AP Fiora is one of the most off-meta builds you can ever play in League of Legends.
But don’t make a mistake, it isn’t a weak build that only shines if certain conditions are met. Fiora with ability power items is actually a one-shotting machine!
By building AP on Fiora, you’re mainly looking to buff the damage of her W – Riposte.
It’s a counter to all crowd control abilities in LoL and has a ridiculously high AP ratio of 100%.
On top of this, Riposte is packed with decent base damage that’s actually magic and not physical.
The ability can stun, slow, and even cripple enemy champions, so it’s a super useful tool to have in all kinds of situations.
That said, let’s go over the key factors that can make or break your AP Fiora gameplay and dive deeper into the build by explaining all the necessary runes and items.
Let’s begin.
Is AP Fiora Any Good?
AP Fiora is actually a very powerful off-meta playstyle for mid or top lane. It gives you one-shot potential through W if get ahead.
And it can help you counter certain champions, especially Malphite, Yone, Sylas, and Aatrox. With AP items, the Fiora W will do a lot more damage to them in each trade.
With this AP build, Fiora’s Riposte becomes a 10 seconds cooldown ability. And as such, it can completely destroy any CC effect coming from your enemy.
On top of this, the 100% AP scaling on this spell allows you to always insane poke damage or even execute champions below 40% or 30% HP.
To help you with that, you’re going to be taking Dark Harvest as your keystone so you can scale as much as possible for the late game.
Dark Harvest allows you to always have relevant damage against low HP targets, so it fits perfectly.
But because AP Fiora is more about the burst/poke damage playstyle, she lacks the survivability that the AD build provides.
Fiora is known as the best duelist in League of Legends but she can’t be as durable with ability power items.
Don’t get me wrong, you can still dominate your opponents with AP Fiora, especially if there are tons of crowd control abilities flying your way. But it’s also not easy to carry every game with this AP build.
Now let’s see how you should approach playing Fiora with ability power items.
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How to Play AP Fiora? (General Tips)
Even though each game of League of Legends is different, there are things you must be aware of when you’re first trying out AP Fiora.
ONLY TRADE WHEN YOU HAVE YOUR W – RIPOSTE AVAILABLE.
As I mentioned above, AP Fiora gives you bigger burst damage but it takes away your consistent physical damage and survivability.
And because of that, you’ll need to be a lot more careful when you’re trading with your lane opponent.
So, always trade when your W is available and you’re ready to activate it as a counter to the opponent’s CC ability. Besides the damage, it will stun them and let you do a couple more basic attacks.
PROTECT YOUR TEAM BY BLOCKING THE ENEMY CROWD CONTROL.
Even though AP Fiora is a lot squishier than AD Fiora, you can still be the protector of your team by threatening the enemy team with your W.
For example, stand in front of your ADC or mid laner at the beginning of the team fight and wait for the enemy to spend their stun or root.
Riposte can soak up all CC by Lux, Zoe, and Syndra, so it’s a good way to use the ability.
SURPRISE YOUR OPPONENTS WITH THE W + Q COMBO.
One of my favorite ways to outplay my opponents as AP Fiora is to surprise-stun them with W + Q. If you didn’t know, you can actually dash forward while your Riposte is charging up.
This way you can extend the range of your main ability and catch many enemies off guard. This is your bread-and-butter move and it’s critical that you use it at the right time.
Read Also: Top 15 Best Off-Meta Mid Laners (with Builds)
Runes for AP Fiora
- Dark Harvest
- Sudden Impact
- Eyeball Collection
- Ultimate Hunter
- Transcendence
- Scorch
I already mentioned it above, but Dark Harvest plays a huge role in AP Fiora’s success. It’s a scaling keystone that allows your Riposte to hit like a truck against enemies on low HP.
With Dark Harvest, you want to collect as many soul stacks as possible. You do that by hitting enemy champions when they’re on low health (or when they’re glowing red).
And each stack permanently increases your Dark Harvest power.
Sudden Impact synergizes very well with Fiora’s W + Q combo. It grants bonus magic penetration when you dash, so your Riposte will always do extra damage.
Eyeball Collection is there to simply increase your AP during the early and mid game. It adds a total of 30 bonus ability power when fully stacked, so it’s a good rune to have.
But Ultimate Hunter is a must-have rune for AP Fiora. It gives you huge amounts of cooldown reduction throughout the game and allows you to use your Riposte more often.
But the key here is to stack it up by collecting 5 unique champion takedowns.
As for secondary runes, the first one I always recommend is Transcendence. It’s a super useful rune that can completely reset your abilities, including your W, as you score kills during a team fight.
And it adds bonus ability haste too.
And lastly, Scorch is an offensive rune that gives you a bit more damage during the early game. It improves your trades with Fiora’s W and helps you secure more kills overall.
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Items for AP Fiora
- Sorcerer’s Shoes
- Hextech Rocketbelt
- Lich Bane
- Rabadon’s Deathcap
- Void Staff
- Zhonya’s Hourglass
Starting with boots, Sorcerer’s Shoes are by far the best ones on AP Fiora. Besides the movement speed, these boots also grant magic penetration and make Fiora’s W an even scarier ability early on.
There are actually many different AP mythic items that work well on AP Fiora. However, the best one you can go for is Hextech Rocketbelt.
Besides the bonus ability power, health, and magic penetration, Hextech Rocketbelt gives you a dash. There are cool combos you can do on Fiora with this item, but you mainly want to use it to bait abilities from your enemies.
And then you can counter them with Riposte.
Lich Bane is simply an amazing item for Fiora. It synergizes well with her Q and E and adds bonus on-hit magic damage to the whole playstyle.
And it helps you keep your damage up even while Riposte is on cooldown.
Rabadon’s Deathcap is a must-have item in every game as AP Fiora. Since her W scales with 100% ability power, you want as much raw AP as possible.
Well, this item will almost double your AP and thus your damage.
No matter whether you’re up against tanks or not, Void Staff is another exceptional AP item for Fiora. It grants an insane amount of magic penetration and buffs her Riposte significantly.
In the last item slot, you’ll sometimes want to include a defensive item. And the best one for AP Fiora is Zhonya’s Hourglass.
Besides the bonus armor, you also get an active one that shields you from damage. So, definitely prioritize it over other similar items!
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Situational and Optional Items for AP Fiora
Her are some of the optional items you can go for on AP Fiora.
Night Harvester offers similar bonuses to Hextech Rocketbelt, but it’s generally easier to use since there’s no active effect.
On the other hand, Luden’s Tempest also grants upfront damage but it also increases your mana, so it’s perfect if you’re struggling mana management on AP Fiora.
Additionally, you should often build Shadowflame, especially against enemies with lots of shields. It will give you even more magic penetration and allow you to one-shot your targets.
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Ability Order and Summoner’s Spells
As for the order of maxing out your ability on AP Fiora, the first one should always be W – Riposte. After that, you want to max out your Q and lower its cooldown for the W + Q combo. And you can finish the process with your E.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
| Q | Q | Q | Q | Q | |||||||||||||
| W | W | W | W | W | |||||||||||||
| E | E | E | E | E | |||||||||||||
| R | R | R |
The choice of Summoner’s Spells largely depends on the lane and matchup you’re playing as AP Fiora.
But generally, you want to go for Flash + Ignite and put pressure in lane. If not, you can swap Ignite for Teleport and be relevant on the whole map.
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Conclusion
Even though AP Fiora doesn’t require too much understanding, it’s still a playstyle that you need to practice if you want the best results.
The build works very well in ARAM and URF games, but it is also a fun one to try with your friends in normal games of LoL.
That said, I hope this guide helped you out and made you want to try AP Fiora. Good luck!
