Fiora Build Guide by Virum

Getting Started

First of all, I would like to thank you for checking out my guide. Any feedback would be highly appreciated!
Really enjoying all of the comments and suggestions, thanks guys!

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Today you have decided to play Fiora, the Grand Duelist. What sort of information do you need to know in order to be successful? It is rather simple, really, so here is a short list to start the day.

• Fiora is a MELEE ad carry, so you'll need to play like one to be efficient. (and no, she's nothing like Master Yi)
• She has a strong early game if she's prepared. Abuse this and generally the rest of the game will follow.
• Glass cannons are good for AP or champs with escape mechanisms, Fiora is neither. Again, you are not Master Yi, do not play like one.
• Relax and pay attention to what you are doing!
• It's /joke... if you're wondering. Remember... drawing Teemo is a great way to distract your enemies.

The Pregame - Runes

As you know, before you start any match, most people take the time to set up rune pages, mastery pages and sometimes get themselves a couple of cookies. Obviously our next step is to discuss what types of cookies go best with playing LoL.

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Greater Mark of DesolationGreater Mark of Desolation
Greater Seal of Resilience
Greater Glyph of Shielding
Greater Quintessence of DesolationGreater Quintessence of Desolation

The Pregame - Masteries

Let's take a quick look at the set-up. 20 - 10 - 0
I was kind of hoping the masteries section would be rather self-exclamatory, but I suppose I could vaguely define the selection.

Selecting only 20 points in offense allows me to reach that additional 6 armor penetration from Sunder and a bonus 10% armor reduction from Weapon Expertise . These stack with the runes, allowing me to start with 31 armor penetration! (And 10% more off of it... yay!) So the in-game stat would appear as 31|10%.

The 10 points in defense are aimed at improving my overall health and general survivability in early game. I suppose this part is self-exclamatory.

Let's discuss Executioner
Personally... I don't think it's all that amazing. This particular mastery will help you later in the game increasing your DPS (Damage per second) by nominal values... but every little bit can help. Honestly, it's entirely up to you if you wish to take Executioner ... or not. Just remember that this bonus damage only applies to enemies below 40% of their maximum health. A lot of people have been telling me that they prefer Executioner . I'm perfectly okay with this idea. Use it, boost your damage and make everyone regret challenging you. If you're a boss, you don't need it ;D

Into your inventory

Having the right runes and masteries are not the only things that will help you play a better Fiora - you will also need items. So what items do you buy... what order is generally the best... why do I use so many ellipses!?

To be honest, the answer is rather... difficult. Has anyone ever told you "Map awareness, bro, it wins games"? Well, in part with map awareness, you need to be aware of several aspects of your current game. It defines selection choices and order.

What champions are you facing?

• Do they have a lot of CC (Crowd Control)?
• Are they heavy on the AD (Attack Damage) or AP (Ability Power) side?
• Do they have heavy brawlers?
• Does the enemy team composition have champions with a lot of escape mechanisms?

Given the first few minutes of actual gameplay (where you are fighting in lane and farming), take this opportunity to evaluate a few things.

• Know your enemy! In your lane, you need to understand both how the champion works and how the person playing them utilizes them.
• Know yourself! Understand Fiora's skills and how they work. Learn their synergy effects, such as Burst of Speed and Lunge.
• Know your friends! You have to rely on these people in mid to late game, after all. Take the time to see how the players themselves are doing.

Anyway, here's a quick little tree for base items and what we want to eventually turn them into.

Simple Item Tree

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* Only sell if this is not being used for the Tabi.
** High priority item.

The Breakdown

Alright, let's do this!
So we've hit that giant Start button and entered the queue... and we've found a game!
Virum: "Greetings, fellow League players. I calleth top-solo, if none mind."
Other LoL Player: "Very well, good sir, I shall go mid. Best of luck to you!"
Virum: "And to you, as well!"

Okay, no, it doesn't actually go like that... but wouldn't it be nice? Anyway, we've got the top solo position and choose Fiora. Game Start! Let's see, the enemy top solo is most likely "Blah" and is AD based... I've reached my lane and have started farming. The enemy champion seems a little passive. I engage them and force an early recall. This lane should be simple but prone to ganks!
At this point, you should have an understanding of the enemy team composition. If they have a lot of AP or crowd control, upgrade the Boots of Speed into Mercury's Treads. If the enemy team has a lot of AD, consider Ninja Tabi. Fiora does not really need a boost in her attack speed due to the incredible buff from her Burst of Speed, but if you feel you are doing well, a little extra from Berserker's Greaves never hurt. Should the enemy always be escaping you, consider Boots of Swiftness.

