10/07/2013: LB got *updated*.
I am aware of these changes and will change the guide as appropriate
HOwever, given how this guide is so large, it might take a while.

My opinion?
Pending.

25/09/2013: I am aware the guide is out dated.
however, I don't have the time to go through the entire thing and change everything.
Nor do i feel I have the neccessary expertise to pass judgement on her anymore.
That said, Nobody else seems to have taken the mantle, and this, fortunately/unfortunately remains the bastion of knowledge on LB.

22/01/2013: THe long work hsa begun on updating this resource.
STay tuned.

As such I will keep it up until someone else comes along.

For regular updates, look to my channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/r3negade37 All new videos are posted there. TY

I've decided to put this section in here to explain the guide a bit.

Whilst initially all I had intended to do was simply to write about Leblanc, quite frankly that isn't possible to do by itself if I wish to do her any justice.

You can have as good mechanical skill as you want... but if you have non-existant general game skills like map awareness, then no amount of writing purely about Leblanc will help you.

This is why I wrote sections like Who I am, my experiences, How I play her, in an attempt to instill some background knowledge into those who read this guide.

So it's split as such:

You want to learn to play Leblanc to the best of your ability?
Read everything.

You already have good game skills and knowledge, and just want to know about Leblanc and how she works?
I guess you can skip straight to Runes, Masteries, Summoners.

That is all.

Thank you.

Is any introduction needed? This is Leblanc. At one point or another, (unless you've been a very sheltered person), people will have been at the receiving end of an absolute drubbing by this champion. Comes out of nowhere, combos you, and gtfo's. Typically followed by "OP", or other choice complaints/expletives.

I intend to be as detailed as I can in this guide. But I will make one thing clear: guides are no substitute for experience. If LoL was a game where it had one-size-fits-all solutions it would be rather stale. Likewise, this guide is not a light read. This is literally the distillation of everything I have learned - and if you're here panicking because you've locked her in before a ranked game and don't know what to do, you're out of luck buddy. To this end, I've tried to make this guide moderately visually appealing, but It's substance that matters. You won't find funky banners, icons, ponies w/e here. If you're here to actually get better at her... then read on.

Let's make another thing clear: playing Leblanc properly is both hard, and not hard.
Any idiot can QR someone. Any muppet can get a good game with a champion and carry his team. It takes practice, skill and knowledge to consistently do your job well. Leblanc's kit is so incredibly versatile, that the amount of intricacies in the variables one considers in decision making takes far longer to master than other champions. And even then, Leblanc relies on your opponents making mistakes. At high ELOMMR, that doesn't happen often. Or at least, not willingly . Miss your opportunity, and you WILL fail. No amount of farming will rescue you if you fail in your window of dominance as LB. After all, does your ADC scale better with farm or you? (Actually, it depends, because your ADC might have the braincells of a goldfish. If you're lucky.) It generally only takes one mistake for you to die horribly. But luckily for you, I will be spelling most of these out later on.

On the other hand, if only people weren't utterly brain-dead sometimes they would find themselves so much better off. I'm talking about consistent face-planting into walls, building items which just don't work on Leblanc, and having one-track minds. This latter part I will elaborate on later on in this guide.

As with any champion: USE YOUR BRAIN . This guide is how I play her. It would be short-sighted, not to mention arrogant, to say this is the only or best way to play her. I'm sure someone else will have success with her by playing her differently.
Nevertheless, this guide might have a shade more bitterness in it than others. So I apologise for that.


But lastly, and perhaps most importantly: always look to what mistakes you made. . You know the drill. "Elo hell." "feeders". "ragers". It's simply too easy to state you lost the game due to other people's mistakes. Perhaps. But in my games I still find that one mistake or two that i could have avoided. Try it. Get LoLreplay, set it up, watch your games.

Ingame, my main account is "totally not n00b". I play AP mid preferentially, maining Leblanc , Swain, Vladiqueer, Veigar, and if not, support. Why? Because I like having fun . In this case, killing things. I like having the power within myself to dictate the course of the game. I find champions like Morgana boring and one-dimensional. I don't see the point in winning if one doesn't have fun. Hell, even if I lose, I'll generally have fun. Sitting back and farming until a team fight to me is just tedious and dull.

"But soviet, why a support? isn't that tedious and dull?"
Common misconception. I always felt support was the most important of the roles, but at lower elo it isn't as important.
On a more practical note, you're
a) not going to get mid everytime
b) not going to get a favourable mid everytime
c) not going to get anywhere in ranked if you know the one role.
On a more hilarious note, because although people complain about ******s in carry positions, believe me when i say you can fail just as hard as a support...

I'll make a video one day of what i mean. Imagine a soraka with half the team's deaths.

I am steadily rising through the ranks when I came back to SR from a spree of bashing people on Dominion - Under the name "I SEE SQUISHEEE". The time i spent playing LB there honed my abilities enough to normally wreck people in mid without a problem. The greatest test will be in ranked, which I am doing now.

Because this is a wall of text and needs pretty pictures, here's one or two:

These aren't bragging rights or anything, as I found stats to be a tad pointless - you can only tell so much from a picture.

I am also referred to as "Soviet", from other games. Long story... and pending investigation.

I have yet to lose mid in ranked as LB - sounds impressive, isn't an idle boast, but it will become clear why this is the case later. Just remember. Winning the lane doesn't = winning the game. As LB, winning the lane is, dare i say it, expected. But equally important, if not more so, is what you do with it. Roam. Crush the other lanes. Snowball EVERYTHING.

Or retire and afk in your lane with personal laning b1tch. It's fun, granted. Its up to you what you want to do. Who am i to judge <.<?

To understand Leblanc, and how I play and win with her, requires understanding the game.
When I first picked her up, I was good with her. I knew the basic combos, I knew to focus the squishies in a team fight. I didn't understand the finer points of her mechanics, and more importantly, what her role is in the team . Thus, like most LB players it would seem, you swing wildly between massive killing sprees and being utterly shut down. These people don't understand that you're not an AP carry.

An AP carry, in my books... sod it. Let's turn this around. Ask yourself : What is an AP carry?
Someone who fights using magic?
Someone who wins the team-fights with magic?
Someone who is adaptable, has both good killing and farming potential, and wins the teamfights with magic?
It's not that straight forward is it? In general, AP carries (in ranked anyway) tend to focus on AoE, and low-cd/highly repeatable burst, and as such win the teamfights.
LB, at least the way I play her, doesn't fit into this definition at all well. If you're content to farm away for 20 minutes, pick another champion. If you're content to build CDR over AP, pick Ryze.

Leblanc is known as a single-target assassin. Or, in less technical terms - a champion which goes:


She is also known as a ganking champion. Again, in less technical terms - A champion which has decided that farming is terribly uncouth and for the peasantry to do. Real champions do the harder job of murdering people , and get rich by farming peeps, not creeps.

Her job is not to win the teamfight through damage, it's to win the teamfight before it's even happened.


Hopefully by the end of this guide you will have formulated your own opinions as how best to utilise this champion.

Warning: wall of text. Skip to TL:DR if you must.


I feel Leblanc fits into her own niche - that of suppression . Look at it this way: a common comment thrown around about Leblanc is "she's useless lategame."
Let's assume it's true. Does it matter? If you've done your job, their mid-pick should be in a far worse state than you are. You may have lost your early-game ability to effortless kill who you please with impunity, but they will have become a non-factor if you do it right.

That's half the story.

So, I repeat, this guide will be focusing on how I play her. I play her as a counter pick - always vs / , etc. Because she, in turn, is easily counter-picked.
"But Soviet, isn't it easy to win vs a champion you naturally have an advantage over?"
- No. It's easy if the enemy is ******ed. But as stated, this guide assumes they aren't. If an ahri player hasn't met an LB, she's lucky. Secondly, your kit gives you an advantage. It's up to you, the player, to abuse it....  
 

As a result of my actions, my mid opponents become far behind where I am and don't influence the teamfights as they should.



EE: Eviserate enemy.

So that's that: I play her as a suppressor . Doesn't matter if you "fall off." In order to fall off, you need to be in a position to fall off from. If their mid never gets there... job done.
Do you know the common advice given to counter LB? "Build a banshee's." Unless you're (SOD Ryze) this is the single biggest piece of rubbish about LB you will ever hear. They've bought a banshee's veil. Hm. I distinctly remember this being a team game... don't you? By the time they've got it, team fights will start occurring - and with that, other targets who don't have  one. You, , having built AP will continue doing damage and killing, they, your average mid player, will do nothing in comparison due to having an item which gives no offensive benefit.
Perhaps they're actually clued and build offensive items anyway - that vlad getting his  at minute 18 is still majorly behind. I call that job done. But since you're most likely a Solo-Q player, that isn't enough.



GG: Go ganking.

But wait. What's better than their mid being behind? Their entire team .  

With the introduction of diminishing returns on repeatedly raping killing a target, it is even more beneficial than before to seek fresh blood. But look at it from another perspective, that Lb players tend to forget: If only you are fed, you've got to carry. So why bother? Give your other lanes an advantage - invest in giving them an advantage now, profit by being carried later.

Here's an example: Enemy jungler tries to steal your red. You notice it because, like all non-******s, you bought those lovely sightwards. The kill is going to happen regardless - and you give it to your jungler. What happens now? He can do his job better. He can suppress the enemy jungler, and the enemy lanes better than he could before. Meanwhile, you're still free to continue making your mid opponent cry.

Example:



Remember: The primary goal of a gank isn't to kill - That's a bonus. It's to give whatever lane you're ganking the advantage. Normally, that means a kill. Best outcome. But even if say, both of bot lane get away on 20% hp - they're now behind. Assuming you've been doing your job in mid, that's now two lanes which are being dominated. You're on your way to victory.




RR: Rally ******s.


Objectives. Know them. Love them. Admit it. You've seen it before: You kill bot lane and their jungler, all of you are alive, and you recall instead of doing dragon. It's the natural instinct at lower levels to be "low health - go back and heal." Sometimes you have to poke them to the obvious - It's a safe dragon. What's mid going to do, waltz in 1v4? (Obviously, assuming he's been duly suppressed)

Other objectives - Red, Blue. giving them to your team and denying them to your enemy... maybe a small thing, but small things build up. That isn't going to be happy when you're shoving sigil of silence down her throat non-stop with what was meant to be her blue. That will be being flamed for being a useless jungler (because she's the jungler. No.1 rule of SoloQ -  It's always the jungler's fault. (Unless there's a ... maybe)) because you helped your jungler take their red. But these things require co-ordination.


This boils down to a few basic principles:
1) People aren't mind readers.
2) People are sheep.
3) People like listening to the fed LB in mid... mostly. Ok, they don't, but nvm.

1)
Speak to your team. try it. The difference between saying "ganking bot" and just going there is quite measurable, for example. Maybe there's a ward you haven't seen. Maybe your bot wants to B. Heck, maybe they just don't notice you going in. - You want to tower dive that 30% HP in an , lane? It's the difference between getting a heal/shield from your support, and giving away a kill.

2)
The "low health, = must B" mentality isn't a bad one. Heck, part of playing LB is getting there before they can B. But as in the aforementioned example, if you've killed bot lane, telling people to "go for drake" is enough. Maybe a small explanation is required, but in most cases, they will listen. They just need someone/thing to break them out of their mentality.

3)
If you play/do well, people are more likely to listen to you. Obviously, you're bound to have bad games, but in the most part as long as you're not a **** about it people will co-operate. But don't wait for others to do what you can do yourself - Namely, getting objectives like dragon.

Lastly, win the game whilst you're ahead. Gather everyone, move together, push, before your enemy can farm up and fight back. It's just habit of so many people to enter the "we're stronger, I want to kill more, let's make this last." Win it whilst you still can. Or look at it this way. Win faster, play more, win more.

TL;DR:

Split game into three phases:
EE - Eviserate Enemy
GG - Go Ganking
RR - Rally ******s.

Not really much to say here

---

Magic pen reds are pretty much standard on any caster, being the most effective.

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The theory is that you rely A LOT on your autoattacks early game. Or at least, you should. The problem I have with these runes is that not everyone will be able to afford them given the rune page/rune set requirements.

If you can afford them and are comfortable auto-ing your opponents, by all means use this.
It's not vital or game breaking either way.

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Mana regen yellows are required to fuel your spells - with other casters, say, or , you could arguably swap these out for something like more ap or armour - push lane, go back to base, return. You need these to harass your opponent down to killing range, especially with the periodic Q to get a minion.

This, in combination with masteries, allows you to get away without mana-regeneration items ingame.

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Scaling AP beats flat by lvl 10.
The question you need to ask yourself is simply "can I kill my lane opponent without flat AP?".
If you feel comfortable with scaling AP, then it's the better option as it'll give you that little bit more later on in the game.

In season 3, however, I have switched to flats. Leblanc seems to be back to being an early-mid game shutdown machine, which involves as much power and pressure as early as possible, for as long as possible. Your period to shine is in the early game. By the time you're level 10, too much of the game has passed for my liking.

As , you'll be the aggressive one in lane. Yes, they will probably retaliate if they have a clue - but to me, it's better having the extra AP to go killing with than some flat MR in the early game. If you enter the mindset of "he's going to kill me before i kill him', it's already lost. There's pretty much no excuse not to take these over certain champs like , whose damage relies on skill shots. Dodge the skill shots, don't get hit, don't take damage... and if you don't take damage, MR will be pointless.

---

That said, perhaps if you're not brilliant at dodging skill shots yet - or somehow you've found yourself against . Apart from a healthy dose of swearing, i suppose once again, this is up to preference as to what you prefer. I guess i'll concede the AP difference isn't going to make that much of a difference, and some security in the lane allows you to be aggressive. You can't dodge every singleshot thrown at you after all. Or maybe you can, and you're reading this for laughs. In which case, screwwwwwww youuuu.

---

Again, more power. 15 AP at lvl 1? Yes please. In my opinion, not really any other quintessences you can take. Perhaps if you had ubiquitous rune pages (new, wanted a page which would work for everyone) then i guess movement speed quints would work too. Or just cry at your support and get her to take Janna. That works too.









Because the only other option is - and LB doesn't really care for Attack Speed.

As LB, you shouldn't be taking damage. Which means on the face of it, the choice is a no-brainer. MOAR POWER.

But realistically, you will take damage.
Also note how it increases the damage recieved by ALL sources. You do 1.5% extra damage? but all those champions get to do 1.5% extra damage to you too. Paying to cripple yourself isn't exactly something that appeals to me, but some people might call it acceptable. After all, your job is to kill. You living is secondary.


Other tier 2 masteries seem irrelevant. seems to suggest it amplifies allied champion damage, not your own. and Provides such paltry sustain i hardly think it's worth it.

Because you should always be landing AA's during engagements, especially during the laning phase.

AP. Yes please.

Crush the weak. Often allows that little bit extra damage needed to finish someone off.

Ability power. Only one on this tier which is relevant really.

% penetration and additional damage on your AA's. No real choices here. Need them to unlock

Damage. DAMAGE.

---

I honestly feel this has nothing to offer .

You're not designed to take punishment, and no amount of masteries or items will allow you to do this as if it was your main role. Your role is to kill your opponent. not to AFK farm for 20 minutes, not to tank stuff, but to kill. KILL DAMMNITZOR. BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE etc etc etc.

---

You're a roamer, and that extra movement speed will definitely be relevant to you.


Reducing both of your summoner CD's by 10%. Groovy.


2 points into here is generally enough, in conjunction with your runes, to fuel your mana needs for the game. It bears repeating: You're there to burst people instantly. not whittle them down and kill them eventually.

Leaving us with one point for:

.
Increasing blue buff duration by 20% is incredibly good for a single mastery point.

Because what else would you use it for? 1% spell vamp and life steal? A little bit more ambient gold? A biscuit? You see what I mean.

Okokok. A biscuit could technically help you out in the early game by giving you that little bit more sustain. But it's a one-time only item, and to me is definitely not giving up 20% extra buff duration for.

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Summoners.

Not really negotiatable.



First and foremost: "get out of fail free" card. You know the drill. Over extending, caught out of position, being a n00b. In alot of cases this can fix it. Well, not the last part. Sorry.

Getting that little bit of range needed to fire off a finishing sigil of silence
In addition, pulling off some maneuvers that will be demonstrated later than only LB can do.

But lastly, not having flash makes you a far more tempting target for the jungler, due to the lack of another escape mechanism.

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Needed to get kills in mid. You're Leblanc. You kill people. See the synergy?




Sigh.
For the sake of completeness, I'll go through some common alternatives and why I think they're sh----... suboptimal...

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Get better mana management. Stop Q-ing the minions so much.
Technically, this was a way of constantly harassing your opponent. But do it too much, and they'll just B...
"But Soviet, isn't that a good thing?"
Yes... and no. It's much better if they B via you killing them. Sure, you;ll get the level advantage, probably be able to gank, but quite frankly, I'm impatient. I MUST KILL.

---

Urgh. The rise of heal... on an AD carry, sure. On ap mid? You shouldn't be in a position where you're in danger of dying. Which spell would you give up? Ignite? you;re not a sustain caster. Flash? Read the flash notes.
"But Soviet, what if they take ignite and heal?"
Get the jungler to gank him more and make him regret his decision.

---

.

You shouldn't be the one at risk of dying.
You shouldn't be dying, full stop.
And if you take this, you're either giving up the versatility of , or the power of . Both are arguably far more important than this, at least on leblanc.

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Urgh. I sort of see why.... ghost to a sidelane ultra quick, gank. Person being ganked has less time to react, and less time for mid to call SS. I give in. This is sort of a viable alternative. But i just don't like giving up the versatility of flash.

Foreword:

The item list in the cheat sheet isn't the full six-item malark because of the fact that you should pretty much never get there. Full build leblanc? You're there for two reasons:

a) you're so hideously fed that you could build AD and still win
b) pretty much everyone is built, in which case you've failed in your task. (Or at least, failed in the way i would play her)

Ergo, I've listed in the "cheat sheet" the items you will get 90% of the time before a game ends, because it simply should/must end. For completeness sake nonetheless, I have included items to get later on.

---

The above is generally your core.


In season 2, this start was non-negotiable.
Lack of boots = no sustain, and a massive target over your head for ganks.
I present to the court, exhibit A:



In addition, you will be the aggressive one . Which means, if they buy boots and you don't, they can just keep walking away from you. Good for you with your +15/20 ap. It's of absolutely zero use to you if you can't bleeding hit people. However, with season 3 this has changed. I will explain later.

"But Soviet, Can't I just sigil of silence them?"
Yes you could. But you would run out of mana ridiculously quickly.
"But Soviet, I'm using , mana isn't too big an issue".
'sigh'. Ok. But then you're obviously not packing ignite.
"But Soviet, I am using !"
Which means you're not using flash... and therefore, you're blowing your escape mechanism constantly to do sub-optimal damage? Why, hello there Mr Jungler. What brings yo- OMFGMYFACEITBURNS

So conversely, if they don't buy boots, you're free to harass them, and if you don't want to (i.e, can't retaliate) then you can just walk away. Maybe you'll get zoned a bit - but a) they take minion damage, and b) they're an easier gank for the jungler.

And lastly, 450hp for sustain in lane, from trading blows with your opponnent. Assuming he's not some scrub you can just walk over, he'll be trading... or at least, trying to trade with you.

Anyway. Moving swiftly on.

Season 3

Alternative starts

x2 x7sight wardx2

The issue with not starting boots in previous seasons was two fold: Lack of sustain, and inability to zone due to increased threat of being ganked.


With this start, you have:

• More sustain than someone starting boots 3
• the ability to play aggressive and zone, since you have wards

There is however one big disadvantage: Lower mobility = increased time to get to a side lane if potential kills are there. Since is reknowned for her ganks, what might to other mids be an acceptable trade-off, is a much more marked issue for LB.

Which one to choose depends on what you're facing, and your preference.

This start did contain , but with the adjustment to it (+50% cost, +20% regen) I don't think it's worth it anymore.

Why so many pots?

Ever faced a with x13? It's ridiculous sustain, but more to the point, it has the effect of making the person attacking him feeling like they're wasting their time. Either they burst through it all, or not at all - whittling away will just drain their mana faster than your health pool.

Other thing is, what else would you buy after the two wards?
doesn't build into anything useful for . Neither does rejuvenation beads.

If you saved up your money, you're essentially entering lane at a disadvantage to your opponent as he's got more money to use than you.



Oh, and if you can't dodge skill shots for ****, start boots >.>

---

"What? What are these? These don't help me do damage! "

'sigh'
These will often be the difference between you going 10-0 and... i dunno. 0-10?
Wards give you the safety you need to be aggressive. Read: Blowing distort

Because ganks generally happen under three circumstances:
1) Someone's pushing.
2) Someone needs help.
3) You're being a slag and just want to murder people. Trolololol.

