The concept of “Riot’s favorite” is coined by gamers to refer to champions who continuously receive beautiful and intricately designed skins like Lux and Ezreal, for example. That’s why players are buzzing about Lux getting two more Legendary skins in the upcoming Galaxy event, while there are champions like Zac who haven’t received a new skin in years.
That’s just about appearances; even if she is the Lady of Light, if the strength becomes too overwhelming, she will still get nerfed as usual. The nerfing of champions by Riot is no stranger to gamers, as some champions are so strong that even after being nerfed, they remain powerful. A few patches ago, we saw Akali get nerfed, and recently, Wukong was so dominant after his rework that Riot Games had to issue a hotfix nerf afterward.
However, amidst a plethora of dominant names in the current meta, Riot has either accidentally or intentionally overlooked a super strong champion in the top lane, which is Fiora. Although she is not as “overpowered” as other names, Fiora has gradually climbed to the top tier of the strongest champions in the top lane. According to U.gg, Fiora is currently in the S+ group (extremely strong) with a high win rate and ban rate.
Keep in mind that this champion is considered difficult to play, so when her win rate exceeds 50%, it shows that Fiora is extremely strong. The reason is quite clear; over the past three years, Fiora has only received buffs and bug fixes and has never been nerfed. The last time Fiora was nerfed was in patch 7.14, when her movement speed when activating her passive was reduced, and her ultimate Grand Challenge no longer increased movement speed.
A fact in solo queue is that champions with good damage output and outplay potential are always strong as they can exploit the mistakes of their opponents. Fiora possesses both with her Q – Lunge allowing her to dash and W – Riposte used to counter crowd control skills. Moreover, with Riot buffing her Q to deal damage to structures, Fiora becomes an extremely powerful split-pushing champion, allowing her to single-handedly determine the outcome of a match.
Not long ago, Riot announced their new balance criteria, considering a champion too strong and in need of adjustment when the win rate exceeds 52.5% and the ban rate is five times higher than normal. With Fiora only hovering around a 51% win rate currently, according to Riot’s standards, she is still considered “balanced”.
Thus, players who love this Swordmaster can rest assured that their favorite champion will remain stable for a long time before facing any nerfs from Riot Games in each patch.