Boots are extremely situational. Never buy yourself into the "I have to get these boots always because (insert silly reason here)." Consider the above paragraph and how the game is playing out. This logistic is also used for the rest of the item composition.

I have to contradict myself here for this particular part, but Fiora, if you are running the current runes, absolutely NEEDS to get herself The Black Cleaver. It's like... her life-blood. Once this item is completed, you will hurt. Drawn out battles between another brawler or duelist will usually end in your favor due to your increasing damage and life regeneration (Did you forget about Duelist?)

Consider your lane difficulties and any other difficulties you are having. Are you sustaining too much damage? Perhaps a Phage or Giant's Belt will resolve this issue. Are you getting bored? Try upgrading that Vampiric Scepter into The Bloodthirster. Are you trying to follow a simple item progression and just want me to TELL you want to buy? Well... fine...

Start with: + x5
On first buy-back, aim for: + +
On second buy-back, make a judgement call on your boots: Upgrade + (If you can't buy this outright, get the B. F. Sword)
Follow up with: + +
Manage your items by situation: (Need damage and life steal) + (Melt more face) + (Need health or catch fleeing foes)

Fantastic! We now have a grand total of FIVE items. I know, right? Only five. It's like a guide that is totally unfinished, leaving you hanging by excluding the sixth item. This item could totally alter the universe by tearing the very fabric of space and time itself!

Not really. No... the last item I would like to leave up to you. This might seem a bit awkward, but it depends on how YOU want to play and how YOU want to finish your game.

Great items:

• Infinity Edge
  The kind of boring, yet obvious choice for the typical AD carry. Get one if you feel critical damage is important to you.
• Phantom Dancer
  Because, someone is going to say, "Where's the Phantom Dancer!?"... I just KNOW it.
• Guardian Angel
  A little survivability never killed anyone... twice... Great if you are getting focused in fights.
• Last Whisper
  More damage, more percentage-based armor penetration, and more of a reason for your opponent to wonder why the armor they built is virtually useless.
• Maw of Malmortius
  Decent basic attack damage bonus and a magic shield... and more attack damage if you're dying. It is quite a useful tool against any team with AP.
• The Brutalizer
  Since you can't have TWO Youmuu's. Simple as that. You will increase your concrete armor penetration value.
• A SECOND The Bloodthirster
  Because sometimes one just isn't enough. Seriously though, this item provides the highest available attack damage (just need to stack it).

Combat Evaluation

So.. "Why?" Right?
Much like any champion, the early game is where you can barely do any damage to minions let alone enemy champions. Give the above selection a quick overview. Notice what they all have in common? That's right! Armor Penetration and Armor Reduction. Each piece holds something that affects how you deal damage through an opponent's armor.

So here's the facts. With what we have alone, you will start off with 31 Armor Penetration with an additional 10% Armor Penetration. (I'm color coding armor penetration and armor reduction for a reason) In latter levels, you will have The Black Cleaver which will offer you 15 Armor Reduction on hit for a total of three(3) stacks. This adds up to 45 Armor Reduction.

Quick Math:
This ignores the percentage of penetration available, but overall, armor "loss" on an individual you attack will generally exceed what many players are capable of handling.

OKAY - Let's take a look at (almost) everyone's ARMOR values!
(Please note that a lovely chart can be found here and also ignores runes, skills, and starting items the enemy may have.)

As you may notice from this chart (if you took the time to examine it), the starting armor values for every champion are under 31 points. This means that Fiora will be dealing True Damage to every enemy she hits.
Also, take note of the end values. Without the enemy buying any items, Fiora's damage is still respectable to most champions.
NOTE: Lv1 HIGH 24.8 - Lv1 LOW 10 - Lv1 AVG 18.3
NOTE: Lv18 HIGH 89.4 - Lv18 LOW 61 - Lv18 AVG 78

Here's some more fun facts for you. Armor Reduction is applied FIRST, then the Armor Penetration is applied (Also by concrete values FIRST with percentage based values SECOND).
So what does this mean...?

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In my humble opinion, Fiora does not need a lot of attack speed assistance in her items. If she can effectively ignore the enemy's armor while she attacks them, she will generally exceed the total damage output of another carry who is trying to pummel through the opponents blockade of Thornmails. Also, Fiora is NOT a RANGED champion. She doesn't have the luxury of spacing herself and causing critical damage to her targets without getting noticed. As I've mentioned before, I would really like to avoid building another "glass cannon".

