Yo mobadudes I'm HH and this is my first guide on mobafire. I have been playing fiddlesticks as my main since ages and thought of making a comprehensive guide for newborn fiddles. This guide aims to maximize damage on fiddlesticks without sacrificing too much survivability and how to jungle/lane with fiddle effectively. Feel free to comment and rate it

PROS

-Great Laning and jungling sustainability
-High Damage Output
-Great Crowd Control (CC)
-Awesome lane harassment
-able to stand toe to toe with melee non-CC dpsers/casters

CONS

-Squishy when not using Drain
-MR severely hampers the damage he puts out
-Relatively low AP ratios
-EXTREMELY vulnerable to CC
-Slow base movement speed

Runes

-AP glyphs andQuintessences, for more damage from his drain and dark wind early game
-Armor seals, to put up against neutral minion damage and ranged harassers
-Magic Penetration Marks, standard to casters and to penetrate to all that early magic resist

Masteries

The masteries above will pretty much fufill your jungling needs. As for laning, personal preference for casters.

The usual set up I go with when either jungling or laning is
Dorans Ring>Socerer's ShoesNeedlessly Large Rod>Zhonyas Hourglass>Blasting Wand>Rabadon's Deathcap

Zhonyas Hourglass is really all the survivability you need during a teamfight while maximizing your Crowstorm's damage. Ultimate in, and hit the number key when you see your health dropping really fast (which is often the case). If you find yourself getting insta-nuked by the likes of Leblanc and Annie, get just the Negatron Cloak early to build into Banshees Viel after the deathcap.

If you find yourself lacking in money for the Deathcap, try to get a Fiendish Codex/Hextech Revolver first after the hourglass for some cheap damage

Summoner Spells

For jungling, flash and smite is really the only way to go about it.

For laning, flash and exhaust is the number 1 choice to me as exhaust compensates my short fear duration during early game killing. However ignite is a good alternative also.

ALWAYS have flash, it is neccessary for the positioning of your ultimate which is crucial during a teamfight

Fiddlesticks' Abilities

Dread (Passive) - Reduces the Magic Resistance of all nearby enemies by 10

This passive is awesome early game as it allows you to dark wind HARD, as long as you're close to them when it hits allowing you establish a good laning presence. This passive also reduces the MR of neutral minions to -10, making your drains more effective.

Terrify - Strikes a target unit with fear, preventing it from taking any actions and causing it to run about aimlessly in fear for the duration of the fear.

This skill is what makes other people terrified of fiddlesticks. It has a long range (after the buff), and lasts 3 seconds, during which your target will be smashing his keyboard and flinging his mouse in hopeless effort to get out of your Crowstorm+Drain combo while watching their health bar dropping at 6 green squares per second(Figurative speech). This hard CC can also get your dps carry a kill, tame a raging tryndamere and help in ganking. Terrify defines Crowd Control. Despite this awesomeness, what is Terrify for if you cant kill your target within 3 seconds? Prioritize Drain before this.

Drain - Fiddlesticks channels and leashes to a target for 5 seconds, dealing magic damage each second and healing himself for a percentage of the damage done. If the target leaves the range of Fiddlesticks leash, he will stop channeling.

This ability is fiddlesticks' main and consistent source of damage. It has low cooldowns, high damage and healing, allowing you to outdamage and out-lifesteal any non-CC dps with low MR when its maxed out (which should be first priority). One VERY crucial thing to note is that IT DRAINS THROUGH STEALTH as well as Vladimir's Sanguine Pool. This has led me to epic troll kills with Vladimir, Akali, Wukong, Shaco and Leblanc as long as they use their jukes AFTER u initiated the drain and stay within the leash range, which btw is longer than the cast range. Competent players of the champions mentioned above will move out of range and flash back/run back to you to kill you during that crucial 3 second cooldown of Drain, so be cautious when pulling this move at low health (remember you still have fear).

Dark Wind - Fiddlesticks throws a crow that strikes an enemy target then continues to bounce from that enemy unit to another nearby enemy unit 4 times dealing magic damage and silencing for 1.2 seconds each strike. Dark Wind may strike the same target multiple times.

This skill is best off as a 1 point wonder where it does just enough burst damage to harass effectively, since bounce and silence duration does not change when maxed out. Silence is also very useful when escaping from ganks or during teamfights when enemies are grouped up.

Crowstorm - Fiddlesticks targets a nearby location and then channels for 1.5 seconds. After the channel, he then flashes to the target location with a murder of crows flying wildly around him for 5 seconds, dealing magic damage to all enemy units in the area each second.

This is fiddlesticks' trump card, the source of his awesomeness. It does extreme aoe damage and keeps squishies in check during teamfights, even possibly granting you a triple kill if used correctly (highly doubt that your teammates will not attempt to KS (Kill-Secure)). This can be very game changing, more on this ability later.

The skill sequence box at the top of this page is optimal for jungling.

