Fear is one of the most powerful emotions that a living creature can feel, and in League of Legends, a demon has stepped onto Runeterra to prey on his victim’s worst nightmares.
Enter Fiddlesticks, the Ancient Fear. This frightening jungler excels at bursting forward and scaring his opponents to death with a collection of different abilities that can lock down and rip them apart with good timing and positioning.
He does, however, need to bring the right items and runes to make sure that he deals a ton of damage while making sure that he doesn’t instantly die while jumping in. He isn’t the tankiest champion, so if he isn’t careful, a good amount of burst and crowd control can completely negate his impact on a teamfight.
Here’s the best build for Fiddlesticks in League.
Runes
Domination
Predator: The movement speed boost allows Fiddlesticks to run around to different lanes and quickly place himself out of view to surprise his opponents with a quick gank. He gets a ton of pressure once he hits level six with his ultimate ability, while also getting a small damage boost when he deals damage during Predator.
Cheap Shot: Since a majority of his kit impairs his enemies’ movement, the extra true damage that Fiddlesticks gets from this rune is a welcome addition to his regular rotation of spells.
Zombie Ward: The element of surprise is everything to Fiddlesticks, and more vision is always important so that he knows exactly where enemy champions are, along with their own wards on the map. The rune also gives the player a small adaptive damage boost once 10 zombie wards have spawned.
Ultimate Hunter: Fiddlesticks’ ultimate can be a game-changer for any teamfight if used properly and at the most opportune times. Having more ability haste will, however, allow players to use the skill a bit more liberally so that it can be used for other situations like zoning away an enemy from an objective or escaping an ambush.
Inspiration
Perfect Timing: One of the most useful tools that a Fiddlesticks can use is a Stopwatch. The classic play by a Fiddlesticks is to use his ultimate ability, dive right into the middle of an enemy team, and pop Stopwatch so he can deal damage while staying completely untouched.
Cosmic Insight: Summoner spells and item cooldowns are important to Fiddlesticks since he needs Stopwatch and Flash for his usual form of engage.
Bonuses: +8 ability haste, +9 adaptive force, +6 armor
Items
Starting items: Hailblade, Control ward
Since one of Fiddlesticks’ abilities is a significant drain that absorbs the life from camps and enemies, he doesn’t really need potions to stay healthy while clearing the jungler in the early game. Instead, grabbing a control ward gives him some vision control for a possible early gank or invade.
Core items: Hextech Rocketbelt, Sorcerer’s Shoes, Zhonya’s Hourglass
When using his ultimate ability, the Hextech Rocketbelt is the perfect solution to keep up with any enemies trying to run away from his area-of-effect. It helps him reposition just in case his ult is slightly out of range of a specific target, while the Zhonya’s Hourglass gives him a chance to stay alive while bringing down a murder of crows around him.
Final items: Void Staff, Shadowflame, Morellonomicon
Depending on the enemy team composition, Fiddlesticks can build in a number of ways. If the enemy team has a lot of resists or tanks, Void Staff is a no-brainer so that his damage can break through any MR that the opposing players have built. Shadowflame is good against heavy shield users and for general magic penetration, while Morellonomicon is the go-to when there are multiple healers to deal with.
