Fizz Build Guide by ReceptiveRaptor

Introduction

Hey everyone Raptor here, this is my first guide for the amazing assassin Fizz, The Tidal Trickster.

I have been playing Fizz, The Tidal Trickster since he was first Free to play the week after his release. I purchased him after a week of saving for the Influence Points and I have played well over 600 games with him.

Before I get into the guide though I just want to state that I play a VERY reckless Fizz, I tower dive with Fizz, I run in 2v1 with Fizz maybe even 3v1 if the circumstances are fitting. Simply put I am a maniac with Fizz and I have found it to be a very effective, very fun and very moderate risk high payout play style.

I am summoner level 30 but I have chose not to engage in Ranked play because I play League of Legends purely for fun with friends.

This is my recent match history since using this build that I am showing you now.

About Fizz

Fizz is an AP Carry capable of dealing massive burst damage and damage over time.
Fizz is Nimble and as such can be used to maneuver the Field of Justice with ease.

This build highlights the best builds (in my opinion) for Fizz The Tidal Trickster, both the "Glass Cannon", "Tanky AP" and the "Shut Down" Fizz build are my creation and have been tested over countless games, these build are to me the best and the only way to play Fizz.

Happy reading.

Pros and Cons

Masteries

With Fizz I feel there are not really many ways to run the mastery tree and in my opinion the Nine points in Defense are necessary as they give you +6 Magic Resist, +6 Armor and +3 Health Regen per 5 seconds.

This next Mastery Tree is something I've cooked up to go with those of you who use Heal/Clarity and also focuses more on being there for utility than offense, Note, This mastery tree is still very experimental, I can't vouch for its viability, however if you try it and it works/doesn't work please let me know so I can change it accordingly.

This next Mastery Tree is my new favorite, sure, you lose the ignite buff but you gain something more, runic affinity so you can keep that blue buff longer, you also get a free [[Greater Quintessence of Swiftness]

Runes

Greater Quintessence of Ability Power x3: They are standard Quintessences you will want on any AP champion as they give 15 ability power at level 1.
Greater Mark of Magic Penetration x9: 8.5 Magic Pen.
Greater Seal of Knowledge x9: 10.5 Mana per level with 189 mana at level 18, these should help those of you that are spam happy.
Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power x9: They slowly give you a massive 27 Ability Power.

The above runes are my runes of choice with Fizz as they give me 8.5 Magic Pen and about 20 Ability Power at level 1. However some other rune setups you could use are:

Optional Rune Setup 1:

Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed x3: Movement speed, Fizz is an assassin but he doesn't move fast at all, by default with Sorcerers Shoes you only have 380 move speed.
Greater Mark of Magic Penetration x9: 8.5 Magic Pen, What else?
Greater Seal of Replenishment x9: Mana Regen, Use these if you are new to Fizz, think of them as training wheels, you'll get used to his mana control and you'll be able to swap them out later on.
Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction x9: Cooldown reduction, Spamming your Q,W,E and your having your Ultimate back quicker will make harassing easier when coupled with your mana regen seals.

Comments:

The movement speeds from Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed gives Fizz amazing movement speed early game, I've never felt so fast with these runes it made getting in and out to harass amazingly fun with Boots&Pots while the Mana Regen and Cooldown Reduction kept me in the fight until I had enough money to start off my damage items.

Optional Rune Setup 2:

Greater Quintessences of Force x3: For Quints they aren't nice for a flat rate but end game they are giving you another 6-8 Ability Power when compared to Greater Quintessence of Ability Power
Greater Mark of Magic Penetration x9: 8.5 Magic Pen, Once again I take Magic Pen marks.
Greater Seal of Armor x9: For those Top/Bot lane baddies.
Greater Glyph of Magic Resist x9: Magic Resist, perfect for going mid lane.

Comments:

The Ability power per level Quints Greater Quintessence of Scaling Ability Power made me feel underpowered in comparison with the Greater Quintessence of Ability Power and the extra Ability Power went unnoticed late game.

Summoner Spells

Flash I don't always take Flash with Fizz because of Fizz' ability Playful / Trickster. but it has its uses.

Ignite Fizz already has passive damage over time from his Seastone Trident however with ignite, you get two DoTs.

Heal Use it in a pinch to return to the fight quicker.

Clarity Use it for the same reason as Heal, to survive!

Ghost Can be used to close the gaps where your E fails.

Surge Sure, bonus AP and Attack Speed seems nice but I feel as if it wastes a Summoner Spell slot, however it works well with your W Seastone Trident

Exhaust If you like Exhaust try have someone else bring it with them, you personally don't need it.

* These summoner spells are Viable/Semi-Viable/Non-Viable in my opinion, you can still take them if you want but from experience this is what I've found out to be as close as perfect.

Fizz' Abilities

Nimble Fighter
Fizz' passive allows him to move through minions as if he had activated Ghost
Fizz also gets minor reduced damage from auto attacks.

Urchin Strike
Fizz' Q is a dash ability that propels Fizz forward a fixed distance.
Urchin Strike can be used as a chase or an escape ability
Seastone Trident
Fizz' W, capable of doing massive damage over time to the enemy champion almost always guaranteeing the kill it also applies Grievous Wounds which reduces healing on enemy champions by 50%. Seastone Trident is useful against Tanks such as Volibear who specialize in Health Regeneration.
Playful/Trickster
Fizz' E, it can be used to either chase the enemy champion or escape/dodge anything the enemy can throw at you. Playful is an AoE slow where as Trickster focuses on one enemy for more damage than Playful.
Chum the Waters
Fizz' ultimate is an AoE Skill shot nuke, use it by lining up the skill shot where someone may be running or where they are standing. Use it to the ultimate effect in a team fight by aiming for the middle of the group which gives the shark dominance over the enemy champion(s) hit (mid/late game).
NOTE: Your shark is somewhat useless at doing massive damage until you have the Void Staff/ Rabadon's Deathcap, when you get these two items you will notice a significant improvement in your ultimate.

Ability Sequence/Tacticts

Fizz' Q Urchin Strike can be used to close the gap when chasing enemies or widen the gap when escaping. You will want to grab this third and max it last.

Fizz' W Seastone Trident can be used to destroy the enemies that barely make it out of team fights. You will want to grab this first and max it by level 9.

Fizz' E Playful / Trickster can be used to slow a group of enemies while dealing burst damage, it can also be used to dodge any ability such as Karthus' Requiem and Amumu's Curse of the Sad Mummy. You will want to grab this second and max it by level 13

Fizz' Ultimate Chum the Waters is an ultimate that not only has Crowd Control but it also has an AoE Slow, AoE Knockup and AoE Nuke that scales 1:1 with your AP plus base damage. You should grab this when you can at levels 6,11 and 16.

Yaric

Y.A.R.I.C stands for Yet Another Recommended Item Customiser. For those who are unfamiliar with this type of software, it allows you to change RIOT's Recommended build to a custom build. There are plenty of programs that are like this but YARIC is my preference and can be found here: Y.A.R.I.C

Do you use YARIC?
Copy and paste this into the code section above the build sequence

Glass Cannon: 3020 3089 3135 3115 3100 3174
Tanky: 3111 3116 3027 3135 3089 3026
Shut Down: 3020 3057 3135 3115 3089 3152

First Item Build & Explanations

In this section I cover the three ways you can build Fizz the first one is my favorite, Glass Cannon Fizz, the second one is the Tanky AP Fizz build and the third one is still a Glass Cannon Fizz but it covers how you get around being shut down early game.

Note: Read this if you are unsure which boots to get. Courtesy of Incendiax.

Starting Items

OR

You will ideally want Boots&Pots for the sustain and mobility but if you have Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed and Greater Glyph of Magic Resist/ Greater Seal of Armor you might be able to take a Doran's Ring instead.

Boots

OR

OR

The decision here is simply whether you want flat magic penetration, magic resist/tenacity or cooldown reduction. "Tenacity is a mechanic that reduces the duration of crowd control effects. It does not affect the potency/strength of the effect." - LoL Wiki
"Magic penetration (or spell penetration) is a champion statistic which allows the magic damage done from their abilities, enhanced attacks, etc. to ignore some or all of a target's magic resistance." - LoL Wiki
Cooldown Reduction: Allows your abilities to be available to you more often, you should grab these if buying a Nashor's Tooth just isn't your preference.
Which boots you go with are completely up to you and(or) the situation.

Early Damage, Which to grab first.

OR

This next decision depends entirely on how fed you are, whenever I have a game where gold is slow I will build the Void Staff before I even get to a Needlessly Large Rod, however when I am having a normal game I will go:
Needlessly Large Rod> Blasting Wand> Amplifying Tome> Void Staff

NOTE: You will want to grab both of these, depending on which one you end up getting first follow up with the other item immediately.

By now even if you're having a bad game you should see an immense improvement in your damage output and should start to pick up kills faster than you could before. Welcome to Mid-Game.

Cooldown Reduction

OR

I will always get a Nashor's Tooth over a Morello's Evil Tome because of the Attack Speed, when my abilities are on Cooldown the attack speed allows me to get more damage in and when it comes to taking towers it's amazing however, feel free to grab a Morello's Evil Tome if you feel it is a better item over the Nashor's Tooth.

Magic Resist/Damage

The Lich Bane is an amazing item it adds your amount of Ability Power onto your next basic attack making it a great item in combination with a Nashors Tooth and your W Seastone Trident.

The Icing on top of the Cake

OR

So, why Athene's Unholy Grail? Why not? It gives you:

• +80 Ability Power
• +36 Magic Resist
• +15 Mana Regen per 5 seconds
• UNIQUE Passive: 15% Cooldown Reduction
• UNIQUE Passive: Restores 12% of your max Mana on Kill or Assist.
• UNIQUE Passive: Increases your Mana Regen by 1% per 1% Mana you are missing. Does not stack with Chalice of Harmony.

Well then, why Zhonya's Hourglass? Why not? It gives you:

• +100 Ability Power
• +50 Armor
• UNIQUE Active: Places your champion into Stasis for 2 seconds, rendering you invulnerable and untargetable but unable to take any actions (90 second cooldown).

So which one will you take?
Will you grab the Athene's Unholy Grail or will you grab the Zhonya's Hourglass? Personally I'm all for the Athene's Unholy Grail because I always grabbed a Zhonya's Hourglass and I feel besides the Zhonya's Hourglass' active the Athene's Unholy Grail is a better item all 'round.

Second Item Build & Explanations

Starting Items

&

You will want Boots&Pots for the sustain and mobility even if you have Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed and Greater Glyph of Magic Resist/ Greater Seal of Armor if you are using this build to be able to survive you wont want to take a Doran's Ring at all.

Boots

Magic Resist, Increased Tenacity. All crowd control effects on you will have their durations reduced such as Karthus' Wall of Pain The best boots if you're looking to stay alive longer."
Tenacity is a mechanic that reduces the duration of crowd control effects. It does not affect the potency/strength of the effect." - LoL Wiki

Early Health, Which to grab first.

OR

This next decision depends on your preferences, that is to say whether you like the passive slow from Rylai's Crystal Scepter or the Health, Mana and Ability Power you get from the Rod of Ages I typically start off with a Catalyst the Protector and then start/finish my Rylai's Crystal Scepter like so:
Catalyst the Protector> Blasting Wand> Giant's Belt> Rylai's Crystal Scepter

Damage.

OR

This next decision depends entirely on the enemy team, first ask yourself. "Is the enemy tank taking any damage from my ult or any other means of attack?" If no, get a Void Staff before you get your Needlessly Large Rod, If yes however, feel free to get a Rabadon's Deathcap before your Void Staff just like with the Rylai's Crystal Scepter/ Rod of Ages you will want to have both of these items unless neccesary.

NOTE: You will want to grab both of these, depending on which one you end up getting first follow up with the other item immediately, unless you need to grab an item or two from the next section.

Second Item Build & Explanations Part 2

Why a second section?
The first one was being weird so I moved the second half into it's own section and it worked.
I think it may have had something to do with a character/BB Code limit as there is a ton of BB Code in this section.

