🔥Fiora Top Lane Build Guides, Runes, Items, and Abilities🔥

🚀Fiora is one of the best Top lane playmakers that can be very effective if used properly. If you combine experienced mechanics to position yourself around the enemy team in cooperation with a timely Riposte , you can 1v9 the enemy team even when behind. There are no hard counters against Fiora as she is very versatile based on her kit and potential to outplay her opponents. Not to mention that Fiora is very strong in the laning phase, but she also scales really well. Fiora will become unstoppable in the late game, allowing you to split push in the side lanes, applying pressure across objectives that the team will have to respond to with multiple enemies to have a chance at stopping you.

📌Difficulty- 8/10 Fiora is considered to be fairly difficult as you need to use her Riposte at the right times, otherwise you will be heavily punished. Her W CD is fairly long for the majority of the game, and if not used properly, you will be punished. You also have to take into account vital positioning from Fiora's Duelist's Dance passive. You have to dance from side to side and around your enemies, which if overextended can be very punishing. Fiora is very mechanically inclined while also being conscious of proper positioning.

📌Fun Factor - 9/10 There is no better feeling than getting into your opponent's head and predicting their hard cc or damaging abilities with your Riposte . Once you land those sick ripostes, combined with solo popping ADCs with your ult Grand Challenge in .23 seconds while your dashing vital to vital through their whole team, you will understand how fun this champion really is to play.

📌Viability - 9/10 Fiora is very strong in the current meta based on the buffs done to the top lane. Ravenous Hydra & Death's Dance are extremely powerful, as well as the buffs to turret plating. In the current meta she is a MONSTER

📌Laning Phase - 9/10 Depending on the matchup, Fiora wins most early level trades because of how powerful her Riposte is. Riposte applies movement speed and attack speed debuffs, with 110 damage. This combined with the slow of your E, Bladework and movement speed with vitals should secure you some early lane kills/pressure.

📌Team Fighting - 7/10 Fiora excels in split pushing as she can defeat almost anyone in a 1v1 trade (assuming you did not fall behind). This does not mean the Fiora is useless in team fights, but it isn't always her best option. When in team fights, you will want to target the squishes and get your ult popped to heal allies, but Fiora can find herself hard CCD and killed easily if misplayed.🚀

🛠️ Pros

✅ Crazy Mobility: Fiora does not require boots until later in the game because of the natural gap closing from her Lunge which is on a low cooldown after level 9, the movement speed buff from hitting vitals from Duelist's Dance , the passive movement speed from Grand Challenge , and the movement speed from Phage .

✅ High amount of damage: Combined with the current meta items such as Ravenous Hydra, Trinity Force and Death's Dance Fiora's output damage is extremely high. Not to mention the true damage from hitting vitals is devastating to many of the tank top laners you may face in season 10. The items mentioned above also allow for Fiora to sustain well in 1v1 or team fights, creating an unstoppable duelist.

✅ Very little counter threats: Although there are harder matchups against Fiora, there is no champion that shuts down Fiora completely. Fiora's survivability based on life steal, mobility and negation of damage from her Riposte makes her hard to lockdown and take advantage of. This is not to say that you should win every matchup, but with a skilled and experienced player, you can learn how to win in each scenario.

✅ Good early, mid, and late game: Fiora wins most early trades based on how strong her kit is. The early damage from hitting vitals is great, but the power of her Riposte can help you win early trades, determining the success of your lane. The base damage for Riposte is 110 which is incredible for level two, not to mention the slow and attack speed debuff can make your opponent look like a fool as they stare at you dashing around them hitting vitals like a french mad woman. Mid game can also be devastating as once you have completed Ravenous Hydra you will out sustain anyone who dares to cross your path considering its recent buffs. Be careful of your opponent's items, as Bramble Vest or Executioner's Calling while cutting your healing, so you might have to back off and attack minions to get some health back. Fiora scales well into the late game as her cooldowns overall decrees, allowing for swift movement between vitals. Both Duelist's Dance and Grand Challenge scale heavily with bonus ad so you will be able to pop adc's and other squishy champions in seconds.

✅ A Playmaker: Fiora has the potential to turn the tides based on how elusive and powerful she can be. She has many ways to outplay her opponents, often turning an enemy gank into an easy double kill to start snowballing. Single team fights can be turned and determined with a nicely placed Riposte and Grand Challenge ult.

