Though changes to the jungle may have stopped him from terrorizing laners with his surprising, powerful ganks, Fiddlesticks now brings his trademark terror to the support role. Is he just a cheese pick, or does Fiddlesticks have some real competitive viability?

What Does Fiddle Bring?

Fiddlesticks is a unique champion who brings strong damage in lane, as well as surprisingly decent peel for his AD carry. This combination allows him to fulfill a role similar to Zyra: heavily harass the enemy lane in order to develop an advantage, while still being able to keep the ADC safe in teamfights.

Fiddlesticks’ Terrify is his most powerful spell to keep the ADC safe. A targeted, instant crowd-control for up to 2.25 seconds at maximum rank. This fear immediately turns any advancing enemy away from Fiddlesticks, and by extension his carry, forcing them to walk backwards. This spell is especially potent against assassins who will dive into the backline hoping to get a pick on the ADC. For the duration of the spell they will be rendered useless and create distance between themselves and their target. This makes it nearly impossible for the enemy to regain that distance and re-engage on the fight. Furthermore, since the enemy champion is unable to use any abilities for the duration of the fear, it makes them a very easy target for the team, especially when combined with the silence on Dark Wind.

Drain is mostly used to provide sustain in lane, and damage in teamfights. While it was Fiddlesticks’ main spell when played in the jungle, it is of the least importance to Fiddlesticks support. It is used to provide additional damage in fights, or to sustain Fiddlesticks during laning phase. The damage is quite strong, despite Fiddlesticks being played as a support, but dealing damage with Drain should not take priority over protecting your ADC.

Dark Wind is what gives Fiddlesticks his laning superiority. The spell provides a lot of damage, especially if you catch the two enemy laners positioned together, with no minions, letting it bounce freely between them. Since it will bounce through the minion wave regardless of who is targeted, it allows Fiddlesticks’ lane to almost always have the push advantage. This harassment combines with the pushing minions force the enemy team to play passively, often having to CS under tower, making them give up on valuable gold.

Crowstorm allows Fiddlesticks to engage a fight and provide massive damage for his team. With adequate vision control, Fiddlesticks can surprise the enemy team by ulting right into their backline. Combining this with Zhonya’s Hourglass prevents the squishy Fiddlesticks from being burst down, while his team follows up. The area of effect damage will separate the enemy team as they try to escape it while Fiddlesticks’ team uses this opportunity to engage. The surprise factor of the ultimate will take the enemy off-guard, and create opportunities that other champions cannot.

Pregame:

Runes: Fiddlesticks needs to apply pressure early, so taking AP glyphs and quintessences helps to increase his damage, which is augmented by the magic penetration marks. As for seals, one can take either armour or flat health, in order to increase early defences in the laning phase.

Masteries: Fiddlesticks masteries follow the same principle as the runepage: Maximize early damage. Traditional support masteries are not needed, as Fiddlesticks does not apply heals or shields to his ADC, and should instead focus on providing damage. In the Cunning tree, points into Meditation can be exchanged for points into Merciless, depending on how you manage your mana resources in game.

Bans: The champions that counter Fiddlesticks the hardest in lane are sustain heavy pure support champions. These are champions like Lulu, Soraka, and Nami. They can negate a lot of the damage from Fiddlesticks’ harass, eroding the advantage he normally creates. Strong all-in supports like Leona and Thresh are also strong, but can be outplayed with good positioning and proper use of Fiddlesticks’ crowd control. Ban these champions based on your own comfortability with laning against them.

ADC Pairings: Most ADCs will work with Fiddlesticks, but he synergizes best with aggressive, early game focused ADCs like Lucian and Draven. These champions can take full advantage of Fiddlesticks’ push-heavy, aggressive nature. However, he can be played more passively to keep farming ADCs safe with his crowd control.

Builds:

There are two main build orders for Fiddlesticks: One is more damage oriented, and one is more utility and support oriented. Both are equally viable builds catering to different playstyles, however the damage build is far more effective when Fiddlesticks has an advantage. Consider transitioning to a more utility focused playstyle should you fall behind.

An example of an aggressive build path is shown above. The main focus of this build is to provide as much damage to Fiddlesticks’ abilities as possible, while giving him the utility necessary to perform his offensive duties such as the Zhonya’s active. Magic penetration helps with the fact that Fiddlesticks support will not do as much damage as a full carry Fiddlesticks would, due to the slower gold generation associated with being a support. The build above is not definitive, however. Item order can be switched around and different items can be substituted. For example: If the enemy has a lot of CC that can stop your channels, you may wish to invest in a Banshee’s Veil.

The playstyle associated with this build is heavily dependent on creating an early advantage and snowballing the game. If Fiddlesticks falls behind, it becomes very difficult to adequately use this build. In such cases, it is wise to fall back onto a more supportive build.

The above build is an example of the more utility-oriented, supportive playstyle for Fiddlesticks. With this playstyle, one can still go for early trades, but the ability to do damage is sacrificed in order to provide more utility to the team. This allows Fiddlesticks to be more consistently useful across the game, and although he will be providing less damage, the potency of his crowd control remains the same. By using this build, Fiddlesticks becomes more of a traditional support, and less of a damage toting pseudo-support.

Neither of these build orders are set in stone, and not all of the items are necessary. Builds should always be dynamic and based on what the team needs, the state of the game one is in, and the champions/builds on the other team.

Skill Order:

Max Terrify first, as it is the most powerful spell on support Fiddlesticks by far. It can turn the tide of fights easily and the duration of the fear goes up by 0.25 seconds with each rank, along with dropping the cooldown by 1 second. This allows the spell to be available more often to protect both the Fiddle and his carry. Even when going for a damage-heavy playstyle, putting points into Terrify is more useful to the team.

Max Dark Wind second. While putting points into Dark Wind will not increase the duration of the silence, it will increase the damage. This is Fiddlesticks’ second most important task, dealing damage to the enemy team. Since Dark Wind provides strong damage and crowd control, it is wise to put points into it second. Though Drain is a more damage-heavy spell, this spell is once again more useful to the team by being a multi-target spell, which also provides soft crowd-control. If more early game damage is desired, one can put a second point into Dark Wind before putting their points into Terrify.

Drain should be maxed third, by default. Though a strong spell, it does not have the same usefulness as the other two spells, and therefore is relegated to last. A level one Drain provides sufficient damage and sustain for a support Fiddlesticks in the early to mid game.

Put a point into Crowstorm whenever it becomes available. The ultimate adds a lot to Fiddlesticks’ kit, and should not be ignored.

Laning Phase:

Lane phase as Fiddlesticks is all about one thing: harass, harass, HARASS. The Fiddlesticks should play forward, in front of the ADC, using Dark Wind and autoattacks to provide pressure. Especially in the early game, Dark Wind will be a very strong source of damage. Casting it on the minion wave will allow the lane to push up, granting the bot lane pressure. However, one should be careful not to take minions as Fiddlesticks. For this reason, it is best to use the spell when the minion wave is close to full health, and the minions are close enough together that Dark Wind will not bounce between a few minions and risk killing them.

Harassing enemy champions is best done by casting Dark Wind when the ADC and Support are close together, away from their minions. That way, the maximum number of Dark Wind bounces will be applied, dealing a surprisingly heavy amount of damage to the enemy. While this will not always happen, one should not cast Dark Wind on a target when there are no enemies for it to bounce off of. Most of the damage will be wasted.

An example of optimum bottom lane warding.

Since a Fiddlesticks lane is going to be pushed up a lot, adequate warding needs to be done. This includes keeping the river warded, as well as the enemy tribrush. Good use of Control Wards, especially in the middle of the river, as well as the jungler controlling vision around bottom lane will ensure that the pushed up lane is not taken advantage of. Though Fiddlesticks has strong gank prevention with Terrify and Dark Wind, it is better not to take the risk of the squishy Fiddlesticks being killed at all.

Go for kills only if the opportunity presents itself. Fiddlesticks is squishy and can be turned on pretty easily should a fight go awry, and he does not have reliable engage. However, with a gank, aggressive ADC, or a misplay from the enemy team, a fight can easily end up in Fiddlesticks’ favour due to his strong damage and protection abilities.

The Mid and Late Game:

When laning phase ends, Fiddlesticks’ role is much of the same in the mid and late game. This is where the two playstyles begin to differ in their execution.

If one is still playing a more aggressive style, then it is time to go for picks using Crowstorm. Use Oracle Alteration and Control Wards to clear out enemy vision, and find creative locations to channel the ultimate from. Vision control is the most important thing for making these picks work. Oftentimes, it is better to walk past a ward while it’s being swept, as killing the ward would reveal Fiddle’s presence. If the enemy cannot see Fiddle, then he has the advantage when ulting in for a fight. Of course, one should never engage without backup. Though Fiddle may have damage, he is still only a support, and needs his team to provide damage.

A more supportive Fiddlesticks can go for picks or engagements, but will generally play more around the backline. They will provide support with their items and crowd-control, staying near the team’s carries (Note: This does not mean exclusively the ADC, just whichever champion is providing the most damage) in order to keep them safe. Use Terrify to stop advancing tanks and damage threats, while making frequent use of Dark Wind to prevent casters from using their abilities. Items such as Redemption should be used to provide extra protection to the team.

Fiddlesticks excels at controlling teamfights with both the engage potential of his ultimate, and his strong crowd-control. Whether his build points him towards protection or damage, he should be focusing on disrupting the enemy team. If he has the ability to burst carries, he should absolutely do so while his team engages. But even if he cannot, as long as he can disrupt enemy advances and protect his team, Fiddlesticks will be doing his job.

Though he might not be quite a meta pick, Fiddlesticks support is far from being unplayable. He may no longer have a place in the jungle, but bring the strawman to the bottom lane and you will find a fun and surprisingly powerful pick to play. Though your team may laugh at first, your enemies shall tremble with fear. Good luck, and happy scaring!

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