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Disclaimer: I suck
Reclaimer: I suck less with casters than other characters
![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/dugJ1.jpg)
Mandatory picture of character in her coolest skin
Overview
LeBlanc is one of the more rare character choices that you will see in game. This is mostly because of her status on release: she could automatically kill her lane opponent at level 6, no matter who it was. Riot then slapped a hotfix on her that pretty much destroyed her, increasing her mana costs, cooldowns, decreasing damage, ect. This led to the general view that she sucks. However, a couple of patches with minor changes have really helped her out, to the point that she is once again a strong champion provided that you know your role.
You ARE NOT an AP carry. You ARE an anti carry.
LeBlanc is incredibly mobile, (The way I play her you have 5 flashes) and can deal an obscene amount of damage on the right target. I'll say that again. The RIGHT target. You aren't akali. You cannot burst down anyone you feel like. However, you have the advantage of being able to pick off squishy targets at range, without ever risking your life. And should you engage a champion who you dont have enough burst to take down (ie, anyone with a health item or a negatron cloak) you have the tools to hold them down long enough for help to arrive.
Skills
Passive: Mirror Image
Creates a clone of Leblanc when you drop below 40% health, stealthing for .5 seconds while the clone is created. Clone lasts for 8 seconds, can only appear once every minute.
A fairly decent passive, the .5 second cloak is much more useful than the clone, especially since it isnt exactly hard to tell which is the real LeBlanc, especially in a fight, as all of her abilities are flashy and will give you away instantly. In addition, her E will persist through the stealthing, so if you are counting on your clone giving your opponents a moments distraction, dont cast e while taking damage.
Q: Sigil of Silence
Throws a snowball at the enemy, dealing damage and marking them. If you hit that enemy with another of LeBlanc's skills, the mark triggers, dealing damage and silencing.
Her 3rd best skill. It is useless on its own, and thus you should never get it at level 1, as you have no way to trigger the mark. However, it does do a lot of damage, and the silence is very good for taking out enemy casters.
W: Distortion
Ports to a location, dealing damage. If activated again within 3 seconds, she can warp back to her initial location.
2nd best skill. Great for activating the mark on q, great for escaping, hell, its even a great farming tool once you get a little bit of ap. It also deals a lot of damage when combined with a q.
E: Ethereal Chains
Skillshot that slows and damages an enemy initially, and attaches a tether. If LeBlanc can maintain the tether for 2 seconds, the enemy takes additional damage and becomes snared.
This ability is mostly useless. You'll never be able to hit your target in a teamfight, you cant use it in laning because minions will get in the way, you cant use it to farm. In perfect situations (ie chasing an opponent) it will prove to be useful. However, the way I play her, this skill goes mostly unused.
Ulti: Mimic
LeBlanc recasts the last spell she cast, which deals more damage.
Ah Mimic, the best part of her kit. Whenever you can, lead with a mimic'd q. This is your best hardest hitting spell, and the one that you REALLY want to trigger the mark on. Always try to have mimic set to q when starting harass, engaging in a teamfight, or just generally at all times. Mimic also makes it impossible for you to die unless you are being an idiot. you can flash forward twice, backwards twice, and once more if you have summoner flash. Super damage and nearly absolute invulnerability? Yes please.
The Build
Finally we are at the build. So here we go:
Masteries: standard 9-0-21 for casters. No exceptions
Runes: mpen reds, mp5/lvl yellows, ap/lvl blues, Ap quints.
--Mpen and mp5 are self explanatory, your a mana caster. Ap is for killing.
Summoner spells: Flash Ignite
--Flash gives you a total of 5 flashes. Who can complain about that. Ignite is for killing.
Skills: If teamfighting at level 1: e>q>w>q>q>r, If laning at level 1: w>q>q>e>q>r R>Q>W>E
Items:
Ring+health pot
1st couple of backs: Rings (up to a total of 3), boots 1
2nd back: Sorc boots+ deathcap
After that you can go based on how the enemy team is built, but generally I get these items:
Catalyst-> BV or Void staff- depends on if you need d or not
Zhonyas
End build is this: Boots, Deathcap, BV, Zhonyas, Void staff- 6th is up for grabs- whatever you prefer.