2+3 will most likely be happenning to you (i.e, they need help, and you're just being LB.)
So, for your own sake, since you need to stay ahead of the curve, stay alive.

In addition, it allows for counter-ganks.

Example:
In the following video, go to 5:05
Obviously, this requires your teammates to have a clue on how to play.
I will go more into how to deal with junglers in another section of the guide.
But for this scenario:
1)Acted as if i didn't know she was there.
Last hitting. Hanging around in mid, not favouring either side - (i.e, as if i hadn't warded)

2)Waited for Jungler to be in position - slowly move towards that side, again, as if just to get a last hit. Also note how he abuses both their lack of vision, and his abilities.

3)Wait for initiation.

If you did it, then you risk your jungler not being able to help. In this case, if i had moved first, wouldn't have been in a position for to to him. (Ok, read that you shouldn't be on that side of the bush if you must, but hey - exploit mistakes.)

I'm not going to bother doing a warding section as there's plenty of good stuff running around this website on the subject anyway. So might as well shove it here.

So, actually, you can ignore everything in this guide if you want. Just take away this one point:
" SHUT UP AND BUY WARDS BILLY!"

(and obviously, the above is not my video <.>)

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Ahem. Back on track.

First items:

Are a get ASAP item. The extra movement speed is just vital - dodge more skill shots, get more lane dominance. Read the above on boots as to why it's needed for lane dominance - control who can attack who. MAgic pen is also sexy.

In addition, it helps you move between lane's faster - less time lost, those precious seconds recovered that mean a kill, as opposed to them cowering under a tower.
That said, it doesn't give you much in the way of sustain. No extra health or mp5. So if you're not yet good enough to manage your mana well, then these will quickly become sub-par. Golden rule of mana-based casters. You can have 6 freaking , and they can have nothing. If you have no mana as Lb you're useless. Zip. Nada.

Health to trade hits better, Ap and Mpen to hit harder.
In S3, LB is back to being a ruthless early game murderer, with a really sub-par late game.
It is therefore imperative we capitalise on this as quickly as possible.
I avoided this item in Season 2 because it was also a waste of an item slot later on - now it does build into something that is worth while, i've changed my mind about it.

Get kills. Get more kills. GEt your lanes rolling. Win. You're not a carry. Stop thinking like one.

S4

I don't get this in S4 anymore. Sorc shoes yes - Mobility and damage.
But haunting guise I feel slows you down too much. What it builds into doesn't exactly suit you either - Although you have control, your main job is still burst. This Liandry's isn't a burst item. Nonetheless, I have written a section on it as to why it might nonetheless not be wrong.. Because not being wrong does not mean it's right/


The lack of in this build is because I personally don't like delaying my later build more than I have to. Health and AP are provided by which builds into something later.

However, the crucial weakness is the lack of mana-regeneration. You will find yourself running out of mana, sometimes even with blue, and leaving you unable to complete a kill when you go wandering. It's embarassing. Don't do it. Take a mana potion, get a kill.


Viable alternative t2 boots:

I get against , both to reduce his stun and to somewhat help mitigate his ultimate. It's a good choice to get vs heavy CC teams. After all, you can either have ~ 100 damage less on your spell rotation, or full damage, but be unable to throw out any spells at all.


On the other hand I rarely get . You should be able to drop their AD carry before he gets a chance to seriously attack you. Or put it this way. The 10% reduction from it (in addition to the armour) isn't going to help you survive - you either kill them, or you escape. Sticking around being shot will end badly one way or another. But again, this is just personal preference.


"But Soviet, Why not any other boots?"
"Sigh"

Ok... if i must spell it out...
... You're not a freaking Pony. Or, heck, i don't think even ponies buy this item as it does BUGGER ALL.

This... i can see an argument for. You're a ganking champion. You need to run between lanes faster. So why not? Answer is, you give up too much burst . The additional Mpen from sorceror's shoes gives your burst a heck of a lot more power. In addition, mid-late game, you'll be using to get into position. Short of it is, the window of opportunity in which these would be an OK choice is too small for me.

. Short answer is, you're a burst mage, not a DPS mage. Sticking around for that extra 4 s to get something off CD... not going to be very useful as LB. You're meant to blow them up instantly... not eventually...

---

Needed for murdering people.That much hasn't changed.
HOwever, It is a tad rarer that you will be able to 100-0 people from blinking over a wall, etc. Use this where possible, the active is still very sexy.

To note, is that the active is for max hp, as opposed to current. You'll want to use it early on in your combo for the amplification, of course, but its something to remember.

Later on in the game, I generally hang around the squishies and blow up the offending bruisers. LB's single target burst is legendary. Since if you're protecting your carry from bruisers, you're free to use for damage as well, as opposed to positioning.

TL;DR: S3 DFG - think about what you can blow up. Then blow it up. Or don't, and die.

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Damage... with a passive that gives even more damage. Getting it first makes your later offensive purchases more gold efficient too. However, as stated judge the situation. In most cases by the time you get this people will starting moving in groups, making it impossible to full-combo someone safely.

Maybe at lower level play you could get away with getting this first as people have a habit of walking around by themselves or being stupid, and are waiting to be picked off. Read the game, and make a decision for yourself.

---

I prioritise a over a because if it was vice versa, the
sigil of silence combo is both temperamental ( is easily blocked and has a wonky hitbox) and not enough damage to kill your target. I'll explain more later, but AD carries pretty much never build MR til later - hence, a is superfluous and inefficient.

There are exceptions - if their squishies are so behind that their presence on a TF is useless, and/or their tanky people are the biggest threat, then a voidstaff would probably be a better choice.

Lastly, and probably more importantly around midgame MR isn't overly prominent to the point where a would be a cost-effective item. I'm not sure what the actual figures are, but due to my play style it doesn't really affect me. I buy it when my priority targets get MR.

Again people. Use your head. I can't babysit you in your game X_x

---

Now, we get to this item.

"But soviet, this item sucks on burst casters"

LEt's get this straight.
In s3, You either win big, win hard, win early,

Or become a second support.

Seriously.

If you have DFG, Rabadon's, and the game isn't won or being won, you're stuffed .
AT this point, you should have enabled your team to carry you, or you're ahead of the curve to the point where the squishy is still 100-0able from range. In which case, Ignore this, and keep going for the aforementioned "Priority target still gibbable" build."

But if you're starting to fall behind the curve, by this point in time the enemy team should be grouping, and believe me, if you haven't won yet you're very rarely going to get a chance to wipe out the enemy ADC before a teamfight starts.

So you're stuck being trying to prevent your ADC from dying.

But soviet, shouldn't i get CDR items to throw chains out more often?

And what would that achieve. Since you're maxing chains last, that snare isnt going to do you very much good. You're better off increasing your damage and killing that bruiser faster.

Oh, and league of warmogs = get % health damage.
SOd penetration.

But more importantly, Is where are you going to get the money from?

But soviet, why a second support?

You know the thing about supports? They don't take creeps.
You have your core items and games not won? You're *much* better off leaving the creeps to the ADC. You could try taking farm, or you could actually try to win. Leave the farm to the adc, give him his full build sooner, and just protect him. Vs you getting another item, *still* being unable to fufil your desired role of 100-0ing the squishy.




TLDR:

Liandrys sucks on burst casteres.
LB sucks as a champion if the game isn't already won by the time you have this.
If you're ahead of the curve, keep building power.
Otherwise, The gold pool at that stage of the game is better given to people who have a higher impact with it like your ADC.
Such is the nature of the game. Do you want to win or not?


I've written a chapter devoted to this thing. Read it if you want to see my reasoning.

---

Non core:

Why do I call this non-core? Because in most games as LB, game will have ended before this point.


Now. This requires a bit of thought. Which you build depends on the enemy team items, and more importantly, how long the game will last. If for some bizarre reason they sport no MR, then by all means get the . The aura helps your team as well. But in most cases, the enemy isn't totally brain dead - they may not have MR in early midgame, but by late midgame, an isn't going to cut it any more.

The aura from an is also short ranged. In many instances, by the time you've delivered your combo, either you're out of range by the time it hits, or out of range when you begin. It honestly doesn't suit you too well.

As such , I generally don't buy an anymore.
If they have an AP carry who's a credible threat and displays an active interest in me, I buy a , then a voidstaff.

With one exception : . Common to contrary belief, building more AP to burst him down faster is probably not the best idea... Against this guy, I get boots and dorans, and then rush this item. flat -50MR total, a good chunk of MR for yourself to avoid being instagibbed by his ult. More on countering him in the relevant section.

---

A defensive item. (Ok, sort of counts, but I’ve gone through why I don't get it usually) Generally last on my list of things to get. As LB, you need power, not survivability - survivability depends mostly on your positioning...

Which is why I like . Out of all the defensive items it still gives you AP. Just remember to actually use the active to dodge things - like or , or the ubiquitous . There is nothing worse than buying an item with an active and never using it... <.< Ok.... Maybe AP Gary? eh w/e <.>

Pretty much never get this item because games just don’t drag out that long. But I generally prefer this over QSS (assuming there's no suppression running around) because your job is dangerous enough as it is. Get in, fire off your rotation in as little time as possible, and get out. You simply don't have time to press another button (not to mention the time to react to said CC). If you do need to press that button - you're normally dead anyway, and for the most part, your target will be away.
"But soviet, Isn't baiting CC a good thing?"
You are not the tank. Or a bruiser. LB hates CC... ok, there's a tank-blanc guide running around somewhere, but i dunno <.>

I get this if I'm against teams with suppression - but for the most part all this does is sit in your inventory and isn't used. I mean, is that going to suppress you with the QSS, or that AD carry without one? That said, I will bump this pretty high up my priority list of "to get" if I’m against . Gets rid of his, all in one go. Proceed to combo his face down. Profit! (Ok, it isn't that easy in practice, but regardless. Getting combod by is baaaaaad.

---

Ehh... I don't know what do put here. It just never gets to this stage. Normally you would make sure, if it did pass mid/early late game, to give your AD carry all the farm. ERgo, you would be stuck with a in your 6th slot, and just buying potions. If i did have a choice, maybe ? just to keep your carry alive for longer by slowing their bruisers/tanks. Urgh. No comment.

These items generally involve poor gold:AP ratios, and should not feature overly prominently in your build order. Or, they involve exposing yourself for longer than is neccessary. Bear in mind, this is my preference due to my playstyle: Get in, do damage, get out, and exposing yourself to danger for as little time as possible.

---

For alot of casters, a very good item to get. But it just doesn't suit leblanc in anyway shape or form.

