LoL: Unconventional Top Lane Pick Gets Nerfed Before…

League of Legends has seen its fair share of weird and whacky builds in recent years. While most of them were more like off-meta meme builds, some of them suddenly emerged in the professional scene. One of those is dominating the top lane right now, and Riot is going to nerf it.

Coven Leblanc — LeBlanc is subject for nerfs on Patch 13.19. | © Riot Games

Over the years, LeBlanc has been a staple in professional play more often than not. Her early playmaking potential and her strong, reliable burst have earned her many fans.

Many of those fans had to flock back in after her season 7 rework, which saw her shift towards a control mage rather than an assassin. Roughly a year later, she was reverted to her previous state and has since then remained largely unchanged.

However, that does not mean that her playstyle is always going to be the popular assassin playstyle. Instead, LeBlanc is currently being played as an AD fighter – and Riot's balancing team is not happy about it.

Nemesis Proves Why AD LeBlanc Desperately Needs Nerfs

While playing in a streamer event, former Fnatic mid laner Tim 'Nemesis' Lipovšek would prove how incredibly annoying this LeBlanc iteration could become. While he was very well-fed in the earlier stages of the game, the way he literally runs circles around his enemies still looks absolutely ridiculous.

Obviously, this build has to be based on Statikk Shiv. Would it really be a super annoying AD build or a super annoying LeBlanc build if Statikk Shiv was not involved? As her mythic item, she builds Trinity Force and follows this up with Hullbreaker.

Due to this, she gains a lot of attack speed, a lot of AD and way too much durability through Hullbreaker's armor and magic resist buff. And it is not just a random meme build – pro players are playing AD LeBlanc top with this specific build in their Worlds scrims!

Fortunately, Riot Games aren't big fans of the thought that this build might dominate the top lane at the 2023 World Championship either. League designer and former caster David 'Phreak' Turley has already turned to Twitter/X to confirm the incoming nerfs.

It is not clear yet what Riot is going to nerf about LeBlanc and her synergy with this AD build. However, Phreak mentions that the nerfs currently in playtesting are doing the trick.

We intend to include changes that address AD LeBlanc Top in 13.19. We playtested the first iteration this evening and it's looking promising.
— David Turley (@RiotPhreak) September 23, 2023