The League of Legends pre-season has officially started, but despite the changes, there are some champions that continue to be a menace across all levels of play. One of these is Fiora, who has been among the best-performing top laners in the last patch. According to u.gg, she has been the second most popular top lane pick globally, with a whopping 52.15 percent win rate at Diamond and above.
With the new items from the preseason, Fiora is not only a great duelist but also an unstoppable split-pushing champion. Her mobility and innate sustain have made her stand out from the pack: if you’re looking to climb the ladder or fix your matchmaking rating (MMR) during this period, she’s the perfect champion to do so.
That being said, mastering Fiora is easier said than done. She requires a high level of mechanics, as well as a great understanding of her strong points and weaknesses in relation to her items.
To help you out with the latter, we have created an extensive guide on Fiora’s builds updated with the current preseason. Here are the best builds for Fiora in League.
Runes
There are two main rune combinations for Fiora, each having its own pros and cons:
Grasp of the Undying Fiora
Resolve
Grasp of the Undying: the first keystone rune used, and the most popular one, is Grasp of the Undying. The rune is easy to proc with her kit and it grants good early sustain to help her survive the first few minutes of the laning phase.
Fiora isn’t particularly strong in the first few minutes, so the keystone partially covers this weakness. Grasp can also scale infinitely. Remember that to maximize this rune, Fiora must build a lot of health into her kit so the procs deal more damage. Keep that in mind when taking this rune.
Demolish: there isn’t another effective rune in this row of the Resolve tree so Demolish is the only viable option. It’s not too shabby on Fiora since she wants to split push and put pressure on side lanes. Having said that, if you fall behind, this rune might not have as much value.
Bone Plating: this rune is strong if you’re against champions that want to make quick trades during the early game. It negates quite a lot of damage from the skirmish and it can make a great difference between a lost and a won trade. Alternatively, get Second Wind if you’re against a ranged champion or against champions that have longer-range spells than you.
Overgrowth: we previously mentioned how it’s important to build health with this rune setup. This rune accomplishes that and it synergizes perfectly with the Grasp of the Undying. Both Revitalize and Unflinching are also viable options: the first one works best in team compositions with shields or heals, while the other is best against enemies with heavy crowd controls. Make sure to choose accordingly.
Sorcery
Manaflow Band: while it may seem a weird choice, Fiora is quite a mana-intensive champion. Manaflow helps her with the mana pool in the early game and the extra 250 she gains fixes the mana hunger problem.
Scorch: Fiora is one of the few great users of Scorch. She can easily proc it with her Q and it can amount to hundreds of extra damage she can deal over the course of a laning phase, giving Fiora the chance to go for a kill that otherwise wouldn’t exist.
Conqueror Fiora
Precision
Conqueror: run this rune if you know you’re able to go for extensive trades and skirmishes to take advantage of the extra adaptive force and sustain. Remember that your short trades will be less effective and to use the auto attacks in between spells to stack the rune.
Presence of Mind: this is the alternative rune to Manaflow Band. It grants more mana regeneration during the trades and restores 15 percent of your maximum mana upon takedown.
Legend: Alacrity: attack speed is an important stat for Fiora but since she doesn’t build any in her build, Legend: Alacrity makes up for the lack of it.
Last Stand: Fiora is a duelist and as such, she will find herself fighting repeatedly against various opponents. Last Stand greatly amplifies her damage output when at low health, and in turn, also increases her survivability with greater sustain.
Resolve
Bone Plating: as noted in the Grasp Fiora build above, Bone Plating also works here to negate the enemy’s burst damage. You can also decide to go for Second Wind if you prefer to have more health regeneration.
Revitalize: since the rune setup is revolved around sustain and healing, Revitalize is the best rune that synergizes with that.
Bonuses: +10 percent attack speed, +9 adaptive force, +6 armor
Items
There are two starting items that you can go for on Fiora. The first one is Doran’s Blade, the most common item that grants attack damage, health, and a little bit of sustain. In other words, you get everything you need in one item.
Against bad matchups where you can’t be as aggressive, Doran Shield is the better alternative item. It gives more health regeneration and works best when facing ranged champions or laners that have higher base damage spells.
On Fiora, it is crucial to rush your Mythic since she’s reliant on the item spikes to be effective. You can either go for Goredrinker or Divine Sunderer, depending on whether you are against tanky opponents with lots of health or squishier ones. In most cases, Divine Sunderer will likely be the better choice since it’s more much reliable for sustain.
For boots, choose between Plated Steelcaps or Mercury’s Treads. Against most top laners, the first will likely be your go-to choice. When facing heavy crowd control, build the latter.
After building the Mythic item, Ravenous Hydra has become the most popular second item. Following the changes during the preseason, the item has become so powerful that it’s built on most champions. Fiora is no exception and it synergizes well with her kit. Having attack damage, omnivamp, ability haste, and the tiamat passive packed in one item is the wet dream for Fiora. Once you close out the Hydra, get Death’s Dance for some defensive stats.
Once you get those three items, you become one of the best split-pushing duelists in the game. If you want to push this strength further, get the Hullbreaker for ultimate pushing power or the Spear of Shojin to have an even lower cooldown on your spells. If you’re struggling with resistances, Guardian Angel can also be a viable option in certain situations.
Speaking of resistances, Maw of Malmortius is the item you want to go for when facing heavy magic damage sources. Spirit Visage is a good alternative but you’ll lose out on a lot of attack damage.
Below you can find a typical complete Fiora build with the new items:
