Fiora Build Guide by tehAsian

HeyHeyHey

Welcome to my Fiora guide!

I wasn't going to make one for her at first, but that was before I saw her incredible destructive capabilities. I discovered Fiora had the capability of being an Offtank doing Carry damage. That's insane.

I also discovered multiple ways of playing Fiora. The builds in the cheat sheet represent the 3 most effective. They are, in order,

• Anti-Carry, aka Assassin
• Brawler, aka Tanky DPSer
• Or a standard Melee Carry

The first build makes use of Fiora's high steroids and ratios to go into a teamfight and instantly kill the enemy carry.
The second build is just a regular tanky-dps build. Nothing too special about it. Just Wriggles/Atmogs.
The third is for all you die-hard "I listen to Phreak" people who insist on AD Carrying as a melee.
Now before I begin, I'd like to explain several things in the following chapters.

Common Misconceptions Needed to be Explained

To put it simply:

Fiora is the definition of a 'bad, but capable' jungler.

She can do it, yes.

She has high sustain. She can kill anyone counter jungling her. She can kill SOME of the other junglers 1 on 1. But that's about it.

Let's take a look at her many flaws:

• She has no CC to a gank.
• She has no escape in her jungle, and only medium sustain. Strong counter junglers will wreck her there.
• She's a very slow jungler with low cooldowns, only slightly alleviated with a temporary attack speed buff.
• She is very squishy early game, and her ganks can turn on her quickly.

In short, she CAN jungle, but many other junglers can simply do a lot better.

AKA Cookie Cutter AD build. For those of you who don't know, the build consists of (in no particular order):

Berserker's Greaves, exchanged for Mercury's Treads late game.
1-3x Doran's Blade for early game boosts.
Infinity Edge + Phantom Dancer for very high DPS.
The Bloodthirster for life steal sustain in fight, and even greater DPS.
Choice of Defensive item, includes Banshee's Veil, Guardian Angel, Thornmail, Frozen Mallet, etc etc.
Last Whisper or The Black Cleaver for Armor Pen/Reduction.

You could even put in Trinity Force for some carries, Atma's Impaler with Frozen Mallet, etc.

Alright, seems legit. Why not build this way?
Alright, now that we've gotten over that, let's begin with the guide.

Alright, let's get started

I feel Fiora is a very strong solo top, given a bit of farm and practice.

Ever since I've started playing her a bit, I can feel that she's a bit of a lane bully. Well, why not? She has a double gap closer, which can be used to de-initiate after poking your lane opponent given creeps are in the right position.

She has a Parry, which is practically a Spell Shield (think Shroud of Darkness) that blocks a single hit and does damage. Since we are leveling it first, it's practically suicide to retaliate. This also doubles as a 35 AD Steroid, making our Auto-attacks HURT early game.

She's a strong duelist. Again, it's nearly impossible to 1v1 a Fiora if she has her full spell combo with equal farm and the right items.

She's easy to last hit with. For those farm-fest lanes like Cho'Gath.

A bad reason to put her solo top: She doesn't belong anywhere else. Jungle Fiora, as already explained, is pretty bad in comparison to many other junglers, and she's not amazingly good in one category like Rammus with his ganks to qualify as 'good enough'.

Now, why wouldn't you want to play her Solo Top?

There's not really a reason other than she's very vulnerable to ganks because of a lack of escapes. She can still juke pretty well and once she's 6 with lifesteal she can handle some 1v2s, so part of the issue is somewhat resolved.

Runes

I've never really understood as to why people would prefer 9x AD Reds and 3x AD Quints, but after looking through several discussions, it seems to be the best combined with Weapon Expertise 's 10% Armor Pen, and Sunder 's 6 Flat Armor Pen.

Because we will start with Riposte, we get about 30 extra AD with it and Runes. Add in masteries and we start with over 90 AD. It's an incredibly strong boost to an early game, seeing as to how most ranged carries start with ~50 AD without items.

For Yellows and Blues, just take Greater Seal of Armor for the Armor and Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist for Mres per Level. Options include going full Mres against champions like Rumble, or full Armor against Garen or Renekton.

Masteries

Just go 21/9/0.

You may be building tanky, but your primary goal is to do damage.

Points in Executioner , Brute Force , Deadliness , etc give you a small boost.

Vampirism helps you stay in lane. 3% of 90 is about 3 health gain per hit, which adds up over time. Combine with Duelist and you have a LOT of sustain just from your Auto-attacks.

