage. Fiora can perform the dash a second time within 4 seconds at no mana cost.

A great gap closer, but the skill seems to have poor AD scaling (+0.6 bonus AD). Don't let this deceive you, though. Once you gain some bonus AD, using this ability twice on the same target will give you a slight boost in damage. Mainly, you should use this for the utility as a gap closer. A great ability to use to jump onto their ranged carry. Do note that this ability will NOT proc on-hit effects.

Riposte (Passive): Fiora's attack damage is increased. (Active): Fiora parries the next basic attack within 1.5 seconds and reflects magic damage back to the attacker. Works against champions, monsters, and large minions.

This ability is great to avoid damage earlygame in lane. See that Ashe's first 100% crit arrow headed your way? Just pop Riposte. It'll parry all the damage and send back some magic damage. Even if the arrow is mid-flight and you activate Riposte, it will block it. The passive also grants you a great passive AD boost, which is why it should be picked first. The active of this ability will block all damage from one basic attack (or ability that procs on-hit effects, such as Ezreal's Mystic Shot or Garen's Decisive Strike), It will NOT save you from the on-hit effects such as Decisive Strike's silence, Ashe's Frost Arrow or the red buff DoT. This ability will not block abilities that do not apply on-hit effects.

Burst of Speed (Active): Fiora gains additional attack speed for 3 seconds. Each autoattack or Lunge she lands during this time increases her movement speed for 3 seconds, stacking up to 3 times. Killing a champion refreshes the cooldown on Burst of Speed. Assists reduce the cooldown by half of the base amount.

This an awesome ability. The AS burst this gives is massive and you can make the most of it by first using Lunge on your enemy, activating the Burst of Speed and using Lunge again, granting you the movement speed buff and allowing you to stay ontop a fleeing enemy. It is also great for quick skirmishes in lane, leaving you with 4 stacks of Duelist that buff up your health regen. The correct timing for this ability can make or break a good Fiora. Using this too early or getting it denied will hurt your damage, especially earlygame when the CD is very long. You don't have to be a rocket physichist to realize you should use this after Sion popped his stun on you.

Blade Waltz (Active): Fiora dashes around the battlefield, becoming untargetable in the process, and striking random enemy champion(s) 5 times, dealing physical damage. Successive hits against the same target deal 25% damage. The first and last attack will be against the same target. Each strike applies on-hit effects.

This ultimate is simply amazing. It's like an improved Alpha Strike, in the form of physical damage, great AD scaling, ability to hit the same target 5 times and applying on-hit effects each strike. This ability shouldn't usually be used as an opener, though. Using it after Burst of Speed is on cooldown, or if you're being focused in a teamfight, or if you're low on health. Blade Waltz benefits from lifesteal greatly, which is why it should be used after you've taken some damage. It also makes you untargetable for the whole duration. However, if you're too low on health, dots that have been already applied, or missiles flying at you will kill you even during the strikes. Using this ability will drop turret aggro, and the untargetable factor can be great when you're being dived, allowing you to burst down your enemies with your tower. This, too, is an ability that will make or break a good Fiora. Using Blade Waltz exhausted nearly completely crumbles your damage, and lifesteal with it. Even worse, if you're blinded, none of the strikes will land. If your target dies or stealths during this ability, it will end. More upsides to this ability though, you can't be blinded or exhausted during it, and it applies on-hit effects. (This means Madred's Bloodrazor will proc 5 times during it, for a total of 20% magic damage of their health!) During Blade Waltz, you are able to use some summoner spells (such as Ignite.)

Skill Sequence

I prefer to begin with Riposte at level 1. This grants me a good AD boost of 15 damage, and the ability to reflect back some damage if the enemy decides to attack. At level two, I pick Burst of Speed because Lunge has poor AD scaling, and it will help you fighting head-on with the enemy if they decide to strike. However, if you're doing good and you don't need the 'roids, you can pick Lunge for the gap closer utility. When Blade Waltz becomes available, you should obviously pick it at all times. (Levels 6, 11 and 16.)