Armor/Magic Resist or Guardians Angel

OR

OR

This next decision is an important one as all three items are useful to your sustain and have some unique things that put the high in the priority list. Lets break down each individual items properties.

NOTE: Feel free to swap out either the Void Staff or the Rabadon's Deathcap if you want/need more than one of these three items.

Effects: +99 Armor. +500 Mana. Unique Passive: +20% cooldown reduction. Unique Passive: Nearby enemies suffer -20% attack speed. (1000 range)

This item will be perfect for taking on the enemy AD Carries One on One as it reduces their attack speed while at the same time giving you 99 Armor and 20% Cooldown reduction.

Effects: +375 Health +50 Magic resistance +375 Mana Unique Passive: Blocks one negative spell every 45 seconds.

This item will be perfect against a heavy Crowd Control team, or just a team with a Karthus on it as it blocks one negative spell every 45 seconds, this blocks things like Soraka's Infuse and Morgana's Dark Binding. It's a useful item if you don't want a stun ruining your team fights.

Effects: +68 Armor. +38 Magic resistance. Unique Passive : Revives your champion upon death, restoring 750 health and 375 mana. 5 minute cooldown.

Trick the enemy into thinking you're dead!
Lets say you do Tons of damage in a team fight then the remaining enemies decide to focus you, you die. What now? Come back to life and continue to tear holes all over their defense.

Third Item Build & Explanations -Foreword-

Getting shut down?
Can't make enough gold?
Feel like you can't contribute to your team like you should be?

Then this is the build for you.
Let's get started.

First off, a little overview of this build:

Ionian Boots of Lucidity Hextech Revolver Kage's Lucky Pick Sheen Fiendish Codex Void Staff

All game. Sell later or turn into WoTA Sell to help with building items. Lich Bane Nashor's Tooth Keep all game.

End game build: Ionian Boots of Lucidity Will of the Ancients Nashor's Tooth Lich Bane Rabadon's Deathcap Void Staff

You'll want these all game no matter what. This will be of great use to you and any AP team mate. This will make your Seastone Trident something to be feared. Lich Bane+ Fizz are an inseparable match. Rabadon's Deathcap+ Void Staff are another inseparable match.

Third Item Build & Explanations -Build-

NOTE: I have only tested this build in a few different games, and so far it works amazingly.

Starting Items

&

You will want Boots&Pots for the sustain and mobility, if they do end up shutting you down you'll still be happy you got boots&pots because you could have maybe escaped the first few attempts on your life.

Tier 2 Boots

OR

Cooldown reduction, if you keep dieing because you can't get away or because your ability just keeps coming off cooldown then you will want these, else take the Merc Treads if their cc is why you are dieing.

Early Damage.

&

You'll want these before you even get your Sorcerer's Shoes as they will give you some very nice early game damage which is exactly what you need.

Note: You will want both of these items and although I would recommend the revolver first, which you get first is entirely up to you.

Gold per 10

Gold per 10, at the moment you're shut down so gold per 10 is a nice way to make a little extra gold on the side, plus it has some AP behind it so it's useful for you in more than one way.

Cooldown reduction.

Cooldown reduction. You're buying this mainly for the sake of your cooldowns but also because it builds into your Nashor's Tooth.

This ends your early game build, now let's start turning these items into the final build.

First late game item, Magic Pen.

by now your Kage's Lucky Pick should have given you about 4-500 gold so you should sell it, you need the inventory space so you can get a Blasting Wand so you can make your Void Staff.

Second late game item, Cooldown Reduction.

Into

Now you want to turn your Fiendish Codex into it's late game counterpart, Nashor's Tooth] as it gives you Cooldown reduction and attack speed to apply your [[Seastone Trident's active.

Third and Fourth late game items, Damage.

AND

Now you get to the good stuff, turning your Hextech Revolver into a Will of the Ancients and we get to save for our Rabadon's Deathcap :D by now the game should either be other or close to being over.

The last item, Finishing our Sheen

Into

So at this point in the build you should be getting 2 or 3 kills each teamfight so now it's just a waiting game until you can turn your Sheen into a Lich Bane.

Synergies & Counters

Guide's End

If you've read this guide, please give me your criticism and comments I welcome both good and bad criticism!

Build Variation is key to being a better player. Don't be afraid to try out new items, new runes, new masteries, new gamestyles. Please try my build before you vote or comment negatively, you might be surprised!

If you're new to the game, feel free to ask questions and leave a comments. Either myself, or other viewers will answer your questions, and if you hate my build, then please, by all means comment and give me a reasonable answer. I take pride in my Fizz guide, and I'm always susceptible to change and updates.

If you ever want to see me in action or are just bored feel free to add me on LoL, "ReceptiveRaptor" I play on the NA server and I will gladly play a game with anyone with any V.O.I.P program you want as long as everyone has fun and gets along :)

Remember, Have fun, enjoy the game, respect your fellow summoners, oh and never forget to show "No fear!"

Happy Fishing!
-ReceptiveRaptor

Frequently Asked Questions

-Coming soon-

Replays using this build.

Here are some replays with me using the Glass Cannon build, I have included the 18-1 Replay and the 25-10 Replay, as much as I'd rather avoid the 25-10 build it involves a fizz using another build and how this build is superior (WARNING: The 25-10 one contains racism thanks to the enemy team).


18-1

25-10

This last replay demonstrates this build in its PRIME, 41/7/3
It shows off this build so well I gave it it's own paragraph building up to it.

You can find it here

Here are some replays with me using the Tanky AP Fizz build

Thanks to.

Thanks to JhoiJhoi for the excellent line divider and the guide on how to make a guide which you can find here.

Also a special thanks to:
Jebus McAzn
th3BlackAngel
Bryun
PsiGuard
IceCreamy, for answering all my questions related to the Pros/Cons section ^.^

You were mention in JhoiJhoi's guide as contributors so I owe you for your help as well as hers :)

and another more special thanks to HereticalPsycho for telling me about my errors and what I left out.
Thanks for all your help man ^.^

Changelog

2012-09-27 - Fixed some grammatical/spelling errors, plan to overhaul parts of the guide at a later date.
2012-09-11 - New name! New mastery page! New boots! Enjoy the latest changes summoners.
2012-09-10 - Thought about the benefits of cooldown reduction after reading the top Vlad guide (as I was learning vlad) and his math behind cooldown boots over sorc shoes makes sense so I added them here.
2012-09-02 - Edited the summoner spells.
2012-08-28 - Yet again edited the Introduction, had to re-word it.
2012-08-27 - Edited the Introduction, adding a third and final build for people that get shut down. Third build is up, going to check on it every now and again for errors, I can't see any right now though. Added a Yaric Code section.
2012-08-19 - Edited the "Guide's End" section
2012-08-11 - Fixed the second build to include a Sixth item >_> also tweaked rune section a little.
2012-08-10 - Changed summoner spells on top to Flash/Ignite because apparently people can't stand anything that isn't meta, also fixed part of Taric synergy.
2012-08-09 - Fixed some errors that made some parts unreadable i.e, they didn't make sense and now they do. Also changed the comment for Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power.

--Guide Published (2012-08-07)--

2012-08-07 - Added alternative build, removed old team two and replaced with new team 2 build, edited the runes and changed some rune comments. I'm anticipating release. I just have to get Heretical to peruse it and give his opinions and I'll slap the publish button.
2012-08-04 - Updated Pros&Cons
2012-07-31 - Finished the Ability Explanation/Tacticts section. Also started and finished the Item Build & Explanations, Synergies & Counters, Guide's End and Frequently Asked Questions section.
2012-07-30 - Runes section complete, the guide is looking really nice now :D, Also did summoner spells section.
2012-07-20 - Got some help from IceCreamy for the Pros/Cons section, worked like a charm :)
2012-07-18 - Changed last item from Zhonyas Hourglas to Athenes Unholy Grail after trying it out in game.
2012-07-14 - Build Started

Milestones [YYYY/MM/DD]

--1500 Views(2012-08-023)--
--1000 Views(2012-08-09)--

--Guide Published (2012-08-07)--