Fiora Build Guide by arcain93

Quick about me

Hi there, I'm Arcain93 and this is my guide on how to play Fiora the Grand Duelist.

First I'd like to say that this is the second guide I've written up. I do hope that you enjoy my guide as find playing Fiora as fun as I do.

I live in Australia and have the Australian spelling so please don't mind all the extra U's everywhere, quite a pain when it comes to writing 'colour' and 'armour'. I've played LoL for almost a year now and I thought it should be time for me to give back to the community that has helped me grow as a player.

Who's Fiora?

Just released and I'm already writing a guide about her, shows how much of a fan I am of her.
Fiora is the latest AD/AS Carry champion that focuses on the principles of fencing, such as closing gaps and reflecting attacks. She is a glasscannon champion, causing high damage but is limited when it comes to survival and escape techniques. Fiora can also be shut down very easily with a simple stun.

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This build will focus on boosting Fiora's basic attack abilities with attack damage, attack speed, crit chance and lifesteal. This guide is incomplete but is updated daily with different builds and tips on how to play Fiora. Feedback is greatly appreciated and will help me help you with a better guide.

Change Log

03/03/2012 - Blade Waltz Damage calculations added.
02/03/2012 - Main build re-worked. Item guide and situational items completed. Fiora Builds section added. Slight grammar and spelling corrections.
01/03/2012 - Fiora Released and Created this guide - Unfinished

Pros / Cons

Pros:
+ Amazing burst damage capabilities.
+ Can last hit easily with bonus damage from Riposte.
+ Great at pushing through minion waves and turrets at higher levels.
+ High early game damage.
+ Good chaser.
+ Able to reflect attacks.
+ Dat ***.

Cons:
- Squishy.
- Although she's not mana hungry, if constant spamming her mana will deplete easily.
- A simple stun can shutdown your damage and leave you for dead.
- Thornmail will damage you greatly.

Runes

I'm always open to suggestions about runes.

Runes, amazing little perks to increase your champions effectiveness in battle. I'm not a master at Runes but if you're unfamiliar with what Runes are and how they work then please check this guide to learn about them.

Marks
For Marks I chose Greater Mark of Attack Damage. The reason I chose plain attack damage over armour penetration is because Fiora is great at getting early game bursts of damage and at level 1 can deal almost 100 attack damage. This helps you get that little bit more damage out there. Plus Greater Mark of Attack Damage runes are amazingly cheep and good for beginners who need that little more damage. Greater Mark of Desolation is also very handy to get as it helps you ignore any armour your opponents have.

Seals
I've gone with Greater Seal of Armor because Fiora is a squishy champion that needs some survivability. Her main defences are to Ripost an attack but whilst thats on cooldown Fiora is left defenceless. These runes will help her survive that little bit longer in fights.

Glyphs
With Glyphs I'm unsure what ones would be best for Fiora but I have chosen Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction because it's universal for both AD and AP champions and Fiora has very little CDR any other way. This will help her spam her abilities faster.

Quintessence
I have recommended Greater Quintessence of Desolation because it allows Fiora to ignore the armour that enemies may get and help her deal more damage. HP Quints are also helpful for early game survival but lose their usefulness late game.

Just to show with greater mark of Desolation(15 armour pen) and Greater Quintessence of Desolation (10 armour pen) you've already penetrated through the starting armour of most champions. With your masteries 21-9-0 this can lead to some amazing damage early game.

Masteries

OFFENCE
+3 attack damage = Better last hits = More gold.


+2 damage to minions = Better last hits = More gold.


4% attack speed. Not a huge bonus but still beneficial, especially to get the next mastery which is...


10% Armour Penetration = More damage! This is very helpful against other champions.


+0.5 attack damage per level. +9 damage at level 18. Each little boost helps.


+3% more damage. A nice little boost to your attack helping you with +3 damage per 100.


+10% Critical Damage. Although this isn't beneficial unless you actually deal a critical strike, at late game when you can deal a critical strike every 2-3 attacks it really adds up.


+6 Armour Penetration. Just ignore any amour that enemy champions have and take them DOWN!


+6% damage to enemies below 40% health. If their health is low and still think they can hold their ground, finish them off.


DEFENCE
+2 Magic Resist. Not a life saver in any way shape or form but it will reduce magic damage that little bit.


+6 Armour. Again not a big boost but will help reduce damage from physical attacks that come your way.


+6 Health/Level (+108 at level 18). That little bit more survivability Fiora desperately needs.


+30 health. More health means you can survive just that little bit longer.

