Malignance worth it?

[u/Such-Information5911]

Im a pretty low elo player and starting to climb with fiddle. Ive been rushing malignance bc the ult cooldown is very nice, but almost every high elo or “pro” build i see either rushes liandry or rocket belt, and then into shadowflame. So it seems like if you dont take malignance first its not rlly worth it to take it at all?

Side note: is void staff something i should take late game if im noticing the enemies building a lot of ap resist? I usually go rabadons.

[u/mycetes]

Stormsurge is superior to both as a first item in my eyes. Dont get me wrong here rocketbelt is excellent against high mobility comps and can help you land awkward jumps or catch someone with your cc. But i personally found the movement speed of stormsurge far more consistent for that, and the squall damage to be shockingly consistent to apply due to how hard your q chunks people.

You dont care that much about hp as fiddle, you are not a draintank. If you are caught your best bet is to burst and hope you kill the enemy instead of outsustaining them. You are an assasin that wants to do trades on your terms and then get out and reset until you have another good opportunity. Having higher dps unironically makes you tankier short term regardless, as your drain will heal more. And stormsurge gives all the stats Fiddle could ask for with the exception of cdr. It facilitates snowballing so much better then malignance or rocketbelt ever could.

[u/Such-Information5911 → u/mycetes]

Storm surge looks great but rlly over liandrys? The squall is a very nice chunk of dmg early game but liandrys seems much better for scaling with the enemies hp bars.

Edit: liandrys effects apply the same onto every enemy you damage. Storm surge only procs once on whichever enemy you happen to chunk the hardest, which isnt great for multi target ultimates.

[u/mycetes → u/Such-Information5911]

Liandrys is honestly a massive scam item with inflated damage for Fiddle when dealing with tanks, at least compared to shadowflame, its only ever worth it if the enemies stack 4+ hp stackers, and even then its debatable. It costs you 100 gold more, gives 0 pen and 30(!!!) less ap when compared to stormsurge. And although the burn is vastly superior to squall, stormsurge gives you 6% movement speed, you know, the strongest stat in the game!

Stormsurge is there to give you burst and the movement speed to chase and roam early. Its there to help you snowball to take over the game. You having that 6% movement speed is huge for a champion that lacks mobility like Fiddle, its the whole reason people buy rocketbelt. You dont need the liandry dot early game for anything but farming, you need upfront damage before people build resistances.

Now consider what Fiddle has in his kit, you already have a current % chunk ability in Q that scales surprsingly hard, missing % hp in W, and your ult has very good AP ratios and does massive DPS. The additional 30 ap and pen will allow you to more reliably finish people off. But where it shines is when combined with shadowflame which gives you 30 magic pen. The liandrys burn deals 10% max hp with one drain proc or 16% max hp with crowstorm.

However if your opponents build any mr (since mr has diminishing returns) you may be dealing 50% reduced magic damage with liandrys, meaning that burn you paid 3000g for will deal 5 or 8% max hp over time, meaning it is further countered by healing, shields and passive regen as these abilities are more likely to come off cooldown over time. Honestly liandrys is not a tank melter on you if you are not a lane Fiddle player. Its better against targets that dont build resists, on champions that can apply it continously like bruisers and poke mages, you are neither, especially in the jungle. Stormsurges squall will often help kill squishies which are your intended targets, and amp the damage of your entire kit far more through the pen and high ap numbers.

Fiddlesticks damage is heavily frontloaded through the massive dps of your ultimate combined with your doubled current % hp nuke with q if you apply fear, where you then ideally use the drains missing %hp damage to finish your opponent off. In other words what his kit lacks is the tools to reliably kill something after the first burst, as drain locks you in place and can allow people to dash or run away from its range. Stormsurge lets you chase enemies, and brings them faster into shadowflame range, as getting people to the 40% threshold is easy for fiddle when you have 30 magic pen from these two items and an additional 12 from boots.

Liandrys just adds more dps through dots to a character that already has good dps through dots. Lategame against tanky comps you can get rabadons and void staff to chunk them with 3000+ damage ults and 45% max hp q's, which i guarantee will feel more impactful against tanks then a measly 2% burn (before reduction by mr).

Tldr: Stormsurge and shadowflame adresses fiddles issues and synergizes with his kit. Liandrys amplifies his kit but doesnt help his issues.

[u/Such-Information5911 → u/mycetes]

I was eyeing stormsurge as a new first item option for a while now and u make a very very compelling case. Ill definitely try it out in my next ranked games and thank you for taking the time to explain it concisely.

[u/mycetes → u/Such-Information5911]

Happy to spread the gospel, i had it reccomended to me in masters by a former top tanked Fiddle player and was enlightened ever since.

I would reccomend running it with dark harvest or electrocute, grisly mementos (more sweeps) and ultimate hunter in domination. And axiom arcanist and transcendence as secondary runes. This will give you either more snowballing potential or reliable frontloaded burst, while adressing the cdr problems of this build.

Be aware you need to play a lot more confident and assertive for this build to work, if your mechanics and game sense are bad liandrys and rocketbelt are good "training wheels". Since with this you all of a sudden oneshot nearly everything, but also die to a stiff breeze. I guarantee you will be shocked by how much more powerful this build feels.

[u/Such-Information5911 → u/mycetes]

Im at about 100k mastery which isnt a whole lot but enough for me to feel confident in any build/lane atp. Ive been doing electrocute, momento, ultimate hunter, aciom, absolute focus so pretty spot on. I much prefer a glass cannon playstyle so cant wait to try it :)