Kit idea for the new LeBlanc rework

Overview I played a lot of LB in S6 but I don't find the rework as fun. I feel like her gameplay changed too much. This is my attempt to give her more counterplay but keep the feel of the old LB.

• Passive - Sigil Of Malice - (no longer has a cook time) LeBlanc's spells mark affected enemies with Sigil of Malice for 4 seconds. LeBlanc's next spell that hits the target will be empowered.

• Q - Magnifying Glass - (COOLDOWN 6s) (MAGIC DAMAGE: 55/90/125/160/195 + 80% AP) (COST: 40/50/60/70/80 MANA)

  • Leblanc channels for 0.5 seconds and magnifies a small orb of light through ethereal glass that strikes the enemy. (interacts as a laser) Empowered - Deals double damage and blinds the enemy for 1 second.

• W - Distortion - (COOLDOWN 18/16/14/12/10s) (MAGIC DAMAGE: 40/55/70/85/100 + 65% AP) (COST: 70/80/90/100/110 MANA)

  • LeBlanc dashes to the target location, damaging all nearby enemies upon arrival and leaving a return pad at the cast location. She can activate Distortion's second cast for up to 4 seconds at the full mana cost of the ability. Empowered - There is no cost to blink to the return pad.

• E - Ethereal Chains - (COOLDOWN 14/13/12/11/10s) (MAGIC DAMAGE: 40/60/80/100/120 + 50% AP) (COST: 40/45/50/55/60 MANA)

  • No longer a 2-hit spell. LeBlanc flings an illusory chain in the target direction, dealing magic damage to the first enemy it hits and tethering herself to them for 1.5 seconds. If the target does not break the tether, they are Slowed for 10/20/30/40/50% their movement speed. Empowered The enemy is rooted for 1.5 seconds.

• R

  • (1) Encore - (COOLDOWN 54/42/30s) (DAMAGE: 50/100/150% mimicked ability) (COST: 0 MANA)
    • LeBlanc repeats her last used ability. (triggered with a single button press, not a toggle) Empowered - LeBlanc goes invisible for 1 second and gets a short burst of movement speed.
  • (2) Shadow Of The Rose - (COOLDOWN 108/84/60s) (COST: 0 MANA)
    • LeBlanc's Encore turns into Shadow Of The Rose when it's off cooldown. Shadow Of The Rose's cooldown is separate and does not affect the cooldown of Encore. Once activated, Encore can be used normally. LeBlanc vanishes for 0.1 seconds, summons a clone beside her upon reappearing that mirrors all of her movements and abilities along the x-axis relative to the direction she is facing when she casts Shadow Of The Rose. (CLONE DURATION: 4/6/8s) (CLONE DAMAGE: 40/60/80% ability damage) (CLONE HEALTH: 25/50/75%)

Why make Q a channel?

This is how I think the cook time for SoM can be removed and she can get her full fluidity and damage back on W. By making her primary burst/assassinate ability a channel, the window for counterplay is widened and her W's mobility and damage isn't made a casualty in the process. LeBlanc has arguably the best mobility in the game, it's a pretty fair trade off that she needs to use that mobility to position herself well enough to pull off a successful channel to get the assassination.

Why use the "Empowered" pattern for her kit?

LeBlanc's kit always had an empowered quality to it. Her old Q essentially empowered her next ability with more damage. The way I see it I'm just extending that concept for the rest of her abilities.

I think having an instant snap-back on W is pretty op so I understand why Riot put the delay in for the rework. But again, I think it's an unnecessary casualty. Instead of taking it away from everybody, let players earn it. So my idea is to give it an extra cost: if it's not empowered then you pay double the mana for it. That's going to make you think twice about how and when you use it, at least early on before you have a blue buff or a lot of mana.

And it's a similar thing for her E. In this kit she can't just E you from dashing in out of nowhere and get a 1.5 second stun. She now would have to land either a Q, W, or a mimicked ability on R before she can land the E to get the stun. This would make her a bit less op when it comes to jg gank assistance.

Deeper Rotations

One thing I think the rework carelessly glossed over was the spell-rotation aspect to her kit. Being able to mimic any ability with her R regardless of the last one she used largely diminishes the importance of her rotations and arguably makes her kit less balanceable. In this kit, every other ability you land in quick succession will have unique empowered bonuses, giving you even more reasons to plan your rotations ahead and allowing more expressive and creative plays.

Conclusion:

With this kit it should still be easy to know when you're in the most danger around LeBlanc, are you maliced or not? But it won't be as binary as "I'm maliced so she does 2k true damage to me ggwp". I think the "toxicity" of her original kit was that she didn't have a tradeoff for the strong mobility, which can be remedied more simply by extending the channel time of Q instead of putting all her damage in a passive proc. As well making her quick W trades in early laning more outplayable with the punishing mana cost if she doesn't proc sigil with the W.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading! Leave a comment and let me know what you liked/disliked or any things you think could be improved.