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Assassin Roster Update - LeBlanc Direction

Riot20thCenturyFaux·8/10/2016, 8:32:46 PM·1 votes·209,846 views

Hello world!

Next up in the assassin roster update is LeBlanc, the Deceiver. She’s a tricky arcane assassin who promises to misdirect and outmaneuver, but all too often throws her face at you with W->RW+Q+E from afar. The strength of that damage usually forces LeBlanc to give up cool tricks in favor of hitting stuff with her body; being hit with W as LeBlanc instantly snaps back leaves you unable to react. We want her trickery to have time to shine, and if she can keep a step ahead during that window, her brute force can be the coup de grace.

That’s the plan -- double down on the deception, preserve the mobility, and make sure you have time to play too. These goals work together very nicely. To be deceived, you have to have enough time to understand what’s happening and be wrong about it. To exist in harm’s way for longer, LeBlanc needs a way to live, and what better way than deception? LeBlanc’s signature double snapback serves as escape--any self-respecting mastermind keeps a little something up her sleeve--but using it means giving up her position and her kill. Even if she intends to snap back instantly, going in to poke with W/RW should give the opponent time to retaliate with an ability. A Zed-style tiny delay between W dash end and W snapback enabled is pretty likely to show up.

In doing that plan, we’ve been mainly exploring active deception abilities for LeBlanc. If we do it right, her deception arsenal should be a versatile enough to help her team in addition to her role as an assassin. Like so many other assassins, LeBlanc is valued mainly as an unusually safe way to pick off squishy targets. We’d like to add a dimension of strategic trickery to that.

Gameplay goals:

  • Extend LeBlanc’s burst window enough that enemies can keep playing after she dashes in. She already has some of this in E, and the idea of Q implies a delay even if it’s often popped instantly. Success here lets us preserve LeBlanc’s powerful damage while giving her awesome in-combat deception tools--so long as opponents can react before their trip to the fountain.

  • Give LeBlanc active deception tools. LeBlanc’s tricky nature has lots of opportunity for really cool plays, and while her passive is awesome it’s also automatic and unreliable. We’re trying things like concealing information about LeBlanc or giving false information about her to the enemy. It should also allow her to specifically make plays centered around it -- whether using it to cover herself as she assassinates a target or the threat of assassination as a bluff.

  • Ensure LeBlanc brings unique strengths to her team. LeBlanc should be able to use deception to keep her enemies guessing while she assassinates her target, which is something other assassins can’t easily do--there’s some of this on Zed and Shaco, but LeBlanc can go much further with it. A powerful and versatile deception tool would also have many uses outside teamfights, especially if the deception can occur without LeBlanc’s presence...

That’s where our thoughts have lead us for LeBlanc! Comments, questions and suggestions are all welcome.

Good hunting,

20thCenturyFaux

605 Comments

Vanjie8/10/2016, 8:44:19 PM61 votes

Are you planning on giving LB a makeover? I feel like her model is so outdated . . . . and she has so much potential . . .

I also would love to see a trickster glass like passive on her. :D It is so much fun.

Sukazu8/10/2016, 9:20:21 PM33 votes

The problem I have is the impression you give is mostly, "we're gonna adaptate leblanc to low elo".

First paragraph is a lot of words just to say we're gonna slow it down even more than what we did to her w so people that don't understand the game can see what happends, (even tho the combo showcased by the first paragraph, which is second rate in lane for when you don't have mimic on w to go for the r q w, and isn't used in siege assassination as it's usually wqre, is already slow enough. "To be deceived, you have to have enough time to understand what’s happening", double dashing almost takes 2 seconds and to that you have to add q e to successfully remove a target without rm, In what world seing someone fly at you at low speed for 2 seconds in a straight line, not enough time to understand what's going on ?) but don't worry we'll add some deceiving stuffs that won't works in high elo past the few weeks.

