Greetings and welcome to my Leona Guide, and my first Guide anyways.

The only Tank i normally play is Jungle Ramass(Rammus) and every other Tank was boring for me, until i meet her. She has a good initiate, 2 Stuns of of em on a mediocre cooldown, her W gives nice survability and her passive adds greetly up over the course of time.
This is how i play Leona and i think how she should be played.
I saw people going AP with her(with and without Lichbane), but lets be serious, she has terribad AP-Ratios, please never go AP with her, thank you.

In this Guide i will go over 3 different build: How i play her at the moment, i fully theoretical Trinitycooldownreductionoff-tankbuild, and a Jungleset-up, but she is a very slow jungler...

So i hope your enjoy your read, and sorry for my bad english, but we are not here for grammarflaming, right?

Leona is a Female Tank as everyone wished for, but now that shes here many people try to play her in strange ways i dont get, you got a Female-Tank, then play her like a Tank, you dont build Trinity on Rammus too, do you?

Sunlight
Leona's damaging spells affect the target with Sunlight for 3.5 seconds. When allied champions deal damage to those targets they consume the Sunlight debuff to deal 20 / 35 / 50 / 65 / 80 / 95 / 110 / 125 / 140 additional magic damage. Leona is unable to activate the additional damage herself.

Not the best Passive, but its still decent and the dmg adds up to a good amount.

Shield of Daybreak
Leona's next basic attack will deal additional magic damage and stun the target for 1.25 seconds.
Cost: 45 / 50 / 55 / 60 / 65 mana
Cooldown: 12 / 11 / 10 / 9 / 8 seconds
Magic Damage: 40 / 70 / 100 / 130 / 160 (+0.3 per ability power)

A stun is always nice, so is hers.

Eclipse
Leona raises her shield to gain bonus Armor and Magic Resistance for 3 seconds. When the effect ends she deals magic damage to nearby enemies and prolongs the effect for a bonus 3 seconds if any enemies are struck.
Armor & Magic Resist Bonus: 30 / 40 / 50 / 60 / 70
Magic Damage: 60 / 110 / 160 / 210 / 260 (+0.4 per ability power)
Cost: 60 mana at all levels
Cooldown: 14 seconds at all levels

Makes Leona tanky for 6 Seconds and gives her a nice little semi-burst.

Zenith Blade
Leona projects a solar image of her sword, which deals magic damage to all enemies in a line. When the image fades, the last enemy champion struck will be briefly immobilized and Leona will dash to them.
Cost: 60 / 65 / 70 / 75 / 80 mana
Cooldown: 13 / 12 / 11 / 10 / 9 seconds
Magic Damage: 60 / 100 / 140 / 180 / 220 (+0.4 per ability power)

She has a stun, one skill makes her more tanky, what elses we need? Something to initiate, say hello to her Zenith Blade.

Solar Flare
After a brief delay, Leona calls down a beam of solar energy dealing damage and slowing enemies by 80% for 1.5 seconds. Enemies in the center of the beam are stunned instead of slowed.
Cost: 100 / 150 / 200 mana
Cooldown: 105 / 90 / 75 seconds
Magic Damage: 150 / 250 / 350 (+0.8 per ability power)
Range to Center of AoE: 1200

Her ult isnt that strong but her other spells are, but its still a stun/slow and thats always nice.

9x Greater Mark of Magic Penetration
All her spells deal magic dmg on a low AP-Ratio, and there are no good defensive Marks in the Game, so we get magic pen marks.

9x Greater Seal of Armor
Will help troughout the game+the enemy AD-Carry in the Lane.
Another option is 9x Greater Seal of Scaling Magic Resist if you still feel insecure with rushing Sunfire.

9x Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist
Why per lvl and not flat ones? Per lvl surpass the flat ones at lvl 10.

1. Thats maybe a little bit "late" because some people want that mres early, but lets look at at the current Meta-setup: A good solo-top char(Leona is not), AP-Carry mid, Support&AD-Carry bot, and a (jungle) tank. Leona cant be top because most other solo-top chars will sweep the floor with her, she cant be mid for obvious reasons, her jungle is slow(NEARLY lvl 5 with both buffs at minute 6) so the only place she has is bottom lane(and with a good Lanemate she WILL dominate).
   
2. So you got flat mres against a supporter and a ad-carry, good job(What i want to say is you dont need that early m-res so much in the laning phase)!
   
3. The late-game of most mages is much more stronger then their early game spells, because of the lvl(when your mres gets better then the flat ones they have their first spell at lvl 5) from the spells and the AP they have. Dont get me wrong they hurt in the early game too, but in the late game much more.