Summoner's Wrath for Exhaust or Ignite.

I chose to put points into the defensive tree mainly because of extra tankiness.

The initial 3 points can be put into Resistance or Hardiness . Either is fine.

Durability and Veteran's Scars are for the extra health, making you slightly tankier early game.

Honestly, I wouldn't recommend any other Masteries for Fiora as I feel these fit her at a Solo Top role very well already. If you'd really like, you can go 9/21/0 for extra Tenacity, but that's about it.

Summoner Spells

Standard spells, just Flash and Exhaust. Flash is always useful, and Exhaust helps shut down the other laner and gives much needed CC to Fiora.

However, you may see in Build 3, I have Flash and Heal.

The reasoning for this is simple: For Tower Diving Purposes.

Fiora is an amazing tower-diver with Blade Waltz, being untargetable for a few seconds WHILE dealing Tons of Damage. The most dangerous part of Blade Waltz is that it sometimes puts you in an unfavorable position, or more specifically at an enemy turret. Heal can bring you out of that situation easily, using Flash if necessary.

Another reason to get Heal is to bait. Blade Waltz is a GREAT bait tool and last resort trick. Getting tower-dived? R + Heal to full. Simple as that. Be sure to get the mastery for it too~

Items

Item Goals

When selecting a certain set of items, I had a several goals in mind.

First, I wanted to be tanky. This meant 125+ Armor AND Magic Resistance so I could withstand damage and heal it back with life steal.

Second, I wanted 2.5 Attack Speed with Burst of Speed. To achieve this, combined with her base Atkspeed at 18 Fiora needs approximately 100% from items. As you can tell in build 1, Wit's End(40%), Trinity Force(30%), Elixir of Agility(22%) bring me to 92%. Alacrity in masteries bring me to 96%.

Lastly, I needed high AD to synergize well with my high attack speed and get the maximum benefits off life steal. All the above builds bring you over 350.

Core Items

My core items that make Fiora a complete beast at solo top is very simple.

Wriggle's Lantern
Ninja Tabi or Mercury's Treads
Wit's End

That's it. The 3 items here serve three different functions.

1. Durability. Being a very durable champion will allow you to have a higher chance of surviving ganks, getting your ult off, running away, tanking turrets, etc.
2. Sustain. Coupled with Durability, whenever you find yourself a tiny bit too low, push E and heal yourself to full in literally 3 seconds. I've seen Yoricks, Cho'Gaths, Maokais trying to push me out of lane, blowing 1/4-1/3 of their mana only for me to heal it off.
3. Damage. Having a mix of Magical and Physical damage from Wriggle's Lantern and Wit's End, combined with Burst of Speed and her chasing power makes Fiora very difficult to deal with in both running away and dueling.

So in a nutshell, taking these 3 items make Fiora an immovable fortress.

Starting Items

Depending on my lane opponent, I start either with Boots of Speed and 4 Health Potions, Cloth Armor 5 pots, or Doran's Blade/ longsword and pot.

I start Doran's Blade or longsword if I feel aggressive and want that first blood. I don't usually do so because it's somewhat unreliable, and Fiora's killing potential doesn't come until around levels ~7 or 8 when points are put into Burst of Speed. Take these against passive laners like Nasus or Sion who just want to farmfarmfarm.

Boots of Speed is a neutral start because it can really go both ways. You can use the extra movespeed to chase and kill, or to avoid skillshots/damage or last hit better. I start these against Cho'Gath, Dr. Mundo, etc.

Cloth Armor and 5 pots is a defensive start. Against heavy harass and/or lots of physical damage like Yorick(harass) or Pantheon/ Renekton(Lots of physical damage), the pots and extra durability alone can force them to go B more often that you think.

Boot Choices

There are only 3 viable boots for Fiora, IMO.

Berserker's Greaves, Mercury's Treads or Ninja Tabi.

Berserker's Greaves should always be switched out for Mercs or Tabi late game, so might as well not get it at all, we have plenty of Attack Speed from other items.

My boot choices really come down to the other team's jungler and top laner, with the top laner as priority, but if I identify the jungler as a bigger threat (because top lane got killed multiple times already) I'll itemize accordingly.

The decision mainly comes down to this:
Is there any CC I should be worried about?
Am I stomping Top Lane, as in 3/0 or more?
What kind of damage does top lane do?
Or something like that. You can never be too tanky for top lane to deal with.

I'm done with my Core. Now what?

