Junglestix - A Guide to Jungle Fiddlesticks (LoL Ver 0.9.22.14) by The Mimic

Edit: Update v0.9.22.16:

Fiddlesticks is one of the very few Champions in this update that had no changes at all. Below are a list of the changes that can affect Fiddle's game play.

Items:

Abysal Scepter (core item, still): Reduced Magic Resist reduction aura from -30 to -20
Rod of the Ages (if you prefer this over mejaj): Increased Combine Cost from 800 to 850

Runes:

• Reduced the effectiveness of health and health per level runes
• Increased the effectiveness of ability power and ability power per level runes

Introduction:

You're not going to see any pretty pictures in this guide, mostly because LoL is in Beta which means Fiddlesticks and the game itself may be changed drastically before the game goes live. That being said I'd also like to say that I'm not a mathematician. You won't be seeing a lot of "depthy" equasions as to why you should pick one stat, one item, one mastery over another. Maybe some basic math, but you get my drift. All of the suggested items, masteries, runes etc. are based on a few things. One, common sense. Two, long experience with playing DotA and three, enjoyment. Again, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy my guide and playing Junglesticks.

[At a Glance]

Fear: Fear slows and incapacitates an enemy for 1.5 seconds at level 1 and increases an additional .5 seconds each level, meaning 3.5 seconds at maximum level. Cleanse will take Champions out of this effect.

Drain: Drain literally Drains the health from a target. Both the damage caused and the life stolen per tick is affected by Ability Power. Base damage: 50/75/100/130/160

Dark Wind: Dark wind bounces between 3 targets at level 1, dealing damage that is increased by Ability Power. The number of bounces increases by 2 per level (11 at level 5). 

Crowstorm: Fiddlestick's Ultimate. Causes heavy AoE damage that is increased by Ability Power.

Paranoia Aura [Passive]: Enemies within Fiddlesticks' aura have a 10% chance to miss on each attack. Works on enemy Champions and creeps alike.

[FAQ:]

"Is Fiddle a better Jungler then Nunu or Warwick?" 

Better? No. Different, yes. Jungling with Fiddle will be drastically different from the other champions because he's a spell caster, primarily. You'll collect different items, hold a different creep kill order and so on.

"Why should I jungle when I can lane?"

Jungling opens two lanes for a potential solo Champion ally, as well as earn yourself solo experience points at the cost of being more active and alert early to mid game... not to mention Jungling can be fun! While this can be exhausting it's also highly rewarding. Even in public games, giving your team two solos instead of one can be a huge advantage. Fiddle also has a low base damage, which makes it difficult for him to "last hit" without skill spamming early game.

"What if my team needs help in a lane?"

Then help! Even if you built yourself as a Jungle hero you can still pop into a lane now and again and harass with your skills, especially with creep buffs. Lizard buff causes your auto attacks to do more damage and slow a hero! It's kind of like having a Lich Bane early game with the added advantage of a slow. Even below level 6, without Fiddle's amazing ultimate, I've gotten kills and even double kills. If someone needs to 'B' to heal and buy new items you can defend a tower while they do so as well.

"Can I solo Dragon/Baron?"

I've solo'd dragon at as low as level 4 with a Golem buff. I've never solo'd Baron but I'd imagine you could with optimal (and I mean optimal) items.

"What DotA hero is Fiddlesticks most like?"

Fiddlesticks is kind of like Crixalix (Sand King), Lich, Terrorblade and Vengeful Spirit all wrapped into one tight, straw built package.

[Summoner Skills]

While I'm sure there are a number of combination's that can work for Fiddlesticks in general, there are two very important ones for a jungling and ganking with Sticks respectively. I've listed all summoner skills in order of importance.

1. Flash : Flash works so very well with Crowstorm. You can channel Crowstorm out of sight and then Flash into the fray, creating a swirl of chaos and damage around you.

2. Smite : Smite, as you probably already know, helps vastly with jungling. You'll take out boss mobs faster, earn EXP faster, and earn gold faster.

3. Ghost : A movement speed buff which can also help with escaping, chasing or using Crowstorm with, when Flash isn't available.

4. Exhaust : Movement slowing effect that can also be a magic resist debuff should you elect to put a point into the Mastery.

5. Clairvoyance : The practical uses are fairly obvious. You can scout out incoming ganks for your team mates, watch Dragon, keep an eye on other
boss creeps and so on. You can also pick up the Mastery which means more Clares.

6. Teleport : Not a horrid choice considering you can pick up the Mastery. You can use this when your Crowstorm is ready to be used and you want to travel quickly to the other side of the map to use it.

7. Cleanse : Helps with dusting off those pesky crowd control spells.

8. Revive : Less time dead means more time playing. Particularly good if you happen to die with your Crowstorm almost ready to be used.

9. Fortify : Can be cleverly used to do more damage to an enemy hero if they "tower dive". Also adds some extra utility to your repertoire, allowing you to defend a tower without being there.

10. Heal : Not bad in a pinch, but not a lot of synergy here.

11. Rally : This could improve your ultimate if you got the Mastery, though you'd be missing out on improved Flash and Presence of the Master among other things, which is a big set back. If that wasn't enough, using rally with Flash and Crowstorm is near impossible. Without Flash it's not bad and helps with team fights, but you need to be very clever and quick with it's use.

12. Promote : You don't crit towers and you don't have a lot of base damage, meaning you're not much of a tower killer. It's tough to get the Mastery without sacrificing better Masteries which means this skill is probably the worst choice of all.

Masteries

With summoner skills in mind, this is where Fiddlesticks really starts to shine. 

Offense:

Total Points: 9

1 Smite, 3 Archmages Savvy 
4 Sorcery
1 Archaic Knowledge

Defense: 

Total Points: 0

Utility: 

Total Points: 21

3 Good Hands, 1 Perseverance 
4 Awareness 
1 Greed, 2 Meditation, 2 Utility Mastery. 
1 Blink of an Eye, 3 Quickness. 
3 Intelligence. (Already spent the forth point on Meditation)
1 Presence of the Master. 

Overview:

Smite is not required to kill Golem at level 1, but it'll help you farm a bit more quickly from time to time. You can easily pick up Improved Exhaust, which will lower Magic Resist. Archmage's Savvy adds ability power per level, and ability power is so very, very key to Fiddlesticks since his AP growth is only .35/1. With the exception of Fear all of his skills benefit from it. His Drain drains more health, which in turn heals you for more. His Dark Wind hits harder every bounce, which with the right number of bounces can really do a lot of damage. And Crowstorm, an AoE Ultimate which already does a lot of damage, does more damage. Sorcery will improve the cooldowns on all of these abilities by 3%, and Archaic Knowledge reduces the amount of Magic Resist is factored into the damage which is again, awesome.

Skipping Defense and going on to Utility, Good Hands will help with both the number of Smites you'll unleash during a game and how quickly you'll rack in kills for your Mejaj Soulstealer. Awareness will help you level faster in the jungle, thus getting Crowstorm faster. Greed helps buying items over time, though you could simply max out Meditation instead since Mana Regen isn't a terribly bad thing for Fiddle to have. Utility will keep creep buffs on you longer, and since you're jungling well that's a very good thing to have. Blink of an Eye in accordance with Presence of the Master is awesome. Not only will PotM help you Smite more, adding more gold, it also further reduces the cool down of your Flash ability allowing you to use it in conjuncture with your Crowstorm more often. It won't be available every time Crowstorm is up, but it should be up every other Ultimate, or possibly every third depending on how low your cool downs are. Movement speed, as another guide mentioned, is key with Fiddle. Getting an extra 3% with Swiftness is very good.

[Skill Build]

1. Drain (1)
2. Dark Wind (1)
3. Drain (2) (You can start leveling Fear here instead if you really want.)
4. Fear (1)
5. Fear (2)
6. Crowstorm (1)
7. Drain (3)
8-10 Fear (3-5)
11. Crowstorm (2)
12-13 Drain (4-5)
14-17. Black Wind (2-5)
18. Crowstorm (3)

Overview:

Getting Drain at level 1 allows you to jungle, plain and simple. You're definitely going to need it if you're taking on Golem. Dark Wind at level 2 allows you to spend more mana when you have the Golem Buff. After that getting a second Drain helps with both creeping and hero killing when you're level 6. Getting Fear the next two levels ensures your target will stay in your crowstorm unless they have Flash and Boost or some sort of other wacky skill like Rift Walk. After you've expended your Ultimate at level 6 getting a third Drain level should help creeping even more, especially if you're planning on soloing Dragon. Boosting Fear afterwords is in preparation of your next Crowstorm. Once Fear is maxed out maxing Drain next is academic since having that extra time on Fear means both more time for your opponent to sit in Crowstorm, as well as keeping Drain on the target. Leveling Black Wind from there helps with both Silencing multiple targets (though any bounces after the first only silences for 1 second instead of two) and farming lanes, helping you get your more expensive items.

[Runes]

I don't like using secondary runes because of the loss in potency. That being said you still have a wide number of options available to you. 

For marks I'd recommend + Critcal considering the added damage from Lich Bane, which can crit.

For Seals I recommend + Health (base or Lv.18. Either is fine, I prefer Lv.18) because there's a synergy here with your Drain Spell. While ganking you'd like to keep your Drain on the target hero for as long as possible, and the more health you have to recover will give you an added bonus. After 5 or 6 HP Seals you may want to consider Magic Resistance as well, since your spells are so attention drawing and fear creating you will be targeted a lot on the battlefield. The more HP you have the better your Magic Resist will treat you too, so it's a good seal to couple with your HP Seals.

For Glyphs pick up Ability Power (force) and Magic Penetration. If you don't have enough to fill them all in get cool down reduction or mana regen. If you're going to pick up one or the other, ability power or magic penetration, I'd recommend penetration. With enough penetration and a Abyssal Scepter you can lower someone's magic resist quite a lot late game. The extra damage outweighs ability power here, and even if your enemies aren't collecting magic resist Abyssal will set their magic resist below zero. 

For Quintessence I recommend any of the following: Ability Power (force!), Hit Points, Gold per Second, Magic Penetration or Movement Speed. Ability power (force), Magic Penetration and Movement Speed will all help with killing Champions, and Gold per Second will help with farming. Hit points helps with your survivability. Try them out and see which you like best, since they all give big boosts to their respective stat you should be able to see a noticeable difference between each one.

[Item Build and Strategy]

Your core items are listed below, and below that is a small walk-through of what items to get, in what order and why.

[Core Items]

Doran's Ring (Optional) to be replaced by an auxiliary item.
Boots of Swiftness
Fiendish Codex also to be replaced by an auxiliary item.
Mejaj Soulsteeler
Lich Bane
Abyssal Sceptor

Level 1:

1 Elixir of Brilliance

or

1 Doran's Ring
1 Health Potion

Overview: Doran's Ring gives spell damage, mana regen and most importantly a big boost of HP. Without it you'll be sitting around 400-500 HP, with it it'll be closer to 550-650. This is crucial since you'll be taking on Golem first. If you elect to use the Elixir instead you don't need the health potion (and won't be able to afford Doran's, obviously). Your Drain will Drain as if it were a level 2 Drain and the cool down will be a lot faster. Stand near Golem when the game starts (you can also take on the Golem on the opposite team's side of the map if you're confident they won't catch you), Smite if you have it, hit him a few times and start to Drain. When your Drain runs out pop your HP potion (if you have it), which will heal you while your Drain cools down. Once Drain is up again Drain again and you'll earn most of your first level and 60 gold. Take out the first Lizard with ranged hits and drain the second and move on to your next camp. You'll be level 2 now, and you can pick up Dark Wind. The reason you pick up Dark Wind here is to help with farming, and since you have nearly unlimited mana you can spam it in conjuncture with your Drain and Smite spells. Be wise with each of them. Try to take advantage of each spell's maximum damage. Use Drain when a target is near 50% health, Smite to take out boss mobs (like Lizard, Golem, Golem Pairs, Red Wolf and Blue Ghost), and Dark Wind to bounce between mini-mobs.

By the time you're done killing all the packs of creeps on your side of the map you'll be level 4 and close to level 5. Your Golem buff will be running out but Lizard should still be fresh. See if you can kill Golem on their side of the map. Be cautious of any Clairvoyance laying around because if they see you they may just want to kill you. Also, the opposing team may also have a Jungle hero as well, so this may not be an option. If you see Warwick, Fiddle or Nunu with a smite on the opposite team you can be assured they'll be Jungling. 

However, if this is not the case like I said, kill Golem and the pack of monsters nearby. If you've used an Elixir of Brilliance and you happen to be on the south team killing the enemy team's Golem will put you nearest to Dragon. If you're planning on killing him soon do it now since you'll still have a good sliver of Elixir left. Once that's done you'll be Level 6 or very close to it. 

Level 6 or Higher:

1 Boots of Swiftness
1 Fiendish Codex

Begin building Mejaj Soulstealer

Overview: Once you hit level 6 it's ganking time. Look for a lane when you can damage and possibly kill one or more enemy Champions. If you play your cards right you can certainly kill two, especially when working in tandem with your team mates. When you Flash in with Crowstorm active make sure to Fear and Drain your target ASAP. Drain will do much more damage then your auto attacks at this stage of the game, unless maybe you have Lizard buff. Be weary, if you don't have a Doran's ring you won't have a lot of HP so two enemy Champs can easily turn around and beat you into a pile of straw.

Whenever you feel it's right to base do it. The best times are when you're too far away from a Golem to kill and your buff is gone, your Smite and Ultimate are on cool down etc. Pick up your Codex, your Boots of Swiftness (+3 Movement Speed) and if you can afford to start building your Mejaj do it. You want Mejaj ASAP so you can benefit even more from your Champion kills and steal thier mana, keeping you in action longer. If there's no one to gank and you have a fresh Golem buff you can kill Dragon with your spare time, increasing team gold and EXP. Use Drain and Fear often because Dragon really isn't a push over. Magic Penetration helps here since the Dragon has some Magic Resist.

Mid Game:

Finish Mejaj Soulstealer