Welcome to my in depth look at LeBlanc, a mid AP carry who specializes in bursting down single targets. This guide is aimed at summoners who are familiar with LeBlanc as a character but are not yet confident with her in mid lane. Items, Masteries, Runes, and Skills/Combinations will be discussed in order to give readers all the tools they need to dominate their mid lane opponents.

Pros
High single target burst
Good escape
Strong single target CC

Cons
Very squishy
Weak AOE damage
Dependent on a successful early game
Harder to farm

As a starting setup boots and 3 pots is essential for LeBlanc like most AP mids. Boots are necessary to either engage your opponent or escape them while harassing. If they opponent has boots and you have chosen something else (mabye a Doran's Ring) they will be able to simply walk away from you if you choose to harass. The pots are also very useful as they enable you to remain in lane for a longer period of time (therefore more XP/CS before your first recall).

On your first recall you want to aim for Sorcerer's Shoes and a Doran's Ring. If you do have extra gold pots are almost always useful. After your first recall you want to begin building your Rabadon's Deathcap in order to have a substantial amount of AP.

One thing which most readers will notice at this point is most of my recommended items do not have cool down reduction. Many mage characters like Ryze or Orianna benefit greatly from cool down reduction, but LeBlanc’s reliance on her burst makes her capable of forgoing cool down reduction in favour of greater AP or Spell Penetration.

After completing Rabadon's Deathcap the item order is no longer set in stone. You want to base your next item choice around the other teams champions/items.

Heavy Magic resistant enemies (such as Galio)? Void Staff

Dying too quickly in teamfights? Zhonya's Hourglass

Enemies with larger health pools? Deathfire Grasp

My chosen Masteries follow the same concept as items: getting the highest AP possible, along with a healthy amount of Spell Penetration to compliment the AP. Additionally the points in utility provide 2% movement speed Swiftness , which enables you to slightly outpace your lane opponent. This give you an edge when trying to harass or escape their advances.

Once again, Runes follow the same concept: maximize AP along with Spell Penetration.

Greater Glyph of Ability Power and Greater Quintessence of Ability Power for large early game burst

Greater Seal of replenishment to maintain enough mana in lanning phase to burst your opponent

Greater Mark of Magic Penetration increases the effectiveness of your early game ability burst.

Levels 1-6 have been traditionally seen as the weakest levels for LeBlanc, this is because she lacks her ultimate which is the foundation for most of her burst damage. In the early game you want to focus on last hitting minions and keeping up with your lane opponent. Beyond simply auto attack farming, LeBlanc is capable of harassing by combining her Q and W skills. Either to dash into range and use Q, or use Q then dash onto her opponent to silence them and do further damage. In lane E is useful, but only in situations where you can push your opponent away from their creeps. Q and W provide the most reliable means of harassing before 6.

This is where LeBlanc really shines. If you've been harassing your opponent effectively they've likely used up all their pots by this point, and are bellow full health. Once you hit 6 you can immediately move into range of them as if to harass with your previous Q > W combo, but instead use your Q > R > W > E and ignite if needed. Even if you miss the skill shot on E the initial burst will be enough to kill any Mid lane who does not have significant magic resist.

You want to try to use LeBlanc's substantial single target burst to either kill your lane opponent or zone them from the minions. Kills will give you more gold but if you can consistently push them from the minions you will deney them both gold and levels, making you even more effective at bursting them down.

Don't hesitate to roam as well. LeBlanc's Distortion provides her with the ability to dash into a lane and land her full combination. Also it can be used to go through walls and surprise enemies with unforeseeable gank paths.

This is when you need to have grouped with your team and be fighting 5v5 over objectives and towers. LeBlanc's role in teamfights is difficult and has led to many people suggesting that "she falls off late game".

