A Guide to LeBlanc Mid with DIG Jensen
Mimic the best of NA with The Deceiver of League of Legends, LeBlanc!
If you have a passion for the feast-or-famine playstyle of assassins, and the deception of clones and mobility, there’s a good chance you’ve tried LeBlanc, The Deceiver.
Although LeBlanc has been in the game since 2010, a lot of people seem to struggle playing against her, and even as her! To give players some credit, LeBlanc has been through multiple, and I mean multiple iterations throughout the last decade, but her core mechanics remain. With her recent influx in popularity (due to some item changes that we will discuss later), we figured it would be a great opportunity to speak with none other than NA’s best LeBlanc (completely unbiased opinion); Dignitas’s Nicolaj ‘Jensen’ Jensen!
Jensen holds a whopping 71.4% win rate in his professional career across 56 games domestically and internationally with an average K/D/A of 5.21/1.55/4.77!
When to Pick LeBlanc
Contrary to popular belief, a game of League of Legends doesn’t start when you load onto the Rift; it starts when you load into Champion Select. Getting your team an advantage in this portion of the game is a big deal, so don’t overlook it! Don’t just lock in your favourite Champion (unless, of course you’re a one-trick… in which case, why are you reading this?). LeBlanc is no exception to this rule and there are definitely some Champions that you do not want to play against. Some of the more popular Champions that perform exceptionally well against LeBlanc are Tristana, Cassiopeia, Malzahar, Vex, and Lissandra.
While it can be helpful to remember these names as a good rule-of-thumb, it’s better to consider why these Champions are so dangerous. What do all of these Champions have in common? Well, for starters, they all have a few great ways to deal with tricky, high mobility assassins like LeBlanc. Tristana can Rocket Jump away, and even use her ultimate to peel for herself. Cassiopeia can use her Miasma to lock down LeBlanc, preventing her from using her dashes, and can easily stun her with her ultimate if LeBlanc Ws in range! Malzahar can suppress or silence LeBlanc. Vex can stack her passive faster when LeBlanc uses her mobility and can use it to fear LeBlanc and cancel her engage. Finally, Lissandra can use Ring of Frost to root LeBlanc when she engages, she can Glacial Path to escape, and can Frozen Tomb herself to avoid the burst or can just as easily use it on LeBlanc to stun her.
On top of this, almost all of these Champions have equal if not higher base attack and ability ranges making it extremely difficult for LeBlanc to find opportunities to win trades in lane!
With that in mind, in what situations is LeBlanc a great pick? LeBlanc tends to perform the best against melee Champions and squishy low mobility mages. Consider Champions like Ekko, Azir, Veigar, Ryze, Akali, and Aurelion Sol. All of these Champions lose trades against LeBlanc unless LeBlanc makes unforced errors.
Teammate Synergies
Now that we’ve established when to pick LeBlanc and when not to pick her in terms of the mid lane matchup, let’s consider team synergy. Of course, the primary position you should be looking at before deciding on locking in LeBlanc is your jungler. As has already been discussed, LeBlanc is an assassin and fits the mold of a feast-or-famine Champion. This means you want to play aggressively and get an early lead. So, what better way is there to do that then when paired with a jungler than can act as a catalyst for your scaling.
Jungle Champions that have an exceptional ability to provide powerful early game ganks and high conviction plays will make for the most consistent early game start for LeBlanc.
You can pair her with anything. She works really well with mobile champions like Lee Sin or Elise. They like to move around the map just as much as you do and they are really great for snowballing!
A Champion like Elise is notorious for her ability to initiate potent ganks and follow up with lethal damage in the early levels. As long as Champions like Elise and Lee Sin get an early gank off to even just blow a Flash, it’s going to provide tremendous value by giving that five-minute window for LeBlanc to lane even more aggressively! Moreover, this type of mid-jungle duo is exceptionally powerful for diving and roaming as well.
Of course, simply looking at LeBlanc’s kit, you might be wondering how you can outpush some of these matchups to even set up a dive. Well, simply put, it’s because of the Rune and item setup that we recommend!
