I go by the Summoner Name "Baekstra" on EUW, and have been playing League of Legends for around a year and a half.
Back when I started playing LoL in season 2, I quickly found LB to be my main champion due to her fun playstyle, mobility and damage. During that season I learned the game and managed to get a silver ranking before the season ended.
Since the beginning of season 3, I have then evolved as a ranked player, and mastered LeBlanc in-depth and climbed to the top of Diamond mainly because of her.

In my opinion, Leblanc is a really strong champion who excels at catching the enemy off-guard and make seemingly impossible plays due to her massive mobility and damage. Her playstyle is definitely high risk-high reward.

In this guide, I will share my experiences as LeBlanc with you, dear reader.
I will first go through her setup and general playstyle before going into specific matchups and when to pick her.
I will not go into most general concepts such as smartcasting, ward placement, baron traps, ect. There are plenty of guides out there explaining that already, links to those things will be included in the bottom of this guide.

Before this guide takes off for real, I have two things to say:

Pros + Incredibly strong lane bully. + Blows things up. + Massive mobility & utility. + Uses mobility for defense. + Enemy ADC fed? Make him disappear. + Good AA animation. + Can do magic tricks. + Win games @20 by making the enemy team flame if you stomp mid. Even happens in diamond. + You may push nexus @15 by making the enemy team rage and go AFK. Even happens in diamond.

Cons - Can't push hard early. - Is squishy as hell. - CC or chain CC = dead. - Lacks some AoE/sustained damage for teamfights. - Enemy tanky bruiser fed? Good luck taking that one down. - If you fail in lane, you will fall harder than most other champions in the game. - You failed and got stomped in lane with LeBlanc? You may lose game @ 20 because your team flames and surrenders, since you "Lost lane with an Early game Champ." Even happens in diamond.

Masteries on Leblanc are pretty straightforward, although there are two main options in my opinion. Those are the glass cannon, and the super glass cannon.


This is my recommended setup that I use 99% of the time now.

With this, Leblanc benefits from the standard 21 points in offense since she really likes to deal damage (surprise).

Only thing is that 2 points are taken from Mental Force and put into Brute Force to help harassing and lasthitting. Makes for a stronger lane. Explanation found in match section in the end of this chapter.

The last 9 points are spent in defense for more HP and Armor/MR depending on your lane opponent and personal preference. I feel like this extra early and scaling survivability is needed since I buy NO additional defense in the entire game.


I used this mastery page a lot in gold and plat before I started to feel like I died too easily.

The 23 points in offense allows for some extra high damage, and the last 7 points in utility makes her kill potential greater by granting more mana to kill people and lower CD on Summoners Spells to make plays more often. Points can be swapped between Mastermind/Expanded Mind at your preference.

I haven't invested 9 points into utility for the 20% longer blue buff because I feel that the +4 AP is more useful early game. (You don't get blue before the 7 minute mark. If you are going to win lane, you would like to get a kill before then.)

I would rarely recommend this setup anymore since the extra damage is useless if you should die, which is more probable when you got ~36-138 less HP and lower resistances due to the the lack of defensive masteries. However, if you think you can avoid damage (or are feeling lucky), this setup complements a super aggressive playstyle where you really want to jump around and kill your opponents.

Over and over again, I have been tweaking my rune setup on LeBlanc to maximize her potential. Because her main strength lies in her damage, it is crucial to have the best possible setup to boost her damage so she can be truly terrifying. By now, I have come to the general conclusion that Magic Penetration is superior to Ability power in terms of killing potential.




Marks:
greater mark of hybrid penetration
Hybrid penetration marks are godlike even on pure AP casters like Leblanc. You sacrifice 2.25 Magic penetration to get 8.1 Armor penetration, and makes your Autoattacks hit much harder early game. Math section will follow at the end of this chapter, but as a rule of thumb, you deal more damage with this setup if you land just 2 AA for every time you land and proc a Q. The playstyle I will describe later on uses Autoattacks much more frequently than that in order to establish lane dominance, so get these. Also helps your lasthitting by mitigating that little bit of armor minions get as the game progresses.
The only downside is that your combo deals a somewhat less damage late-game (~80 less), but the early advantage is more important in my opinion.

Alternatives:
Greater Mark of Magic Penetration
If you don't have IP for hybrid penetration marks, aren't yet used to harassing a lot with Autoattacks, or just REALLY want those extra 80 damage on your full combo at level 18 at the expense your stronger earlygame, get these. I recommend the Hybrid Penetration Marks, but those are still viable.

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Seals:
Greater Seal of Scaling Health
Seals are made to be defensive, and although some extra damage from AP or scaling AP seals might be tempting, it is simply not gold efficient enough compared to the extra HP you can get. Best choice of seals if you fight AP or hybrid enemies.

Alternatives:
Greater Seal of Armor
No-brainer against AD enemies, which you will face often if you play LB top. Also, the scaling health seals will not help you much in low levels, where AD enemies tend to be strong, so armor will be much more useful at the critical early levels.

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Glyphs:
Greater Glyph of Magic Penetration
Probably the most controversial choice in my rune page, Penetration glyphs actually outclass scaling AP at all stages of the game. I repeat, they are better at ALL stages of the game. More math incoming at the end of this chapter.

Alternatives:
Not really anyone, you usually lose out on too much damage if you don't take penetration glyphs.
I guess Greater Glyph of Magic Resist or Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist could be mentioned if one would want to play some tanky-ish LeBlanc, but that's it. (Look at matchups to see where they might be viable.)
If you don't have Magic Pen Glyphs, get them ASAP. Period. Until you get them, you can use scaling AP, I guess.

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Quintessences:
Greater Quintessence of Magic Penetration
As I stated earlier in this guide, Magic penetration generally beats Ability Power if you want to deal damage. Same goes for the Quints, but with one exception. Flat AP Quints gives you more damage levels 1-4. While that sounds tempting because everyone likes an ultra strong super early game, it is simply not enough compared to the long-term benefits of magic penetration.
Magic penetration "scales" with both your AP and level (ability base damage), so it will end up adding ~50 damage to your combo late game, while you only lose out on 6 damage with your average level 3 combo. More detailed explanation in the lovely math section at the end of this chapter.

