User blog comment:Nhan-Fiction/(Champion Remake) Fiora, the Grand Duelist/@comment-1330314-20131229172717/@comment-1330314-20131231101859

Fiora already has the tools to kill squishy champions (her double Lunge allows her to nullify the enemy's Flash, her Riposte counters marksmen, and her ultimate + Burst of Speed is meant to give her good sticking power), and can already do massive amounts of damage with the right items. What she can't do, however, is catch up if she's behind, or contribute in any way to her team besides offering more damage. I feel Fiora's niche is that of an on-hit fighter/assassin with great teamfight mobility and sustain, mainly because a lot of those aspects are already built into her kit. She is, however, forced to buy on-hit items first before she can be of any use to her team, though, which is why she's not that good.

I would also recommend against buffing Fiora's laning phase. Riot has specifically stated that they don't like having assassins that are overwhelmingly strong early game buy fall off in the late game (,, , etc.), as it's unhealthy to good gameplay (i.e. their opponents are forced to play very passive until the assassin becomes useless, and their kit is forced to allow them to snowball if they do get fed early on). It would be a lot better to actually make Fiora a bit weaker in the laning phase but improve her mid and late game without forcing her to snowball to be good (a la or, which is the direction Riot seems to want to take melee champions).