Leona Build Guide by xIchi

Introduction

OHA! After 1 day of puplishing this, my guide already became the 5th Leona guide with the highest vote! Thanks guys!
O-Hai my friends of the radiant dawn!
After playing Leona for quite a while now I decided to write a guide for her.
Leona is a really fun champion, stunning and slowing enemies till they fall for you or your mates is just too satisfying!

Here I'll introduce a Bottomlane-Support-Leona and a Jungle Leona.
Solo Top Leona seems too weak and other champions can do that job way better. But Leona literarly shines in Bot and Jungle!

Lets start with the Pro and Cons!

---

Pros + Super synergy with almost every AD Carry + High HP aswell as Dmg-Output with Mid-Tier Items + Stunlock + With both builds very high movementspeed and utility + Can turn the tide of a battle with right focus + Stunlock + Has great ganks as a jungler, because of stunlock-combos + AoE Slow / Stunlock + People understimate you + And the best: Stunlock

SPACE

Cons - Cannot really 1on1 - Is teamdependant - Even if fed, still needs a team - High Heels, high risk to stumble over little things - Cannot do a real supporter job (or she will lose her utility) - Needs aim to maintain the stunlock - Only mates can trigger your Sunlight

---

Skills

Passive:

This is like Lux' passive, the only difference is that Sunlight can only be triggered by mates and not by Leona herself.

Q:

Your onhit stun. The next autoattack will deal extra magic damage and stun.
It also resets your attacktimer and I have got the feeling that it widens your attack range.

W:

This is our most important skill. It gives us armor and magic resistance, deals damage after 3 seconds and slows.

E:

After maxing Eclipse, I max Zenith Blade. This is your gapcloser and you always want it to be ready and with every level we put in it, the cooldown reduces by 1 second. It is simmelar to Amumu's Bandage Toss but does not really stun, which means you cannot stop Fiddlestick's ultimate channeling with this.

R:

This ultimate is almost spamable. Solar Flare has a very big range, stuns enemies in the center and slows enemies around the center.

The normal combo would be:
Eclipse + Zenith Blade + Shield of Daybreak + Solar Flare
W + E + Q + R
or
Solar Flare + Eclipse + Zenith Blade + Shield of Daybreak
R + W + E + Q

Runes and Masteries

Laning:

With this set you're actually squishy early on, so you have to care about engaging into a fight, aswell as trading damage. Since you can not heal damagetrading too much is not good if the enemy support can actually heal.

Jungling:
Going jungling with Leona means to do massive ganks. This kit provides you much, much early game utility to jungle, move and gank faster. Starting with boots and 3 potions, you will have around 400 movementspeed.
The skill order can be change to make a level 2 gank possible with E+Q.

---

Summoner Spells

First:
Summoner Spells are always your own choice. The Summoner Spells I choosed just fit my movementspeed-focused playstyle.

and /

Yes, Flash is an often used skill. By far the most used Summoner Skill. In a normal Game there are at least 5 people using Flash. I dislike Flash, thus I do not use it here. And I feel like Leona is better of with Ghost

SPACE

Teleport is usefull, no doubt. But as a Jungler aswell as a Bottom-Support, you do not really need this!

SPACE

Even if you are supporting bottom lane, you do not want to lose the extra damage from Ignite or the utility of Ghost

This are the Summoner Spells I use. And the other ones are Skills I would maybe use. All other not mentioned skills are just not usefull in my opinion.
Again it is up to YOU which Summoner Spells you take!

---

Item Explanation

Okay, since the actual Item-Section is a bit trolled by me, I will explain the usage of every Item here:

Gameplay - Jungling

Jungling

Start at Wolves . Ask for some good damage there, but do not let them pull it. You have to tank the Wolves so that you will be able to do the Blue when it spawns at 1.54!
Then let your mid or someone else pull the Blue . That will help you a lot.
While jungling, you skill Eclipse first. Either way you are going to skill Zenith Blade when you hit level 2. Don't get Shield of Daybreak, yet! You will not be able to gank or clear the jungle faster. Now it is up to you, your mates and your enemies whether you can gank or hit level 3 at Wraiths and Small Golems for Shield of Daybreak. With your W+E+Q-Combo you should gank now. Try to secure a kill, if not, good aswell. You have scared an enemy laner and denied his farm!
Leona can't jungle long, but after getting the Philosopher's Stone jungling gets much easier. Always try to gank instead of jungling, that is the purpose of jungling Leona.
But care, do not enter a 1on1 duel in the jungle, you are pretty weak. Other junglers will rape you apart when you do not have laner help you out.

Counterjungling and Recovery
To be honest, counterjungling with Leona is hard. The only camp you can clear at full speed is the Wraith camp. Stealing buffs is only possible with mates, or when you are certain that the enemy jungler is not nearby and the laner did not ward that spot.
I would try to get the enemy Wraiths after or before a midlane gank / or when you are on the way through the enemy jungle to reach top or bottom (depends on your side of the Summoners Rift).
Recovering is a little problem for Leona. The respawn timers in the new Jungle are very low. Getting counterjungled only makes it easier for you to gank, since you do not have any camps to clear anymore. Only the Dragon is a problem. Leona cannot solo it like Shaco at level 6. She does not buy a Wriggle's Lantern either. So help from your bottom lane is always needed!

