A Darling Duelist[]
(Art by Hylednia.)
Hello there, visitor.
This isn't my first remake attempt with my favorite champion in the game, but I strongly believe 
Fiora is a few tweaks and reasonable buffs away from being completely viable in the current state of League of Legends. No joke.
However, as much as I love Fiora as a champion, it is clear she has some glaring flaws that need to be addressed, particularly in the laning phase. Like, don't get me wrong. When Fiora starts to snowball during a match, she is quite deadly and can take down just about anyone with ease. The real problem is getting there.
As a mana-based, non-tanky, AD-focused champion with no crowd control moves to her name, it can be tough to play as Fiora at times. For instance, whenever I even consider busting out Fiora in ranked games, I have to make sure I have a team composition that makes up for Fiora's shortcomings (such as an 
Amumu for hard CC).
Not to mention, it is easy to counter Fiora with picking tanky champs like 
Malphite or stacking armor during the laning phase. All of this makes it difficult for Fiora to get the snowball rolling. Therefore, it becomes hard for her to carry out her job as an AD assassin, which is to kill people.
Nonetheless, Fiora is certainly playable in her current state. A lot of players are content with a champion being playable, but compared to dominating solo laners like 
Riven and other popular choices running rampant, it makes me feel sad I cannot pick my favorite champ more often.
My remake won't be groundbreaking by any means, but I think simple, small touches will spruce up Fiora while still maintaining most of her current design and play style. I based this remake primarily with playing Fiora as a top/mid laner.
Remake (Version 1)[]
Note: All numbers can be changed. The concepts are key.
Changelog for This Skill
- Changed the numbers for
Duelist. - Changed the base modifier for the stacks to be a base number plus (current level x another number.)
- Regeneration duration scales with level, cutting its own duration naturally to half in the later levels.
Thoughts on the Current Ability
Not many people are aware that Duelist is actually one of the strongest innate passives in the game. At least, it is definitely the case during the laning phase. The main point behind it is to have Fiora come out ahead in damage trades with her lane opponent.
The stacks you build up with Duelist reward Fiora for being aggressive against champions. If you engage and then come out even a few points of health ahead of your opponent, it is Duelist working its magic.
So as a laning tool, Duelist deserves more credit. It is not like a crazy amount of in-lane sustain by any means, but you always have the option of striking minions to trigger the passive for a bit of extra health your way. You're supposed to live on a razor's edge with close duels against your lane opponent.
However, Duelist just scales terribly throughout the game, to the point where it could honestly be disabled randomly and you wouldn't even notice.
Remake Thoughts
To address Duelist, I believed retaining the original flavor and theme of the innate was important. Duelist is not meant to be in the same vein as other passives like 
Nasus' 
Soul Eater. Otherwise, the passive might as well be glorified life steal.
The health regen is supposed to represent Fiora dueling with her opponent as a test of endurance, and duels of course entail some sort of duration or they would be unexciting.
My remake for Duelist does not really change much, but I think it is overall a lot more practical in terms of numbers. Its scaling into late game becomes quite relevant without being too overwhelming.
As the name of the game is still attacking enemy champions to build up stacks, the same strategy of Duelist still apply. By the time mid and late game rolls around, Fiora would be able to earn back a chunk of her health if she can build up max stacks.
Fiora can actually have a passive that stays in pace with a typical LoL match.
Below are the current numbers of Duelist, with the old and new versions for comparison.
This is assuming Duelist stacks are at the maximum amount of four.
| Current Duelist Health Regen | Level 1 | Level 6 | Level 11 | Level 18 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| At Four Stacks | 32 | 52 | 72 | 100 |
As you can see, the current Duelist scales laughably into late game.
Now let's take a look at my proposed remake at my initial numbers.
| Remade Duelist Health Regen | Level 1 | Level 6 | Level 11 | Level 18 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| At Four Stacks | 32 | 80 | 168 | 328 |
The initial health regen value starts off the same, but then the scaling becomes significantly higher as the game progresses.
