League Of Legends – Champology 101: Fiddlesticks

Hello and welcome to Champology 101! An ongoing series that will explore the history of all of your favorite League of Legends champions!

Champology 101 can be heard on LoLPod, the best League of Legends podcast on the net! You can find out more about LoLPod on their website.

Ability History

Fiddlesticks had the honor of being one of the original 17 champions that were released with the alpha build of League of Legends. Guinsoo was the lead designer for Fiddlesticks.

Fiddlesticks was introduced into the league as an AP carry. When he was originally released, his kit looked a little different than it does today.

Most notable was Fiddle's unique original passive. It was called Paranoia (which later would become the name of Nocturne's ultimate) and it was a 10% AOE partial blind. So basically, if you were near Fiddle, you had a 10% chance you would miss your autoattacks. Less than a month before the game launched, Fiddle's passive was reworked into what it was today (Dread).

On release, Fiddle's ultimate worked a lot differently as well. Crowstorm did not have a channel time or a blink component. It was simply an AOE burst that lasted several seconds, similar to Karthus' Defile. The blink and channel time were added to Crowstorm at the same time his passive was reworked.

Terrify has always been his bread a butter ability, pretty much defining his play style and allowing his drain to be effective. For a short period of time, Terrify feared for 4 seconds and applied a 50% slow. Terrify has proven to be very hard to balance, with buffs and nerfs almost every time Fiddle is adjusted.

This stayed true until after release.

TLDR? Just listen then:

LoLPod - Champology 101 - Fiddlesticks <- Download link.

(BIG ASS GRAPHIC GOES HERE)

Legend:

A - February, 2009 - Alpha Week 1

The League of Legends is organized and Fiddlestick's joins the ranks alongside 16 other original champions!

B - February - April, 2009 - Alpha Weeks 2 - 7

C - April 11, 2009 - Beta Week 1

Welcome to beta everyone!
Fiddlesticks picks up the slow component to his fear. Before this, opponents would sometimes flee directly out of range of his combo.

June 12, 2009

The 100% magic penetration (da fuq?) of Drain has been removed. To compensate for this nerf, the base damage is increased.

Fiddlesticks And The Meta

Summoners have had a long history of not being able to deal with Fiddlesticks.

Recently Fiddlesticks has begun spring up occasionally as a support. Having two forms of CC allows him to be a both offensive and defensive support. Support is not his prominent roll and he is easily out classed by several other champions.

Videos

Fiddlesticks' Champion Spotlight

Fiddlesticks takes down Dragon solo level 2

Fiddlesticks instagib bug on Dark Wind

Stonewall's guide to Fiddlesticks jungle

An example of support Fiddle at IEM World Championship

Guides

If you are looking to play Fiddlesticks to the best of your ability, look no further...

Solomid.net's Lanesticks guide by Tekshi | LoLPro's guide by LiQuiD112
Mobafire's Supportsticks guide by decadeoftherion

Fan Art

And to conclude this weeks Champology 101, I leave you with some excellent Fiddlesticks fan art from DeviantArt.com.

League of Legends Fiddlesticks by *Anarki3000 | Fiddlesticks Fan Art by ~Dreamphaser
Fiddlesticks by !Soulbind | Haunted Ship Fiddlesticks by ~SHininMysticice
Pixel Fiddlesticks by ~MrScrake

Time For Plugs...

Thank you to everyone who helped make this blog possible (I'm talking to my handy dandy research team in theLoLPod Facebook group!) If you are looking for a great section of the community that is willing to help you become a better player, feel free to join!

Champology 101 can be heard on LoLPod, the best League of Legends podcast on the net! You can find out more about LoLPod on their website.

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