Introduction
"I could take a stab at telling a joke one day! Get it? Stab! Like fencing!"
Hi, I’m Ascient. I got rank 1 in 5th Alpha and was top 10 in the closed beta. Then I decided I wanted to play what I considered to be the worst character in the game. Fiora.
Immediately I fell down to rank 25 or so, but since then have managed to climb my way back up to rank 7. You can see my current rank at https://playeternalreturn.com/ranking/ .
As such, I have re-evaluated my opinion. She’s not actually that bad. To help you decide whether or not Fiora is the character for you I have helpfully listed the pros and cons of playing her below.
Pros:
Spears are cool You do good damage
She has fancy ability names
Cons:
You’re squishy
You’re really slow
Your abilities have hitboxes smaller than the brain of your average Aya player
Build path is all kinds of messed up
Borderline impossible to 1v2
People will just run away from you
Your spells simply have no range
Great! So, now you’ve decided that you want to play a melee character with a dash on a 10s cooldown that gets stuck on the tiniest pebble in a game where ranged dashes have 6s cooldowns or less and can go through walls, I’ll explain to you how we take this seemingly useless Fiora character and make her good.
Ok. Good is a little far. How we make her not useless.
(You may (or may not) have noticed that Fiora can use Rapiers and Two-Handed Swords as well, in addition to Spears. I have opted to use Spears over these other weapon types simply because I think they’re better; and, as aforementioned, spears are cool. I’m sure you can come up with a decent Rapier build, but you won’t find it in this guide. If you want to use Two-Handed Swords, play Yuki.)
Skiils
"My sword shall not falter."
Passive: Touché
Fiora earns a stack of Touché every time she lands a normal attack on an enemy. When she reaches the maximum number of stacks, the Touché indicator activates for a certain time.
Essentially, what this passive does is that any time you attack someone they gain 1 stack of Touché. At 5/4/3 stacks (5 at level 1 Touché, 4 at level 2 and 3 at level 3) the Touché indicator becomes active. What this means is that your Fente (Q) and Marche & Rompre (E) apply bonus effects upon hitting a target with an active Touché indicator, and consume the indicator in the process. Those effects are detailed below in the relevant ability sections.
Touché stacks are not permanent. They fade after about ~10-20 seconds, I don’t know the exact number. Also, Touché stacks are unique to each enemy. If you attack enemy A once then he will gain one stack, if you then attack enemy B once then he will also gain 1 stack. Nobody will have two stacks. I am aware the official wording says, “Fiora earns a stack of Touché,” it is wrong/misleading.
Q: Fente
Fiora attacks in the targeted area and deals damage to the enemies she hits. If the enemies have the Touché indicator, she procs the indicator and deals extra damage.
This skill does what it says on the tin. You target in a direction and anything you hit takes damage, (considerably) more if you proc your Touché. It deals about 2x damage if you proc Touché.
W: Attaque Composée
Fiora swings her sword at the target two times for her next normal attack. For every Touché indicator she procs, the cooldown for Attaque Composée is decreased by 2 seconds.
This skill looks simple, you attack twice. But importantly, you do not attack twice for ‘normal’ damage. Generally, two normal auto attacks do more damage than one Attaque Composée; but, of course, with Attaque Composée you attack much faster, so it is usually correct to use it. Notably, this skill attacks twice so applies two Touché marks.
The cooldown reduction comes when you proc a Touché indicator with another skill. So, for example, if you proc your Touché indicator (5/4/3 attacks required, remember) with a Fente (giving you bonus damage) then, assuming your Attaque Composée is on cooldown it will have its cooldown reduced by 2s.
E: Marche and Rompre
Fiora dashes to the targeted area, dealing damage and reducing the movement speed of enemies hit. If the enemies have the Touché indicator, she procs the indicator, reducing their movement speed even more. If she deals damage to an enemy, she can use the skill again within a certain time and dash backwards.
This is your dash. Press it and target it then you move in that direction. The damage it does is quite substantial, but unfortunately it is very hard to hit.
At a base level the slow is 30% for 5s, however, when you activate a Touché indicator with this skill it will slow for 70%. This is a very big slow, and usually the best way to use your Touché for reasons that will be explained further below.
“If she deals damage to an enemy, she can use the skill again within a certain time and dash backwards.”
This means that if you hit an enemy you can reactivate the skill within about ~2 seconds and you will dash backwards a good distance. You will always move backwards with this second activation. Whichever direction your character is facing, you will move the opposite.
