Fiora Build Guide by salmjak

Introduction

Welcome to my guide how to play Fiora in lane. This build was tested playing bottom lane, so I'm not quite sure about the sustainability if she is played solo top (but if you're a good player it should be OK, also depends on who you're laning against).
Anyhow, please try out this build.

Please don't vote before trying it, and remember, I'm open for suggestions! :)

What I'm looking for with items for Fiora:

• Attack speed ( Burst of Speed)
• Health Regeneration ( Duelist)
• Sustainability
• Attack Damage in general

Change-Log

12/03/2012:

Pros / Cons

"Why don't you play Fiora as a jungler?" - Fiora as a jungler is a big no no for me. Why? Because she has NO Crowd Control! If you still insist on playing her as a jungler I suggest you rush Phage.

Runes

About the runes picked:

• greater mark of desolation x4
• Greater Mark of Attack Speed x5
• Greater Quintessence of Attack Speed x3
• Greater Seal of Attack Speed x9
• greater glyph of replenishment x9

These are the runes I currently use and they focus a lot on attack speed, I enjoy having attack speed early on and it synergize well with Burst of Speed.

Alternative runes would probably be something more defensive with full focus on armor penetration:

• Greater Glyph of Magic Resist x9
• Greater Seal of Armor x9
• greater mark of desolation x9
• greater quintessence of desolation x3

Masteries

Short about the masteries:

It's pretty much a full offense mastery page for maximum damage output, nothing strange about it.
What you might want to do is remove points from Havoc and add points into Vigor since it goes better with Fiora's passive Duelist.

Builds

Items

This is what you've been waiting for. I'm going to describe the items in this build as well as why I chose them to Fiora.

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Boots of Speed + Health Potion x3:
Why this combination amongst many? Well if you start of with Lunge you will want to be able to move quickly both to catch up to the enemy aswell as run away from them.
The Health Potion are just for lane sustainability.


Regworth Pendant :
I choose to go with this item next just to get some more lane sustainability, it also synergize well with your passive Duelist. Later into the game you will want this item to but Warmog's Armor.

Why don't you go with Vampiric Scepter before Regrowth Pendant? - This is quite simple. At lane you would want to only last-hit
. That is to say, if you do what you should and only last-hit the lifesteal from Vampiric Scepter won't give you too much HP. Regrowth Pendant is also better when staying on the defensive.

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Berserker's Greaves :
I choose Berserker's Greaves because you will lack some attack speed until you get Trinity Force and I wouldn't rely on Burst of Speed too much.


Sheen :
I choose this item for one simple reason: Lunge+ Sheen = Burst damage!

How to use this item efficently:
Sheen have a 2 second cooldown and you can use Lunge again within 4 seconds. See where I'm going?
The trick is simply: Use Lunge hit them and wait 2 seconds then use the second Lunge, with this you will get the most out of your Sheen.


Wriggle's Lantern :
Why would you want Wriggle's Lantern when you don't jungle? To put it simply: sight ward.
You can NEVER get enough sight ward.
This item will also give you lifesteal which will increase your sustainability further (don't forget that lifesteal work with Blade Waltz).
This item also gives increased pushing capabilities aswell as some damage and defense, just such a great item to have for any AD champion.

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Trinity Force :
What do you want me to say??? You should realize by yourself how great of an item this is!

• ATTACK SPEED!
• SLOW! (Crowd Control)
• "SHEEN EFFECT"!

On top of these great properties Riposte active scales with Ability Power, so 30 more damage points there! Yeah... You get the poiny, awesome item, get it!


Warmog's Armor :
You've been quite squishy up until now, but with the health from Warmog's Armor and Trinity Force you will easily have 3000+ HP.
Since this item also gives health regeneration you will get the most out of your passive Duelist.


