Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Fiddlesticks

As I mentioned last week, I have been playing a bit of League of Legends. One of the interesting aspect of the game is the sheer amount of Champions a player can choose.  I think there are around 80 of them.  Players only have access to 10 at a time unless they purchase more (through in-game influence points or RMT).  Last week, a certain Champion caught my eye.

And that was Fiddlesticks.  He was free for the week, so I gave him a whirl.  There were two reasons:   1)  He's a living scarecrow. 2)  He is more or less a ranged class, which I find much more forgiving in most games.  Running away (and not being kited) is a nice option to have.  Being a scarecrow, he is a fragile sort and has a peculiar fear of fire.   Ok, I made up that last part.

In LoL, Champions have 5 skills.  Four are usually ones you activate, and the 5th is often a passive.  I really enjoy what Fiddlesticks brings to the table.

Terrify.  This is a short duration fear spell.  As far as I can tell, there are not really immunity timers in the game.  This can also act as an interrupt.  If you see your enemy in a cast time animation, might want to hit him with this.

Drain.  This is a ranged channeled attack which will heal you for the damage dealt.  Having a self-heal is always a big plus, especially when new to the game.

Dark Wind.  You chuck a crow at an enemy, it bounces around and causes damage to whomever it hits.  This is a very fun ability, especially since it bounces around.  You can end up hitting Champions hiding in the back of their minion lines.

Crowstorm.  This is supposed to be the big ability for this character.  It lets you teleport to a targets location (at the time of casting) and then does some pbaoe damage.  I'm sure a more practiced LoL player can use this with great results.  For me though, I just end up dead.  I tend to only use this one as a last resort.

My general strategy with Fiddlesticks is to stay alive and delay/harass the enemy as much as possible.  To do this, I go for Mana Regen early on in the game, allowing me to stay in the field longer.  Only in the late game, when I have a good amount of gold, do I look to build up my Ability Power.

I have avoided reading any guides about Fiddlesticks.  Part of the fun is learning the game and formulating my own strategies.  With the huge amount of variety LoL offers, that could take a really long time :)  I had enough fun with Fiddlesticks last week that I purchased him with in-game influence.  Right now, he is my go to character.