Second paragraph, and I insist on that being first impressions, and that without seeing what you have in minds will probably be untrue, but once again that : "it’s also automatic and unreliable. We’re trying things like concealing information about LeBlanc or giving false information about her to the enemy." really sounds like "micromanaging the clone isn't done by low elos, let's the game do the work for them".
I think that's totally the wrong path to take, the fact that leblanc clone is automatic, the fact that there is a logic to it, is what allows you to play with the mind of you opponents. You're saying that it's automatic as if real leblanc players, the one that will be touched by this change, weren't moving the clone and herself accordingly to IA behavior of the clone, and to counter that "automaticness" you're going to make the game automatically deceive the ennemies by adding stuffs not decided by the player, that doesn't really makes sense to me and tends to enlight the first point I was making.

Third paragraph, that's too vague to commentate on, but usually the job of "ensuring [champions] brings unique strengths to her team" is well done in past reworks so I have some trust in that, nuanced by the wrong directions taken in this rework to my understanding

CorruptedPoro8/10/2016, 8:36:07 PM28 votes

Would you give leblanc an ability that functioned like the trickster glass in black market brawlers?

Landorin8/10/2016, 9:55:38 PM25 votes

I have a more general question about the goals of these reworks, which was stewing in the back of my head for a bit but this post in particular made me wonder enough to ask...

If assassin kill time is being increased, do you think there's going to be enough to disincentivize picking other bursty, but non-assassin champs like Annie, Jarvan, or others and just using their low time-to-kill instead? The common thread between the Talon, Rengar, and Leblanc reworks seems to be that they'll have some kind of mobility or outplay spell to compensate for the slower burst, but I'm just wondering why I would pick a Leblanc with slower burst when I can play Annie, flash obliterate someone so quickly that it's not reactable, and take objectives off of that instead.

I also worry a bit that if you give their new utility/mobility/whatever too much power, you end up with champs more like Zed or Fizz who are probably perfectly balanced, but also cause a lot of frustration to people playing against them, particularly if they don't understand their intended weaknesses which may not necessarily be obvious. Any thoughts on that?

Tantarboy8/10/2016, 8:49:07 PM13 votes

If her E remains unchanged can you improve its hitbox? It can hit from some weird angles sometimes.

SkyblazeHydraX38/10/2016, 9:00:09 PM9 votes

So that's three of the "Big Four". I'll be honest, I had initially written off LeBlanc as needing more individual work, given how age in general is kind of catching up with her model and visuals, let alone her kit.

But, I'm all for LeBlanc having more tools for mind games, in exchange for not being able to essentially one-shot people.

......That actually brings another question to mind. Do you think Void Staff could possibly see some changes? I've seen LeBlanc and other AP champs essentially oneshot after building that item and that item alone. Hell, I've BEEN one-shot after they'd built just that item. I'd personally like to see AP Assassins lose that target agnostic power spike (similar to AD assassins losing Last Whisper back in Preseason) in exchange for more specialized and unique tools.

But on to my original question; we'll hear who the last of the "Big Four" is next week, and I'm guessing we'll get a summary post on all the assassins getting smaller changes afterwards. Back on the Rengar post we were told the next of the Big Four was an AP assassin, helping narrow down suspects and expectations.

Can you give us a similar hint as to who's up next?

EDIT: Third question, do you think Abyssal Scepter will see some changes too? It's supposed to be more for AP Bruisers and such, but AP assassins absolutely love it because against similarly magic damage-focused champs it essentially helps them win future trade and the lane. Which, as I'm sure you can understand, is pretty frustrating.

A Liberal8/10/2016, 11:53:47 PM7 votes

I came in here expecting to be terrified but honestly your guy's vision for her is pretty similar to mine. This rework set is scary because I love LB and Kat. Anyway, I think the emphasis on deception is a great direction for her, as I too found it peculiar how her theme is illusionist, yet her main tactic was to throw herself at you.

That said, I really hope you guys keep her ult, or at least the spirit of her ult, as having a low cool down double cast on any ability can lead to such cool combos, and is what makes her a complex and hard to play champion. If her ult is removed, I feel like Leblanc won't really be Leblanc (or is that the point?)

Mushroom36918/10/2016, 8:48:27 PM2 votes

Is Leblanc one of the big 4 reworks? Like Rengar/Talon tier? Or more akin to Annie/Swain from last roster update?