Leblanc, the Deceiver at last [An in-depth rework of League's fanciest burst mage assassin]
Leblanc, the Deceiver at last [A Rework]
Hello League! Cardi here. I took a break from designing some new champions/re-designing some of my favorite champions since classes started again for me.
Before Fiora received her rework, I put out some of my ideas in a rework, similar to what I've done for Leblanc in this post. You can check them out here!
This time I'm back to offer you my newest take on a Leblanc rework! I have a lot of passion for the champion Leblanc, and this rework is the accumulation of ideas that I've accrued from my experience of over three years of playing as and against the Deceiver. It can be tempting to read numbers and think it's a horrible idea, but if you're a Leblanc main or critic, do take your time with the post! Imagine what you can accomplish with the new distortion first! TL;DR on the bottom!
-First things first. Leblanc's always been League's premier burst mage assassin, paraphrasing Riot here. And that's true. If she's ahead, she can absolutely destroy your team's squishies. In some cases, she'll even consider your team's tank squishy if she has enough kills. And that's just because of her design. She's very bipolar in nature. When she can successfully destroy your carries with an effortless QRW combo, there's not much the player can do to stop that. And that's one of the main concerns that this rework will address.
Movement speed: 335 > changed to > 330 Base Mana: 334 > changed to > 275 Maximum mana/lv: 50 > changed to > 25 Attack range: 525 > changed to > 500
-Fairly put, Leblanc's an assassin that differs from all the other assassins in the game in that her theme is to trick the opponent in one way or another. Given her current kit, however, she barely relies on tricks. Instead, she just relies on speed - quickly dashing into your team, executing the squishies, and popping back out without giving her opponents a chance to react. That's barely adhering to a theme of deception or trickiness. That's where the above changes come in.
-Leblanc's an already fast and mobile champion. She really shouldn't rely on quick feet to carry her across the rift. Distortion should cover her on that part. When her spells are on cooldown, enemies can and should be able to take advantage of her downtime weakness. Second, her base mana and mana gained per level is down. Mana per level gain is effectively cut in half. This allows mana regen to become a much more effective stat on Leblanc. In some cases, it will even reward Leblancs that build straight ability power over cooldown reduction as the primary stat. It will also limit the reworked Leblanc's ability to exert overwhelming pressure on her opponent in lane, especially at early levels. Good Leblanc players will actually have to manage their mana very well and be careful never to miss crucial spells, similar to Ahri. And her basic attack range is reduced so that opponents can avoid taking tons of damage from her in lane, which will be explained below.
Smoke and Mirrors (Passive): If Leblanc moves while below 40% health, the following effects occur...
-Leblanc creates a clone that's only visible if Leblanc is visible and vice versa. The clone disappears after eight seconds. This effect can only occur once every two minutes.
-Leblanc becomes invisible for one second. This effect can only occur once every minute.
-Leblanc** gains a buff** that renders her unable to be seen or detected by non-champion vision or effects as long as she's below half health, exceptions include true sight (this means Leblanc will ONLY be spotted by Vision Wards and Champions that are in range to see her; stealth wards in a patch of brush do not reveal Leblanc, so the champion that placed the ward must enter the patch of brush in order to see her when she has this buff).
-Okay, whew. This passive can be a bit confusing. Let me explain what her new passive entails. Firstly, the clone and the invisibility effect are separated. One has a lower cooldown than the other. This makes Leblanc much trickier even for players who aren't the best at handling her. Unwary opponents will be much less likely to know when Leblanc will reappear with or without a clone. The second part of the passive, which is new, allows Leblanc to use Distortion deceptively. Wards are usually the end of Leblancs that try to pull off tricks, but the new effect will let her pull off fantastically tricky plays when she's low on health. But without explaining the rest of her kit, this won't make sense right away, so let's move on.