• More HP is useless - you're not meant to be in the thick of things, taking hits. And you're not exactly a short-ranged caster either like .
• More mana is pointless - you have enough as it is to do your job, and bluebuff will be plenty.
• Which leaves the AP - considering how the other two stats aren't great on , the gold:AP ratio is plain unacceptable.

---

• Health - pointless, as stated above.
• Gold:Ap ratio- terrible.
• A slow - whoop de doo. There;s no point slowing someone if they're DEAD.
• which is why I sometimes get it later in the game if it drags out that long, and you want to help control the bruisers.

---

Ok. I'll probably step on a few toes here who swear by this item. I don't. I feel that by the the time you have enough AP to make its passive useful, teamfights will already be the main thing - and as I’ve constantly stated and reiterated, you do your spell combo in as little time as possible. Ergo, there's no bleeding time to stick around AA'ing people.
Mind you, i'm the type of person who likes living. Maybe some of you really don't mind getting stuck in, in which case, go for it. This simply doesn't suit my style of play - non-sustained burst. If I can buy items which mean I can kill them without AA's, why would I ever want to buy items which mean I would need to AA?

---

On paper, a good item to get. But the active from is simply too good to pass up on, regardless of the fact that its needed to keep you from becoming a suicide assassin.

You then run the problem of where you put this in.
In S4 it really isn't bad for LB. CDR for a control-and-kite style LB works, but it's not what I play her as.

Adapt to the situation. Is their team super tanky, you have a hyper carry who is fed? Then consider this. Be adaptable, rather than having a "BT,IE,PD" type mindset.

---

Same as in the sense that it takes too long to get the AP benefit from it. You would be running around in lane with a which gives no useful stats at all, and spamming spells... which just isn't the way to go.

---

You're not a DPS mage alla , or . Neither is your place to be the thick of the fight. You're the opposite - a massive burst mage who gets in, combos, and gets the hell away.
Lastly, you have more efficient items to get - namely power. Sustain is secondary to LB in relation to raw power. If you can't combo down /control your priority target, you've failed your task. You being alive is quite frankly inconsequential.

That said, maybe if you're ahead to the point that you need to stick around in a teamfight to do the damage, this might save you. But honestly, i've never had a time where I need to use it.

I get a lot of questions regarding why this item is being utilised a lot at high end play, and why I don't use it. So here's a chapter to my thoughts on it.

CDR, MR, AP.
All stats LB wants, at a price that's reasonable, at an efficiency that's great.
At a high-tier level, gold and gold efficiency is paramount, where mistakes aren't likely to happen.
Then you arrive at early team fights (Drake, etc) where the CDR is already immensely useful in chasing/disengaging where everyone is coordinated and people know what they're doing, and you can rely on them to do their jobs.

In such a situation, Athene's Unholy Grail is a good item, as it builds out of a good laning item, is gold efficient, and is generally good for a LB who can rely on others to do things.

Then there's solo Q.
There are many problems in Solo q.
1) Fights happen when and where they please, and you're not guaranteed that the CDR will be useful that early.
2) More importanty, mistakes happen left right and centre, and in those situations having raw power to get fed then and there to snowball is definitely more important than anything else.
3) Lastly, coordination amongst teams generally involve "A Charges B, Cluster[censored] ensues, survivors survive because of a million factors 99% of which is incompetence."

TLDR:
Pro teams can generally rely on each other to not be special.
Solo Q should be the entry in the dictionary of re*ardation.
Therefore, I feel you're better off trying to exploit mistakes that are awash in solo Q with raw power, as the only person you can rely on and should rely on is yourself.

P.S: you can always rely on the muppet to be a muppet. Without fail. Trying to save the muppet is a recipe for disaster, and they WILL find a way, despite your best efforts, to fail. I will elaborate on this in infinite depth in my upcoming Janna guide. Which wont be being released any time soon. SORRY I HAZ LIFE =(

After having to smash my head in and quite frankly only realising that such a controversial item wouldn't go unnoticed, I'll devote a whole chapter to it.
Credit where Credit's due, This chapter is pretty much here due to Darkpercy. Because quite frankly, I would have to be hella naive/dumb to pretend that he's the only person going "WTf?"


The most crucial part is this: (And point out where my logic is wrong if you would)
LB doesn't scale well into late game as an ADC would.
The game is heading into late game.
We assume you want to win.

We assume the game is for some reason or another, even. Core items built - sorc shoes, Guise, Dcap, DFG.

Where's the money for the other items meant to come from?
The remaining farm and gold would be much better off going to the ADC than you, since i can't see how it can be argued that gold on a late-game ADC is less efficient than on a character like LB.

Therefore, you simply don't have the luxury to buy bigger items to get stats like CDR.
And instead of milling around trying to construct said items, completing Liandry's seemed the best choice.

If that means not playing the champion like *you* want it to, then that's fine. IT's a guide. It's how I play her, and it's my reasoning for doing so. Follow it if you will, it's not a freaking "ten commandments" that if you break I will hunt you to the ends of the earth and throw thunderbolts upon you. But at the end of the day, I assume people also want to win.


If the priority target remains burstable, then by all means go for it. IF you're ahead of the curve, stay ahead of the curve.
But if you're behind, and you actually want to win, It's the most efficient usage of what gold you'll get, even if in the grand scheme of things it would appear terrible.

That is my reasoning.
This guide assumes, and probably mostly incorrectly, that you're playing vs competent people.
Maybe you're playing with a "special" ADC, I dunno, in which case, take the gold.

Yep. This thing. Purely offensive. MOAR AP on kills. looks so good on paper. potentially ridiculous Gold:AP ratio. Pretty much follows the general philosophy of LB: GF or GF.
Get fed or get F***ed.

Don't get it.

As always, this guide assumes your opponnents aren't total morons. If they are, go ahead and buy this. run around Q-R'ing people from 100-0. (It is pretty fun...).

Back to gold:Ap ratios. It's only good if you get kills. before then, it's rather inefficient gold-wise. Your loving lane opponnent isnt going to give you stacks on a platter. Infact, in most cases he'll now have the advantage due to buying rings/boots which are far more efficient, and you simply won't be able to farm him.

But let's ignore that. Go back to principles. That of: Everybody hates you . In most cases, simply being present will make them go after you through whatever means neccessary, ultimates, summoners and all:

Buying a only serves to further paint a ruddy great target over your head. Remember those games where your opponnents say "GG, easy!"? Buying this pretty much states: "HAHA NOOBS! I THINK YOU SUCK AND IM GOING TO PROVE IT. COME AT ME!!1!one1!"
Believe me when I say that the difference between focus when you have and you don't, is remarkably large. Something about having stacks is just threatening...

Furthermore, if you die, you lose 1/3rd of your stacks. The loss of AP is secondary to the loss of you knowing what your killing potential is. Late game, suddenly dropping in the region of ~60 ap from one death is quite spectacular to say the least...


So, as always, use your brain. If you think you can hold onto your stacks, as well as getting them, then go ahead and buy this. Otherwise, know that people hate you enough as it is <.>

Put points into your ultimate whenever possible. This goes without saying.

Which skill you take first depends on the situation. Never take a skill before you get to lane. You never know what you'll need, be it chains for CC, distort for an escape/damage, or Q for if nothing happens and you just want to go back to lane.


Example of chains first:





I have a rule of getting distort whenever there is a stealth champion around. They gank lvl 2, and your lane is still in the centre at this time. The likes of Shaco/Twitch are pretty easily nullified if a) you play more passive than normal to begin with and b) on being ganked, you immediately run - 6 stacks of expunge is bloody lethal. The sooner you get out of there, the freaking better.

Regardless of what you pick, by lvl 4, always have 2 points in Sigil of silence, 1 in
and 1 in . Max Sigil of silence first for maximum damage output.

I see some guides/people not bothering with at all... and I just palm my face. You need that slow and snare for the time it buys you for your Sigil of silence to come back off CD and finish the job. Is a quintessential part of 's kit. Learn it, master it, else you will never be able to play her as well as you could.

---

The thinking behind taking your Q - sigil of silence is that it's your main ranged nuke. Spammable, relatively low CD. It makes logical sense in the regard that thats pretty much what every mage does.

HOWEVER

The problem with this is two fold.
One:
Any damage you wish to inflict on your opponent opens you up to retaliation. You Q them, and as long as your range is, you'll inevitably get hit back at some point. It therefore makes logical sense to maximise the damage you to someone in the window, doesn't it?

Two:
Sigil of silence requires another ability to activate it and use it fully. In essence, you're throwing a 50 damage Q with a 0.5 AP ratio at level 1. Scary right? Definitely going to be breaking records with that one. This is in comparison to distortion - 85 damage, 0.6 ratio.

Therefore, it isn't a bad idea to start with .
More damage in one move, theoretically longer range (850). In a set time window where damage will be traded, it makes sense for you to do as much damage to your opponent as possible right?
Given the inability to activate sigil at level 1 anyway, this only further shifts it in this favour.

Lastly, it also means you have your escape mechanism up from the get go. Whilst the chances of you needing it that early are quite slim, it is nonetheless foolish to disregard the utility.

---

What's there to say? A passive which requires thought.
Allows for so much, used by so little. Worse than Eve's(OMG her passive is actually worth a damn now...) in the wrong hands, totally brilliant in the right ones.

But let's not pretend everything's rosey: this passive can be rendered useless by factors beyond Leblanc's control...

the problem with this passive for beginners is that you can't control when it pops- having to do "40% of my health =? " In the middle of a fight is a bothersome distraction in between positioning and casting. I'm guilty of not always using it when it comes up...

Obviously, if you are at around 40% health and take damage greater than that (ala ) then it wont help either.

On top of that, AoE almost totally nullifies its usefulness- two
's? kill them both!

Lastly, if you have buffs/debuffs on you (commonly blue buff, ignite, leashes, etc) your copy will be without them - needless to say, a dead give-away.

So.... This passive isn't without it's drawbacks- most of its advantages are nullified by the above, but I look it another way- its a trade off for being able to pull off some spectacular deception.

To understand this, one must know the default behaviour of the clone...
It doesn't move unless ordered, does no damage and typically hangs around the real Lb doing nothing but AA... Which does no damage... more on this later.

Lazy players - Those who make it totally obvious which is the fake one - the one which doesnt move at all - actually should be thanked. This lets you, hopefully after this guide a much wiser Lb, exploit it to varying degrees.

So start with the obvious. Move your clone.

If you're in a fight, its far easier to note your health passing 50%. When this happens, be prepared to control your clone- like any other pet, use alt+click as soon as stealth begins.
It's a far harder job for your opponent if both copies are moving.

