Fiora Build Guide by Tavenan

Introduction

Greetings summoners. I am Tavenan, and I shall be presenting to you my excellent Fiora guide. I seek to share what I have found to be the most effective way of building and playing the most powerful and genuinely OP solo top champion of the game. I do hope that you enjoy this guide, and wish for it to be helpful to many people :)

Pros / Cons

Like all champions, Fiora has her flaws/weaknesses and her strengths. If your team is in need of an AD (Attack Damage) champion to go Solo Top, Fiora is a fantastic choice due to her skill-set. Pick her to counter a heavy bruiser on top such as Lee Sin or Tryndamere.

Pros

Great sustain
Great 1v1 capability
Good laning power and presence
Not many mana issues
hard counter to Tryndamere


Cons

No escape mechanism, and thus open to ganks. To counter this we will pick Flash.
squishy, but all assassins are.
Fairly item dependent.

Masteries

In terms of masteries I felt that I needed to maximize her laning potential as much as possible. The current meta states that you will probably be facing an ad bruiser on top, that is the reasoning behind 3 points in Hardiness . I took 3 points in Resistance over Veteran's Scars because 6 extra magic resistance at level 1 is huge, specially in top-end play.

I put 24 points in the offensive tree instead of 21 to maximize her damage output. Vampirism was taken for extra sustain with Duelist and Doran's Blade. Summoner's Wrath for the upgraded ignite, though don't put that point there if you don't want to take ignite. Everything else is pretty self-explanatory.

Reasonable Runes

I do not recommend diverging from this rune page. The Armour penetration marks and quints are best in slot for Fiora at this time. Flat armor seals for extra sustain early game against your ad opponent up top, and magic resistance/level glyphs for extra late-game endurance.

Summoner Spells

I take Flash and Ignite for the extra killing potential in lane with flash, and also the ability to escape ganks if I have to. Ignite just ensures that you get a kill when you might not have otherwise, and increases your overall lane presence as a result. A reasonable alternative is Flash/ Teleport, but do keep in mind that you will be sacrificing killing potential for map presence.

Basically, take Ignite if you want to ensure that you get a kill after you, for example, ult someone under their turret or dive them in an unfavorable situation. Similarly, take Teleport if you want to have presence at dragon and baron and be a threat even if you're not near them. It also allows you to get back to lane quickly and avoid losing any experience and gold.

Skill Sequence

Most people will probably wonder why Riposte is maxed before everything else. This is because taking Riposte at level 1 grants you 15 extra ad, which is very huge. This can not be ignored, as 15 ad is a major amount. Each subsequent point in Riposte will grant 5 ad, which is likewise too good to pass up.

We take one point in Lunge at level 2 as it is mainly a gap closer, and investing further points in it does not help that much. As a result we will max Burst of Speed before Lunge, with a point in Blade Waltz when ever possible.

To summarize, the order priority should be

Blade Waltz> Riposte > Burst of Speed > Lunge

Skill set

Duelist: Fiora regenerates health over 6 seconds each time she deals damage. Striking champions will cause this effect to stack up to 4 times.

This passive encourages the short engagements where one utilizes all of their cooldowns and immediately backs out, much like Riven


Lunge: Fiora dashes forward to strike her target, dealing physical damage. Fiora can perform the dash a second time within a couple seconds at no mana cost.
Fiora dashes forward to strike her target, dealing 40/65/90/115/140 (+60% attack damage) physical damage.

Fiora can perform the dash a second time within 4 seconds at no mana cost.
Cost 60 Mana

Range 600

This skill is very similar to Irelia's Bladesurge. This skill can be mainly used to close the gap and get in range.


Riposte: Fiora's Attack Damage is increased. When activated, Fiora parries the next basic attack and reflects magic damage back to the attacker. Works against champions, monsters, and large minions.
Passive: Fiora's Attack Damage is increased by 15/20/25/30/35.

Active: Fiora parries the next basic attack within 1.5 seconds and reflects 60/110/160/210/260 (+100% ability power) magic damage back to the attacker. Works against champions, monsters, and large minions.
Cost 45 Mana

Range 20

Riposte only blocks autoattacks and skills that apply on-hits, meaning that spells such as Warwick's Hungering Strike and Pantheon's Spear Shot are not blocked and do not proc the reflect damage.


Burst of Speed: Fiora temporarily gains additional Attack Speed. Each basic attack or Lunge she lands during this time increases her Movement Speed. Killing a champion refreshes the cooldown on Burst of Speed.
Fiora gains 60/75/90/105/120% additional Attack Speed for 3 seconds. Each basic attack or Lunge she lands during this time increases her Movement Speed by 7/9/11/13/15% 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.)
Cost 55 Mana

Range 500

Burst of Speed is Fiora's main chasing ability and steroid. Because of this skill, there is not much need to purchase attack speed items. This skill is extremely similar to [Master Yi]'s [Highlander].


Blade Waltz: Fiora dashes around the battlefield to deal physical damage to enemy champions. Successive strikes against the same target deal less damage.
Fiora dashes around the battlefield striking random champions 5 times for 160/330/500 (+120% attack damage) physical damage. Successive strikes against the same target deal 25% damage.

The first and last attack will be against the same target. Each strike applies on-hit effects.
Cost 100 Mana

Range 400

This is a fantastic ultimate that allows Fiora to become invulnerable to damage for a few seconds. It can be extremely useful when finishing off an enemy champion under their turret, or dealing damage to an enemy champion that has dived you under your own turret.

Items

To start out the game, I usually buy

This is a meta-based issue, where if you're playing at a level that is not 800 ELO with 2 ap carries top, you will probably be facing an ad bruiser. As a result the extra Armour and pots will give Fiora the sustain she needs to farm well and b at an appropriate time.


first b:
Gold required: 1410

This is done to push your early to mid game advantage. Wards coverage is extremely important and you should ward the standard golem entrance at top. You should start to talk to your team mates and push out your lanebefore leaving to complete an objective. Always keep an eye on dragon and ask your support to keep track of the timer on dragon.

Second b:
gold required: 1725

At this time start to build towards your The Bloodthirster. Always pick up a ward for map coverage. Make sure to finish The Bloodthirster and your boots on the same trip, if at all possible. Maximize your actions on the map, never be idle.


You now have an appropriate amount of damage if you have been farming well and not feeding, and the situation develops into a question of defense/offense. 95% of the time, I pick up the following items after my The Bloodthirster:

Phage makes roaming and teamfights much easier, and the extra health gives you that survivability needed to withstand the initial burst of those ap champions like Brand and Veigar


From this point on, you should build to counter your opponents. If you are doing fairly well and 3 or more of the enemy team has started to build Armour, look to buy Last Whisper. If the majority of the enemy damage stems from auto-attacking AD champions such as Tryndamere, buy a Thornmail. If you need magic resistance in order to counter the enemy AP casters, and you are also being cc'ed a lot by the enemy team, buy a Quicksilver Sash.

Please note that there is no cookie-cutter build for Fiora after your basic core. You should always look to counter the enemy team with your purchases, with a certain degree of damage mixed in with survivability. A dead assassin does absolutely no damage, no matter how many The Bloodthirster's he has managed to stack.

Summary

Fiora is an extremely strong solo top pick at this time and I feel that she has the potential to be a very viable pick in future high-end play. It is my hope that this guide will help clear the confusion of some people who feel that Attack Speed Fiora is viable, and also bring to attention the awesomeness that is this sexy duelist. It is my sincerest hope that this guide has been helpful, and I am more than happy to address all concerns as I see them in the comments.

Thank you for reading ^.^