But why do I recommend hybrid pen marks and not hybrid pen Quints, you may ask? The reason is that marks give 0.9 armor pen for 0.25 magic pen. That is 3.6 armor pen per magic pen. Quints only give 1.79 armor pen for 0.61 magic pen, which is 2.98 armor pen per magic pen, which is a much less efficient trade.

Alternatives:
Greater Quintessence of Ability Power
If you really, really want that extra damage for level 2 or 3 FB, then this rune is still viable. I myself used 1 flat AP/2 magic pen Quints for some time until they reduced the AP ratio on Q in the 3.9 patch.

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I personally use the following two rune pages for LeBlanc:

Page one, against balanced teams/AP lane opponent:
9x greater mark of hybrid penetration
9x Greater Seal of Scaling Health
9x Greater Glyph of Magic Penetration
3x Greater Quintessence of Magic Penetration

Page two, against AD heavy teams/AD lane opponent:
9x greater mark of hybrid penetration
9x Greater Seal of Armor
9x Greater Glyph of Magic Penetration
3x Greater Quintessence of Magic Penetration

All of the following three maths sections contain a TL;DR at the end if you wish to see and compare the results without any calculations.

Although most champions often have to build accordingly to the game and matchup, LeBlanc is not one of them. Her build rarely varies, and the only important variable when determining her build path is the MR of her opponents, as it is crucial to abuse the MR/damage calculations to achieve the highest damage output on LB. I will soon add some maths section in the end of this chapter.
So without further ado, let's get to the items and why the heck I say they're the best purchases available. I show the items in order of purchase, and there is a TL;DR at the end if you can't be bothered to read it all:


Starting items:


After the buff to Doran's ring, it is a definite must buy early. The extra AP complements your massive magic penetration setup, the mana regen allows you to harass more, and the extra health is a nice bonus. Along with the potions you can now afford, it is super strong.

Alternative start: Crystalline Flask + Health Potion + sight ward.
I used this before the doran's buff and it is still viable. It lack some early damage which I find crucial, but it offers massive sustain and a ward. What's not to like?

Remember to get a single health pot or two when going back in the early levels. A ward can also be a life-saver. Personally, I rarely buy wards (and usually end up not placing them even if I buy them), even though I know they can be crucial. An in-depth explanation of this can be found in the next section, "Vision, Wards, Warding & their jungler".

During your first trip to base, you can choose to grab a second Doran's Ring or go directly for Morellonomicon. I usually grab a second ring.


Morellonomicon is a godlike item on LB. It grants you quite some AP along with strong mana regen and CDR at a low cost. This item is the foundation which allows you to play the game without running dry or missing a kill because that last 0.5 second cooldown on your skills. After this baby, you are free to focus completely on maximising on her lovely damage.
The Grievous Wounds is a nice bonus that can even be crucial at times. Did the enemy ADC survive with 10% hp because you only got in range to Q-R? At least they can't Lifesteal it back fast. Is Dr. Mundo on the enemy team? Laugh at him. A lot. Is Swain standing in the middle of your team, Lifestealing off everyone with his damn crows? Laugh at him too, while he's being beaten to a pulp with 50% reduced healing.
Leblanc absolytely loves CDR throughout the game, as it allows her to chain some sweet Q-R-Q combos and dash around with W much more often. LeBlanc is a really useless champ when her skills are on cooldown, so this early reduction is much needed. With CDR, she can also kite around the battlefield later on and pick enemies off 1 by 1 and thus be useful even late game.



I've heard the Koreans like to rush Void Staff, and that makes perfect sense after looking at the math behind the damage. The damage breakpoint between Void Staff and its alternatives, Haunting Guise and pure AP, is at a measly 45 MR. So, as soon as the enemy has 45 MR, Void Staff is viable. However, this doesn't take into account the added hp bonus from Haunting Guise, so the main reason to grab Void Staff now even if the enemy still has only 45 MR is because you will be stronger as soon as they buy some Magic Resist. You simply don't care if they buy more MR after getting this baby.
Most enemy mid players will start off with 45-48 MR (+13 MR from runes and +2-5 MR from masteries), and probably get Athene's Unholy Grail or Abyssal Mask early on when facing you, so Void Staff will quickly scale hard. You probably won't be able to kill them if they end up buying double negatron or something like that in order to survive your burst... But then they're useless against the rest of your team, and LoL is a team game, yes?

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After getting your beloved Void Staff, you build starts to depend on the MR of the enemy team as a whole.
I'll make a TL;DR of the item sequence depending on their MR at the end of this chapter, but if you want to be the best, my advice would be to read the whole damn wall of text.
If all your enemies (most notably their Mid and ADC, but also pay close attention to their jungle, since you will run into him a lot,) have around ~30-50 MR, it is not necessary to purchase more Magic penetration since it would be wasted. In that case it is best to go for



Because Rabadon's is still an OP as **** item. Massive AP boost gives massive damage, that is the best logic ever in this game. If the enemy team neglects MR and stacks HP to counter you instead, this is also the way to go.

However, most non-******ed enemies will probably have gotten a slight bit of MR by now (MR>54). A probable scenario could be Mercury's Treads on jungler, Athene's Unholy Grail on mid, and Scaling MR runes on ADC. In this case, you are going to love



Haunting guise is a super cheap and cost efficient item that also grants you some more survivability. This in conjunction with the rest of your setup will make the first 54 enemy MR give 0 effective protection against your spells, and who doesn't like true damage? Also, if you happen to get burst or killed by poke too much (looking at you, Nidalee), this item gets even more appealing. If that's the case, you might go for this item earlier, even if the enemy has only ~48 MR, because it sucks to die.

By now you might be wondering why I haven't recommended any boots yet. This is because LeBlanc scales superbly with DAMAGE, and boots are really cost inefficient when it comes to damage, so I sacrifice some mobility for more damage early/midgame. I believe that LB is not truly dependent on movement speed in general, since her W and R allows her to be super mobile anyways, and the CDR from Morellonomicon help with that as well. If, however, you prefer the movement speed from boots over the extra 200 HP, Haunting Guise gives, you can replace HG with boots, since you only lose out on roughly 7 AP worth of damage.
To sum it up, the tradeoff between HG and boots is
7 AP + 200 HP Versus 45 Movement speed

If you get Haunting Guise (or boots) first, get Raba after. If you got Raba first, get Haunting after.

