Fiddlesticks In the Jungle

Introduction

Fiddlesticks is one of the strongest AP jungle champions in the game due to his powerful drain and useful crowd-control abilities. Once out of the jungle, he provides a high damage AoE nuke, multiple-target silence, and long-duration fear. He is definitely a great pick for a team in need of a good jungler or caster.

When to Jungle

Fiddlesticks in lane is not as strong as he used to be before the changes to Dark Wind. His recent buffs have however resurrected his viability as a jungle champion. In fact, I strongly believe he is just as good if not better than Cho'Gath in the jungle.

Choose to jungle with Fiddlesticks if your team

• needs a caster and a jungler.
  
• has 2 strong, solo-lane champions.
  

Keeping that in mind, Fiddlesticks is a solid last pick. He isn't banned often and stronger AD junglers are picked up before him. Always choose wisely

Pre-game

As a jungler, your cash in-flow is significantly smaller than a champion in lane. Thus, I try to pack in as much offense as I can by stacking ability power, mana regeneration, and some magic penetration. This Fiddlesticks is a team player so you won't be grabbing any magic penetration from items: pre-game is the time to get it. I don't grab cooldown reduction, so consider that when building. I find that the Ancient Golem buff is usually adequate for my cooldown needs. We pick up Smite for the obvious reasons, and Flash for better positioning and escape.

Summoner Spells: Smite and Flash

Rune Page:
3x Greater Quintessence of Potency
9x Greater Mark of Insight
9x Greater Seal of Clarity
9x Greater Glyph of Force

Masteries (9-0-21):


The Items

The Core Build
475 gold: Doran's Ring
1675 gold: Boots of Speed, Catalyst the Protector (Prioritize Sapphire Crystal)
1710 gold: Rod of Ages
1710 gold: Mercury's Treads, Blasting Wand
1790 gold: Abyssal Scepter
75 gold (each): Sight Wards

Starting with Doran's Ring is simple: the health, ability power, and mana regeneration synchronize well with the pre-game setup. The health from it is crucial: you won't survive against Ancient Golem at level 1 without it. To be on the safe side, you can purchase Ruby Crystal instead, but I feel Doran's Ring is too good to pass up.

Rod of Ages provides 3 great stats that Fiddlesticks needs: health, mana, and ability power. This item takes 10 minutes to be fully charged so grab it as early as you can.

Mercury's Treads provides magic resistance and tenacity, both very useful stats.

Abyssal Scepter is your next major purchase solely because of it's magic resist debuff
aura. The debuff works together with your passive, significantly reducing the magic resistance of your enemies for your team. You also get more magic resistance and ability power that you can't complain about.

Every time you have some spare gold, buy a Sight Ward. This is good for your entire team.

Now we have some options.

More Ability Power:
1600 gold: Needlessly Large Rod
1700/1800 gold: Zhonya's Hourglass/Rabadon's Deathcap
Total: 8950/9050 gold

Zhonya's Hourglass and Rabadon's Deathcap are your choice if you want more ability power. I prefer the armor and active of the hourglass. However, Rabadon's Deathcap is a huge increase in your damage output.

More Survivability:
2715 gold: Banshee's Veil
860 gold: Blasting Wand
Total: 9225 gold

Banshee's Veil is probably one of the best items in the game. It'll provide a good
boost of magic resistance, health, mana, and an extremely useful spell shield every 45 seconds.

Cooldown Reduction 1:
2350 gold: Morello's Evil Tome
860 gold: Blasting Wand
Total: 8860 gold

Cooldown Reduction 2:
1675 gold: Glacial Shroud
1600 gold: Needlessly Large Rod
Total: 8925 gold

Other items of note are Glacial Shroud and Morello's Evil Tome. Glacial Shroud and Morello's Evil Tome provide more cooldown if you so desire. Glacial Shroud will give you more armor and Morello's Evil Tome gives more AP.

Rare Alternatives to Abyssal Scepter:

Void Staff - Void Staff is great, there's no argument there. This also stacks nicely with your masteries and runes. However, Abyssal Scepter is a far superior item due to the debuff aura that is beneficial for your whole team (especially if there is another caster) and its added magic resistance. The only time you should get Void Staff instead is if you are the ONLY AP source of damage on your team.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter - Rylai's does not work with Crowstorm. If it did, it would be a great item to get on Fiddlesticks. The passive does work with Dark Wind, so that makes it worthy of consideration. The reason why I don't like to get Rylai's is the mitigation from magic resistance in Abyssal Scepter seems like a better choice than the health from Rylai's. Rod of Ages already provides a good chunk of HP.

Jungling

Fiddlesticks is highly adaptable in the jungle. He doesn't not have to start at Ancient Golem. However, some extra care must be taken in the first two levels. Of course, pick Drain as your first skill.

I usually start at Ancient Golem, provided that my team can provide both protection and a leash. If you start at Ancient Golem, have one of your teammates guard near the wraiths as well. Counter-junglers easily pick these up while your team guards you at blue. Always, always hit him with 2 or 3 auto attacks before you drain. Smite once he is under 500 HP. If you decide not to start at Ancient Golem, wait until level 3.

After the Ancient Golem camp, choose Terrify as your next skill. This is essential if you are attacked in your jungle. Terrify the enemy and Flash away. Don't die!

Do wolves next. Drain the small wolves first, auto-attacking the big wolf in between drains. Wraiths are next. Drain the large wraith twice. He will regenerate health. If you find yourself getting low after the large wraith, run out into the bush before you drain the smaller ones. Grab level 2 Drain after this, then grab Dark Wind. Use Smite liberally.

From then on, you're safe to jungle in whatever order you like. Grab level 3 Drain before you get Crowstorm. Then, prioritize Crowstorm and Terrify because it is extremely scary at max level. I max Drain next if I am doing a lot of killing. If I am more reliant on my team, I max Dark Wind instead.

Ganking

Ganking before you have Crowstorm is definitely harder, but not impossible. Your best targets are those who do not have a blink. Avoid ganking Katarina, Ezreal, Tristana, Shen, Shaco, Akali, etc. unless your teammates can keep them from blinking with silence, stun, or frear. They'll usually just blink out of your drain if that's the case. Opening up with Dark Wind is great, followed by your Terrify + Drain combo.

Ganking with Crowstorm is easier. You should position yourself so that you are slightly ahead of their movement so you can keep them in your AoE. Pop out of bushes or ledges and re-position yourself with Flash if necessary. Champions with AoE snares, slows, and stuns like Amumu, Galio, and Nunu are your best friends. As soon as you blink in always use Dark Wind and/or Terrify. Wait until your nuke is dying before you Drain.

Team Fighting

Your job in team fighting is to deliver CC. Here are a few tips:

• Do not initiate. Let someone else who CAN initiate do it.
  
• Crowstorm while the fight is in progress. You won't survive if you jump in from the start. They will easily focus you down and kill you.
  
• Use Terrify on primary targets and let your team eat them alive.
  
• Make use of Dark Wind when two or more champions are close together for longer silence.
  
• Drain when shits on cooldown. You could also drain once you've used Terrify.