LeBlanc

I wanted to try an AP mid and LeBlanc was said to have some of the highest burst in the game, so I picked her up a week or so back, because I wouldn't really be missing 3150 IP. She's now my main, and I think I'm doing relatively well with her (I'm surviving against Silver people, twice my skill level). I'm having a few problems though, would like insight if possible, if there are any LeBlanc players here.

1. Late game
This is the famous drawback to LeBlanc. I realize the point of her is not to carry per say, but to stunt the enemy team's growth and to snowball your winning lanes. Early and mid game I can get fed easily but it translates to nothing lategame, honestly. Perhaps that's the way she's designed, but is there any certain build or playstyle that keeps her edge up lategame?

2. Team comp
I recently went up against Fizz mid, which was an extremely annoying lane, but I got 3 kills by around 10 minutes, with no deaths. Thing was, our Renekton fed Udyr top and the enemy Ashe solo (SOLO!) was keeping her own against Vayne and Blitz, and our jungle Yi literally did not communicate with team at all and went off farming jungle while we were getting slaughtered in teamfights. What could I have done to prevent Udyr from getting ultra fed and Ashe from not being useless? I admit I didn't gank enough, but I couldn't even gank Udyr by 10 mins since he had so many kills. That and the fact that we weren't tanky enough since Yi was our jungler really screwed us in. I went 5/11 that game, which is admittedly my worst record with LeBlanc so far (and I've only been playing her for a week )
tl;dr What could I have done, if anything? That feeling of being useless is not a fun one.

3. Burst combo
This really depends on circumstance, I know, but I generally open my bursts with EQRW, just for standard killing. AoE damage would be QEWR, long-distance snipes would be QERW, etc. What would you recommend for what specific circumstance?

4. Skins
Mistletoe LeBlanc is the only one I adore. It's Legacy though, and it wasn't available when the vault opened last month. Any word on it, or is it all a mystery?

I realize she is a high skillcap mid, and opening my mid lane experience with her might be risky. What are good, bursty (and busty huehuehue) and "medium" difficulty champs similar to her in playstyle? You time right, go in for the kill, burst down, gtfo. Is Kassadin similar to her?

First of all, here's some Leblanc VODs from my channel yay.  Some are Summoner's Rift, some are just Dominion or 3v3, but the same basic mechanics apply to Summoner's Rift I guess.  I don't claim to be a good Leblanc at all, but she's fun, and I have fun when I play her.

• http://www.twitch.tv/bestsakuyana/c/3518374
  Early two kills showing combos and stuff, mostly just messing around, some terrible cs mechanics haha.
  

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• http://www.twitch.tv/bestsakuyana/c/3486856
  How to kite around a champion like Udyr.
  

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• http://www.twitch.tv/bestsakuyana/c/3487295
  Some bad comboing, but the idea here is on how to use your W and W[R] to avoid stuff like Lee Sin kicks, even if you're on top of him.
  

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• http://www.twitch.tv/bestsakuyana/c/3518390
  Some more Leblanc lane stuff, missed an opportunity to kill Shyvana but I was worried about tower aggro + minion damage.
  

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• http://www.twitch.tv/bestsakuyana/c/3518424
  More messing around with that poor KZ and Shyv.
  

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• http://www.twitch.tv/bestsakuyana/c/3492100
  Some 3v3 action.
  

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Alright.  So basic stuff.  Leblanc late game is still just as usable as someone like Zed or Akali if you get fed early.  You still generally want to get in, blow people up, get out, repeat until their team is dead.  In teamfights, the silence from your Q and the slow and snare from your E is very powerful peeling for your AD Carry, if saving them will win you the fight.  Also, me building a ton of Rod of Ages is mostly trolling (Tons of AP + very obnoxious to kill).  Realistically, Deathfire Grasp and Rabadon's Death Cap are pretty solid on her.  She likes Ability Power, Magic Penetration, and Cooldown Reduction.  That's about it, and even with just AP she's very strong.  

The game where your teammates fed and your jungler didn't communicate was unfortunate, but sometimes that just happens.  Leblanc works as a mid on many team comps, especially ones that would want to roam, get kills, and push down towers early.  Blitz and Renekton sound pretty solid on a team like that.  Yi and Vayne are also fine, although a stronger amount of CC from the jungler pick might have been better, assuming you and Vayne get enough damage items going.  

Technically, Leblanc's W[R] gives the most damage out of the three R options:
MIMIC: SIGIL OF SILENCE: 100 / 200 / 300 (+ 65% AP)
MIMIC: DISTORTION: 150 / 300 / 450 (+ 97.5% AP)
MIMIC: ETHEREAL CHAINS: 100 / 200 / 300 (+ 65% AP)
MAXIMUM DAMAGE ON Q AND E: 200 / 400 / 600 (+ 130% AP)
However, mimic R can often put you in danger since it is essentially melee range.  The Q and E are safer, and offer additional CC adding to that safety, but they both deal less damage and have a maximum damage cap, unlike the W.  

