Analyzing LeBlanc's combos, and how she could be changed (nerfed) to make her balanced and healthy

PatMcGroyn·3/6/2015, 9:46:02 PM·41 votes·4,471 views

We all know LeBlanc as the bursty, hypermobile turboslut that terrorizes the mid lane. With one of her few natural lane counters, Kassadin, having been nerfed, she's now shining even brighter in the spotlight. To me, the biggest problem about LeBlanc isn't the fact that she has burst, or that she has mobility, but that those things combine to give her huge burst poke (with little to no counterplay).

LeBlanc's biggest burst combo is her QRWE, which at max rank does a total 1435 base damage + 370% AP... but this combo really isn't a huge problem to me. She either has to flash on an unsuspecting victim, or catch somebody from fog of war with it; to land the full combo is an outplay. The combos that (to me) are problematic are the long range burst poke combos, for example, she uses W to get in range for Q + R + E. If she lands the chain, that's a whopping 1050 + 260% AP from 1300 range in less than a second.

My proposed change is to make LeBlanc's Q and Mimic Q unable to trigger the mark on each other. She would HAVE to trigger the mark with her Distortion or Ethereal Chains. This would make the Q + R combo (a point and click combo requiring no skill to execute) MUCH less potent, and would force her to use Distortion or land the Ethereal Chains to burst down opponents.

102 Comments

Byakuya Kuchiki3/6/2015, 9:56:10 PM13 votes

this is actually a really good idea i like this a lot

Decaedeus3/6/2015, 11:27:28 PM6 votes

I really like this idea. As a LeBlanc main, I feel like this would be a great way to tone down some excessive strengths (half-healthing the enemy carry from 1300 range with a point-click nuke is pretty bullshit) while allowing skilled players to maintain their long-range combo power by hitting E.

+1 good sir, for creating a well-thought out and meaningful way to hit LeBlanc's stupid strengths (insane targeted poke) while maintaining the identity of the wily, tricky burst assassin the community loves.

Edit: I mean... the LeBlanc playerbase :3 The community does not love LB.

Chaotic Reks3/6/2015, 10:38:12 PM4 votes

also, have to make her dash have a 0.75 second delay before it dashes

"wtf my dash didnt go off" 0.75 seconds later dashes into enemy team "..."

"balanced"

SmokingPuffin3/6/2015, 11:40:15 PM4 votes

My proposed change is to make LeBlanc's Q and Mimic Q unable to trigger the mark on each other. She would HAVE to trigger the mark with her Distortion or Ethereal Chains. This would make the Q + R combo (a point and click combo requiring no skill to execute) MUCH less potent, and would force her to use Distortion or land the Ethereal Chains to burst down opponents.

I'm not really sold. LeBlanc's current combo of WQRE requires her to land E for much of the damage. If she can land E once, she can WQER and land it twice -- there's no required delay between E and R in this sequence.

Of course, I'm also not really sold on LeBlanc needing nerfs. Is there anywhere she's north of 50% win rate? Certainly not in solo queue. I just checked. Excepting a single player (Faker is dominating with LeBlanc in Korea), no competitive scene is having any trouble wrecking her. NA LCS , EU LCS, CN LPL, and (KR LCK-Faker) all have LeBlanc win rates south of 35%.

KwangoTango3/6/2015, 10:31:53 PM4 votes

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Kitten of Evil3/6/2015, 10:42:44 PM2 votes

Yeah, I think her problem is she's mobile, her combo is flexible, and she has tons of damage (and not bad CC with E) to back it up. As she is now, her dive doesn't have to go well to still deal tons of damage and get away safely. Miss your E? Who cares? You still did a ton of damage with just QRW, wait a few seconds and come back to finish the job. Went in with QW and then saw an incoming gank? No problem! Just reactivate W, or Mimic W away if you need the second dash.

She's not missing a whole lot, except weak wave-clear and team-wide AOE damage.

A Palmtop Tiger3/7/2015, 3:54:46 AM2 votes

Take my upvote. Leblanc is just cancerous. Too much damage with little to no risk. Junglers cant even camp mid since she can simply W away to safety on a low cd.

SpliceAsNice3/7/2015, 4:10:44 AM2 votes

I don't think this idea very much. QR combo is main source for single target burst and too many times have I thrown Ethereal Chains out for it to magnet latch onto a minion that's 2 feet away from the champion I was aiming it at. If you're looking for ways to counter LeBlanc's harass then I'd suggest going item 3174 > item 3020 > item 3102 or item 3001 or item 3116 for AP and item 3134 + item 3155 for AD, depending on who you are playing.

Digitality3/7/2015, 5:48:18 AM2 votes

Counter with lane shove. Take MR runes, and first back a null magic mantle. invest in a few extra potions. Laugh at her. This has never changed.

Personally, match ups like this are one of the reasons I see a need for major rune price reductions.

ZylotheWolfbane3/7/2015, 5:27:11 AM1 votes

This is actually really well thought out, and is a very reasonable change that Riot could make pretty easily in order to make LeBlanc's assassination much healthier. Her higher skill-cap players wouldn't be effected, while extremely unskilled players would be punished, as they should be, for not using their skills right. If you mess up your skills you should lose something. Currently LeBlanc loses almost nothing, this would change that quite well, while keeping her place as a high-power assassin that could be played consistently at the higher levels of play. I like it, and hopefully Riot will take notice.

Out of curiosity, do you have any thoughts on some of the other assassins? Zed being the other one who, like LeBlanc, is consistently complained about by many people, both in game, and on the boards?

Ablogqwer3/7/2015, 7:05:58 AM1 votes

So what you actually mean is buff her to be on-par with Zed or Yasuo in terms of usefulness?

Instead of being a so-so high risk early game damage dealer that then drops off like a brick.