Talk:Fiddlesticks/@comment-5763148-20130702220828/@comment-9048637-20130706032110

Ionparticle, I'm going to assume you're rather new to the game, since (and please don't take this the wrong way) any experienced player would destroy you using that build. Let's go through step-by-step and try to improve it:

Firstly, your choice of lane. Bot lane is not where Fids belongs. If you don't want to play him in the jungle, then mid lane is the place to go. Why? Because on mid lane, you get the lane all to yourself, which gives you more gold and experience from minion farm, allowing you to buy those big, juicy AP items earlier. It also allows you to roam to the other lanes more easily, which allows you to pick up more kills while assisting your allies, particularly post-6 once you have your ultimate.

Now, onto the items. Doran's Ring is fine as a start, no problems there. But Ninja Tabi are not the boots you want. Fiddlesticks is an offensive character, and so you want boots that help with your offence, not your defence. A few good choices:

- Boots of Mobility: these let you roam much faster. Very common on jungle Fiddlesticks, they're arguably not so useful on lane Fiddlesticks since you won't be spending all of your time roaming. However, ideally you still want to be roaming quite a bit, so don't overlook these.

- Sorcerer's Shoes: the standard choice on most mages, particularly in lane, these are a bit more debatable on Fids due to his passive. If you're planning on building Haunting Guise early (see below), then you won't be getting much out of them until opponents have had a chance to stack MR. However, if you're not planning on going for the Guise, they're still a good pick, as between them and your passive, you'll be dealing practically true damage to any foes who haven't build MR.

- Ionian Boots of Lucidity: the other standard mage pick. Obviously, these let you spam your abilities more. With these, you can pretty much constantly be Draining someone after you've put a few levels in the skill (and provided you have mana, natch). No real downsides, it's just a question of whether another boot choice would be better on you.

- Boots of Swiftness: these ones are unorthodox, I'll grant, but I contend that they're worth considering. Like the Boots of Mobility, they help you roam, though not as effectively; unlike the BoM, however, they also help you chase. In particular, they help you keep people in your ult. I mean, it's pretty embarrassing to ult into a group of enemies then have them just run out. I dunno, I'd probably still go with the BoM personally, but try them and see, they could work.

Okay, so that's boots. Now, moving on. Abyssal Sceptre. This isn't a bad item on Fids... but it's not one you want to rush. For damage, there are better options; and as far as tankiness goes, the idea with early-game Fiddlesticks to ambush isolated foes and sustain through any damage they can do with Drain. Of course, once teamfights start, you do need a survival strategy since your ult basically requires you to jump straight into the thick of things... but there is a far better way of doing this: Zhonya's Hourglass. This item is in Fiddlestick's recommended core for good reason! Once you've completed the channeling phase of your ult, you can pop it and enjoy complete invulnerability for three of the five seconds of your ult's duration while all around you your enemies' health bars just disappear. Of course, the downside to this is that it's easier for them to just walk out... but that, hopefully, is where your team comes in. It is, after all, a team game, and you can't really avoid expecting your allies to do their bit when it comes to planning your build.

On we go. Banshee's Veil is a bad idea on Fids. For a start, you already have Abyssal as an MR item (and if you need want MR, Abyssal is the way to go). But even if you decided to chuck that, Banshee's is still a bad idea. Yes, it gives beautiful defensive stats... but no offensive ones! Again, you're an offensive character. Your job is dealing damage. I realize that doesn't mean you should go full glass cannon, but you still want items with a mix between defence and offence; as a mage, you have plenty of options in this regard, some of which we'll discuss later.

Rabadon's, on the other hand, is a great idea. My only complaint here is that you're not building it sooner! Fiddlesticks has frankly ludicrous AP scalings, assuming you can get the full damage or close to out of his W and R, so the item that gives you more AP than any other in the game is obviously a good idea. This one is definitely core.