In addition, take note that the health regen duration gets naturally cut in half (from 6 to 3 seconds) to match with the faster-pace battles of late game.
After all, no one has time to wait around for health regen to kick in for a whole six seconds.
Changelog for This Skill
- Lowered the mana cost to 50 from 60.
- Gave
Lunge its own armor penetration.
Thoughts on the Current Ability
Lunge is a decent skill, but it has always seemed to be missing a mechanic. Like, it has always felt like the design team forgot to tack on something when putting together Lunge.
Remake Thoughts
Sometimes, something plain and simple is all you need to improve something by a lot. My remake for Lunge just provides flat, extra armor penetration for the skill and nothing more.
And some may wonder, "But what if Lunge could do like a crit or ..."
But don't get me wrong. I have seen a lot of interesting ideas for Lunge, but I don't think the skill is actually that bad. It has always just needed something more, as in an actual effect.
By giving Lunge extra armor penetration, it makes the skill more appropriate in terms of the design theme. You are supposed to Lunge at something when you see an opening, pinpointing a weak spot to deal a decisive blow.
This is also easy to understand mechanically within LoL, plus it would help Lunge against lane opponents who come to lane with 
Cloth Armor or try to stack armor.
Fiora more oomph when attempting to be the team's assassin/melee AD carry, especially against squishy targets.
Changelog for This Skill
- Mana cost lowered to 35 from 45.
- Slightly weakened the base AD bonus from the passive component of Riposte, but added a doubling effect if the active portion is used correctly.
- Riposte now negates all on-hit/secondary effects from a successful parry.
- Changed the damage component of Riposte to be a base magic damage plus a mini- Thornmail effect, but much stronger at the later ranks.
Thoughts on the Current Ability
Riposte should be more interesting as a skill. The passive AD bonus is great, but the active portion has a lot of iffy elements.
For instance, a lot of people probably do not know that the blocked attacked from Riposte still lets on-hit effects like 
Teemo's 
Toxic Shot seep through and affect Fiora.
It is just stupid and silly. Do you know how weird it is to see a 
Garen run up to you with 
Decisive Strike, and then you Riposte correctly. However, you end up blocking the attack and still ending up silenced. It is nothing more than an oversight, programming-wise.
Imagine if 
Spell Shield for 
Sivir just halfway blocked a spell? Weird, right? Then how come Fiora has a skill that does not work 100 percent correctly?
Not to mention, there is not enough emphasis to parry a specific attack outside of the laning phase. Later on in a match, you will end up mashing "W" over and over again in team fights to use your Riposte as a glorified nuke.
You can't practically count on using Riposte against an ideal target (i.e. the enemy AD carry) instead of parrying the attack of a support, for example.
Remake Thoughts
I kept the passive component to Riposte, but I added a bonus effect if the player used a parry correctly. This is to create an incentive for using the parry with a bit more thought, rewarding Riposte with a significant damage boost that is justified.
As to the active portion, I believed giving a reasonable tweak to Riposte was necessary. I felt on-hit effects breaking past the parry does not make sense.
Riposte is relatively unique within LoL because it is essentially a spell shield for basic attacks, so Fiora might as well get the full benefit of the parry instead of just most of it.
Finally, though potentially extreme in certain situations, I thought making the parry's damage component into a really strong 
Thornmail reflection was appropriate.
I can imagine enemy AD carry players in particular pulling their hair out when they potentially hit themselves for 1,000+ magic damage when their crit gets reflected.
Overall, this is all to encourage players to seek isolated targets to trigger duels, allowing for Riposte to parry a dangerous attack right back to opponents.
Changelog for This Skill
- Lowered the mana cost from 55 to 40.
- The movement and attack speed bonuses are now flipped to give the movement speed first, while the attack speed comes afterward as stacks are built up.
Thoughts on the Current Ability
Burst of Speed is no doubt one of the best steroids in the game for its stats alone. Not many skills can compare to the movement and speed bonuses Fiora receives at max stacks.