Thats pretty much it, if u still prefer the flat ones, take em.

3x Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed
For Quints you can basicly take whatever you like, but i like the movementspeed they give you.

You can choose:

Flash
Flash is OP, it lets you close the distance in a Teamfight if your E is not enough, its also nice for flashing over Walls.

or

Ghost
Ghost is nice better for chasing, but Flash gives more utility for other nice tricks, so choose wisely.

and

Exhaust
I took Exhaust over Ignite for 2 Reasons:
Most of the time there will be alrdy 2 Ignites on your Team, thats more then enough. And Exhaust is rarely taken but so strong, it completly shuts down a Autoattack-carry and hurts casters aswell, also the slow-down gives your Team time to close the distance to land the finishing blow.

or

Ignite
If you prefer Ignite, take it over Exhaust.

Not good options:

Clairvoyance
You are not the Support and your other choices are more superior.

Clarity
Leona only has a tiny bit Manaproblems and that few Manaproblems are gone with Philostone.

Fortify
Fortify is a very situational, i dont recommend to take it.

Cleanse
If they waste a CC on you, good job you did your Job! If they focus you while you are CCed and die it should give your Team enough time to do the rest, your life in trade for an Ace, i call that fair. So Cleanse i not needed.

Heal
Heal is a wasted Summoner, the +HP you get rarely saves you, and never saves you in late-game, a smart Enemie who knows you has heal wont engage you if its a fight where both of u got low HP, and there are better Options, so dont take it.

Teleport
Teleport can be nice for strong Pushers like Sivir or some solo-laners, again, there are better options.

Do NOT take:

Rally
It wont make much of a difference and other choices are superior.

Revive
I will explain this for newbies(hell i even saw some lvl20's with Revive...]
Revive is a BAD BAD BAD Summoner, there are only a few Champions who can use it.
Why is Revive a bad choice?
Your Summonerspells should help you IN Fights, Xin-Zhao chasing you and just used his gap-closer(a skill where you get closer in a blink of an eye to the Enemie, your Zenith Blade is a gap-closer too) give him a Stun in the Face and Flash away or Exhaust him after the Stun weared out. 3 Enemies going to gank you? Flash over the Wall, bamm you are save.
Also you should play with the mind-set not do die.
Also if you die and the Teamfight is still going, most of the Time you wont make it in Time.
Exceptions to that are Pantheon and Twisted Fate, both of them have a Global Ultimate where they could join a Teamfight right away again.

9/21/0
Thats what i am using. The 21 in defense are self-explanatory, if u like dodge seal's make sure to change the masteries, im not a fan of them. The 9 in offense because of Archaic Knowledge, Sorcery for lower cooldowns and improved Exhaust.

If u prefer 0/21/9 go for that. Change to Nimbleness if you took Dodge Seal's.

Because of Eclipse its also possible to ignore the Defense-tree and go for 9/0/21 or 0/9/21. Again, change to Nimbleness if you took Dodge Seal's.

1. Start with:
   Regrowth Pendant
   ( Health Potion)
   
2. After that we buy following:
   Philosopher's Stone
   Boots
   Heart of Gold
   
   HoG gives a nice HP Boost and we will keep it long enough that it pays itself out, same for Philo Stone.
   
   
3. The next time we come back(or if you already have enough gold) we buy:
   Mercury's Treads if they have 5 or more hard CC's(so dont count slows) if not, buy Sorcerer's Shoes.
   Theres also the option to upgrade your Philosopher's Stone to Eleisa's Miracle and still buying Sorcerer's Shoes, but we will sell Eleisa's Miracle later.
   
   
4. If they have lot of AoE's get Aegis of the Legion if not get Giant's Belt or in case of 3 or more AD Champs Chain Vest first, then finish your Sunfire Aegis and if you dont buyed Aegis of the Legion yet get it now. Sunfire will greatly increase our dmg, the number itself maybe seems small, but dont forget it hit multiple targets, but the longer the game goes the more mres the Enemy get, so we get the Sunfire early, even if they have more magic dmg.

After our core is finished we can branch out and buy one of the following items:

If they have more magical dmg, typical:
Banshee's Veil if they have much CC, if not go for Force of Nature.

If they have more physical dmg, but thats rare:
Frozen Heart if they are lot of Auto-attackers(Ezreal for example can just spamm Q it wont hurt him that much, or Renekton) or Randuin's Omen.


After that go for Frozen Mallet the Slow will help your Team to focus whatever you agreed to focus first, also its good when Enemies are running, not to forget the Health it gives, the extra AD is not that important.