One step further. Stop moving, move your clone. Remember what your atypical Lb does? Play to it. Your opponent will almost always go for the one which is moving. And they will pursue it, chasing the copy, usually wasting spells on it as well... exposing themselves to you - a clean shot with chains isn't uncommon, and normally at least your Sigil of silence is off CD as well.

Don't give the game away - the clone can't cast. It can't do damage either. But, if you and it stay there shooting at your enemy, short of the aforementioned shortcomings, there is no way for him to tell. (both attacks land at once, in this case) Many Sigil of silence panic and just become ryze, throwing whatever is off CD at their enemy. Considering you're a combo based champ, you can see why this is sub-optimal... In alot of cases where you would otherwise die, you can turn the tables with those precious extra seconds.


Make the clone believable.

Yes, technically in order to fool your opponent you will need to do this at its core- but the above are typically 1v1 circumstances.

In a team fight situation, the squishys hang around the back. Suddenly having a half-health Lb charge at you raises eyebrows. (although do feel free to check bushes with it at a bare minimum)

So do the same:

: Looks can be decieving...

Example:




Malphite sees my clone hanging around, a little behind the front line. Given how normally in this position the attention is glued to their side, the lack of movement isn't a big issue. Should have moved it around a bit to make it more convincing though.
Regardless, he gets baited, and we get a kill out of it. This isn't the best example i've ever done, but is one that comes to mind and makes me chuckle.
Everyone hates you as . Abuse it.

I'm guessing that a lot of people will be thinking: "but this only worked because he's a (insert choice expletive here)".
Perhaps- but if you do nothing with your clone, you can't bait mistakes. Take your pick.
Or on the other hand, are you yourself a player who makes no mistakes whatsoever?

Take the following:




This is from a ~1525 elo game.
Think about it. Do something with your passive, and something *may* happen, that you can exploit to your advantage. Do nothing with your passive, and something will *never* happen. The choice is yours.

Another one:



Normal game. But it still stands. Split second decisions on the behalf of your opponnents lead to their mistakes. And as always, you luuuurv punishing mistakes...



When stealthed, you can sometimes fool people by flashing over a wall during it, and still moving your clone. either giving you the chance to escape, or dive back in rudely. -

Always remember: you can be on 1hp, but your abilities still do full damage.

Lastly, the clone does no damage but does proc on hit effects like black cleaver, wits end... And red buff.
Better opponents know your clone does no damage. They therefore automatically ignore your clone, just like in this video:




at 7:15. (this isn't mine. This is TiemsnoAkuma - 2.2k elo... goes to show how even there, people don't know the ins and outs of Lb. It's rare that you would hang around if you were that low to utilise this, but it's always good to have that knowledge...

surprise them... Or at the very least, get in that free damage.


And lastly, use the clone to block projectiles, like .

---

this is your bread and butter skill. NOT your sigil.
This humble and overlooked aspect of LB is a good indicator of player skill. Seriously. You have those who Sigil of silence , and those who Sigil of silence +AA. such a basic skill, yet so overlooked.

Last hitting well with this is a skill that must be mastered since isn't well suited for farming. To this end, she has a brilliant animation - responsive, fast. Compare it to Annie's, who has a significant wind up time (although omgwtf range to compensate)

This common ability should be used whenever possible to harass your opponent at the early levels, as it almost does as much damage as your abilities, yet costs no mana. a
AA -> Sigil of silence. Bam, one health bar gone lvl1. why AA first? Because it has a lower range. if you can AA someone, you can Sigil of silence them. Simple as.

Example:




Obviously, there are exceptions. Sometimes you want to keep at range - the likes of , for example.

Last hitting under a tower is standard for all ap casters generally- one AA on a caster, tower hit, AA to last hit.
One AA on a melee minion, two tower hits, AA to last hit.

Consider the following:


Three caster creeps. AA each once, then let tower hit them, then hit them again. Simple, right?
WRONG.
Always note where your wave is. time and again you will see people prepare minions for last hitting, and not realising that their own minions are there who will do damage- thus resulting in the tower killing the lovely creep instead of you.

Last hit, last hit, last hit.
As a rule, Lb can't afford to continually use her Sigil of silence to last hit without blue buff... and even then, you probably wont be able to sustain it. That said, having a full mana bar doesn't give you any bonus's either. Feel free to Sigil of silence a creep from time to time if your mana allows it - especially in those cases where two are low enough, and you can only AA one. AA one, sigil the other. Canon minions- last hitting those with an AA can be hard to judge at times, so I guess its more acceptable sigil them if you must. But otherwise, learn to last hit well without Sigil of silence, and you'll go far.

---

Your standard nuke. Yeah right. Your standard nuke is a fire and forget affair, ala . Sigil of silence isn't that. To get the most out of it, you need to activate the second part.

And it's that activation that is so interesting. 1.5 second silence and damage if the mark is triggered within 3.5 seconds. It's what makes Leblanc so annoying to most ap mids- an inability to retaliate with damage of their own. But be careful: The silence does NOT stack, and the silence is less than the mark duration. So be patient in your attacks to maximise the silence, but not too much - else they have a window to get away. Refer to next section for more on silencing.


Another overlooked part is the marking- 3.5 seconds. You have that long to activate it... Yet many Leblanc's won't realise this. Hell- most people won't realise this.





Most people expect the mark to be used as soon as its fired. Your normal LB will try to follow up a Sigil of silence with . Your opponnent gets marked, and move away to get you to screw up your Heck, some know this to the point that they will try to counter you pre-emptively - like this vlad.




So... an adequate Leblanc quote:
Patience, summoner...

Abuse the 3.5s and wait . sigil of silence your opponent and back off. Most of the time your opponent will walk right back into your distort range.

Example :
In the following video, please go to (2:35)






Other things to note is its CD: 6 seconds, typically 5.75s early game due to 4%cdr. A lot of people underestimate its cooldown. With modest cdr, it opens up a lot of different combinations, which I will go through later.



Drawbacks

yep. as with most abilities, there are drawbacks....

The damage on the second part- not utilising it cuts off a fair amount of your damage, and at a disadvantage compared to other nukes.

The silence is on the secondary part- and that any follow up ability takes time to get there. So between that Sigil of silence and, that 10hp Veigar is still free to wtfpwn your face if he's quick enough. Again, please read the following section on how best to utilise your silence.

It has a travel time. Yes, statement of the obvious, but if you're here your LB isn't perfect - and a common mistake is distorting too early, thereby the sigil lands after you distort- so there is no secondary activation.
(Edit: although Sigil travels a lot faster now, it is still possible to distort too early and not trigger the sigil mark. Just wait the 0.2s before distorting...)



For those who are curious, it has to be activated by Leblanc's abilities- so no item actives will trigger the mark.

---

Gives Leblanc her range, mobility, and ganking potential.
Jump walls, juke enemies, it's all in here.
It comes in two parts- a dash with damage, and a blink. In most cases, the mobility difference won't matter - but a select few scenarios will. I.e, you will be stunned if you dash through an event horizon , but not if you "return" out of it. (refresh bug not withstanding)

The damage aspect of this ability is easy enough to understand- like 's (without the stacking part). Damage in an area around your arrival point, which means it can trigger your Sigil of silence. It also technically gives her a range of 850- but it shouldn’t be used for damage by itself in normal situations. Early/mid game it's primarily there to trigger your mark, and get away from dangerous situations. Later, it's used to deliver the rest of your combo.

I'll put up a video as to where you can over later, but for now, enjoy the fact that LB can moonwalk:




(QUICK! WHERES THE NERF BAT?)

Return


The second aspect is where a lot of fun and manipulation can come into play... And is sadly also greatly overlooked.

Upon casting distort, you have three seconds with which to return. Play a custom game by yourself and distort - and see for yourself just how long you have and how far you can walk before it runs out. Heck, for extra experience, distort over common points and try this out.

This has numerous applications, primarily juking. The obvious ones- get caught in a gank, you distort - and they follow you. If they gap close all the better (i.e flash ) proceed to "return". Walk away.

: It's all smoke and mirrors

Example:




Another handy tip is to walk into a bush before you "return". This is due to the nature of how people look in a game - they don't watch the minimap, and they shift the screen to where they're going to be looking. Ergo, where you "would" have been if you kept walking... allowing you to get away scot free.

example:



Now, remember how you have three seconds before you can't return? Forget it. Almost everyone ignores the fact that you can return in the first place. They chase a bit, lose interest... And stay right by your return point.
proceed to return, and watch the lulz.

: Classic misdirection...

Example:





Or, in another scenario, use it to dodge skill shots, like 's

Example:




Onto other stuff:

Remember: on casting mimic distort, your original distort point is lost, and you can only return to the mimic distort return point.
This is no longer true!

Note however, that your return point is both highly noticeable, and gives no vision. Wise/irate enemies will simply camp it if they can - and you will have your pants down. But in most cases, they won't, and hopefully, once you have learnt positioning, can't.

So let's abuse this further. the maximum range of Leblanc's Q is 1350 right? (650+700)

Wrong


Surprised to see me?

The maximum range of your Sigil of silence and subsequent combo is the range of + .
This is a useful tool for those enemies who are wiser to your moves, knowing the range of your and sigil of silence and, who stubbornly hang around on low HP, farming away. So do them a favour - farm them.




Secondarily, one can abuse the fact that doesn't overwrite your return point. Therefore, an enemy who thinks he's safe, since he knows he's out of distort safe distort range and will often be yet another kill.




Lastly, distort's return function does NOT interrupt casting. I.e, you can continue casting a spell or, and interestingly enough, recall.

Observe:



Drawbacks

Yep. This has drawbacks as well.
Namely that the first part of this ability is a dash - it can be interrupted, notoriously by knockups.

Example:




Secondarily, if you get charged by a whilst , her charge will take priority. Sorry. No video yet.

---

This ability makes or breaks a Lb. More so than positioning. Before you get a , your main damage source in a fight will be Sigil of silence .
That's around 200-300 damage hinging on those chains connecting.



Technically it's a bit of an anomaly: can be blocked by minions, takes time to do full damage, unlike the other skills in her kit which are on-hit. The most basic actions of this ability are often not utilised by a Lb: bush checking. You're a squishy, so for crying out loud please stop face checking when you have perfectly good tools to avoid it most of the time.