R: Garde
Fiora adopts an elaborate posture to unleash her most powerful attacks. When Garde is activated, every normal attack uses stamina and deals extra damage. If the stamina reaches a certain amount, the skill is automatically deactivated. It can also be deactivated by reactivating the skill.
This skill is a permanent buff while active that makes every attack use stamina (SP) and deal extra (skill) damage. When you attack twice with Attaque Composée both attacks gain Garde. While Fente says, “Fiora attacks,” it is not actually an attack and thus does not gain Garde damage (nor apply Touché marks).
While skill is deactivated you do not gain the damage, but you also do not use SP. As it says in the text, Garde automatically deactivates if your SP reaches too low a number, and it has a 20s cooldown before you can reactivate it again. Given that Garde is more or less the entirety of our damage, letting it deactivate is really, really bad.
D: Shadow Stab
Powerfully lunge your spear in the targeted direction, dealing damage. Enemies hit by the attack have their movement speed reduced, and all enemies in a certain range get knocked back.
This skill is very strong. It is basically a better version of your Fente, because it has a longer range and it slows by 70% for 2s. It also does very respectable damage, and the pushback can come in useful.
Importantly, the pushback does not interrupt things like Aya ult, hyperloop teleportation, etc. Don’t try it, you’ll die.
Again, while the text claims this skill to be an attack, it is not for the purposes of Garde or applying Touché indicators.
Skill Build
"I will be the one rescuing, not being rescued."
Lvl 1 > Marche and Rompre
Lvl 2 > Attaque Compsée
Lvl 3 > Marche and Rompre
Lvl 4 > Attaque Compsée
Lvl 5 > March and Rompre
Lvl 6 > Garde
Lvl 7+ > Max Marche and Rompre followed by Attaque Composée.
Once you have these skills maxed, you level Touché and then Fente.
Finally, at lvl 19 and 20, DO NOT level your ult. Seriously, it's not worth it.
You don’t level your ult because its damage does not scale well and the mana cost is completely exorbitant, one level is all you need. You don’t level your passive because I think personally the damage from Attaque Composée is more useful. If you want to experiment, you could try levelling Touché after maxing Marche, it might be decent.
Your main damage comes from auto attacks, which is why you don't level Fente. This is why its best to use your Touché stacks on Marche. Fente does no damage anyway and the slow will let you get more auto-attacks in, which is your primary source of damage.
Equipment
"This is a proper item."
Weapon:
Fangtian Huaji
This is the weapon you will be building. It’s stats are:
Attack Power + 88
Skill Damage Increase + 80
Movement Speed - 0.1
Healing Reduction (Skills) -40%
What?! I hear you cry! This is obviously a skill damage weapon, and I claimed that this guide was about hitting people very hard with a big stick, not with skills!
Well, fear not, I have not deceived you. I will explain how we use the skill damage stats on this weapon to empower our auto attacks to frankly absurd levels. The answer, obviously, is Garde.
If you were paying attention then you will have noticed that I specified Garde applies skill damage to your attacks. Thus, the +80 skill damage increase is applied to your Garde which is then applied to your attacks.
For reasons, flat skill damage increases, like the +80 from this spear, ignore defense, so you can think of this spear as reading +80 extra normal attack damage (though it is reduced by Amazoness/Camo Suit, as it is skill damage).
If you don’t really know what that means then just trust me that building this weapon will make you hit like a steam train fired out of a railgun.
Chest Armor: Rocker’s Jacket:
Defense + 10
Attack Power + 10
SP Regen (%) + 250%
Cooldown Reduction + 20%
Attack Range + 1m
This item got buffed since I first wrote this guide by having +1 attack range added to it. Honestly, this is insane. Build it and hit people from halfway across the map
Head Armor: Motorcycle Helmet
Defense + 10
Max HP + 450
Vision Range + 2.5
This is strong and fast to build, a no brainer, really. Pick up Imperial Crown, Imperial Burgonet, Mithril Helm or Tactical OPS Helmet if you find them (on people you’ve killed), but Motorcycle Helmet is fine if you don’t.
Leg Armor: Bucephalus
Attack Power + 5
Defense + 10
Critical Strike Chance + 17%
Movement Speed + 0.3
SP Regen + 1
I build this item because it is on my route, so it is fast to build. I don’t think it is particularly good, I would consider both Feather Boots and EOD boots to be better, as well as Mithril Boots, Glacial Shoes and Boots of Hermes (but they are less obtainable). However, perfect is the enemy of good. I find building Bucephalus fast to be more valuable than spending extra time building Feather/EOD.