Now you can just build accordingly to the Enemy!
Do you alrdy Tank em easily but your team lacks dmg? Get an Atma's Impaler and probally a Warmog's Armor(also good when Physical dmg still hurts you alot). Or is it magic dmg that goes on your nerves? Get a Banshee's Veil or Force of Nature. Always try to think that one item can improve another Item, Force of Nature+ Warmog's Armor for example give you godlike health regen, or Atma's Impaler with any Tanky Health item gives you more dmg.

REMEMBER: Always buy 1 or 2 Sight Ward's when you have the Gold left over if you are in the Well, also in case of an Enemy invis champ get an Oracle's Elexir.


Why Sorcerer's Shoes?
Because your spells HURT, but they scale bad with AP, and besides Leona's Q Stun (and her ultimate) the only Threat she has is dmg.

Possibility of buying Haunting Guise and/or Abyssal Mask?
If your Team lacks dmg(like a tanky-team overall) you could always build a Haunting Guise or Abyssal Mask.

The important part is the 20 magic pen, you know how Armor/effective health works?

Every point in armor is like "i have 1% more live for physical or magical dmg" 100 Armor=100% more Life, 50% Reduction. 300 armor=300% more Life, 75% Reduction.

Haunting Guise increases your spelldmg BY 20%!!! Same goes for Abyssal Mask.

Conclusion:For the price of 1500 Gold, Haunting Guise and the stat it gives, are worth it. HOWEVER, its only a good early/early-mid game item, while it has a good gold/pricevalue, you need that slot later and will most probally sell it and waste Gold, thats the only downside on that item(and the semi-wasted AP).

Why no Cooldown Reduction or Trinity?
We want to build Leona as a full-tank, her spells have to long Cooldowns so trinity is not worth it, and the only nice "pure-tank" Item that gives good amounts of CD Reduction is Frozen Heart, but we talk about the 40% CD Cap, and trying to keep sustained "tankiness"+getting to the CD Cap is not possible at all. Of course they are exceptions to it and under some circumstances you can easily build up 40% CD Reduction, like u have a Nidalee and a Soraka, a Spirit Visage is a good Item in that case. Enemy team mostly has AD, then Frozen Heart+ Randuin's Omen, but in the meta-scenario thats not the case, so i dont have inclused much CD Reduction.

Why Frozen Mallet over Rylai's Crystal Scepter?
Frozen Mallet is a stronger single-target slow.
Leona has 3 AoE spells and one single target spell, all of em on a mediocre cooldown, so in the end you get more from Frozen Mallet.

At lvl 1 we take Shield of Daybreak, the Stun will Help for lvl 1 Fights.

At lvl 2 we take Zenith Blade, thats the earlierst point you and your lanemate can go for kills if your Enemie is not totally ******ed.

After that we max out Eclipse first, it gives the most dmg+survability in form of res&mres, we only stop to lvl Solar Flare.

After Eclipse is maxed we max out Shield of Daybreak, while the Stun-duration is not increased, the cooldown gets decreased, so more stuns.
Zenith Blade is the last we max, we only got one lvl early to close the gap.

While some People go Solo-top with Leona, you shouldnt do that. She is more viable for solo-top then, lets say a Janna. And its even possible that you can win your solo-top lane BUT thats only the case when the Enemie solo-top char is bad, and you should never expect to fight against badder opponents then you, always assume u will meet stronger ones. At least every Leona i saw so far solo-top failed, i meet her myself too as Akali and Irelia, and both times i was happy for an easy early-game <3.
Also Note: In Solo-Lane she wastes her passive.

Anyways, move to the bot-lane with a strong early-game character, let your carry get most of the last-hits, but not all, you need some too. But your Lanemate&you should try to get Championkills anyways, dont harass to much, your nukes arent that strong and u waste your Mana, but always use a Ability to harass when you have full Mana. As soon as you can buy Philosopher's Stone ask your lanemate if he can hold the lane so you can go back to buy it, then head back to your lane. For Laneclashs use your Zenith Blade, then turn on Eclipse and Stun your victim with Shield of Daybreak, keep chasing him and Attack, with the Help of your lanemate he should be dead, if you can try to let your carry get the kill, but only if u can, if the chance that your victim can escape it to huge, just kill him. If you can land your Zenith Blade's most of the time, you can turn on Eclipse and Shield of Daybreak before you use Zenith Blade But if you miss its wasted Mana.
Basicly, the Goal of her Laning-Phase is to land enough kills/assists with him to get a Gold&EXP-Advantage.
Also ward the Dragon at this point of the Game.


