Fizz Build Guide : Fizz - A slightly different nuker :: League of Legends Strategy Builds

Introduction

Hello! Today, I'd like to show you how to do a great job with him on mid lane. Even though Fizz is a champion that can fulfill several roles - bruiser on solo top, jungler or AP carry on mid - I personally think that Fizz' ability to dominate his mid lane is really outstanding.

This guide will tell you how to play Fizz as a nuker that still has some very good survivability which is not only an effect of his ability to escape. You'll learn how to engage a fight, how to tower dive, how you have to position yourself during a team fight and last but not least, something about counter picks.

But before we come to the guide, I'd like you to do two things:

1.) This is my first guide, so I'd be really glad to get some feedback. Say me what's good, but also tell me what's bad. I don't need "your guide is ****" comments but some "you could improve this" ones to really become better! :)

2.) Please be kind to me when it comes to grammar/language. English is not my mother tongue, so there might me several mistakes. I really tried my best, please keep this in mind. :)

Updates

09.05.12:
*Created the guide.
*Runes have to be reworked as there were no "Greater Quintessences of Insight" available.

10.05.12:
*Removed several spelling errors
*Changed "you can easily look after them" into "you can easily look after drake/baron" for better understanding (in the advanced tactics section)
*Fixed the wrecked lists
*Added a picture of my rune page
*Changed the image of my masteries (it was 2 magic resistance and 6 armor instead of vice versa)
*Added icons in the chapters "skills", "items", "runes" and "summoner spells"
*Added "Testing area" chapter
*Added into the "testing area"
*Moved to the "testing area"

To-do-list:
*Test the items from the "testing area" section
*Add more "advanced tips" if I find some
*Make a game play video with commentary
*Add pictures/videos for the "skills" and the "team fight" chapters
*Add some color

Pros & Cons

Pros

High damage burst
Due to his DOT, he can easily kill champions with low life even when silenced
chasing and escaping are almost no problem
dodging skill shots is easy
only "semi-squishy"

Cons

only melee range
high priority target
Ultimate might fail often
depends on enemies' reactions

Runes & why I use them

9x Greater Mark of Insight
As an AP carry, you do a lot of magical damage. Therefore, some magic penetration is great. In my humble opinion, other offensive marks (e.g. more ability power) have a smaller impact on his damage. Defensive marks aren't needed as my build and masteries already provide Fizz with enough life and resistances.

9x Greater Seal of Resilience
As Fizz, your most common way to deal tons of damage is to stay in melee range of you enemy. With you Q you dash towards him, your W only applies on auto-attacks and your E hasn't got a good range neither. As a result, you'll be an easy target not only for the hostile AD carry but also for their bruiser. Therefore, some armor will increase you chance to survive.

9x Greater Glyph of Force
Some AP runes are always nice. And they are even nicer if your build isn't build on full AP (which is kinda **** in my opinion). Even though the AP bonus is small, Fizz has good AP ratios and therefore he still will deal a lot of more damage. If you think, some magic resistance would be better, use 9x Greater Glyph or Shielding or - if you have problems with the early game - 9x Greater Glyph of Warding.

3x Greater Quintessence of Potency / of Insight
You can choose between them, you can mix them how you please. Both will increase your damage output. I prefer twice the flat AP and one time the magic penetration for an additional early damage.

Here is my personal standard Fizz rune page, consisting 9x Greater Mark of Insight, 9x Greater Seal of Resilience, 9x Greater Glyph of Force, 2x Greater Quintessence of Potency and finally 1x Greater Quintessence of the Piercing Present (equal to Greater Quintessence of Insight):

Masteries & why I use them

As you can see, I use 21/9/0 masteries. But why?

Improving the ability to last hit
2/2 Butcher and 1/3 Brute Force will increase you capability to increase you creep count which is very important. As Fizz auto attacks are melee, his opponent is likely to be able to harass him. Therefore, those 5 extra damage can lower the amount of time you have to spend near the hostile creeps and as a result the time the hostile champion can harass you, as well.