The other thing of important note is that it's a skillshot. Or, another way - fire and forget. It's travelling distance and trajectory is determined at point of firing, utterly independent of where you are. SO many Leblanc's sit around after their Sigil of silence combo, exposing themselves to unnecessary danger.
the ONLY thing that is dependent on your position is whether it remains leashed or not. Obviously, if your objective is to kill, you will stick around. If all you want to do is damage on distorting however, throw the chains after your Sigil of silence and/or, and immediately return.





A lot of mid-players, normally due to their incompetance as well as their characters, have an awful habit of walking in a straight line to harass you. In these instances, it can be worth while to fire a speculative , and make something happen from there. After all, they're under your control. Engage? Disengage? It's your call.



Sometimes you will find yourself in a position where upon returning from distort the leash hasn't broken - in which case it is an easy job of keeping within range to trigger the secondary damage- they're slowed, you've already paid the mana cost, and there are few reasons why you wouldn't want to nurture the root if you're under no immediate pressure.
NB: This isn't a straight forward decision to "return" - As more often than not it puts you outside of AA range - which is an oft overlooked aspect of LB's damage potential, let alone her kit.

Other things to note: (and obviously by defaultwill happily stay attached through walls.




The tether range of is 1000 units .



Lastly, Chains and Mimic chains. If both land, both will go off, and snare independently of each other. (I.e, like silence, is from the last applied CC, not a culmination of them)



How to throw your chains

Example:



This is the part of LB which requires practice, practice, practice.
So much hinges on landing your chains that it will make or break you in most cases. Look at any of my videos which include chains, and in most of them a kill would have been lost if it hadn't connectd.

What I can tell you about it is that it is incredibly wonky - The hitbox is fairly large, which can be a good or bad thing. Good, in the sense that with no minions, itll be easier to hit, but in the presence of minions, it can randomly attach itself to them.

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This spell is thankfully one that hasn't been recycled into new champions.

This is what makes herself. It's as it says: copies the last skill cast. Honestly, this grants a layer of complexity that no matter how in depth I explain it in this guide, it won't do it justice. You will simply have to practice.

there really isn't anything I can say about this that hasn't been covered in my previous sections, so I'll keep this brief.

If you snowball, this ability is what makes it happen. 1.3ap ratio if everything is detonated is ridiculous. Furthermore, since etheral chains is now a 1.5s proc time, it means:
a) It is even more vital to land them and
b) Easier to lay waste to your opponents as both sigils will detonate faster.

It takes experience to know what you can kill - use mimic to do heavy damage by all means, but using it to kill is the best outcome. But be careful- without mimic, you are alot more vulnerable than you would like to be.

So. Learn to abuse this, and you will become that much scarier in lane. You have a choice. Silence for 1.7 ish seconds, or 3.3 ish. The difference is an auto attack or two - ~100 damage. Apart form having no mana if you're a mana-based caster, being silenced is one of the worst things to happen to you. For close to 3 seconds? Terminal. 3 seconds of being unable to retaliate whilst you're being 100-0'd is one of the terrors your opponnents will face if you master this.

Example of total silence:
[NOW DEFUNCT. R.I.P 6s silence]



Look at the bubble. He is totally silenced for the whole duration. I keep my distance, abusing my range, and once he's silenced, go in for the kill.

Example of total silence for 6 s:



Got it nailed down. Just people won't normally let you execute this combination as eventually LB is just broadcasting "FLEE IN TERROR MORTALSSSS!!"

ahem.

Make no mistake: If you can 100-0 them within a second then there's no reason to wait. (I.e, caught them from a brush). Like this once thriving specimen:



But most importantly , waiting gives you a huge advantage - knowing whether you can commit or not. Let's run a thought experiment.

You're against .
You're both lvl 6.
Your average LB will sigil of silence in quick succession. But wait! What's this? has 'd to you beforelanded? So you've wasted the damage on your , and the mark of, and to top it all off, shes now between you and your tower? Uh oh.

Assuming she's not as braindead as you are, she'll wait for the mark to wear off, and then lay into you. Whoops.

If you had waited on the other hand, you could have kept her silenced, and prevented her from retaliating, and prevented putting yourself in a bad spot. If only you had listened to your own champion. Be patient



So I'll break it down as to what you should do:

This is one of the most common combos you will use.

Basic 3 second silence combo

Sigil of silence

This is the one you'll be using the most, since hitting chains from a distance is fiddly, and won't happen against a decent opponnent. Hence, you need to onto them, to make it pretty much un-missable.

But before that, you'll fire off Sigil of silence. Now wait.
As described above, it's to get people to either take the whole thing, or blow their escape mechanisms. If they don't run, then proceed with the rest of it. You win either way. Now when you onto them, they will have an additional 1.5 seconds of silence to deal with. Proceed to throw , and auto attack. Remember to dodge any retaliatory fire if they're not close to death through AA's, or a late sigil of silence

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Combos.


Here comes the fun part. The part which makes or breaks you as a player. Pulling the right one off in as little time as possible. Your enemies won't give you a second chance. Don't screw up. Practice, practice, practice.

For clarities sake I'll go through these in as logical an order as I can. I don't include ignite as it goes without saying that if you think it'll kill them, do it.
I don't always include AA's either, as you should always remember to AA inbetween your more complex combinations. It's too messy for me to put AA's everywhere. You do them when you can, assuming the scenario allows for it.
Like I said at the beginning of the guide: Use your brain .

Lastly, these aren't all the combos there are out there, just the one which I feel have a use. I really don't have the strength to list every single one.

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AA,sigil of silence,AA

You can do this at Lvl 1 if you feel like being ultra aggressive- the likes of who have weak early games and cannot compete with your damage, and if you're out for a lvl 2 kill. Not recommended if you lack experience- you can run out of mana, take too much minion aggro, etc.

The problem comes in that by doing damage, you are often exposing yourself to retaliation as well. Sure, you're more likely to get the burst in first and win the all-in... but it's preferable for you to not die.

You are unlikely to be able to kill your opponent without some harass.
But knowing how much/how little comes with experience i'm afraid.

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sigil of silence,AA, , AA

Your early game combination. From lvl2, you do more raw damage than other casters, and if they're slow and/or you've exploited timing (more on this later) you can do heavy damage with little/no reprisal.
Remember the mark time. Damage wise there is no difference between waiting for 2 seconds to distort and doing do immediately. It keeps your opponent on their guard.
Always remember to auto attack when you can... Those extra bits of 50+ damage add up. Take the following example:



If I had just sigil of silence her, it would have done ~80 less damage. Pretty much a sigil of silence worth of damage. Considering how it's free, I see no reason not to abuse my range.

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sigil of silence

Now we start getting multiple uses of combos.

If you've done enough damage early game, you can often get a kill at Lvl 4, if one hasn't come about already: double so if your jungler shows up. I can't emphasise how important it is to land chains. That slow and snare gives an extra second or two to land those auto attacks. The difference between an enemy on 30hp and living, or you getting your reward.

Example -



Or, conversely, you can turn it on its head. Maybe you're the one being ganked. In alot of cases a low- HP enemy will follow the jungler to get a kill. After all, if they die, surely you must as well right? or at least burn summoners to do so?

Example:



Wait in the sigil of silence the low HP mid lane, the jungler, and proceed to walk away laughing.

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sigil of silence
This is technically your most damaging combination, as chains has a 1.0 ap ratio.
It is, however, also harder to land.
In addition, it is generally much more favourable to silence your opponent than to root them.
LAstly, in a team-fight situation, you won't have the luxury of clear shots, or even relying on them.

Therefore, Keep it in mind as a possibility, but don't be too caught up about not being able to utilise this.

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sigil of silence sigil of silence


This requires abusing your 3.5s mark time to the full. By waiting, you allow your sigil of silence to come back off CD, adding more damage to your rotation, that many don't expect.

Example:

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sigil of silence sigil of silence

A lot easier to pull off with modest CDR - read: blue buff. Best used as a sudden aggressive move - the CDR means you don't need to wait to launch a killing offensive in most cases, although its still a good habit to get into.

Even without it, you can pull it off sometimes. The sudden switch in play style throws people off.

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sigil of silence
This combo looks odd, but the reasoning behind it is this:
You've managed to mark your opponnent, but perhaps they've , or have juked into a bush. They're on low enough health that a standardsigil of silence will kill them. So youris utilised to trigger the mark instead.

Example:

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sigil of silence , AA


not normally used early game, as it'll be hard to land chains, due to
being blocked by minions and how people back off after being marked. Still, it can be done to control junglers, or maybe you started with chains due to needing the cc at the beginning.



But later on, one would use this combo to harass whenever they could in order to leave their free.



REMEMBER YOUR AA'S!

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sigil of silence sigil of silence


Used against more aggressive opponents who have shorter range, and have a habit of walking at you. I.e, , etc.

sigil of silence them - in pretty much all cases will out range her opponent. Wait until they try to get aggressive- they will pretty much always want to retaliate.

Throw . They are now silenced, and will soon be stuck. AA them whilst moving on top of them, so you're in a dominant position.

If you've done this right, when the snare wares off your sigil of silence will be back off cooldown. Use a sigil of silence combination afterwards. to deliver even more damage.

Your Sigil has a much lower CD than a lot of opposing mids. That, and many do not or cannot judge the damage a full double sigil will do. Exploit it.

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sigil of silence


Primarily used to escape. Immediately silence to prevent gap closers. Whether or not you wait for the chains proc is down to the situation - if they're faster than you or have a method of slowing you down (like 's ) then you don't want to stick around.

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sigil of silence .


Same as above. Stop the gap closers, get the hell out of there.

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sigil of silence


Mimic chains has few uses in a fight. There is no elongation of its snare time, just it's damage. So the only time you would use this is if you needed to help allies run away from enemies, sigil of silence one with a gap closer, andthe other, whilst using to get yourself out.

Have yet to use this.

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sigil of silence
This is probably the most famous part of LB. Damage... with more damage.

Basic harass involves walking up to them (after they've used an ability, so as to not get smacked in the face for your impudence)



The primary advantage of this is having your and or free to use for later.

Example:

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sigil of silence

Probably what makes alot of people call LB an easy to play champion. I won't lie. The damage from this at lvl 13 is quite disturbingly high.
Even before then, it damage is huuuge.



Things to note: as stated under my "silence" section, please wait after you're fired off sigil of silence. I try to explain here why it's a bad idea:



Basically, as stated under Sigil: Drawbacks, it takes time for the silence to activate. Between sigil of silence andlanding, they have an opprotunity to flash/insertchoiceofescapehere/die which would mean you would effectively waste your distort if they decided to do so.