Runes
Despite the long history of Rune precedence for LeBlanc, the best options right now are completely different. The idea is to take Runes that will provide more value for the early game and transition to the core build we will discuss in a bit. Part of what will make LeBlanc work is Fleet Footwork as the keystone, Triumph or Presence of Mind, Legend: Alacrity or Legend: Tenacity, and Coup de Grace under the Precision tree. With this primary Rune setup, LeBlanc can drastically prolong her time in lane with the easy stacking of Fleet Footwork, and with Legend: Alacrity, the attack speed can help players not only last hit minions better but also shove the wave faster.
In the secondary Runes, it’s more of a personal preference, but a great option is to take Magical Footwear and Minion Dematerializer in the Inspiration tree, or something like Celerity or Manaflow Band and Scorch for some added early game damage. Magical Footwear would allow LeBlanc to focus on reaching the item recipe power spikes sooner and provides an extra bit of Move Speed to help roam the map and apply even more pressure. With Minion Dematerializer, as you guessed it, LeBlanc can simply push the wave that much faster with the active uses, and permanently deal more damage to each type of minion the actives are used on. With a Sorcery secondary setup, Manaflow Band provides additional mana and Scorch provides more damage for LeBlanc’s early game trading.
Summoner Spells and Ability Orders
When considering Summoner Spells for LeBlanc, the predominant choice is Teleport to catch those side lane waves and maneuver the map more effectively. Alternatively, of course, you can take Ignite for the added kill pressure in lane. However, with this recommended build, the priority isn’t to get early kills in lane, it’s to shove the wave and roam the map to add pressure to the side lanes and invade with your Jungler!
A strength that LB has that other Champions don’t have is that whenever you are moving around the map, you do not need to depend on your teammates as much. With other champs, you do. You’re the one that gets to create those opportunities yourself. That’s why she’s so obnoxious to deal with because when she shows up out of nowhere, you usually get killed, and she gets fed.
In terms of ability ordering, maxing Distortion first is always best, then Sigil of Malice, and Ethereal Chains last. It’s worth starting Distortion at level one for the mobility, area-of-effect damage, and easy option for level one trading (especially against melee Champions). However, don’t forget that if there’s a decent chance your team is considering a Level 1 invade or a stack to counter an invade, then Ethereal Chain might help you lock down a target for a kill or, at the very least, force a Flash! Again, the ideal decision is what will apply the most pressure to the opponent as possible for the least risk!
Core Build Options
Now for the main point of this guide, the build. The build is exactly why this guide is necessary, because it really is completely contrary to the history of LeBlanc. Starting the game with a Long Sword and Refillable Potion in easy matchups, a Corrupting Potion is tougher matchups, or in farm-heavy neutral matchups, a Cull is even fine. However, the ideal is the Long Sword start so that you can quickly get your Kircheis Shard on first back and continue building to rush your first completed item, Statikk Shiv! Even just having the Long Sword start actually provides a lot of value in trading auto attacks.
Even against Champions with higher attack range, LeBlanc can easily W into range and have the attack damage advantage. Add in the Rune setup and you’ll surely win any basic attack reliant trades against other mid lane mages. Otherwise, with this start, you can quickly rush Statikk Shiv on LeBlanc, which provides her with Attack Damage, Attack Speed, Critical Strike Chance, and of course, a lot of additional wave clear! The entire point of this build is to shove waves fast, and roam to threaten other lanes!
What I think is the best is Statikk Shiv, into Night Harvester, into Lich Bane. After that, you can typically go Void Staff, or Rabadon’s Deathcap if they don’t have Magic Resist at that point. Alternatively, you can also just buy full AP instead of the Statikk Shiv build. You’d go Sorcerer’s Shoes, into Luden’s Echo, into Shadowflame, and then Rabadon’s and Void, and a Banshee’s or Zhonya’s as a defensive item. In all honesty, I just like to slam Statikk Shiv in every scenario because it just feels good!
The Early Game
As we’ve already noted, the entire point of this early game is to develop the necessary tools to clear waves to free up time to roam. It’s really that simple. This is the most consistent way to have higher income so that you are primed and ready to one-shot anyone when you find those windows to roam the map! If you can consistently get to that point, your lead is pretty easy to extend. That’s exactly the point of an assassin. The feast-or-famine playstyle means you cannot fall behind if you want to thrive in any way. Having a high CS/minute means high income and having Statikk Shiv to clear the waves fast means smaller windows for you to be ganked or the type of punishment that can completely shut down any assassin.