Summoner Spells

- Flash. Not my favourite spell but it has its many uses as Flash can be used both aggressively and defensively. This spell can be used to chase down a enemy that flashes away or is a step too far to reach whilst your Lunge is on cooldown. For Fiora I mainly use Flash as a escape tool to get away from any ganks or sticky situations that I know I won't survive.

- Exhaust Perfect for shutting down damage dealers or for slowing down any enemy champs that think they can get away from you. Exhaust is great for Fiora in 1v1's as it will help shut down their damage and keep you "1 step ahead" of them.



- Ignite If a champion is getting a lot of health back through Lifesteal or support healing then this will cut off that life support and leave them for death as you cause hell upon them! The DoT is deals is also handy if they get away with 3% health left.


This is just a handy utility spell to have around. Helps you set up ganks, teleport into battle or hold your lane for longer as you rush recall and teleport back.


Because Fiora is very susceptible to crowd control effects, a simple stun can really throw her off game and could even result in your death. Using Cleanse you're able to shake off the effects of a stun and continue your dance of death. Cleanse is NOT recommended for beginners as it requires good timing to use and for a player to remember to use their spells and items.

Skills

Duelist Fiora regenerates Health over time each time she deals physical damage. Striking champions will cause this effect to stack up to 4 times. This won't be a passive to save your life but it does mean you have more lane sustainability. If you're pushing well then Fiora's health will regenerate faster every time you attack a enemy champion.


For the first 4 levels I build W>E>W>Q for sustainability and the damage bonus from Riposte.
Lungue Fiora dashes forward to strike her target, dealing physical damage. A handy little gap-closer. Lunge towards your target and strike them down! This is a nice way to get to a squishy champion that could be hiding in the back of a team fight or to chase down a champion that is fleeing the battle.


Riposte Passively gives Fiora attack damage. Fiora parries the next basic attack and reflects magic damage back to the attacker. A great ability for junglers as it will reflect the damage from a big mob as well as give you a boost to your attack. In lane it helps you reflect any auto attack from a champion or large minion. This attack will also negate any on hit effects damage wise, such as sheen or Trinity, but won't negate any crowd control effects.


Burst of Speed Fiora gains additional Attack Speed. Each basic attack or Lunge she lands during this time increases her Movement Speed. This is where Fiora gets her burst damage, in simple, pure auto-attacks. Burst of Speed is great to help chase champions as well if they start to run from you as you also get a boost to movement speed ONLY IF you land a attack first. Burst of Speed also gets a speed boost when you land Lunge although it's better to chase a champion with your movement speed boost before using Lunge to stick with them.


Blade Waltz Fiora dashes around the battlefield, becoming untargetable in the process, and striking random enemy champion(s) This ultimate is just beautiful in my opinion, its a great way to finish off champions and as a way to avoid damage as you become untargetable. Fiora dashes around enemy champions and deals damage as she does so. She will jump from one champion to the next but she will always finish on the champion that she started the attack on. This ultimate isn't great as a initiator or as a way to enter a team fight because it greatly reduces the damage you do to a single champion. That being said, this ultimate is great for a 1v1 fight! Simply Riposte -> Burst of Speed -> Riposte -> Blade Waltz -> Riposte and rinse and repeat. The reason I didn't include Lunge is because I'd rather use that as a chaser ability rather then a damage dealing one.

Blade Waltz Damage

The damage output of her Blade Waltz is amazing at level 3 on a single target dealing 500 + attack bonus on the first hit then dealing 25% of that damage + bigger attack bonus! When she's against multiple targets the maths does get a bit tricky but here's some numbers to show you how much damage Fiora is capable of with her Blade Waltz. This is only calculated on how many targets she hits, not by how many targets there are. It could be a 5v5 team fight and Fiora could only hit 2 or 3 of them so results will vary.

Calculated Damage result!!

Red = First Hit Damage
Green = Attack Damage Bonus
Blue = Consecutive hit damage
Orange = Total Damage

Now I'll have the enemy have 70 armour for damage reduction purposes.
Damage reduction = 70 Armor: 70/(100 + 70) = 41% damage reduction.