IF u still want to solo:
Just concentrate on last-hits until you are lvl 3/4, at this lvl you can harass with the same combination as in duo-laning and when the Enemy is low enough go for the kill, but as i said a decent Solo-top char will zone you out and probally kill you, the only Hope you have in this case is your Jungler.

Mid Game is where Team-Fight starts, you probally alrdy have your Sunfire Aegis or Aegis of the Legion, Initiate with Zenith Blade but wait with the Initiate until you see a good spot, like a Caster overextends to harass, spamm your Eclipse and use your Shield of Daybreak on high-dmging targets like their Carrys.

Dont use your Solar Flare right after Initiating in this case(except if the stun helps toward killing the victim u hit with Shield of Daybreak, it would go to waste, utilize the high range to stun someone as soon as hes using a channeling ability, your Ult is not as Game changing as Amumus ultimate, but it can still turne the tides around, and its more important to stun some high-thread target (like the Master Yi that Alpha Striked to your Ranged AD-Carry and you are to far away to help then using it for the dmg. But ifff you can get 3 or more Enemies into the Stun of Solar Flare then use it!
The use of Solar Flarechanges in case your Team has another great AoE character like Galio or Katarina use Zenith Blade, use Solar Flare to get as many enemies as possible and let the Character with great AoE do the rest, this requires coordination tough and i dont recommend it in soloqueue.

Besides Teamfights, clear the jungles that nobody else needs, push a few lanes, Ward Baron/Dragon/Buffs and do the usual stuff.

Stick to your Team, keep warding, and Initiate and fight like in Midgame, one "ace" can turn around the whole Game, even if u have Goldadvantage(and Goldadvantage is the best Advantage) doesnt mean you can easily roflstomp em, if they where able to hold out until Late, its still possible for em to Ace your team if you get unlucky.

Thats just theory and i dont tested it much yet, so i wont make a big section about this.
Basicly its a try to make Leona more dmging for all the People out here who think there should be no new "pure tanks".
Trinity Force for Leona is a bad Item because Leona has to long cooldowns.
If you build Cooldownreduction, you will lose your Tankyness except in a few rare cases.
So we combine them both, with Cooldown Reduction Leona has a nice spammability of her spells for good dmg and she can utilize Trinity Force much better. But she isnt so tanky at all anymore, even tough she gets 6 Seconds lond +70 Mres&res while Eclipse is just on a 8,4 Sek cooldown.

Runes:

We use the same Runes as in the "normal" Build.

Masterys:

In this case we go 9/0/21

Items:

Again Philopher's Stone and Heart of Gold but then you buy Boots of Lucidity and instead of a Sunfire Aegis we go Frozen Heart. 15%+20%+Masterys=40% Cooldown reduction. You dont build a Aegis of the Legion this time. After that you begin your Trinity Force with a Sheen then Phage and at the end we finish it.

Now build depended on the enemy team, a possibility for even more dmg is any health items with Atma's Impaler or even probally a Wit's End.

Trinity usage:

Ok lets recap what our cooldowns are now:
Shield of Daybreak is at lvl 5 on a 4,8 sek cooldown.
Eclipse is at lvl 5 on a 8,4 sek cooldown, so 2,4 seconds "downtime" of your 70 armor bonus.
Zenith Blade is at lvl 1, because we lvl it last on a 7,8 sek cd. But at max lvl its 5,4 Seconds.
Solar Flare has a 63/54/45 Cooldowntime.

Teamfights:

Dont initiate, let your real tank initiate. In the fight try to focus the squishie but dont nuke him down, try to "rotate" your spells, Trinity has a 2 second cooldown on himself, so use a new ability every 2 seconds, our Shield of Daybreak has the shortest Cooldown, so we try something like this:
Shield of Daybreak>>> Eclipse>>>> Shield of Daybreak>>> Zenith Blade>>> Shield of Daybreak...
Thats just the best case scenario, most of the time you need to spamm your Eclipse and Shield of Daybreak for CC/Survability, so dont mind that to much, but its a possibility, as i said its just a theoretical build.

Leona can jungle, but she is a slow jungler, and i dont recommend it, first shes slow and second to get good ganks with her you need to land your Zenith Blade. Play Video Credits go to Stonewall for this, but Leona shouldnt jungle so i wont say much to this.

I hope you enjoyed your stay and learned something, feel free to vote and leave possible critism, im open for it and i will read every comment. I would also like to hear some experience about the Theoretical Trinitybuild because i dont have much time for the next 2 Weeks~

Changelog:
1.0-Puplished Guide.