LeBlanc Build Guide : LeBlanc - #1 Solo Mid :: League of Legends Strategy Builds

Introduction

This is my first champion guide and will be the first of many. I consider myself very experienced with , and I find her to be one of the strongest AP carrys for solo mid. You will have complete lane dominance if played correctly until about level 11 (unless you do good during that time, then you will dominate far past that).

Please read this whole guide and try it in game multiple times before giving thumbs up or down just based on what you read. Do not expect this guide to help you win every game, but this will help you get a much better grasp on .

Please read the whole guide and give me constructive criticism in the comments section! Let me know what you do/don't like for future guides that I write.

Pros / Cons

Pros

Cons

Runes

Preferred Runes

I take 9x Greater Mark of Insight (+0.95 magic penetration) because it will allow consistent damage through out the whole game and will allow you to deal great damage in the early phase, which is where truly shines.

I take 9x Greater Seal of Clarity (+0.065 mana regen / 5 sec. per level) because is a very mana hungry champion. You will constantly be casting spells and you need to have a lot of mana for your full combo, these will help you stay at a high mana amount.

WHY PER LEVEL OVER FLATS?
I chose per level seals over flat seals because flats give 0.41 mana per 5, per levels give 0.065 mana per 5 per level. By the time you hit level 7, your per level seals are now giving you 0.45 mana per 5, already higher than the flats and it only gets higher from there. It will continue to raise until level 18.

I chose 9x Greater Glyph of Potency (+1.19 ability power) because needs to be fed early game to sustain her damage through late game. By following this guide, using the given runes, items, and masteries you will achieve over 50 ability power at level 1 which is more than enough to do amazing damage to your opponent in lane.

I chose 3x Greater Quintessence of Potency (+4.95 ability power) because needs to be fed early game to sustain her damage through late game. By following this guide, using the given runes, items, and masteries you will achieve over 50 ability power at level 1 which is more than enough to do amazing damage to your opponent in lane.

Other Viable Runes

You can take 9x Greater Mark of Potency (+0.59 ability power) because it will give you a lot more power early game, which is where DOES need to get fed in order to succeed, but sacrificing for these runes are almost never worth it because of the stats you'll be losing for your late game.

You can take 9x Greater Seal of Potency (+0.59 ability power) because it will give you a lot more power early game, which is where DOES need to get fed in order to succeed, but sacrificing for these runes wouldn't be worth it because you will have trouble keeping your mana high enough to cast spells in order to use this extra ability power. So is highly recommended over these but it is all user preference.

You can take 9x Greater Glyph of Force (+0.17 ability power per level) which are also very viable for because of the amazing power they will give you at a pretty early level. (They pass over flat ability power glyphs at level 7) But I still always choose flats over these ones because I use the first 6-8 levels to get multiple kills, which will snowball into me doing consistent damage through out the whole game.

You can take 3x Greater Quintessence of Fortitude (+26 health) if you are having trouble staying alive in the early game stage. These runes provide a great amount of health early game, but don't scale well into late game making them hard for me to use often. is a very high risk, high reward champion. Her combo requires you to blow all of your skills on a single enemy, leaving you with not much escape. So if you are not completely comfortable with her combos yet, then I suggest using these as a safe-fall.

Masteries

Mental Force gives you +4 ability power.
Sorcery gives you +4% cooldown reduction.
Arcane Knowledge gives you 10% magic penetration.
Havoc increases your damage by 1.5%.
Blast gives you 1 ability power per level (+18 at level 18).
Archmage increases your ability power by 5%.
Executioner increases your damage to targets under 40% health by 6%.

Summoner's Insight reduces your cooldown by 15 seconds.
Good Hands makes you respawn 10% faster.
Swiftness increases your movement speed by 2%.
Runic Affinity increases buff duration by 20%.

Abilities + Combos

Abilities

sigil of silence

Mirror Image : Mirror image is a nice passive because it gives you a slight deceive effect. Once you get below 40% health, you go invisible for a half of a second and a clone of you pops up beside you. This clone is fully capable of moving and attacking (will not do damage).

sigil of silence Sigil of Silence (Q) : Sigil of silence is your main skill. It is your main damage source when paired with and offers a lot of cc. These two skills used together can easily take out more than 70% of another players health depending on items.

Distortion (W) : Distortion is an amazing gap closer. I always make sure to get this skill at level 2 to avoid any early ganks from the enemy jungler, and paired with your Sigil of Silence it makes an amazing nuke and silence. Paired with will give you a double flash, making escaping or chasing an enemy a very easy task.

Ethereal Chains (E) : Ethereal chains is a very nice skill, it is a skill shot slow/stun. It is a fairly easy skill shot to hit and will allow you to get a lot of free hits on your enemy. If you can use this skill correctly, it should allow you to use Sigil of Silence and then stun them with and use Sigil of Silence again before they even become unstunned.

Mimic (R) : Mimic is 's number one skill. It offers so many possibilities, whether it be a nuke of 70% of your opponents health, a double stun, or a double flash. Using this skill in combo with any of your other skills all have their own benefits.

Combos

Main Offensive Combo (Most damage)
sigil of silence >> >> >> >> sigil of silence

You have to use this combo very fast, I suggest using smart casting. By default, it is set to the Shift button. So to do this combo, you would press Shift-Q, Shift-R, Shift-W, Shift-E, Shift-Q. Hold Shift and hit QRWEQ fairly quickly, while aiming your mouse at your target (no clicks required while smart casting).

Triple Flash
>> >>

This is your best escape mechanism as LeBlanc, you have three flashes and it would be fairly hard to get ganked with all 3 of them up, unless you get silenced. Use your , and then your and then your .