Sigil of Malice (Q): Leblanc projects a sigil onto an enemy target, dealing magic damage and marking it for 2.5 seconds. Basic attacks refresh the mark's duration. Leblanc's damaging spells can activate the mark to deal bonus magic damage. Deals double damage to minions.
Cooldown: 5 seconds | Cost: 30/35/40/45/50 mana | Range: 650
Magic damage (Initial): 50/75/100/125/150 + 0.3 AP Magic damage (Mark): 50/75/100/125/150 + 0.3 AP
-Sigil of Malice is Leblanc's signature ability. It's her bread and butter ranged assassination tool. It's also the pretty unfair instant execute for her enemies when she's ahead. So its damage is going down. Base damage is decreased, ability power scaling is decreased, range is slightly decreased, and mark duration is decreased. In exchange, she receives a new and interesting effect - her basic attacks will refresh the mark's duration. This means that if Leblanc goes into an extended trade with her opponent, she'll be able to use Sigil of Malice to activate its own mark and deal tons of damage from afar before finishing her opponent with Ethereal Chains and some more attacks. Conversely, the spell also has a decreased mana cost to allow her to spam it on enemy champions and minions. She'll definitely need the ability to do this, because once we move onto her new distortion, it's obvious her waveclear will be much weaker. Good Leblancs will be able to balance just the right amount of pressure between spamming Sigil of Malice to last hit and to harass enemy champions.
Distortion (W): Leblanc dashes up to 650 units away. She is invisible while dashing and for 0.25 seconds after she completes her dash. After the dash and short invisibility frame ends, she summons a return pad at her starting location. The pad lets her to instantly blink back once to its location within four seconds. Enemies that see Leblanc when a return pad is active can see the return pad and step on it to disable it, but can't see or disable it if they haven't spotted Leblanc at least once since the Distortion. If Leblanc's dash is interrupted, she becomes visible immediately.
Cooldown: 14/12.5/11/9.5/8 seconds | Cost: 90/85/80/75/70 mana
-Voila! Leblanc's distortion is buffed in more ways than one - in exchange for its damage. The main difference between the utility of old distortion and this new distortion is how it can be used. Leblanc's old distortion presented various problems - it was awkward, super clunky when ping was high, and unsatisfying for Leblanc's opponents and Leblanc herself. It was a damage spell that was tied to Leblanc's only deceptive ability, which meant that Leblanc was limited in the ways she could use this spell in combat. Who wants to faceplant themselves into melee range of their enemies anyway? Removing the damage portion of it entirely means it can be used primarily for mobility and utility, which will let Leblanc players pull off the kind of plays a deceiver should be able to pull off.
-In addition, enemies won't be able to see where Leblanc is headed during the dash. Leblanc can use the spell to dash into the fog of war or brush for cover. While under cover, enemies can't see her return pad unless she's spotted at least once. This means amazing things for Leblanc. There are so many possibilities for outplays the deceiver will be able to pull off with this new distortion mechanic. For example, one potential play that could be made is a distortion straight in the opposite direction of where opponents chasing Leblanc expect her to dash. When she re-appears, she'll have made enough distance between herself and her aggressors that they'll have no choice but to give up the chase. I'll leave the rest of the magic of this new spell to be imagined and discovered by you tricky deceivers out there who also think of deception and magic tricks as an art form expressed best in secrecy.
-Overall, this spell will make Leblanc more mobile than before. But fear not - mobility by itself is no indicator of power. Leblanc's Sigil of Malice deals burst damage over time, which means Leblanc will actually have to stay in the fray for a good amount of time to get significant damage off, a little bit like Akali. If Leblanc doesn't play carefully, even the ADC will be able to kill her in no time flat. Savvy opponents can also step on Leblanc's return pad if it's visible to disable it and cut off one of Leblanc's potential escape paths. Counterplay!
**Ethereal Chains (E): **Leblanc casts a chain outwards that latches onto the first target it hits, dealing magic damage and reducing the target's damage dealt by 20% for 1.5 seconds. If the chain remains tethered to the target for 1.5 seconds, it will deal magic damage again and root it for one second, as well as extending the damage reduction effect for the duration of the root.
