Leona Build Guide by cookiemonster
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Armor Heavy/MR Heavy
Non-CDR boots Armor/MR
Ability Sequence
Not Updated For Current Season
The masteries shown here are not yet updated for the current season, the guide author needs to set up the new masteries. As such, they will be different than the masteries you see in-game.
Masteries
Introduction
Hi all! This is my first build, but I have to say I am confident that this is an extremely fun and effective way to play Leona. Please vote and give me suggestions to help improve this comprehensive guide!
FORMAT: Team 1 is comprised of two Leona builds that start with
and build towards AD heavy teams and AP heavy teams respectively. Team 2 is comprised of two Leona builds where one might prefer using
. Both will work just fine, it's really about a preference to the player. I personally love using Shurelya's Reverie so I typically buy into Merc treads and rune into the missing early-game CDR.
Leona is an extremely fun champion to play. Her ability to make the early game hell for the other team is nearly unrivaled. She is excellent is being very disruptive during team fights and will almost guarantee kills on fleeing enemies. She has multiple ways to initiate a fight and is certainly a champion you want on your team.
NOTE: If you would prefer to play Leona as an AP carry, I have some bad news: 1. This is not the guide for you. 2. You are doing it wrong.
Lore:
Lore:
On the upper slopes of Mount Targon, the warriors of Rakkor live and breathe only for war. However, Targon’s peak is reserved for a special group of Rakkor who answer to a “higher” calling. Members of this group, called the Solari, retire their mantles of war, choosing instead to devote their lives to reverence of the sun. According to legend, the Solari were formed by a warrior who could call the raw might of the sun down upon his enemies in combat. He claimed Mount Targon’s summit, the point on Valoran closest to the sun, for his solar devotion, a tradition which generations of Solari have preserved to this day. Though they maintain their reverence, no other warrior possessed the gifts of the founder – until Leona.
Leona’s parents were traditional Rakkor, both bred for the heat of battle. To them, Leona was a problem child. She was capable of fighting as fiercely as any other – including her childhood friend, Pantheon – but she did not share their zeal for killing. She believed that the true worth of a soldier lay in her ability to defend and protect. When it came time for her Rite of Kor, a ceremony in which two Rakkor teens battle to the death for the right to bear a relic-weapon, Leona refused to fight. For this, the Rakkor leaders ordered her execution, but when they tried to strike the fatal blow, sunlight burst forth, bathing Mount Targon in light. As it faded, Leona stood unharmed and her executioners lay unconscious around her. The Solari immediately claimed Leona, demanding that her sentence be repealed. She donned the golden armor of the Solari and they bestowed upon her the sword and shield passed down from the ancient sun-warrior of legend. The Solari helped Leona focus her abilities, and when she was ready she left to join the League of Legends.
“The sun’s rays reach all of Runeterra, so too must the image of its champion.”
- Leona
Runes
You have a few choices to make with the rune selection with these builds. What I have provided per build is, in my opinion, the best choice to go with the build.
Team 1:
Greater Mark of Magic Penetration x9
Magic Pen will help you hurt the enemy a little bit more early game, which is really important to ensure that you are effectively setting up kills for your partner.
Greater Seal of Evasion x9
These really should be standard on most tanks. Dodge is an excellent thing to have because instead of mitigating damage with Armor or MR, when you dodge you miss all the damage of the attack. This synergizes well with
Greater Glyph of Magic Resist x9
These help out a lot early game and just make Leona that much tougher in lane.
Greater Quintessence of Health x3
These are fairly self explanatory.
ALTERNATIVES
Greater Mark of Armor x9
If you find yourself dying too often or being generally too low on health, these will certainly help your survival.
Greater Seal of Armor x9
If dodge isn't your thing (or you don't want to grind the RP for x9 dodge runes) the armor on these will help keep you less-dead.
Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction x9
These will boost your initial CDR to around 10%, with the boots you'll be at around 25% very quickly, which really helps you lock down enemies. However, I avoid building these runes because with all the CDR items in these builds, it is a bit over kill. The CDR cap is 40%, anything over is useless.
