Fiora is a splitpusher so you want to have that pressure in the sidelane while being able to help if your team wants to get into a fight. Also very useful against enemies with waveclear and hard matchups early game.
So E does more damage than W but having W on a lower cooldown does help a lot mid/late game so i put 3 points in E for laning phase then i max W. This has a better effect on some of the fights im taking minute 25 and later
This is very good especially now with hydra and eclipse you have so much damage. You want to go for frequent short trades to maximise the Damage you can do.
Healing + Shield and a ton of damage. Best items on Fiora right now.
Matchups (S is hardest)
Pros
- Strong in all stages of the game
- Flexible
- Fun
- Great Duelist
- Great mobility
Cons
- High skillcap both mechanically and macro wise
- Matchup dependent
- No cc
- No waveclear
- Bad from behind
Understanding Fiora Mechanics
First thing you need to know when playing Fiora is how to utilise the Passive effectively. Duelists Dance identifies the weakest spots or Vitals of an enemy dealing % hp damage and giving you healing and movement speed.
If one vital is North or East then the next one will be South or West. So basically you hit a vital on the Right side of the champion you know the other one will be one of the 2 in the left side.
Vitals can be reset by you or your lane opponent if one of you walks away from Vital range. So if they have a back vital you can go out of range reset it to a front one but they can do the same if they want to.
If they have a front vital you usually want to just Auto the vital, Q to get behind and proc the next vital then use the movement speed to get the next vital which will be a front one. At this point you can stop the trade especially if we are running PTA and run , or continue trading depending if we can get a kill or a greater chunk out of them.
If its a back vital get it with Q and then the front one can be gained by an auto and the movement speed.
Sometimes losing an auto is ok if you think you can get a vital but always remember that you can use e as an auto reset to proc more vitals.
Positioning yourself is Key and you want to get in the habit of moving to where the vitals will spawn.
When you ult someone and they are running try to hit the vitals away from you first so you have an easier time getting full value out of your ulti. A good executed ulti will deal a lot of damage and heal you which even if you dont kill your laner can lead into you being able to dive them because you will be a lot healthier than them.
Pregame
You should get in the game thinking how the lane should go either from past experience or just knowledge of champions. Its highly dependant on how the enemy plays but the champ select is the time to get a gameplan going. (Talking about all the guys that lock in then go to smoke Cigarette or the toilet). Check the enemy comp out think what your final build will be what runes are best set for this game. If the comp looks bad just straight up dodge.
Fiora is HEAVILY dependant in the matchup and if you fall behind you will be completely useless to your team.
Early Game
In level 1 want to poke with q but not engage in an extended trade because you lose it in most matchups.
Level 2 depends on the matchup or your confidence. Either level W so you can block one of their abilities or E if you feel like being agressive. Using PTA if possible level 2 will yield in a huge chunk.
Depending on how its going you can be very agressive after level 3 and potentially get a kill. If you are running ignite you can all in them around 50-60% hp and get their flash and potentially a kill. If you dont have ignite you need to do a few short trades until you feel that you can all in for the kill.
When you get ulti we still want to be agressive but we can all in a lot earlier and at least force a summoner from them.
If the enemy is ranged they will make it hard to get back vitals but we still can hit front ones with q when they are going for last hits. Dont forget to get into a bush to drop minion agro after and make it harder for them to hit you back.
Mid-Late Game
Fiora is a great duelist so we want to use that to our outmost advantage in the sidelanes. You want to create a lot of pressure with the minimum risk of dying. Always ward deep, see what your team is doing and where the enemy players are. There is always a time to split but if you are spliting with no opposite side pressure from your team and you see no one dying should not come as a huge shock.
Also depending if there will be a good fight you want to decide do you help your team or just continue splitting. This decision always depends as well on how you feel about your teammates. If you see they are quite good you can allow them to take a 4v5 and split but if you see someone that is unresposive to pings and messages sometimes its best to sit with them to deny the enemy a free kill which can lead to a free objective.
Remember, mastering Fiora requires practice, good mechanics matchup knowledge and game knowledge but most importantly to know the limits of your champion. Knowing you and the champ have limits is not the same as knowing exactly where those limits are. I recommend playing a few normal games if you are getting to play Fiora seriously and try everything you can to know what can and can not be done.
As always i hope the guide was helpful. Good luck on the Rift!