If you are laning, then take dark wind first instead of drain so it will become like this:

E>W>W>Q>W>R>W>Q>W>Q>R>Q>Q>E>E>R>E>E

Lets get this out of the way first. Fiddlesticks is an excellent jungler as he is able to keep his health high for the whole duration of the jungling process.

Select Flash and Smite, get Dorans Ring and head out to the blue golem camp. Get 1 point in Drain. With the runes I stated you should be able to get the buff without any leash, however if not confident try it out in a custom game beforehand, or get someone to leash. Start draining the golem, then auto attack, then drain again. After the second drain is done you should be able to finish it off with smite with an auto attack or two. Make sure the you get the full channel of the drains off, otherwise you will see an "EXECUTED!" popping up on your screen with your name on it. Drain the small lizards after buff is taken, and you should be level 2 after that camp is done(if you have taken the 4% experience gain from masteries stated above).

What the opposition decides to f*ck you up by hiding out at blue? Then start at the wolves. Dont waste smite on these dogs. Then proceed to the wraith camp, smiting the big guy and draining the small ones. Then do the 2 golems then Recall, then do the blue golem and then the red lizard.

If you do get the blue golem, do the wolves, and then the Wraiths. You might have to dark wind the big dude first before or after draining him cause your drain will not kill him at that level. After youre done with the wraiths, you should be level 3, and your drain will be level 2, head to the red lizard camp and spam drain. Then proceed to the 2 golems and you will be level 4 right after. Take a point in Terrify and you're ready for your first gank!

THE GANK

Check your lanes and see which of your enemies are squishy and are at half or so health. You have the best chance at getting a kill or an assist when ganking these champions. Check their summoner spells and see if they have flash. Try to get them to use it by coming out to the brush and just running at them. Your blue buff should be still on so you can waste a combo on him. Use pings and chat to tell your teammmates and start running towards the space between them and their turret. If the space is too small dont bother trying to gank that lane. The combo would be Q>E>W, and your target should have died or is at low health when the drain is done. Flash if neccessary to get that last tick health with a second of drain. Do not flash if you cant confirm the kill, you have scared away the enemy so that your teammate can farm.

After your failed/successful gank is done, the wolves should be ready and its pretty much common sense from here on. If they have no jungler, try your luck in getting their blue golem. Dont bother if with this if you are playing on ranked or high elo, cause its probably warded and checked frequently.

Fiddlesticks is also a good solo mid and a great side laner. This is mainly due to the spammable 1 point wonder having a low early mana cost and mana regeneration from your Dorans Ring.

Get Flash and Exhaust (or Flash and Ignite), Doran's ring, a point in Dark Wind and head out to your lane, be it a solo mid/top or bottom. Whenever you get the chance to throw your dark wind, do it. Heck do it every 10 seconds at the enemy champion(s). If they are returning more than you can handle, do it more sparingly while saving some mana to drain off the creeps. Last hitting with Fiddlesticks can be hard, due to his horribe attack speed and slow auto attack animation.

THE GANK

So what if your jungler happens to be ready to gank or your lane partner is pumped? Make sure you are level 4. Ping and walk behind him if possible and Q>F>E>W with F being Exhaust. This will almost certainly lead to a kill if the enemy is weak enough or does not have cleanse. If you cant get behind him then use flash if the kill is ensured. If you are still not confident, then just fear and drain and wait for him to return and repeat. Or just use common sense, it always works.

Fiddlesticks is obviously built around teamfighting, so this part matters the most. Always stay hidden when a teamfight is imminent, it will not help if the enemy knows that you are gonna crowstorm and prepares some CC on the welcome mat.

When the teamfight starts, wait for the enemy to be fully involved in it; ultimates are flying everywhere and carries are putting their backs into it. Then,as usually they would be clustered together to concetrate damage, use Crowstorm. Try to get as many of them in it as possible with the help of flash, and fear the biggest threat to you. It might not be always the carry you want to take out, it could be some heavy Crowd Control cow like Alistar and game changing ultimate of Janna. Then execute Dark Wind then Drain on the one you want dead.

COMPLICATIONS

Usually when you are owning teamfights early, the enemy would be extremely weary of you; carries might hang back and everyone on the enemy team will save their crowd control for you. This is where your DPS teammates come in. Wait for them to be forced to concentrate on them and do your combo.

If you find yourself getting focused down too quickly before your crowstorm ends, use Zhonya's hourglass to get that last few seconds of damage off crowstorm. Do not forget that your teammates are in the teamfight as well, they will take advantage of the chaos you are making, the chunks of health you are taking and your terrify.

What if the enemy team has a good fiddlesticks and hes more farmed up than you? You hide and ultimate the moment he pops in. If he happens to be very patient prepare to crowstorm in and hope your team can kill him right after he kills you with the combo

This guide is still a work in progress, but I was too hyped to get this out for people to read. Comments on flaws of this guide and ratings will be greatly appreciated.

13/9/11 - Guide released
-Added GIFs of items