Well, you'd want more damage, obviously :p

Don't forget the goal of this guide is to be a tanky anti-carry~

There are several choices of damage items. My personal favorites after my core are, like in build 1:

The Bloodthirster to Trinity Force. Trinity Force gives a bit of everything, and absolutely nothing is wasted on Fiora. If you'd like, you can trade the Bloodthirster for an Infinity Edge which will make your DPS skyrocket. Just get a Zeal first, as you need crit to make the full benefit off Infinity Edge.

The Bloodthirster is just for some more in-fight sustain and damage, because life steal on Fiora is amazing with Blade Waltz and Burst of Speed.

Trinity Force Now this might need a bit of explaining. NOTHING is wasted on Fiora. That's good. But some might argue that it's bad because even if it gives some, it gives too little, or the proc is useless because Fiora has 'long cooldowns'.

Fiora has anything but long cooldowns. Did you forget her E resets on every champion kill? Her Q can be used twice before it's on cooldown. W is on a moderately short cooldown of 6 seconds. Blade Waltz applies Trinity Force on the first hit for extra burst.

Assuming you're doing your job as an Anti-Carry, you should constantly have those procs going, meaning you'll do MORE and MORE burst damage instead of just regular sustained dps.

Other options include:

The Black Cleaver for if your lane opponent is stacking light armor.

Last Whisper against Malphite or Rammus.

Hexdrinker against fed AP champions, etc. There are tons of items you can pick. I'll go more in-depth with them later. Build this into a Maw of Malmortius later.

Infinity Edge Crit and Crit damage goes well with Fiora, and this item gives the highest base AD out of any item in the game.

Frozen Mallet can be used for extra survivability and permaslow.

Atma's Impaler transfers 1.5% of your health into AD. This is good if you are thinking of going Atmogs.

Madred's Bloodrazor Expensive as hell item, but this with your ult will completely tear apart a single target. I don't get this because again, one: it's expensive, and two: it belongs in a DPS build when our job is to anti-carry.

Youmuu's Ghostblade Synergy with the champion is always good. Pop your E, pop this, and watch the magic happen.
Tiamat For teh lolz.

Phantom Dancer I personally feel I get enough Atkspeed from other items, and I don't really miss thse Movespeed or Crit, so I don't get this. This just feels too glass-cannon for me to consider, but if that's what you want go for it.

Executioner's Calling No.

Bilgewater Cutlass No.

After Tons of Damage...

I get a Guardian Angel. This gives me the HIGHEST resistance boost in the game, and a second chance every 5 minutes. There is also no better way to deter your enemies from attacking you than having that white thingy around you.

If you die? Revive and Ult. Coupled with life steal, you'll get enough health back to survive the rest of the fight.

You don't necessarily HAVE to get a GA though. Any defensive item is fine, really.

Choices include:

Quicksilver Sash for any long CC effect like Puncturing Taunt or an on-demand Cleanse. Cleanse + Ult is OP btw.

Banshee's Veil for those 'one time' abilities you'd rather not deal with, like Cryptic Gaze or Requiem.

Or just flat out defensive items such as Randuin's Omen, Force of Nature, Frozen Heart, all that good stuff.

Aegis of the Legion If you're deciding on getting this, tell your support not to get it, this gives GREAT benefits to your team and should be considered if you want to be a bit tankier.

Shurelya's Reverie If you started with a Philosopher's Stone for some reason. The speed boost and CDR helps, but I don't really like Philo stone on Fiora so I don't get this.

Warmog's Armor If you got Atma's Impaler.

End Game

Sell your Wriggle's Lantern for something else.

I usually favor even more damage at this point (so I can burst squishies. Duh.).

Items that give a lot of OOMPH are good. But chances are, you aren't going to be fed every game to go glass cannon.

For those specific games, you might need an extra defensive item.

There isn't really anything limiting you to building a certain way. If you're ahead, stay ahead with damage. If you're behind, get a defensive item so you don't fall behind any more.

Skill Sequence

First Point

Depending on my lane opponent, I'll max my skills out differently and start differently.

Most of the time I'll start W.

Starting with Riposte lets me trade hits and literally take no damage, while my opponent takes about 1.5-2x as much damage. This is mostly due to the mindset that Fiora deals mostly Physical damage, so enemies will stack Armor to counter you. The thing they fail to realize is that most of Fiora's early damage is Magical, from Riposte.

Starting with W also allows me to last hit easier because I have 90 AD. Simple as that.