Greater Quintessence of Cooldown Reduction x3
These are a great alternative for the same reason as the aforementioned Glyphs. However, I avoid them for the same reason!
Team 2:
Greater Mark of Armor x9
Without the Ionian boots, the initial CDR comes from Glyphs and Quints, which means that there will be a significant loss of MR from the Glyphs. I'd recommend sticking with these to compensate for the lost survivability.
Greater Seal of Evasion x9
See Team 1's Seals for explanation.
Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction x9
These will boost your initial CDR to around 10% and will compensate for the lack of the CDR boots.
Greater Quintessence of Cooldown Reduction x3
With this extra CDR you'll be close enough to the CDR from Ionian boots that you wont tell the difference.
ALTERNATIVES
Greater Mark of Magic Penetration x9
Magic Pen will help you hurt the enemy a little bit more early game, which is really important to ensure that you are effectively setting up kills for your partner. I would recommend sticking with the MR marks due to the reduced health and MR from the CDR runes.
Greater Seal of Armor x9
If dodge isn't your thing (or you don't want to grind the RP for x9 dodge runes) the armor on these will help keep you less-dead.
Greater Glyph of Magic Resist x9
These help out a lot early game and just make Leona that much tougher in lane. However electing to use these over the CDR runes will rob you of much needed early-game CDR!
Greater Quintessence of Health x3
These are fairly self explanatory.
Masteries
We pick up most standard Tanky masteries making sure to take
Nimbleness
as the speed buff really helps initiate and escape.
We also go into the offensive tree for the CDR in
Sorcery
and the magic pen from
Archaic Knowledge
!
You can play around with these masteries, specifically taking more regeneration in the utility tree, however I'm a CDR ***** and I can't live without it.
Items
This is by far the most important part of Leona's versatility as a tank. Her items can be very diverse and I've seem some extremely effective builds. That being said, I've seen some very BAD builds that are destined to fail.
DO: Build into Health Regeneration, CDR, Armor, Magic Resistance.
DON'T: Stack health, buy leviathans, try to being a carry, worry about AP items.
CORE BUILD:
Philosopher's Stone+
OR
+
Start off by buying a 
Regrowth Pendant and a 
Health Potion. After you reach around 400g, return and buy a Philosopher's Stone which will really make it difficult to push you out of lane.
You should then purchase Ionian Boots of Lucidity or Mercury's Treads and a Heart of Gold. Having two Gold per 5s items will really help you support this expensive build into the game. You'll be moving around a lot assisting team mates and it's likely you will fall behind in minions.
Team 1:
Glacial Shroud should be your next buy. It has armor and more CDR! You should then build 
Eleisa's Miracle to give you some much-needed tenacity. This item will help you escape cc and come to the aid of ally's faster.
If you are against an AD heavy team:
In your late game you can build any of the following:
Force of Nature
for the nice health regen.
Frozen Heart
Should cap you on CDR and has some nice armor.
Sunfire Cape
Has nice armor and really helps with some AoE damage. Also, looks really really cool on Leona.
Randuin's Omen
Has a very nice amount of Armor, CDR (if you're not capped), and it's Active is amazing in team fights.
Guardian Angel
Great late-game tanking item.
Aegis of the Legion
Provides a nice Aura for your team
Thornmail
Great against your Xin's and Ashe's.
If you are against an AP heavy team:
You should focus on getting:
Aegis of the Legion
Great aura and decent MR for fairly cheap.
Force of Nature
Really boosts that MR and give some awesome health regen.
Banshee's Veil
A great anti-magic item
Once you've attained some much needed MR, you can finish your build with:
Frozen Heart
Team 2:
The next item you'll want to buy is a 
Kindlegem. Much like the glacial shroud, this will boost your CDR! Since there is no need to buy into tenacity, you can go ahead and start building an Aegis of the Legion as this will really help you support your team.
If you are against an AD heavy team:
You should focus on getting:
Sunfire Cape
see above.
Randuin's Omen
see above.
Shurelya's Reverie
This item has more CDR, health regen and an awesome active that really helps your team initiate, gank, escape, and chase.
You could also build a Thornmail or a Guardian Angel, depending on your situation. Getting a Force of Nature is always good too, as it's Health regen is massive!
If you are against an AP heavy team:
You should focus on getting:
Sunfire Cape
see above.
Force of Nature
see above.
Banshee's Veil
see above
then you can finish up with Randuin's Omen and Shurelya's Reverie.
Skill Sequence
I have a bit of an odd order, but it seems to strike a good balance between my survivability as a tank and my ability to lock down and disrupt opponents for whatever reason.
I start with Shield of Daybreak and then at level 2 put one point into Zenith Blade. I then put 2 consecutive points in Eclipse, a point into Shield of Daybreak and then, at level 6, Solar Flare.
With this, you'll be able to really notice the Armor and MR from Eclipse as well as it's decent AoE damage. This will help zone your enemies and push out of lane.
After level 6, you can eitehr alternate between Shield of Daybreak and Eclipse or do whatever suits your preference. There really isn't a wrong answer with this champ.
Note that you should always be focusing on hitting as many enemies as possible with Solar Flare and Eclipse to proc your passive, Sunlight. This will really help your team dish out some damage.
Standard rotation:
+ + And (if needed)
While fighting:
Always focus down the carries! You will stun them, slow them, hurt them, disrupt them, and chase them. Leona is very good at this.
There are two ways to initiate. You can use Eclipse and then Zenith Blade to slow and then damage a target, then immediately stunning them with Shield of Daybreak and finishing with Solar Flare if they try and escape. Or you can initiate with Solar Flare because it is a great way to disrupt a group if they are all standing closely together. It will also allow you to quickly place your passive onto the entire group, which will be expelled and then placed again when Eclipse explodes! you then proceed with the standard Eclipse + Zenith Blade + Shield of Daybreak rotation.
This doesn't vary much, there really isn't a better way to use her abilities. Shield of Daybreak and Solar Flare are also great situational utilities that can save your teammate or your whole team.
Summoner Spells
Using 
Flash and 
Exhaust are really the two best options for this build. I experimented with several summoner abilities and found these to be the most beneficial.
Since Leona lacks an escape mechanism, Flash is essential. Exhaust however is simply a preference. I really like disabling mean carries and helping my team chase runners. Exhaust is GREAT early game in-lane and will really help your partner get some kills.
Some Alternatives:
Teleport
great for quickly getting to your team.
Clarity
Good early game if you find yourself low on mana.
Clairvoyance
If noone else has it, it is desperately needed!
Ignite
A decent spell for Leona, as with most characters. This however, isn't as supportive as others.
Farming
Killing creeps is very easy for Leona. Load up Eclipse and watch them melt. It's not as important to farm on her as with other champs, as you have two gold per 5s items. You should really focus on giving most last-hits to you laning partner to help them advance.
If there is a big clog somewhere, go clean it out. Eclipse is especially effective if you have a Sunfire Cape. They just melt!
Know Your Role!
As I mentioned in Skill Sequence, your role is to lock down, disrupt and be a big bastard during team fights. As a tank it is YOUR job to initiate and YOUR job to call B, or push, or focus. Don't think of yourself as team captain, but as the primary champion to facilitate survival or defeat, you can call a few shots.
Pick a lane with a strong, hard hitting carry such as Gangplank, Akali, Xin, Tryndamere, Sion, Mord, Fiddle, Vayne, Ryze, Kat, etc. Anyone who can burst down an opponent will really benefit from your non-stop stun harassment. Someone with additional CC is almost unfair in a lane.
Remember though. During team fights, focus down carries with your skill rotation and make sure to keep Sunlight on your foes.
Always be where you are needed. Don't keep farming if 4 teammates are pushing mid and getting destroyed. Don't go playing in the jungle while your lane's tower gets destroyed. Pretty basic information. Force yourself into the tank mentality. You are the reason someone doesn't day, make sure the other team knows this.
Summary
Thanks for reading my guide! I hope you enjoyed it. I fully intend to update this as time goes by and I would love input.
I hope you all enjoy Leona and do well with her. She fulfilled a great need for powerful tanks that people genuinely desire to play. Some people don't enjoy tanking, but for those that do, it's a very rewarding experience.
GLHF!
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Guide Discussion (5)
