Fiddlesticks/Strategy

Lanes and Roles

 * is versatile and can go on a variety of lanes, with the most common one being jungle. Due to Fiddlestick's sustain with, he is one of the few junglers who don't have to worry at all with being at such low HP at the first clear, that they have to go back to base instead of ganking. In fact, this combined with makes Fiddlesticks one of the best level 1-3 gankers; he can even gank at level 2 just after taking blue if he decides to level up Terrify instead of.
 * Fiddlesticks's jungle sustain is so good, that he might not even need a leash at all. This allows his teammates to go directly to their lanes to farm.
 * However, Fiddlesticks is extremely dependent from the blue buff to jungle, especially early game, as he is mana hungry. Be very careful of enemy counterjungling.
 * Fiddlesticks' ganking potential spikes even more after he obtains as he can make nasty surprise ganks, coming from nowhere.
 * Although Fiddlesticks is good at jungle, he can go mid lane too. The advantages of doing this is that it allows your jungler to pick a tankier champion. It also allows Fiddlesticks to rush as its first item instead of purchasing a  first. While Fiddlesticks may seem to lose most matchups at mid lane, his Dark Wind allows him to farm and to harass the enemy laner from a long distance, and his Drain allows him to stay at lane for a longer time than many other mid champions, as long as you can manage your mana effectively. Keep in mind that Fiddlesticks doesn't push the lane very well unless you decide to max, but if you do that, you lose the sustain and dueling potential from.
 * Because is a reliable crowd control, and the fact that he can harass very well with,  can also be used at bot lane as a poke-based support. Fiddlesticks' harass is one of the strongest and without a healing support such as  or , Fiddlesticks has the potential to harass the enemy ADC and support out of lane with ease. However, he is very vulnerable to all-ins due to his lack of escapes and his squishiness. Keep that in mind when facing enemy supports with a lot of CC such as.
 * Keep in mind that Fiddlesticks doesn't have a lot of utility outside Terrify. You may need to purchase some support items such as to compensate for that. Do that only if Fiddlesticks is behind or if you don't really need another source of magic damage, however, as Fiddlesticks' damage potential is wasted if he goes for a support-oriented build; his Drain will be useless and his  will do laughable damage without AP items.
 * No matter if you decide to build AP, however, is still essential.
 * At late game, it is likely that many champions have build their own form of sustain, or defenses, allowing them to 1x1 Fiddlesticks effectively. He is also prone to being bursted due to being squishy. Despite this, Fiddlesticks is extremely good late game due to his insane AoE damage with allowing him to devastate enemies at teamfights, especially when combined with other AoE ultimates such as . His  is also detrimental to any champion who is vulnerable to CC, this includes squishy carries such as the ADCs.

Skill usage

 * is very useful early game. If you are laning with a mage or caster, this will allow you to push your lane much better.
 * with is an amazing combo that can turn the tables in a fight. To make sure that the enemy stays within range,  them against a wall, where they will be under heavy fire and under control.
 * If you use on enemies that go into stealth or flash,  won't stop channeling until they go out of range.  also continues through,  and.
 * In early game lane, is an extremely effective poke. With no ability power runes it does 65 damage a bounce with no reduction in damage from successive bounces, and it only costs 50 mana.
 * Furthermore, can be used from an extremely long range since you can bounce it from melee minions to range minions to the target character. Even at a closer range it silences so you can escape often without taking damage. Since  is the last ability you should level, use it early (levels 1-5) and often to give you a lane advantage. At middle levels (6-11) this ability will be far less effective at poking from range and clearing minions, while champions with long range pokes will stop you from farming.
 * When taking down opponents, consider using him as an assassin, as Fiddlesticks shouldn't take on many champions head-to-head. Sneaking up on an enemy champion then using, , and maximizes damage.  is most useful for silencing enemy champions, but can do very high damage to bunched up enemy champions (especially pairs of champions with no minions around as the spell will bounce between them until it reaches 5 bounces, although it can only silence each target once). It can also be very effective for farming since it deals 50% bonus damage to minions. You can also initiate a fight by using  or  over a wall and using the aforementioned combo onto the enemy team.
 * Coordinate with your teammates when you use in order to maximize the damage. It synergizes well with abilities which provide area of effect crowd control.
 * Use to rack up minion kills and try to use  primarily on siege minions to get the maximum health gain.
 * allows Fiddlesticks to jungle by almost continuously regaining health. With his and with , he is a great ganker as well as a great jungler.
 * Casting other abilities, getting silenced or getting stunned while using will stop channeling.
 * can be used after casting to quickly jump into an enemy or a group of enemies. Two blinks are twice as effective.
 * A summoner spell that can be used to escape, such as or, is essentially mandatory on.
 * does not make you invulnerable. Be careful about blinking into crowds with only maximizing damage in mind. Items like or abilities like  would be helpful.