Starting with Lunge (Q) makes me more mobile overall. It also has decent damage and is useful if you have someone who ganks early. Having a double gap closer is better than having a shield, which won't activate because you won't be getting hit or a Atkspeed boost, which won't be used because you won't be close enough.

Another reason to start Q is to juke. It moves you quickly enough to easily dodge skillshots or skills like Nevermove or Rupture, and also good for tricking people into going a wrong direction in the brush.

Again, it depends on the lane matchup.

I'll be more specific as I update this, but here is a general decision maker:

Are you passive or aggressive? If you're playing passively, start W to avoid damage and bait. If you're playing aggressively, start Q to bully lane phase.

Also take into account of your lane matchup.

Against champions like Riven, Lee Sin, or Gangplank who have predicatble Riposte-able actions ( Runic Blade, Flurry, Parrrley) start W to reflect damage and deal it at the same time. But then again, you'd probably start W anyway :P

Skill Order

For my priorities I max Riposte over Burst of Speed over Lunge, taking Blade Waltz whenever I can. In letters terms: R > W > E > Q

If I want to bully my lane, I'll max Burst of Speed over Riposte.

I usually max Riposte first because it is by far the BEST trading skill in the game. I mean, you take no damage, attacker takes extra? AND you have boosted AD? Yes please. This is the most common start for Fiora as it sets up a very safe lane phase outside of ganks.

I max Riposte first against aggressive laners as it will mitigate a lot of damage and keep their aggression in check.

E is the best bullying skill in Fiora's skill set. With this maxed first, you can Lunge up to someone and slap them a four or five times and run off with your speed boost.

I max Burst of Speed first against passive laners so I can forcefully deny them farm and experience.

Never max Q first. It should be used for mobility, and most of the time you use the first portion on minions to get in range. It's just not worth it IMO.

Gameplay

Riposte Start

What you're going to want to do is at level 1 farm carefully. Wait for your opponent to engage.

When you see them try to hit you with an AA, hit Riposte and auto-attack them back. Also, try not to get baited into doing so, because it will make you vulnerable for a while and waste mana.

Repeat this over and over as many times as possible or necessary.

If the enemy laner has some kind of CC that stops you from casting, try casting W earlier, i.e. If Sion uses his stun, pop W before it lands, but late enough so that he has to stall a bit until he can hit you safely.

At level 2, take Lunge. Whenever you think the lane is too quiet or if your opponent over-extends, you'll want to Lunge into them, anticipate if Riposte is necessary, and auto-attack them once. Then, Lunge out toward a minion away from the enemy laner. This practically gives free harass, and is difficult to trade with because the enemy can't auto-attack you back.

At level 3, take Burst of Speed. At this point, I start playing more aggressively, using pots to heal up any damage taken and harassing more often.

You're going to want to do what you did at level 2, except add in Burst of Speed before you Lunge.

Lunge applies a stack on Burst of Speed, allowing you to continue slapping them with a small speed boost.

So basically, now you want to harass like so: Burst of Speed and instantly Lunge, auto-attack, auto-attack, Lunge out, putting in a Riposte if necessary.

You can also use the second portion of Lunge offensively for extra damage, and rely on Burst of Speed's speed boost to get out.

Although doing this is important, be careful to not use too much mana, you want the other laner to know you can repeat this over and over.

When you get your Blade Waltz at level 6, if your opponent is at or below half health, you might want to try and kill him.

Now, this is important. Wait for him to come in for CS, but don't Lunge at him yet. When he gets close to you, activate Burst of Speed and start smacking him. Attempt to Parry any auto-hit damage, and when he starts running, Lunge at him/her.

We delay Lunge so long because it is a double gap closer and we can use it when they Flash away. Doing so can catch them off guard.

Continue hitting them until the distance between you starts increasing. Before he gets out of range, use Blade Waltz to finish him off. NOW Flash out of tower range if necessary, or Heal if you're using the Carry build.

You can also mix in an Exhaust if you feel it's necessary.

If you didn't kill him, don't worry. Do not take unnecessary risks. Remember that you did that with little to no offensive items. Just farm up, go B, and try again. They missed out on farm and experience, and you didn't. That was a good enough success.

At this point, if you pushed them back to base or is at their turret, port back and buy items. If you were farming correctly, you should have at least 1300+ gold.

Go ahead and buy any portion of your Core Items ( ).