Short story shorter, my preference of skill sequence is:
Blade Waltz > Riposte > Burst of Speed > Lunge

Runes

For runes, I prefer to pick the common AD carry choices. Those being Armor Penetration, Flat Armor and Magic Resist per level. For Quintessences, I pick Flat Armor Penetration, but if you need the earlygame bulkiness, you should pick flat health.

Marks: 9x Greater Mark of Desolation
Seals: 9x Greater Seal of Armor
Glyphs: 9x Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist
Quintessences: Greater Quintessence of Health or Greater Quintessence of Desolation

Masteries

For masteries, I pick a simple 21-0-9 build. This is my personal preference and I find it most effective, but using it or something else is up to you. Going 21-9-0 isn't a bad idea if you want to have earlygame defense.

Why didn't I pick Lethality ? This build is Attack Damage focused, and even with the full build you would only reach 18% crit.

The rest masteries should be self-explanatory.

Items

I've been playing Fiora since her release, and as most of you probably know, building full glass cannon is rarely smart unless you're pubstomping. During my games, I've chosen my items to often be like the item sequence shows. However, items should always be situational, and you should build according to the team's needs.

Starting Items

& OR OR & 3x

Long Sword

Madred's Razors

Boots

Arguably one of the all-around best boots for any champion, Mercury's Treads Are great for Fiora aswell, as she is vulnerable to CC. It also gives great earlygame MR that she lacks.

Core Items

From earlier on, you should still have your Madred's Razors, Vampiric Scepter and Phage. These items are upgraded into these.

But why Madred's Bloodrazor instead of Infinity Edge? Why is there no Infinity Edge in the build at all? Well, Blade Waltz procs on-hit effects, and Infinity Edge grants no attack speed at all. To maximize the use of the crit damage boost, I'd have to stack crit aswell. Cost-effective, Madred's Bloodrazor is just a better item for Fiora, granting every stat she needs in one neat (alas expensive) package. The Bloodthirster gives solid AD and lifesteal, and Frozen Mallet grants the bulkiness, some AD and a great slow to be used. Not to mention the +14 AD buff from it if you get Atma's.

Situational Items

If you get past the Core items, it's probably lategame by now. If the game goes well and you don't struggle with a specific enemy, you can most probably safely get Last Whisper or The Black Cleaver for additional damage. Sometimes though, you'll need some extra MR for that pesky Karthus whom earned a tad too many kills with Requiem. The Maw of Malmortius is a very cost-effective item for Fiora to counter MR champions, boosting your AD in the process. However, if you don't struggle with champions that deal magic damage, it should be safe to pick Atma's Impaler for that extra +40 damage, armor and some sweet crit. Also, one very effective item for Fiora is Wit's End and by no means should be underestimated. If you have the chance, BUY IT! By this time you should be completely devastating the enemy team, being able to waltz right in! (Oh, and that's a metaphor. Don't open fights with Blade Waltz!)

Summoner Spells

Ignite

Flash

Fiora

Exhaust

Ignite

Ignite

Blade Waltz

Exhaust

Smite

Changelog

05.03.2012: Added Boots of Speed and 3x Health Potions to the Starting Items section.
05.03.2012: Changed Item Sequence to include Last Whisper instead of The Black Cleaver, and added Last Whisper into the Situational Items section.
20.05.2012: Added Wit's End into the Situational Items section. Also updated some other sections with minor changes.

Summary

And so, my guide is finished so far. It's the first I've written, and english is not my native language, so bear with my typos and point them out!

Please do leave me a comment and vote the guide, it means alot. If you downvote, please do tell me why, and what should be improved. And before you do downvote, try the build out!

Criticism is always welcome, I don't expect the guide to be perfect, so do point out flaws if you believe they exist!

Thank you for staying.
- Vel.