the only champion whose design bothers me

Alpaca·May 9, 2016·6 votes·1,212 views

So I've always felt that there's something wrong with one of the mages kits, that being Leblanc. She seems to be the only champion with no drawback holding her back from going crazy every chance she gets. So Leblanc is an assassin, and the main characteristic of an assassin is high damage in exchange for a high risk playstyle, mages on the other hand can also have a high amount of danage, but are handicapped by giving them limited mobility to allow for counterplay. And thats where Leblanc completely breaks the rule, because looking at most assassins you'll see that their escape is limited, either by being forced to gain a reset like khazix, or by killing their targets before they kill the assasin. However, LeBlanc's escape is applicable at almost any given time as she has the ability to jump back instantly for three seconds, regardless of whether she succeeded at assassinating or not, while also having a higher damage output than most assassins and a rather low skill requirement to do so ( looking at champions like zed who is rewarded for skill). And it's not like I'm crying while not having played her myself, every time I do, I hit level 6, press q r w and my lane opponent is dead within a second. While I find that questionable in itself, her ability to escape sticky situations almost always bothers me, and the passive just adds insult to injury, because stealth and a duplicate makes walking back to your turret so easy -> impossible to gank. Either the second cast of distortion needs to be different, or her proc on q should do a dot or something of that sort, so she has at least some counterplay.

37 Comments

SylverblitzMay 9, 20164 votes

"she has the ability to jump back instantly for three seconds"

It's four seconds, they buffed it. Her risk is that of hard crowd control and her early game is very poor against people that know how to play against her. If she dives in and gets snared then she is most likely dead soon afterwards. It's a lot easier to snare a LeBlanc than it is Zed and his shadows.

Zed players have the easiest last hitting in the game and almost infinite lane harass as well as a lot of mobility and dive potential. There is no escaping his ult now that they have changed the items and his ability to escape from a bad situation using his ult and / or W is just as good if not better than LeBlanc.

Something not many people know is that when her passive clone is popped it will always walk straight unless the player controls it very quickly. It used to stand still and not run making it easier to fool people with it but now it's easier to spot because the one still walking in the original direction is the clone. You can also tag LeBlanc with ignite and it will stick to the actual LeBlanc when the clone pops.

Lady HammerlockMay 9, 20164 votes

{quoted}

"she has the ability to jump back instantly for three seconds"

It's four seconds, they buffed it. Her risk is that of hard crowd control and her early game is very poor against people that know how to play against her. If she dives in and gets snared then she is most likely dead soon afterwards. It's a lot easier to snare a LeBlanc than it is Zed and his shadows.

Zed players have the easiest last hitting in the game and almost infinite lane harass as well as a lot of mobility and dive potential. There is no escaping his ult now that they have changed the items and his ability to escape from a bad situation using his ult and / or W is just as good if not better than LeBlanc.

Something not many people know is that when her passive clone is popped it will always walk straight unless the player controls it very quickly. It used to stand still and not run making it easier to fool people with it but now it's easier to spot because the one still walking in the original direction is the clone. You can also tag LeBlanc with ignite and it will stick to the actual LeBlanc when the clone pops.

You can tag LB clone with a lot of things ignite,exhaust, twitch poison,akali's Q,kennens mark of the storm theres a lot more but I'm to lazy to mention

SylverblitzMay 9, 20161 votes

{quoted}

You can tag LB clone with a lot of things ignite,exhaust, twitch poison,akali's Q,kennens mark of the storm theres a lot more but I'm to lazy to mention

Perhaps but only Ignite and Exhaust are available to all players regardless of champion.

CrimsonReapsMay 9, 20162 votes

No escaping his ult now? You can still escape it with zhonyas, but now ADC's are vulnerable to it. LeBlanc is countered by hard crowd control, but what smart LeBlanc will dive into a group if enemies with hard cc, most would wait until that cc is used and then proceed to kill the entire team

SylverblitzMay 9, 20161 votes

{quoted}

No escaping his ult now? You can still escape it with zhonyas, but now ADC's are vulnerable to it. LeBlanc is countered by hard crowd control, but what smart LeBlanc will dive into a group if enemies with hard cc, most would wait until that cc is used and then proceed to kill the entire team

Yes just as you always could but you can't cleanse it off with any of the old items so unless ADCs start building it they can't escape it. LeBlanc players get cocky if they're ahead, not that it matters about cc anyway. Their burst is so high you might as well fall over if they're on the same screen as you.

