[26.22] Rank 1 LeBlanc's Gunblade 1v9 Build
Introduction
I stream everyday at 6pm CEST on twitch.tv/pumptm if you have any questions. This guide also explains how to play Leblanc in depth whether you want to run your standard build or not.
ACHIEVEMENTS
As some of you might know, I'm currently the highest ranked Leblanc globally, sitting at 2706 LP, I've spoken about Leblanc to several LEC players throughout the years, notably Caps, Larssen, Trymbi (Leblanc support), and am the only Leblanc player to hit challenger consecutively throughout the years.
I'm a big advocate of gunblade leblanc, being the only person building it across every single region, I've currently gone on an 18 game winstreak on my grandmaster account "youtube pumpTM#1070" which shows it definitely can carry a big majority of games if it's been so succesful for me, most of those games with the traditional ludens build would have been lost. All of the games were played on my stream as of 14-08-26 if you'd like to watch them.
Also I just want to point out I hate using AI, and it would go against the point of a guide since it reflects my opinion, so I won't be using any of it for this guide.
GUNBLADE'S STRENGTHS
So why build Gunblade on Leblanc?
Leblanc's main strength is that she's a burst assassin, any items that allow her to amplify her burst damage synergizes really with her kit, it's why Deathfire Grasp was essential on her back in older seasons, if we take a look at our other options, being ludens, it's a little lackluster, a measly 100 or so damage on a spell every 12 seconds doesn't really scream Leblanc.
I have so many clips of one shotting people with only Q+W+Gunblade (procs electrocute), I don't even need to hit my chain, and since the chain animation eats up an entire second and makes you a sitting duck in teamfights, I'd rather not use it in the middle of everyone. It gives you that little bit of damage you're missing to oneshot squishies without having to hit everything.
Gunblade also provides 10% omnivamp, on a champion like Leblanc with absolutely no sustain, it's a godsend, it might only be 200+ health per wave early game, but that's 2 potions of health, in the mid/late game you get more and more health since you deal more damage to the minions, and it allows you to stay in the sidelane for longer, leblanc does take a lot of damage from minions and the sustain allows you to just stay at full life so you can stay on the map for longer.
Gunblade ALSO provides 40 attack damage, which obviously is nice for last hitting minions, you also do more damage to champions if you weave in a few autos here and there in longer trades, but most importantly, it amplifies your damage to structures by a decent amount, and since I play sidelanes a lot even in my challenger lobbies since its the most consistent way of guaranteeing resources, getting those turrets 10-12 seconds faster really helps and makes you more of a sidelane threat the enemies have to respect.
I Could post dozens of these clips but I'll just post 2, Firstly it allows you to do way more damage without hitting your chain in teamfights
Secondly it allows you to last hit kills for your mejais or secure kills you wouldn't have the range for otherwise
RUNES AND ITEMIZATION
Set 1 : Gunblade, Set 2 : Ludens, Set 3 : Stormsurge
You can change out relentless hunter with ultimate hunter, it only really shaves off a few seconds on your ult later on in the game, whereas the movement speed from relentless hunter comes in clutch for roaming, rotations etc..
Page for Ludens, the 2 runes in precision do way more damage and because you get +600 Mana from Ludens, you don't need to run manaflow band.
Classic, Dorans + pots start, nothing out of the ordinary
These boots are just too good to pass up on.. + we don't get magic pen from stormsurge since we're going gunblade
These are the early components you want, building into hextech gunblade,
Get your mana so you can punish the enemies more often, W'ing in etc..
Most burst and builds into your first item.
Gunblade is the future, so easy to be an assassin, better sustain on the sidelanes, easier to proc electrocute, slowing enemies in teamfights or to hit your chain, extra ad for sidelaning and last hitting.
Ludens is good in games where they're tankier, where the active against a Sion, Ambessa, Leona etc is pretty useless.
Good if enemies are all squishy and you don't like Gunblade.
Zhonyas and deathcap are interchangable if its a great zhonyas game, for example if they have Camille, Zed, Karthus, Vex etc..
Always go Ignite + Flash unless you're in a losing matchup like Viktor, Vex, Galio, Ryze that are harder to kill with ignite past 1st base due to their tankier builds and easy access to Mercs.
Against Vex, Viktor, Galio, Ryze, harder matchups where you don't have as much kill pressure in sidelane.
The only time you change something is vs Hail of Blades Ekko, Yasuo, Fizz, you start E then put a point in Q/W
LANING PHASE
(Up 1450+ gold on average at 15 minutes on my Challenger account)
Leblanc is a lane bully in pretty much every matchup except a few. Let's start from level 1, your goal is to proc electrocute on the enemy champion, as soon as the enemy laner goes to last hit a minion, you auto them and W into them, then auto them once for before you W back to avoid minion aggro.
Level 2: you know have access to your Q; (unless you're vs fizz, yasuo, ekko, then you have E), which gives you access to Leblanc's most prominent combo, Q+W which only requires 1 auto attack to proc electrocute, if you're against a good player, they won't be in Q+W range often, so it's fine to W in, auto Q, maybe get an extra auto in if they don't punish you, it's important to have a lane plan, is the enemy mid susceptible to ganks? if yes, and you have a ganking jungler or a roaming support for example, it's fine to let them push in, but not too much to the point where they can easily crash and reset.
