Fiora nerfs are finally almost here, but they’re a little underwhelming

We’ll just come right out and say it. Fiora is OP. She can play the role of burst damage carry, splitpusher, and teamfight extraordinaire all at once, and she has little room for counterplay. That’s why it’s not surprising that nerfs for her cropped up on the PBE yesterday.

What is surprising is that the nerfs only touch her movement speed—and nothing else.

Specifically, the changes will lower the movement speed she gains from hitting an opponent Vital with her passive. The nerf will lower the speed by a substantial amount—a 20 percent nerf at level 18. The movement speed boost from her ultimate was also completely removed from the ability. Her movement speed bursts are the least of her concerns though.

The fact that she can burst down anyone, including tanks, in a mere few rapid-fire hits while maintaining enough tankiness to be damn hard to kill is the problem. On top of that, she can drill through structures faster than the Big Bad Wolf. She can fill any role she wants, except maybe AP mage, and excel at any of them. At least now she’ll be able to stick to her targets a little less, right?

Don’t get us wrong, the movement speed nerfs will help, even if only a little bit. It will allow ranged champions to be able to kite her a little more easily, and it will give her victims some extra chances to escape her clutches. Who knows, maybe these nerfs will be exactly what she needed all along, but it’s unlikely unless we see some harder hitting nerfs in the days leading up to Patch 7.14.

If nothing else crops up, don’t expect Fiora’s pregame priority to drop all that much when the patch hits in a week or two.