Fiddlesticks VGU progress shared by dev team

The Fiddlesticks VGU team have revealed further details about the upcoming League of Legends champion rework including both audio and visual previews.

Fiddlesticks concept art (Credit: Riot Games)

Following a fan vote last year, both Fiddlesticks and Volibear were next in line for updates as Shyvana looks like a likely third for later in 2020 after the regional voting showed an interest from China in her rework. 

While new Volibear was previewed in a trailer posted to summarise 2020 changes in LoL, Fiddlesticks was last mentioned during the Champion Roadmap in October. 

The horrifying redesign was being planned to allow Fiddlesticks players to cause opponents to 'question what is real and what is merely a terrifying effigy.'

Developers have been working on turning up the scares in many aspects of Fiddlesticks including his abilities, animations and new visuals.

One of these changes include new mechanics built around its iconic Crowstorm that give Fiddle more ways to stay hidden and find—or create—opportunities to ambush enemies. 

"For the channel, I really wanted to push the sense of the demon having an uncontrollable urge to kill to the point where it’s literally bursting out of Fiddlesticks. Once channeled, this ability needs to grab attention since it’s a new player entering the fight often from out of vision. In order to do this, I played up a lot of the initial blink with thematic-reinforcing elements such as demonic script, bursts of dark smoke, a bit of distortion, and of course lots of crows." - Jason "Riot Lanky Tree" Chisolm, VFX Artist

His nature as an inhuman entity, this horror factor has been utilised during his rework to fully allow the demon to truly be a nightmare on the Rift while utilising a more mechanical aesthetic. 

To match this, movements will now put emphasis on Fiddlesticks' long right arm, with the 'claws' dragging across the ground behind it. His brain is located in a chest cage and so his head swings around more than a regular sentient living creature. Fiddlesticks should be an intimidating foe to face or be surprised by when you least expect it.

The audio clip provided at the end of the post embodies this fear paired with the cawing of crows and the full post with additional information and videos can be found on leagueoflegends.com.