Gameplay - Bottom Support

Laning

Laning bottom is easy. Observe the enemies movement and maintain the brush dominance.
Try to hit your skills, so that every Sunlight proc can be triggered by your AD Carry.
Always try to save your Zenith Blade and run in with Shield of Daybreak out of the brush to stun first. Thats what we have the movementspeed for.
If not:
Activate your Eclipse, then Zenith Blade your target and finally Shield of Daybreak them for a stunlock and the Eclipse explosion. If you are already level 6, throw a Solar Flare at your number one target.

Since you are supporting, do not take last hits and try to ward early on at least.
Always try to let your AD Carry have the kill or at least an assist, otherwise it is pretty senseless to kill everything alone. A fed Leona cannot carry alone in Late Game!

Warding

Before I start with the spots, which need to be warded, I want you all to know that Support Leona cannot really support. She can not give sustain to the AD Carry, she is very item dependant and thus cannot continually ward. Most of the time I cannot even ward the spots I will state below. So encourage your mates to ward aswell!!

Important Wards // Needed Wards // Situational

Blue Buff Area - The Blue Buff itself is very important. You do want to steal or to protect it. People in lower levelst always neglect this ward.
Bottom Lane - Now this needs some more explanation. The Sight Ward in the Tribrush is only needed if the enemies have a Jungler who can get behind you very fast (E.g. Udyr, Shaco, Shyvana, Fiora, Rammus, Amumu, Master Yi, Olaf, Riven. Actually, every Jungler can come from there, but these will most likely come from there.
The Vision Ward/ Sight Ward spot, which is framed red depends on your warding timing and the enemy supports Vision Ward and Sight Ward. If the enemy has already a Ward there (no matter Vision Ward or Sight Ward), you can place a Vision Ward to destroy their source of vision.
If you do not have the possibility to destroy the enemys ward, place the Sight Ward in the green framed spot, because even if the enemy has a Vision Ward your Sight Ward in the brush will not be seen by it. Profit!
Dragon - You want to place a Vision Ward here. If not possible a Sight Ward will do the job. But you will not know about the enemy sight. (Btw, see my epic editing skills? I should become a professional photoshopper ;D)
Red Buff Area - The Red Buff is neglected in lower levels just like the Blue Buff. Since it is a Buff green priority is just perfect.
The 'Choke Ward' is the pre-instance for the 'Tribrush Ward'. Enemy jungler will most likely come this way if they want to gank you from behind.
The light green framed Sight Ward will only be usefull in later states of the game. E.g. the first turrets have fallen, and the enemy can now freely walk into your area without fearing to get cought between you and your tower. (Again see my epic editing works. You would not have thought that this was edited, right? HUEHUEHUEHUE ;D)

Items - This is kind of trolled, read it if you want to have a bit fun

The Items I choosed are mostly Midtier. Leona cannot afford much farm but needs Health, Sustain and Damage / Utility.

Laning Start with Boots of Speed and 3x Health Potion Laning with Leona, you do not use movementspeed Masteries or Runes. So using this makes it easier for you to stun your enemies. After standing in the brushes long enough to buy either Sheen or Philosopher's Stone, head back and get one of them. First priority has Sheen that early damage boost is perfect with your Shield of Daybreak Skill. Grab some Sight Ward's aswell. Next is to uprade your Boots of Speed into Boots of Mobility. Makes it easier to sprint to the Dragon or little skirmishes. Grab Heart of Gold, because you will be needing the health now. And you need even more health and a Trinity Force that is why you will buy Phage next and upgrade it to Trinity Force asap! Now we will make use of our gold per 5 seconds items: Philosopher's Stone evolves into a Shurelya's Reverie and Heart of Gold digitates into a Randuin's Omen. Good for you! You took such a good care of those two cute babys, now they hit the next level of usefullness! And take a Wit's End somewhere between that. If you needed to change your boots earlier, do so, if not abandon the Boots of Mobility now and stick with Mercury's Treads. Yes you are a *****, throwing a good old friend away. Last item incoming now. What will you take? Will you take the Guardian Angel and be a Saint or the Sunfire Cape to become even more shiny like the real sun? Or even take the Force of Nature to race through the woods!? Or just be a friend of your mates and take Aegis of the Legion to give them even more steroids!

SPACE

Jungling Start with Boots of Speed and 3x Health Potion, the JungleRoute will be stated in a later chapter. Go for some early ganks and grab a Sheen asap! Transition into Boots of Mobility and Phage into Trinity Force. After that rush success, think about your economy: Philosopher's Stone and Heart of Gold will skyrocket your resources income! Now you need to fill your supply with some defenselines, to protect your economy: Aegis of the Legion will give you that extra everything. Now you shoud have mined everything out of your mineral and gas lines, upgrade your Philosopher's Stone and Heart of Gold into Shurelya's Reverie and Randuin's Omen. Yes! These two are the Stimpack and Concussive Shells for your mates! But that is not enough, you've creeped the whole map with wards, and want to use that. Warp a Wit's End nearby the secondlast Pylon. While doing so, keep an eye on your Macro and get Guardian Angel / Sunfire Cape or Force of Nature

---

Summary, About Me

In short:
Stunlock the enemy and support your team. Do not rambo (or do so, but hope your team catches up) and try to stay alive.

About Me:
My Summoner Name is xIchi, playing on EUW.
I have 1,5k+ Normal wins and doing a 'From Zero to Hero'-Project, to show there is no EloHell!
My Blog: From Zero to Hero

Please comment, and give me CnC, please do not downvote the guide on the first sight and read everything.

And last: Ingameresults, because I'm not someone who promise you the blue out of the sky and place it to the start: