About the Author: Crs SYDTKO
Crs SYDTKO: 2300+ Elo solo queue top 15, top rated at rank 5. AP player for unRestricted. Competed in over 10 major tournaments. Placed 2nd in Premier league Playoffs. Stream daily for CLGaming.net, you can watch me live at http://www.twitch.tv/sydtko.
Description and Role

Fiora is a top lane melee DPS or a jungler. You should itemize to be a bruiser much like every other top lane and her kit gives her enough damage to focus primarily on health and resists. You should always be attempting to kill their AD carry as Fiora as with her ultimate you can sandbag your health very low, use it to regain quite a lot and continue fighting. If you kill their AD carry with your ultimate, you'll likely be able to clean up the rest of the team as your sustain will likely be higher than their DPS.
Lore

As the youngest child of the noble House Laurent, Fiora always considered herself destined for greatness. The Laurents had dominated the dueling culture of Demacia's aristocracy for centuries, and Fiora's father was regarded as one of the finest swordsmen the nation had ever seen. Inspired by his tales of glory, Fiora began training as soon as she could wield a blade and quickly showed greater talent than any of her siblings. As she grew older, her self-confidence and rigid discipline only widened the gulf of expertise between Fiora and her peers. Her fellow duelists perceived her confidence as arrogance, but none could defeat her in combat, and each victory only heightened her lofty self-esteem. Even so, Fiora never allowed herself to become complacent in her training, and she drove herself ever harder to become a worthy successor to her father's legacy.

Her devotion turned out to be misplaced. On the eve of an arranged duel, Fiora's father was caught slipping a slow paralysis poison into his opponent's drink. Following the incident, many of his past opponents came forward with their own accusations: envenomed weapons, bribery, blackmail, and more. In an instant, he had destroyed his family's honorable reputation. Fiora was outraged. Not only had her hero betrayed her ideals, but Demacia's dueling elite now doubted her own ability. She desperately wanted to wipe the stain from her family's history but, even more, she wanted the world to acknowledge her mastery. She found her solution in the one arena where she could fight the world's strongest warriors without being accused of dishonesty: the League of Legends.

''Fiora's ego would be insufferable if it wasn't so . . . justified.''

Strategy
Laning Phase

Top lane is pretty standard and it's played the same way almost all of the time. Top lane's mechanics are played to where you buy enough sustain to maintain your health and try to push when you have a huge advantage. When you don't have a clear advantage, you want to try to freeze the wave near your tower. You can do this by tanking the creeps and sustaining with Fiora's passive and whatever lifesteal you may have bought.

Knowing when to trade is probably one of the most important things about top lane. Trading early can mean you get a health advantage, however, it means you'll push and if their jungler is going to level 2 gank you, you'll most likely get punished for trading too early. Due to Riposte, Fiora will win every auto attack trade if it's just one for one, so the more time you can buy out using Riposte for trading, the better.

If your opponent has no sustain you should be trying to Lunge at them as often as you possibly can, try to get four auto attacks before you back up so that you can maximize the effects of Duelist, her passive. Burst of Speed can help you get up to four stacks quite easily.
Tactics

Fiora plays pretty similarly to champions like Tryndamere and Master Yi. You want to wait until you see your opponents use a lot of their crowd control effects before you even enter a fight, however, you can initiate fights due to your Blade Waltz being a lot like Tryndamere's ult where you can no longer be a focus target for a short period of time.

The cool thing about Blade Waltz is that it not only deals damage, it also prevents you from being targetted by the enemy team, this also means that Blade Waltz Makes you untargetable for the duration of the ability and also removes turret aggro from Fiora, so it's used best to finish low health enemies hiding under their turret.

Blade Waltz basically counts as 5 separate basic attacks. Hence, it will proc anything that any other basic attacks proc. It will also be affected by any non AS related buff/debuff that any other basic attacks are affected by. These include the summoner spell Exhaust.

If you're chasing an enemy champion that's too far use Lunge on a enemy minion and use its second dash to catch up.

Tips, Tricks, Synergies and Counters
Tips and Tricks

Always try to hit an enemy champion four times in a trade, at the minimum, this will stack your passive to its fullest potential
Use Burst of Speed then Lunge to get the passive movement speed so that they cannot escape a trade
Use Riposte if and when it seems as though they're going to fight back
Try to look for an enemy AD carry's attack to Riposte, Riposting anything else is less useful
Use Blade Waltz as a disengage in the middle of the fight to try to gain some lifesteal

Synergies and Counters
Synergies

Galio
Morgana

As a hypercarry, Fiora has ridiculous synergy with Morgana for her Black Shield. If you get a Black Shield as Fiora, you're practically invincible with Riposte and have the ability to run into the enemy team to execute their AD carry. She also has a similar synergy with Galio for his Bulwark and ability to lock down the enemy team, leaving her free to deal damage.
Counters

Gangplank
Malphite
Yorick

Fiora has problems dealing with champions that could stack on armor as well as those who outsustain her. Pirate will be able to shut down her farm pretty effectively early on and she will need ganks. Malphite can Ground Slam her Burst of Speed buff so that she practically has no attack speed. Yorick will also be able to deny her farm pretty heavily. If Irelia gets too many items she'll stack on too much armor and be able to out trade you with her true damage.

Starting Items

Boots of Speed
Health Potion
x3

or

Cloth Armor
Health Potion
x5

As with every other top lane, you should choose your start items according to what you're against. Against physical damage dealers you will need the armor and five potions. Against ability power champions you need the movement speed to be aggressive and close that gap or, alternately, to dodge their skillshots.
Core Items

Mercury's Treads
Doran's Blade
Doran's Blade
Vampiric Scepter
Phage

Going into mid game you'll want to be buying Mercury's Treads or Ninja Tabi, based on what you're going against or how much crowd control the enemy team has. Ninja Tabi are generally considered a counterbuy against difficult laning phases against physical damage dealers. The Doran's Blades will give you the sustain and early health boost you need to survive as well. An early Vampiric Scepter will also ensure that you can survive through laning phase and trading with your opponent. You should always think about getting an early phage so that when you dash to an opponent you have a good chance of slowing them. You can also slow your opponents with your ultimate, so it's nearly guaranteed to proc with just a phage.
Endgame Items

Frozen Mallet
The Bloodthirster
Atma's Impaler
Guardian Angel
Last Whisper

Your finishing item's order will really depend on how the game has been playing. If you're winning your lane you'll most certainly want a Bloodthirster as it will keep you sustained and in lane. It also means that if you happen to roam, your chance of converting kills is much higher, however, if you're losing lane you're more likely to want to go for items such as Atma's Impaler, especially against physical damage dealers. Against ability power champions such as Vlad, Kennen, and Rumble a combination of Bloodthirster and Frozen Mallet will best keep you alive against them. You could pick up other items such as Aegis, Hexdrinker or even Wit's End against AP champions. When it comes to teamfighting, you'll definitely want to have a Guardian Angel when endgame comes around so that even if you get focused down early, you'll still be able to be a huge nuisance in a fight.

Alternative Build:

Boots of Speed
Health Potion
x3
Warmog's Armor
Mercury's Treads
The Bloodthirster
Zeke's Herald
Phantom Dancer
Guardian Angel

under construction, some details missing graphics