Improving Ignite
The increase of your AP as well as the additional AD will lead to more damage. This damage boost will be higher while playing Fizz than while playing another AP carry as Fizz depends on his auto attacks to deal damage. So please, take 1/1 Summoner's Wrath.

Cool down reduction
Fizz is one of my favorite champions. One of the reasons is his ultimate. You can drop a whole enemy team below 50% with it - but only when it's not on cool down. Those 4% will be equal to 2.8 seconds. It sounds like nothing - but only until your ultimate is on a 1 second cool down when you die. Why should you use 4/4 Sorcery with this low cd? The answer: It's not only his ultimate but all of his skills which profit from this. This leads to more damage with your Q as well as more ability to escape with your E!

Increase in damage
As this guide is about a nuker Fizz, we need a lot of damage. 10% Magic Penetration (1/1 Arcane Knowledge), 1,5% damage increase (3/3 Havoc), 18 AP (4/4 Blast) as well as 5% increased AP (4/4 Archmage) all lead to more damage. 1/1 Executioner is really the best mastery on Fizz. The additional 6% damage on targets below 40% life perfectly stacks with his W's additional damage on low-health targets.

Resistances and life
As Fizz is likely to be found in the enemies' middle, people will try to kill you. Some magic resistance 3/3 Resistance and a little bit of armor 1/3 Hardiness do not help a lot, but in combination with 4/4 Durability 1/1 Vertaran's Scars (total of +138HP on lvl 18 / +31,5HP on level 1) you will be more likely to survive. I prefer magic resistance over armor due to two reasons: Firstly, we already have armor in our runes and secondly, additional magic resistance (even though its only 6) will secure a early lane domination as you can harass your enemy without getting hurt too much.

Skills, skill order and advanced tactics

SKILLS

Passive

is Fizz' passive ability. In my opinion, it gives two great advantages over other champions. Firstly, you can easily evade skill shots etc. as you won't be blocked by creeps. This is important as you'll be next to your and your enemy's creeps in order to get some last hits. Secondly, harassing you foe becomes much more easier. On the one hand, hostile creeps won't hurt you a lot (--> chasing is possible), on the other hand you can engage/escape through a minion wave which will bring space against you and your enemy.

Q, Active

will be one of your main single targeted damage sources. It not only deals magic damage that scales with AP but also your total attack damage. In combination with , you'll deal tons of damage with 1 hit. The traveled distance is always the same. --> If you enemy stands next to you, you will end up miles away from him. If you cast on max range, you'll be next to him afterwards.

W, Passive with Active

is Fizz' other single targeted damage spell. It's passive inflicts a DOT that deals more damage the less life the target has. As a conclusion, you can find two rules:
1.) The more damage you have inflicted, the more damage it'll do.
2.) The last tick will always do more damage as the first one.
It's active is quite different. Fizz does on-hit damage (additional to his passive damage) and also inflicts "grieving wounds" which lower the amount the target gets healed by 50%.

E, Active

is parted into "Playful" and "Trickster". With "Playful", Fizz jumps on his stick. After a while, he falls to the ground, slowing and damaging everybody in a certain area around him. He can also use "Trickster" to jump another time (without a delay). Then, he inflicts the same damage, but the slow is lost. You can also use this skill to escape or to dodge skill shots. While Fizz is on his stick, he is invulnerable.

R, Ultimate

is a skill shot that becomes an area of effect shield after a certain distance or if it hits an hostile champion. This field follows the enemy (he's in the middle of the field) / this field stays on the ground for 1.5 seconds. After this delay, all enemies inside of this AOE are knocked back from the center (the target itself is knocked up) and damaged. This spell might drop a squishy under 75!!!

