Leona Build Guide by Athion

Introduction

Hello and welcome to my jungle Leona guide(First guide i have ever made, So it will be quite terribly made). Leona is mostly played as a support, because of her amazing crowed control ability's. This is the same reason i decided to jungle her, She has some of the best gank's in the game because of the combo with Zenith Blade - Shield of Daybreak - Solar Flare.

This Leona guide is made to play Leona completely offensively, Which is why the item build is focused on health first and Armor and magic resistances secondly.

One thing to remember about Leona is that she never deals damage to deal damage, Leona deals damage indirectly. Her main focus is crowd control, To control her target completely. The damage she deals is a bonus effect, Not the desired effect.

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Pros / Cons

Summoner Spells

Smite has many uses, Lets you secure Dragon/Baron. It also makes jungeling a lot easier when you use it on Blue/Red buffs and counter-jungling.

Flash can be use to defensively as an escape tool. It can also be used offensively to get in range for Zenith Blade.

Ghost can be a viable option to Flash for chasing and escaping, But then you cannot escape by flashing over a wall.

Exhaust could work if you feel you need an extra CC ability(However the target should be dead at the end of the CC chain, So Exhaust shouldn't be needed). Since Exhaust slows your targets movement speed, Attack speed and reduces ability power.

Cleanse Only pick this if you think the other team will focus you with counter CC to shut you down.

Teleport If you would like to jump across the map fast for ganking/counter ganking. This could be the tool for you, However you need a team that can communicate very well for it. For example: Gank top, See a Gank coming bot. Have bot-lane bait them out for you to teleport in on top of them and wreck havoc with your Solar Flare

Leona's Abilitys

Sunlight Is Leona's passive, Which almost works like Illumination( Lux Passive) except Leona herself cannot trigger it. This one of the reason Leona cannot kill Enemy's and minions fast enough. So always try to time your ability's with your ally's attacks, so they get an extra bit of damage off.

Shield of Daybreak Is Leona's up and close ability, It provides a 1 sec stun and deals some damage. Use it after Zenith Blade to keep the target still for your Dps sidekick to maul.

Eclipse This is your only real farming tool, It is also the reason you can wait so long to get Armor and Magic resistances. It deals decent early/mid game damage but the damage falls off late game.

Zenith Blade Your gap closer, Your "Sit in the bush and wait to release hell" ability. Zenith Blade goes through all targets and deals damage, But it will only pull you to the last enemy champion it went through. Correct usage of this ability will let you dash around the battle, making you a very annoying target that either needs to be killed or shut down by CC.

Solar Flare Ah yes, Solar Flare. One of the best stuns in the game, It has an insane range and a quite long stun. And if you miss your target it will still slow them.

Since Eclipse has a 3 second delay, it can safely be activated before you Zenith Blade

Items

First i will explain the order for the items. And below i will list the reasoning behind them.

Start with Cloth Armor and 5 Health Potion

First recall get Boots of Speed and Regrowth Pendant or Philosopher's Stone if you can afford it.

Philosopher's Stone is what gives you sustain in the jungle.

Next you want to focus on getting a Heart of Gold and Ionian Boots of Lucidity

Now that the early game items are done and your gold income is secure, Lets get some more health.

Start by building a Giant's Belt and set your eyes on Warmog's Armor
With an extra 1000 HP, We can now tower dive like a queen.

But its still not enough, Get another Giant's Belt and build it into a Sunfire Cape

Next we want to focus on shutting down their Ad carry, So we want to build more armor. So we will build a Randuin's Omen, The activation component of the item will slow their movement speed and attack speed by 35%. And if the Ad carry is stupid enough to hit you their attack speed will be slowed again by 35%. A must have items for a tank.

Now we should turn our attention to those pesky Ap carrys, So we will build a Force of Nature. This will give us a decent magic resist and movement speed, But it will also stack well with our Warmog's health regen.

And to finish it off we can either build a Wit's End or a Maw of Malmortius
Both will give us a decent magic resist and increase the dps we will put out. Which one depends on if you want more attack damage or attack speed. Both have their pros and cons, So pick according to the state of the game.

Jungling

(Borrowed from http://fronttowardsgamer.com)





First you want to start with the blue buff golems, Remember to use a health potion since Leona has very low damage. Use Smite when the big golem gets down to around 450-500 Hp.

Then you want to head to the wolfs, Activate Eclipse and use Zenith Blade as you move towards them to hit all 3.

Once they are dead, Use another potion and head down to Wraiths.

Same thing again, Use Eclipse and Zenith Blade to hit all 4 if possible.

Your Smite should now almost be off cooldown. So use another potion and go to red buff golems, Stand on the right side of the golems and use Eclipse and Zenith Blade to hit all 3 targets. Use another potion and and use Smite when the golem gets around 500-550 Hp.

Now take a look at the map. How does the lanes look ? if all 3 are push, Recall.
If one of the lanes are weak, Go gank!.

Summary

My hope is that this guide has been informative for you. If there is anything i missed to cover or that you would like me to cover please inform me of it.

Note that this guide is still under construction.


Thanks to
jhoijhoi for his guide on how to make a guide.
Aiimz for giving useful and good feedback.