The Assassin Q3 Rebudget: LeBlanc's Story

Assassins blew people up with no counterplay while also having the mobility to ensure they at least traded 1 to 1. At the same time, assassins could only really do that one job, making them feast or famine if their combo didn't 100-0 the target in question. It was unhealthy and aggravating for everyone involved. In came Riot with a plan: redo the power budget of certain assassins. Let's look at what Riot's balance team did for LeBlanc and where they can go from here!

Pre-Update Strengths

1. Massive powerspikes at lvls 2, 3, and 6, making for a powerful laning phase
2. Simple, targeted, quick, powerful burst
3. High potential mobility
4. Difficult to escape from
5. Low cooldown on burst combo
6. Difficult to respond to 1v1

Pre-Update Weaknesses

1. Escape, poke, burst, chase, and waveclear all delegated to a single ability
2. Little utility outside of the CC of death, making her fall off lategame
3. Countered by proper grouping and peeling
4. Simple, targeted, quick, powerful burst means Riot can't touch anything else without making her too powerful

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There were a slew of issues involved with LeBlanc's core design, namely that her entire power budget was solely invested into her ability to burst. To be able to move the budget elsewhere meant that Riot would be forced to pull it from her burst in some way, shape, or form. They decided that they would lower the burst in its entirety while also giving it a delayed time window. On top of that, Riot finally gave LeBlanc something that actually stems from her tricksy, manipulative nature as a character: Shadow of the Rose. Mind games are a surefire way to show deception. Now, how did these changes affect LeBlanc's strengths and weaknesses?

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Post-Update Strengths

1. Not confined to a pre-determined burst order/pattern
2. Powerful earlygame waveclear power
3. Difficult to escape from
4. High potential mobility
5. E now is almost guaranteed single-spell burst if passive isn't on cooldown on target
6. Global mindgames open the door for off the wall plays
7. Literally cloned abilities allow for potential misplays of opponent

Post-Update Weaknesses

1. Escape, poke, burst, chase, and waveclear still all delegated to a single ability*
2. Little utility outside of the CC of death, making her fall off lategame
3. Countered by proper grouping and peeling
4. Delayed burst without instant hard CC leaves her extremely vulnerable to counter engagement
5. Delayed burst makes her fall off lategame harder than ever before
6. Earlygame powerspike is weaker, making her fall off earlier in the game

*Note: I understand that she now waveclears with W -> Q. However, she's still entirely dependent on using W to do it.

So where does all of this leave LeBlanc? Depending on who you ask, the answer might be different. According to Champion.GG, she's at a 48.94% win rate which is higher than her winrate for the past 4 patches. Looking at just what's changed from before, she's obviously much weaker in raw damage and her burst window, but now has a bit more flexibility. The general consensus at the moment is that she's weak in a way that people no longer want to call her an assassin, which is odd considering Riot specifically wanted to rebrand what makes an assassin an assassin. Top that with ADCs being so obnoxiously powerful at the moment that they HAVE to be 100-0'd to be taken care of, and we see that LeBlanc has some problems.

I'd say she's in the perfect spot for Riot to move her whatever direction they choose because she isn't wandering around Q -> R -> W-ing people to death in the blink of an eye anymore. Where is Riot to go from here? Increase her raw damage? Increase her burst potential? Increase her trickery? Add completely new pieces to her kit? Change the usability of some of her kit? Keep her as is?

I hope to have this discussion be forward-thinking and not focused on going back to "the good ol' days." Give us your comments, ideas, concerns, etc. on the future of The Deceiver.