Fiddlesticks Build Guide by C9Meteos

Introduction

Hey guys, I'm Meteos from Cloud 9 and this is my Fiddlesticks guide. Fiddlesticks is a great jungler right now because he deals high damage, has a lot of CC, and can do objectives easily. He's a bit tricky to learn because he plays differently than most other champions but once mastered, Fiddlesticks can win team fights and games on his own through good use of his ultimate.

Runes

These are standard caster runes. These work well on Fiddlesticks because he deals almost exclusively magic damage so magic penetration and AP help him a lot. Fiddlesticks is really squishy and immobile so having extra armor and MR can help you survive fights and allow you to Drain through a lot of damage.

Masteries

21-0-9 gives Fiddlesticks damage, mana regen, reduced summoner spell cooldowns, and increased buff duration which all help him get through the jungle and scale through out the game. 21-9-0 isn't bad, but he doesn't really need the defense stats to clear the jungle because of how much sustain he gets through Drain.

Abilities

(Passive) Dread

It reduces enemies' MR in a radius around him by a flat amount which increases his damage by a good amount against low MR targets.

(Q) Terrify Cooldown: 15/14/13/12/11 seconds

Fiddlesticks' fear. It makes the enemy briefly lose control of their champion as they run away from you and are slowed. One thing to be careful for when using this spell is that it can be cast on minions, so use the Target Champion Only Hotkey (default is `) if you're trying to use it on someone that's standing in a minion wave.

(W) Drain Cooldown: 10/9/8/7/6 seconds

This spell makes you drain a target for 5 seconds, draining their health and restoring your own. This spell gives Fiddlesticks crazy good sustain in the jungle and allows him to do large objectives without losing much HP. Be careful when starting a Drain on a champion with an interrupt because this ability has quite a long cooldown at lower ranks and if you get it interrupted you can die easily. The leash range to break Drain is significantly longer than the range to begin casting the spell.

(E) Dark Wind Cooldown: 15/14/13/12/11 seconds

Fiddlesticks' silence. This spell deals damage and silences its target and then bounces to up to four more enemies dealing the same amount of damage to each of them. It deals extra damage to minions so it's pretty nice for farming. Dark Wind can hit the same target multiple times but it won't bounce if there's only one target in range.

(R) Crowstorm Cooldown: 150/140/130 seconds

Fiddlesticks' ult. This is what the champion is most known for and is arguably the highest damaging ability in the game. After a two second channel, Fiddlesticks blinks and deals heavy AoE damage around himself for 5 seconds. The damage from Crowstorm continues even while under the stasis from Zhonya's Hourglass which makes it a great combo for team fights.

Items

Starting Items Start with a Doran's Ring and a Stealth Ward. Fiddlesticks doesn't need Hunter's Machete or potions to get through the jungle. He also doesn't auto attack often because of Drain, so Doran's Ring is the best starting item. This allows you to also buy one Stealth Ward which gives your team a big vision advantage early game. Trinket comes down to preference, I prefer starting with Warding Totem in the beginning and switching to Sweeping Lens some time around level 6.

Early Game Build Stalker's Blade and finish it with the Magus Enchantment then follow it up with either Sorcerer's Shoes or Ionian Boots of Lucidity. Build Ionian Boots of Lucidity if you're ahead because it'll let you use your ult more often and you won't really need the extra damage from Sorcerer's Shoes to kill people. After that, rush Zhonya's Hourglass.

Mid-Late Game Next, get Rabadon's Deathcap or Void Staff depending on how much MR the other team has. If everyone on the team has at least one MR item or if the team has a Locket of the Iron Solari, get Void Staff first. You can get Morellonomicon as a last item for CDR.

How to Play Fiddlesticks

(Early Game)
Fiddlesticks is pretty vulnerable early game due to his lack of mobility. Your main goal in the early game should be getting to level 6. Try to get your team to spread out around your blue buff at level 1 to watch for invades. Fiddlesticks is really blue reliant and a lot of people will try to exploit that by invading your blue buff. Use your Warding Totem defensively to watch to invades as well and work your way towards level 6. Fiddlesticks' pre-6 ganks aren't terrible, but they also aren't that strong so don't waste too much time running around looking for ganks.

My preferred jungle route on Fiddlesticks is to Smite blue -> red -> Smite golems -> wraiths -> Smite wolves -> wight and that will get you to level 4.

(Mid Game)
Fiddlesticks gets a lot stronger mid-game once he has his ultimate and Stalker's Blade and with the Magus Enchantmen. Trade your Warding Totem in for a Sweeping Lens and try to clear wards with it. Fiddlesticks puts a ton of pressure on the map when the other team doesn't know where he is so make sure to always have a Vision Ward down on the map to deny their vision. look for opportunities to ult or ult- Flash to kill enemies that are out of position. Fiddlesticks does a ton of damage so he can tower dive easily and sustain the tower's damage with his Drain.

(Late Game)
In the late game, Fiddlesticks becomes a huge threat once he gets Zhonya's Hourglass. Your goal in the late game is to hide and try to get a Crowstorm onto the other team. If you can ult then Flash into the middle of their team and Terrify one of their carries, you'll almost always win the fight.

(Team Fights)
In a team fight, you ideally want to wait off on the side out of your opponent's vision and wait for the fight to happen and then Crowstorm the enemy team once they're grouped up. Try to fear one of their carries and then throw out your Dark Wind and use Zhonya's Hourglass as soon as you get focused. If the enemy team has knockbacks you'll want to use Zhonya's Hourglass immediately after ulting into their team to keep from getting knocked away.

Conclusion

I think that covers most of what you need to know to play Fiddlesticks! He's a fun champion with huge carrying potential. Be careful about his weak early game and practice landing those crutch Crowstorms!