Fiora with 300AD against a single target with 70 armour

First hit = 500 + 360 = 860
Consecutive Hit = (860 / 25% = 215) + (720 / 25% = 180). 215 + 180 = 395
Total Damage = 860 + (215 * 4)= 1720 + (180 * 4) = 2440
After damage reduction = 2440 * ((100 - 41)/100) = 1439 damage

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Fiora with 300AD against 2 targets with 70 armour

Target 1
First hit = 500 + 360 = 860
Consecutive Hit = (860 / 25% = 215) + (720 / 25% = 180). 215 + 180 = 395
Total Damage = 860 + (215 * 2)= 1290 + (180 * 2) = 1650
After damage reduction = 1650 * ((100 - 41)/100) = 973

Target 2
First hit = 500 + 360 = 860
Consecutive Hit = (860 / 25% = 215) + (720 / 25% = 180). 215 + 180 = 395
Total Damage = 860 + (215 * 1)= 1075 + (180 * 1) = 1255
After damage reduction = 1255 * ((100 - 41)/100) = 740

Total overall damage = 973+ 740 = 1713 damage

OR

Target 1
First hit = 500 + 360 = 860
Consecutive Hit = (860 / 25% = 215) + (720 / 25% = 180). 215 + 180 = 395
Total Damage = 860 + (215 * 3)= 1505 + (180 * 3) = 2045
After damage reduction = 2045 * ((100 - 41)/100) = 1206

Target 2
First hit = 500 + 360 = 860
Total Damage = 860
After damage reduction = 860 * ((100 - 41)/100) = 507

Total Damage = 1206 + 507 = 1713 damage

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Fiora against 3 targets with 70 armour

Target 1
First hit = 500 + 360 = 860
Consecutive Hit = (860 / 25% = 215) + (720 / 25% = 180). 215 + 180 = 395
Total Damage = 860 + (215 * 1)= 1075 + (180 * 1) = 1255
After damage reduction = 1255 * ((100 - 41)/100) = 740

Target 2
First hit = 500 + 360 = 860
Consecutive Hit = (860 / 25% = 215) + (720 / 25% = 180). 215 + 180 = 395
Total Damage = 860 + (215 * 1)= 1075 + (180 * 1) = 1255
After damage reduction = 1255 * ((100 - 41)/100) = 740

Target 3
First hit = 500 + 360 = 860
Total Damage = 860 + 0 = 860.
After damage reduction = 860 * ((100 - 41)/100) = 507

Total overall damage = 740 + 740 + 507 = 1987 damage

OR

Target 1
First hit = 500 + 360 = 860
Consecutive Hit = (860 / 25% = 215) + (720 / 25% = 180). 215 + 180 = 395
Total Damage = 860 + (215 * 2)= 1290 + (180 * 2) = 1650
After damage reduction = 1650 * ((100 - 41)/100) = 973

Target 2
First hit = 500 + 360 = 860
Total Damage = 860 + 0 = 860.
After damage reduction = 860 * ((100 - 41)/100) = 507

Target 3
First hit = 500 + 360 = 860
Total Damage = 860 + 0 = 860.
After damage reduction = 860 * ((100 - 41)/100) = 507

Total overall damage = 973 + 507 + 507 = 1987 damage

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Fiora against 4 targets with 70 armour

Target 1
First hit = 500 + 360 = 860
Consecutive Hit = (860 / 25% = 215) + (720 / 25% = 180). 215 + 180 = 395
Total Damage = 860 + (215 * 1)= 1075 + (180 * 1) = 1255
After damage reduction = 1255 * ((100 - 41)/100) = 740

Target 2
First hit = 500 + 360 = 860
Total Damage = 860 + 0 = 860.
After damage reduction = 860 * ((100 - 41)/100) = 507

Target 3
First hit = 500 + 360 = 860
Total Damage = 860 + 0 = 860.
After damage reduction = 860 * ((100 - 41)/100) = 507

Target 4
First hit = 500 + 360 = 860
Total Damage = 860 + 0 = 860.
After damage reduction = 860 * ((100 - 41)/100) = 507

Total overall damage = 740 + 507 + 507 + 507 = 2261 Damage

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Thank you Pintash for showing me how to calculate damage reduction.

As you can see, for each target Fiora has the base damage output increases by 465, and also the amount of times Fiora hits a single target compared to how many targets she hits in total, the damage output doesn't change! If you're going up against a single target the skill isn't as powerful as it can be compared to attacking a group of enemies but the damage is spread over and may not be the result you wanted.
Please correct me if you believe this is incorrect or I've done the maths wrong.

Builds

Items

I will show the benefits of using the main build.

Starting Items

--Recommend--
& With this combo you have higher movement speed and you're able to chase your opponents and the Health Potions will help you with keeping your lane, even if you're being focused.


Doran's Blade. Now I don't usually approve of Doran's blade because it usually requires 2 or 3 of them to become useful but wih Fiora's amazing early game burst damage it helps her sustain her lane with more damage, health and small amount of lifesteal. Whilst the lifesteal isn't noticeable, it's more like having a higher amount of health regen.


& This gives you the most survival when it comes to starting items. The added armor will reduce any damage taken from minions or enemy champion auto attacks whilst the health potions will keep your health up if you take any damage or you decide to attack.

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Early Game

The Brutalizer is a great item for any AD champions that have spamable skills. Providing a bonus to damage, armour penetration and with a 15% cooldown reduction. With this Fiora's Burst of Speed will become much more useful and you'll be able to defend with Riposte more often.


Mercury's Treads These boots will benefit Fiora more then any other, doesn't matter what build you're trying to do. With these boots Fiora will have slightly more magic resist and tenacity, which reduce the duration of crowd control effects, which are a major killer to Fiora. I don't recommend getting Berserker's Greaves because the added attack speed it not needed as other items and Burst of Speed provide plenty of attack speed.

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Mid Game

With this item you'll find that you gain some sustainability and you're now able to slice through minion waves much faster, granting you more gold and building up your The Bloodthirster.


Infinity Edge will give you the ability to have critical strikes which double your damage. With Infinity Edge this will also make your critical damage deal an aditional 50% MORE damage! A truly godly item.

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Late Game

Youmuu's Ghostblade Upgrade your The Brutalizer into Youmuu's Ghostblade. Youmuu's Ghostblade gives you more attack damage, critical strike chance, better cooldown reduction, better armour penetration AND now it has a ACTIVE ability giving you more attack speed and movement speed to chase down and clean up the battlefield.


Phantom Dancer is a great way to give your damage output a boost with bonus attack speed and crit chance. They also increase your movement speed so you can lunge in and out of battle faster.


As you may have noticed this build leaves Fiora a bit squishy, adding a Guardian Angel gives you both defence and magic resist whilst also giving you a extra life once every five minutes. If you're getting focused first or need some help surviving attacks then this might be that little bit of defence you've been looking for.

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Please give suggestions on what items you'd like to see included.

Situational Items

Damage

Phantom Dancer is a great boots to your attack speed, critical strike chance and movement speed. This item doesn't help much with survival but is a great way to boost your damage either way.


More attack damage, more health AND a slow! A truly godly item for AD champions. The added attack isn't much but still helps. The health boost is simply amazing for Fiora helping her to not be so squishy. The slow is also a good bonus to have, shutting down chasers and escapees.


If you started off with Cloth Armor then building into a Wriggle's Lantern is a great second item. Gives you more armour, attack damage, lifesteal and a active that acts as a Sight Ward. It gives you a little security with sight.


If you decide to get the Frozen Mallet or a Warmog's Armor then this will be of great use as it turns your maximum health into attack damage. At 2000 health this will result in 40 damage, giving you a good boost that's almost the same as a B.F. sword. The added critical strike chance and armour is also handy to have on hand.


This will give you bonus attack damage and attack speed whilst lowering your opponents defences every time you hit them. This item is great if you're versing a defence strong team or a lot of tanks.


Added armour, attack damage, attack speed and a proc effect that deals damage based on enemy health, Madred's Bloodrazor will help against enemy champions that are building a lot of life. If you grab a Cloth Armor early game you can build that into this.

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Defence


Armour and Magic resist and what's this? An extra life? Amazing! This item will help you if you've been targeted by the enemy team and get taken out. Whilst your team takes the enemy down you'll come back like and deal the finishing touches like a angel from the heavens and score an ace.


If you're up against a AP strong team then this will help you by negating one spell. This is also good to avoid the stuns that could shut you down so easily. With added health and mana this will help you sustain your lane longer.


A lot more health on a champion that needs it. Warmog's Armor is a survivalist item, if you're getting targeted all the time and get taken down in less then 3 seconds you might want to consider getting this.

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Utility

zeke's herald This item gives Fiora little bonuses in everything she needs. Added health, cooldown reduction and a aura to benefit your whole team, providing more attack speed and lifesteal to you and your team mates.


This is basically a get out of fail free card if you ever get stunned in the middle of a fight. It removes any crowd control effects from your character and also giving a bonus to magic resist.

Summary

Thanks for reading my guide. I will be finishing it soon as I play around with item builds for Fiora. If you have a item build you'd like me to try then please let me know and I'll gladly give my opinion about it or include it in my guide.

I'm open to any criticisms, hints, suggestions, praise, compliments, etc.. Please leave a comment below so I know how to improve and give me inspiration to write more guide for other champions.