Hello dear reader, I go by the name BennyTheMemer. I'm a platinum player, I've been playing league since season 2 and I'm very bad at the mechanical aspects of league of legends, I do, however, have a lot of game and champion knowledge and that's what I'll give my best at sharing with you.

I'll try to make this guide as understandable to newbies as possible. Everything you'll read on this guide are not facts, it is greatly influenced by my own experience and how my gameplay goes. Quick example: A lot of players struggle with Fiora being mana intensive and therefore pick Presence of Mind, such weakness doesn't bother me or at least doesn't bother me to the point I feel the need of picking it.

My approach on this guide will be almost a "step-by-step" approach, trying to guide you from the moment you choose top lane and queue up, passing by champion select and what runes you should pick, until you're hitting nexus.

Please review my guide and critize everything - from itemization to my grammar - you think I should improve and I surely will! Any questions you've got throw them at me and I will get to you promptly.

Fiora's Positives → Lot of mobility thanks to Lunge → Very rewarding when well played → Tank and bruiser shredder → Great scaling → Great solo queue pick → Good sustain → True damage babyyyy

Fiora is a graceful top bruiser, expert split pusher that demands long duels which she executes with precision and grace, she has no equal, she longs for an worthy opponent that never comes. As I write this guide, Fiora occupies the place as one of the best top lane picks across all ranks [Patch 10.8]. If you're looking for a champion that has game against almost any champion on the rift with great scaling potential and high skill ceiling, Fiora might be the champion for you and you should definitly give her a go.

Her main source of damage comes from hitting her passive, Duelist's Dance, marks, commonly known as "vitals". Fiora's ultimate, Grand Challenge, is decent at team fights but the rest of her kit isn't and even though she has a lot of mobility thanks to her Lunge you might have some trouble moving around team fights. That's why you'll see Fiora's players commonly betting on split pushing.

Fiora's Negatives → Squishy, you will die if you're not healing → No wave clear, Tiamat dependent → Hard to master, both micro and macro → Bad at teamfights → High early game cooldowns → Tilting vital hitbox

In this section I will go through every possible Keystone in the game and try my best to explain the advantages and disavantages of each one so we can conclude - spoilers - that Conqueror might be the best with Grasp of the Undying coming next as a close second.

But first of all, what are runes? What is a Keystone?

Runes are enhancements that you can find in your rune page during champion select. These will empower your champion in some way. Between all the possible runes, Keystones are the most powerful ones and often will define which rune path you gonna choose. As you can see on the following example:




Rune Page
Runes
Rune Paths: Precision, Domination, Sorcery, Resolve, Inspiration
KeyStone which in the print above are, in order,: Electrocute, Predator, Dark Harvest, Hail of Blades

So, without further ado, let's take a look at all Keystone options starting with Domination path. This path is a very agressive path designed to improve your champion ability to burst down an opponent. Given that Fiora looks for extended duels an not quickies it is expectable that this path doesn't have too much to offer.

Electrocute is often used in champions like Talon and Zed which are looking to deal a massive amount of damage in a very short period. Fiora excels at the exact opposite, remember: you want long duels.

Predator doesn't go with Fiora design at all. You don't gain any advantage when having the ability to run really fast towards an opponent. Predator is usually used in jungling champions than are looking to have more presence around the map like Rammus and Hecarim.

Dark Harvest is weak early game rune that scales very well into late game. Exactly what Fiora wants to do. However, it only helps you when your target is already low. If you're target is a quishy champion and is already low you don't need any more burst and if your target is a tanky champion a little bit of burst will not help you much.

Hail of Blades might be the best choice of the bunch when it comes to the Domination path since it gives you a burst of attack speed that might help you hitting your Grand Challenge's vitals. However, usually attack speed will not be the defining factor when it comes to hit or fail a vital. This rune is often used in champion that want to quickly apply a on-hit effect like Vayne's with her Silver Bolts

Next, we will take a look at the Sorcery rune path. This path is often related with improving your abilities damage, poke and general utility.

Phase Rush this rune does have a lot of potential. It gives you a 4 second movement speed burst when proc'd, which is a very easy task to accomplish as fiora, and 4 seconds are more than enough to hit a vital -> use Grand Challenge and proc all it's vitals. However, if you're procing phase rush it means you are already on your target and with Trinity Force or Phage paired with Lunge sticking to it should not be a problem.

Summon Aery is a very bad rune to use it on Fiora. This rune is often used in champions which goal is to harass and/or with heals/shield in their kit. Fiora doesn't have any of those requirements.

Arcane Comet is basically a more agressive version of Summon Aery and that makes it a bad choice to go along with fiora aswell.

Heading to Inspiration which might be the most fun rune path. It's very versatile, full of utility and cool effects.

Glacial Augment will slow your opponent by 45% to 55% (depending on your level) when you hit them for 2 seconds. This gives you some stickness, just like Phase Rush and has a 7s to 4s cooldown. At it's best form it has 4 second cooldown and even then sounds a little too weak.

Unsealed Spellbook will let you swap summoner spells every now and then. All around pretty weak effect.

Prototype: Omnistone gives you random keystones. Given that are a lot of bad options in Fiora, you don't want to take that risk.

Next we have Resolve, this rune path is often related with tankyness, durability and crowd control.

Grasp of the Undying is a rune that will give you an empowered basic attack when you reach 4 stacks. This basic attack will deal a bonus magic damage to the next enemy champion you hit and gain you some life, if you pair up this with a vital proc you will have very good trades. Also increases permanently your maximum HP. Very good rune during your laning phase but falls off late game. Which might not be a problem if you got ahead during laning phase. Very good option.

Aftershock is really hard to proc on Fiora since you have no reliable source of hard crowd control. It's often used in champions like Sejuani and Ornn

Guardian is very bad since you'll be playing alone in lane and, as a split pusher, probably the great majority of the match. Even if you weren't it wouldn't be the best choice.

And for last but definitly not least we have Precision, Fiora has an easter egg on one of her quotes: " Precision and grace" I don't know what grace is, but precision is definitly an hint to follow.

Conqueror is a rune that will give you 2 stacks everytime you damage someone as Fiora, each stack with give you some ad and at 10 stacks you will also heal a little. This is a rune that rewards extended fights, something you're looking for, and gives you ad and healing and both are GREAT to have when playing fiora.

Press the Attack will deal an extra damage very third basic attack your land on an enemy champion - 6 second cooldown - and expose them, which mens they'll take more damage from all subsequent sources EXCEPT from true damage. Your vitals give true damage, such a shame. Solid pick if you want to bully

Lethal Tempo has the same problem that Hail of Blades does.

Fleet Footwork feels like a weaker version of Grasp of the Undying that is easier to proc in some match ups where your opponents, like Teemo, will harass you so much that Grasp of the Undying would be clunky. Also gives a little bit of movement speed.

To summarize everything up: There are a few runes that look cute but I do not recommend, mostly if you are a begginer, any other rune that isn't Grasp of the Undying or Conqueror.

So, now let's get into the rest of the rune tree, by row, both for Precision, assuming you take Conqueror, and Resolve assuming you take Grasp of the Undying

PRECISION

Although Fiora has a lot of incidental lifesteal Overheal is not a good option since she rarely is full health while fighting and thus not gaining it's shield. Presence of Mind is good if you find yourself often without mana thanks to Fiora's late game mana cost being so high and spammable. Triumph is a clutcher, I'll recommend Triumph over the others anyday of the week.

All these options are great and will depend on you, your team and what you are facing. Legend: Alacrity is very good and it is was I recommend in a vacuum, Legend: Bloodline might be better but will be countered by what already counters you: grievous wounds, also not recommended if the rest of your team has more healers. Legend: Tenacity should be your friend when the enemy team is submersed in Crowd Control

Cut Downis a big nono since you will have a little bit of hp and between Coup de Grace and Last Stand I would say it depends on the enemy team. If you think you'll be focused or there's a burst potential towards you before you starting fighting you should pick Last Stand and Coup de Grace if the opposite is true. Overall I usually pick last stand because I find it to have a nice sinergy with Conqueror and Fiora doesn't have any execute ability so Coup de Grace loses it's purpose.

RESOLVE

There is no argument between these three since Fiora is not able to proc neither Font of Life or Shield Bash and it leaves us with Demolish which is a rune we are very happy to take since it will help with split pushing.

Conditioning is a big no because you will not have enough tanky stats to make it worth. I recommend you to pick Second Wind if you are against a ranged poke champ like Kennen which you are not planing to all in. Otherwise go for Bone Plating since it's a very forgiving rune that will help you with laning phase

These 3 are ok. I would pick Unflinching if they have a LOT of CC but I'd say it is the worst of the bunch. Overgrowth has a nice sinergy with Grasp of the Undying and will give you some tankyness. Revitalize will help you heal a little more but it's pretty useless until you have some items and level. Pick it if your laning phase will be pretty passive. I think overgrowth is the overall better choice.