🛠️ Cons

❌ Need matchup game knowledge : Fiora is heavily based on matchup game knowledge. Knowing how to use your Riposte properly and knowing when to trade with your oppenent can hurt you in the long run if not done properlly.

❌ Mistakes are punished: If you miss a Lunge on a minion or champion, you are exposed. If you mistime your Riposte you are exposed and will die. Fiora is strong when timed correctly and calculating each engagement, but if you make a mistake, your opponent can capitalize easily and take advantage of the lane. Some might say her playstyle is a high risk, high reward.

❌ Wave clear pre- Tiamat : There are often times that you kill your opponent and you want to push the wave under their turret before they can Teleport back to lane. This can be a challenge depending on the location of the wave, but in most cases, this is the issue you settle with by playing Fiora

❌ Takes time to master : I say this in almost all of my streams, but the more you play Fiora, the more you get the "Fiora tingle". This tingle is close to Spider-man's spidey sense, in the way that you do not think about when you need to Riposte, but it comes naturally to you. You will begin to Riposte within. 5 seconds of abilities not because you saw it coming, but because you felt it. Once you've reached this point (it will take some time), everything will click.

☑️ Passive: Fiora is built around her passive. This allows for the vitals to appear around your opponents so that you can position yourself around them to deal maximum damage. Upon hitting a vital you deal % max health damage based on your opponent's health, which also scales with your ad exceeding 100 attack damage. You also gain a burst of movement speed once hitting a vital, which combined with your Lunge can help you chase down your enemy, and reposition yourself to hit the next vital. There is a way to predict which vitals will appear next, but we will cover this in the tips & misc section.

☑️ Q: Lunge is what gives Fiora her mobility to chase down enemies and hit her vitals. As the game progresses, the cooldown will be exponentially lowered to about 4 seconds if you hit your target, as hitting a target lowers the cooldown by 60%. Your Lunge can be used to hop over walls and jump from minion to minion to chase down enemies, in the way Yasuo can chase down enemies in lane.

W: Riposte gives Fiora the ability to outplay her opponents as it negates all damage (except for turrets) and can be used to stun your target if timed with blocking an incoming immobilizing effect. This being said, there are a couple of combos that will be mentioned in the "Combos" portion of the guide that will cover how you can combine your Lunge with Riposte to push yourself through stuns such as Veigars cage stun or Caitlyns traps. This ability is on a higher cooldown so if not used properly you can find yourself in a hard position. The threat of having this ability up is sometimes more powerful than the ability itself.

☑️ E: Bladework is a very underrated but powerful ability as it applies a slow, increased attack speed, and a guaranteed crit from the second auto-attack. The majority of people tend to not give this ability much credit as they only focus on the auto-attack cancels that it provides. This will be covered in the "Combos" section of the guide as well.

☑️ R: Grand Challenge Is a very powerful ult, not only in 1v1 matchups because of damage, but the healing after completing the ultimate can be very beneficial for your team in team fights. It is important to remember that Grand Challenge also grants you movement speed so it can be used to run away from enemies if you need a little extra speed to escape. That being said the movement speed granted will allow you to hit those vitals combined with your Lunge to pop all four vitals. The time of the healing is expanded based on how many vitals hit before the opponent dies.

✅ Poke Combo: Q + Tiamat

It is very simple, you immidiatly Q a vital and activate your Tiamat or Ravenous Hydra to get a little more damage off. This is good when not planning on doing any extended trades as it gives some extra damage, at the expense of doing a longer trade with the auto-attack cancel from your Tiamat

✅ High Damage Combo : Q + AA + E + Tiamat + AA

This is the best combo for most output damage. This can easily be completed in about 1 second or less. This can be used after a Riposte or before a Riposte, based on the circumstance.

✅ Moving Parry Combo : Q + W

This may take some practice to pull off, but once completed you will be doing the Riposte animation while moving from your Lunge in the direction selected. This is very helpful when trapped in a Veigar cage or when a Caitlyn trap is on the ground so you can force a stun. This can also be done by moving yourself into knock-ups such as Cho'Gaths knock up.

✅ Flash Vital : AA + Flash

This one is a bit tricky for beginners, but what you want to do, is go for an auto-attack on your opponent, and before the auto-attack connects, flash to another side of your opponent. This is helpful for reaching hard vitals in last-minute situations.

