Weird Pick #160: Support Fiddlesticks

Support Fiddlesticks used to be everywhere in solo queue. These days almost nobody remembers he can do this.

There was a stretch not long ago where a crow flying into your lane meant the game was already over. Fiddlesticks support was a fear-and-drain menace that punished any duo who wandered too close to a bush, and then the pick disappeared from the ranked ladder. The champion never got worse at the job. Everyone just stopped picking him there.

So why did a strong support fall out of the collective memory, and is he still worth reviving?

Weird Pick #160

Support Fiddlesticks

Patch 26.13

Fiddlesticks support used to be everywhere in solo queue. These days almost nobody remembers he can do this.

There was a stretch not long ago where a crow flying into your lane meant the game was already over. Fiddlesticks support was a fear-and-drain menace that punished any duo who wandered too close to a bush, and then the pick disappeared from the ranked ladder. The champion never got worse at the job. Everyone just stopped picking him there.

How to Play Support Fiddlesticks

Abilities

E, Q, W then prioritize R > W > Q > E

Summoner Spells

Starting Items

Strategy

Sit in the treeline and threaten a fear chain rather than trading autos, complete the support quest into Zaz'Zak's Realmspike as soon as it's up, and look for flanking Crowstorm [R] picks the moment your jungler or mid laner is in position to follow up

Core Items

Support Fiddlesticks Runes Setup

Primary: Arcane Comet, Axiom Arcanist, Transcendence, Scorch

Secondary: Cheap Shot, Ultimate Hunter

Bot Lane Synergies

Draven

Draven wants a target locked down before he commits Whirling Death [R] onto them. That's what a landed fear chain from Fiddlesticks gives him: he walks in with his axes spinning and walks back out clean.

Samira

Samira needs a CC chain to combo her kit into an ultimate. Fiddlesticks can hand her one from range with Terrify [Q], or drop a flanking Crowstorm [R] and start the fight so she doesn't have to engage first.

Kalista

Kalista's Rend [E] adds a spear with every attack, so a target that can't fight back just keeps piling them up. Stack a Fiddlesticks fear on top and an ordinary all in leaves the target unable to fight back.

When to Pick This

Support Fiddlesticks is at his best when your bot lane has an all in carry behind it. Draven, Samira and Kalista all want what he provides, a guaranteed fear chain that turns a 50/50 trade into a clean kill. If your ADC already wants to dive a target (rather than poke it down slowly), Fiddlesticks gives them the opening.

He also wants an enemy bot lane that likes to walk up and trade. Terrify [Q] and Reap [E] both punish a support or carry standing in a bush or at close range (much less so one who plays safe from max distance). A passive, poke heavy enemy duo gives him far fewer openings to work with.

How It Works

Guaranteed Fear Chain

Terrify [Q] fears on cast, and Reap [E] fears as well when Fiddlesticks opens with it unseen and out of combat. That lets Fiddlesticks layer more control onto one target than a normal engage support brings, and a carry locked down like that can't fight back at all.

Flanking Ultimate From Any Angle

Crowstorm [R] channels and then blinks him up to 800 units, so you can set it up from almost anywhere (a bush, the river, straight through the jungle). Fiddlesticks gets to start a fight from a direction the enemy bot lane never sees coming.

Real Sustain In Lane

Bountiful Harvest [W] drains health from everything caught in it. Most engage supports don't have a sustain tool like that, and it lets him hold a lane through poke that would normally force a recall.

Potential Pitfalls

Long Cooldowns Punish Every Miss

Crowstorm [R] and Reap [E] both come back slowly, so whiffing either one leaves Fiddlesticks doing very little for a long stretch of the fight. An enchanter gets a quick reset from spamming a shield or a heal. He doesn't, so every cast has to land.

He Lost the Mindshare, Not the Power

Most players who pick up Fiddlesticks these days learned him as a jungler after his rework. That's where nearly all of the practice and habit now lives. Support Fiddlesticks asks for a completely different rhythm (laning patience instead of camp clearing), and that unfamiliar skill set did more to push the pick out of ranked than anything in his numbers.

Support Fiddlesticks Conclusions

Support Fiddlesticks is proof that a pick can fall out of fashion for reasons that have nothing to do with strength. He still fears, drains and flanks as well as he ever did. The players who used to run him down bot have almost all moved to jungle, and nobody replaced them. For a duo with an all in carry who wants a real lockdown tool instead of another shield bot, he's still sitting there waiting to be rediscovered.

Suggested Tier: Tier 2

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