LeBlanc nerfs on PBE are missing the mark

For those who don’t know, LeBlanc’s Q ratio on PBE got lowered from 0.4AP to 0.3AP. While it doesn’t seem like the biggest nerf, it’s a 20% AP ratio nerf on her main damage ability in mid and late game.

LeBlanc is average right now in SoloQ, having a 49-50% winrate in Plat+ and Dia+, it’s obvious that this nerf targets her pro play performance. However, this is a very bad nerf for pro play and it will make her relatively weak in SoloQ while leaving her still viable or even strong in pro play. Let me explain why.

LeBlanc isn’t picked in competitive primarily for her high, reliable burst (that’s literally all she has as a champion tbh), she’s picked for her pick potential and her insanely good gank/jungle assistance. Lowering her burst damage doesn’t make her less scary early on, it just makes her late game even worse than it already is.

For SoloQ, it means that she’ll become even more feast or famine than she already is (every class has some sort of defensive item to fuck her up), meaning that she won’t be able to do the only thing she’s good at if not heavily ahead. What changes for pro play? Absolutely nothing, her snare and mobility are exactly the same and pros won’t stop picking her just because she deals less damage, because burst damage barely matters when you play in a team that actually follows you up.

If you really want to nerf LB (and for SoloQ she doesn’t really need it tbh, and neither does Zoe) do not nerf her damage (especially now that ADCs have access to a lot of defensive options), nerf her E. Ethereal chains is way too good at rank 1 for a spell that’s relatively easy to land thanks to Distortion, lower the snare duration or make it scale with rank, make the radius smaller, or increase slightly its CD or mana cost to make her less of a guaranteed kill or flash every time her jungler ganks mid.