Fiddlesticks guide: patch 10.7 item builds, runes, skill orders, counters, and synergies

Fiddlesticks’ rework has been released with League of Legends’ patch 10.7. The Ancient Fear has gone from a bit of a meme to a demon hellspawn. Fiddle has been designed to work as a jungler, so this guide will focus on that role. If you can manage to deal with the creepy voice over, I’ll teach you how to scare your enemies.

Fiddlesticks’ Skills

P - A Harmless Scarecrow

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Rather than getting the standard Trinket options, Fiddlesticks has its own special trinket item which can be used to place effigies of Fiddlesticks. These effigies work like a normal trinket ward, granting vision of the area around it. The effigies also activate when an enemy champion approaches the vision area. The effigy can fake many different actions, such as channeling a fake Crowstorm, flashing away, or simply walking towards the enemy.

Q - Terrify

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The active portion of Terrify works similarly to how it did pre-rework. You’ll mostly want to use this on a priority target or to delay anyone with highly impactful abilities. If you manage to trigger the passive of Terrify, following up with the active to damage a priority target can allow you to nuke them down quickly.

W - Bountiful Harvest

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Bountiful Harvest deals a burst of damage and healing upon finishing its channel. You should almost never cancel the channel if possible for optimal damage and healing. Very important to keep in mind that Bountiful Harvest is an area-of-effect ability.

E - Reap

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Reap has a surprisingly high range which can catch opponents off guard. Reap Works well in tandem with Terrify’s passive as you can easily hit opponents from out of vision due to the high range. The silence and slow are extremely strong as they give your opponents less options to escape or fight back.

R - Crowstorm

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Fiddle keeps its iconic ult with the rework. You’re going to want to use Crowstorm to surprise your enemies from out of vision, most likely over some terrain. Terrify’s passive works amazingly well with Crowstorm as it has the potential to fear the entire enemy team.

You want to max Bountiful Harvest first as it’s your main jungle clear ability. Having more points in W will not only lower its cooldown significantly, but also deal increased damage and drain more health from your targets. Follow up by maxing Reap. The AoE damage provided by Reap is incredibly strong and will allow you to burst down your targets quickly while giving them less counterplay options thanks to the slow and silence. Terrify is last as the cooldown doesn’t get lowered by much at all, and the percentage damage increase per point doesn’t compare to the strength that points in Reap offers.

Runes

Dark Harvest is your go-to keystone. Dark Harvest gives more burst damage with the potential for multiple resets in a fight. You could make an argument for Electrocute against certain comps, but you’ll often be able to kill a few enemies in a fight with each one resetting your Dark Harvest cooldown. Pick up Cheap Shot, Eyeball Collector, and Ultimate Hunter from the Domination tree. Ultimate Hunter being the key rune here as Fiddlesticks heavily relies on Crowstorm to make plays. Inspiration secondary with Magical Footwear and Cosmic Insight is my go-to, but Nimbus Cloak and Celerity from Sorcery work well also.

Hunter’s Talisman is the best option for Fiddle as you won’t be basic attacking almost at all, making Machete a bit of a waste. An early Dark Seal allows you to clear your jungle more effectively without having to worry too much about having mana or damage problems. It also allows you to snowball harder if you manage to participate in an early kill or two.

Stalker’s Blade allows you to chase down opponents and stop them from fleeing by stealing their movement speed. Zhonya’s Hourglass works amazingly well with Fiddle and allows you to be the engager for your team without the risk of dying. You can 1v5 ult and be okay as long as your team follows up. Liandry’s Torment works well with Crowstorm and allows you to deal a lot of damage to even the tankier members of the enemy team. If against a heavy sustain team with a lot of healing, Morellonomicon is easy to apply to everyone with Crowstorm as well.

Anyone who can force Fiddle away from their team while Crowstorm is active works well against it. Fiddlesticks is also a weak early jungler who can be invaded and counter-jungled easily. If you’re against a Fiddlesticks, consider taking a strong invading jungler. Taking Cleanse or Quicksilver Sash will allow you to break the fear which is a large portion of Fiddlestick’s strength.

Champions with high-impact AoE ultimates work well with Fiddlesticks since its ult is also high-impact AoE. Consistent DPS also works well since the majority of the enemy team will be feared, giving the backliners a chance to deal damage uncontested. Follow up engage works well too. Somebody like Galio or Leona who can keep the enemy locked down for longer once they are feared will help you to succeed.

Tips and Tricks

• Place your starting Control Ward in the river bush on the opposite side to your jungle clear start.
• You don’t need a leash from your team as you can clear fast and healthily with Bountiful Harvest. This gives you the element of surprise as the enemy team won’t know where you started.
• You can pull your Gromp and Blue buff together and clear those camps at the same time with Bountiful Harvest.
• Clearing Wolves followed by Gromp and Blue buff together and then recalling for a Dark Seal is one of the strongest starts you can have.
• Focus on farming over ganking until level six as a lot of your power is tied to Crowstorm.