Fizz Build Guide by RaskolnikovsAxe

Fizz, Teemo of the Sea

Fizz can be built as Tanky DPS, AP Assassin, or jungler or either stripe. This guide builds Fizz as an AP assassin which is, I believe, his strongest potential build. Despite this, he is a very versatile champion with a strong jungle, harass in lane, and both burst and sustained damage. Above all, he's fun as hell to play and your opponents will find him a very slippery fish to get their hands on and kill.

The Fizz patch contained the new masteries as well and I freely admit that I don't entirely have a grasp on them. These are the masteries that seem to work well but, as with anything in my guide, experiment and let me know what you find.

Runes

Laning Runes

For laning Fizz, health is paramount. He has strong harassin lane with Seastone Trident but cannot deal much burst damage in the early game. Because of this, you'll have to whittle down the enemy champion over time with the goal of outlasting your opponent. Because of this, I choose the following runes:

Greater Quintessence of Fortitude--Flat health quints will allow you to take some harass while still being a threat to your opponent in lane. If you start with a Ruby Crystal that means that you will have have 258 bonus health at level 1.
Greater Mark of Insight--The majority of your damage in lane will come from Seastone Trident and your burst late-game will be magic damage. These runes are essential to maximise your damage and get kills.
Greater Seal of Resilience--This will help you withstand your opponent's harass. This is mostly optional so you can switch these runes out for others such as MR runes.
Greater Glyph of Warding--Like the armor seals, these will help you stay in lane longer and out-harass your opponents.

Jungling Runes

Greater Quintessence of DesolationGreater Quintessence of Desolation--You're relying on your Seastone Trident to deal the damage while you're in the jungle and since it deals more damage when the target is missing more health, armor pen boosts your total damage significantly.
Greater Mark of Strength--Jungle creeps have 0 magic resist so the magic pen from Greater Mark of Magic Penetration is useless. Instead I prefer to have extra AD to increase Fizz's total damage (again, because it has synergy with Seastone Trident). Alternatives to this are Greater Mark of Attack Speed.
Greater Seal of Resilience--Same runes as the laning build. Armor is essential for jungling successfully and you'll want all you can get your hands on.
Greater Glyph of Alacrity--I recommend these runes so that you're applying the on-hit from Seastone Trident as often as possible. It also makes your ganks stronger than increased AP would.

Masteries

As I said in my introduction, the new masteries have somewhat thrown me for a loop. I've taken my best stab at the masteries for Fizz using trial and error but there may be better mastery sets for Fizz and for you own personal play style. I've used a 21/9/0 set (mostly for Executioner at the top of the tree), maximising AP since I build Fizz as a an assassin.

However, I've found that Fizz has real survivability issues in lane and feels slow as all hell sometimes. That's why I've become a fan of my current 12/18/0 mastery arrangement. It gives a lot of extra health and damage mitigation in lane, as well as increased move speed from Initiator . I also get the bonus AD from Brute Force instead of bonus AP because it actually deals more damage for harassing in lane.

I'd like to make a special mention about Executioner at the top of the offense tree. Its effect synergizes with Fizz very well and it's one reason to max offense. Fizz deals a lot of damage over time (DoT) and so this mastery is perfect for him. If an enemy champion flashes over a wall at the last instant, there's a good chance that DoT from Seastone Trident along with the Executioner mastery will net you the kill.

Summoner Spells

Best

--Always a good spell on pretty much any champion. Taking this, in addition to Fizz's Playful/Trickster makes him nearly impossible to catch.
--This is my preferred choice of spell for Fizz. The extra damage will help boost the damage from Seastone Trident. WIth the mastery, the increased AP and AD when it's on cooldown also give you an edge in lane.
--If you're in lane, this can really help you secure first blood. It allows you to go toe to toe with the enemy champion by reducing their damage, slows them if they're running, and (if you get the mastery) increases your own damage.
--No longer as essential for jungling as it used to be but still very strong, especially because of it's low CD. I take this for obvious reasons.

Good

--I play Fizz as a burst caster so I usually don't sit around poking my enemies. However, if you're building a bruiser Fizz this is a viable choice. You could also take it in addition to smite to make your jungle faster. In my experience it's most useful in the early game and tends to tail off later but I could just be doing it wrong.
--More mobility is always a good thing but I feel that teleport is generaly strongest on a Tanky DPS champion which Fizz is usually not. If it's your style though, it is never a bad summoner to pick
--Fizz's Playful/Trickster allows him to dodge any spell and jump over walls which gives him a lot of escapability. If you still have trouble with being CCed, take this.

Lolwut?

--Fizz's passive Nimble Fighter already gives him half the effect from ghost. In addition, he also has two dashes so the advantage of increased movespeed is debatable.
--Nice, but not very good on a champ that needs offense. Leave it to the support.
--Fizz's abilities are mostly low-cost and you get some mana and regen from the build. Don't take this.
--Fizz is an offensive champion while this is a defensive spell. Leave healing to the support.
--Good for pushing lanes but Fizz is an assassin or a fighter, not a pusher.
--I suppose it could be useful for an assassin to have this in order to clean up after teamfights but I'm dubious.