When your team initiates a fight with the enemies it is essential that you stay back and wait for the enemie's carries to engage. Your goal in a fight is not the spam off your abilities as much as possible like Ryze or Cassiopeia, your goal is to burst down their AP carry or their AD carry. These targets are usually built heavily into damage without significant defensive items (at least early in the late game) and can be killed instantly with your Q > R > W > E combination.

Once you've used your burst in the team fight and hopefully taken out 1 of the enemy carries you need to quickly disengage and wait for your cool downs to reset. Once your cool downs reset you can find a lower health target and burst them down to give your team further assistance. Hanging around in the fight auto attacking while waiting for your cool downs will likely result in you being focused down and killed very quickly so be swift to retreat from the fight when you have no abilities available.

LeBlanc is a unique champion due to her ultimate Mimic which enables her to cast a duplicate of her previous spell, but with increased damage. This gives LeBlanc a number of different ways she can use this ability. The goal of this section is to show readers a number of bread and butter combinations which they can rely on.

Q > R > W > E

This is your highest damage combinations because Q and Mimic Q will provide the highest damage, W and E afterwards also insure that you will activate the second portion of sigil of silence.

W > Q > R

This combination is for dashing at your lane opponent, landing Q and then a Mimic Q. Once you've landed both your free to activate W again and retreat having done significant harassment, or your able to hit them with you E and chase for the kill.

W > R > Q > E

This combination uses your Distortion and then a Mimic Distortion to give you two dashes. This can be useful to chase down a low enemy or to escape a gank by passing through two walls.

LeBlanc does well against most AP mids but this section will be dedicated to those LeBlanc has trouble with.

Galio: due to his high magic resist and natural tankiness Galio is often impossible to burst down without support from your jungler. This enables him to survive Leblanc's burst and harass her down while out farming her. Avoid facing Galio if possible, but if you must fight him focus on farming and roaming to pick up possible kills in other lanes.

Talon: Leblanc is extremely squishy and relies upon getting her combo onto opponents before they strike her. Talons silence and gap close makes him a problem for LeBlanc.

Fizz Although Fizz is very squishy early game he is a particularly difficult opponent for LeBlanc. Playful/trickster can be used by fizz when LeBlanc uses her Q > R combo. This will avoid all the damage from that combination and puts them on cool down. This makes Fizz very effective at avoiding LeBlancs burst which is what she relies upon very heavily. To avoid this issue move into mele range of him before using your combo, making it very difficult for him to Playful/trickster before being hit by it.

Gragas can be built effectively as a tanky mage which is problematic for LeBlanc. Due to the longer cool downs on her abilities LeBlanc relies upon her ability to burst her lane opponents down very quickly. Against a character who has built significant MR/health LeBlanc’s burst becomes less effective making her a weaker lane champion. Building an early Void Staff can help out massively to reduce the effectiveness of Gragas’ magic resistance.

Morgana trouble with morgana is due primarily to her Dark Binding and Black Shield. Because LeBlanc you will relies upon using W to dash in at your opponent and hit them with your burst. This makes it easy for Morgana to land her Dark Binding and mitigate your burst (or avoid the silence) with Black Shield. To avoid this, try using you W to move in less predictable directions and be careful to dodge her roots.


Anivia: Anivia is not a lane to be extreamly afraid of, but it can be problematic due to her passive. LeBlanc relies upon gaining an early game advantage in lane by bursting her opponent down. Anivia denies LeBlanc this opportunity by turning into an egg when she dies (5 minute CD). For most champions it is fairly simple to kill her when she turns into an egg, but for LeBlanc your cool downs are often down for the entire durration of her egg form. This forces you to only auto attack her which often is not enough damage to kill her before her rebirth.

This guide has gone over how to build LeBlanc, and how to play her in the three main phases of the game (early, mid, and late game). Her single target burst makes her both fun and effective once you've mastered her combos. Feel free to post any comments or suggestions you have for this build. I read all the comments and am always interested to see people's opinions on my builds and play styles. Hope this guide helped and have fun bursting down squishes!