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Le Blanc is a caster assassin. She is the ultimate definition of glass cannon. She is extremely fragile, but extremely devastating. With my build, she can decimate any champion in one second flat. Le Blanc is also a champion that requires a pretty high skill level to pull off properly. Play her poorly and you'll think this guide is full of shit.

Runes:
Standard caster runes. I use Magic Pen in every slot available and AP in the rest.

Masteries:
9/0/21

Summoner's:
Teleport/Flash. No compromise. You need flash, and exhaust/ghost/ignite are worthless for her. You want teleport to keep you in lane without downtime.

Skill Order:
Max Q first, getting one rank in E/W, and then max out W second.

Item Build:
Doran's Ring
Boots +1 / AP Tome (First trip back. Min: 775g. If you have extra, pick up 1-2 wards and 2-3 HP pots)
Magic Pen Boots/ Mejai's (Second trip back. Min: 1550g. Pick up more wards/HP pots)
Deathcap (At this point, people begin leaving their lanes regularly or abandoning them entirely. You want to save up for the +80 AP needlessly large rod first before finishing the rest)
Deathfire Grasp: Must have

Last two items are optional. I usually pick up a Void Staff and a Rod of Ages. Try to stay away from survivability items that don't have AP. If you're up against a Veigar, an Abyssal Scepter helps.

Abilities:
Le Blanc is all about combos. She has a multitude of ways to combo champions based upon what level you are, how much AP you have, who you're up against, the circumstances of how many people are in a team fight, etc. Because of this, Le Blanc takes practice until all of these become instinct. Even if your team loses, if you're coming out with more than 2-3 deaths per game, you're playing her entirely wrong. At no point does Le Blanc ever trade blows with anyone. She blows her load and then she's out. If you build her right, her load usually results in a kill.

Look at her skills closely.

Mirror Image (Passive): This is life saver for you. It is your get out of jail free card in case you screwed up. Technically, you shouldn't even be getting this far, but if you do, it's here. Take advantage of it.

Sigil (Q): This is a direct damage AP shot. If you land another ability on it, it will silence the target. Silence means no abilities, no summoner's spells, so no escape.

Distortion (W): Too many people use this as an escape mechanism rather than a harass. The proper combo is have a Sigil sitting on the enemy and then stomp on top of them with a W. If you hit W and then immediately hit W again, it'll put you back at your original spot. The #1 rule of a glass cannon is not to let them exchange blows with you. Because of the silence and immediate teleport back, you can deal massive damage.

Ethereal Chains (E): This skill gets leveled up last, due to its skill shot nature and that the other skills are better to level up first. You won't harass with this very much and the ability is pretty much there at the end of your combos to root in place to either: Wait for Q to come off cooldown to finish, or more likely: Root them in place so you can run away because you failed to kill a player.

Mimic (R): Really, this should be called Sigilx2. 9 times out of 10, you're going to use it with your Q. The other time, you'll use it for an AoE roflstomp that I'll talk about later.

Guide:
Le Blanc takes mid, every time. If she can't, play someone else. You want to get last hits on minion and shut down the opposing mid as well. Your harass is minor at level 1, and picks up big time at level 2. Once you hit level 2, you should find a way to hit an opponent without taking hits yourself. At level 2, you'll have Q/W. You'll start off with a Q (standard nuke) and then land on top of them with a W. Immediately hit W to recall yourself back to your original spot. Once you hit level 4, you'll have an E to toss at them as well. None of these will actually kill someone, but can definitely begin to shut them out hard. At level 6, you'll toss your Q and then your R and then fall on top of them with a W, finish with an E and then port back.

The entire goal is to shut down the mid to keep them from farming, get first blood, and to last hit minions. Your auto attack hits like shit, so make sure you really understand when that minion is at its last drop of health. Don't use abilities on minions. Read earlier entire in the FAQ about how to properly lane. If you clear a wave faster than the enemy, do not cross the half way point in the lane, or you'll get ganked. If the person you're shutting down gets instantly aggressive, it's because a gank is coming. Retreat and laugh.

Combos:
The bulk of this guide is really about combos. People say that LB is not much of a late game champ, but I disagree. She loses a lot of her momentum in the late game, but she can still help. If their team is careless and fails to roam in a pack, you can guarantee yourself a kill on *any* champ.

Standard Combo:
Q + R + E + W. By using shift-click, this should all be relatively simultaneous, all landing in about one second, but it needs to be done in that order. The Q/R combo is the meat of your damage. By landing an ability after your R, you'll amplify the amount of damage the player takes and keep them silenced. The E is there for added damage, and to root them while you decide to pursue or flee.

End-Game AoE Combo: So, you're not able to insta-gib everyone because they're too afraid to go by themself. You're harassing with your Q and E when you can, but the range is short. The team engages, but if you go in, you'll get focused to death. What do you do? W + R. Port in with your W, smashing the W key repeatedly so that you instantaneously port out. You'll do AoE damage. Go back in with an R and smash that R key repeatedly so you port out again. It's not a bomb, but it is good AoE damage. Better than doing nothing in the back while your team 4v5's. Just be sure that you don't get CC'd.

The one-second 5k HP insta-gib combo (the bush ninja):
This requires use of Deathfire Grasp. When you purchase it, put it in your upper left item slot (slot #1). From there, hide out in a bush. I usually hang out in their blue, their red or their wraiths. Hit (1) on your keyboard and be ready to fire it off. When you do, you land a Q, R, E, W simultaneously afterwards. If you're using smart cast (or shift click), this should all be done in one second flat, giving the player zero time to respond. This will devastate ANYONE. I took a 4.5k HP Garen at full health and killed him. This combo works on people who are solo pushing your lane. Lead in with the DFG and then resume your normal combo. When you're at 600-700 AP, that DFG will chunk off half of their health.

Helping your team flee combo:
E + R. If your team is fleeing and you need to help, toss an E at the player while running away. It'll shackle them in place. Leave your R up in case you need to get a second player. Root them in place. Keep running long enough and eventually your E will be up again. Hopefully, your team will get out. If they don't, use W to get some distance and then yell at your teem for feeding.

Harass Combo:
Ok, so you can't kill someone out right, but you got just enough time to harass someone. Q + R. This is the bulk of your damage anyways and it's back up in a fairly quick amount of time. This is what you use at level six to start shutting people out.

Playstyle:
Le Blanc's playstyle means that you should almost never die. You never "duke it out" with another player. You shouldn't even be in combat range until you're ready to go into action. If you're dying with LB, you should read other entries in the FAQ about how to properly handle your lane.


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by Exodus See Profile
last modified: 2011-09-26 09:55:55