Sorcery path offers you Gathering Storm + Transcendence which is the go to duet if you are expecting a long game, gathering storm at 40 min + will give a nice quantity of ad, you can even sell an ad item and buy a more defensive option with virtually no loss. Transcendence will assure you cap your cooldown reduction but, most importantly, will make sure every cooldown reduction you buy that goes beyond cap doesn't go to waste. I strongly recommend Nimbus Cloak if you pick ignite.

Any combination of these is fine. The most seen is Magical Footwear + Biscuit Delivery, Magical Footwear+ Future's Market is also pretty good for some juicy gold advantage and Biscuit Delivery + Time Warp Tonic is a good option against harass. There is also some consideration for Cosmic Insight by some Fiora players but I just can't see it as a good option.

This rune path is barely played at all, unless, of course, you're playing it as your primary tree. Your secondary rune tree should fullfil niches, little weaknesses that your champ might have in the specific match up you're about to have. That said, all these options are ok on Fiora but aren't something you will be looking forward when thinking of an way to beat the enemy team.

You usually go Demolish + Bone Plating. Demolish will give you the chance to punish more your opponent when he goes base or leaves lane for any other reason, very strong to get some turret platings early on. Bone Plating is great against melee champs some burst and lets you engage and look for trades in a more loosely way. Second Wind is a nice option against harass. Unflinching is an option if their team is COMPLETELY STACKED on CC and Revitalize is a good option if your team has a Soraka, Yuumi or some other good healing.

Jake of all trades, Flash's versatility is too strong to be ignored, great both offensively and defensively, Flash is so strong that some champions have to use it not because it is the best choice but because you need a way to counter enemy's Flash. Will come in handy to hit some missing vital on your ultimate.

Just like Flash, Teleport is also very versatile. You can use it to go back to lane, do a surprise split push, join your team at drake and often just as a safe machanism: "Yeah guys, you can go for ocean, I'll obviously not ignore you and get first turret *pings Teleport*". Also, Fiora laning phase isn't the best and it will feel good to have a free ticket to go base and get to lane without losing much experience or gold. Definitly the best summoner if you are now starting with Fiora

Ignite is good if you think you'll have kill pressure during your laning phase or if griveous wounds is a must to kill your opponent: such is true if you're laning against Dr. Mundo or Volibear. Some players pair it with Press the Attack for some cheesy early kills. I strongly recommend you to go Sorcery as secondary tree and pick Nimbus Cloak if you're planning going with ignite

Aatrox likes to duel and you don't mind at all doing so against him, that's why I recommend you to go Conqueror. He has some initial burst, take Last Stand instead of Coup de Grace. For your second tree both standard Inspiration ( Magical Footwear and Biscuit Delivery and standard Resolve ( Bone Plating + Demolish) are fine. Start with Doran's Blade

1) Avoid getting hitted by his AA when his passive, Deathbringer Stance, is up. It has a long cd so you can easily abuse it.
2) Either avoid or riposte his Q The Darkin Blade. If you want to all in him and he uses his Q you can Lunge into him just to dodge the outer area and riposte his last Q, not only is the one which deals more damage but is also the one that is easier to land if you're fighting him.
3)His Infernal Chains are free to Riposte.They will often try to chain those into their last Q, if they do so and time it correctly you won't be able to Riposte his Q, and therefore you are better served just rispoting Infernal Chains

Akali is an hard match up since she can trade everytime you go for a vital while being strong at extended trades aswell. Also, conqueror is tricky to stack because of her shroud.

I strongly recommend to go Grasp of the Undying and Inspiration as secondary tree to pick up Biscuit Delivery. Start with Doran's Shield since it gives you some sustain and you also need the flat health stat.

1) Don't fight when she uses her Twilight Shroud, it has a long cooldown, abuse it.
2) Avoid her empowered auto attack. It's a fine thing to Riposte

This is a skill match up. During laning phase her short trades are very good and she scales as well as you do. You should try to avoid short trades and focus on longer ones and therefore I recommend you to go Conqueror with Last Stand on your primary tree and standard Resolve with Bone Plating + Demolish. Start with Doran's Blade.

1) Dodge her E, Hookshot, using Lunge or Riposte it. This is the key to win the match up. A good camille will use her Hookshot onto a wall and bait your Riposte before going in, don't get fooled.
2) Avoid beeing harassed by Tactical Sweep outer area. Either dodge it or go in.
3) Stop trading when she gets the shield from her passive, Adaptive Defenses
4) Don't go for vitals at level one, if she levels up her Hookshot you lose the lane instantly.

She's really tough to play against as fiora. She can both harass you and completely destroy you at extended trades.