Skills & Combos

This is, hands down, one of the best passives in the game. No unit collision makes it laughably easy to harass your opponents in lane and the reduced minion damage helps make Fizz a very viable jungler. If you find yourself running from enemies, you'll be able to run through your minion wave with no issues while your enemies will have to path around them. Badass.


A point-and-click dash that procs on-hit effects (such as Seastone Trident and Sheen). It moves you to the maximum distance no matter how close your target is so you can use it to jump behind an enemy. This is excellent for harassing, landing finishing blows, ganking, and even escaping. Though it is really a great move, I max this last because getting more damage/lower cooldowns on the other skills is far more important.


This is what makes Fizz the Teemo of the Sea. A damage over time that gets stronger the more health they're missing. It can be activated to get bonus damage and to halve healing with grievous wound which makes Fizz an excellent counter to carries who rely on lifesteal and to champs that regen significantly like Dr. Mundo and Swain. I max this skill first to get in good lane harass.


Also known as The Trollpole. This skill is what makes Fizz so slippery and mobile in fights. The first part of the spell makes him untargetable while the second part either gives him a jump and a small AoE damage or a 60% slow over a large AoE depending on your choice. This is great for clearing minion waves, tower diving a low-health enemy, jumping over walls, ganking, etc. I max this second to get it to the minimum cooldown.


Fizz's ultimate (MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA). I mean come on, who the hell doesn't want to see their enemies eaten by a giant shark? It has everything an assassin might want--a slow, a knockup, short cooldown, and 1.0 scaling. There is some strategy to using this which I will go over in the Tips & Tricks section. Like any ult, take a rank in this whenever it becomes available (Levels 6, 11, and 16).

Combos

W > Q > E

Use this combo to harass your opponents in lane and escape without taking any damage. You can use Playful / Trickster to either escape or to continue chasing your opponent if you have time to get another hit on them with Seastone Trident. WARNING: This combo is very mana intensive so I don't recommend this unless you have the blue buff or significant mana regen.

E > W > Q > (Optional) E

If you're playing Fizz as a jungler, you can use this combo for ganking. Try to use the first dash from Playful/Trickster to get into range, but do not press it again, this will put a 40-60% slow on your enemy (depending on your rank). Now that they're slow, activate Seastone Trident and poke them to death. If they flash, use Urchin Strike to close the gap and secure the kill. If necessary, use E again (which may be near to being off cooldown) to escape or to deal the killing blow.

W > Q > E > (Optional) R

This is for ambushing a champion i.e. bursting them down as quickly as possible when they run by your hiding spot. Start with the standard Seastone Trident and Urchin Strike combo to apply the on hit immediatly. Then use Playful / Trickster to catch up or continue damaging. By this point, they've used their flash or other escape if they have one. This will make it very difficult for them to dodge Chum the Waters for the killing blow.

Jungle Paths & Tips

Jungling with Fizz is deceptively easy and he can take pretty much any path. His passive keeps him from taking too much damage while the bonus damage based on missing health from Seastone Trident chews through jungle creeps like nobody's business (especially the Ancient Golem and Lizard Elder). In addition, it helps to keep him away from harass during the early levels when he doesn't have as much survivability and is more of a boom-or-bust champion. Here I've listed the paths I've taken from fastest to slowest.

Blue Buff to Small Golems (Path complete by ~4:00)
Probably the most standard jungle path taken by junglers. This will put you to level 4 and in ganking position by about the 4 minute mark (depending on your runes and masteries). If you get a leash on the blue (which you should) you'll also maintain fairly high health, leaving the jungle with somewhere between 3/4 and full health (depending on crits, potion use, and strength of leash). That said, it is fairly predictable so you increase your risk of being ganked in the jungle by taking this path.

Red > Golems > Wraiths > Wolves > Blue (Path complete by ~4:15)
This path is interesting because it starts at the red, giving you the most opportunities to gank throughout. You can gank at level 2 after the golems at around the 3 min mark, level 3 after the wraiths at 3:30, and coming back from completing your path at 5:00. Use smite in the red, big wraith, and blue. After you finish the blue, go back to buy boots, then gank and continue jungling.

Golems > Wraiths > Wolves > Blue > Buy Boots and Pots > Red (Path complete by ~5:00)
A good way to avoid being ganked at level 1, this jungle path is much slower than the Blue to Golems path with you getting in position to gank by around the 5 minute mark. Still, it's much safer because you maintain higher health throughout. You also have the advantage of going back to buy boots before you gank which gives you a better chance of securing a kill. Use smite on the big wraith and the blue buff, then the red buff. Leveling of skills is the same but remember not to spam them too much. You're going to want enough mana to use Seastone Trident twice when you're taking the blue buff.

Jungling Tips

When you activate Seastone Trident and attack a minion, use Urchin Strike immediately afterwards to apply the on-hit effect again. At early levels Fizz is usually able to apply the active of W about 3 times with autoattacks. Using Urchin Strike while W is active will apply one more hit of W and significantly increase your damage. This is pretty mana intensive though, so I usually use this combo only on the largest minions in each camp.