The Black Cleaver :
You might have heard that the passive from The Black Cleaver isn't that good because you have to hit THREE times until you get the maximum effect out from it, am I correct?
Well, the thing is, your ultimate Blade Waltz is affected by on-hit effects and it will also strike an enemy up to FIVE times. That means that two of these strikes will hit them when they have full armor reduction from The Black Cleaver. If they are not dead after this several enemies will have their armor reduced by 45.
This item also grants properties very useful to Fiora:

• Attack Speed
• Attack damage

Alternative item:
Last Whisper is always a good armor penetration item and much better than The Black Cleaver if your enemies have 115 or more armor (115*0,6 =69. 115-69=46. The reduction equals to 46, which is one point greater than The Black Cleaver).
Cons with going Last Whisper is that you loose that extra attack speed. Look at what your enemies are building and decide if you need Last Whisper from that.

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Now it's time to pick your final item. This can be a game turner. I choose The Bloodthirster because it grants even more lifesteal as well as a more than good amount of attack damage.

Alternatives to this item would be:

• Atma's Impaler - More armor, also, with 3150 HP this item's passive will give 63 AD.
• Guardian Angel - If you die too much and your lifesteal can't keep you up, get this.
• Phantom Dancer - You attack too slow or don't crit. enough? Voilá!
• Force of Nature - If you're up against an AP heavy team this is probably the best item to go with, it also synergize well with Duelist. Together with Warmog's Armor and fully stacked Duelist you will get a total of 215 in Health Regeneration.

Welcome to the Jungle

Welcome to the Jungle, I did say earlier that I don't play Fiora as a jungler, and that is correct, but I don't want to limit this build to ONLY lane, it will work great in jungle aswell.
Here I will explain the idea behind the jungle build.

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I tried taking down blue buff starting with these different items: Regrowth Pendant + Health Potion, Vampiric Scepter and Cloth Armor + Health Potion x 5.
All succeeded but only the Cloth Armor combo would provide enough HP so that I could
clear the jungle. Remember tough that I don't use Smite (for late game reasons), if you do use Smite you won't be having a problem starting with any other item.

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Now about the boots. If I jungle I want to move around quickly (to gank) so I would go for Boots of Swiftness or Boots of Mobility, but then I will lose that extra attack speed from Berserker's Greaves. It's a tough choice but it has to be made.

I, myself, would probably go with Boots of Mobility first and later sell them and change to Berserker's Greaves.

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I wouldn't suggest you gank before you have both Lunge and Burst of Speed (which would be level 4).
Lunge will give you a quick way to get to your enemy when you're in bushes and Burst of Speed will give extra movement speed so that you can chase them.

If start at and get help with red buff you CAN gank at level 2. The red buff will provide a slow so just make sure you pick Lunge at level 2.

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When it comes to Dragon you should be able to take him down as fast as you have Wriggle's Lantern. Don't be afraid to ask for help from bottom lane because the chances are that they got dragon warded and that you will be ganked losing both dragon and your life.

The Alternative Burst/Skill Build

I'm going to give a short explanation to this build but remember that it is untested and purely hypothetical.

The idea with this build is that you would be able to spam your skills as much as possible with the help of cooldown reduction from Ionian Boots of Lucidity and Youmuu's Ghostblade (which will give you a total of 30% Cooldown reduction).

This build should enable you to spam Burst of Speed often enough to not need extra attack speed. You will also have improved chasing with Lunge and be able to parry with Riposte more often.

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This build does not include Wriggle's Lantern. Since this build lack in attack damage I choose to go with The Bloodthirster instead as your primarily lifesteal item.
It also include a lot of armor penetration for more damage with Lunge and Blade Waltz.

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The new cooldowns you get with this build and all skills maxed out are:

• Lunge - 5.6 seconds
• Riposte - 4.2 seconds
• Burst of Speed - 7.7 seconds
• Blade Waltz - 77 seconds

Skill Sequence

Fiora's skills will need some timing so in which order you use them will vary a lot!
With that said I will now tell you good times to use them instead:


Duelist :
Use this passive to sustain in lane, also remember that you will gain up to 4 times as much Health Regeneration if you're attacking a champion so sometimes a small harass might be worth it and atually to your advantage.


Lunge :
Use this skill to chase down enemies, don't use both of the Lunge's at the same time but don't wait too long so that one will be wasted as well. Try to use it in combination with Sheen for maximum damage output.