And one cannot forget about the chance to cut down/reset the cooldown completely with champion kills/assists.
But as great as the speed bonuses are, I think Fiora needs a lot of help in the laning phase with Burst of Speed.
In regards to top lane, it is too easy to gank Fiora. At the moment, one of the options you have as a player is to turn on Burst of Speed, attacking an enemy to trigger stacks and then using the stacks to gain movement speed to run away (hopefully.)
Not exactly impossible by any means to execute, but it seems like such a roundabout way when characters like 
Jax can just leap to a target unit.
Remake Thoughts
My Burst of Speed remake just flips around the bonuses, but the maximum values are still the same at three stacks.
Basically, I think Burst of Speed should give Fiora more convenience in running to and away from fights. One could argue that reversing the bonuses would sort of detract from the "all in" focus of Fiora's kit, but I would strongly disagree.
I can picture a lot of situations where I wish I could be just a tad closer to my target to use Lunge. There are also circumstances where I do not have the luxury to attack foes with Burst of Speed, so outright retreating would be ideal.
Fiora does not have much use for the attack speed increase unless she is striking anyway.
Changelog for This Skill
- Lowered the cooldown to 130/110/90 from 130/120/110.
- Added spell immunity as the ultimate is in use.
Thoughts on the Current Ability
Blade Waltz is a cool ultimate for LoL, but it could use a bit of help with some simple touches.
Remake Thoughts
By giving Blade Waltz spell immunity during its use, Fiora gets some leeway with her ultimate. I have read various Fiora guides that claim she is invincible while she is ulting, but this is untrue.
The regular ultimate just makes her untargetable, but certain things like tethers and damage-over-time spells can still affect Fiora mid-ult. For instance, 
Nether Grasp will literally pull Fiora down from her ult and stop her.
Fiora can be stopped like this with her ultimate in this case. I just think she needs to be spell immune for the duration.Remake (Version 2)[]
This is another take on remaking the Grand Duelist.
- Gave Duelist more stacks and a damage-block aspect against champions for reinforcing the dueling nature.
- Lunge now gives the next basic attack extra armor penetration. Mainly, this was to emphasize individual skill while still stressing that Lunge is all about creating an opening to exploit.
- Kept my passive version for Riposte, but I changed the active damage effect back to dealing a big nuke (but now factors in bonus AD instead of just raw AP.)
- Burst of Speed was changed back to its normal version with slightly longer durations. In addition, there is an attack speed protection to create more of a niche.
- Blade Waltz received number improvements. I cannot tell you how many times I have not been able to ult because I was literally 50 distance too short from selecting my target.
Remake (Version 3)[]
I grew weary of people trying to rationalize Fiora's underpowered qualities, so I decided to put together another remake that gave a lot of love to the Grand Duelist.
Sandbox Ideas[]
The creative process can be a lot of fun in LoL. If you have ideas for any skills of Fiora, please be sure to share your ideas so we can work on trying to pinpoint the spots that Fiora needs fixing/adjusting the most.
- Gave Duelist more base scaling as the game progresses.
- Added the 1-4 less damage reduction (stacks up to 4 times for 4-16 damage block) to give Fiora a bit extra sturdiness in trades.
Ideas by Willbachbakal.
Final Thoughts[]
(I seriously feel super guilty for not getting the Headmistress skin when it was sold during that particular Halloween season, but this was at a time I didn't like Fiora at this point. >.>)
Thank you, visitor, for checking out my "rework" of Fiora, my favorite champion in LoL.
My attempt with this remake was to shore up Fiora's iffy (at times) laning phase by making her able to bypass tough defenses while still representing the "Grand Duelist" title. Overall, all of my remake ideas would help her scale more consistently into late game and thus continue to be relevant for her team. I wanted to have Fiora to do a lot more damage as an AD carry/assassin while still stressing her all-in style of play.
Honest feedback about your thoughts on this "rework"/ Fiora in general would be appreciated.
Have a wonderful day, visitor!