Level 3: Now you have your chain, you no longer need to rely on Q+W'ing into them, but you can W in, E first, because if you miss it, the play is over, and if you hit it, Q fast so you proc your passive, then one last auto to assure you get your electrocute.
Level 4: From here onwards you keep levelling up your W, which means most of your damage is in that spell, if you can Q+W, then perfect, even if you can only W in, then Q+Auto, that works too, just try not to take too much damage when trading becaues you have no sustain and you run ignite, if you need to recall, recall when the next wave is a cannon wave so you don't lose as much.
Level 6: Now you've unlocked a bunch of new combos, the most prominent one being Q+R+W, it's her bread and butter combo, the only problem with that is, they need to be stationary at Q range to hit all 3 of the spells, which doesn't happen to often, so what I like to use (and this always works), is R(W)'ing into range, then Q+W+auto'ing, whats the reasoning behind this combo? well the R(W) doesn't do as much damage as W level 1, and if you were to W in, you wouldn't be able to R(w)+Q, it's a solid combo that chunks the enemies and puts them in lethal range to kill once your cooldowns come back up.
That's pretty much all there is that's Leblanc specific when it comes to laning, everything else (roaming, wave management) is something I'll go over in future youtube videos, but it's not leblanc related.
MID GAME
How do you play Mid Game as Leblanc? the answer is pretty simple, contrary to popular belief, because leblanc is good at mid game skirmishes because of her mobility and early game damage, it's not best to just stay near your teammates, leech their experience and get no resources, what I do most of my games is
Sidelaning: Sidelane, if your jungler hovers you, even better, just keep pushing the sidelanes and hover into fog of war to scare the enemies, that way there's always a threat of you potentially going mid, (this is of course, when your bot lane takes over mid and you sidelane whether its top or bot, this theory still applies), remember to take sweeper to eliminate enemy vision, league of legends is a game of tempo, if you can't kil the enemy you're sidelaning against, just rotate to mid, be annoying, chunk the enemy bot, remove vision, put some of your own, but make sure before you move, your wave is pushed, this denies a play for the enemies, and it maximises your resources and experience, allowing you to keep getting stronger. It's this consistency that allows me to get leads every single game instead of flipping mid lane hoping something happens whilst I lose my sidelane turret.
TEAMFIGHTING
Teamfighting varies from champion to champion, you want to utilize your champions strengths, and as a burst assassin, you want to utilize, flanking and being off vision, why is that? It's because you're not hitting the front to back targets your adc is hitting, your job is to hit the squishies ADC's in the enemy backline.
Your best friend is sweeper, and his best friend is grisly mementos, it lowers the cooldown on your sweeper by so much late game, this allows you to be off vision if you manage to push in your sidewaves early and make it to the dragon 40-50 seconds before, gunblade is of great use here, because when all the enemy champions are grouped up, you have a harder time hitting your chain, a 400 damage active that's really easy to hit and cripples the enemy carry and serves as an extra proc of electrocute facilitates things for you, either W + R(w)+gunblade, or R(w) + Q+W and gunblade and the enemy carry is out of the fight.
Remember, if you're being marked by a Malphite, a Galio, or something annoying of the sorts, flank from the other side, you should never be getting marked as it makes it harder for you to access the backline.
WHEN TO PICK LEBLANC
Leblanc works especially well into immobile and squishy champions, Soraka's, Nami's, Lux's, they're just sitting ducks that can't dodge your abilities and cant afford to purchase resistances or they lose their own personal identity.
Ideally, you wouldn't pick leblanc into tank champions that buy magic resist and health, you don't do any true damage, don't have dps, and can't one shot those champions so you generally want to avoid them, 3/4 tanks and I'd recommend not picking leblanc and something with disengage and true damage like Syndra. don't let this dissuade you though, I play Leblanc every single game in Grandmaster/Chall on stream and manage to win a big majority of my games, if you love Leblanc just play her.
One last thing, and this ties up with the previous statement, champions with crowd control also counter you heavily because 1 CC in a teamfight when dashing into the backline and you get obliterated even through your clone.
CORE GAMEPLAY MECHANICS
Leblanc is a very one dimensional champion, she has some solid strengths, being mobility that does damage, CC with double E, a clone that leaves the enemies with a 50% chance of hitting the right target, and most importantly, her burst damage. Of course every champion has some weaknesses to counteract said strengths, she is abyssmal into tanks as she's a burst assassin with no dps, magic resist and even health items counter her heavily, and most assassin AP items (unlike AD items) don't give ability haste, meaning once you've used your combo, you'll have to wait a few seconds longer than everyone else to get back into the teamfight.
She is a very mobile champion, meaning she can escape ganks relatively easily, with 2 dashes at level, she has one of the best setups in mid lane, with 2 dashes into E, and works generally well with aggressive junglers that like to invade and dive bot lane rather than scaling slow junglers that want to farm up a storm.
