30-09-11: Start with Build Introduction
01-10-11: Added Runes, Masteries, Boots Comparison sections
07-10-11: Added Items, Spells, Skills, Lane/Mid sections and Summary.
Also published build
08-10-11: Optimized some sections with a friend's assistance
11-11-11:-By advice of a comment I've got and from the experience with it I've added
Rod of Ages in the build, to get extra survivability and on top of that, the
very nice passive of this item is extremely useful.
-Removed Morello's Evil Tome, because 1 CDR item was actually useful enough in
combination with the blue buff which you will get a lot of times throughout the
game.
-Also added Abyssal Mask as a main item, because of the MR it gives to you,
and the extremely useful combination of the aura of this item and your passive
A Harmless Scarecrow.
-Removed 2 points from Perseverence and 1 from Quickness to get the full 3
points on Good Hands because the few seconds you can get earlier on the Field,
can decide a lot! I also discovered that Perseverence doesn't have so much
effect so Good Hands is more useful.
16-11-11: - Season 2 started! Rebuilded the Mastery Page for Season 2
- Switched Teleport with Ignite, because of personal experience with getting
more kills with it, especially while laning.

Hi there everyone,

I'm SwizzNL. This is my first build so I will appreciate any comments: good or bad!
I hope you will enjoy reading my guide and that you improve your way of playing with Fiddle.

So, this is my build for Fiddlesticks a.k.a. The Harbinger of Doom.
This guide will focus on how to lane/going mid with him, which items are the best for this char and how to play Fiddlesticks in the most effective way!

The following abbrevations are used in this build:
AP = Ability Power
MP = Magic Penetration
HP = Health
MS = Movement Speed
CDR = Cooldown Reduction
CC = Crowd Control

FINALLY!
Our own Harbinger of Doom got a Champion Spotlight by Riot!
Watch it and maybe get some extra tips to play this amazing champ!
Play Video

For Fiddlesticks I use the following setup of runes:

1. Greater Mark of Magic Penetration x 9, standard Marks for most Mages. More MP, so spells are more effective and are doing more damage. With these Marks, you will get 8,55 more MP which is equal to 7% more damage against champions with standard MR (standard MR = 30)

2. Greater Seal of Replenishment x 9, Seals to get flat and fast Mana Regen. Fiddlesticks is a champion whose skills can cost a lot of his Mana. These in combination with Bountiful Harvest, helps you to keep your HP and Mana high, so you can stay longer at your position on the Field.

N.B. Now you are probably wondering, why didn't I get the Greater Seal of Scaling Mana Regeneration? There is one simple answer for that: just personal experience. For me the Replenishment Seals helped me more than the Clarity Seals. If you want to play with Clarity Seals, no problem at all. These two kinds of Seals are absolutely wonderful and should not be swapped with an other kind of Seal to use with Fiddlesticks! It's just what you prefer but both of them are really gonna help you play with Fiddle properly.

3. Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power x 9, Glyphs for AP per level. Nothing more to say about that, just awesome Glyphs to get some extra AP every time you level up!

4. Greater Quintessence of Ability Power x 3, just some flat extra AP. Really useful at the early levels of the game and extra AP is always nice!

I'll go with the standard Mage tree 9/0/21. It gives the best result for this Champion!
Some special notes about some Masteries:
- Sorcery, CDR is always a good choice for Fiddlesticks, especially to use his Crowstorm more often.
- Arcane Knowledge , 15% penetration of MR is absolutely wonderful to get more damage/effectiveness of your spells.
- Good Hands , reduces your time spent death. In late-game, where you need to wait a lot to get on the Field again, you can benefit a lot from the few seconds earlier you can get back in action!
- Transmutation , Spell Vamp gets you more HP back if you use Bountiful Harvest!
- Intelligence , extra CDR for using more Crowstorm in fights!
-

Don't need to say much about this. Every player above level 12 who needs an escape mechanism should use this spell! Use it to escape through a wall or use it (in case of Fiddlesticks)to keep enemies in your Crowstorm

Fiddlesticks can do a lot of damage with his skills to enemies, but sometimes Ignite helped me to do that nasty little piece of damage to kill an enemy! Especially in combination with Summoner's Wrath you get extra AP when you use Ignite!

Other viable options:
- Ghost: very good spell for Fiddle. To escape and to run faster to keep your enemies in your Crowstorm. This would be my 3rd choice if I could use a 3rd spell :)
- Ignite: awesome spell. Can deal that tiny bit of damage to kill an escaping opponent.
- Clarity: if you still need mana, use Clarity to recover it.
- Smite: if you jungle Fiddle, this is a must! But because I don't focus on jungling in this build, this spell is useless
- Exhaust: can slow the opponent and reduce his physical damage. Can be used to get to an escaping champion to begin the attack again and you won't take too much damage because of the reduced physical damage.

Fiddlesticks has some awesome skills up his sleeve:

Dread is Fiddlesticks his passive. Not the best there is, but -10 MR from enemy nearby champions, just gonna let you do some extra damage (especially when you have bought Abyssal Mask.

Terrify is Fiddlesticks his Fear skill. If you activate it, the enemy champion is feared for 1/1.5/2/2.5/3 seconds. Just a perfect skill to start a fight or a gank. The main combo is Terrify > Reap > Bountiful Harvest. Most of the time it ends with a kill or a really good harass.

Drain is the healing skill. If you use it, you damage the enemy with 60/90/120/150/180 + 45% of AP per second and heal yourself with 60/65/70/75/80% from the damage you delivered. Very useful to use against enemy minions to keep you healthy, to stay in lane and to farm a little bit.

Dark Wind is your farm skill. If you use it, a crow is summoned from Fiddle's hand and strikes an enemy target. If there are more targets in the nearby area, the crow bounces up to 4 times. 65/85/105/125/145 + 45% of AP damage is done to the enemy target(s). Also you silence the struck enemy/enemies for 1.2 seconds so they can't do spells for 1.2 seconds and that might be enough to go try to kill/harass the enemy champion.

Crowstorm is Fiddlesticks his ultimate. You channel for 1.5 seconds and then you teleport to the target location and you deal 125/225/325 + 45% of AP damage per second to all enemies in the area. This is the ULTIMATE of the ultimates. This skill makes Fiddle shine! You can, if you time it right, score a double/triple/quadra/penta kill easily and you can turn the tide in the game in your favor! SO USE IT WISELY!

For me, Reap is my primary skill because it can deal quite a lot of damage, and it's your farming skill!

Always pick at lvl 2 a point in Bountiful Harvest and at lvl 3 Terrify so you have can use every skill. Then focus on Reap and ofc at lvl 6/11/16 pick a point in Crowstorm

Before I start with my item build I want to talk about these 2 kinds of boots. Both are very good items for Fiddlesticks, but I'll explain to you why I pick Mercury's Treads instead of Sorcerer's Shoes.
First of all, the specifications of these boots:

+25 MR, +35 Tenacity and Enhanced Movement Speed 2
+ 20 MP and Enhanced Movement Speed 2

If you look at these boots, you will probably think: "Hey, Fiddle is a Mage, so I pick Sorcerer's Shoes!"
THIS IS WRONG!!!

Why, you ask?

Well, Sorcerer's Shoes +20 MP is, without a doubt, very nice. You will do more damage with your spells, but look at the 2 factors of Mercury's Treads: MR and Tenacity.
If you play against an enemy AP champ (for example: Annie, LeBlanc or Morgana) you will surely get beaten faster if you pick Sorcerer's Shoes.

If you had picked Mercury's Tread's you get:
1. Less damage from their attacks because of the +25 MR, and most important factor:
2. Any form of CC, also known as Crowd Control, is reduced with 30% so if you got, for example, snared because of Morgana's Dark Binding, the snare time is reduced by 30%. That means you can escape earlier or you get a faster chance to counter her!
3. For me it's always works out better to play a little bit safe and these boots are the best for that purpose in my opinion!
So this is why I prefer the Merc's.

Conclusion: pick Mercury's Treads if you think you need more protection against enemy AP'ers and CC but if you can handle the enemy AP'ers without extra protection, pick Sorcerer's Shoes!

So let's start with the item build. I play a AP/CDR Fiddlesticks, so I can spam my Reap to farm easily, I can use my Crowstorm every teamfight which can determine a win or loss in some situations and casters always need the AP for more damage from their abilities!

First, pick a Doran's Ring! This handy little item give you a nice +15 AP boost at the beginning, 100 Health and 5 Mana Regen per 5 seconds. So you get more effective spells and more survivability because of the Health/Mana Regen. Simply the best starters item for Fiddlesticks!
If you think you can survive without the extra Health and Mana Regen, you can consider an Amplifying Tome + 1 Health Potion. You get +20 AP from the Tome, so if you want extra damage you can choose these items.

Secondly, go for the boots. If you have read my chapter about Merc's and Sorcerer's carefully, you can determine which boots fits you best!

N.B. At this point, if you are doing fine (1 or 2 kills without a death!) consider buying a Mejai's Soulstealer. It gives you extra AP and you get 8 AP extra per stack. You can get a stack by killing (2 stacks) or assisting in a kill (1 stack). So it's ganking time whenever you can! On top of that, if you can reach the 20 stacks, you get extra CDR!