If you are dominating your lane, buy more offensively oriented items. If the lane is neutral or you are losing, buy defensive items. At this point, I usually pick up a Vampiric Scepter for sustain and a Cloth Armor or Long Sword, or maybe a Recurve Bow if I have enough.

Run back to lane and repeat everything if necessary. Farm up carefully, harass, and kill if possible. As you get to a higher and higher level, play more and more aggressively.

Fiora's mana costs stay consistent throughout the whole game, while her mana pool and regeneration gets higher and higher.

This means you are free to harass more and more, which translates to being more aggressive.

Effectively balancing how much you can harass at the given time is crucial to mastering Fiora.

---

In team fights, remember you are an Anti-Carry.

Wait for your tank to initiate, locate that AD Carry, and Lunge at them.

If they Flash away or do something like Condemn, Lunge at them again. This is why Riot gave us two ^_^

If you get CCed out of it, you still have Flash. This is also the reason why we need CC reduction from Mercury's Treads.

If you are taking too much damage, Riposte and Exhaust will increase your chances of survival.

If you get knocked away again, remember Blade Waltz has about the same range as Flash, essentially making it a fourth gap closer.

Once you get close enough, use Burst of Speed to burst them down, applying the Trinity Force slow and proc.

Fiora has MANY tools to deal with fed carries, which is why I choose to play her in such a way.

When you're done with the AD Carry (hopefully you're still alive and did your job), focus the AP Carry. This will be easier because you will have Wit's End stacked up, reducing their damage if they want to retaliate against you. Also, Burst of Speed's cooldown should be refreshed.

Then kill the rest of the team ^_^ kill the tank last because they might have some Thornmail or Randuin's Omen stuff going on.

Additional Tips and Tricks

Lunge Specific

• You can jump to an enemy champion, then jump to a minion away from them for some quick harass.
• This has a ******edly long cooldown. Use it wisely early game.
• You can use this to juke through the brush. This can aid in escaping tight situations.

Riposte Specific

• Against a Ranged Champion, be sure to follow up with Lunge so you don't lose out in trades.
• Try not to spam this in lane either, you don't want to run OOM.
• Always activate this at the last second to avoid it being 'baited' out.

Burst of Speed Specific

• With high attack speed and life steal, you can activate this for a moment and attack back at your pursuers 3 times for the speed boost, then continue running.
• Lunge applies to Burst of Speed. Keep this in mind to determine when would be the right time to use this.

Blade Waltz Specific

• Be careful!! Using this incorrectly could get you killed (like in the Champion Spotlight)
• This doesn't have to be a finisher. You can use this to open up 1v1 fights with the Armor Shred on The Black Cleaver, get your Wit's End stacks up, or similar, or you can just use it for the damage.
• This can save your life when someone tower dives you. Also, the lifesteal coupled with this can sustain yourself and you can bait quite hard with this.

WHY U NO MAKE PRETTY GUIDE?

Because color is overrated on everything except Lux.

But honestly, what does COLOR have to do with how well a guide is written?

I decided to make a change, and not include colors for once. Just pure information and BBCoding, that's it. CasterMaster is doing the same, and Duff never put colors in his guides.

And before you say "You're just doing what the cool kids are doing." I am not >_>

I just realized, with a lot of other people on this forum,

A guide on this site can look as nice as it can be. It will go up to 90% SOLELY because it has chapter headings and banners and is colorful and stuff.

Very few people will notice the mistakes, the Trinity Force on Malzahar, the Infinity Edge on Annie, the Phantom Dancer on Dr. Mundo.

Just because the guide is pretty.

I'm not saying a guide with no information but a wall of text will get to the top. I'm not saying good information but a ****py cheatsheet will get to the top either.

I'm saying all a GREAT guide has to have is accurate, correct information that teaches the reader something that makes them improve their knowledge and/or gameplay on that champion.

It's that simple.

MAYBE I'll add in some when I have the time, or I feel like the readers deserve it. MAYBE. But it's not going to happen any time soon.

Peace :3

In All...

Fiora is a tough champion to play because of the lack of an escape, is overall pretty squishy, but in exchange for defenses she has a ton of offensive power that more than make up for her defenses.

I decided to harness that power into making her an Anti-Carry, winning fights solely because you force the other team to lose their major damage sources.

Doing so, you can easily carry yourself and your team through games.

Thanks for reading my Fiora guide, and I hope I helped you learn how to get a better grasp of our Duelist :3

Change Log

April 19, 2012

• Changed The Black Cleaver into Infinity Edge + Elixir of Agility
• Changed information in the item section accordingly