Arm Armor: Mithril Shield/Cube Watch
Attack Power + 30
Defense + 30
Movement Speed + 0.2
or
Defense + 27
Attack Speed (%) + 50%
Both are strong random drops, make sure to kill wolves in hotel + archery range to get them. Some games you won't get either and that is sad, but most of the time you will. When you don't get them kill someone and take their arm.
If you have access to both then use both. Mithril Shield when chasing someone down and Cube Watch when hitting them in the face.
Accessory: Uchiwa
SP Regen (%) + 100%
Life Steal + 15%
Skill Damage Increase + 21
Skill damage is good. SP is good. Lifesteal is good.
Schrodinger’s Box is better, but unbuildable on the current route. If you kill someone and find a Schrodinger’s on them, drop your Uchiwa and take it.
Route
"Reconnaissance is important at times like these."
Beach:
This is where you start. Pick up your items fast and move to Hotel with about ~1min of day 1 left remaining. If you’re good, make some Telephoto Cameras (you really should make some cameras, they are super strong).
Craft Motorcycle Helmet in this zone.
Hotel:
Make sure you kill Wolves here to get the rng items for your arm. Once you have level 6 and your Halberd Axe you can kill them easily. Make drinks if you’re a good player.
Try to bring a branch or two and stones with you from Hotel to Avenue. This is because the placements for branches/stones in Avenue are bad, and you’re going to need them. Branches for food, stones for Bucephalus.
Craft Halberd Axe in this zone.
Avenue:
Take the hyperloop from Hotel to Avenue. Immediately, look for a fan and nail as fast as you can. Nothing else matters. Once you have those craft your weapon then look for other items. Once you have this weapon you are very strong.
Try to pick up some oil here.
Craft Fangtian Huaji and Bucephalus in this zone.
School:
Take the hyperloop from Avenue to School. Get your items and pick up any lighters you find lying around, they are useful for making heated oil with the oil you brought from Avenue.
Craft Qipao and Uchiwa in this zone.
Archery Range:
Run to Archery Range. Take ramen with your heated oil to make stir-fried ramen. Kill wolves here for rng items again.
Craft Dragon Dobok in this zone.
Food:
This route does not have good food. Try getting some milk from Avenue and crafting Honey Butter or Chocolate Chip Cookies (it is usually better to gather branches before you leave Hotel, as the branches in Avenue are in annoying locations). If you can get to Archery Range with heated oil and find ramen you're in a good spot, but that is kind of slow.
Situational:
Sometimes Wolves will drop poison/ash, take it and make Schrodinger’s Box.
Gameplay
"If I stop now, all my sacrifices would be for nothing."
Your skill build basically defines your gameplay. With this build we max Marche and Rompre followed by Attaque Composée, so we are going to want to use Marche as our primary source of damage until we get our purple weapon, at which point attacking with basic attacks and Attaque Composée with Garde active will be our main damage (though Marche still does a sizeable amount).
What does this mean?
Practically, it means that you shouldn’t be taking fights early if you don’t have Marche and Rompre available. Once you have your Halberd Axe and Garde in Hotel you can definitely fight, and are relatively strong, but you are going to be playing around your Marche the whole time.
Your first real power spike is when you get your Fangtian Huaji. At this point you can fight any character in the game excluding Hart. Seriously, you are very strong. The only way you can die at this point is if you get perma-kited by an Aya/Hart. At this point you should be looking for notifications on your map and running at them to hopefully find a kill.
As the game goes on the damage of other characters starts to catch up to yours. You should still be able to win any fight, assuming you play properly, but in this game things don’t always go to plan.
Against Ranged Characters (Aya/Nadine/Hart/Isol):
Fighting ranged characters as Fiora is, honestly, a nightmare. Unless you are super far ahead, you will just die if you run at them. They will cast their spells, dash away, and generally make your life miserable.
To win these fights, you need to start in melee. To do this, you need to hide in bushes, behind walls, etc. Start fights with an Attaque Composée then try to dash into them with Marche and Rompre, or hit your Shadow Stab. Hopefully, they won’t dash through a wall and just run away.
If they do run away then usually don’t chase, unless they are 1hp. The chance of you catching them is just way too low, you’re slow. They will just keep dashing and firing spells at you till eventually you die. This is not a hard and fast rule, sometimes you need to chase, sometimes you will catch up, etc. but it is how I like to approach things. Be cautious.
Against Melee Characters:
Broadly speaking, you just want to hit them harder than they hit you. This strategy should work out most of the time, if it doesn’t then welp you’re dead.
