Introduction
This guide is currently in transition to a new build. 99% of the information on what this build does below is currently inaccurate at this time.
Hello and welcome to my first MOBAFire Guide, a guide to Leona. I have no shame in admitting that a large portion of this guide is gleaned from Ssyrak's Daughter of Amun-Ra guide, however, I have done my own experimentation with Leona and this guide is what I use personally when I play Leona.
I play Leona as a bottom lane babysitter, but it is occasionally viable to use her as a solo lane (although I've never personally won a solo lane on my own in ranked). This guide is intended for use as a bot-lane babysitter and has a lot of support potential into the later game and is a very viable tank to use, in the event that your jungler or your solo-top aren't true tanks (such as Fiddlesticks and Udyr). Leona is very good at what she does and that is stunning.
Why is Leona Different?
Leona is a different brand of tank than what we have been conditioned as normal in League of Legends. Singed and Rammus are among the top killers of players as champions with the label tank; Personally with Leona I believe I have killed no more than 100 players over the 6 months that Leona has been available. Why?
Well, Leona isn't exactly built for the job of killing; all of her abilities have an AP ratio, but they are all in the 40% range, not ideal to use up gold. Her job is more aptly described in League of Legends terms as a "support tank". Her job is to allow your teammates to get as easy of kills as possible while taking the least damage.
Is she viable? Certainly. Is she for all the Rammus and Singed players? Certainly not.
Pros / Cons
Pros:
- Tanky as all hell
- Major Stunning threat once you get up to the 40% CDR mark
- See-through clothing on the Valkyrie skin XD
Cons:
- Little to no killing potential
- Full build requires a little over 14,000 gold (functional build requires a little over 10,000)
- Requires good teammates to become completely effective.
Runes
Marks:
9x Mark of Fortitude - This IS a tank build isn't it?
Seals:
9x Seal of Resilience - This IS a tank build isn't it?
Glyphs:
6x Glyph of Celerity
3x Glyph of Warding
Explanation of the Glyph setup:
6 Celerity glyphs give enough CDR at level 18 to max out with the build setup. With 20 coming from Frozen Heart and 15 from Shureylia's Reverie, you will max out at 40% Cooldown Reduction at level 16.
The remaining Glyph slots can be whatever you feel like filling with, but the 3 MR Glyphs compliments the other runes perfectly.
Quintessences:
3x Quintessence of Fortitude - This IS a tank build isn't it?
Summoner Spells
Teleport: Allows us to get back to lane very quickly and assist in defending other turrets later in the game.
Flash: Escape situations that you may not have been able to get out of.
Mastery Setup
0/22/8: This build gives us the optimal defensive structure to allow us to go for lots of Cooldown Reduction in the item build.
Why no Enlightenment?
Enlightenment gives us extra cooldown reduction that is not useful beyond the 40% mark, and takes points away from defensive stats that help us stay alive.
Items
Start with a Regrowth Pendant and a Health Potion.
From this point, your goal is to set up your final items; Warmogs, FoN, Frozen Heart and Shureylia's. Locket of the Iron Solari is the main plan, but if you find the need for a Banshee's Veil or a Thornmail, Locket is the perfect switch.
Just a reminder, the build will be "functional" at level 16, with Frozen Heart and Shureylia's (40% Cooldown Reduction, along with the building blocks for the remaining 3 itmes). This point is about 9,000 gold, and the full build requires slightly more than 14,000.
Why this setup?
This setup gets us to the 35% CDR mark and makes us extremely tanky, both the goals of this build.
Why no Atma's?
Again, Leona's job isn't to do a bunch of damage. Atma's is a really good item for soak melees, but not Leona.
Change Log
2/7/12: Guide Launch
2/11/12: Relauch begun
Summary
Thank you for reading my personal guide to Leona, and again thank you to Ssyrak for the basis of this build.
Build Guide
Discussion (2)