Once sigil of silencehas landed, they're silenced - so you have that 2 second window to safely distort to them with no chance of them pulling a fast one and avoiding your damage.

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sigil of silence sigil of silence

Perfectly doable if you abuse your mark time. You use this if they're huddling inside their minions for protection against your . So wait... and kill them anotherway.




N:B Yes she was derpy. But you're here to punish mistakes. Make no mistake. Play perfectly against LB, and she'll be useless. But isn't that the same for everychapion? D=

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sigil of silence

Surprisingly enough not as commonly used as distort first combo, since many people just don't want to stay within sigil of silence range. That said, same rules apply. sigil of silence, wait for silence to take effect, distort to trigger additional silence, throw chains and auto attacks to get the kill.

That said, this can very commonly get you a kill at lvl 6, if you go for it.

The following is admittedly a tad poor example - but it gets the point across.



So, he was in range for sigil of silence, but walked out of distort. So throw to proc themark, and get the kill.


However, out of lane you can use your sigil of silence to (over)kill one target, whilst using to CC the other for your team to pick up.

Example:

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sigil of silence sigil of silence

I am starting to use this combination more and more often, just to abuse the silence as much as humanely possible. This method was sort of developed both as an analysis of leblancs abiltiies, and a desperate countermeasure to that SOAB . This keeps them silenced for 6 seconds, and is possible without CDR, but requires pretty precise timing. This combination without CDR isn't really possible in a teamfight - you need to do your damage/silence ASAP.

1) sigil of silence your target - and back off.
2) Then, after ~ 3 secondsyour target. AA. if you have to, assuming you are going for the kill( But only ifsigil of silencelands, and are silenced. )
3) onto them, AA. Keep moving!
4) sigil of silence them and immediately.

I put the AA's in because it's a rough indicator, once it lands, of when to initate the next step in this combo.

Hazards to aware of:

6 seconds of silence... great... they can't retaliate. It doesn't stop them from running. Ergo, you can get pretty overextended if you're not careful.

Beware of tenacity, or . These can screw you over quite hard. The former, because this combo will cease to be be effective, allowing them to retaliate. The latter, because of the same issue - allowing retaliation that you may not expect.

Example:

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sigil of silence sigil of silence

Requires CDR to pull off in most fast-combat scenarios.

example: (0:40)



Again, try to wait untilhas landed before proceeding to minimise potential mishaps.

You would use this combo preferentially if possible, due to the fact that is by far much easier to land the moment you onto someone as opposed to a second after it.

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sigil of silence

This will primarily be used to lock down someone, typically the AP caster, in a fight, in order to let your team-mate escape. is then available to either escape with yourself, or to do damage with.

Example:

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sigil of silencesigil of silence

6 seconds of silenc, another method. This definitely requires a fair bit of CDR (close to max) Will pretty much never be utilised because of just how long 6 seconds is, at the time of the game where you could possibly pull this off, people are clustered together. Other methods of attaining 6 seconds of silence are better.

Nonetheless, for your benefit.

sigil of silence your target. Wait for around 2.5 seconds, then fire(2). Wait for 1.5 seconds, then fire another sigil of silence(4). Wait again for 1.5 seconds, then (6)and

Or, if you realise they don't know how sigil mechanics work, proceed to just space out your attacks and murder them.

Foreword:

I do not include the return part of in these combos because whether or not you decide to return is NOT set in stone. You will see quite a few LB's blindly return after a combo into an incredibly bad situation, purely because they are used to it. I will state again here: Use your head, judge the situation, and whether you should return or not.

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- return

Utilising the return function to its full is something that will take alot of practice to nail down to an artform that doesn't require thinking.

Because quite frankly, judging that 3.5 seconds whilst in a combat situation isn't as easy as it sounds. Alot of calculations need to be made.

"Where is my opponnent?"
"Why am I distorting away?"
"Would it be more beneficial to bait them instead, and use it for damage?"
"Would returning be more useful than just running, and hopefully hopping over another wall?"
"Use mimic distort or Distort?"
"chains?"

Anyway. One of the most fun and rewarding parts of this function is just how infuriating it is for your opponnents if exploited correctly...

Examples:




Tips I can give you concern, yet again, abusing vision.
This is due to how the human mind works - it likes to predict things.
Champion X is heading towards the baron, the player will instinctivly move his screen there to keep it as centred as possible, instead of waiting for his character to reach the edge of it.

This allows for exploitation: Namely, enter a bush, and then return.


Likewise, it also helps if you out of one as well.

Using bushes nullifies their vision of you (sight wards not withstanding). Ergo, they cannot use targetted abilities - and this brief respite of quasi-invulnerability is all you need to make a getaway...

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,aa

eh, I've considered using this if I'm against the likes of relatively short ranged melee casters like . In general, not used overly much. If I've taken first, I've taken it so I can get away quickly. Kinda defeats the point if I then go aggro with it.

Although sometimes you might get lucky, where all that's needed is an AA to finish the job...

Example:

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sigil of silence

To get the extra distance, to cross a wall, in order to fire off a killing blow.

Example:



Too mana inefficient to harass with if the only damaging part if the sigil of silence. If both parts can damage, then it should be
sigil of silence first.
The only viable time otherwise to do this would be like this:


onto him to get into range for AA's, and whatever happens (I.e, where ever he flashed) I could chase him with my own flash if needed. He didn't. Proceed to sigil of silence

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sigil of silence



Maybe if you're ganking at Lvl4, or jumping over a wall to get a kill. Not overly used, as by using to get into range, it lacks the damage of sigil of silence , since if it can do damage, most likely you could have done the above combination. However - sometimes you need begin with when otherwise they would quickly leave the range for the rest of your combo, say, on the otherside of a wall. Or, you need to kill them quickly - and take the risk that might miss.


Nonetheless, a good part of your post combo in a team fight, for getting into positioning to tag someone. Or heck, when you know you can kill people without .

Or, you never know when the opportunity arises to sneak in a kill with it.

Example:

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sigil of silence

This is the combo that mid's hate when playing vs Lb. No matter how far behind they are, you can distort into range, Sigil of silence, and be beyond retaliatory distance.




But be warned wiser people know your moves, and those more confident/knowledgeable can attempt to turn this to their advantage, catching you out and unleashing their combo instead, knowing that yours is now over - hence why you will see commonly see 's throwing and in an attempt to catch you. From there, they can burst you. I can't teach you how to avoid this 100%, beyond being attentive to your opponnent. I gave one example in the video. Another would be having quick reaction times. This guide is meant to teach you how to be better at Lb first. Being a better player in general takes practice beyond the scope of this guide. Like I said. This is not a quick-fix solution to your fail, if that is what you are seeking x_X.

But just for you, another method: Abusing vision. Attacking from an angle where the opponnent can't see you gives him less time to react.

Time to make an appearance.



And lastly, delivering heavy, often fatal, damage and getting a kill from a lost situation. Salvaging something from nothing is a skill you will have to learn - sometimes it is just impossible and you will have to accept it, lest you end up donating your corpse as well. But otherwise, it keeps things even...ish.

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sigil of silence

In lane:

Can be equally as damaging as sigil of silence , if the conditions are right, and you land everything. (Yes, this may be obvious to some of you, but I'm spelling it out so there's no doubt.


Even if it fails, if you land your sigil of silence , you normally do enough damage to force them to back off.

Example:



Most damaging harass in lane from a distance.
Whether you decide to immediately or not depends on both you, and your opponnent. Use your judgement.
On the one hand, the 2 second silence from thecoincides perfectly with the activation time of , thus locking them down. On the other hand, wiser opponnents may pre-emptively attempt to juke you.

Example:




Gone killing:

In alot of cases you will need to distort to get into position, before you can throw down the rest of your combination, pretty much like in lane. Difference being, that in alot of cases there may be other circumstances to consider: CC? presence of jungler? Number of people? Your mid opponnent?
Use your judgement.
But for now, enjoy.

Example:




Or heck, maybe the situation will be right to get a double kill.

Example:




If you take away thing away from this particular combo: it's how vital it is to land those bloody

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sigil of silence sigil of silence

So sometimes you'll have sufficient CD/ they last long enough that you can fire off an extra sigil of silence. Nothing overly special.

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sigil of silence

Your team-fighting combo reserved for your target. In most cases, sigil of silencewill be enough as AD carries don't build MR til very late. (And if they do, then your team overall has an advantage in damage output.... right?)

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Double dash. Only thing better than having one escape is having two...

Secondarily, remember that technicaly with this combo you can jump over walls 4 times.
Thirdly, you can use it to juke skill shots, like in the following:

Classic misdirection.

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Sigil of silence

There's no escape

This combo is generally used to either rapidly close distance in order to deliver a killing blow, or do rapidly scout.

Example:




Usage of this combo is limited, but as with everything I'm putting here, bear it in mind. Like the following. You can pull off some spectacular stunts with Leblanc that other champions can only dream of.

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Use this combination to lock down kills, to give to someone else. The lack of sigil of silence makes it riskier that said victim might get away, but also vastly mitigates the possibility of a donated kill going wrong.

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sigil of silence

Can be used at lvl 4 for harass if you feel you're swimming in mana, but generally this combo won't see much use in lane, due to the delayed silence proc.

Outside of lane, it's primarily used in order to tie someone down ASAP for your team to kill.

Yes, you do run the risk of taking the kill with the secondary proc of sigil of silence and , but use your head. If is enough, then stick with that. If not, then get it done quicker with the addition of an sigil of silence

Examples of locking people down:

Right where I want them.

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sigil of silence
My prefered method for engaging for the kill - If the chains connects, then you can proceed with the rest of your combo (i.e, ) knowing that your chances of a kill are alot higher.
In addition, you're also pretty much guaranteed to fully proc both

As always, examples:




Also useful for the laning phase, by abusing vision.

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So. I guess these are the trickier ones, since they're not "point and click".
These exist unfortunately, and if you want them to be part of your repetoire of tricks then you'll need to practice/master the art of throwing .

As stated, it's easier to throw whilst giving them as little time to react as possible to maximise success. But then you get wiser opponnents who screw you over and move about the place. Bleh. Can't win everything.

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Sigil of Silence.

Like I said for the vice-versa combo, generally not that great due to the comparative difficulty of landing compared to

But anyway. Possible with practice, but generally low on priority of stuff to know.

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Sigil of Silence

very rarely actually done this - it's just too fiddly, and incredibly suboptimal to use 1v1, or during ganking. - Since if it's an early level gank (i.e, pre 6 in this case) you'll need to be fast, or else your mid victim opponnent will get a sizeable advantage over you.

but as always, there's a time and a place for everything. Like an early gank where they havent seen you coming.

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Sigil of Silence
This is used a little bit more, as it keeps your off CD ready to be used whenever. Does require that you get the jump on your opponnent, or he makes a mistake, but with enough practice, you can predict how best to trap them into this combo. The main point of this combo is that it can easily lead to the next step - by not using , you still have the option to use it, if the damage is insufficient. But if it's overkill, and you've put yourself in far more danger than is neccessary.

Example:

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Sigil of Silence

Strangly enough I do this combination a fair amount.
This is because the longest part of your combo to trigger is your . Ergo, by using it first, you minimise the total time spent being vulnerable (read: ] down to the 2 seconds required for the chains to proc in most cases.

Secondarily, it also means you know whether you can commit to the kill or not - If chains connects, you have its damage. Whereas if you approached the combo from another pathway, you always have the risk of not connecting.

So, without further ado, examples:

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Sigil of Silence Sigil of Silence

Again, nothing overly special. Standard combo, followed by another Sigil of Silence to finish off an opponnent. Really useful against champions that have methods of negating damage, ala [vladimir][fizz][shaco]

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One of your escape combos. Do think though. If they're at a long range, maybe enough - and in addition, by using , you might break the tether. But if they're in your face, then by all means, this is a suitable method of running.

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Use this in order to retreat from a situation you cannot win. OR at least, try to. I've actually ever used this once, which I managed to dig up as follows:

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sigil of silence( )

"LOLOLOLOL FACECHECKING SCRUB LOLOLOL"

Well, not to be harsh, but that's pretty much the most common thing to happen in order for you to pull this off. People aren't going to stick around for you do your combo once you've attached - ergo, if it's not from face checking a bush they are:
A) Caught through FoW (Fog of War - see my abusing vision section)
B) CC'd by somene else.
C) R-tarded.

In cases B+C you have time. But since you'll mostly be acting alone as an assassin, A) is most likely. Therefore, they must have no vision - who the hell walks from A to B in zigzaggy juky lines? This results in them having no time to react.

A case of A)

This will be a short section.

Generally the only you'll ever start with is. That's in order to get the extra damage from the augmented mark as well. However, it's then best used as harass - since if you're going to proc the sigil of silence from the combo, you could have done it the other way around.

As such, you're pretty much left withas your only other opener. I've done this once.
That is:
Sigil of silence .

The scenario was as such: Low hp enemy, can die to Sigil of silence . Now. Your slightly better LB might decide to Sigil of silence . to get the kill. But now you have a problem. All you have left is afor defense. As you see, not exactly ideal.

By starting with , you still kill the target, but you have a safetynet in your .

Such a small difference in approaching the main problem - killing the target, but it has major repercussions on what happens after.

You generally have no time to think about what to do. You must simply do it. So practice. Practice. Practice.

So. Here's the bad news. I can only tell you the theory of what to do. You yourself will need to practice.
I will be uploading some LB games that I go through, explaining my thought process and what not, but for the most part, It's down to you now.
This section is on a few things to look out for, general tips, and that kind of malarcky.

Biggest thing about Leblanc that you should master if you want to really be annoying?
Don't die

Early game

Think about the game. Are you invading? In danger of being invaded? Check their jungler. Is it an early threat?

These questions will determine what skill you take first. Never until you're sure you will engage the enemy should you select one. These smallest things can set off a snowball for either team.

For the purposes of this guide, well assume you took sigil of silence first, as this is the most common outcome.

Remember to last hit. At all times. Yust because you're playing a champion which thrives on kills, doesn't mean you neglect farming. It's just too easy to neglect farming as LB - and you will see plenty of them out there with around 60 farm by 30 minutes.

Judge your lane opponent. Is he long ranged like , or short ranged like ?
This will determine your harassment strategy.

General tips: (These things are but a brief overview of what you need to be thinking about. Heck, alot of it is pure gamesense, but i'm putting it here anyway for you to think about. )

• What has your opponnent got? If it's not boots, tell your jungler. If he has no escape mechanisms, tell your jungler. If he's pushing, tell your jungler If you fail, blame your jungler.
  
  
• As soon as they use their primary ability, (I.e, / , you have an opportunity to attack with no retaliation. They know this. They'll back off. So zone them. Dodge again, keep zoning them.
  
  
• It is a risk to early game as you have no wards. Many a LB has met her demise by being predictable and always Sigil of silence at lvl 2, and getting murdered for it by the camping jungler.
  
  
• Which is why a more advanced method is to bait your opponents abilities - therefore if a jungler does show up, you're in no real danger. (1)
  
  
• That said, as soon as you see their jungler (Cv, in another lane, dead) you are free to use to harass with.
  
  
• Remember your auto attacks. They hurt.
  
  
• When your enemy comes in to last hit a creep, AA him/her. They have a choice: Either take the damage, or retaliate and miss a creep.
  
  
• Don't over do the aggression . Minion aggro at early levels hurts . Use this to your advantage - If he's being aggressive, fight him when he's amongst your creeps.
  
  
• Be wary of where your jungler is, and shift position accordingly. If he's counter jungling, this is the difference between him making it out alive, or him giving a kill to your opponnent in mid lane.
  
  
• On the same coin, if he wants to gank at lvl 3, there's no point sticking 2 points in sigil of silence and 1 point in
  
  
• But if you're close to said level, tell him as such. He might wait for one or two creeps. But two waves? nah.
  
  
• Is there an opportunity to kill him before lvl 6? You would be surprised how many people expect a sudden change in aggression at 6, but not sooner. Know how much damage you can do at all levels if you need to. (2)
  
  
• Is there an opprotunity to kill a sidelane? It isn't uncommon for one of the lanes to be pushed, leaving them vulnerable. Early levels, you can push the lane out, and slip out into a side lane to give your side the advantage. (3)

Midgame

Where next?

Now comes the time of killing .

• Look at your lanes. See if any opprotunities arise. For instance, is bottom lane low, at their tower? Might be an idea to head there - many times they're just seconds away from being tower dived.
  
  
• But, regardless, you'll probably need to go back to your lane to get farm and XP. zzzz. But wait, there's someone there with you just waiting to be culled! Past 6 is the time when alot of mid's absolutely hate being in lane with you. It's a constant rain of sigil of silencethat chunks off half their hp or more at a time. (1)
  
  
• But remember. If you think you can do more damage by landing those then do so. (2)
  
  
• Even better. Do what you were meant to do. Punish the mistakes they make - with their lives. (3) (4)
  
  
• Zone them. Suppress them. Remember what I said: EE. Eviscerate enemy.
  
  
• What was next again.. ah yes. Suppress the enemy team. I.e, GG: Go ganking.
  
  
• work with your jungler .
  If you can slip out of lane and the two of you gank somewhere, it not only puts you and your jungler ahead, but gives the lane you're ganking the advantage too. Remember the whole point of ganking: giving your lane the upper hand, so later on, the pressures off you. (5)
  
• On which note, if your jungler is standing in the wings waiting to gank, but you know you can kill them anyway, it's good manners (and good team play) to let them in on the fun. Because now they get EXP and gold as well. (6)
  
  
• Begin RR: Rallying the ******s. Complete previous steps, get a kill or two (preferentially jungler included) and get the objectives - Dragon, buffs, etc.
  
  

Lategame

Ideally the game should be over before it gets here. But if you've done your job, it should still be even. You have enough to still be a presence, and be able to snipe off a priority target. More importantly, your teammates should be sufficiently ahead of their opponnents to be able to more than make up for your non-carry team-fight status.

(NB: Sorry. close to no videos atm, the ones which I do have are sub-optimal.Secondarily, some of them might be considered mid-game, but the principles stand. Teamfights. Sorry. =/)

• By this stage, always have as close to 40% cdr as possible. Heck, when it moves onto team-fighting, get as close to 40% cdr. Grabbing that can make the difference with both the AP and CDR it brings. Don't skimp on these things.
  
  
• Your job at this stage is ideally to pick off someone before there's an engagement. (1)
  
  
• If there is no teamfight, first priority is to escort your support around with others to clear wards and to place wards at objectives like Drake and Baron.
  
  
• Your job in a teamfight is the same out of it: Pick off the high priority-target. This might involve waiting, it might result in you being flamed. PATIENCE. (2) (3)
  
  
• Analyse who you're killing. If their AD carry is hideously behind, and your AD carry is ahead, there is 0 point picking off someone who will have little impact on the fight. It actually might be wise to go after the bruiser(s) assailing your carry, allowing them to kite and survive, and thereby letting him output his far greater damage.
  
  
• 
  
  

Closing notes:
There are two major things this guide cannot teach you. Map awareness, and positioning. These take experience. There isn't really a shortcut. The most helpful advice I can give is to look at your replays. See what opportunities you missed, what you cocked up, whether there were any warning signals. You would be surprised how, if only you had paid attention to the minimap, you might have avoided that terminal gank...

Honest. Some people have a page dedicated to screwing you over, just due to how easy it is. (OMG I SAID EASY QUICK GET THE BAN HAMMER)

This is inconjunction with a non-bruiser mid pitches you at 68 mr, and if they're total party-poopers, 74 due to masteries, and then 98 with a null magic mantle.
Add a to the mix, and you're crying.

Honestly. This stuff is just plain ******ed. It sort of forces a farm fest, of which LB is definitely not happy with.


Beyond this, there are direct champion counters - rapidly pushing the lane screws over LB like no tomorrow. She doesn't want to be at her tower. She wants to kill. Go ganking. Be upper class. Whatever, just not farming like a peasent. In this catagory:

Shield, so cant harass him, and then insta pushes the wave.
. Can safely push lane from a million miles away.
Plops down black stuff, walks away.
Probably missed a few.


Other counters: Methods of preventing the champion from dying.
Like
, ults whoever you're bursting, prevents them from dying.
, Ults whoever you're bursting, prevents them from dying.
, ults everywhere to piss you off, so you have to murder him regardless of the situation. No wait, disregard this.

Yes writing this is making me mad. Because by god did this drive me insane when i faced it. Reaction:
(I.e, Petekes.)

This is the section where I detail appropriate things to look out for/ what counter measures to enact to ensure success... or at least, try to.

Some sections will be longer than others for obvious reasons.

Against mid opponents, you must be aggressive. Your job is to shut them down . This means hamstringing their farm, their levels... hmm.. Their lives come as an added, although frequent, bonus.

Remember. Against mid opponents, this guide assumes that they are:
A) Not braindead.
and
B) Not trolling you with full MR.

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INCOMPLETE

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