Build usage

 * Starting items for should almost always include some form of mana regen. A few  or a  will allow you to poke constantly and keep your life up with.
 * is a must have on Fiddlesticks. It gives you the ability to very effectively tower dive or initiate team fights with or block the massive amounts of CC and incoming damage that will be thrown at you whenever you choose to  in.
 * It is often best to rush since  ->  combo will give you plenty of sustain while  in for 1v1 assassinations, and what you need is early team fight sustain since you often have to get into the frontline to deal damage.
 * Buying will maximize your damage with, as your enemy is slowed when trying to escape. It will also help your ultimate by maximizing damage and adding a large AoE slow in team fights, giving an advantage to your team.
 * Buying a or / can help  deal with champions with high health.
 * If you are being targeted by the enemy team during, you can use to avoid taking damage without ending the Area of Effect of.
 * is a relatively slow jungler and it can be hard to gank until you reach level 6 and get . Consider buying / to help switch between farming while your is on cooldown and ganking.
 * can synergize with his passive, decreasing enemies' magic resistance by up to 30 MR.
 * Using a is good idea for more survivability and so the channeling of your ultimate  will not be interrupted by an enemy with a disruption CC ability.
 * A allows  to heal a lot more with  meaning that he can put more points into other abilities earlier on.
 * Additionally, spell vamp extremely increases the healing effectiveness of, making  a decent item, but not an absolute must-have.
 * Buying will provide a huge amount of sustain when used with drain, not to mention cooldown reduction and ability power.

Jungling

 * If the enemy team has a strong invader, such as or, consider starting with ,  and a . Placing the ward at either your blue, or the enemy team's blue before the jungle camps spawn, can give your team valuable information on where the enemy jungler is starting and make it easier for you to steal their blue if they're invading your side of the jungle.
 * Starting items: or  or ( and 2 and a )
 * Skill progression: →  →  →  →  →
 * Jungling order:    Blue Golem (Smite or Smiteless)  → Wraiths →  Red Lizard (Smite)  Small Golems → Wraiths → Wolves → Gank / Fountain
 * An alternate strategy is to get at level 2, and gank a lane. / can deal significant damage, especially if your opponents have not hit level 2.
 * doesn't necessarily need for a full clear due to his health regeneration through, but jungling without it is not recommended as it jeopardizes buff camps, Dragon and Baron Nashor.

Countering

 * Fiddlesticks deals most of his damage from his and  and both have channels which can be interrupted. This means that hard CC, like a stun, can stop most of Fiddlesticks' damage. However, Fiddlesticks will likely disable you with  lengthy fear before channeling, making a teammate invaluable.
 * A common Fiddlesticks strategy is to hide in the brush, wait for an unaware champion to appear, and use his . Good warding and map awareness can stop Fiddlesticks from ganking you from typical locations.
 * When starting a teamfight, try to save your ability with CC that can interrupt channeling abilities.
 * If you see an enemy Fiddlesticks channeling his, use a CC ability that can stop him (stun, silence, knockback, knockup).
 * If you have vision of Fiddlesticks, has a distinctive "scratching" noise followed by a "tak" sound while channeling. Alternatively, his pose is same as  except without a green leash.
 * However, the time window is fairly narrow, and you may be in even more danger of taking the brunt of devastating damage if you are trying to reach Fiddlesticks.
 * Having a healing reduction like, or abilities such as  can make  less effective.
 * An easy way to counter Fiddlesticks is to purchase  to reduce the duration of his fear or a to negate one of his spells and reduce his damage output.
 * As for champion counterpicks, it is recommended to use champions who have more than one hard CC, such as and.

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Fiddlesticks/Strategy