• I put one point in this and max is last since I mainly use it to chase down enemies, not for doing damage.

Riposte :
Activate this skill right before you think an enemy will auto-attack you.
Keep in mind: Altough it says "basic attacks" it apparently works against Nasus Siphoning Strike, so it will probably also work against ANY "basic attack" that is buffed by a skill.

• I max this skill first because of the extra attack damage from it's passive and also because it's active is good for harass aswell as to avoid some damage.

Burst of Speed :
I use this skill as fast as I'm attacking any enemy, don't forget that it's passive also gives you extra movement speed when using Lunge (as well as with basic attacks).

• I max this second because of the great amount of extra attack speed as well as the good chasing capability it gives with it's movement speed boost.

Blade Waltz :
First thing first: You should rarely use this skill when only ONE enemy is nearby since every strike after the first one does 75% less damage. You can use it on them if they're low though (You can read about it's maximum damage output against a singe target in the description).
So, for maximum damage output there should be atleast 2 targets.

E.g. for Blade Waltz at level 3 and with 200 bonus damage:

• Singe Target:
  First strike will deal 740 (500+(200*1.2)).
  Consecutive strikes: 185 (740*0.25)
  # Number of Strikes to reach maximum damage: 5 (740+(185*4) = 1480)
  Total Damage Dealt: 1480
• Two Targets:
  First strike will deal 740 (500+(200*1.2)).
  Consecutive strikes: 185 (740*0.25)
  # Number of Strikes to reach maximum damage: You will not reach the damage limit
  Total Damage Dealt: 2035
• Three Targets:
  First strike will deal 740 (500+(200*1.2)).
  Consecutive strikes: 185 (740*0.25)
  # Number of Strikes to reach maximum damage: You will not reach the damage limit
  Total Damage Dealt: 2590

"Targets" are # of Champions that are HIT by Blade Waltz.

As you can see above Total damage output is greatly increased between ONE target and TWO targets. If you do the math it's actually 37.5% more damage. While between TWO targets and THREE targets the damage output is "only" increased by 27.3%.
**While the total amount IS more I'm only comparing the extra amount of damage you gain on attacking more than one target in percent**
For every new target you successfully hit you "gain" 555 damage points (740-185), or rather, every consecutive hit on the same target you do you lose 555 potential damage.



KEEP IN MIND:

• Blade Waltz hits RANDOM enemies (that means that the examples above are very optimistic and show MAXIMUM damage output, in reality Blade Waltz might hit the same enemy 5 times even if there are 4 targest nearby (I'm not 100% sure about this, but as the skill is described this should be theoreticlly possible))
  
  
• You will stop next to the selected target. So you might have to foresee where he is going if you don't want to get in trouble, but it also means that they won't be able to run away!
  
  
• Blade Waltz stacks with on-hit effects. That means Blade Waltz will give you HP from lifesteal and apply slow from Trinity Force.
  
  
• Blade Waltz should stack with Duelist, that means that when you use Blade Waltz your Duelist will be fully stacked afterwards. (Not 100% sure about this, will look it up)
  
  
• You are not targetable while using Blade Waltz, neither by players or by turrets. Use this to your advantage.

Dragon

Dragon is an important resource of income so don't let it slip to the enemy. Use your Wriggle's Lantern to ward him, and as fast as you have Wriggle's Lantern you will have no problem with soloing him as Fiora (you will probably be able to take him down faster than most champions thanks to Burst of Speed but also thanks to Riposte).

Gameplay

Okay, here follows my failed attempt on a Gameplay video with bad mumbling, low-voice comments with "heavy" accent (by me). The idea was to show you "how to play Fiora" but while doing this video I realized there is nothing to it. If you can play the game you can play Fiora.

• Warding
• Take dragon
• Gank
• Teamplay
• Tactics/Strategy

Those are far more important things to know rather than "how to play a champion".
And one thing I often say is: NEVER hesitate. If you hesistate between attacking or going back YOU WILL DIE! (most of the times)


ENJOY!