SKILL ORDER

> > >

(Level 1 first) is your most efficient way to deal single targeted damage. Furthermore it deals extra damage to already hurt foes. As this skill will increase your creep amount (as it's DOT ticks might kill the creep), you should max it first. Moreover, constant harassing with this skill will almost secure a kill for you as each time you attack will do more damage. (Level 2 first) has to be maxed after the first skill. This secures you even more single target damage. In combination with your W, you can easily harass your enemy. On level three, you have to get (Level 3 first) as this skill enables you both damaging your for once more or (more important) to jump back in direction of your tower. As you won't use this as you main damage source but as your "survival insurance", keep it on level 1 until you have to level it. As (Level 6 first) is a powerful skill, level it when ever you can.

ADVANCED TACTICS

Use Playful / Trickster only to secure a kill. If you use it too often, your mana might be low and it is likely to be on cool down when you need it for an escape.
If you are beyond the enemy's creeps and you have to flee, don't use your Playful / Trickster but your Urchin Strike, followed by the skill I mentioned first. This will lead to a further distance you traveled.
You can start harassing at level 2. Activate Seastone Trident, followed by Urchin Strike. Try to hit you foe more times. Due to your early burst damage, they are likely to run away (so you won't be hit to hard).
At level 3, you can harass you enemy without getting hit too much. Just engage with Urchin Strike, followed by a few hits with Seastone Trident and leap away with Playful / Trickster.
Chum the Waters followed by Playful / Trickster might kill (if well-placed) almost the entire hostile team.
Before you have Lich Bane, activate Seastone Trident before engaging with Urchin Strike. The latter skill uses the passive of Lich Bane instantly. To get the maximum of damage you can deal, try to wait before using Seastone Trident so that the passive will proc twice.
Here is a map of places you can jump over with your Playful / Trickster. This might secure your life more than once.

If there are no wards, you can easily look after drake/baron: Jump over the wall with "Playful". If there are enemies, you can easily escape with "Trickster" as they can't hurt you between both spells.
If someone cast a DOT on you (e.g. Ignite), sitting on your stick ("Playful") WON'T stop it to damage you!
Your ultimate might be dodged as it is slow (don't use it on max range). Yet, don't use it on melee range as it can be dodged there, as well (only 1-2 steps to dodge it).
People affected by Chum the Waters who gain a spell shield will drop the AOE-field.
You can tower dive without getting to much tower hits as you can "dodge" even already flying projectiles with Playful / Trickster.
IMPORTANT: Fizz depends on his enemy's reactions and behavior. Learn how you foe reacts in order to counter-react.
More tips will be added later!

Items (buy order & why I use them)

ITEM 1.1:

Those boots give you some speed that you will really need as Fizz is a melee fighter. Due to this increased movement speed, Fizz' early harassment as well as his ability to dodge skills / escape ganks become better. Also, you can easily kill creeps and run out of the enemy's range again. With 3x , you can stay a long time on your lane.

Alternative: In my opinion, isn't a good item on Fizz. Yes, more AP boosts you - even without the ring - awesome early burst damage. But in comparison to the boots, you will lose highly recommended and important movement speed. Also, think about this:
450 HP (pots) > 80 HP (ring). Also, you shouldn't have mana problems without the ring if you use you skills only for harassment and to escape. So, I recommend if your foe is very squishy, slow without boots (clairvoyance might help) and the additional damage almost guarantees an easy kill. should be your next item then.

Catalyst the Protector

ITEM 2.1:

Catalyst the Protector
This will increase both your mana and your life. Therefore, this item will increase the times you are able to engage on your foe (you can take/deal more hits). It's passive also leads to a better sustain.

ITEM 1.2:

As I mentioned before, movement speed is very important for Fizz. As a matter of effect, those boots will enhance your game if you get them early enough. might give you an additional advantage on lane domination in early game, yet you late game damage would suffer to much (20 magic penetration!). As Fizz' early damage is high even though he hasn't got a lot of AP, you can wait AP related items some time.

ITEM 2.2:

Build your Catalyst the Protector into this item. AP is needed as you need to increase your damage now (you won't kill anybody without having AP since now). Again, health and mana are great for Fizz. With this item, you won't be squishy for a long time what enhances you possibility to engage fights, win fights and eventually survive fights.