Safe Distance Harass
>> sigil of silence >> >>

This is the fastest combo you will do, so you need to smart cast for this. Stand behind your minions slightly. Then use your to get into range of your enemy, hold shift and hit Sigil of Silence and on your enemy very quickly so that both spells fire at the same time. Then use your to go back to your original position.

Easy Silence to Other Casters in Middle
sigil of silence >> >>

Just get into range to hit your Sigil of Silence and once you hit that, your can reach the enemy. So hit your Sigil of Silence and then your twice really fast so you go to the enemy, silence them (and damage them a lot because of sigil of silence's mark that got placed on them) and return to your original position safely.

First Blood Combo (once you hit level 6, use this combo)
>> >> sigil of silence >> >>

This is also another very fast combo that will require smart casting. When you hit level 5, occasionally hit your enemy with a few 's so that they are at about 70% health (should take about 2). Once you hit level 6, into range of your , use your to damage them, and then Sigil of Silence, , for the kill.

Early Game Items

Starting Items

Aggressive -

Defensive -

Balanced -

Aggressive

this should be built into (depending on how your game is going)

or

- is if you get very fed early in the game and feel confident enough that you can continue keeping a very positive score, I'd suggest at least a 3-1 KDR before buying this item.

- is what you would want to buy if you're either not doing too great (or just breaking even) or if you would want to be more aggressive with the CDR that it provides. This item will later build into either a Morello's Tome or depending on what stats you need later in the game.

Defensive

your boots will be built into either
or

- are the boots that you want to buy if you like being an assassin with a very often nuke capability. I buy these boots in 90% of my games.

- are the boots that I buy only when my lane opponent rushes a very early in the game to counter me.

Balanced

I generally only go this item path if I'm up against a because his silence annoys me so much, so I need to have extra health since it's only a 9 second cooldown and also, I like to have the extra mana regen so I can also be a little more aggressive towards him while his silence is on cooldown.

Early Game Items - Summary

or
or
or
(depending on how you laning phase went and what you can afford)

Mid/Late Game Items

This section is where your items will vary quite a bit usually.

Rabadons Deathcap : Your main item as because it allows you so much nuking power. This item alone gives 182 ability power, not including any other items, runes or masteries.

Zhonya's Hourglass : The active on this item is amazing for because of her short cooldowns. If you are being chased and your has a 4 second cooldown, you can use the active on this item to safely reduce it to 2 seconds and buy yourself a lot of time to think of your escape path (also great for countering , and ultimates).

Deathfire Grasp : I love this item on . I can't count how many kills I've gotten by waiting in the river bush near dragon and using this combo.
>> Sigil of Silence >> >> .
This will kill almost any enemy champion in the mid/late game phase.

Lich Bane : This item, in my opinion, goes hand in hand with the above combo.
>> Sigil of Silence >> >> >> proc.
This above combo will also kill almost any champion, but this goes on towards the later phase. I also enjoy getting Lich Bane to keep sustained damage while I'm laning. Using Sigil of Silence and following up with a direct auto attack will total in damage in the high hundreds every 3-4 seconds.

Void Staff : This is a great item while fighting a team that is building tanky to counter you, which they should be considering you should be very fed by this point in the game. If no champion is hard countering you, pick another item that would fit your situation from the viable items section.

Viable Items

Morello's Evil Tome : I usually get this item right after my to give myself more CDR so I can be a lot more aggressive in lane, but that just fits my playstyle because I like having 40% CDR and spamming my whole combo every 18 seconds (usually resulting in a kill).

Rod of Ages : I tend to find myself buying against champions that are giving me a hard time early game, such as or . Of course build Catalyst the Protector first so that the passive can help you out in lane and then build into it as soon as you can since it takes 10 minutes to have its full effect.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter : This item is great because of the extra health that it gives if you're having trouble staying alive. The passive shouldn't come into play much as because your job is to finish people off in one single combo, not to give them a chance to run at all so they shouldn't need to be slowed.

Archangel's Staff : I don't ever buy this item on because I don't think the games will usually last long enough to make use of its full potential, but if you have a game that you think will drag out long enough to maximize its passive then by all means, buy this amazing item. I like to stack them and add a resulting in numbers easily surpassing 800 ability power.

Banshee's Veil : I can't count how many times this item has allowed me to get a kill, because it stopped me from getting silenced by or stunned by before I was able to pull off my combo. If the enemy team is very cc heavy, I suggest getting this item to counter them because you can not find yourself being unable to cast or you're pretty much useless.

General Tips for LeBlanc

is an assassin and should be played as one. You need to be able to quickly enter fights, kill someone, and escape without being in too much danger.

shines very heavily in early and middle game phases, she falls off very hard during late game though. Use this to your advantage, get fed as much as possible during early game so that you will at least be somewhat useful late game.

is a complicated champion to play. Any can one shot people, but playing her effectively and using her properly in team fights is a different story completely.

is not just solely a burst champion, she can deal sustained damage to multiple targets with the use of Sigil of Silence and auto attack proc. At late levels, you should be able to use this combo every 3-4 seconds and deal 700-800 damage using it.

Summary

Please note the following.

Change Log

May 9, 2012 : Guide created, added introduction, runes, and masteries.
May 12, 2012 : Added three general tips for .
May 14, 2012 : Added abilities + combo tips.
May 15, 2012 : Added one general tip for and the early game item section.
May 18, 2012 : Added mid/late game items and viable items section.

LeBlanc - #1 Solo Mid

LeBlanc - #1 Solo Mid

Spells:

Flash

Ignite

Ability Order

Mirror Image (PASSIVE)

Sigil of Malice (Q)

Distortion (W)

Ethereal Chains (E)

Mimic (R)