LEBLANC BUILD GUIDE: Now you see me, Now you're dead.

Leblanc is one of my most played champions, and I've been playing her ever since I've started playing this game. Thanks to leblanc's incredible ability to snowball early-mid games, this is how I actually went from gold level to platinum level when platinum was the highest division back then. We've seen her recently in the OGN champions in Korea used by Faker, and it stirred up some discussion about how good leblanc actually can be, especially in competitive play. So! let's talk about the pros and cons of playing leblanc.

pros:

One of the strongest single target AP damages in the game
ultimate has 0 cost and very low cooldown at rank 3
provides a snare CC
Extremely mobile with her
one of the strongest level 3 damages in the game
beats most AP carries in the mid lane.

cons:

very squishy
weak at pushing lanes early, when levels are low
hard to master skill-combo

MASTERIES

Since you are a soft mage whose primary focus is on dealing damage, offense is the tree to dedicate your points into since it obviously will offer the most benefit towards your damage dealt which is the most important for you to try and improve.

Utility

Utility is the tree I dedicate my last 9 points too. Reason being is the 9 points into utility just offers more use than 9 into defence. The added benefits of lower summoner cooldowns, longer blues and movespeed just outweigh a small amount of extra durability.

RUNES

Seals:

Greater Seal of Scaling Health Seals are made to be defensive, and although some extra damage from AP or scaling AP seals might be tempting, it is simply not gold efficient enough compared to the extra HP you can get. Best choice of seals if you fight AP or hybrid enemies. Also, the scaling Health will make you more tanky against burst damage lategame than any other seals, including flat or scaling armor. Alternatives: Greater Seal of Scaling Armor These runes can be good against heavy AD teams and AD lanes, which you might face if you play LB top. However, after the nerfs to flat armor seals, there isn't really a good option for early game power against AD lanes anymore. Usually, scaling armor seals only make you more durable against burst damage when compared to scaling health when the enemy team has more than ~80% Physical damage, so now armor seals are rarely needed. Glyphs: Greater Glyph of Magic Penetration Probably the most controversial choice in my rune page, Penetration glyphs actually outclass scaling AP at all stages of the game. I repeat, they are better at ALL stages of the game. More math incoming at the end of this chapter. Alternatives: Not really anyone, you usually lose out on too much damage if you don't take penetration glyphs. Or maybe that's just my agressive playstyle talking. I guess Greater Glyph of Magic Resist or Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist could be mentioned if one would want to play some tanky-ish LeBlanc, but that's it. (Look at matchups to see where they might be viable.) If you don't have Magic Pen Glyphs, get them ASAP. Period. Until you get them, you can use scaling AP, I guess. Scaling AP is bad tho. Quintessences: Greater Quintessence of Ability Power OR Greater Quintessence of Magic Penetration As I stated earlier, the choice of quints is all about early/late tradeoff. Magic penetration generally beats Ability Power if you want to deal damage, and the same goes for the Quints, but with one exception. Flat AP Quints gives you more damage levels 1-7 and about the same damage levels 8-9 compared to Magic Pen Quints. Magic penetration "scales" with both your AP and level (ability base damage), so it will end up adding ~75 damage to your combo late game, while you lose out on 8 damage with your average level 2 combo and 6.5 damage with your average level 3 combo. Also, your level 6 all in will deal about 16 damage less if you opt for Magic pen quints instead of AP quints. The reason you lose so much damage level 6 is because of the low base damage and ridiculous AP scaling on your ult, which makes AP even better early on. Since you combo the enemy a lot early on, all of this damage adds up in lane, and the prospect of landing a killing blow where you might otherwise fail leads me to recommend Flat AP quints because of the importance of early game. If you instead prefer going for late game dominance, you can opt for Magic Pen Quints because of the ridiculously strong scaling they have later on in the game, which gets really noticeable starting at level 11.

SUMMONER SETS

Just because LeBlanc has tons of mobility doesn't mean she shouldn't take Flash, Flash enables plays and is a mistake forgiving summoner, I shouldn't need to tell you why you should take it!

LeBlanc has no need for those defensive summoners! She is the aggressor in her games and she needs to apply overwhelming pressure, the added threat of the damage from Ignite is by far the best choice to achieve that.