QuephaMay 9, 20161 votes

{quoted}

No escaping his ult now? You can still escape it with zhonyas, but now ADC's are vulnerable to it. LeBlanc is countered by hard crowd control, but what smart LeBlanc will dive into a group if enemies with hard cc, most would wait until that cc is used and then proceed to kill the entire team

So the fight is basically a 4v5 until the enemy does something stupid? That doesn't sound that good for LeBlanc's team.

AlpacaMay 9, 20161 votes

How am I supposed to snare a champion that appears in range for less than a second though

DemonicousMay 9, 20161 votes

What do you mean?

The Last BalladMay 10, 20161 votes

She appears, then blinks back instantly(or very quickly)

DemonicousMay 10, 20161 votes

Technically you can interrupt her dash forward... the second activation is a blink. Its how Gragas players counter her mid game.

SylverblitzMay 10, 20161 votes

{quoted}

How am I supposed to snare a champion that appears in range for less than a second though

A combination of prediction and fast reactions. I didn't say it was easy but if it was easy nobody would play her.

DemonicousMay 9, 20161 votes

{quoted}

"she has the ability to jump back instantly for three seconds"

It's four seconds, they buffed it. Her risk is that of hard crowd control and her early game is very poor against people that know how to play against her. If she dives in and gets snared then she is most likely dead soon afterwards. It's a lot easier to snare a LeBlanc than it is Zed and his shadows.

Zed players have the easiest last hitting in the game and almost infinite lane harass as well as a lot of mobility and dive potential. There is no escaping his ult now that they have changed the items and his ability to escape from a bad situation using his ult and / or W is just as good if not better than LeBlanc.

Something not many people know is that when her passive clone is popped it will always walk straight unless the player controls it very quickly. It used to stand still and not run making it easier to fool people with it but now it's easier to spot because the one still walking in the original direction is the clone. You can also tag LeBlanc with ignite and it will stick to the actual LeBlanc when the clone pops.

Hard CC is how you beat every champion. Not a valid argument! Sure some champs come with a lot of CC like Blitz and therefore have the opportunity to put your argument into practice. However not all champions come with that much CC. Go tell a Yi player to CC her, watch where that gets you. Yes most champs have at least one form of CC... but not all of it is hard CC. Take a look at Brolaf... a slow... and a weak one at that. Tham Kench has a longer lasting and more potent slow than Olaf. Basically my point is, yes while the argument is valid it can not be applied generally to most scenarios. Calling for a 5 man gank to deal with one champ is not "balanced." Its also about the order of CC I would rethink when it comes to LB. If I were playing Blitz typically in order to gank Zed I would hook him and then knock him up. Against LB I am forced to flash knock her up and then hook her when she clones or attempts to dash away.

Secondly I would think Froggen might agree that LB is stronger than Zed. Comparing the two is like comparing apples and oranges. Just look at LBs AP scaling and then factor into it that she has a built in steroid that deals double damage, and then look at Zed's AD scaling. What you fail to realize is that Zed usually pokes you until you are low enough on health that he can ult you, while LB can just down you with one combo from full health. Most assassins set their target up and wait for an opportunity... LB just waits for the opportunity. Yes she is also a lot squishier than other champions but she is not even the lowest base health champ in game... and that makes me take a double take when I hear LeBlanc.

Her clone pops at 40% health. Thats a waste of an summoner 14 ... I would think that summoner 3 ing her before her clone pops might be more effective. Not to mention just go after the one with Blue Buff.

Now if LB were to be looked at, she cant just be nerf'd indiscriminately. That would make her useless. She may actually need a whole... readjustment... but not a rework. Reworks sometimes spell doom for a champ... like Shen.

Here is how I would adjust her.

**Sigil of Malice: **

Range: 700 > 750, Speed: 2000, Cost: 50 / 60 / 70 / 80 / 90 > 40 / 50 / 60 / 70 / 80, Cooldown: 9 / 8 / 7 / 6 / 5, Magic Damage: 55 / 80 / 105 / 130 / 155 + (40% AP) > 45 / 60 / 75 / 90 / 105 + (30% AP) Active: LeBlanc deals magic damage to the target enemy and marks them for 3.5 seconds. > LeBlanc deals magic damage to the target enemy and marks them for 7.5 / 6.5 / 5.5 / 4.5 / 3.5 seconds. LeBlanc's abilities consume the mark if they damage the target, dealing the same magic damage again. > LeBlanc's abilities consume the mark if they damage the target, dealing the 60% of same magic damage again.

So yes I knocked down her damage by quite a bit on this, but I increased the cast range, lowered the mana cost, increased the mark duration at lower levels... gave it a snowballing cooldown to less than her original. This means she has greater poke and harass potential in lane much like other assassins. Lowered the marks bonus damage so that its less of that built in one man Wombocombo setup.

Distortion

Range: 600 > 700 with a maximum blink back range of 850, Speed: 1450, Cost: 80 / 85 / 90 / 95 / 100 > 70 / 75 / 80 / 85 / 90 Cooldown: 18 / 16 / 14 / 12 / 10 Magic Damage: 85 / 125 / 165 / 205 / 245 (+ 60% AP) > 80 / 120 / 160 / 200 / 240 (+ 55% AP) Damage Radius: 250 > 275

So here I reduced the cost, increased cast range, gave it a maximum range on its second cast ( much like Zed's shadow limit range ), increased the damage radius, and knocked the damage down a hair. The problem is that LB can deep murder you no matter where you are with a use of her W, Q, and R combo and still be able to blink back to the original pad left behind by W that is 1200 units away minimum. Most other assassins need to blink to a target unit like a minion or have a limitation to blink distance like Zed's shadows.

**Ethereal Chains **

Range: 950 on cast / 1000 tether range / 55 missile width, Speed: 1750 > 1800, Cost: 80, Cooldown: 14 / 12.5 / 11 / 9.5 / 8 Initial Magic Damage: 40 / 65 / 90 / 115 / 140 (+ 50% AP) if tether unbroken_ Secondary Magic Damage:_ 40 / 65 / 90 / 115 / 140 (+ 50% AP) >
Initial Magic Damage: 35 / 60 / 85 / 110 / 135 (+ 25% AP) if tether unbroken Secondary Magic Damage: 35 / 60 / 85 / 110 / 135 (+ 75% AP)

Active: LeBlanc flings illusory chains in a line, dealing magic damage to the first enemy they hit and tethering herself to them 1.5 seconds, Slow icon slowing her target by 25% while the tether persists. If the target does not break the tether by moving out of range, they are rooted for 1.5 seconds and dealt the same magic damage.

Active: LeBlanc flings illusory chains in a line, dealing magic damage to the first enemy they hit and tethering herself to them 1.5 seconds, slowing her target by 25% when the target is moving away from LeBlanc and 10% while the target is moving toward LeBlanc while the tether persists. If the target does not break the tether by moving out of range, they are rooted for 1.5 seconds and dealt increased magic damage.

Okay so here is where I got creative. I feel there is zero punishment for LB using her chains. Sure she has to maintain the tether but some champs do not have that option. I increased her missile speed which makes a whole lot of difference as those adept at dodging skillshots will attest to. I knocked the base damage down a hair with the initial bonus AP damage knocked down by half and increased the secondary damage by 10% of the original. This gives LB players more incentive to keep the tether. The slow changes are due to the fact that brawlers really get the shit end of the stick against this ability, and if forces LB to dance back and forth WITH her target instead of just moving toward her target.

