At the time of writing LeBlanc sits as the third most banned champion in League of Legends at 64% (source: champion.gg). The playerbase has hated on her for a long amount of time and Riot has recently responded with a PBE nerf that is set to give more outplay room against her assassination combo. While I believe this is a step in the right direction I also believe LeBlanc needs compensation.

So let’s talk LeBlanc’s strengths. Her laning phase is extremely strong with generally good matchups against most champions in the meta at the moment. Recently this became even more the case after SKT’s Faker popularised Crystalline Flask start on her. After her impressive laning comes LeBlanc’s midgame. Midgame is where LeBlanc shines; her pickmaking is unparalleled with incredible amounts of mobility, damage, and cc. One well timed pick can snowball into an objective and singlehandedly carry a game. So why is it LeBlanc’s win rate by time in the game produces a graph that looks like this?

Source: champion.gg/champion/LeBlanc

This graph can be explained by LeBlanc’s weaknesses. Put yourself in the situation of being a fairly strong LeBlanc at 40 minutes into the game. You were not able to make a pick in the last two minutes and the enemy team is grouped in front of you. Tanks are Righteous Glory rushing at you and your adc. You look at your would-be victim, the enemy adc, and sigh as you see he’s picked up a Banshee’s Veil. So even if you could sneak past these titan tanks that stand between you and your prey, there’s no way you could kill that carry with just one combo.

This situation is what makes LeBlanc so weak in a teamfight scenario lategame. She doesn’t have the damage or the cc to deal with the tanks and it’s too easy to itemise against and play as 5 against her. The thing is, every champion with a similar playstyle to LeBlanc has other options in this scenario. For example, look at the AD assassins Zed and Talon; both are incredibly good at split pushing and can avoid the teamfight scenario altogether. LeBlanc’s splitpush potential is pretty terrible even if you were to buy a Lich Bane but it’s important to register that other assassins have an alternative route to victory.

A much more important champion to look at is Ahri. Ahri has two playstyle options; assassinate enemy carries or, if that isn’t possible, help to burst down the enemy frontline. Ahri can stand with her own adc, throw Charm Q-W, and then use ult to clean up the rest of the teamfight. She does decent damage to tanks with a low cooldown W and true damage on her Q and the cc that charm provides is infinitely useful in that situation. This is where LeBlanc wants to be closer to and I think it’s this area that LeBlanc should be given compensation buffs.

The changes released on the PBE were as follows:

Let’s talk about what’s good about this. Currently, if you’re playing as a squishy against a LeBlanc it is incredibly hard, even frustrating to try and outplay her combo. Distortion is difficult to flash with it being so fast. The e is, in my opinion, difficult to land already and doesn’t need a nerf but it’s a step in the right direction to nerf specifically that part of her kit; her assassination combo.

However, this makes LeBlanc’s already abysmal teamfighting even sadder. Currently one tactic that some LeBlancs resort to in a 5v5 standoff is to double Distortion towards the enemy and hit Q-E. With this nerf the tactic will be even riskier, more telegraphed, and harder to hit. LeBlanc already has so few options lategame and this makes her even more of a one trick pony kind of champion.

So how do you provide LeBlanc with teamfighting potential without making her already obnoxious pickmaking even worse? I think a solution lies in her Mimic Ethereal Chains. R-E is rarely used in her oneshot combo due to it taking time for the E to proc and the possibility of it being missed. If R-E was given a longer root duration then LeBlanc would be more useful in a peeling scenario and could then use her mobility to clear up the rest of the teamfight similar to how Ahri can. While I don't think this change is enough to make LeBlanc a perfectly healthy, balanced champion, I do believe that it will bring her closer.