Item Notes:
You need the pen boots for the damage increase- these plus parts of your cap and rings will make you hit very hard.
Playstyle
Laning: Last hit. Simple as that. You need that rod as soon as possible. Boots help as well. Harass with a q-w combo. Send a q, wait a tick ( you are faster than the projectile) and w to the enemy champion to activate the mark as it arrives. W back. Safe harass, and it deals a frightening amount of damage. You cant kill with it, but you can use it to ensure you have ample time to farm. Oh, and dont die. Your w and passive makes it so you should under no circumstances die from a gank. You need farm and a level advantage to be your most effective. Dying prevents that.
Once you hit 6, you become deadly, on par with super hss pantheon (oh remember the days). Yes, you do that much burst. Initiate with a mimic'd q, activate with w, q, e if you can, and w back is ideal. This should kill a squishy character, or at least come close enough to where a q mimic q combo should finish them off. Then go back to farming your NLR and boots. The sooner you get them, the sooner you can start to gank, picking off any other squishes on the enemy team.
Midgame: Keep farming when you can, but start to look for out of position players. This is the one point at the game where you can go one on one and kill anyone on the enemy team. Do so. Make sure to continue to not die. A level advantage and deathcap make you deadly, dying lets the other team catch up.
Lategame/Teamfights: This is where your utility falls off the side of a cliff. A full combo (mimic q, w, q, e or q again) will kill any squishy, but no longer will it phase the enemy tank. Therefore you should shift to full defensive anti-carry. Your q and mimic q have a tremendous range for what they do. Just stand as far away as possible and try to hit that combo as much as possible prior to a fight. When in a fight, do the same, stay on the outskirts and q away. ONLY W IN WHEN YOU ARE SURE OF YOUR SURVIVAL. In other words, you have a bv and know you can activate w again to back out. Dont cast e unless your target is directly in front of you, it wont hit otherwise and you want to save it for the possibility of an escaping enemy or to finish off a weakened character by activating a q.
Whelp, thats it. I probably forgot half of what I meant to say, but w/e.
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United States47024 Posts
Boots + NLR seems like a very optimistic first-back buy. It's equivalent to a ranged carry being able to buy a BF sword on their first trip back--it happens, but I wouldn't rely on being able to do it.
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On January 22 2011 06:59 TheYango wrote:
Boots + NLR seems like a very optimistic first-back buy. It's equivalent to a ranged carry being able to buy a BF sword on their first trip back--it happens, but I wouldn't rely on being able to do it.
Thats why I make such a big deal of farming. If you cant get farmed, you arent going to be able to hit your peak in the midgame. I did throw an edit in there for other non optimal cases though.
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United States47024 Posts
On January 22 2011 07:05 Two_DoWn wrote:Show nested quote +On January 22 2011 06:59 TheYango wrote:
Boots + NLR seems like a very optimistic first-back buy. It's equivalent to a ranged carry being able to buy a BF sword on their first trip back--it happens, but I wouldn't rely on being able to do it. Thats why I make such a big deal of farming. If you cant get farmed, you arent going to be able to hit your peak in the midgame. I did throw an edit in there for other non optimal cases though.
I mean, there's a difference between "ideal" and "someone has to feed you" when you're talking about NLR + boots around level 6, seeing as I don't think there's even 1200 gold of minion bounty if you last hit every minion before level 6.
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True, I do think I exaggerated a little bit. However, it is very possible to at least get the NLR by your first back, and delay the boots for a little bit. Both generally come by level 8 or so.
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Flat AP Quints
AP/lvl Blues
ManaRegen/lvl Yellows
MagicPen Reds
2/7/21
Sorc Shoes is my main variation from your item build.
Between masteries/Runes i get about 49 AP @ lvl 18 which works nicely with deathcap.
Since her goal is to instakill a squishie and pacing in 1v1 allows for extra Q's anyways I prefer the AP/Magic Pen boots. Void staff reduces the magic pen from the offensive tree to 9% since they don't stack additively, and the 7 points in Defensive allows me to get away without HP quints. 15% early/midgame is usually between 4-10 magic pen, not really worth it.
Also, instead of leading with R, lead with Q; this is because it allows you to retreat/pull back temporarily without wasting an ult if shit hits the fan (W + R = escape from anything) really fast or if positioning ends up screwy or whatever right before you engage.
QRWEQ is my ideal 1v1 combo, with the last Q activating from the E. This can be done with pacing your silences (they aren't going anywhere soon lol) allowing for 6seconds of silenced + 2seconds rooted.
Ghost/Ignite
ALT + Right click to move the mirror image, please for the love of god don't just instantly run away when it pops. I hate watching people do that. /emo
Also, you can check bushes with your mirror image to end a standoff (ex you and 1 guy left both low hp he's in a bush and you're 10 feet away) and allow for a safer Q+W combo.
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LeBlanc was the first character that I really wanted to do some mathcrafting for to calculate her burst. To get an idea of what her Q/R/W combo is capable of:
Given:
Leblanc @ Level 6 /w lvl 3 Sigil, lvl 1 Distortion, and Lvl 1 Mimic. +50 bonus AP (Doran's Ring + blasting rod), Mpen reds, 9 pts in offense.
Warwick @ Level 6 /w Merc Treads (62.5 mres)
Q's Initial Damage: 123.4
Q's Proc Damage: 51.42
W's Damage: 78.84
R's Total Damage: (123.4 + 51.42) * 1.1 = 192.31
Total Damage: 445.98
Warwick has the highest base Mres and Mres growth, and not many chars rush for merc treads by lvl 6, so this may be one of the worst cases you encounter. Consider then, that vs any ranged carry the magic res jumps down to 30 and stays there (no growth / level).
The total damage then becomes: 550.18
Formulas Used:
EffectiveMagicRes = (EnemyMagicRes - FLatMReduc) * (1.0f - PercentMReduc)
MagDmg = ( BaseMagDmg + ( AP * APCoefficient ) ) * ( 1 - ( ( EffectiveMagicRes ) / ( 100 + ( EffectiveMagicRes ) ) ) )
Edit: Does anyone know of a damage calculator for LoL? If not... is there a demand for it? Maybe just a simple web form so 'yall can calculate if you'll be able to burst someone. All you'd have to do is alt-tab and get your info.
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United States47024 Posts
How does the damage of DRing + Blasting Wand compare to the damage of DRing + Sorc Boots?
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On January 22 2011 08:01 WirelessWaffle wrote:
Flat AP Quints
AP/lvl Blues
ManaRegen/lvl Yellows
MagicPen Reds
2/7/21
Sorc Shoes is my main variation from your item build.
Between masteries/Runes i get about 49 AP @ lvl 18 which works nicely with deathcap.
Since her goal is to instakill a squishie and pacing in 1v1 allows for extra Q's anyways I prefer the AP/Magic Pen boots. Void staff reduces the magic pen from the offensive tree to 9% since they don't stack additively, and the 7 points in Defensive allows me to get away without HP quints. 15% early/midgame is usually between 4-10 magic pen, not really worth it.
Also, instead of leading with R, lead with Q; this is because it allows you to retreat/pull back temporarily without wasting an ult if shit hits the fan (W + R = escape from anything) really fast or if positioning ends up screwy or whatever right before you engage.
QRWEQ is my ideal 1v1 combo, with the last Q activating from the E. This can be done with pacing your silences (they aren't going anywhere soon lol) allowing for 6seconds of silenced + 2seconds rooted.
Ghost/Ignite
ALT + Right click to move the mirror image, please for the love of god don't just instantly run away when it pops. I hate watching people do that. /emo
Also, you can check bushes with your mirror image to end a standoff (ex you and 1 guy left both low hp he's in a bush and you're 10 feet away) and allow for a safer Q+W combo.
Your build just seems kind of confused to me. Instead of being optimized for offense, which I have no problems with (mine is more defensive in nature, focused on being able to survive laning with as little gold spent on defense as possible) you try to do the best of both worlds, but in a very inefficient way. I can get behind the ap runes if you want to maximize your burst as soon as possible, which would also combine well with the mpen boots, but then why gimp your output with points in the defensive tree. Leblanc isnt a late game character. Dont worry about the void staff interaction at all= by the time you get one it wont matter. Instead the mpen is good for early game, when you wont have one.
