Hey, guys! I am Tyler "ecco" Spesick and last year I played in the LCS as a mid-player! Fizz has been a champion I have had mixed feelings about for a very long time. Back when he got popular the end of last year, I really didn't enjoy his style of play and I also thought he was a cheesy champion. After he got his set of nerfs I believe he has become a very balanced champion who is extremely fun and satisfying to play. I have gotten better at the melee assassin style and put in a decent amount of games on Fizz to where I feel pretty comfortable on him. Throughout this guide I will do my best to pass down what I have learned about him!

Pros

1. Fun and satisfying to play.
2. Array of options and different things you can do with his spells.
3. Immense burst.
4. Very slippery/high mobility.
5. High objective damage due to %health damage/bleed.

Cons

1. Very weak early laning-phase.
2. Contributes very little if behind.
3. Can be countered by a properly timed exhaust.

The composition I have laid about above is overall very strong individually. With someone like Fizz you want a lot of other threats on your team so that they won't be able to safe their exhaust(s) just for you to shut you down in a team-fight. It also has a lot of picking potential which is what we're basing the comp around. Everyone has a dash/gap-closer to follow-up on any opponent being out of position which gives a lot of quick kill potential. Setting up picks and snowballing the game from them will be the key to victory. Your straight up 5v5 potential isn't going to be the strongest in an even or slight advantage game unless you capitalize on your opponent's positioning mistakes. It is best to set up picks around the map and force objectives/dives with number advantages and once you have a large gold advantage /then/ you can force straight up 5v5s.

I feel it is pretty much necessary to run Fizz in a composition to similar to the one that I have been discussing because when it comes to team-fight compositions that are just better choices. Fizz doesn't contribute much to a straight up team-fight unless he catches either their adc/mid in a bad position and is able to one-shot them. Otherwise you just won't contribute very much at all.

Ignite and flash is the best combo of summoners on Fizz imo. I feel like its the best because it is overall the most well rounded set-up because it gives him added kill potential and also the ability to chase/disengage harder with Flash at his disposal. Besides the more standard setup, there are a few other line-ups that people have run successfully that I'll go over.

The first would be the second most popular Barrier and Flash. It focuses very heavily on dueling and skirmishing power. Being very aggressive 1v1 and forcing 2v2s with your jungler is the best way to use this set-up. Recently with the Heal buff I've seen people substitute heal for barrier for even stronger 2v2 potential. Lastly, Teleport and Ignite. A very gimmicky set-up that requires one good teleport to snowball yourself.

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Greater Mark of Magic Penetration Greater Seal of Health Greater Seal of Armor Greater Glyph of Magic Resist Greater Quintessence of Ability Power

Deciding on which seals to run on Fizz is hard to determine now. I've researched a few different set-ups but I feel splitting it between armor and health is the best medium to survive the few first levels of the lane where you going to get bullied the most. The rest of the set-up is pretty standard. There are a couple situational changes that I'll address below.

Switching out Greater Glyph of Magic Resist for Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power if you are against an ad champion (such as Zed) and they don't have a strong AP jungler/top. Might as well make yourself scale harder rather than taking useless mr.

The other is taking greater mark of hybrid penetration for your marks when you are against a melee champion. This is because you will most likely be trading more often so this will help maximize your damage.

This is the mastery set-up that I run on Fizz literally every game. The 21 points into offense is vital to any AP champion as the amount of AP and damage it gives you is utterly fantastic. Then we are unable to put the standard 9 points into utility because of how much you are going to get bullied on in the early stages of your laning phase. The 9 points into defense make you a little bit bulkier with some extra health-regen and decreased incoming auto-attack damage.

Typically a Seastone Trident start is standard because you're going to be getting pushed to tower and it allows you to last hit a lot easier. When you are against melee champion it is also the best because it has a /lot/ of damage and makes you win trades convincingly. If you are in a match-up where your opponent has a longer cd spell you feel confident in dodging (like Leblanc's Distortion) then you can confidently go Playful / Trickster as your first spell. Post the first two points it is really standard and I wouldn't alter it. Playful / Trickster is just such strong damage and wave-clear that I feel you /have/ to max it first.

Nimble Fighter Nimble Fighter is an okay passive. It is really good early game where you will be taking a lot of auto-attacks and this allows you to sustain in lane longer and be stronger in duels. Later on in the game it also helps reduce incoming damage on you a decent amount too. 14 is an okay amount. It's not a lot but it could add up. Not having unit collision is nice but it's nothing special really. Just a weird passive for an AP assassin to have but it is pretty decent at what it's for. Would just rather have something that me deal more damage.

Urchin Strike Urchin Strike is a very strong ability. It dashes you towards your target and also procs any on-hit abilities ( Lich Bane!). Remember that this ability will always make you travel the same distance. This makes it both stronger and weaker in certain situations so definitely keep it in the back of your mind.

Seastone Trident Seastone Trident is a good ability that gives you very strong consistent damage. When the ability is activated it adds a flat AP amount to your auto-attacks (fantastic for helping last hitting under tower!). The second part of the ability is its passive which puts on a bleed to your target that does damage determined by their missing health. It does /insane/ amount of damage to objectives and actually let's you do a good amount of consistent damage to tanks which not many burst AP champions can do.

Playful / Trickster Playful / Trickster is my favorite of Fizz's abilities. It launches him up into the air, balancing on his Trident and then he comes falling down, dealing AoE damage to anyone near him. You are able to activate that ability again, which will launch him from his trident in the direction that your mouse is pointing relative to Fizz. It does the same amount of damage but the AoE is smaller and you lose the slow so it is fairly situational that you will be using this as opposed to the other. Typically only when catching up to a target or when using it to escape because who cares about the AoE size or slow if you are just creating more distance. This move just makes Fizz such the damn annoying champion to play against that he is. When he is upon the trident, he is invulnerable to anything that is a leash. Fiddle's Drain, Nocturne's Fear tether, etc will stay on you so keep that in mind for those situational times. You can do awesome things like dodge Karthus' Requiem if you time it correctly and also a friendly Soraka's Wish if you get unlucky! I've had that happen to me... :( Lastly, you can jump over walls with this ability which makes Fizz even slipperier than he already was and makes running from him nearly impossible. The distance on each jump isn't incredibly far so make sure to be close to the wall when performing the jump.

Chum the Waters Chum the Waters is an awesome ult that scales incredibly well. It has a 1.0 AP Ratio on it. 1.0. On an AoE move. That is absurd. This is how you 1-shot pretty much anything and anyone. Now all you have to do is actually land it which is actually a bit harder than it looks. It has a small start-up time and doesn't travel very fast at all. The closer you are to your target the better as you have less room to make a mistake on your part and also less time for them to react to it. At the highest level you can pretty much only land this ability if their flash is down as well as any dashes. Otherwise it is a mistake on their part. Sometimes maybe blowing flash is all you want to do which you can do pretty damn easily with it but otherwise wait until their cool-downs are down if you are wanting to guarantee a hit.

Because Fizz is so weak early game and will be taking a lot of harass, we're going to be taking as much sustain as we can get level 1. This will let you stay in lane longer and get past your weakest point without getting too far behind.



Fizz has one of the most interesting item build orders out of all of the AP mid champions. Since we're starting out with flask, on our first back we're going to be purchasing a pair of Doran's Rings on our first back. This gives us a lot of cost efficient stats to help boast a little bit of early game strength. We then want to get a Sheen for strong trading damage and it also helps with the small amount of mana problems Fizz has.

I'll then pick up Boots to be a little bit more mobile and then start to itemize towards a Deathfire Grasp. I feel like with the reduced scaling AP damage on Lich Bane that going it first item is fairly weak. Getting the extra burst and a bit of cdr from DFG before completing Lich Bane is the best course of action in my opinion. Once I do have both of those burst items completed, I go a more defensive route and get Zhonya's Hourglass. This item manages to make Fizz even more annoying than what he was before. It gives you a lot of AP and also gives you to by time for your cool-downs to come back up. With a decent amount of cdr, you can pull off a Rotation -> Playful / Trickster -> Zhonya's Hourglass -> Rotation --> Playful / Trickster. Pretty obnoxious to play against.





Alright, once the core is completed we go back to our good friends, Rabadon's Deathcap and Void Staff. It completes our build and gives us a very strong finish to our damage. Typically I get Void Staff before Rabadon's because by the time you're building/finishing your fourth item there is going to be plenty of MR being built across the board.

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The early levels of laning are typically going to consist of you trying to stay in experience range of dying minions and last hitting those where you won't get a rotation of spells in your face for doing so. If they're going for a last hit at the same time you can be going for one as well, this is typically the opportune time. In most scenarios you're going to get pushed under tower and have to be last hitting there while getting harassed. Just try not to take /too/ much damage while staying up in cs the best you can. Taking a third of your health-pool for a cs is not worth it. Taking an auto-attack or two for cs while sneaking in some for no cost is what you should be aiming for. Obviously you'll be taking some spells but just don't cs recklessly or you'll have to back early and be even more behind than if you just missed the gold in the first place. Use your Seastone Trident to last hit under turret and if your lane opponent is constantly harassing you under tower then call for assistance from your jungler. You should be able to blow at least their flash and potentially get a kill or a 2v2 fight. Fizz's 2v2 potential is very, very good because his base damage is ridiculous and he is so damn hard to kill. Just make sure you're on the same page as your jungler in whether or not you are devoting yourself to a fight and which target you'll be focusing. Once you have your first back and hit level 6 you start to gain some ground back in the lane. You now have a little bit of AP and mana-regen so you can start using your spells to trade. Make sure to be warding both your sides so you can use your Playful / Trickster to trade efficiently. If you don't have your sides warded and you go in with your playful / trickster and you get ganked then you're most likely going to die or trade at best. Look for opportunities to roam because your diving/ganking potential is crazy strong. Your ultimate is an AoE slow and knock-up and you have another AoE slow in your playful as well. Dives are cake because you have a tower reset built into your damn kit. If your lane opponent backs, goes for blue, farming wraiths, etc, shove out your lane with playful and look for a lane to go put pressure on. Typically on my first back I am switching out my trinket for a Sweeping Lens and always trying to have one of my sides pink warded. This way you can constantly clear out vision because the most effective ganks are those that aren't predicted!

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Once laning starts to subside, you should try to start setting up picks with your team. Having at least two sweepers on your team and lots of aggressive pink wards. Catching out people who are trying to regain vision or clear out yours is an opportune time to strike. Upon catching and killing a member of the opposing team is when you start forcing stuff hard as a team. Doing objectives and forcing/diving turrets. Diving 5v4 with a composition similar to the one I laid out earlier in this guide is fairly safe. Just make sure to keep an eye on the timer of the dead member! Your job in team-fights is typically do dive the back-line and potentially one-shot someone. Even if you don't one-shot someone, if you have their adc and support trying to kill you for a few seconds then that is time where your team has a 4v3 going on. The amount of time you can buy with Playful / Trickster and Zhonya's Hourglass is pretty absurd. Obviously you want to be getting kills but if that doesn't work out then waste their time! Your positioning before teamfights break out shouldn't always be with the rest of your team. If you can stay off to the side and wait for an opportunity to where a squishy target puts themselves in a bad position then you can capitalize on it that much more. Also, it would force them to kite away from you into the rest of your team which is also fantastic. There are times where you should be bursting front-line rather than only focusing on the back line. Once you have dfg you can really blow up a tank with your adc. Typically this is the route of action I go if my adc is really strong and getting a lot of focus from the enemy team. As long as I help keep them alive we should win the fight.

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Late Game is not going to be very different than mid-game. Lots of aggressive wards and denial of vision of the other team. Setting up picks and capitalizing on number advantages. The longer the game goes the quicker your team can get Baron Nashor's health bar to zero so if they are out of position then feel free to burst it on down, giving you a very strong chance of ending the game with it. Your role in team-fights hasn't changed but your damage sure has! Kill people even faster than you did before :)