ITEM BUILD:

STARTING ITEMS

Doran's offers the most useful stats you can get for 400 gold and considering how much interaction with the lane opponent you should have you need as many combat stats as you can get your hands on. I typically always start Doran's unless I'm against a melee that runs the Flask start(Talon, Kassadin, and Fizz) and want to beat them at their own game(out sustain the opponent with mass potions)

STANDARD FINAL ITEMS

There isn't really anything special here, this is the best build for LeBlanc hands down when it comes to making your enemies dead. Everything is pure offence outside of the Hourglass(which isn't exactly pure defence when it has 120 AP on it). LeBlanc's role and mobility make her playstyle and build very static, that isn't a bad thing, she gets to go full ham with her builds every game with very little having influence on it. I'll cover the items in detail in the item section, all you need to know here is this build makes damage, lots and lots of damage.

ITEM EXPLANATION

LeBlanc is a weird one, in these sections of my guides I usually give the main build and then a plethora of other options that can situationally fit in but LeBlanc's kit makes her somewhat unique in the sense that she benefits most from just building pure raw damage and has no need to build otherwise, her kit provides her all the safety she needs so the build remains a static max damage build with only the order it is bought varying.

Morello's is a must have item, as I covered above this item especially when rushed allows LB to abuse her kit. The CDR/Mana lets her make trades as often as possible without being too harsh on her mana bar and CDR is a vital stat for her in fights that last longer than her initial burst.

The 2 mandatory items that every damage dealer that scales with AP should have, with LB having arguably the most focus on damage compared to other champions it only makes sense that she needs these 2 items.

LB has all the escape tools in the world but she lives a risky life even with them pushing the limits, Hourglass has that nice 120 AP on it and the active can give her a second chance should she make a mistake and get caught herself, often it can give enough time for her W to come off CD and she can continue trolling her enemy.

With LB's focus on damage, she wants all 3 120 AP items and this is the final one(although ideally you get it before Hourglass). Its simple as it gets, AP and MS nom nom and add that extra 100(+10% AP) nuke ontop of your combo to make both your burst and sustained damage even more obnoxious, if you get to the stage where you have all items your Q+R combo will deal 70% or more of a squishy champions health pool.

EARLY GAME AND MID GAME

LeBlanc's early game is all about establishing dominance and setting yourself up for a lead, with her kit it is expected of her and if she falls behind bad thing happen(for her). Doesn't matter who your laner is, you should enter lane and immediately W+AA them, try repeat it against before level 2 and at level 2 QW + AA them. Depending how your harass goes they will play carefully and keep their distance or they might try trade, you need to abuse your kill potential on most laners at level 2 although don't worry if you don't it isn't like your kill potential drops off. Lane pressure is your prime objective, you need to put the fear of death into your laner and force them to play a much more passive playstyle than they would normally, also don't get too cocky... I mean you can be since its incredibly hard to gank a LeBlanc but a smart jungler will wait for you to use your W before he goes in for a gank. Roaming is something LB is particularly great at, with her reliable hard hitting damage and high mobility shes a better roamer than Ahri. You should always look for opportunities to gank/counter gank sidelanes and when you do make sure you keep an eye on your laner, if they follow you can simply wait in the path for them to come to you out away from their tower. That's thing about LeBlanc when she roams, your laner can try push and leave their sidelanes to try deal with you or they can follow and risk getting themselves killed walking into the fog of war.

LATE GAME AND TEAMFIGHTS

Late game for LeBlanc is about putting the enemy team in a position they don't want, there are 2 things you should go around doing:

Look for picks, hide in a bush somewhere(somewhere educated...) and just wait for an enemy team member to walk into you.
Get your team to group up and push a lane, when your teams mean 5 people on each side of a pre-teamfight dance, just W>QR + E the enemy AD or mid, the QR will be heavy enough poke and if the E lands even better. This will chunk them to a point where they have to fight with less than full health or they have to recall and this makes it so that your team can force an objective or a 5vs4 teamfight.

When it comes to teamfights it is really quite simple, LeBlanc plays them like Ahri would. Most of the time you just combo the nearest target and lay down consistent magic damage whilst being impossible to kill/catch although you should prioritize enemy squishies when you, don't be a push over try go deep if you can, LB is especially good at following up other peoples engages like a Vi or a Malphite ult.

CONCLUSION

Hopefully this basic guide will help you abuse the OP that is LeBlanc, she is truly in my opinion a top tier midlaner as of patch 5.8

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