If you really need to disengage then you can dash into them and reactivate to create distance or use spear weapon skill.
Against Zahir:
Dodge his spells.
Specific Matchups
"I just... won. Fair and square."
Aya:
Aya is probably the hardest character to beat as Fiora. Versus a good Aya she is just going to dash away any time you get close and there is really nothing you can do. You need to ambush her if you are to have any chance.
The best plan is to just wait for the final zone. Since she can’t really run in the final zone you have a decent chance to pull out a win. You should win a dps race.
If you find an Aya around lvl ~8 or so, then you can probably take a fight. This is because you max Marche and Rompre first, so its cooldown should be lower than Aya’s Moving Turn (E) assuming she is maxing it 2nd (as most Aya’s do). This will let you close the gap on her eventually and she should die very fast to your damage.
Don’t overcommit though.
Try to dodge her ult as best you can. Once you have Bucephalus you should be able to.
Hart:
Hart is basically Aya. If you try to chase her down she is just going to dash away while firing spells at you and eventually kill you. Again, just wait for the final zone.
Do not fight Hart early. Assuming she has gone for a sensible build you will not have a hope of winning a fight, no matter what you do, her Delay (Q) is just going to hit you for half your hp and you will die.
HyunWoo:
Woo can be a little scary at times. If your build is slow or he is ahead then you can die in a stun. If you are on equal footing, however, then he should be food for you. Just hit him.
Make sure to dodge his stun if you can. He dashes forward and if he knocks you into a wall or another obstacle you get stunned. You can avoid this by not standing between him and a wall.
It really is that simple.
Isol:
If catching Aya is hard, then catching Isol is impossible. On the plus side he is a little squishier.
He is also a lot less scary. You can’t really die to an Isol, he doesn’t do enough damage. The only way you will die is if you chase and tank several Semtex Bombs (Q), Rebel Assaults (W) and MOK Operational Mines (R). So, do not chase him. Once you see him use Camouflage (E) immediately start running in the opposite direction.
If he chases you with Camouflage you can re-engage, as it will be on cd for a long time. If you can get on top of him and start hitting him then he will die very fast.
You can also hit him while he is in stealth with AOE abilities, even if you don’t have any cameras. I have killed many Isols with a blind Shadow Stab.
Jackie:
Melee character, so just hit her harder than she hits you. You can’t run from her, so don’t even try, just manfight and pray. You will win most of the time.
If she runs, don’t bother chasing her, unless you know she doesn’t have leap/run fast. She’s fast, you’re slow.
The main skill you should be worried about is Dual Sword Rampage. If you see the Jackie you are fighting is Dual Swords then do your best to dodge it, if you let her just chain this skill on you (its cd resets if it hits) then you will probably die.
Li Dailin:
Li is weak at the time of writing this. You really can’t die to her at any point.
Magnus:
Another melee character, so really all you can do is hit him and hope.
Dodging his stun is hard. It knocks you to the left of where Magnus is currently facing, if you hit a wall then you get stunned. If you can manage to avoid his stun then you should win, as his spin (17 vs 1) does 1.5x damage to stunned/slowed units.
On the other hand, if you can’t dodge his stun then you might die.
Nadine:
If you just run at Nadine while she shoots you then you will die every time.
If you start the fight in melee then you will win most of the time. She can’t really run from you because her dash is quite weak, 12s cooldown vs your 10s, so if you can get on top of her and start hitting then you should be fine. However, she can dash through walls, so it depends on the terrain you find yourself in.
Do not fight Nadine around lvl 6/7 when you are at Hotel, you will lose every time (assuming the Nadine is a decent player). She is just stronger than you at this point because she has finished her purple weapon, and should have very strong food.
Generally just be careful when engaging her. She is scary.
Yuki:
Yuki is very similar to Woo. You will win most of the time, but he can definitely be scary.
Try to stand as close to him as possible and then when he ults just walk through him. His ult only hits the 180° arc in front of him, so if you just walk past him then it is very easy to dodge. If you avoid his ult then there is almost no way you can lose this fight.
Zahir:
I said before that you just need to dodge his spells and I would like to reiterate that point, it’s all you have to do. Dodge his tornado and you should win, as tornado is what lets him set up the rest of his nukes. Important to note that if you dash into tornado the tornado will win, as in it will take you out of your dash (which is extremely bad).
Don’t fight Zahir early, before lvl 6. He is strong.
Finale
"Is it finally over?"
I hope this wall of text cosplaying as a guide can be of some use. If you have any questions or concerns feel free to message me on discord (Ascient).
Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2174971353
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