ITEM 3:

This is the most important item in this build. Even without it's passive, it gives you everything Fizz needs: Magic resistance (more survivability), ability power (more damage) and movement speed (run Fizz, run!). But it's passive itself just is... wow! As counts as a spell (activation) as well as an auto-attack (the actual hit), the skill not only creates effect but also consumes it at the same time. The result: Great burst damage.

ITEM 4/5:

and
Those are the very next items in my build. Both increase your damage output, Rylai's also you survivability and chasing ability. It's situational weather you go for the hat or the scepter first.

You need damage, you survive easy and don't have problems with chasing? --> first

You need survivability and it's hard for you to chase? --> first

ITEM 6:

Now, it's your turn to choose an item. You should think about your game and what you need.

is my favorite last item. It provides you not only with another damage boost but also a great amount of armor which is great against fed ad carries / bruisers. Also, the passive might let you cast another (1.5 seconds from the hourglass and 0.75 seconds from are almost half of it's cool down)!

might be a good option if enemies start stacking magic resistance. If you think you're missing some damage, this is a viable option to cope with it.

is a great item against hard-hitting teams. Firstly, it decreases their damage on you. Secondly, your damage gets boosted. Why? If you survive longer, you can deal more damage. Also, your resurrection lasts long enough to cast another afterwards.

USEFUL ITEM ONLY FOR EARLY/MID GAME

Kage's Lucky Pick might be a valuable option before after finishing your . Why? As a melee fighter, gaining creep kills might really become hard from time to time. If it's clear that the hostile AP carry as got bunches of gold more than you, buy this item. After 12.75 minutes, every gold you gain from this item is some "additional gold".

There might be other items that might fit in the current situation, so give them a try! :)

DON'T BUY THIS

There are some items I often see when other players play Fizz. Maybe some of them might be good, but the majority is ****. Please don't buy this items if possible!

might give you mana and damage, yes. But if you already own items one to five, you'll already have enough mana to use a lots of spells without blue buff. Of course, you might get more damage with this at all. But hey, every item I showed you will bring you more other advantages. And just for some damage, this staff is quite expensive!

will give you lots of life but hey, this build wants to be a nuker build! :D Also, life isn't worth anything without enough resistances!

Summoner Spells

Spell No. 1

is a great choice for Fizz. It provides you with even more damage. Well, the 50% heal reduction isn't needed, but... More damage leads to more damage by . And if inflicts more damage, the targets' HP become even less and the next tick will deal additional damage, again.

Spell No. 2

will allow you to perfectly chase/escape. It is recommend if you have problems with escaping as the enemy jungler/mid have to many snares/stuns/etc. If there is not a lot of cc, you can switch to which gives you an advantage in chasing (you're faster over a longer distance) but an disadvantage in escaping (less dodging etc.).

Alternative No. 1

might be an option if you don't believe that is the right choice. In early game, you should deal more burst damage than you opponent. If you use it right after you engaged, you could kill an enemy even though you're on low life.

Alternative No. 2

is a great alternative to as it boosts your damage twice. Firstly, ~85 Ap (with ) will boost all your skills, secondly the attack speed boost will increase your damage done with your active.

Playing Fizz (pulling, laning & team fight)

Pulling blue/red

Before the game starts, you usually have to pull a creep for your jungler. As Fizz doesn't have any ranged attack, pulling without getting damaged is impossible. Ask someone from top/bot lane to do so.
Another option would be that you use your . Yes, you've read right. I do so (if I have to) as well. Maybe you will miss it's additional true damage. But thanks to , your magic damage will increase. The 5 AP won't do a lot of additional damage (+3 on and +1.75 on 's passive and active). BUT! You'll have 5 additional AD as well. Getting last hits won't be a big problem then. Additionally, 's and 's "damage" will be increased by this 5 AD!

Laning

I won't explain you every move during laning as well as I won't tell you the general things while laning (calling miss etc.), but I will show you some important rules.

