Roleplaying builds - Fiora Laurent

Roleplaying-focused mercenary build for Fiora, from League of Legends. Suitable for Core difficulty or below.

Welcome

Welcome to my Fiora guide!

The idea came to me when I was doing my basic classes guide. Under the Duelist, I've written "if you've ever wanted to be Fiora from League of Legends, this is the class for you", since it fits her character so much. The idea of making a full build for it stuck to my mind ever since then. I'm quite proud of how it's turned out, so I hope you like it!

I tried to make it the most accurate with her lore and LoL's abilities as possible, while making it strong and viable for the game. Core difficulty is a recommendation, but I've been using it on Hard with great sucess. The build has a great focus on critical damage and attacks of opportunity.

If this guide helped you in any way, feel free to give it a positive rating and/or add it to your favorites! if you see anything wrong, please let me know and I'll be happy to edit it accordingly.

The portrait can be found here[www.nexusmods.com].

Character Creation

Attribute	Choice	Comment
Race	Human	Well, duh.
Background	Noble - Leader	She comes from a noble family, and eventually becomes their leader. This background also makes you proficient with rapiers, so it fits Fiora in every way.
Stats	10-19-14-14-12-10	Racial bonus and all extra points to DEX.
Skills	Mobility (max), Knowledge World, Perception.	Those are the main ones. The rest can be anything your party needs (stealth and nature are both good). Just make sure to get mobility at every level.
Deity	Atheism	Even though her background story doesn't mention atheism in particular, it also doesn't give any clues as to deity worship. Demacia is also not a religious kingdom, even though some might worship The Winged Protector or The Veiled Lady as religious deities.
Alignment	Lawful Neutral	Fiora is all about principles and honor, and she will challenge anyone who dares defy those values. But she doesn’t really care about the concepts of good or evil. She’s neither a zealot, nor a tyrant.

For voice, I've picked Pragmatic. I couldn't find her birthdate.

This is the best I could do for her appearance (sadly, can't add her purple hair stripes):

Leveling Progression

Level	Class	Feat	Comment
1	Slayer	Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus: Rapier	I've added a specific section explaining this choice of class and weapon. Weapon Finesse lets you do attack rolls via Dexterity, while also helping with Duelist's requirements.
2	Slayer	Combat Style: Menacing - Dodge	Another Duelist requirement that also fits her story.
3	Slayer	Fencing Grace - Rapier	Now you add your Dexterity on your damage rolls. I don't even have to say how fencing fits Fiora's background, do I?
4	Slayer	Combat trick: Blind Fight	Making sure you don't miss that much.
5	Slayer	Combat Mobility	Once again, a Duelist requirement that also fits her story.
6	Slayer	Combat Style: Menacing - Shatter Defenses	You can already study your target to find its vital spots, and now you're dealing true damage :3
7	Slayer	Outflank	We could go Duelist now, but Slayer 7 gives us Studied Target as a swift action. If we don't take it now, we'll only be able to pick it at level 17. That's a loooong way of wasting our move turn to apply the effect.
8	Duelist		The big moment has arrived.
9	Duelist	Improved Critical: Rapier	Fits Fiora's critical strike capabilities on League. You also get the Parry ability.
10	Duelist
11	Duelist	Piranha Strike	The equivalent of Power Attack for DEX builds. You also get Combat Reflexes for free. Attacks of opportunity for days.
12	Duelist		You now have Riposte, also known as League's most broken skill.
13	Duelist	Critical Focus	Making your critical strikes even easier to land.
14	Duelist
15	Duelist	Lunge	You're fully lore-accurate now.
16	Duelist		One more attack of opportunity, free initiative bonus, and deflect arrows. Thank you.
17	Duelist	Staggering or Sickening Critical	You also get the Crippling Critical ability, applying an additional effect of your choice on every critical strike.
18	Slayer	Uncanny Dodge	You never let your guard down.
19	Slayer	Accomplished Sneak Attacker.	More damage is never enough.
20	Slayer	Dispelling Attack	Lots of good options here, so this is only a suggestion to make the last dungeon a little bit easier.

This is how it should look at level 20, with no buffs. Please note that some feats are out of order because I've changed things around while making the guide but didn't want to start over lol But it is all there.

Mythic Progression

Mythic Feats and Abilities:

Level	Choices	Comment
1	Last Stand	This is pretty much mandatory for any melee character, even for non-tanks.
2	Weapon Focus (Mythic): Rapier	Self explanatory.
3	Ever Ready	More attacks of opportunity? Yes, please.
4	Improved Critical (Mythic) - Rapier	Your critical strikes are even deadlier now.
5	Unrelenting Assault	Pressing the attack.
6	Piranha Strike (Mythic)	Huge damage.
7	Defensive Study	Makes you extra durable against your target.
8	Mythic Sneak Attacker	More sneak attack damage? Yes, please.
9	Always a Chance or Leading Strike	Not so many good options remaining. Pick your favorite.
10	Flawless Attacks	Small buff to our hit chance, can't complain.

Equipment

Listing the most fitting weapon for the build and some useful armor. Nothing particularly special for the other slots, so use the best you can find for those.

Weapons

There's an unique rapier in every act, thanks to Camellia, so you will always have something to use until you get to act 4. For act 1, use Finnean. For act 2, there's an unique cold iron rapier on Leper's Smile (underground, next to wand of zacharius), which will be of great help on Drezen.

Name	Source	Description
Interceptor	Act 4, Wirlong Black Mask, Fleshmarkets	This +5 keen rapier grants its wielder a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls on attacks of opportunity. If an attack of opportunity results in a killing blow, the wielder can make one extra attack during the next round.

You will have a lot of attacks of opportunity with this build, so this fits nicely. Quite good.

Equipment

Slot	Name	Source	Description
Chest	Lady Callandra's Chainshirt	Act 1, Tower of Estrod	Has no Armor Check Penalty, and a Max Dexterity Bonus of 6. Pretty good for most of the game until you get to act 4.
	Royal Messenger's Chainshirt	Act 4, Wirlong Black Mask, Fleshmarkets	+4 bonus on Reflex saving throws and +10 competence bonus on Mobility checks. Same max Dexterity Bonus of 6.

Both are light armors with high defense and DEX bonus, to keep you light on your feet and stack some extra defense.

Here's another great alternative, if you're not using it on someone else. Keep in mind this is a medium armor, so you won't have your bonus AC from INT by using it, so you're trading defense for offense.

Chest

Chainmail of Comradery

Act 2, Underground Hideout

+2 bonus to damage against flanked targets, increased to +4 if you have the Outflank feat. This is a huge damage boost.

Bracers

Bracers of Breaching

Act 3, Ivory Sanctum (mimic room, after solving puzzle)

When you confirm a critical hit, the enemy must pass a Fortitude saving throw (DC 23) or become vulnerable to piercing damage for 2 rounds (which means: the enemy takes 50% more damage from you).

And here's a Duelist-specific item, the only one in the game.

Cloak

White Wind's Cloak

Act 3, Ivory Sanctum (mimic room, after solving puzzle)

Gives a +4 competence bonus to attack rolls while parrying. Additionally, the Precise Strike ability now adds 1.5 of her duelist level as a bonus to her damage rolls (up from a quarter of her Duelist level).

This will make you stronger and your Parry ability easier to land, which in turn will give you extra Riposte attacks.

The bracer and cloak can be found in the same room, as seen in the image. There's a trickery check to open the door, so save before attempting it, to prevent the door from being blocked forever if you fail. Inside, you'll have to solve a puzzle and possibly fight a really hard enemy, so be careful.

If you need help with the puzzle, check my puzzles guide.

Reason for Slayer

Why Slayer and not Fighter?

Fighter fits, that's true. But check the in-game description of the Slayer class: Slayers spend most of their time honing their weapon skills, studying the habits and anatomy of foes, and practicing combat maneuvers. Everything in this fits Fiora's story and abilities.

Honing their skills: "Her mother had the finest craftsmen of Demacia fashion the most lifelike dolls for her to play with—but Fiora gave them to her maids, and took up her eldest brother's rapier, forcing him to give her lessons in secret. Her father obtained a set of dressmaking mannequins for her personal seamstress to craft wondrous gowns—but Fiora merely used them to practice her lunges and ripostes." (Source: official LoL lore page[universe.leagueoflegends.com])

Studying the anatomy of foes: she is skilled at finding enemies' vital spots, as per her LoL passive and ultimate. This matches the Studied Target ability of Slayers very nicely. The only 2 other ways of getting the Studied Target ability come from the Inquisitor and Paladin, but they both don't fit her lore.

Practicing combat maneuvers: also fits her backstory. She is all about circling her opponents with gracious dexterity, making it almost like she's dancing, which also feats her LoL mobility ability.

She is also not hesitant of slaying anyone who tries to shame her family honor. Here's another piece of her backstory:

“My lady,” said Ammdar, her second older brother, handing her a mid-length rapier with a bluesteel blade upon which light moved like oil. “Are you sure about this?”

“Of course,” replied Fiora. “You heard the tales Umberto and his braggart brothers were spreading in the Commercia?”

“I did,” confirmed Ammdar. “But is that worth his death?”

“If I let one braggart slide, then others will think themselves free to wag their tongues,” said Fiora.

(...)
“How many is that?” asked Ammdar, coming forward to collect her sword. “Fifteen? Twenty?”

“Thirty,” said Fiora. “Or maybe more. They all look the same to me now.”

“There will be more,” promised her brother.

“So be it,” answered Fiora. “But every death restores our family honor. Every death brings redemption closer.” (source[universe.leagueoflegends.com])

General tips about the build

The build is pretty straightforward. Position yourself to get a lot of attacks of opportunity and use Lunge at will to attack safely behind your tank. Make sure to pick the Outflank feat on every melee character on your party as soon as possible.

Mark your enemy with Studied Target if you need the extra chance to hit on your first attack or if you're not flanking the enemy (i.e., there's no other ally engaging the target yet). If you're already flanking, it will be applied automatically with your sneak attacks.

Keep your Parry ability on, and remember that you can use Parry-Others to prevent an enemy's attack on your friends, as long as you are within reach of the enemy. When you succesfully parry, you'll get a free Riposte attack. But keep in mind that, if you leave both Parry abilities on all the time, you'll have a -8 penalty to hit your Parry, so it might be wise to only keep one of them up at any given time.

Activate Piranha Strike for an extra boost of damage. Be careful though because it reduces your chance to hit quite a bit, so turn it off if you're facing an enemy with high armor, or if you feel like you're missing a lot during lower levels. You should have a lot of buffs from your party to compensate for this penalty.

Starting at Duelist 10, you can add a debuff effect to your critical strikes. Reducing AC or saving throws are the most useful ones, but choose according to what you're facing.

Make sure to buff yourself with the Fox's Cunning spell for more armor. You add 1 point of Intelligence bonus per Duelist level as a dodge bonus. So, since you start with 14 INT, you should be using the buff starting from level 10, unless you're already using an INT headband.

Screenshots

This is an example of her damage at level 12. Around 100+ damage per critical strike, which has a 15-20 range and x3 multiplier. She can do up to 4 attacks per turn at this point (3 base, +1 from haste), including extra riposte attacks as this one. This was taken before I got the Duelist cloak.