Finally, no idea on skin times, I don't follow that all that much, even if that skin does look super cool.  But for similar champions, I'd say:

• Akali
  
• Ahri
  
• Fizz
  
• Kassadin
  
• Katarina
  
• Kha'Zix
  
• Pantheon
  
• Riven
  
• Talon
  
• Zed
  

Those are all people who can blow up enemies and have a lot of mobility.  There's more, but those are the first that come to mind.  For long range burst, there's also champs like Malzahar, Gragas, Orianna, and Syndra.  I used to play Ahri, Zed, and Fizz a ton, but some recent changes have made them a bit hard to use.  They're still very strong though.  Riven was nerfed very recently as well, but is still quite playable.  Kha'Zix is getting nerfed next patch (less Q damage, more E/R utility).  Kassadin is beyond broken when played properly, and is exactly what you are looking for, but he's getting a rework...sometime.  The other champs listed are under the radar enough that Riot hasn't messed with them all that much, but that means they might take a bit more effort to play than the arguably stronger picks right now (Katarina did get a somewhat recent buff though).

For easy AP mids though, there's always Lux. She's very safe, has a ton of damage and utility, and it's very easy to farm with her.

Thanks, I'll be sure to check the stream out.

So the whole "LeBlanc is useless lategame" thing is a myth? I imagine she would be able to do a very high amount of damage, and she has in many of my games (unless I didn't get any kills at all). Granted, certain folks like Talon or Akali outshine me easily lategame. But for the most part she can do just as well as others lategame?

mah build: I tend to build Sorc Shoes -> DFG -> Rabadons -> Void Staff. Would tankiness like a RoA on LeBlanc be viable? I doubt it'll hurt her, and once you get your full build, why not?

I went against Pantheon in mid and was completely destroyed, his poke kept me continually under 50% and I could hardly farm at all. When he recalled and I pushed, I had to gtfo as quickly as possible so his teleport thing didn't get me.

On a completely separate topic, how is Vladimir?

The build makes sense, yeah, DFG is the go-to for close range AP assassins.  The rest is solid too.  Like I said, I mostly build RoA because it's funny.  Pantheon is a hardcore lane bully that's designed to 1v1 and even 2v2 extremely well, but not well designed to survive teamfights due to very low mobility once he's engaged.  Call for ganks against Pantheon and try your best to farm and survive the lane.  You might need to rush Seeker's Armguard in the matchup if only because his physical damage is just so high.  Your other option is to still get DFG and Sorc Shoes and out-roam him, but since he builds attack damage and armor penetration, and he has a strong AoE ability for clearing, he'll kill your towers fast.  On the bright side, he will almost never build tanky, so he's killable if you get a silence or a snare on him.

As for Vlad, he's pretty fun in Season 4, especially against low-mobility bruisers and tanks.  He still has hard matchups versus high-mobility fighters and assassins due to a lack of hard cc, but he can survive the matchups and scale better than them by about level 9 or so if it's a talented Vlad player.  Here's the end of a game I had against a Trundle:
http://www.twitch.tv/bestsakuyana/c/3573708

The key is to harass early as often as you can with Q, and E if health allows.  That's why he's good against lower mobility champions, his range is very short and most dashes and blinks will get you in melee range of him.  That's why he has a hard time early against champs like Yasuo or Riven.

Here's his wiki page as well for numbers reference and whatnot:
http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Vladimir

Vlad requires a surprising amount of mechanical proficiency. You need to constantly poke with Q, constantly stack your E to maximize damage without losing too much health in the process, use your ult at the beginning of any intended kill combo, which is an AoE skillshot and turns off your ability to Q or E for about 0.5 seconds due to the cast animation, and only use W when it will efficiently get you a kill or out of a dangerous situation without losing too much of your current health in the process.

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I'm not a LB player but I've recently seen a pretty effective combo from Faker's LB. If you go to around 2:12 you'll see him blow up Zyra over the baron pit-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=kF_23_XxaHQ#t=132

I think it's W (to close distance), DFG, Q, R in a quick fashion. Call it "flying death" if you will

recently I've been watching videos of pros playing champs (from beginning to end, for example Faker playing in NA solo Q). It helps me get a rough idea of how a champ should ideally be played. There's a youtube vid of Faker on LB in solo Q. Should take a gander at that.

hopes this helps!

Yeah Faker is a god when it comes to burst assassins. He can juke his way out of anything lol.

I watched a Siv HD vid where he stacked 6 RoAs on LeBlanc and actually did fairly successful. It obviously doesn't give as much AP but I recently tried a DFG, Deathcap and two RoAs and I was rather hard to kill lmao.

On another note - how is Orianna? I heard she's a lategame teamfight god, how's her early/mid game?

I think LB is a rising star after they've nerfed all the meta assassins like Zed and Ahri. Champ builds are really based on preference but with LB you really just want to stick with mainly pure damage. Defensive pick ups may or may not include zhonyas or abyssal scept.

To be fair, I haven't bought RoA in a real game since season 2! xD

I've had some experience with Orianna in ranked. Her early game damage is fair, your opponents can't expect an uneven trade in their favor 5-6 minutes in. But as is with most other AP mids once you get some levels and items into the mix to reach mid game, Orianna begins to hurt a lot more than usual. A standard rotation of QWE will chunk somebody. Add your R and it has a potential to kill. However this only becomes a naturally recurring thing if you know precisely how much damage you can put out and with proper/crucial placement of the ball.

My favorite AP mid of all time has got to be Ahri. Landing charms now after her change has never been more satisfying!

This is a fairly old image, but Ahri has habit of being the champ I play in my last game in ranked promos- http://puu.sh/6AY1E.JPG