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How does the damage of DRing + Blasting Wand compare to the damage of DRing + Sorc Boots?
/w Sorc Boots instead. Same example as above.
Vs 62.5 mres: 427.52
Vs 30 mres: 544.19
With just the runes + sorc boots, you get more damage from going AP first, but not much. The move speed you get from sorc boots will outweigh the 1/2 of an autoattack you miss out on. Sorc boots win for first item over Blasting Rod.
But if we give LeBlanc 100 AP to start...
Blasting Rod Leblanc (100 + 40) AP:
Vs (62.5) mres: 559.62
Vs (30) mes: 739.72
Sorc Boots Leblanc (100AP)
Vs (62.5) mres: 601.43
Vs (30) mres: 765.56
Penetration becomes more valuable the more AP you have.
I'll graph some stuff up later for 'yall for each character and we can sticky it.
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Masteries: standard 9-0-21 for casters. No exceptions
I prefer 0/8/22 on most casters, strength of spirit is pretty ridiculous
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On January 22 2011 08:43 Two_DoWn wrote:Show nested quote +On January 22 2011 08:01 WirelessWaffle wrote:
Flat AP Quints
AP/lvl Blues
ManaRegen/lvl Yellows
MagicPen Reds
2/7/21
Sorc Shoes is my main variation from your item build.
Between masteries/Runes i get about 49 AP @ lvl 18 which works nicely with deathcap.
Since her goal is to instakill a squishie and pacing in 1v1 allows for extra Q's anyways I prefer the AP/Magic Pen boots. Void staff reduces the magic pen from the offensive tree to 9% since they don't stack additively, and the 7 points in Defensive allows me to get away without HP quints. 15% early/midgame is usually between 4-10 magic pen, not really worth it.
Also, instead of leading with R, lead with Q; this is because it allows you to retreat/pull back temporarily without wasting an ult if shit hits the fan (W + R = escape from anything) really fast or if positioning ends up screwy or whatever right before you engage.
QRWEQ is my ideal 1v1 combo, with the last Q activating from the E. This can be done with pacing your silences (they aren't going anywhere soon lol) allowing for 6seconds of silenced + 2seconds rooted.
Ghost/Ignite
ALT + Right click to move the mirror image, please for the love of god don't just instantly run away when it pops. I hate watching people do that. /emo
Also, you can check bushes with your mirror image to end a standoff (ex you and 1 guy left both low hp he's in a bush and you're 10 feet away) and allow for a safer Q+W combo. Your build just seems kind of confused to me. Instead of being optimized for offense, which I have no problems with (mine is more defensive in nature, focused on being able to survive laning with as little gold spent on defense as possible) you try to do the best of both worlds, but in a very inefficient way. I can get behind the ap runes if you want to maximize your burst as soon as possible, which would also combine well with the mpen boots, but then why gimp your output with points in the defensive tree. Leblanc isnt a late game character. Dont worry about the void staff interaction at all= by the time you get one it wont matter. Instead the mpen is good for early game, when you wont have one.
i think you're overestimating 15% magic pen
ex. early game say they have 100 mr (first buy negatron for some reason).
29 pen from boots/masteries/runes = 71 mr
15% magic pen nets you around 10 more penetration.
so 61 MR
With 15% pen they mitigate 38% dmg
Without 15% pen they mitigate 41% dmg
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Heres the thing. Your build isnt built to farm or play defensively. Its built to do damage to enemies. Why not max that instead of wasting 7 points in the defensive tree. It isnt a matter of overestimating the magic pen, its about looking at what your build is trying to accomplish and maximizing that. Right now your just inefficient, which is bad.
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Getting an extra 2% damage shouldn't make or break a build. Getting more MR HP/5 and a little bit of armor allows for more exchanges in your favor.
Ex vs Caster that went 9/0/21. The MR from the defensive tree is greater than the penetration he gains, add in more hp/5 and you can play very aggressively to force him out of the lane early. Getting a level ahead on the person you're laning against is almost as beneficial as killing them.
Short summary of my thoughts on offensive vs defensive tree's is that the extra time that i can be aggressive due SoS/MR out weighs the offensive gain from the magic pen.
Note: 15% Magic Pen and 3% CDR get better late game compared to SoS/MR. But on the targets that Leblanc should be going for the difference is negligible @ that point due to void staff not stacking additively the 15% magic pen.
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When deciding on if I want to do SoS or the 15% magic pen when a caster I generally think "can i cast my spells from range without getting harassed much?" as well as "am i getting a tear early in my build to benefit more during laning from SoS?" For example, with veigar he's so squishy and I generally grab a tear fairly early now b/c I used to always be out of mana from lasthitting with q, that SoS benefits me quite a bit on him along with a doran's shield opening. While with Lux I can harass from far away with worries so I like the 15% magic pen more.
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I think you two are arguing two different things.
If you want to absolutely maximize your damage, then Two_DoWn is correct: Taking anything other than those 9 offensive masteries is inefficient.
If you want to get the most efficient masteries for your 9 points, then Wireless is correct.
The question is which one matters to LeBlanc in terms of her role in the game. Assuming she doesn't want the game to last very long, then defensive masteries will help more. Once the game goes further, then as Wireless already stated: The 15% Magic Pen becomes better.
It also depends on what the opponents have. If I'm against a Spammy team, then I'll take more defense. If I'm against a team of tanks, then I'll take the Magic Pen. The math is really what matters here. Also consider that your flat magic resist diminishes the effectiveness of Archaic Knowledge. If you're running massive Magic Pen, then you're not going to get much out of it until later.
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My point was simply that based on his runes, Wireless wanted to do as much damage as possible. Therefore his masteries were inefficient for his goal. If he wants to farm more, then his runes were the inefficient aspect of his build. One of the two are out of sync.
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United States47024 Posts
On January 22 2011 10:56 BlackPaladin wrote:
When deciding on if I want to do SoS or the 15% magic pen when a caster I generally think "can i cast my spells from range without getting harassed much?" as well as "am i getting a tear early in my build to benefit more during laning from SoS?" For example, with veigar he's so squishy and I generally grab a tear fairly early now b/c I used to always be out of mana from lasthitting with q, that SoS benefits me quite a bit on him along with a doran's shield opening. While with Lux I can harass from far away with worries so I like the 15% magic pen more.
This is generally my logic when assessing SoS vs Archaic Knowledge.
SoS is most useful during the laning phase--this is because of the fact that by nature, Hp5 is a stat that is most useful during laning (where you will be taking damage over an extended period of time, as opposed to inside the context of a comparatively short team-fight, followed by a period of relatively minimal damage). SoS is preferable in cases where you need that early Hp5 to establish or maintain lane control (e.g. Kassadin needs to melee in order to get last-hits, so SoS regen allows him to trade harassment with his lane opponent without getting pushed out of lane from the harassment he's guaranteed to take while farming). On a champ that can expect to last-hit safely and trade advantageously however (e.g. Annie, who has the 2nd-longest base attack range in the game, and almost always harasses off the back of a stun), the long-term utility of Archaic Knowledge can win out. Even though SoS technically remains cost-effective out of the laning phase, it's utility diminishes by virtue of the fact that Hp5 naturally becomes a less useful stat as teamfights become more prevalent.
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Insta-gib champs generally wants the 15% mpen, unless they cannot farm well otherwise.
I would get 15% mpen for leblanc simply because I rarely find myself making exchanges that I cannot avoid or wouldn't win anyways. It's not a huge boost in damage, but it lets you put more pressure on the jungler and bot-lane.
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You really, really, want to go sorc boots + guise as your first two items on LeBlanc. You should also be ganking a ton as soon as you hit level 6. Your built-in flash means you can get from bushes to mid-lane before an opponent can react, and you have two CC abilities -- it's very hard for an opponent to survive a few hundred damage from your burst, plus being silenced/slowed/rooted while your ally beats on them. This is also why you go 0/9/21 -- you want the early, flat mpen, so the 15% mpen is worthless. You also should be running ignite over flash -- you have built in quad flash if required, and your ganks become all the more deadly with ignite.
LeBlanc, like Kass, can also run soulstealer. It has the same advantages/disadvantages.
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EPT
