I get a lot of inquiries on the tier list as to why Fiora is in god tier, and a lot more comments pointing to that placement specifically as to why the tier list is biased and "wrong". Well let me throw this out there:
I don't like Fiora.
Fiora essentially has no escape (save some fancy jumping), no hard CC, she's squishy, and has no sustain.
Even if she looked like this I'd be hesitant:
Me? God Tier? Really...
So why the heck is Fiora god tier? Truth be told, it's hard to explain why she SHOULD be god tier, and far easier explaining why she IS god tier. Now what the heck is that cryptic message supposed to mean? Check it out:
With a 6.2% popularity rate (which lands her in the top half of champions played) she's had an impeccable top 10 win rate for as many patches back as I can remember.
If that's not enough to convince you, check out this data as well:
With any one of her core items, her win rate is way over 50%, and with her most used item it's borderline 60%! In fact, for the most part it's only the hydra components components that she fails to finish that are significantly under 50%. Luckily, that only happens less than 10% of the time.
So what the hell makes her so strong in solo queue?
Obviously she's not that strong in arranged 5v5 play, or else all the pros would play her and I wouldn't have to deal with everyone complaining anymore (see Wukong).
Personally, putting her laning phase and almost complete lack of utility aside I think it boils down to these three points:
Inability to Finish Her Off
I strongly believe that the reason Fiora is so high up is the same reason Kayle is so high up. In solo queue, the enemy team tends to target the most "dangerous" target first. This generally means whoever's the closest and looks like a glass cannon.
Who looks more like a glass cannon than Fiora?
However, once your team blows your major nukes and CCs on Fiora, they're no longer immediately available for use on the remainder of the enemy team. Meanwhile, if you haven't managed to kill Fiora, she'll simply use her ultimate, rendering herself completely invulnerable along with regenerating all her lost life via hydra's lifesteal while she beats your confused squishies senseless.
Meanwhile, she's also...
Unable to be Ignored
While some other top lanes like Olaf or Renekton can be ignored in solo queue if they're not far enough ahead and the AD carry has enough lifesteal, even a moment ignoring Fiora is certain death. That means that the AD carry HAS to deal with her first, and all of his time spent AAing her almost always ends up being completely negated during blade waltz with lifesteal.
Finally, there's...
Lack of Respect
I think this is another major point in solo queue that helps Fiora tremendously. At the moment, she's still an underdog with most other tier lists denying that she's any good and simply choosing to ignore the fact that she just always *happens* to hit that end game ace and finish games.
This means that many people simply see her as a glass cannon that their AD carry should be able to take down with one person peeling. However, after getting aced a few times, teams begin to start the blame game as they don't understand what's going on...
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Conclusion (tldr;): Fiora's been a crappy champion in the past, but in the current meta she's *just* tanky enough to survive long enough to soak all of a team's damage and has *just* enough damage to take down enemy squishies. Apparently that's enough for solo queue.
What do you think? Comment below!
Credits:
Arya picture from Game of Thrones
Statistics from Lolking.net