Start with Corrupting Potion
Go Fleet Footwork and Inspiration or Resolve as secondary tree. Get Biscuit Delivery + Time Warp Tonic or Second Wind + Revitalize, respectively.


1) Play around Miasma the best you can.
2) Set up a freeze and ask for a gank, she's fairly easy to gank.
3) You can all in after level 6 if you're confident you'll Riposte her Petrifying Gaze. Note that she might not even need to use it, if she doesn't you're dead.

Cho'Gath has a solid during phase, he has a lot of base damage, nice sustain and he can shove the lane easily with his Vorpal Spikes. He will look for either chaining a Feral Scream into Rupture or just trade with AA, aplying Vorpal Spikes + Grasp of the Undying.

1) You have a lot to riposte, you can riposte Rupture, Feral Scream since he might silence you and then you can't Riposte Rupture, Vorpal Spikes + Grasp of the Undying and even his Feast are great.
2) Don't let him get free trades when he has Grasp of the Undying up.
3) After 6 you can all in him.

Darius is an hard lane to play against, one single mistake and you will be behind the rest of the game. Take Ignite, he'll be running Ghost instead of Teleport so you don't have to worry about him having Teleport and griveous wounds are useful against him.

1) Go for short trades, aka hit vitals, but make sure you either dodge or Riposte Apprehend.
2) If you end up riposting his W when trading pre 6 you should be able to go for a longer trade. Just make sure you actually hit your Riposte to reduce his attack speed
3) On longer duels (after 6) it's essential that you dodge his Q outter area, either go in or out of it and also riposte his Apprehend or Noxian Guillotine.


Sorry if I don't have the match up you're looking for, I'll be adding match ups everyday

When playing top lane the laning phase can be sum up in one word honor. You're facing someone all by yourself, you need to show dominance, you need to show you're better, you need to infriorize your opponent with all your might, mechanics and game knowledge. You're almost doing it, you are both level 3, you just riposted this f***r's Apprehend, he's low, you're low, he's stunned, one more hit and he's done, you're over extended and getting hitted my ranged creeps, you're about t-.. (wait, you're getting hitted my ranged creeps?) he flashes away just before your hit lands and you're left alone, bleeding and being caressed by a minion wave, you're dead buddy. Out of anger you instantly teleport back to lane, right into the middle of it, unlucky you: their Teemo jungle is here and what could've been the chance for you to get into the game becomes Darius ticket to pick up another kill and shove the wave back to your turret. You lost the game.


Let's rewind a bit and start form the beggining.

First step: You should guard your jungler's buff if they don't plan to start there. This comes with virtually no cost and will help your jungler to decide his jungle pathing.

Second Step: When heading to lane take a look at your match up and try to figure how the first minion waves will go. If it is a bad match up it's very likely that the wave will push towards you and you will lose lane priority, if that's the case you should place a ward on river to get scuttle vision, as soon as you leave your jungler's buff. Place that ward exactly where the scuttle spawns or at the pixel bush. If it's a good match up that should mean you'll have lane priority and therefore you can ward later and help your jungle if he needs.

Third step: Now that the river is warded and you're fairly aware where the enemy jungler should be, it's time to focus on your lane opponent. Unless it's Kennen, if it's Kennen go grab something to eat, read a book, watch your favorite youtube channel. So, there are two KEY things to win the lane:

• Wave management
• Opponent cooldowns

For now, we'll ignore wave management, I'll explain freezing, slow pushing and shoving next in the guide.


You need to know Teleport, Flash, Ignite and Ghost cooldowns. Those are going to be the main summoner spells at top lane and you should always keep track on wether you opponent has them available or not.

Apart from that, you should also have a solid idea on what's your opponent's abilities cooldown. When playing Fiora this is extra important since you have the chance to Riposte their key skill. You'll have to explain to your team why you decided that you really needed to farm that melee creep when Darius Apprehend was already off cooldown. Now he's 3/0.

If you know your opponent's cooldowns you will be able to get better trades more often. Let's say Darius uses his Decimate to farm low health caster minion s and his Crippling Strike to finish off a siege minion . You have 3-4 seconds to toy with him. He might try to Apprehend in 4 seconds because his Crippling Strike is up, be ready, Riposte that and back off, he's 3/0 and probably has 2 more levels. That was a nice trade, you might kill him next time.

Fourth step: The macro. Early on everyone will be focused on one thing: drake . Top is an island that is far far away from drake and therefore you need to be clever to have some impact:

1) Win your lane in such way that their jungler needs to go top and help, giving your team a chance to get drake

2) Save your Teleport and join your team to fight for drake , make sure your top opponent either doesn't have it available or that you create a bigger impact than him in teamfight.

3) Warn your team that you won't be able to follow if Darius uses his Teleport down on the map and start shoving as soon as he does, get some platings or even first turret.

4) If their top joins bot you can also call your mid laner or jungler to help you getting rift herald and force first turret or maybe some platings if it's pre 13 minute mark.

Unless you are ready ahead always let your jungler take the herald buff, he's the one who has the chance to walk into any lane, kill the enemy laner and take the turret. It's often recommended to take the mid turret, this will give your team to roam from bot to top more freely since you reduced enemy team's vision on mid.

RAVENOUS HYDRA

It's a Fiora's core item. You'll have to build Tiamat or you will lack the capacity for farming waves and from Tiamat Ravenous Hydra is the obvious choice. It will give you 80 ad and tons of lifegain.

BLACK CLEAVER

If you're behind build black cleaver instead of Trinity Force, it is cheaper and will give Phage's passive, which is great. You should also build Black Cleaver if the enemy team as 3 tanks since Trinity Force won't help much against them.

TRINITY FORCE

Trinity Force is another Fiora's core item, is just great. Phage's passive goes insanely well with Fiora's kit, helping you hittinh vitals around your target, Sheen procs are easy to get thanks to your Lunge low cd late game and all their stats are greatly appreaciated on Fiora

EXECUTIONER'S CALLING

Executioner's Calling gives you grievous wounds and therefore you should buy this everytime you are against a laner that has a lot of healing, being that because of their kit or because of their build. Good examples would be Dr. Mundo and Volibear thanks to their kit and Camille since she will build lifesteal. Don't build early Executioner's Calling against champions that only have healing because of their items, they probably won't have much early on.

BRAMBLE VEST

The same idea behind Executioner's Calling but if you're behind against an ad champion.

SPECTRE'S COWL

Build this if you're behind against an ap poke champions like Teemo, Cassiopeia, Kennen... it builds into both Spirit Visage and Adaptive Helm which are both great.

STERAK'S GAGE

The standard item for any melee bruiser. It's a little expensive for what it is, 3200 Gold for what will pretty much be 450 hp + 60 AD plus "Ups, guess I'm not dead" passive, but will do.

DEATH'S DANCE

The item that has everything you will ever need on fiora. Defensive stats + ad and the ability to delay income damage so you have the chance to slowly heal back and avoid being bursted. Even has 10% on top of that. Note: The "lifesteal" it provides from it's passive works with your true damage.

SPIRIT VISAGE

Solid option in a vacuum, they often will have grievous wounds which will shadow spirit visage effect. It also will make you go over the 40% which doesn't come at great cost if you're running Sorcery as secondary tree and take Transcendence.

RANDUIN'S OMEN

A great item that I consider as a standard solid choice but also as a niche/counter item since it is great against crit based champs like Yasuo, Tryndamere and a bunch of adc's. Go for it if you're looking for a more defensive option against physical damage.

GUARDIAN ANGEL

Go for Guardian Angel if you're looking to fight a lot, is a solid item since it is a defensive option with damage attached, if I'm on auto pilot and the enemy team doesn't have anything scary this will be my last item.

MAW OF MALMORTIUS

You should build Maw of Malmortius instead of Sterak's Gage if the enemy team has a lot of magic damage. The reason why it goes on Sterak's Gage place is that they have the same UNIQUE passive -lifeline- which means one of them wouldn't trigger.

ADAPTIVE HELM

This is a MUST if your problem is some sort of ability, magic damage based, spammer like Ryze or Cassiopeia. It is also great against poison in general, like Singed and Teemo. Just like Spirit Visage, it will go over your 40% cd cap.

MERCURIAL SCIMITAR

If you're feeling locked down by a specific CC like Malzahar's ultimate, Nether Grasp, mordekaiser's Realm of Death and such go for Mercurial Scimitar.

Patch 10.10: No direct changes on Fiora or on runes/items she uses. Volibear got a rework and still looks like a good match up.
Kled got a nerf so he might be played a little less, which is a shame since it is a great match up.
Irelia got a buff which is great since it is a nice match up.

This guide is constantly under update, whether it is because I'm updating match ups, adding chapters, trying to add more depth, making it prettier, improving grammar or simply because the games changes and some content gets out dated.

I need to appreaciate, once again, jhoijhoi great work on guide on how to make a guide, it's truly a masterpiece that surely helped me, and lot of members in this website and I will credit her even when I become a pro at coding.

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