League of Legends - Fizz

Fizz is in a very good place in the current meta. His mobility as well as his ability to stick to his target are making him a very good pick in either the top lane or the jungle. Both jungle and top Fizz are played the same way, but I’ll be focusing on top Fizz since it is easier to learn and will help you climb more efficiently. In order to understand what I’m talking about, we’ll need to take a look at Fizz’s kit.

Fizz’s passive, Nimble Fighter, allows him to ignore unit collision and reduces physical damage from autoattacks. Fizz’s Q ability, Urchin Strike, dashes a fixed distance through the selected enemy dealing (10 / 25 / 40/ 55 / 70) plus 100% of your attack damage as physical damage as well as 30% of your ability power as magic damage. It also applies on hit effects which is why Trinity Force is such a key item. Fizz’s W ability, Seastone Trident, has a passive and an active. The passive applies a rend effect to your auto attacks, this effect deals (20 / 30 / 40 / 50 / 60) plus 45% of your ability power in magic damage over time to a target for three seconds. The active deals (20 / 30 / 40 / 50 / 60) plus (4% / 5% / 6% / 7% / 8% of the targets missing health) every auto attack as bonus magic damage. This spell will shred tanks as well as give you the damage to duel a late game marksman. Fizz’s E ability, Playful/Trickster, makes Fizz untargetable as he hops onto his trident and goes to a target location. Playful, used by tapping ‘E’ twice within the .75 seconds of invulnerability, is used more as a gap closer that has 400 range, while Trickster is used by tapping ‘E’ once. It slows your targets and is used more for waveclear and aoe, as it has a larger radius and a slow. Both of these options deal the same amount of magic damage (70 / 120/ 170 / 220 / 270) plus 75% ability power, and Trickster slows all enemies hit by (40% / 45% / 50% / 55% / 60%). This ability is infamous and gives Fizz his slippery type feel with its low cooldown. It allows Fizz to gapclose, dodge, and outplay his opponents. Fizz’s ultimate ability, Chum the Waters, allows Fizz to throw a fish in a line that, if hit, will bind to an enemy champion, slowing them for 1.5 seconds and increasing all of his damage to them by 20% for 6 seconds. After this 1.5 seconds, a shark, a manatee, or a killer whale, depending on what skin you’re using, will knock up everybody within the radius of the fish for 1 second. Something else that is very important to note is that this fish provides sight, allowing you to use it as a scouter (which I would not recommend due to its long cooldown) or as a way to see an enemy that is using an unwarded bush to their advantage. Now that we know all of Fizz’s abilities in depth, we can learn how to bully and defeat almost every top laner in the current meta.

Runes and Masteries

When playing Fizz you should take 3 attack speed quintessences, flat attack damage reds, either armor (if you’re fighting an ad champion) or scaling health yellows (if you’re fighting an ap champion), and, if you’re just beginning to learn Fizz, scaling magic resist blues. If you’re a Fizz expert I would recommend scaling cooldown blues. Here’s an example of what a beginner Fizz’s rune page should look like:

For masteries, 21/9/0 is the way to go. 21 points in offense because Fizz is a strong dueler and should be played that way. 9 points defense because in order to duel, you need to have some defensive early game stats, in my opinion, Fizz is mobile enough without utility masteries. Here’s an example of how your mastery page should look:

Laning, Counters, Skill Order, and Build Path

Before playing Fizz in ranked, I would recommend playing him in normals or customs. If you do not know Fizz’s cooldowns you may put yourself in an unfortunate situation which can be avoided by getting a feel for his kit and playstyle through a few non-ranked games. I would suggest taking teleport and flash. Teleport is vital. Due to Fizz’s mobility teleport can be used in many ways such as splitpushing and forcing a 1v1 or teleporting bot lane to find two unsuspecting enemies. Fizz’s build path is fairly static, you always want to start Crystaline Flask (I will explain why later). After Crystaline the build path is as follows: Trinity Force -> Ninja Tabi or Mercury Treads -> Blade of the Ruined King -> Frozen Heart (AD heavy), Randuins (If there’s mixed damage), or Banshee's Veil (AP Heavy). These last three items should all be built, but the order depends on what team composition the enemy has. Guardian Angel may also be swapped in for Banshee's Veil, but Frozen Heart is a must due to its cooldown reduction.

Fizz can win any matchup in the top lane if played correctly, but the two champs that you want to watch out for are Irelia and Swain. To start off, build a Crystaline Flask and 3 Health Potions. Fizz’s ability to duel early means that you’ll probably be taking a lot of minion damage, the Crystaline is vital for early success and will help you sustain through early duels. Depending on who you’re laning against, you want to start with either ‘W’ or ‘E’. ‘W’ is your go-to ability at level 1 unless you fight against a ranged opponent which isn’t too common in the top lane. If you feel like you’re going to take a lot of poke, start ‘E’ to dodge their early poke. The order you want to max your skills are: R > W > Q > E. If you are not laning against Irelia or Swain, level 3 is the time to all-in. If you have been harassing with ‘W’ auto attacks early, you should have somewhat of a health advantage. Fizz is easily able to out-trade his other opponents because he can use his ‘W’ followed by a ‘Q’ which applies the active ‘W’ damage as well as the passive damage. Winning early trades is a cinch due to Fizz’s passive, minions and your lane opponents deal reduced physical damage.

Transitioning from Early to Mid to Late Game

After laning phase, there are many possibilities with Fizz. Generally, you want to set up picks through denying enemy vision. You can do this by either upgrading to a Greater Vision Totem (pink ward yellow trinket) or swapping to a Sweeping Lens. If this doesn’t work, team fighting is your best option. In the teamfight, Fizz can focus anybody due to his tank shredding ‘W’, but you generally want to focus the squishies of the team. Fizz’s ult should be the opening of his combo, as it increases all incoming damage from him by 20%, if you can hit it on their mid laner or their marksman it’s almost a guaranteed death. If possible, focus in this order: 1. Marksman 2. Mid Laner 3. Jungler 4. Support 5. Top Laner. I put support before the top laner because in the current meta, huge tanks like Sion and Maokai are very popular. Supports can be focused down and killed usually fairly easily, and killing them, although it shouldn’t be a priority when it comes to teamfighting, is very important. Fizz’s late game is his strongest point. Like I’ve stated before, his ability to stick to his target as well as his slippery kit allow him to initiate fights and make it out safe. If you are able to deny vision through the Greater Vision Totem or an upgraded Sweeping Lens, flanking the enemy is a very good possibility. Flanking will allow you to easily hit your ult and focus down the squishy targets, leading to a greater chance of victory.

Conclusion

If you haven’t already tried Fizz, now is a good time. Fizz is a strong melee tank that is able to assassinate squishy targets and duel tanky targets with ease. In this guide I’ve explored the most efficient way to play and build Fizz. If you follow this guide and avoid playing against Irelia and Swain, you should find success fairly easily.

Tristam Mizak