As for your two options for the last item... um. Right. First off, Archangel's Staff. Now, I agree with you that Fiddlesticks is unfairly mana hungry (this is one of the reasons he's played in the jungle so much, so that he can have better access to blue buff). But a late-game Archangel's is not the way to fix this. For a start, if you really do want to go for this item, you have to get your Tear of the Goddess early in order to charge it, otherwise you've payed a lot of money 250 mana and a little AP. But moreover, I'd say this really isn't the mana fix to go for on Fiddlesticks. He can't charge it anywhere near as effectively as some champions, it won't do much for his mana sustain in lane, and in general it just takes far too long to reach full effectiveness for a champion whose thing is dominating early teamfights. If you want a mana fix, then your go-to item should be Athene's Unholy Grail. This frankly slightly broken item will solve your mana issues far more immediately and far more effectively than a Tear, as well as giving you a decent helping of AP, some nice MR and a whopping 20% CDR. No question: if you can't get blue buff enough to solve your mana problems, get Athene's, not Archangel's.

But... Archangel's is still a far better pick than Runaan's Hurricane. I really have to ask here: why? What is your reasoning for getting this item? I am generally very perplexed. All the others I can at least see the attraction of, even if I disagree with them ultimately. But Runaan's? Fids is not an auto-attacker. He is entirely ability based. Heck, even on auto-attackers, Runaan's is only usually a good opt on champions with powerful on-hit effects (Teemo being the prime example). Fids has no such thing, nor any other reason to build for his auto-attacks. Please, never ever get this item on him again unless you're just trolling.

Now then, what would be my build? Well, since you asked...

- Start: Doran's Ring and mana pots, Boots of Speed and mana pots or Faerie Charm, 2 Sight Wards (or another Faerie Charm if you haven't learned how to use wards yet) and mana pots. Most champions want to start with health pots, but as Fids, you can just drain all day to sustain your health; running out of mana is your main worry. Therefore, mana pots. As for the other item: Doran's gives you the most early strength. Boots let you dodge skillshots a bit easier. Faerie Charm(s) get you to Chalice of Harmony sooner. Take your pick depending on playstyle and laning opponent.

- Early priorities: Chalice should be high up your shopping list, since this will basically solve your mana issues. Then, get upgraded boots, since Fids is slow and this needs fixing. After that, work on a Haunting Guise. This nifty little item gives you some nice AP, some health to survive trades with and some MPen to boot. Furthermore, it upgrades later on into Liandry's Torment, which works very nicely on Fiddlesticks and even moreso if he has a Rylai's Crystal Sceptre (see below). It's particularly strong given the recent meta of stacking lots of health. But Liandry's is expensive and only really pays dividends when the enemy has significant health to burn through, so don't rush it. For now, just get the Guise.

- Core items: your first core item is Zhonya's Hourglass. I already discussed why this is ludicrously nice on Fiddlesticks. In addition to the active, it also gives you a huge 120AP and some armour to better survive fights. You really want this by the time teamfights are beginning, or soon thereafter. After that, there are two more important items: Rabadon's Deathcap and Rylai's Crystal Sceptre. Rabadon's I'm sure you don't need me to elaborate on. Rylai's is good because it gives you a nice chunk of health to make you more survivable, some not too shabby AP and, most attractively of all, a slow on all your abilities. This is great because Fids doesn't have any CC bar his fear, which while nice is only signle target and won't last the full duration of his W or R, and his silence, which won't stop enemies from simply running away. And finally, it synergizes well with an eventual Liandry's. In short, Rylai's = good.

- Finising your build: in a typical game, you'll probably just want to finish your Athene's and your Liandry's after this. However, there are a few situational items to bear in mind. Abyssal Sceptre, as mentioned, is still good, and can replace Chalice/Athene's if you don't feel you need the mana fix so much but would like a bit more MR and a bit more punch on your abilities. Void Staff is necessary if the enemy stacks a lot of MR; replace either Athene's or Liandry's with it depending on preference. And finally, if you're getting ludicrously fed and want to go around blowing things up, Deathfire Grasp is nice. :D But the active is only single target, so it's not great for teamfights unless there's a priority target that you have to take out at all costs (and, perhaps more importantly, can take out). Don't get it unless you're pubstomping, basically.

Okay, sorry for the wall of text, but I hope it helps you. As a final note: max Terrify sooner! Your fear is one of your major selling points, and is practically necessary for keeping foes in range while you Drain them. Maxing this is far more useful than maxing Dark Wind, and arguably even more useful than maxing Drain. Certainly, I'd max it second, if I didn't max it first. Anyway, once again, I hope this has helped, and I hope you continue to enjoy playing Fiddlesticks. Even if everyone will hate you for it. ;)