✅ Fast Ult Combo (without the use of items) : W + Ult

If you combine both of these at the exact same time you will hit the Vital facing you immediately, slowing your opponent and allowing you to q, and walk to the next vitals to pop your ult efficiently.

✅ Early game

I'd like to start off this section by saying that Fiora is strong into a lot of matchups early, solely based on her Duelist's Dance and Riposte so it is really good to abuse this in most matchups (refer to matchup chart above to see specifics). Ideally you will want early lane pressure by having a healthier wave, so that way when you hit lvl 2, you can push your aggression onto your opponent who will still be level 1. If you get this early momentum you can make your opponent submit the lane early. The downside is, that Junglers love to gank Fiora's so if you have early pressure, look to be ganked around the 3-minute mark. It is always good to remember that Fiora scales, but she is also good in the early game, so dont force plays that dont need to happen! Fiora is very acceptable to make mistakes and be punished heavily so try to not over step your boundaries. The first levels and minutes of the game set the standard for the rest of the game. This is your foundation, try to utilize the most of it!

Fiora usually wants to start Doran's Blade but can also take Doran's Shield if against a ranged match up. You can take corrupting potions into some matchups (malphite for example) if you plan on just farming the lane, as there isn't a high chance of killing. Personally, I either stick with Doran's Blade or Doran's Shield as the stats are much more beneficial as the game progresses, and corrupting is useless once you get life steal. Make sure you take the right starting item per match up, otherwise you might get poked out of the lane, and that foundation you've been trying to build will crumble!

✅ Mid Game

As I mentioned above, Fiora is very matchup reliant so you need to know what to look for in each matchup, but there are a few concepts to think about. Your ult is really strong and for the most part can stomp everyone in your lane. Grand Challenge does %health damage and true damage, so you can easily shred tanks, or anyone who stands in your path. If you have a lead in your lane, try to use your level advantage, and as soon as you hit 6, jump on them and try to finish them off before they hit 6. Your potential for pulling off a 1v2 scenario has also increased when you get your ultimate so if you are confident in your skills this can be pulled off.

✅ Team Fighting

There is no doubt that Fiora is better at split pushing than team fighting. She is best at Dueling people or a couple of people when ahead. That being said, there are points in wish you will be team fighting in your matches. A lot of people don't take the time to look at the enemy team and see how much CC they have. Most times than not, you don't want to be the first engagement. You want the team to begin, and you want to wait for the enemy team to use their stuns and slows. Then, it is most beneficial to hop in the backline and demolish all of the squishes (adc, supp, mid laner, or even jungler). If you need to flash q, that is fine, as killing all of these damage dealers, can most likely win the team fight for your team. ON THE OTHER HAND. If for example there is an engaging opponent who is really fed, and ults into your team, for example like sett, malphite, hecarim, galio, etc. You can ult them, kill them quickly and your heal will bring the rest of your team into the fight.

The best way to play around Fiora in team fights, is to focus the weak, create dueling scenarios where you arent being 5 maned, and play around your team.

✅ Fiora Q map

All of the locations marked in green are easily passable, while yellow and orange are much harder to Q through. There is almost no game where I am not dashing through walls to either engage on an opponent out of position or if I am trying to escape a team. Into the late game, your Q is on a really low cooldown, so you can zoom around the map using these locations.

✅ Fiora Vital Mechanics

It is simpler to use a compass to display how Fiora's vitals work Duelist's Dance . The first concept to understand, is that there are a total of 4 possible vitals, and they are broken into 2 sections. One section is grouped with N and E on the image above, and the second section is grouped with W and S. This means, that if there is a vital on W, there is no way that a vital will apear on S. This works vice versa, where if there is a vital on N, there can not be a vital on E next. As of the most recent patch, Fioras vitals will always start on the opposite side of you.So if you are starting on blue side, then the vitals will either start on N or E. If you are on red side, the vitals will start on W or S. Knowing this can help you to predict where to position yourself for the next vital. There is also a way of "forcing" vitals. This can be done by hitting a vital on a corner. For example, say there is a vital on E. If you were to hit that vital closer to the N side, then the next vital will appear on S. The vital goes towards the opposite side of where you hit, so the farther on the side of the vital, the farther the next vital will appear.

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