Hey everyone! This is my first guide on League of Legends, so I thought I would make one of the champions I know best, LeBlanc.

NOTE: The Seaon 3 changes have kicked in and I am currently updating this guide to fit those changes. There have been numerous item changes that could significantly increase your sustain in lane. Items such as
Crystalline Flask do this. Also, all of the champions' base movement speeds have been increased by 25, and the movement speed provided by boots has lowered by 25. Basically, this means that you don't have to rush boots as a first item.

NOTE: A recent change increased the cost of Crystalline Flask but increased its amount regenerated. This no longer allows you to buy 3 health pots, 2 mana pots, and a ward. However, you can still buy most of this. Just buy 1 health pot, 2 mana pots, and ward; or 2 health pots, 1 mana pot, and a ward.

Pros + Extremely high burst + Very mobile + Not easily ganked + Satisfying to play

Sigil of Silence

Cons - Very squishy - Countered by silence - Can be countered by magic resistance

My masteries are fairly straightforward. Take all of the offensive, damage increasing abilities and add some mobility. The point of these masteries are to create the maximum amount of burst on your target. The new masteries for Season 3 are really good in my opinion. They allow mages like LeBlanc to take every point in every ability power increasing mastery unlike last season where you had to take 1 out of Mental Force if you wanted a point in Summoner's Wrath . Now you can have all 4 points in Mental Force and the point in Summoner's Wrath and still have 9 points left to use in the utility tree.

OFFENSE TREE Tier 1 - With the Season 3 changes, Sorcery was moved to tier 1. The cooldown reduction from Sorcery allows you to use your combo more often so I suggest taking all 4 points in Sorcery and 1 point in Summoner's Wrath . Don't fret about there being 5 points in the tier because you will only have 3 points in tier 4 and will want that point to advance to tier 5 and 6. Tier 2 - Blast was moved to tier 2. Take all 4 points to scale better into late game and also to unlock Arcane Knowledge . Tier 3 - The magic penetration from Arcane Knowledge is awesome and Havoc increases your total damage by 2% (which is an increase of .5% from last season). NOTE: It's possible to take one point out of Havoc and put it into Spellsword which in tier 4. The only reason I don't recommend that is because LeBlanc doesn't auto attack much at all (except for killing minions during lane phase, and during that time the extra 5% to your auto attacks is hardly worth anything since you don't have much ability power yet). Tier 4 - They moved Mental Force to this tier this season, and they reduced the number of points you put into it by 1. The best part though, is that it gives the same amount of ability power as 4 points did last season, but with 3 so you can pick up Summoner's Wrath in tier 1 without sacrificing any ability power. Tier 5 - Archmage increases your total ability power by 5% which is an amazing amount of extra ability power, especially when you start getting items. Tier 6 - With Executioner , you increase your damage by 6% to targets who are at 40% or lower health, so be sure to pick this up.

UTILITY TREE Tier 1 - Summoner's Insight allows you to use Flash more often to pull off your combos and Meditation allows you to regain your lost mana quicker (this was swapped with Expanded Mind in tier 2). Swiftness was changed to Wanderer and put into tier 1, but the main difference is that it only increases your movement speed when you're out of combat. I still take one point in it because it makes roaming easier and quicker. Tier 2 - Expanded Mind gives you increased mana per level. Take all 3 points in this. If you don't want the point in Wanderer because you feel that .66% movement speed out of combat is worthless, then take a point in Mastermind . It will reduce the cooldown of your flash by 4%. It all comes down to preference. Tier 3 - Runic Affinity gives you increased duration on blue buff, red buff, and baron buff.

• Greater Mark of Magic Penetration: The magic penetration allows LeBlanc to hit through her opponents' magic resistance and do more damage.
  
• Greater Seal of Mana Regeneration: LeBlanc is a bit mana starved early and the mana regen from these runes helps her greatly in lane and when roaming.
  
• Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power: Scaling ability power allows her to scale better into mid/late game to continue to demolish your opponents.
  
• Greater Quintessence of Ability Power: The flat ability power from these runes gives you good harass immediately. This will help to push your opponent out of lane or potentially kill them.

Flash: As LeBlanc, you should never have the fear of dying in lane. With Distortion and Flash you can avoid almost every gank easily.

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Ignite: This is extra damage you can inflict on your enemies. What assassin wouldn't want this?

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Teleport: The only reason I can see taking this over Ignite is if the enemy mid laner is Twisted Fate. With his ultimate, Destiny, he can try to teleport to bot or top lane to gank. With Teleport you would be able to follow him and potentially save your teammates from certian death.

• Mirror Image: This passive is pretty sweet. It's like the Shaco ultimate, Hallucinate, but as a passive when you drop below 40% health. The only difference between the two is that the mirror image of LeBlanc doesn't deal damage unless you have on-hit effects like red buff.
  
• Sigil of Silence Sigil of Silence (Q): This is your main damage ability. It scales really well with ability power and hits really hard once you get rolling. If you hit an enemy with another ability after hitting them with Sigil of Silence they will be silenced for 2 seconds.
  
• Distortion (W): This ability is just awesome. You dash whatever direction you choose a good distance and then if you hit the ability again you are instantly returned to where you started. You can easily harass in lane and assassinate an enemy through a gank with this ability.
  
• Ethereal Chains (E): Another amazing ability in your kit. It's a skillshot and isn't as easy to land as Distortion, but if you hit it you will slow the enemy's movement speed by 25%. If you stay in range for the chain to stay on the enemy for 2 seconds, they will become rooted and will not be able to move for up to 2.2 seconds (depends on the level of the ability).
  
• Mimic (R): Oh LeBlanc, this is why I love you. This ability is so good I can barely describe it. What it does is it takes the previous move you used (e.g. Sigil of Silence) and allows you to use that ability again. But that's not all! It also increases the damage of the ability by up to 40% (depends on the level of Mimic). This means you could hit someone with a Sigil of Silence for 250 damage and then hit them again with a second Sigil of Silence for 350 damage, which results in 600 damage in a split second! This also applies the silence from Sigil of Silence and applies another stack! You could potentially silence an enemy for 4 seconds and then root them for 2.2 seconds. That's 6.2 seconds of CC and will almost always result in a kill. You could also use it after you use Distortion to dash a second time to clear creep waves or escape a gank or close a gap. Use it after Ethereal Chains to potentially root 2 enemies in place for 2.2 seconds each or root the same target again. This ability is so versatile and can be utilized in so many different ways.

CORE:

Viable item choices:

: This item is so good on any mage and should be considered core. It gives 120 ability power and increases your ability power by 25% of your total ability power. (e.g. Say you have 100 ability power before you buy this item. When you buy this item, your ability power will be increased to 220. Then, the passive from the item will increase your ability power by 25% of 220, which is 55 extra ability power. You now have 275 ability power, and it continues to increase as long as you keep buying more ability power items.)

: This item has gotten nerfed and buffed a couple times while I've been playing. With the Season 3 change, I think the item is very good. It gives more ability power than it used to, and its got its cooldown reduction back. Only the active is a bit lower than what it used to be, but it's still a great item choice. Free damage should never be taken lightly.

: This is another extremely good item. It hasn't changed at all since I've been playing, so Riot must think it's in a pretty good spot. It gives 70 ability power and 40% magic penetration. With the magic penetration that this item gives, it shreds through enemy magic resistance.

: Another great item. This item for LeBlanc is pretty situational though. If you're going up against a burst mage like Kassadin or Veigar, this item could save your life or a teammate's life if you're in a team fight.

: This item is extremely good against bursty teams with champions such as Graves, Kassadin, Darius, and others like them on their team. This gives a good amount of ability power and armor, but also allows you to become immune to all damage and cc for 2 seconds. The only downside is that while you are immune, you cannot move or activate any abilities.

: This is a new item for Season 3. It's an upgrade from Haunting Guise, and a pretty big one at that. It also adds a nice little burning effect after you use an ability on an enemy. So not only does this item give lots of ability power and magic penetration, but it also makes your target burn for 5% of their current health for 3 seconds. Can replace Void Staff if you bought that item but need more health and want the burning effect.

NOTE: I have not included all of the mid champions in this section. That probably means that it's a normal lane and a skill match-up. These lane match-ups (counter or not) are my opinion and it's possible that you may lose to a champion you supposedly counter. Each game and match-up is unique and can go multiple different ways.

Champions that counter LeBlanc:

Basically, any champion who can push her to tower and then back off to roam will counter you as LeBlanc. Last hitting is difficult enough as it is, but when a champion pushes you to tower it really makes for a hard time. As I mentioned earlier in the Pros/Cons section, MR can counter you as well, so if your enemy laner is building MR, you should probably build some magic penetration.

Champions that LeBlanc counters:

LeBlanc counters any squishy mid champion. Continually harass your squishy opponent and they will either be forced out of lane, give you a kill, or call the jungler to try to gank you which you can easily avoid using W, W->R, just R (if you used W already), flash, or a mixture.

Skill match-ups for LeBlanc:

These match-ups sometimes go in your favor, and sometimes in theirs. All of these champions have something in common; burst. Whoever gets their full burst off first will usually kill the other or force them out of lane and therefore win the match-up in lane. However, every single one of these champions can farm better than LeBlanc, so if you're not dominating them in lane then they will far exceed your usefulness in team fights during mid to late game.

LeBlanc has incredible burst damage and is one of the best assassins in the game. If you get a couple kills in lane and start rolling you will have nonstop fun playing her. She is an incredible AP carry and will continue to be one of my favorites.

NOTE: This guide is not totally complete. I will be adding gameplay as soon as I can. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to post in the discussion. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy!

1/9/13 - Guide 1.2.1 released
- edited typos
- fixed mana regen rune name in rune section
12/14/12 - Guide 1.2 released
- changed buy order items
- added lane match-ups
12/11/12 - Guide 1.1 released
- fixed masteries and mastery explanations
- added items
11/30/12 - Guide 1.0 released