Summoner Level UP

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Let's take a quick minute to review summoner spells. Knowing what they all do can help you make a better decision!
Description: "Teleports your champion toward your cursor's location."
Notation: Basically the best escape mechanism available. (You are able to flash over walls.) Useful for either closing distances or creating ones in a blink. Description: "Your Champion ignores unit collision and moves 27% faster for 10 seconds."
Notation: High run speed bonus on top of ignorance to unit collision allows you to close distances or create them (also by running straight through creeps!) Ghost is similar to Flash in this sense, but lasts longer. Description: "Targets a single champion dealing 50 + (lvl x 20) true damage over 5 seconds. Also reduces the target’s healing and regeneration by 50%."
Notation: Great for dealing additional damage over time to a target you are attacking, or, as I use it, depleting the opponents capability to heal while you are attacking them. Description: "Exhaust slows movement speed by 40% and reduces auto/basic attack damage by 70% and ability/item damage by 35% for 2.5 seconds."
Notation: Useful in reducing your opponents total damage output, catching fleeing enemies, or forcing your opponent to walk slowly as you escape. Description: "Deals 420 + (lvl x 25) true damage to target enemy minion or pet."
Notation: A seriously helpful tool in the jungle. Helps in either securing buffs or dealing damage to creeps to expedite jungling. Description: "After 4 seconds, teleports your champion to target friendly minion or turret. 3 minute cooldown if cancelled."
Notation: A travel tool. It allows one to back safely to their base without worry of losing time to return to their tower. Also cross great distances to either aid your team or flee enemies. Description: "Restores 120 + (lvl x 25) Health to your Champion and 50% of that to nearby allies. All targets healed will have a 50% reduction in heal amount from other summoner heal spells for 35 secs."
Notation: Basically a restoration spell for multiple targets in the radius. Helps you survive fatal incidents or save allies. It's a heal... do I really need to explain? Description: "Reveals an area of the map for 4 seconds."
Notation: That's about it. It's a super ward with a very short duration. Find things, prevent ganks, and uncover the opponent's positioning. Description: "Removes all disables and summoner spell debuffs affecting your champion and lowers the duration of incoming disables by 65% for 3 seconds."
Notation: It's like having your own personal Remove Scurvy... Nuff said. Description: "Instantly revives your Champion at your team's Summoner Platform and increases your champion's maximum health by 200 + (lvl x 20) for 2 minutes."
Notation: Revives you after death. Excellent for trolling. Description: "Promotes the nearest allied super minion to an anti-Turret Cannon, healing it, granting bonus stats, and causing it to grant the caster gold for its kills."
Notation: Makes pushing turrets easier. Makes one of your minions kind of scary. Doesn't make cookies. Description: "Restores 160 + (lvl x 30) Mana to your champion and 50% of that to nearby allies."
Notation: Gives you that little extra boost in lane to make the kill. Restoring your mana can help you sustain the lane just a little longer or prepare yourself immediately for another burst. Of course, you actually need MANA for this skill to even be viable. Description: "Empowers your champion, increasing ability power by 10-78 (depending on level) and attack speed by 35% for 12 seconds."
Notation: Not much is needed to be said here. That's pretty much all it does and can be useful in certain situations. Also makes you giant.



Fiora - Viable Summoner Spells

Ghost- Buffs run speed to catch foes off guard or escape when needed.

Flash- Similar to Ghost. Can be used to flash over walls for surprise attacks, escapes, etc.

Teleport- You are most likely in top lane. Just useful all around if you need to return to your tower quickly or move somewhere you are needed.

Ignite- Usable while in Blade Waltz. Accelerates damage capability and reduces the opponent's self healing.

Exhaust- Slows down your pursuer/target. Reduces your opponents overall damage output.

Cleanse- Extremely useful as a melee carry as you are prone to large amounts of CC. Cleanse can remove most debuffs.

Heal- Heals you...

Non-Viable Spells

Smite- You are not jungling.

Clairvoyance- You are not the support.

Revive- You are not trolling. We hope.

Promote- Honestly do not need this. You can place a better summoner spell in your slot.

Surge- Again, really don't need it. Burst of Speed tends to give you enough attack speed (and the AP boost on this is all but useless).

Clarity- Well, you use mana, but you don't need this... Ever. Don't take it.

