Should Fiora be Remade into an Assassin?

Hey guys. So in my second post about melee carries, I want to focus a bit more on Fiora. But before that, I want to talk about something else.

That something is the kit and play style of an assassin. An assassin is a champion who's sole purpose is to latch onto the enemy carry, and kill them really quickly before that carry has a chance to kill the assassin. That is how they play; they someone get on an enemy carry, through either stealth, dashes, or blinks and destroy them. Then, they hopefully GTFO. If not they will likely die in a team fight, although if they were able to assassinate their target, then that is usually okay.

So what kind of kit does an assassin have to help with this? They have some mechanic that helps the get to the carry, some mechanic that helps them stay on the carry, and usually some mechanic to help stay alive after the carry is dead. Along with this they are supposed to have exceptionally high single target burst damage. Example assassins are: Akali, who's ult helps her get to and stay on a carry, and w helps to live after the carry is dead. Evelynn, who's stealth helps her sneak up on a carry, burst damage helps her kill the carry, and ult shield and w help her survive and escape after the carry is dead. Diana, who's Q + Ult + E Combo can allow her to get on and stick to a carry, and even escape sometimes. Her shield also helps with surviving. and Zed, who's ult and W help getting onto a target, his whole kit helps with damage, and his w can help with escape.

All of these assassins share these qualities, though they execute them in different ways.

Now, you may be wondering, why I am going through the trouble of saying all of this when this is supposed to be a post about Fiora. Well, last night I was reading the League of Legends forums, when I came upon the following post from a Rioter (QA position, not design to be clear).

"Speaking as a player, and not as a designer, Fiora, in my experience is a pretty potent champion. I don't claim to be amazing (plat IV) but i'm sitting at a 60% win ratio with her (9-6) in S3.

Fiora tends to be extremely snowbally in lane, but what's critically important is how you transition to mid and late game. With a double gap closer and her ultimate, she can jump on and abuse ad carries. If you are able to successfully kill, or full-zone an enemy ADC, your team hopefully will win the teamfight, and you'll be able to take objectives.

Even if you die in that fight, you add value by doing your job.

As someone who has been playing a lot of melee carries (34 ad trynd games, 15 fiora games in S3) I feel confident stating that her contributions to a team when she is played correctly are undervalued."

From how this Rioter, who is a platinum player, describes his play style on Fiora in team fights,  she sound A LOT like how I described assassins above. She jumps in, quickly executes the carry, and then maybe dies after her job is done.

So this brings me to the following question: Should Fiora be remade into an assassin, instead of a melee carry? If her current optimal play style is to play like an assassin, and she already has a kit similar to that of an assassin, then why not finish turning her into one? If her play style and most of her abilities stay constant, then she will still feel like Fiora, especially if you were playing her in an assassin way before. You will just feel better for doing so. Basically, why not make her kit better fit her play style? While some people who obviously be opposed to this change, I feel like it would be better for Fiora overall.

So, let's say we want to turn Fiora into an assassin. Based on the current workings of her kit, she already has most of the qualifications to be an assassin. All she is really missing is the ability to escape, and less reliance on her attack speed/auto attacks.

Also please note, my changes are to get the functionality of her kit to a good place, not the numbers balanced. The number would definitely have to be tested and fine tuned later on by the player base.

So to make Fiora fit this, we going to change the way her Q and E work. Let's start with her E. To start with, greatly lower the attack speed on it. From let's say 20% at rank 1 to 45% at rank 5. Next, add in that when Burst of Speed is activated, her next auto attack deals a percentage of the targets missing health as physical damage. Keep the reset mechanic.


This change will turn Fiora into a bit more of a burst down assassin instead of the melee carry she is supposed to be now. So now, Fiora is only missing the survivability/escape that an assassin has, unless she can Q to a minion that is, which will likely be on cooldown after your full combo. So, let us look to her W to better buff her defenses.

However, I do like the idea of her Q being used to escape, since it is her main way of getting around in a fight, so let us work with that. Add in an additional effect to her Q, that says that after Q goes on cooldown, if Fiora is able to kill an enemy target within 5 seconds of Q going on cooldown (from the second cast) then she gains another free third cast. You cannot gain more than one free cast of this per initial cast of Q.

So in easier to understand terms, what will happen is that if Fiora goes all in and gets a kill, she can use her Q to then escape if a target is nearby that she could escape to, but only once until her Q is off cooldown. It's cooldown might should be increased with this change.

So with these 2 changes, Fiora would be turned into even more of a bursty assassin, while still keeping her core game play in tact. As an assassin, I feel she will be an overall better balanced champion than as a melee carry.

So what do my readers think? Feel free to leave any and all constructive feedback, and any questions that you may have!

Until Next Time!

"I Long for a worthy opponent"

-Rikukun

Edit - 4/13/2013: I also just thought of one other reason that my proposed change is a good one. Fiora is known as the grand duelist. Duelist's are known for being good in 1 v 1 combat. Assassin's also excel at 1 v 1 combat, while AD carries are supposed to be good at shredding everyone. So, by changing her into an assassin instead of an AD carry, Fiora better fit's the theme of being an exceptional duelist/1 v 1 fighter.