The Black Rose Will Bloom Once More: A Guide to LeBlanc

LeBlanc is a ranged mage assassin who excels in infiltrating the backlines and assassinating squishy targets. She was known for her ability to get in and "delete" the enemy carries without even breaking a sweat. She was one of the strongest mid lanes until patch 4.10. Mainly, her Sigil of Silence could no longer silence, which really hurt her overall. Also, around that time Riot was trying to slowly phase out the assassins from the mid lane with buffs to exhaust. Without the ability to counterplay her engages, she quickly fell from prominence to obscurity.

Recently, patch 4.17 gave her significant buffs to make her truly "The Deceiver" she was meant to be. First, her Distortion reactivation time increased to 4 seconds from 3 seconds. This gives LeBlanc one extra second to force the enemy to either chase or stay back because of the ability to reactivate Distortion. Secondly, they gave her buffs to her passive. When activated, her clone spawned instantly and stealthed. Another change was increasing the stealth duration by half a second, along with breaking the stealth on one will break the stealth on both.

Runes and Masteries

The runes I run for LeBlanc are Attack Damage Marks, Armor Seal, and Ability Power Quints/Glyphs. These are just what I personally use for LeBlanc, as any normal mage page can be used. I use attack damage marks for early game harass and easier last hits. I use armor just in case I play against an AD Champion mid (such as Zed, Talon, or Yasuo).

Now once again, masteries are preference, you want to use masteries that would work on any mage. I use these masteries because it's what goes with my play style, you want to run anything you are comfortable with. If you are unsure, try out mine or try out other things. It's really what kind of masteries you want to take to conform to your playstyle.

 

Skills

Skill Order R>W>Q>E

Q - Sigil of Malice:
ACTIVE: LeBlanc projects an orb  towards her target, dealing magic damage and marking the target for 3.5 seconds.
If the target takes damage from one of LeBlanc's abilities, the mark will trigger, dealing bonus magic damage.
This is your main spell for individual burst, it will do the most damage to one target as long as you hit both triggers. This is the spell that will allow to burst the squishy targets that you need to burst for you to succeed outside of laning.

W - Distortion:
FIRST CAST: LeBlanc rapidly dashes to a target location, damaging enemies within a 250-radius area and leaving behind a return pad. LeBlanc can activate Distortion again in the following 4 seconds.
SECOND CAST: LeBlanc blinks to the return pad.

This is a very important spell as it lets her be mobile while doing a lot of damage. It is mostly used to pop your Sigil of Malice in lane and to shove the lane. Because of LeBlanc's really mediocre wave management you need to max this skill to shove lanes. You do not lose damage with this spell as long as you hit it. The only downside is that if you do not hit this skill, which is a possibility, your kill potential heavily decreases. But the pros outweigh the cons, so always max this skill.

E - Ethereal Chains
ACTIVE: LeBlanc flings illusionary chains in a line, dealing magic damage and leashing for 1.5 seconds to the first enemy unit it hits. While the leash persists, the target's movement speed is decreased by 25%.
If LeBlanc remains within 1000-range of the target for the full duration, the target takes additional magic damage and is rooted for 1.5 seconds.

Ethereal Chains is a really strong spell, it gives you another option for you to pop your Sigil of Malice whilst also giving you a lot more utility than you would expect. LeBlanc is heavily reliant on her ability to kill the backline. The utility from this spell and when you mimic it is insane, as you are able to kite anyone who comes to challenge you while also most likely killing them with the slow agonizing death.

R - Mimic
ACTIVE: LeBlanc re-casts the spell she previously cast. The mimicked spell's effects are the same, but the damage is replaced with a different amount based on the rank of Mimic.

All of LeBlanc’s basic spells really make her what she is, and the reasoning is her ability to mimic all of them. They all have their merit to mimic so I will explain all of their uses, because there is a situation in which to use all of them.

When to mimic Sigil of Malice: This is the easiest one, you want to mimic Sigil of Malice when you are going to all in a single target, if you can kill someone from full to zero you will use this mimic to do it.

When to mimic Distortion: If you need to wave clear a wave you can use this mimic, also if you are in a situation where you want to do damage to multiple targets you want to use double Distortion into their groups. While you might not kill all of them you will do enough damage to heavily chunk most of them, making it easy for the rest of your team to clean up the fight. Once people get Banshee’s Veils, it becomes a much more viable option to use double Distortion because your ability to assassinate them with your basic combo heavily drops off.

When to mimic Ethereal Chains: Lastly, when to mimic your E. One of the most potent spells that is used by LeBlanc, and is very underused by most LeBlanc players. Being able to mimic your Ethereal Chains gets you the ability to Crowd Control someone for a long time. It allows you to kite around the chains, if you need to get away or slow someone you use this spell. It's very potent on people who dive on top of you, especially people who lack gap closers, and it spells death for those who do not have gap closers.

 

Item Builds

On LeBlanc you want to aim for five of these 6 items. You ALWAYS want to build a Rabbadon's Deathcap and a Void Staff, no matter the situation you need to build those items. You want to start with an Athene's or a Deathfire Grasp. Deathfire is stronger burst, but Athene's is more consistent damage. I personally love Athene's on her for the consistent damage that it gives, although DFG is still a very viable option for the first item. After that you can build any four items, just remember to ALWAYS build a Deathcap and a Void Staff as they are core on her.

 

Laning Phase
In the early game you want to bully your enemy with Auto Attacks, and you want to zone out with your presence. Any player would be afraid to walk up on LeBlanc so if they do not stay back be aware of a gank. As long as you are warded you need to keep them honest by hitting them with a combo whenever they think they're safe. As long as you can do that you should be safe in lane as she is really dominant in the laning phase and that is where you should take your advantages. If your enemy laner is playing extremely safe, what you need to do is shove the lane and roam. That is where you take your advantages - if the enemy laner doesn't fight you.

Post Laning
LeBlanc falls off in the late game, but she is still a force to be reckoned with either way. You need to be wary of the possibility of them buying Banshee's Veils. If this does happen try to focus on doing what you can. If you are strong enough you should still be able to kill someone if someone else can pop their Banshee's. It is absolutely imperative that you buy a Sweeping Lens and vision wards. You need to deny vision because if you can scare them from facechecking into brushes then you are doing your job. If they are still facechecking brushes without vision you need to take advantage of that by killing them. Your job in the late game is burst down what you can, it is no longer expected of you to take someone out full to zero, although you still can if people don't buy Banshee's Veils or they can get it popped.

Closing Statements
LeBlanc used to be the queen of the mid lane and although she has been taken off of her throne she is still a force to be reckoned with. She is extremely strong if she gets fed, although she is a high skill cap champion. If you can put the time in you can easily take advantage of people and quickly climb with LeBlanc. If you have any questions feel free to ask me down in the comments below.