Usually, LeBlanc feels pretty OP when you’re ahead because you can pretty much kill anyone. So, usually you can decide whether you want to farm or kill people. You can pretty much kill people whenever you want when you’re strong. But, I like to push the waves as much as possible and then look for opportunities. Unless there’s an objective up that you should prioritize
Roaming
The best way to extend your lead from your lane and translate that lead into a victory is to start influencing other lanes as soon as possible. A big part of that is ensuring you’re not wasting your time by roaming on vision. The best way to ensure this of course is by denying enemy vision as a top priority.
I always want to deny vision as much as possible so the enemy feels the pressure of LeBlanc. You don’t rely on vision as much because you’re very mobile and if you die, you probably messed up and it was avoidable with two dashes (once you have your ultimate) and your Flash. So, after one or two recalls, it’s good to get a sweeper to deny enemy vision as much as possible and create opportunities that way
Of course, this means you can’t place your own vision, but LeBlanc is one of the hardest Champions to lockdown without point-and-click crowd control. Simply put, Distorting over a wall into the Fog of War to save time rotating around the map means if you happen to Distort into a dangerous situation, you can simply reactivate to return back to safety.
Maintaining Early Pressure and Pushing to Victory
When you fall behind, LeBlanc kind of sucks. She doesn't provide much for the team, and you want to stay ahead. But, when you’re behind if you have a strong AD Carry or something, the way you want to play is to try to play around them as much as possible and pick up farm whenever you can. Aside from that, you want to use your chain with your ultimate (double-chain) and try to peel more. Really though, if you fall behind when you’re playing LeBlanc, you need to evaluate your gameplay.
As Jensen indicates, it’s really not the end of the world if you fall behind as your combos allow you to remain a nuisance, just without the damage. As an assassin though, you’re really only beneficial to the team if you generate that early pressure and start influencing the map. If you’re consistently falling behind early in the game, then you’ll need to review what’s going on in the early game to set you back.
Any type of lead can easily accelerate into a roam or two that can drastically alter the course of the game! It’s important to be aware of those openings and keep tabs on the objective timers to ensure it’s a worthwhile time to roam.
Quick Tips and Tricks
There are many tips and tricks that can differentiate a good LeBlanc from an amazing LeBlanc! A big factor of LeBlanc is her maneuverability or ‘juking’ opportunities. Using Distortion twice with her ultimate is a great way to juke or even double-juke the enemies around the Rift. Perhaps one of the most useful tips for LeBlanc that most players don’t know is that using your Ethereal Chain with your ultimate as well in an all-in will deal the most total damage!
LeBlanc has a lot of flexibility with how you want to use your combo. You mimic with your ultimate, so you can do it in several ways. A lot of people who don’t play LeBlanc, and honestly people that do, don’t realize that using your E and mimicking your E is the highest output damage you can do. So, if you need to kill someone and it doesn’t have to be instant, to make sure you get the highest output possible then using your chain twice will deal the most. If the play allows it, and they don’t have Flash or anything like that, then you should definitely use this combo.
Of course, this type of combo is only beneficial if you know you can land both chains so be sure your target doesn’t have Flash up!
Another useful trick is how to close in from afar to get a quick chunk of damage even when the target is behind enemy lines. To do this, make sure the last ability you used was Distortion so that your ultimate will be a copy of Distortion. When all your cooldowns are available, look for an angle to start with (R) forward, or even Flash>R to try to get some of that damage onto the target from the Fog of War, and then follow up with Q>E to trigger the Sigil of Malice before returning to your R Distortion and then using your W Distortion to escape.
Alternatively, if you’re close enough you can R(w)>Q>W and then return back to your original place. Using your R’s Distortion first can create a lot of options to maneuver the Rift while still dealing tons of damage and even helping you follow Flashes to avoid the root of the Ethereal Chain!
Conclusion
Overall, there are dozens of fun little tricks and interactions that make LeBlanc a fantastic Champion to play and using this core build and play style should prove to make the early game a little less overwhelming and a smoother transition into her powerful assassin mid game!
We’d like to thank Jensen for taking the time to sit down with us and create a Statikk Shiv LeBlanc guide! You can keep up with Jensen on:
