While some players wouldn't consider LeBlanc to be very strong as a champion, Senior Staff Writer Chris "Pwyff" Tom thinks that you need to think outside of the box to get the most out of this mage.

It's only been about two weeks now since Riot Games released one of their newest champions, LeBlanc, the Deceiver but, in that short space of time, a new champion has already been released (Irelia, the Will of the Blades) and a shiny new patch has made its way into the game. Talk about moving fast, Riot! Regardless of any new things coming down the line, however, I'm still quite excited to talk about this week's Buyer's Guide to League of Legends, because LeBlanc the Deceiver is probably my favorite caster champion of them all! Let's get right into this week's Buyer's Guide to League of Legends.

Since her introduction, LeBlanc has actually received two rather odd buffs in the form of a base armor upgrade (from +3.0 per level to +3.5 per level) and a solid cooldown reduction on her ultimate per level (from 40s across all levels to a 40/35/30s cooldown). It's not that I'm complaining about these buffs, but when I originally played LeBlanc for about a dozen games straight and came out, on average, with around 15 kills and one or two deaths, we all assumed that a meaty LeBlanc damage nerf was on the way. Guess not!

Before I get into how LeBlanc fits in a team role, I'll talk about her abilities. LeBlanc has probably one of the highest burst damage potentials of all the mage classes because all four of her abilities are high damage dealing spells. With other champions, like Anivia, Riot typically gives them one 'utility' spell that doesn't deal damage but helps the champion survive. For Anivia, it's Ice Wall, for other champions, like Annie or Morgana, it's Fire Shield (for charging her stun faster) or Black Shield. LeBlanc, on the other hand, has no such "designated utility spell," as Riot has chosen to divvy up her utility across her abilities, giving each of them a handy little side-effect.

For example, LeBlanc's Sigil of Silence, is her main 'nuke' spell, in that it deals the most damage of all her spells (260 + 0.6 AP at max level, with a bonus 100 + 0.6 AP trigger), but it also comes with the added effect of silencing her target if she can deal any magic damage to it within a few seconds after casting Sigil. LeBlanc's other abilities, Distortion and Ethereal Chains, operate under this same premise of packing utility and damage together. Distortion throws LeBlanc forward a short distance, dealing damage to everyone in the area where she lands. LeBlanc can also trigger her ability a second time within three seconds to teleport back to her original starting position. Ethereal Chains is a skillshot spell that slows her target by 25% and deals a medium amount of damage. If the opponent remains chained for longer than two seconds (think Morgana's ultimate), LeBlanc's chain "snaps," dealing more damage and snaring her target for an additional two seconds. Finally, LeBlanc's ultimate, Mimic, is exactly what it is: it Mimics the last spell that LeBlanc used, but for 20/30/40% increased damage.

With all of these spells LeBlanc gains a nice amount of utility that enables her to be a very flexible caster mage. Adding everything together against a target with little to no magic defense, LeBlanc is capable of dealing over a thousand points of up-front damage to her opponents, in addition to being able to inflict silence, slows and snares on her target. That's quite handy!