Try to harass permamently.
Don't use Playful / Trickster until you need it in order to kill somebody / don't get killed.
CS always is important. Don't forget about it even though you are melee.
Use your skills only against champions. In early game, Fizz has got low mana (by low I mean very low). Also, you don't need skills to last hit as this shouldn't be a problem with this masteries (+ Ignite?).
Tower dives against you are dangerous and you can easily tower dive due to Playful / Trickster making you untargetable.

Team fights

Again, here are some tips. Don't try to execute them all the time. Those are general tips which may be not true for every single situation.

Try to land Chum the Waters in the middle of the enemies in order to hit most of them.
Your ultimate is great for canceling spells like Katharina's Death Lotus. You just have to time it perfectly (travel time + 1.5 seconds delay).
If your enemies won't be hurt too much by Playful / Trickster and you aren't targeted, don't use it as this skill might save your life.
Even though Fizz is amazing in chasing, staying in a team fight might often be the better choice.
Keep in mind: Seastone Trident will always damage people who are already damaged more. An example: If a fed AD carry (100%) and a tank (15%) stand next to each other, hit the tank once or twice while nuking the carry to death.

I think I'll add more stuff later on, but until now, this should do fine. :)

Fizz is a counter pick against....

First, I have to say that I don't believe in counter picks as most other people (in elo hell) do. They say, that counter picks will automatically bring domination of your lane. That isn't true. Even if there are two even-skilled player, counter picks won't win their lane by "doing nothing special". Yet, counter picks will make lane domination easier!

There are lots of opinions and lists about who counters which champion, but these counter picks I will show you are here because I made up my thoughts, and - of course - due to lots of games I played.

: You can evade her taunt with . Also, her Q can be evaded my little movement when you are next to her. Also, you are an perfect gap closer.

: You can dodge his silence. When this is done, you're damage output is greater then his one --> Burst him down. Furthermore, you still do great damage while silenced with .

: Evade her skill shot, then you can nuke her easily. Also, her ultimate might be dodged quite well.

Champions that might cause trouble

Some champions might cause some problems if they play against Fizz. This doesn't mean that your lane is lost but that you have to play more carefully, to watch the enemy's behavior more than you would normally do and finally, to "play with your brain".

: Yes, you can dodge her stun. BUT... Have you ever thought of her shield. It will make your almost useless/unreliable.

: His stun can't be dodged properly. Also, he might do a lot of damage even though you even weren't able to touch him.

Testing Area

ITEMS

Those items might be good, but I still have to test them (which is hard to do as I lose/win before getting to item 6): (instead of Rylai's), and . (AD and AS scale up the damage of .) Another option could be as damage and magic resistance both become boosted.

Fizz as a counter pick

: Counter pick list and people say that this would be true. I've only played once against him with Fizz, so I am going to try this out.

Counter picks against Fizz

: Her harass is horribly good and you can't dodge every spell of her. (I am going to check this again as some people might think Fizz could even dominate her.)

About the testing area

As I want to stay up-to-date and as I only want to post true stuff, I'll only write approved items/champions into their sections. If you gave me a tip and it ends up here don't think I mistrust you. I just want to bring this guide to an excellent quality. Therefore, I have to test everything even though a 2,5k elo player told me something.
Also, don't forget that testing is a very slow process. I can't choose how long a game takes and who my enemies are. So, some time might pass by until I can approve something.

The end

I hope you guys enjoyed this guide and maybe, someone increases his skills with Fizz. This would make me happy.

I try to keep this guide up to date. By this, I don't only mean patches but also your/my ideas/thoughts/etc. If YOU (or I) have some great idea that would make this guide better (another chapter, more counter picks, other runes) I will try them and - if it's better than before - change it.

One final thought: This is my fist guide. Please help me to improve it and improve my guides in general. I'm open to every constructive criticism, so please be so kind to leave a comment.

Last but not least, I want to thank you all for your comments/votes/etc. which helped (and still help) to improve my guide. You're great! But some of you deserve a special thank you:
Agoney for a great comment which was very detailed and helped me a lot.

Eri

Fizz - A slightly different nuker