Mimic

Active: LeBlanc casts a mimicked version of her most recently used basic ability, applying the same effects and dealing modified magic damage. Mimic Sigil of Malice and Mimic Ethereal Chains Magic Damage: 100 / 200 / 300 (+ 60% AP) Mimic Distortion Magic Damage: 150 / 300 / 450 (+ 90% AP)

Active: LeBlanc casts a mimicked version of her most recently used basic ability, applying the same effects and dealing modified magic damage. Mimic Sigil of Malice Magic Damage: 100 / 200 / 300 (+ 50% AP) Mimic Ethereal Chains Magic Damage: 100 / 200 / 300 (+ 35% AP on Initial and +95% AP on Secondary) Mimic Distortion Magic Damage: 150 / 300 / 450 (+ 90% AP)

Here all I did was apply Mimic's same damage % of AP modifiers to the modified values I presented in the above changes to reflect consistency, but I left the base damage the same. Basically what I am saying is that an Ult needs to feel and play like an ult even though its just mimicked versions of the other spells.

SylverblitzMay 10, 20161 votes

{quoted} Not to mention just go after the one with Blue Buff.

No longer a valid way to track her or Shaco clones. The clones now have a copy of whatever buffs you have at the time.

DemonicousMay 10, 20161 votes

Thanks for reminding me I forgot about that change.

Lady HammerlockMay 9, 20162 votes

Because if you can't play her well late game team fights are a nightmare for Leblanc players you either Die really fast or make them die really fast,she also has decision making and juking choose huge AOE dmg with W and R,choose lock down with E and R or choose massive single target burst with Q and R(possibly finishing with a W)

late game is also the time where people with a brain build a defensive item like MR or banshee's veil or Maw she also hates bruisers and tanks although she can kite them she can't kill them very fast

you also would never fucking pick an immobile champion>LB unless you god damn trust your self or you have some way toe easily interrupt her dash

AlpacaMay 9, 20161 votes

But you don't even need distortion for assassinating and enemy squishy, q and r is enough. Distortion can be saved for escaping entirely and if you use it for aoe you just jump out again. Mid lane is also a lane for immobile champions, a trait of mages, most having cc rather than mobility. Her zoning is ridiculous from level two leaving the opponent helpless.

DemonicousMay 9, 20161 votes

{quoted}

Because if you can't play her well late game team fights are a nightmare for players you either Die really fast or make them die really fast,she also has decision making and juking choose huge AOE dmg with W and R,choose lock down with E and R or choose massive single target burst with Q and R(possibly finishing with a W)

late game is also the time where people with a brain build a defensive item like MR or banshee's veil or Maw she also hates bruisers and tanks although she can kite them she can't kill them very fast

you also would never fucking pick an immobile champion>LB unless you god damn trust your self or you have some way toe easily interrupt her dash

Dude it has a speed of 1750... yeah you can link 50,000 YouTube videos of incredible hooks on dashes, but those were some lucky charms breakfast days for those players. Recreating hooks and snares like that is only really possible from the head on approach.

AoE does a better job of stopping LB... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBLixHkf-gY as seen here... but that was an average LB player.

Critmaster GarenMay 9, 20162 votes

while i think some champions are not very well designed, i think those are the actual design horrors of this game:

Leblanc 0 risk assassinations. jump in range with w, hit q + r + q on a low health target? failed? immediately hit w to jump out of range and try again later

Tryndamere captin rng

Evelynn stealth paranoya.

DemonicousMay 9, 20161 votes

[{quoted}](name=Critmaster Garen,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=IIo5Vj1d,comment-id=0002,timestamp=2016-05-09T14:32:55.369+0000)

while i think some champions are not very well designed, i think those are the actual design horrors of this game:

0 risk assassinations. jump in range with w, hit q + r + q on a low health target? failed? immediately hit w to jump out of range and try again later

captin rng

stealth paranoya.

When did you start playing this game?

Critmaster GarenMay 9, 20161 votes

{quoted}

When did you start playing this game?

6 years ago. these champions are objectively terribly designed.

leblanc relies on low counterplay ranged point and click assassinations to get fed and snowball off this advantage. really a champion like her shouldnt exist. shes just a bit worse than annie dsign wise. that is, if annie had leblancs w instead of tibbers.

tryndamere is gone wrong in every possible way. hes designed as a melee adc. but winning his lane almost entirely revolves around getting a lucky crit on his opponent at level 2, and the rest of the game hes avoiding fights just trying to splitpsuh.

and eve... stealth mechanics in general have little counterplay since season 4, and have been problematic even before oracles was removed and pinkw ards made visible. it was always either too strong or too easily countered. and with a champion having most of his power budget in stealth, its almost impossible to get her into a good spot where shes not ether op or too weak.

DemonicousMay 9, 20161 votes

I remember when Eve could just buy 5 Sunfire Capes and boots, you want stealth neurotic. If stealth becomes too easy to counter then the stealth reliant champs become too weak to be even slightly viable. I find Eve a joke anyway.

hotarseMay 9, 20162 votes

you just realized this now? welcome to the club!

AlpacaMay 9, 20161 votes

No Leblanc has always bothered me

Michael SykesMay 9, 20161 votes

Well, when you are able to qrw your opponents at lvl6, they are very dumb. I don't see your problem. Her kit is not problematic in the current balancing state. If you look at the statistics, even mains have problems at the moment (maybe because her hardcounters got buffed). As you can read in the comments below, she HAS risk, and the only assassins that work well have a save escape OR they are so strong that they can burst their target in the most cases and get their resets. This escape mechanic helps an assassin to be not completely useless when behind (like Kha'zix)

DemonicousMay 9, 20161 votes

[{quoted}](name=Michael Sykes,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=IIo5Vj1d,comment-id=0004,timestamp=2016-05-09T16:31:17.550+0000)

Well, when you are able to qrw your opponents at lvl6, they are very dumb. I don't see your problem. Her kit is not problematic in the current balancing state. If you look at the statistics, even mains have problems at the moment (maybe because her hardcounters got buffed). As you can read in the comments below, she HAS risk, and the only assassins that work well have a save escape OR they are so strong that they can burst their target in the most cases and get their resets. This escape mechanic helps an assassin to be not completely useless when behind (like Kha'zix)

Ummm thats the point of level 6... Ultimate. Kinda like facing Tryndamere in top lane before level 6 hes a kitten. As soon as he hits 6 you start running for the hills... dont lie I have seen you.

[slayer-jinx-wink]

Michael SykesMay 9, 20161 votes

I am not sure if this is your main account, but it seems that you have no idea how this champion works. Your ideas of changing her make no sense. Your judgement about her power potential makes no sense. A good player knows the strenghts AND weaknesses of other champs, and LeBlanc's weakness is teamfighting. I have a lot of experience with her so I know what I can do with that champ and what I can't do. And I have the experience AGAINST her. What is your point? She is balanced according to the statistics. You can't deny those facts.

DemonicousMay 9, 20161 votes

Obvious troll is obvious.

LeBlanc was released in a very dark time for mages. Mundo, Singed, Garen were all running around at the time sporting Force of Nature, and Spirit Visage pretty much unkillable to mages. All except one. Here she is and we are talking about her. She could kite these fool tanks and bait them to their deaths and thats how she worked back then... sadly she also tactically nuked your ADC all the time but such is the life of the ADC. She was designed to be this way at a time where mage players needed it most. Well guess what tanks are not as scary as they use to be. Sure she was nerf'd since then but not in the way she needed to be. She is lacking a hell of a lot of balance because you can either snowball into your teams carry as LB or you can end up feeding everyone. She has no point where she can balance from success into failure or failure into success.

Yes she is very weak in team fights, and that is where I agree with you... but team fighting is not her DAMN job! LBs job is to come in from an angle and assassinate the ADC... then harass and / or kill their support in a team fight. No self respecting LB player is going to jump into the fray all willy nilly. Just watch Froggen or Faker play LB... they stay away from the teamfights with tanks and junglers like cheerleaders running away from nerds carrying the plague. They come in assassinate the ADC and bounce and regroup with their teammates... where it is safe.

Oh very clever looking up my match history. I looked up yours and you are a butthurt LB main defending the one champ you like. Its clear to me your opinion is not without bias.

Worst thing Riot ever did was make everyone's match history public.

My point is that the meta she was designed for NO LONGER EXISTS.

Michael SykesMay 10, 20161 votes

of course, I am pround of being a LeBlanc main, but sorry for sounding aggressive, I was tired yesterday evening (you know, different time zone). Yes I agree with you, her design was for another time. But it does still work. With Zed you also won't go into the teamfight, only for assassinating a carry or the support (hi soraka). I like both champs for their kit. Sadly I can't play Zed because he is banned everytime (he is really strong, more annoying than LeBlanc). I like it to be squishy, to do a hell of damage and to get out safely. I love it to outplay my opponents (which is not hard in lower elo) and to roam. Of course I will defend the champs I like. The thing is, Riot likes her design according to recent Rioter comments, and her design is pretty unique. If played well, she is able to do something in every situation, and she does not feel overpowered or weak. She is picked in LCS, MSI or even the Worlds only for her safety, like Zed. Assassins won't have a place in competetive play if they just can jump in without a safe escape. Mages are better in the most situations.

The assassins as a class have to be updated. But even if this happens, I think that she will only get smaller changes. I would like to see that the q and qr damage is distributed differently. More damage on the second proc, less on the first proc. Would make her a bit harder to play. And probably more healthy, no one likes point-and-click nukes cough

DemonicousMay 12, 20162 votes

My changes that I suggested were not that bad.

I suggested a change to her Q that allows her to use it more frequently, giving her more lane presence. LeBlanc has zero presence level 1, because she relies on her combos. I lowered her damage but gave her more harass and increased her threat.

My suggestion to her W just limited its return blink but I increased it's cast range. Basically my rework would prevent her from being able to double dash and blink back to the original pad if the double dash was in a **straight line. ** People are not okay with LB dashing into you under your own turret and then being able to dash again with the Ulted version midway between the next two turrets, and then blink back to the original return pad. My change still allows her to do so IF she stays in range of the blink pad. Basically you can cast her dash and the use the ulted version in the shape of an L or the leg and base of a isosceles triangle and still blink back to the original pad. Sorry but its the fact that currently she has an UNLIMITED range on her blink. There has to be a limit somewhere, and I have seen LB use both of her abilities and flash for a traveled distance of over a range of 1625 = W + R(W) + Flash (with intermediate short bursts of walking in between). So yeah unless Cait tagged her with her ult she can not be punished for that deep territorial penetration. Yo need to time an implacable hook or dash at her directly to interrupt it like mid Gragas does.

I also more or less buffed her E by increasing its projectile speed. However a ranged champion can still fight back if snared, but melee champs cant. Even you have to admit once a target is chained they always run and never at you.

Yes I admit I am not easy to get along with and I am sorry for that.

However Riot has punished champs that were too safe to play over the last 4 years. I remember when Teemo could stay in stealth even while taking damage. Anyone remember Enervating Locket on Udyr or Gragas? For a long time I never played anyone but these two, for a good reason. People use the term Godyr far too loosely these days if they never faced Locketdyr. I guarantee you that the first tank Ekko build was because of LB. Some dude just said eff that, built tanky and accidentally discovered the most annoying meta suitable Ekko build ever... all because LB can actually shut down a properly built Ekko.

Tank Ekko? Blame LeBlanc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BppBRCv1Bkg

Michael SykesMay 12, 20161 votes

thank you for being friendly. A better base for a disussion :D As an experienced LeBlanc player I can tell you that she is not that weak on level one, maybe if you want to invade, but definitely not on the lane. In some matchups aa+w+aa to proc thunderlords is extremely important (i.e. against fizz). Her level 2 seems op to many players, but in fact it should not too easy to land a q+w combo against a good player. I played against idiots and against mains, the difference is obvious. I played against LeBlanc a few times and were able to beat her during the laning phase. After that she is okay, her level 6 is a heavy powerspike that is underestimated by the most players. q+r should not be so easy, because of that I would like to change this spell like I described in my last reply. Your argument about the infinite blink is not bad, but Riot knows that this would gut her to death. The only reason for that might be her squishiness. And it would destroy her teamfighting totally, because you need that blink to survive the aoe damage of many champions. How should you do anything against a good Xerath without a safe gapcloser and the big jump back? Or a Yasuo, I had many fights on lane where I had to play around his windwall and he dashed through my whole wave, so I couldn't outplay him with a limited blink range or at least survive his engage.
She is not so safe that they have to nerf it. As long as she can't build tanky successfully like her ad counterparts or ap assassins like Diana this kind of blink is okay, and Zed also has it on his ultimate with an extremely short delay.

Additionally, her infinite blink is indirectly a part of her role as an assassin:

"Assassins specialize in infiltrating enemy lines with their unrivaled mobility to quickly dispatch high-priority targets. Due to their mostly melee nature, Assassins must put them themselves into dangerous positions in order to execute their targets. Luckily, they often have defensive tricks up their sleeves that, if used cleverly, allow them to effectively avoid incoming damage."

Source: http://euw.leagueoflegends.com/en/news/game-updates/gameplay/dev-blog-classes-subclasses

Fizz has his e, Zed his w and r, Diana her w and e, Talon his ultimate and in some cases his e etc. LeBlanc's way of avoiding damage is her blink (and her passive, but it does not work against aoe) which might be almost useless in the mimicked version without being able to jump back in some cases. And LeBlanc also has to go in melee range in many situations and puts herself into a high risk (a good Sona ult, malphite ult or a Maokai w can be her death).

Last but not least I am pretty sure that Tank Ekko was not caused by LeBlanc xD Just one reason: He builds armor first, and spirit visage later. I am very sure it is just because of the sunfire + iceborn combo and his absurdly high base damages.

DemonicousMay 12, 20161 votes

But all the other assassins have some range to the blink, or at least the stipulation that they need to hit a target like Jax's leap, Katarina's blink, Diana also needs a target, as well as Talon. All I am saying is that I dont want to gut her dash, I just want to put a range limit on it because it is the only one that has no limit. This one factor would separate the noobs from the real good players that actually keep track of their ranges. Believe me look around YouTube and you can find noob LB players getting caught with ridiculously easy to spot ganks and yet they still manage to score high marks that they DO NOT DESERVE.

When I play Zed I need to make sure I am not getting out of range of my shadows.

Michael SykesMay 13, 20161 votes

okay, I try to explain as good as I can: Zed has his w with a limited range. It can be used as a gapcloser, just to outplay, as an escape or whatever. There are several possibilities. He has his ult, which places a third shadow. He can switch with this shadow without distance limits. So the reason his w has a limited range is probably the fact that it is a pure blink, which has less counterplay than a dash (and LeBlanc can't cast any spell while dashing). Additionally it gives you two positions you can throw you q's from and where you can cast your e. This works totally different from LeBlanc.

I agree with you that even noobs can get kills with LeBlanc very easy or at least do some things too easy. But after so many games I am pretty sure that the unlimited blink is not the reason. I hate the power she has on the point and click spells, when you are fed you just have to land them without the chain to kill a squishy without resistances. This is the reason I want a bigger reward for landing the chain, and as a main I am pretty good with that. Instead of nerfing her outplay ability or her juking it would make more sense for me to change the damage output on the q proc's. Trust me, making her blink back range limited would be a hard nerf, and increasing the dash range is not a good compensation, she is at the moment not as strong as it seems. My changes would cause less frustration, I played just yesterday against a bad lb as Diana, killed her during the laning phase, but she got carried by her team (they had a fed Kalista) and was able to oneshot team members without landing any chain.

DemonicousMay 13, 20161 votes

All I am saying is that I guarantee you that Riot will rework her. However we cant let them get too creative or she will be OP or she will be useless. However there is no way Riot will not touch her.

Better to discuss and throw out good rework ideas now before they mutilate her.

Michael SykesMay 13, 20161 votes

hm, I don't think they are going to change much. She is just too effective and satisfying as a concept and matches perfectly with the new definition of assassins. When the assassin update is going to happen I think that they will rework Akali, Katarina, Diana (?), Evelynn, Rengar and Shaco. most likely Zed and LeBlanc will stay same with minor adjustments, Talon and Fizz will get smaller changes, but those two ad assassins are a bigger problem at the moment (high winrate Talon, unhealty Zed?).

DemonicousMay 14, 20161 votes

Talon is situational, his assassination attempts typically mean he HAS to score a KILL or he can get hurt real bad in return. Talon's blink has a long enough CD to be punished for his attempts.