After that, rush the Catalyst the Protector if you are doing fine, or if you need more AP buy Blasting Wand and maybe a Ruby Crystal first.

If you have enough gold and you need to go back, upgrade your items to the Rod of Ages. The Rod gives Fiddle +450 HP, +525 Mana and +60 AP. And it's getting better! The passive of the Rod gives you 18 HP, 20 Mana and 2 AP per minute and this goes on for ten minutes. So in the end you have + 180 HP, + 200 Mana and + 20 AP just using it for ten minutes! Also if you level up you restore yourself with 250 HP and 200 Mana, so you can stay a lot longer in lane!
Great major item to start with if you are playing Fiddle, to get AP and survivability.

From this point, it's getting situational. If you are doing fine, the next item you want to buy is an Abyssal Mask. This item gives you +57 MR (survivability!), a good chunk of 70 AP and a unique Aura that affects enemy champions (-20 MR) in 1000 Range around you. The Aura + your passive A Harmless Scarecrow makes it -30 MR! Your spells are starting to hurt the enemy badly now!
If you are not doing well, because you die too much because of lack of HP, take a Banshee's Veil. The Veil gives you extra survivability by giving you +375 Health and Mana, and also +50 MR. The best thing about this item is his passive: every 45 seconds you can block an ability from an enemy champion! Simply a wonderful item for just 2715 gold.

The next item we are going to buy is an Deathfire Grasp. This item gives you, apart from 15% CDR, 60 AP and 15 Mana Regen per 5 seconds. At this point, you can't have lack of Mana anymore, because of this item in combination with the blue buff you get the whole time and your runes.
Also an extra factor why I buy this item is his Active: it deals magic damage to an enemy champion equal to 30% of his current health + 3,5% per 100 AP. Extremely useful against tanks and to give that last bit of damage to kill an opponent (think about it as a upgraded Ignite

Now you need to choose carefully. If the enemy team is building a lot of MR items, I suggest getting a Void Staff before you buy your Rabadon's Deathcap to penetrate the enemy MR. Now it's time for Rabadon's Deathcap to give you a very large boost of AP!

It's now in the late game and you have 1 free slot left (if you didn't need the Void Staff). Some suggestions:
- Zhonya's Hourglass: buy it if you get hit much by an enemy fighter/DPS'er. It gives you 50 Armor so you can reduce the damage from their physical attacks. Also the +100 AP is an extra nice factor. And if you are in trouble when channeling your Crowstorm simply activate it's Active to get no damage for a few seconds.
- Rylai's Crystal Scepter: buy it if you need extra HP. This item gives you +500 Health, +80 AP and a slowing effect when you use spells. Ideal for chasing enemies who try to run away from you.
- Glacial Shroud > Frozen Heart: extra protection from physical attacks from the +45 Armor and the extra CDR of 15% is very useful! Also if you upgrade it to Frozen Heart you will get 44 Armor, 75 Mana and 5% CDR extra.
- Void Staff: buy the Void Staff now if you want to break the enemy MR for good and deal more damage.

So you start a game, and you are were chosen by your teammates to go mid. So let's go!

Focus on farming first. Just use your Reap to get the last hits you need, and to reduce your enemy's HP sometimes. If you reach level 6 and you have enough HP left, ask your teammates if you need to gank so they can push further. When they answer yes, head for their lane, wait in the bushes for the right moment, start channeling your Crowstorm, and destroy the enemy champs with the help of your laning partners and you will see the enemy turret go down most of the time.
After this, head back to the mid and start it all over again when your ulti is up again.

So you decided after your mid win, to do another game. This time your team got a LeBlanc. She is an awesome mid, so let her go handle mid. But decide carefully with which champion you are going to lane. Tanks are the most effective laning partners for Fiddle, in my opinion. They can protect you well, because you are a squishy champion and you are focussed most of the time. Also fighters can be good partners. Most fighters have decent HP and can initiate the fight while you harass the enemy champions with your abilities from a short distance.
Play aggressive and hit the enemy champions as much as you can and try to do that without getting much damage. Enemies will be scared for you after a few minutes so you can push easily with your partner.
Keep in mind that you need to farm as most as you can. Just use Reap whenever it is useful! Because you have a partner, you need to get the most gold out of minions. Fiddle needs his items to become an important factor in the game!

So this was my (first) build on Mobafire for Fiddlesticks.
I hope you enjoyed reading and learned a few things how you can play with Fiddlesticks.

Comments are always welcome, good or bad, because I can use them to optimize my build!