LeBlanc is my favorite League of Legends champion! She is an assassin mage that plays exclusively in the mid lane. She is one of the best burst and snowball champions in the game, capable of deleting even the most fed Ad carries in the blink of an eye.
Introduction
Her primary role is to eliminate squishy but very powerful units like ADC’s and Mages. And she is brilliant at what she does.
Let’s take a look at LeBlanc’s abilities so we can understand how to play her:
LeBlanc’ abilities:
P – Mirror Image
INNATE: When LeBlanc is damaged to 40% maximum health, she creates a clone of herself, after which they both instantly become invisible for 1 second.
The clone can basic attack but deals no damage, lasts for 8 seconds, and starts running 1900 units towards a random place in front of LeBlanc decided the moment it spawns.
Mirror Image can occur once every few seconds.
Q – Sigil of Malice
ACTIVE: LeBlanc projects an orb at the target enemy that upon arrival deals them magic damage and marks them for 3.5 seconds.
Leblanc’s next damaging ability against the marked target will consume the mark to deal them the same damage again.
W – Distortion
ACTIVE: LeBlanc dashes to the target location, dealing magic damage to all nearby enemies upon arrival and leaving a return pad at the cast location for 4 seconds. Distortion can be recast after 0.2 seconds of the dash ending for its duration.
RECAST: LeBlanc blinks to Distortion’s return pad, regardless of range.
Distortion will cast at max range if cast beyond that.
E – Ethereal Chains
ACTIVE: LeBlanc flings an illusory chain in the target direction that latches onto the first enemy it hits, dealing them magic damage and forming a tether between LeBlanc and the target for 1.5 seconds, during which the target is revealed.
If the tether is not broken by the end of its duration, the target is dealt magic damage and is revealed and rooted for 1.5 seconds.
R – Mimic
ACTIVE: LeBlanc casts a mimicked version of her most recently used basic ability, applying the same effects and dealing modified magic damage.
MIMIC: SIGIL OF MALICE: Deals modified damage and double damage upon triggering the mark.
MIMIC: DISTORTION: Deals modified damage.
MIMIC: ETHEREAL CHAINS: Deals modified damage and double damage upon rooting.
LeBlanc’s clone:
When summoned, Mirror Image will automatically run away from the damage source that brought LeBlanc below 40% maximum health. If triggered without damage, Mirror Image will run in the direction LeBlanc is facing.
Mirror Image is visually different to LeBlanc and her allies but visually identical to her enemies (Mirror Image displays her real stats if clicked on).
Mirror Image’s basic attacks do not apply on-hit effects (they do not apply life steal and critical strikes will not damage their target).
Overview
LeBlanc is a very powerful mage that doesn’t have spells that can damage the whole enemy team, but rather she choses one target and eliminates it. She is among those champions that has quite strong early and mid game but falls behind in the later stages of the game. She is quite a mobile champion with one dash, and another one if you decide to Mimic her W. She also has a decent crowd control in the form of root with her E, and that can also be doubled if you decide to Mimic that ability. The compensation of course for this immense power and mobility is lack of farming potential, as she is one of the most difficult champions to farm with in the whole game. I can say for sure that she is in fact the hardest champion to farm, since her abilities aren’t focused on hitting multiple targets at the same time, apart from her W ability, Distortion, that you will rarely use for farming since it is going to be your primary weapon, gap closer and escape throughout the whole game. This is the reason that she falls behind drastically in the late game, since even if you are quite fed, you will be quite useless if your enemy mage has 300 cs in that game.
A couple of years behind Riot has tried to rework LeBlanc into classic mage, by changing her whole kit into a one that prime focus is farming and hitting multiple targets at the same time. The transition was rather unfortunate, while she was at the peak of her power in those days, Rio has decided to revert her to her old kit because the whole point of fast, strong and mobile assassin was lost and she transitioned into a not so mobile mage.
The problem was also the delay that her abilities has once they were cast, if you were to have double bonus on them. Without the delay she would be unstoppable, but with the delay she was quite predictable and useless. Another problem occurred with the rework of her ultimate at that particular time, since instead of one job, now it had two. Her current ult mimics her last used spell and enhances its power. The reworked version did exactly the same, but now her passive was attributed to her ultimate and you could use it to send your clone anywhere in the map. The cooldown on the clone was also a lot smaller then her ultimate.
The thing is, it was way to complicated for players in lower elos, and with the addition on second cooldown on her ultimate it was becoming impossible to understand when you press you R, are you going for the enhanced mimicked ability or you are just sending your clone. For me personally, I loved the clone ultimate, since it allowed me to juke my opponents, but the other was terrible. So I am glad that she was reverted to her original self. Well, not original, since original LeBlanc had silence on her every spell and it was pure joy playing her. But it was a bit unfair to other opponents I have to be honest. Than again, when you see todays champions like Yone or Sett, question arises, if she would be quite balanced for todays gameplay with her silence. I think she would be perfect!
Runes
Domination and Sorcery, with the main focus on Electricute, Sudden impact and Manaflow band!
The in-game guide:
Early game
Her early game is quite strong. You should always take Corrupting Potion on level one and take your W, Distortion as your first ability that you will max throughout the whole game. Once you secure the Blue or Red Buff for your Jungler, you continue to your lane. This is your strongest point in the game so you should try to take as many cs as you can while casually poking your opponent with your Q and W combination that has immense burst damage even in the earliest phases of the game. Bear in mind that she doesn’t work very well against the newest META ad midlaners like Lucian, Irelia or Pantheon. Corki tends to be a problem too. So against them you really should just focus on staying alive and farming under turret while waiting you’re your jungler to come and help you. Your first back should be either Sorcerers boots and/or Lost chapter, depending on how the game is going for you.
Mid game
The mid game is where LeBlanc really shines the most. Once you have your ultimate ready you should go in at your opponent all in. This trade you are likely to win, but bear in mind that once you hit level six your opponents are expecting you to snowball them, so there is probably enemy jungler lurking in the bushes, and waiting for your mistake. Again not too much of a problem if you have your flash with you since your escape potential is the best in the game with two dashes and a flash. Always remember to ward your surroundings and don’t forget to buy vision wards in the shop. You should always assemble Ludens Echo, Sorcerers boots and Morellonomicon as they are the core items for any LeBlanc game. Once you take a couple of kills, you should roam and try to help your teammates win lanes that they are already winning so you can secure gold for you and for them, and if you are in very big advantage against your mid lane opponents you should go and help your losing teammates too. Just take care and watch out for enemy mid laner’s farming, since you can quite easily fall behind at this stage of the game.
Late game
At this point of the game you will start falling behind drastically, unless you have gathered at least 10 kills by this moment. With just a little bit of skill this is completely doable but as you climb with your ranks this will get harder with each promotion as you will face more experienced and skilled opponents. Your goal for the late game is simple. Eliminating ADC or APC, depending on which one is stronger. Under no circumstances should you go and take on the enemy’s tanky or bruiser units, since even if they are feeders and terrible players, LeBlanc simply doesn’t have the kit to battle them. Of course, as your skill level rises you will have good judgement for the exceptions for this rule , as you will learn her by heart and know exactly who you can kill, and whom you can’t. When your team is taking large objectives like Baron, Dragon or Turrets, since you can not deal a great amount of damage to them, I advise you to always stay behind and lurk in the bushes as this is your best opportunity to eliminate enemy champions that are trying to steal your objective. Trust me, they will not be expecting you at all, and will be in complete shock once you delete them in just a blink of an eye. The items for the late game really depend on what the enemy team is playing and what kind of composition are they going for. Some standard items include Zhonya’s Hourglass, Banshee’s Veil and Rabbadon’s Deathcap. Others are situational.
Conclusion
For me, the most fun champion to play in the whole game. Simply because of her incredible movement and snowball potential. I have been playing her for over 10 years and after all that time I am glad that I can share the knowledge that I have gathered through the years I have been playing her, onto you my dear readers. I just hope that I won’t encounter any of you in the game since the chances are you are probably going to delete me in one second with your newly acquired knowledge!