League of Legends: How much do we know about the Fiddlesticks rework and Volibear Rework?

League of Legends is now a decade old, and over these 10 years, Riot has been releasing new champions every season.

And what started as just a handful in season 1, is now 148 as of January 2020. So, it's not all that surprising why a champion which was the most popular in one season, is hardly ever played in the next.

Meta shifts, gameplay changes, and new champion release make some of the older ones boring and simply not fun to play.

Riot has come up with an amazing solution to making older champions viable again by reworking their kit and updating their animations.

In 2019, Fiddlesticks and Volibear got the highest votes from fans for a much-needed update on their kit. And in a recent Dev. video Ryan "Reav3" Mireles from Riot announced some of the changes that they will be bringing to them.

So what are some of the rumors and some of the facts that we already know?

Fiddle will be more than just a scarecrow.

Fiddlesticks will retain elements from his original kit

Riot’s latest champion releases and reworks are getting increasingly lore heavy. Even their music video ‘Warriors’ comes packed with a lot of lore, so it was only a matter of time before they started to link their older champions to the legends of Runeterra, both in terms of their background and theme.

The new Fiddlesticks concept and design will be centered around a new story where the previously considered scarecrow is not going to be a scarecrow at all. He will be represented as an ancient demon that lives inside the chest of an organ-less, hollowed out body, and who has been terrorizing the inhabitants of Runeterra for ages.

What is the new kit going to be like?

Fiddlesticks is getting reworked

Unlike the massive changes to his look and design, Fiddle’s new kit is going to resemble his older one quite closely. He will be keeping his ‘point and click fear’ on the ‘Q’, as well as the Crowstorm on his ’R’; however, newer elements will be added to them.

Riot wrote, “As far as gameplay goes, we want Fiddle to be the iconic ambush champion, with a kit that’s centered around the concept of fear.” So we can only speculate that the reworked Fiddle will be something out of Lovecraftian horror.

“This goes deeper than just a point-click status effect, which is staying on the kit. But beyond that, we’re giving Fiddle new mechanics that are built around its iconic Crowstorm.”

Much of his gameplay will revolve around psychological fear and the element of surprise. Mind games, ambushes, and constantly looking for the upper hand in a fight is going to be his new playstyle.

When are the changes set to roll out?

There is still no official news on the date of its release. But the VGU will be arriving on the live servers pretty soon, with the complete reworked change hitting the rift in the next couple of months.

The Volibear Changes

New Volibear visual

Though much has been confirmed about Fiddle’s kit and design, Volibear’s rework, on the other hand, has more leaks and rumors than official facts. But what we do know is that his kit and design are going to revolve around him being beefier and much more savage in the game.

Ryan “Reav3” Mireles says that, “After the last roadmap, latest players thought the Volibear concept to be cool, but not as exciting as Fiddlesticks.”

Riot will be handing out free Eldritch themed skin

Many Volibear fans thought that the new concept didn’t represent Voli’s recent lore as well, where he is shown as a being of Eldritch horror. But Reav3 says that Riot doesn’t feel that it will be the right direction for Voli to go.

Instead, Voli will be getting a new ‘Eldritch’ themed skin, which will be available for free to players when his VGU releases. But, that’s only if they own Volibear or buy him at any point during his launch patch.

However, Reav3 also mentions that “This isn’t something that we plan on doing for future VGUs, but in this case, we felt like it was the right decision.”

An Exciting Season Ahead

Meca Skins are coming to the game

That's pretty much all we know for now about the Fiddlesticks rework and Volibear rework. But Reav3 has also promised an exciting season ahead where events will be much more rewarding than the previous season.

He also teased that they are working on releasing two new champions, out of which one will be a jungler.