How to shot web

Revive covers most of Fiora's "tricks", if you will, and can help you better understand what she is capable of. I will not be going in depth with any of her skills for this reason. I have provided you a video which demonstrates and explains all of these aspects for me. You would do well to watch and listen.

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Fiora's Skill Set

Let's take a look at what Fiora has available to her and let me try to explain why I max skills in the order that I do so.

Duelist: (PASSIVE) Gives Fiora increased regeneration while in combat. Maxes itself out as you level. Quite a fantastic passive for sustain.

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Lunge: Allows Fiora to close or create a gap between her enemies. Can be used twice before it goes on cooldown. Strong "nuke-like" skill.

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Riposte: Blocks the next incoming attack and reflects some damage. Doesn't block skills (unless it is a buff skill to a basic attack - still doesn't block status effects associated with said skills)

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Burst of Speed: Amazing attack/run speed steroids. Refreshes its cooldown on kill, half for an assist. Murder more things = keep attacking quickly.

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Blade Waltz: (ULTIMATE) Fiora basically becomes death. Warps to enemy champion(s) and strikes (5hits total). Useful for dropping aggro from yourself (includes turrets!). Makes you phantasmal during execution. You will always return to your initial target!

So now that we understand her skills...

I always try to grab all three initial skills for their utility by level 3. If you notice, I place an additional point in Burst of Speed and focus on maxing Lunge first. I am quite sure that most people will disagree with me!

Lunge is not a utility spell. Do not look at it as a "gap closer" only - you are severely underestimating this skill! Notice it scales off of bonus attack damage and at level 1 is virtually useless. By increasing this skill with priority, pressing Q on an enemy will not only close that gap, but it will rend precious life points from your foe. By level 9, Lunge has the capacity to make most champions think twice before trying to approach you. I am aware that Riposte improves attack damage per level, but as a skill in general, without that passive, seems almost entirely useless to level with priority. Burst of Speed is a fantastic skill, but it doesn't apply damage like a good Lunge combo can.

Think of Lunge as Olaf's Reckless Swing. Odd comparison, I know, but consider the utility of leveling up both of these skills first. Your early and mid game are strengthened dramatically by providing yourself with some juicy damage output. Lunge persistently gets overlooked due to the passive available on Riposte. At max level, Riposte offers 35 addtitional attack damage (That's 10AD short of a B. F. Sword!) As amazing as this is, you force yourself to rely on auto attacks instead of quick burst potential. With only one level in Riposte, you successfully gave yourself 15 bonus AD to use with Lunge. This only translates into 9 extra damage (15 x 0.6), but keep in mind, this is additional damage that is ignoring armor.

**Further evaluation will be provided later. I'll attempt to mathamatically explain Lunge.

Note: Synergy exists between Burst of Speed and Lunge as Burst of Speed's bonus is applied by landing a Lunge. When you approach Lunge range, activate Burst of Speed and dash at your opponent. Hit hard and fast.

Take a look at the video heading this section for a deeper look into her skill usage!

Dueling the world

In progress...

This section is dedicated to explaining "Lane Dominance" and how to handle "Lane opponents". Now... instead of explaining every single champion match-up, I will first clump champions into their different styles. If I receive a comment asking for a specific match-up, I'll fully explain that particular matchup! Stay tuned for more updates :)

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*Lane Dominance*

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The Laners

I will classify each opponent into simple categories and attempt to explain how to handle each.

Overview

Fiora:
An amazing AD carry - although the melee approach can be a bit flaky at times.
Playing smart can result in early kills and lane dominance.
Hits hard in late game, even without an Infinity Edge!
Draws Teemo.

Guide:
Needs help. Give a ton of feedback and let me know what I can do to make this better!

• Published - Mar.25 2012
• Update(Mar.26 2012) - Added finished boots to cheat sheet. Added new section (in development, but the title is there!)
• Update(Mar.31 2012) - Split several sections up. Reformatted some things. Added link to Revive Show.
• Update(Apr.20 2012) - Included more text under skill section. Reworked cheat sheet.

Incoming Guide Patches:

• "Dueling the world" will define some top lane battles and how to handle enemy champions.
• "How to shot web" may be split into two separate chapters with more analysis into skill combos. [PATCHED]
• "How to shot web" will evaluate skill usage, synergy, and why skills are leveled the way that they are. It will have more stuff in it...

Special Thanks:
JhoiJhoi - the guide for writing guides - Here