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After your Void Staff, Rabadon's and Haunting Guise or boots, the next purchase once again depends on the enemy MR. If most of the enemy team got 79 MR or more ( Negatron Cloak on mid and ADC, Hexdrinker+mercs on top, Aegis of the Legion on jungle or support, ect.), then boots (or HG, depending on first purchase) would finally be a decent choice both regarding damage and mobility, so grab your


(build now looking Morellonomicon- Void Staff- Haunting Guise- Rabadon's Deathcap- Sorcerer's Shoes)


And keep on nuking your enemies like you don't give a ****. By now, the first 79 MR they get becomes a big fat 0 in your book, and you can keep bursting anyone you'd like. This can usually make the enemy toplane go 100-0 in a single combo unless they got Hexdrinker, are building dedicated tanky (mind their max HP as well), or got a nasty ult. ( Nasus and Renekton can be *****es at times.) You will probably get a clear shot at them the first time, because they don't expect it.

Just remember to grab Haunting Guise by now if you get boots instead of it early.

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If most of the enemy team never managed to get more than 79 MR, Boots (or HG, depending on your preference), are still not as useful as they could be. If that's the case, then it's a good idea to grab the fantastic instanuking master, an item that most people consider core on LB:

(build now looking Morellonomicon- Void Staff- Haunting Guise- Rabadon's Deathcap- Deathfire Grasp)

This item will allow you to melt any enemy. Nuff said.

I, however, do not consider this item to be early core for the following reasons:

- The 10% CDR is strong LATE game, but is too pricy for an early game purchase.
- You pay 24.17 gold per AP you get (although not considering the active).
- In comparison, Rabadon's cost 17-12 gold per AP it grants you, depending on your current AP.
- Although the combine cost is "only" 680 gold, you end up paying around 900 gold for the active if it is to be compared to other items, because the combine efficiency of Rabadon's, Void Staff, ect. is so high.
- Although the active of DFG really does help kill people, it is simply too one-sided to be worth it compared to the other items I get early. Only being able to kill people once every minute simply cripples LB too much, especially in dragon fights, ect. (And if you get the Artificer mastery to mend that, you will be super squishy.)

That being said, DFG is an amazing item for teamfights late game. The CDR helps you reach max CDR, the AP now stacks with the Rabadon's you got, and the active can be used in the most devilish ways imagineable.
While you might now think "in teamfights i'll go in with W and DFG-Q-R their ADC", I say usually don't. You still want to kill their ADC if you get the opportunity, but the game must be pretty even since you reached late game, and you will lose if you fail your assassination. (I know, CC sucks, right? Jumping into a blindfire Elise Cocoon late has lost me a few games. Know when to take the risk and when not to.)

Instead, you have to value your life a bit more and think like an AP-carry/Assassin hybrid. (Depends on your team comp ofc., but this is assuming you are the main source of AP damage, which is usually the case.)
With your DFG, you are now able to instagib even their initiators, unless they got like 150 MR and tons of HP, so the safest way to use your newly purchased item is to wait for the engage (doesn't matter as much whether it is your team or the enemy team that engages), and then simply pop the first enemy that comes at you or your ADC with your full DFG- sigil of silence- Mimic- Ethereal Chains- Distortion combo. By doing this, your ADC will be free to kill off the enemy team while the enemy team ADC still has to fight/kite your initiators. Also your skills will become ready quickly with the CDR you have by then.

That is only an example of course, but the main idea with DFG is to instanuke an easy-to-reach, but tanky target, instead of nuking hard-to-reach, squishy targets. This might make the enemy initiators become cowards, and a team with cowardly initiators is a crippled team.

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Now you have your full build, it is time for the last item on the list.



This little fella tops off your CDR together with Deathfire Grasp and Morellonomicon, and grants some useful AP to nuke... stuff. It is always a good idea to get this lovely thing before anticipated teamfights, and it's only priced at 250! That's a bargain, if it can even give you the slightest extra chance to win a teamfight. I usually start getting it at key moments after my 3rd or 4th item.

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It is a rare thing for the fight to keep going after you got your full build, but if you got the gold for it, you should now sell your Haunting Guise in order to purchase Lich Bane.
By purchasing this baby instead of upgrading to Liandry's Torment, you will have 250 less HP and lose out on approximately 200 Damage after resistances on a full combo, which I know is a lot. However, the AA proc damage on this item will end up dealing around 400 damage after resistances when you have 600 AP, and it is usually possible to get a single AA off during your combo when you burst an enemy lategame.
That, however, is just the beginning of its benefits. This item doubles the speed at which you can splitpush and demolish towers, and if the enemy only sends 1 enemy to fend you off during a splitpush, you can probably get 2 or 3 AA procs off while fighting (unless you instagib your enemy of course, but then you didn't need those extra 200 damage anyways.)
Also, the added 8% movement speed bonus and 250 mana enables you to kite and juke much better in case you are being chased by multiple enemies, thus making you a true master of splitpushing, about as effective as Master Yi!
Also upgrade your boots with the Enchantment - Alacrity unless you already got Enchantment - Homeguard at some point, it adds up to some pretty decent movement speed.

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Depending on the matchup or your preferences, there can be some deviations to the standard build path that I will describe here.

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The above build rushes some extra health if you are getting burst too easily in lane - examples could be against Tristana or a fed Lissandra. It also rushes flat Magic Penetration over % Magic Pen, and is thus only effective if the enemy team has less than 52 MR later on in the game. If they got around 75 MR, grab Void Staff ASAP instead of Rabadon's and boots.
The extra early HP from this build synergizes well with lanes where Magic Resist Glyphs are needed in order to survive.

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This build is intended to be used in conjunction with Armor seals in order to survive tough AD lanes where you can't dodge or outrange the enemy harass. Sell Haunting Guise when needed to make room for Zhonya's. The most notable opponents are:

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I would rarely recommend any other items than the build I've listed above. However, I do understand the need to explain why I left out some items.

Zhonya's Hourglass - So, you got caught by the enemy team and got no way out. they got triple AD 1 AP and you generally think Zhonya's is a good idea so you can freeze for 2.5 seconds now that you're caught. Thing is, it usually doesn't save you. After your stasis ends, you will die 100% anyways, because you are caught in the d@mn middle of the enemy team. You're dead. Roast. Your kit is designed to get in, do your stuff, and then get out again quickly, or kite around while whittling opponents down. If you get caught while in, you're still dead. If you freeze for 2.5 sec while kiting, they will camp your position and land a CC the second it wears off. Oh, and then you're dead too. Stasis is somewhat lackluster on LB compared to other champs.
Also, you're too squishy anyways and can still get easily killed by the enemy damage despite your extra 50 armor, and it is a REALLY expensive item considering its stats.
Zhonya's can be useful against enemy teams where they are 4 AD based champs, and/or your lane opponent is tough AD (as listed above). Replace either DFG or Haunting Guise with this item if you should choose to get it.

PS., When you rush Seeker's Armguard in lanes versus Pantheon, Wukong, Talon, etc., don't upgrade it until the rest of your build is finished. Seeker's Armguard is cost efficient and gives just as much armor as Zhonya's Hourglass. Zhonya's isn't cost-efficient.

Abyssal Mask - You're not supposed to be within 700 range of your enemies a lot. Also, counteracts your Void Staff and MR is pretty useless on you.

Athene's Unholy Grail - The direct contender to Morellonomicon, and it loses badly. Athene's cost 400g more and gives 15 less AP, which are the main points for LB. The MR is rarely needed and the mana regen on kill is not worth it.

Will of the Ancients - Spell vamp? no.

Rod of Ages - Delayed stats? no.


This item deserves a heading for itself because it is so much fun. I would NEVER recommend it in high ranked games, not even if you're 10/0/10 or 20/0/0 or whatever. It is too risky to get, because you will become so much weaker IF you get caught (you still explode easily if you get CC'd).

However, it is the single most fun item to get in normals or ranked games below your real skill level because it makes you snowball harder than a Ryze with 10,000 mana and gives the enemy team more nightmares than Nocturne. Also bear in mind, that a LeBlanc with Mejai's is THE most taunting thing in the game, beating Teemo's taunt by a wide margin. It literally yells "YOU ALL SUCK AND I WILL FEAST UPON YOUR SOULS AND I CAN 1V5 YOU ALL AND YOU ARE DAMN NOOBS L2P!" to the enemy team. Did it hurt your eyes? It should, because you cause soul-crushing damage to the enemy team times infinity if you stomp them with this item. Taunt them in all chat when you buy this item for maximum effect. Tell them you buy it and let the hunt commence, because you are going to get focused like a target dummy at a shooting range.

Also, get Void staff before this item if you really wish you buy it. Void staff is still OP.

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Item sequence (purchase order from left to right):



If they got >54 MR after void staff, swap purchase order between Haunting Guise and Rabadon's Deathcap.
Get Elixir of Brilliance before key fights during the game.

So, in the last section I mentioned that I don't really buy wards that often. I have had periods with LB where I did it, but I have only bought very few wards all the way through high plat and diamond. How the heck can that even be viable in diamond, you might ask?

The thing about wards is that while the 75g may not seem like much, it really adds up over time, and you need all the gold you can get for damage, especially early. (same goes with pots btw.)
However, should you choose to play with few or no wards like me, there are some risks associated that you MUST consider at all times:




However, there are also some good things about not warding during lane phase as LeBlanc, other than the gold you save:



This game is from my Diamond 2 to Diamond 1 promo.
I think I said all there is to say on my voice-over on this vid. I baited Lee nicely just as described, but it's also a good example that you shouldn't get too reckless with LB, and you will get punished by any decent opponent if you fail. Also, it sucks to miss Ethereal Chains and know that those chains might have been what made the game.
We ended up losing the game because that kill made Xerath snowball against me, while AD Thresh toplane completely destroyed our Zac and Wukong top. The game might have been won if I landed those chains and got that kill as well, who knows?

The no-ward thing described above is strictly viable during laning phase. Later in the game, vision and knowledge of your enemies' vision is extremely important. You probably won't end up warding much now either, but it is very important to be aware of where the enemy team places wards, where your team has cleared them, ect.
Remember, LeBlanc loves to pop out from the Fog of War, take a life, and disappear again. That can't happen as long as they can see you. This is why it is sometimes a good idea to invest in an Oracle's Elixir, especially if the enemy team wards a lot and no one else on your team has bought one. Also, if the enemy can see you in a risky position and you don't know it, you are going to get CC'd and die before you even know what happened. GG.

Recommended Summoner Spells:

Flash is a good spell, has always been and always will. It has insane synergy with your W and R and makes you blink all over the place, gives you massive assassination range, cluth escapes, ect. The same as any other LB guide would tell you.

Ignite is also a ridiculously strong no-brainer for extreme lane dominance and kill securing throughout the game. Also, the added 5 AP and AD makes a HUGE difference early game in lane, so don't be afraid to throw an ignite on your enemy during a combo lv 2 or 3 even though you don't think you can kill him.


The only real other option on LeBlanc is to replace either flash or ignite with Teleport, because it allows you to do some sick ganks bot and top, both which can easily win the game if you make them snowball. Just keep in mind that you have to sacrifice either some of your insane range or damage to get this. Also, Teleport synergizes well if you mainly play roam-heavy LB, or wish to splitpush like a god during late game.

First off, let's get the level 1-5 skill sequence clear on LB:

Distortion-> Sigil of Silence-> Sigil of Silence-> Ethereal Chains-> Sigil of Silence

This skill sequence is the one and only holy grail on LB, especially after they back-loaded some more of Q's damage in the 3.9 patch. Distortion has a slightly longer range than Sigil, deals much more damage, and gives you massive mobility for some follow up harass AAs at level 1. In short, Sigil is useless when alone, Distortion is godlike. I would never recommend Chains lv 1 even if you're invading jungle, because it is delayed CC that they can flash out of, and the mobility and damage from distortion is still very strong for invades.

After level 5, maxing priorities are Mimic> Sigil of Silence> Distortion> Ethereal Chains

After the changes in the 3.9 Patch, some people has been asking if it isn't better to max E over W now. The answer to that is a firm no. Maxing E gives slightly more, but delayed damage, and 1 sec lower CD per rank. Both in lane and jungle fights, that's way inferior to the higher up-front, easier-to-hit, 2 sec lower CD per rank on W, because next to your damage, the mobility is what defines LB. Getting that jump down to 6 seconds ASAP is very important.

Now, let's taker a closer look at the skills of the Deceiver:

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Mirror Image is perhaps the most deceptive passive in the game after they changed it so that it starts walking automatically when it triggers. I'm not even aware of my passive most of the time, but it can be really strong now and is a life-saver in many clutch situations. Since the 3.9 patch, people have begun to ignite, CC, and even chase my clone pretty often. Some enemies with AoE damage just don't give a f*ck, though. As in the video where I failed against Xerath, he just laughs at me while nuking me AND my clone with his massive AoE damage. He even gains 25 more gold from that, but only if he laughs at me meanwhile. Or something. A thing to remember with your passive is that you are invisible for a short time, so if you can manage to flash over a wall during that time, it will look like you simply vanished to the enemy team. Also, if you're getting caught by the enemy team and your Mirror Image pops, use Flash BEFORE W-R to escape, because you REALLY need to blink out of stuff like that as soon as possible.

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sigil of silence

Sigil of Silence is your main damage source for the most of the game. There is not much to say about this skill, except that you REALLY want to proc the 2nd half of the damage whenever you cast it, especially after the 3.9 change. (unless it is too dangerous of course). Otherwise it is a superb nuking skill, and can be used with Mimic and you other skills to chain a 3 second silence if you can't go directly for the kill.

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Distortion is my personal favorite skill on LeBlanc. The mobility and endless juking potential it offers is unparalleled by any other skill in the game, and it has been repeatedly buffed to be at a ridiculously low CD at max level now. The many uses of this skill is best learned through playing loads of games as LB, but i'll name a few here: - Coming back to lane 1 second faster after going back by using it when you leave the fountain. Your mana will regenerate by the time you hit lane. - Freezing an oncoming minion wave by aggroing the minions and the Distorting over the minions. Then run as far as you can away from your turret before reactivating the return part of the skill. Especially useful in toplane, where freezing lane is most useful. - Juking enemies by jumping walls and return back when they flash/jump after you. Use in conjunction with Mimic over the exact same wall if the enemy got more dashes to make them rage. Hard. - Escape ganks with W or W-R, it creates a massive gap between you and your enemies. - Catch low HP enemies who *think* they are safe with W-possibly Flash-R-Q-E-W(return) (good idea when chasing to land on them with R (W) if you can because it deals decent damage, and makes Q-E easy to land. If you used R to mimic Q instead, you will not be able to land your chains, and the enemy is then more likely to escape.) - Make your enemies batsh*t confused in general.

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Ethereal Chains is a decent skill that allows you to kite/damage/control your enemies and save fleeing allies. It can be hard to land, especially when there are minions in lane, but can be really useful if it hits. Some uses of Chains can be: - If possible, landing Chains on your enemy in lane before using any other skills gives you a huge advantage. You got the ball (his balls, metaphorically), and can decide if you wish to burst/harras/disengage if ganked, ect. By hitting the chain, you are in range to walk up to your opponent and smack a Q-R-W in his face, leaving him dead, silenced, rooted, and crying on the inside. If you are about to get ganked, you could just walk up on the enemy and do a Q-W on him, use the return part on W and then save R(W) to escape their jungler, thus dominating your lane AND stalling their jungler. - E-(1 sec wait)-R-Q can be used against fleeing enemies you want to lock down for your team to kill, or enemy mobile melee champions who are chasing you to keep them continuously rooted while you work your magic at their life bar. (I'm looking at you, Lee Sin, Renekton, Jarvan IV, Riven, ect.) - Remember that it is not possible to use a dash when either Rooted or Silenced, so an Q-E-R or Q-R-E combo can prevent gap closers and escapes like Resonating Strike, or Lissandra's Glacial Path, even after the 1st part of the skill is activated.

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Mimic is truly a lovely skill. It adds loads of depth and damage to LeBlanc, while being on a low cooldown. Many of the uses for R is already described along with the other skills, and the rest is really a matter of trying it out for yourself. Just try playing around with it at first and get the flow of your combos when using R. Of course the standard Q-R-W-E combo works for killing people, but there is much more to it. The 3.9 patch introduced a fundamental change to Mimic by making its damage scale purely off its own skill rank rather than the rank of the mimicked skill. This means lower damage if you mimic rank 5 skills (Q) while Mimic is at rank 1, roughly the same damage as level 5 skills with mimic rank 2, and MUCH more damage with mimic lv 3. However, it deals more damage than before when mimicking a low rank Distortion or Ethereal Chains. Thus, mimic didn't get nerfed this patch, it got normalized. When factoring in that they made it free at level 1 even brings me to say that they buffed this skill, because LB used to be mana intensive early game, something she definitely isn't now.

I will soon add (more) videos to this chapter. For now, you can look at SIV HD being fancy,

In this chapter I will show some video examples LeBlanc's generic skill combos and when they're most useful. The return part of Distortion is not shown in the combos except the brushie brushie, since it varies from situation to situation whether it is good to use or not.


This combo is super safe to do and deals a good amount of damage. However, you spend quite a bit of mana for nothing when you use Distortion purely to get in range, and you don't get to proc your mimicked Sigil of Silence damage. This combo is great for guaranteed opening harass when you return to lane with full mana, or when you get blue buff.
You might ask why I don't include Ethereal Chains in this combo in order to proc the Sigil.
This is because your Chains are mana intensive early, deals little damage, and are probably hard to land. Feel free to use your chains if you are confident that you will land them and got a clear shot, but otherwise they will often miss and waste valuable mana.
This is explained deeper in the following spoiler.

Before going into the gameplay of specific lanes, I'd like to tell about my way of contributing to the team as LeBlanc. As you may have noticed during the "Wards & jungler" section, I roam much less in early and midgame with LeBlanc than virtually any other guide in the world tells you to. This is also why I believe LB toplane is much better than most people think.

This is because I focus on dominating my lane and forcing the enemy team (usually just the jungler) to come to my lane, and thus eliminate the need for roaming. Why chase your enemies when you can make them come to you? As said before, you give your team a 4v3 advantage on the rest of the map if you can keep two enemies focused upon you for the most of the time.
IF the enemy team decides not to gank your lane, then you will just keep raping your lane opponent under turret until you finally destroy the turret, and with it, his morale (and CS and level for that matter).
Congratulations, now the game is 5v4 for a long time, aka. you still win.
This applies to both top- and midlane.

You will, of course, start roaming after you're done raping your lane or when fighting over objectives as mid LB. It usually begins gradually with a successful gank in another lane, and then evolves into dragon , a turret run or a turret siege, which you by the way excel at during midgame/start lategame.

Sometimes it might be prudent to gank botlane rather early if the enemy botlane are super aggressive/getting fed or if your mid is impossible to kill. (Although you shouldn't have picked LB into that Morgana anyways).

Both in midlane and toplane, you want to use your Autoattacks as much as possible to harass your opponent. The lower level you are, the more your AA counts.
Also, careful mana management is important especially in the early laning phase. You will want to harass your opponent as much as possible with the mana you use. It is also usually not a good idea to use your abilities on minions early-game, but in time you will get the feel of when it is needed to spend mana on minions to grab some extra lasthits you would otherwise miss, instead of harassing your enemy.

Remember, farming is important for every champion, and LeBlanc is no exception. Her AA has an excellent animation for faming, and you need that gold to kill your enemies late on. (Unless you get ridiculously fed on kills, of course. A 12/0/3 LeBlanc is so much fun.)

Some other general tips for laning is to monitor the mana levels of your opponent to see how much they can do in a fight. For example, an enemy Ryze with around 100 mana can only use 1-2 spells on you, so you can safely engage him even if he's at full hp and you're at 50%.

Another important thing is to know the Summoner Spells of your opponent, Tab is your friend. If the enemy Orianna has barrier instead of Ignite, you may wish to reconsider when you can and can't burst her. If the enemy Ryze has Teleport instead of Ignite, you can go to house on him in lane even if you're at 250 hp, as long as you silence him when going in. Remember, he's your b'tch. :D

Lastly, it can also be important to monitor the cooldowns of your opponent. Enemy Fizz used Playful / Trickster 7 seconds ago? You still have some time to harass him before it is back up.
Ahri used Spirit Rush to escape last time you used your ulti, around 40 secs ago? You still have almost a full minute to abuse her in lane.

If you don't know the cooldowns of your opponent, look the enemy champion up on
http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/
during the loading screen. You might as well use the waiting time to become better at the game.

First of all, if you happen to fight a standard AP mid in toplane like Ryze, Orianna or AP Nidalee, read the midlane chapter as well.
So, you're interested as to how LeBlanc could possibly work toplane when she is super squishy and got no sustain? The question is understandable, and the reason is the same as why LB is strong mid: her massive damage.

Let's taker a closer look at the balance of power between LeBlanc toplane and generic bruiser opponents:

LeBlanc +Strong ranged AA due to setup. +Safe farming/harassing range. +High mobility. +High damage. +Decent single-target CC. +Pulls enemy jungler away from rest of the map if he tries to camp top. -Weak at pushing. -Easier to gank unwarded top than unwarded mid. -Squishy as f*ck. -The safety of turret can be so far away.

Enemy Generic Bruiser +High damage. +Somewhat tanky naturally. +Usually has 1 gap closer or some other mobility. + Hexdrinker +May have CC. +May have shield/sustain. +Can usually push easily. -May push inadvertently. -Needs to get in melee range. -Easy to gank if in melee range. -Usually can't stick on to a target with escapes.

These lists can be summarized in the following sentences: If LeBlanc can stay at a range and destroy her opponents, she wins. If the enemy bruiser can get on top of LB and she doesn't escape, they win. In short, abuse your range to harass and win lane, starting at level 1.
Get as many free autoattacks in as you can, and use your Distortion to harass them level 1 unless they ranked a gapcloser level 1. You can do this because you can retreat to minions using the second part of W, and the enemy can't survive to be on top of you with minion aggro on him at level 2.
After that, the lane is generally about whittling down the lifebar of your enemy and then going all in for the kill at the right time. It is CRUCIAL that you can kill your enemy instantly or in 1 or 2 extra AA if you go all in, because they can pop you from 100-0 in a few seconds if you stay on top of them.

When going all in, it is extremely important to be aware of your enemy's shielding opportunities.
Are you fighting a Riven, who has 10 hp after your silence wears off, then goes on to pop a shield, a CC, and then chunks your whole lifebar away in 3 attacks and ult? That's not luck. That is you being unaware of how much damage your burst deals and the opponent's shielding options.
On the same note, Hexdrinker is the item I hate the most when playing LB top. The shield and stats it offers are extremely cost efficient and can bait you into going all in at the wrong moment, causing you to DIE!
Try to get your opponent down to ~30% hp if they got hexdrinker, and then pop a lone Sigil of Silence on them to activate the shield and wait until it dissipates.
And of course, if the enemy got a shielding Valor ability Golden Aegis+ Hexdrinker+ Barrier, you have to be really aware of their CD, shield amount, ect. If you're fast, you may be able to silence them and go for the kill before they can activate their shields.

You will roam even less from toplane than you will from midlane, and the transition from laning to roaming/teamfighting will be much clearer than when playing mid.

First of all, if you happen to fight a standard toplane bruiser in midlane like Riven, Jarvan or even Rumble, read the toplane chapter as well.

In midlane, there is 1 rule: Smack their face continually, starting at level 1.


Use your Autoattack -> Distortion on enemy -> AA (maybe x2) -> return to chunk away at their health early, possibly setting your opponent up for FB at level 2. Although I advice to use Ignite early and often, you will want to save it until level 2 since it gains 20 true damage per level which is massive from levels 1-2.
Remember to use ignite before/while you land your Q-W for increased damage.
(A good tip is to use Q simultaneously with ignite, so you gain the full use of your AP bonus. If you are in range to cast Q but not ignite, then use ignite while in-flight with W.)

Other than that, it is important that you play aggressively, while keeping the enemy jungler in mind as explained in the previous sections, especially when it is time for that lethal lv 3 gank. The level 3 gank may also happen within a few seconds after you have the opportunity to all in your opponent at level 2, so be aware of the map, and get the heck back to your turret after/if you get FB level 2.

Try to keep their jungler around your lane, help out on dragon calls, gank if you see an opportunity without losing too many minions in mid. IF your botlane is getting crushed by an enemy Draven (such a lane bully), it may be worthwhile setting up an ambush down there and pop in and remove that mean ADC when the enemy engages the next time. Keep in mind, that no matter how fed their ADC are, they are still just as squishy as any 0/0/0 ADC, since they only build damage early with the extra gold.
Don't fear the fed ADC, regard him as a trophy.

Remember, League of Legends is a team game, and communication is the key to success.
Ping or write if you are going to make plays, and a "OMW" ping into botlane makes a huge difference when compared to just walking down there, because your teammates are suddenly aware of the plays and should be able to react on it. (I say should, because they don't always react. The lower rank you are, the less likely it is.)
Lack of communication is the #1 problem people face in lower ranks, and I believe most silver players could rise noticeably in the tiers if they (and the teams they get) would communicate clearly and consistently.

Slightly unrelated comparison: Communicating well >>> Warding well

Also, your attitude and the morale of the team is an extremely important factor in deciding the outcome of a game. Try to keep high spirits on the team, and Don't play ranked while in a bad mood. Take a break if you get in a bad mood after losing a game or a few games in a row.

A link to an article about teamwork and its importance in LoL is included in the end of this guide, as well as a guide on emotions and their importance.

Parts of this chapter is taken from Albableat's LeBlanc guide, which was the first and best guide I ever read on LB when I started playing her. It is a sad thing that that guide has been outdated and archived. Used with permission, thank you, Albableat. :D


So, let's get to those lovely teamfights, shall we?

This is what you will absolutely LOVE!
This usually happens if both teams contest the dragon, or the roaming game starts early for some reason.

If your opponents are really stupid enough to start team-fights at this point, it works only to your advantage. At this point:
A. You don't care whom to kill. Their tanks are not truly tanks yet and their carries are not that fed to really carry yet.
B. Turrets are still a huge damage-factor. You may be well assured that there is not going to be a lot of tower diving. And this gives you so much more safety. If you failed to kill someone, just run to safety, no one will follow you.
And if they do tower-dive you, you have a really nice kit to fight under turrets.
Remember, you have a silence, dash and snare in your arsenal plus one extra of whatever you need the most.
C. You will be able to hold a 2v1 lane, maybe even a 3v1 lane if you're ahead and can instagib whomever is camping in front of your turret. Use the safety of your turret and unleash your fury on the sieging enemies whenever you get the chance.
Meanwhile your team will probably rape their bot and top.


Here, you have to be more careful with picking your target.

Usually, the best idea would be to kill the carry or an off-tank that deals a lot of damage to your team or a support that literally sustains his team. Your burst should be high enough to kill them (carry or support) within a single spell rotation. If you cannot grab an instakill on an opponent, you shouldn't just wait around until you can't.
Instead you must use your spells to grant your team some control of the battle while dealing some damage. (Example: Lock down their approaching off-tank with your Q-E to deal significant damage while allowing your team to pummel him.)

It is risky to jump in with Distortion to proc your Sigil at this point, so analyze the situation before you decide to do it. CC can be extremely dangerous to you at this point if you don't get back in time, and you will blow your escape mechanism by doing this. That also means that you suddenly won't be able to jump away when Jarvan IV chooses to drop his mansack Cataclysm on you. That stuff really hurts a lot.


So, now is the time where LB requires the most skill to stay effective. If the game has gone on for this long, your lane opponent in early game will probably be back in the game even if you were dominating early game.
I have already gone through some of the late game teamfight tactics in the items section after DFG, but here it goes again:
In the perfect world, you still want to kill the enemy ADC or APC quickly right before or in the beginning of the fight.
However, you must value your life somewhat now. You are a huge damage factor, and your team is crippled without you. So, if you can't go in and get someone safely (that is, they got strong CC and are prepared for you, ect.), you must stay back a bit and unload your damage on easier-to-reach targets whom are harder to burst (eg. their initiators). You can easily take down the enemy frontline with a full combo including DFG together with your ADC, thus relieving some of pressure on your team.
This, is turn, will make it safer when you go for the enemy backline. Remember, your combo is on a short 6 second CD now except for your ult, which ticks back in after 14.4 seconds. This means you will be able to silence, root and damage the enemy squishies pretty fast and hard after your initial takedown.

Another approach to the late game as LeBlanc is splitpushing - this will be covered in the following chapter.

This chapter has been edited slightly after being shamelessly stolen from Albableat's guide on Leblanc, with permission.

Split pushing during late game may very well we one of the most efficient strategies to employ as LeBlanc. Although it might seem awkward at first, it's actually very effective if you put a little thought in it.
Below, I will explain why do I think so, how to properly do it as LeBlanc and when to choose to split push.

TL;DR: Pretty often if you like playing her.

Most, if not all other LeBlanc guides out there use a great deal of time in pointing out that LeBlanc is a COUNTERPICK, not a blind pick or regular AP carry.
While it is true that LeBlanc can't be an AP carry in the traditional Season 2 AoE teamfight nuking sense, she is still a strong pick who can easily manage being the only source of AP damage on the team.
Contrary to many other guides, I believe that LeBlanc is a strong PICK who doesn't rely on countering specific champions in order to excel, and I often blind pick LeBlanc into an empty enemy mid and/or top. If the enemy should happen to pick a strong counter to LeBlanc (looking at you, Morgana), then you must make sure to communicate with your team so that you can go toplane (or mid if you got countered top), and have your team counter-counter their lane.

In order to blind pick LeBlanc, you need to be very skilled both at mid and top, and know the ins and outs of whatever enemy you happen to be matched against, so if you are new to LB or still don't feel like you master her completely, it is safer to avoid blind picking her and keep using her as a counterpick against lanes you know are easy/matches your current skill level.

After having said all that, it is still important to look at your Team Composition. In short, every team needs someone who can deal damage (minimum of 1 AP and AD), someone who can initiate, someone who can tank and someone who can support. Leblanc brings damage to the team, but she can't initiate, tank, or help her teammates much except with her Ethereal Chains.
Thus, it would be unwise to pick Leblanc into a team which already has loads of damage, but lacks CC and tanks. If that is the case, you are probably better off with someone who can initiate well (Kennen with ult, Orianna with ult, Galio with ult), or take some hits (Ryze, Diana, Mordekaiser).

There are, of course, exceptions to this standard setup, as a super-mobile poke team (example LeBlanc, Nidalee, Lee Sin, Caitlyn, Janna) can win against low-mobility, all-in teams (Amumu, Darius, Draven, Leona, Anivia), as it is possible to outmaneuver, split push and pick off the enemies one by one if played well. That, however, is a completely different topic, and for the most time, you will be better off with a balanced team. ;)

A reference is included in the end of this guide to another article which explains team compositions more in-depth.

Don't fight these guys. Go to toplane if you are against any one of these or i'm 95% sure you'll lose the match single-handedly. While you might not die in lane to them, they will win the game later on because they outfarm you, outscale you, and rape your team. If you die to them in lane it will be the same, but worse.
The exception to this is Kassadin, where you might win lane with your early advantage, but it is a big gamble and it usually turns out bad. Feel free to fight Kassadin if you wish to play the game in hard-mode, but don't say I didn't warn you.

I will rate each opponent on a difficulty scale from 1 to 5, where 1 is easiest and 5 is certain defeat if your opponent is halfway decent. Personally I would fight any enemy who is rated 4 or lower. Remember, just because an enemy is rated low (Laughing at you, Ryze!), they can still become a threat later in the game if you don't dunk them early. Conversely, an enemy rated 4 can easily be rendered useless for 40 minutes if you manage to get ahead and leave a little dump on them in lane. Also, if you're still not confident with LB, it might be a wise choice to only go for enemies rated 3 or possibly even lower.
If the difficulty of an enemy is given in a parenthesis (example, difficulty: (3/5)), it means that I rarely play that matchup and I am not quite sure if it is correct. (although it is still a qualified guess/distinct memory of the matchup).

Matchups

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Doran's shield is a big problem for you in lane, since it negates TONS of damage from your autoattacks and provides strong hp/5 and hp at a low cost.

Additional notes for toplane, after the 3.10 patch:
* Added Spectre's Cowl
* Now, Spectre's Cowl upgrades into the new Spirit Visage and Banshee's Veil

This change is a huge nerf to LeBlanc in some of her toplane matchups. Any toplaner who is viable when build tanky ( Malphite, Shen, Cho'Gath, Garen and so on) is now harder to beat as LeBlanc. The Hp and MR these items give makes it much harder to burst through the enemy at all stages of the game. Additionally, the hp/5 it gives when hit (also triggers on AA) makes them more resilient against your lane harass.
After testing this for some time, I have concluded that LeBlanc is still able to fight enemies with these items. However, they are very hard now.

Matchups

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A fun guide on most basic aspects of the game, read it to become a better player, although there is a lot of swearing involved. Also covers team compositions somewhat: http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=71443

How to become a better player, looking inwards: http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=2170022

Funny team compositions, read for laughs. (They can still be viable even though they're gimmicks. A Vayne with 4 lives is just a pain.): http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Andrew.heo1/Notable_Team_Compositions

Luck plays a huge role in SoloQ, but luck evens out. Here's a mathematical approach to climbing the ladder, definitely a good read: http://euw.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=859779

How emotions play a huge role in League of Legends, also covers some teamwork aspects. THIS IS A MUST READ, as it is a really important aspect in order to excel at this game. Also, it has cats. Lots of cats: http://nhanfiction.com/2012/04/04/emotions-the-driving-force-behind-player-performance-2/

I have one comment to the above article, however. While the article recommends playing while in a neutral or happy state of mind, I would warn against playing ranked games while being too happy. This is because the brain doesn't weigh risks and analyze situations properly if you are happy, and thus may end up taking reckless decisions.

An example: You are getting slightly ahead in lane and thinks "oh, I can 100-0 my opponent easily". You forget the fact that they have barrier, and only end up getting him down to 350 Health. You have blown all of your skills and taken a turret hit meanwhile, and now their jungler comes into your lane, because you sent a party invitation in all chat a minute earlier since you wanted to draw him away from your other lanes. He takes part in the party by killing you and then uses that advantage to snowball the enemy botlane as well, and you end up losing the game since your enemy in mid also got an extra Null-Magic Mantle purchased with the gold he got from aiding in killing you.

Of course the misjudgments can vary and be both smaller and greater than this example, but the general concept is that you can't make the best decisions if you're too happy.

Also, imagine how three different people would look at the following situation:
You're standing at the top of a small cliff (10 metres above water level), and are looking down. It is a hot summer day and you are wearing a full-body bathing suit because you are thinking about going for a swim.

The overjoyous person will think: "Oh cool, I am going to perform the sickest corkscrew jump ever into that water, it is the perfect jump!" He then jumps and performs an AWESOME trick, but hits a sharp rock formation just below the water line and dies.

The sadly depressed pessimist looks at the water and thinks: "Meh. There are probably some sharp rocks down there. My life sucks." He then jumps anyway because he wants to die.

The person who has eaten his cereal like usual and is a neutral state of mind thinks: "Man, that jump looks crazy. I guess it could be awesome, but who knows what might happen down there. Better go down to the beach and slide into the water instead of jumping from this height."
He is now the only survivor. Made-up story, true point.

Therefore, I recommend a neutral or only slightly happy state of mind if you wish to play ranked games to the best of your ability.

That being said, it can be tons of fun to play normal games with your friends if you are all happy and start doing awesome (and awesomely bad) moves. Even feeding can be fun if your whole team is having a laugh at it together and do it while making SICK plays.
I highly recommend having such games with your friends every once in a while. It's hilarious.