LeBlanc: Thoughts and Discussion
First let's point out that the assassin update did not at all accomplish what it set to do, which was create all the of assassins unique elements outside of insane mobility and burst damage to kill their target as fast as possible, I don't think a game like league has healthy assassins when they are about insane mobility and damage (doesn't feel fair for the receiving end). So it would be better to do focused single larger changes on the assassins, one at a time, to really get down an unique identity that preserves their mobility of dipping and dodging in and out of fights, but not in the terms of raw damage (if they are about killing their target then it comes down to an arms race of which champions is better than the other, rather than a true reason to pick them).
What I see LeBlanc SHOULD be and is on a thematic level, but does not match her gameplay at all:
~ LeBlanc is an old lady that deceives everyone by looking like she is in her early 20s. LeBlanc should be more about deception and not brute forcing her way to a kill or zoning her opponent laner away indefinitely because of how strong she is.
~ LeBlanc should play on trickery with dipping and dodging in and out of fights and slowly chipping away at health bars, really has to think on a strategic level to take down her prey in a clever fashion, which does not evolving dashing or double dashing and maybe throwing a flash in their to come out of no where to go for the brute force one-shot. Yes, I am repeating myself here, but I really want to drill home the fact that LeBlanc does not play on her cool theme at all.
~ LeBlanc obviously needs better counter play when against her, this can lead to buffs for her on occasion if she is too weak rather than always nerfing her when PROPER counter play is set into motion - and no you cannot just factor into counter play for 1% of the population since the 99% is what gives Riot money, and they are more important to please and grant an enjoyable gameplay experience.
~ LeBlanc should be fun and rewarding to play as. This should be obvious, just wanted to put that out there. Also it is super easy to have LeBlanc be fun to play as since mobile champions are innately fun for the player, so the focus should be on making an experience that allows the opposition to have fun in that game since the LeBlanc player will be having fun.
~ LeBlanc's unique characteristic for her team would be the distraction (still would hold a good sum of damage, but not in the form of burst of any kind), which redefines assassins to be more than super mobile burst bots which takes away their damage for their super mobility and adds usefulness outside of damage in some form - LeBlanc can be the distraction mage-assassin, but this won't be every assassin's unique characteristic obviously.
BELOW IS A VERY ROUGH CONCEPT. BESIDES BEING A ROUGH CONCEPT, THE NUMBERS ARE FOR EXAMPLE PURPOSES ONLY AND DO NOT MEAN MUCH IN THE GRAND SCHEME OF THINGS AKA THE LONG TERM.
Mirror Image (Passive): Upon casting an ability, for the next 0.5 second the next movement command creates an identical clone of LeBlanc that moves to the mirrored target location. Clones last for up to 5 seconds.
Champion attacks or abilities that affect the clone will cause it to disappear and deal 10(+5 per level)(+20%AP) magic damage to the attacker.
Feint (Q): Cooldown: 9/7.5/6/4.5/3 seconds; Cost: 45/50/55/60/65 mana; Range: 500 units LeBlanc becomes hazy for 0.5 second causing enemy attacks and abilities to miss her for the duration and then pulses out magic around her dealing 60/80/100/120/140(+50%AP) magic damage.
If a Mirror Image or Irresistible was already currently active then LeBlanc can swap places with the target Mirror Image or Irresistible instead of becoming hazy, pulsing out magic around her upon arrival.
All Mirror Images and Irresistible in play will pulse out magic around them at half damage, only the greatest damage will apply against the same target.
Distortion / Return (W): Cooldown: 18/16/14/12/10 or 0 seconds; Cost: 80 or 20 mana; Range: 800 units Distortion: Leblanc dashes to the target location, leaving behind a stream of magic for the next 2.5 seconds. If LeBlanc returns during this time then the magic detonates dealing 90/120/150/180/210(+65%AP) magic damage to enemies on the magic.
Return: If LeBlanc dashed or teleported, excluding Return's teleport, in the last 2.5 seconds then she returns to her previous location. Return takes priority over Distortion if Distortion has yet to be cast.
Irresistible (E): Cooldown: 16/14.5/13/11.5/10 seconds; Cost: 70 mana; Range: 400 units 1st Cast: LeBlanc creates an irresistible copy of herself at her location for the next 2/2.25/2.5/2.75/3 seconds charming enemies that get near it for 1.5 seconds, 1.75 seconds for male champions.
2nd Cast: LeBlanc commands this clone to move to the target location.
Sigil of Malice (R): Cooldown: 5/4/3 seconds; Cost: 60 mana; Range: 750 units LeBlanc launches an orb of magic to the target enemy dealing 30/45/60(+30%AP) magic damage (300% damage vs non-champions), increasing to 120/180/240(+120%AP) magic damage against champions damaged by a Mirror Image in the last 1.5 seconds.
(Okay there is some burst left here, but the Sigil of Malice here is rewarding LeBlanc for tricking her opponents into attacking a Mirror Image and capitalizing on her successful deceit. Rather than brute forcing her way to a kill, she has to work for it and properly use her kit to deceive her foes!)
(Other change is returning from Distortion is no longer a free cost, but a low mana cost instead (casting Return will also trigger the passive to potentially spawn a Mirror Image), this is two different abilities since Return can trigger from swapping locations with a clone or using Distortion, which is why Return takes priority over Distortion. Distortion also does not deal damage with the initial pass anymore to delay its damage, instead creates essentially a line skill shot of where ever LeBlanc went to during the dash and then detonates if LeBlanc Returns to her previous location (the anchor will only be shown to LeBlanc for trickery, W gives away the location still with the magic).)
(Mirrored location would be there is a vertical line (like a line skill shot) from LeBlanc's location which acts as the "mirror" with wherever LeBlanc moves to the Mirror Image will walk to the same location but on the opposite side of the "mirror" so both always walk away from each other but either both towards or both away from your enemies [technically there is a way where you can move away and the clone moves semi-towards, you should get the point though]. E clone is fully controllable, initial spawn is where LeBlanc is standing, charm is towards the clone and not LeBlanc.)