Cooldown: 11/10/9/8/7 seconds | Cost: 90 mana | Range (cast): 975 | Range (tether): 975
Magic damage (Initial): 40/80/120/160/200 + 0.6 AP Magic damage (Root): 25/50/75/100/125 + 0.4 AP
-Ethereal Chains' base damage is also slightly decreased. Its range has been modified to be the same as its new, reduced range tether. Its slow is also removed and its root duration is decreased to one second. The range modification and slow removal is primarily to allow opponents with dashes or Flash to react to the spell, especially when Leblanc decides to mimic it for an almost guaranteed root upon a root.
-Why all these nerfs for Leblanc you ask? Well, Leblanc should rely on deception and mobility to make her assassinations, vanishes, appearances, and re-appearances. She should be able to work her magic without relying heavily on instantly bursting her opponents down. She will still pack a serious punch when she's ahead or played well, but she still has to play and utilize her spells properly in order to do so. There's no more QRWE'ing an opponent that's cc'd and getting off a zilean damage without effort or counterplay potential from her opponents.
-Don't fret, though. Leblanc can stay in the fray if she lands Ethereal Chains with its new utility effect. While an opponent is tethered, they'll deal reduced damage. Leblanc can use this to protect her allies (something she couldn't really accomplish before) or survive in battle against an opponent that deals higher DPS than her. This spell combined with her Sigil of Malice's marks that can be activated with other non-mimicked Sigil of Malices makes Leblanc a fearsome opponent capable of wearing you down with illusions and tricks until you're in K.O. range.
**Mimic (R): **Leblanc mimics the last spell she cast. Damage of mimic scales with its own level. Mimicking distortion will cause the spell to incur a lower cooldown, but distortion itself deals no damage. Damaging an enemy champion with mimic restores 20% of Leblanc's maximum base mana.
Cooldown (Sigil of Malice, Ethereal Chains): 40/30/20 seconds Magic damage (per instance): 70/125/180 + 0.9 AP
Cooldown (Distortion): 32/24/16 seconds
-Mimic restores a portion of Leblanc's missing mana. Leblanc is the deceiver, so her ultimate should reflect this theme. Even when Leblanc is completely out of her most valuable combat resource, mana, she'll be able to capitalize on her unwary opponents and restore just enough of it to pull off her final act. Accordingly, her base mana and base mana gained per level have already been sufficiently nerfed so that Mimic only really begins to give Leblanc more effective base mana than the live Leblanc if she's casted it quite a few times offensively.
-Secondly, its base damage is decreased, but its scaling has been buffed to devastatingly high levels. This will allow Leblanc to use Mimic primarily as an outplay or deceptive low-cooldown ability in the early game but scale to a monstrously dangerous powerhouse of a low cooldown ultimate in the late-game, where she's at her weakest. Casting distortion and staying on the move or mimicking it constantly to try to pull off a trick is also much more effective. Remember! Vision wards and stepping on Leblanc's distortion pads will completely ruin Leblanc's day, and the new Leblanc won't be able to instantly burst you 100-0 without working hard for an opportunity to do so. In return, she'll be a much trickier and mobile champion capable of fooling the best of the best, granted you play her to her full potential.
Best, Cardi
TL;DR -Leblanc can deal extended burst DPS with her spammable Q, but has to stay in the fray to do so. -Her passive is split into three effects so it can be slightly different at different points in the game (theme of deception in mind). -Distortion doesn't deal damage, but enemies can't see where she dashes because she's invisible while dashing. You can really do SO much with this, really. -Mimic restores mana for deceptive plays. Base mana is decreased for balance. -W> into a QRE does a LOT less damage if you miss the chain, but a good amount of extra damage when you actually land the chain in the later phases of a game.
Edit: Added TL;DR and shortened intro.