After level 4 when you get Playful / Trickster, it's tempting to use its AoE damage to jungle. This is fine, but make sure you activate Trickster immediatly after you use Playful (i.e. use both parts of the spell immediately). If you sit on top of the trident and wait for Fizz to drop, the creeps will start to regenerate their health.

If you're not afraid of being counter-jungled, it's also very beneficial to use smite first when fighting the Ancient Golem or Lizard Elder. This is because Seastone Trident gets stronger the more health the enemy is missing, so using smite first effectively makes it hit for 18 more damage per second (which adds up quickly). Obviously if you're worried about your buff being stolen, you can save smite until the end but this will slow down your jungle and force you to jungle at lower health.

AP Assassin Items

Your Core

These items will make you fairly difficult to kill in the early game as well as giving you a strong damage output all for 5395 gold; a very respectable core price. I pick Sorcerer's Shoes because Fizz's E largely enables him to escape CC and the extra magic pen is essential to dealing damage with Seastone Trident. I get Rod of Ages for early health and AP, and Sheen for the strong mid game damage for relatively cheap. If you're dominating lane, buy Sheen first. If not, buy a [Catalyst of the Protector]] first, then sheen, then finish your Rod of Ages.

Mid Game

In the mid game you're going to want to upgrade your Sheen into a Lich Bane to increase your burst. Zhonya's Hourglass is also invaluable for the AP and increased survivability. Like above, if you're doing well, build the offesnive item first (Lich Bane). If not so well, build the defensive one (Hourglass).

End Game

End game is totally dependent on how well you've done up until now. If you're carrying hard, max out your AP as much as possible with a Deathcap. I'm also a fan of Deathfire Grasp for its increased burst and CDR. If you're not doing as well or are having real survivability issues, build a Banshee's Veil and other defensive items.

Jungling/Bruiser Items

Jungling/Bruiser Core

Your jungling core build which comes in at a sweet 4025 gold. If you're laning but still building bruiser, skip the razors and start building your Atmog's after Malady.

The MR reduction from Malady will make your Seastone Trident do bonus damage to minions and will make your ganks stronger not to mention the increased attack speed and AP. It also synergizes with the bonus magic damage from Wit's End which you will most likely be building later.

Fizz doesn't need a Wriggle's Lantern because his passive gives him excellent damage mitigation in the jungle. In fact, I've found Madred's Razors to be largely unnecessary on Fizz as well but if you really want to jungle at blazing speeds or want to take the dragon early, it never hurts (especially since you'll likely be wanting to build a Madred's Bloodrazor later on). Obviously if you're laning, you can skip Madred's Razors.

Jungle/Bruiser Mid & End Game

Standard tanky DPS build. Atmog's will give you solid damage and good survivability while Madred's Bloodrazor synergizes with Malady to deal large amounts of damage. Wit's End is also helpful in the mid game but declines as time goes on. You can build it and sell it later for other items (such as a The Black Cleaver or Zeke's Harbinger or simply skip it and build what you want.

Laning & Teamfight Strategy

First Blood

If you're laning as Fizz, I'd highly recommend you go solo top and start with boots and 3 health potions. This will allow you to get close to the opponent and poke them with your trident again, and again, and again...(MWAHAHAHAHAHA).

When they seem low enough for you to kill, dash at them with a Urchin Strike empowered with Seastone Trident. Drop your ignite immediately so you get the bonus AD and AP when it's on cooldown and continue poking them. If necessary, flash after them to poke them with Seastone Trident again and secure first blood.

Continuing Laning

Continue to last hit and put the harass on your opponent. If you are playing the blue team and have a manaless jungler, ask them for the blue buff. Always make sure you keep the river warded to protect against ganks. Here they should be hurting hard and hiding under the tower but you can still kill them handily between a combination of Chum the Waters and a tower dive, using Playful / Trickster to pop the tower's attack.

Roaming & Teamfight Strategy

When you start roaming, ganking, and getting into teamfights, it's essential to play to Fizz's greatest strength i.e. mobility. You're going to want to adopt a yo-yo style of dashing into a fisht, dealing your burst, then running out to repeat.

Chum the Waters is a good initiator because it's a form of AoE CC and deals AoE damage. Throw it to start a fight, then wait for your team to run in. Dash in with Urchin Strike and use your burst damage to seek out the enemy carry and shut them down quickly. Then use Playful / Trickster to escape and make your tanks take the aggro.

Fizz is also a very strong ambusher and can take control of the enemy jungle in the late game. Make sure the jungle is warded and assassinate any enemy that wanders alone through the jungle. If the ambush turns out badly, you can use Playful / Trickster to bail out by jumping over a wall or dodging quickly into a bush.

Tips & Tricks

Working on it as you read this. These are just some notes to myself so I don't forget but they could help you.

• Playful / Trickster can also be used to break turret aggro if you're diving with your team.
• Urchin Strike can be used to escape since it travels a set distance no matter how close the target is. You can use this to juke an enemy by hiding in a bush and waiting for them to walk in. As soon as they enter the bush, use Urchin Strike to dash behind them, then follow up with flash or Playful / Trickster to ensure your escape.