After being revamped, Fiddlesticks did not leave a strong impression on players due to his low win rate. However, after many balance adjustments and with players finding suitable playstyles, this scarecrow is significantly increasing his win rate, from being at the bottom upon release, he now boasts over 51% win rate and is among the top 10 strongest jungle champions in patch 10.9.
However, for Riot Games, they want even more from Fiddlesticks, especially regarding this champion’s passive, as it doesn’t provide players with much satisfaction when used. Essentially, Fiddlesticks only sets up a scarecrow to deceive opponents, and if they just hit the scarecrow, the passive’s effect becomes null. Perhaps Riot wants to create more outplay situations from this passive, so they are testing some new features for Fiddlesticks.
Riot Squad5 – member of the champion design team: “We are testing some changes for Fiddlesticks, it may be a bit of an overbuff since this champion is already quite strong, but I think he needs a slight upgrade.
Passive: If Fiddlesticks uses an ability on a target while pretending to be a scarecrow (before taking damage or being recognized as the real Fiddlesticks), the enemy will be feared just as if this champion was out of vision.
The time for Fiddlesticks to activate scarecrow form increases from 1s to 2s. Now Fiddlesticks will have an icon indicating when the scarecrow form is activated.
W – Damage to minions reduced from 40% to 60% increase.”
A player asked: “I hope you will bring back the movement speed passive because I feel that in most cases, hiding is better than trying to outsmart the opponent with a scarecrow. However, the change to the Fear effect is quite nice.”
Riot Squad5: “I also liked the old movement speed effect; if the change does not work well, I will likely add that effect back. There might be a buff, but I don’t want to increase Fiddlesticks’ power too much.”
These changes to Fiddlesticks will allow this champion to have more “tricks” against opponents, making the act of outsmarting enemies with the scarecrow more beneficial than just typical intimidation. However, as Riot Squad5 mentioned, Fiddlesticks is already quite strong, and they will not overbuff this scarecrow. Still, adding the ability to outsmart as mentioned above is a pretty good way to enhance the effectiveness of the passive scarecrow.
