In the midst of my adventures in homeworkland, League still manages to linger in my mind, and thus striking me with the sudden urge and inspiration to write a guide for my favourite champion in League of Legends.

Now perhaps, I may not be the person you wish to hear from. As a quick forewarning, although being level 30, I have not had the opportunity to play ranked as of yet, so this is likely not a build you would be looking for if you intend to indulge in ranked play. (Not to mention this is my first guide) However, I personally think I am decent at Leona, her being the champion I played most during my entire experience with this game, having played her as soon as I picked her up at a low level, way into the mid 20 levels before picking up other roles.

I've seen people play other roles with her, but as with most people, I play Leona as a support/tank.

As you can see, this guide is fairly new, and in the works. Additional changes will be made, images and other important details will be added as well.

Season 3 is also quickly approaching, so much of this will be subject to change as well. I am currently looking into the support items, and the new mastery trees for a glimpse of what it would be like, but it is difficult to discern much without experiencing it for myself. On a like note, I was dissapointed to find that it seems very difficult to build a mastery tree focused on Utility that works well in the season 3 trees, from what I've seen thus far.

(Also brownie points for anyone who gets the guide name/my username reference, unfortunately it's a bit too much on the obscure side)

To begin with, what are the good and bad things about picking Leona?

Pros:

Tanky:
Tonnes of CC:
Burst potential:
Few counters:
Decent cooldowns, high regen:
Easy to learn:
Blitzcrank counter:

Cons:

Offers no sustain:
Melee:
Relies on a strong team:
Low damage:

My top choices

"Why is there so much armour?"

The way I tend to play Leona is extremely aggressive. Constant in and out harass and trades. I personally enjoy the tankiness to help me win out trades. Often people tend to attack the initator/whomever is closest to them, so the armour really helps in such situations.

As MOST of the time, bot consists of their support and AD carry, the support will not be doing very much AP damage to you (Be careful early game, though), while the AD carry will mostly be doing AD damage to you. You will be unlikely to encouter the enemy AP too often early game, so the these runes really help with the late game scaling. (Especially paired along with Leona's naturally scaling MR.)

"Movement Speed!?"

In my opinion, Leona is a great initiator, and having the bonus movement speed REALLY boosts that aspect of her. In my opinion, these are probably one of the better quints to get as movement speed is difficult to come by in game, as most other things can be much more easily built (Most movement speed on items are situationally built).

Other good choices:

I used to use these, in the end they only scaled to 87.48 health at level 18, which really is less than a bar. These are nice early game, however, and do stack well with the natural health gain, however I eventually swapped them over for armour, which turned out to be better for trading, in my opinion. These also happen to be EXTREMELY expensive. (I bought a full set of them T_T)

I have a seperate support page in which I use for all other supports except Leona (as I do rely on tankiness, trades and getting assists in lane, as opposed to passive laning). It involves the usage of 4 Greater Seal of Gold, and 3 Greater Quintessence of Gold. They're very handy, especially if you fall behind in game, or just for passive gold gain. Especially after having upgraded your GP10s, and you need a solid source of income.

CDR is also a good choice for early trading if you really want her stuns to cooldown that much faster. I'm not a huge fan of these as her cooldowns are low enough for support-bot, and the 5.85% CDR you get from a full set isn't really going to make that much of an early game difference for you. A lot of items that Leona can get also offer CDR for her, so these runes aren't really necessary, in my opinion.

If you are really that paranoid in a blind pick situation, flat MR is a decent choice if you don't know who your lane opponent will be. That way you will be starting out with a decent amount of armour and magic resist. However I feel like Leona is tanky enough on her own to cover for it for the most part.

As stated above, these along with Greater Seal of Gold are also quite beneficial in the long run. If I were to swap out my runes with anything else, it would be these ones. It all depends on personal pereference and how you intend to play.

Recommended Masteries

My masteries are quite straightforward.

I enjoy a strong defensive tree with Leona. I'm sure it's quite obvious by now, but I really like being able to initate, soak up damage, and still walk out alive.

I find most of these don't need reasoning, but here are a few of my choices and why I made them.

Summoner's Wrath - I run exhaust on every Leona game I play. So this is my only point in the offense tree.

Tough Skin - Now why do I have a single point in this? Tough skin is a pretty powerful mastery allowing me to take one reduced damage from each minion in every wave. What I sometimes do in certain situations is that I need to tank a minion wave to help freeze the lane outside turret range for my AD carry to properly farm, and I'm not exactly going to make my AD carry do that, am I?

Siege Commander - This is actually a personal choice. There is a lot of talk about its usefulness, and seeing as I'm around enemy turrets all the time, diving in and out, I personally put a point into it. Every little bit helps. Feel free to throw this point elsewhere such as Enlightenment or Mercenary .

Mercenary - The fact that I don't run GP10 runes on Leona, is a bit tough on me especially in the early game, or in a situation where nothing eventful happens for a majority of the game. Every assist counts, and every bit of gold counts.

Initiator - An extremely powerful movement speed mastery if your health is high. Lives up to its namesake.

Juggernaut - A percentage boost on your already high healthy and tenacity. Who wouldn't want that? The shorter the duration that you can be CC'd, the quicker you can get back into the fray to CC enemies and peel for your carries. Moreover as the tank, it is likely that your enemies may waste their CC on you, so having more tenacity definitely helps.

Swiftness - More movement speed!? But of course. With MS quints, and both movement speed masteries, Leona's bonus MS when above 70% health is a whopping 9.5%!

Other great choices

Enlightenment - Despite my prior little spiel about CDR runes, putting some points into this does help with some of the CDR, as your build will vary from game to game, and you may not be able to get all the CDR that you do need.

Vigor - More health regen to boost her already high health regen.

Evasion - Another way to reduce damage is always nice, however I find masteries such as Honor Guard are much more reliable for reducing damage as evasion is only applicable to AoE abilities.

Good Hands - I honestly prefer the boost to my mana pool from Expanded Mind but if you really need to get up that quickly after dying, then be my guest and put points into this.

Meditation - If you don't like the movement speed, you could always boost her high regen even more.

There is no need to reach 9 points into the utility mastery as Runic Affinity isn't for you, and the other masteries require more points to really make a difference.

Good choices

I don't think I recall a game in which I didn't run Exhaust on Leona. Exhaust is a powerful spell, great for setting up kills, and saving your AD carry in a tight spot. If you're running away, throwing exhaust on the closest enemy always helps quite a bit. Many people tend to use it for the slow, but some tend to forget that it also reduces your opponent's damage output as well. There have been times where I've saved myself or my AD carry with barely any health left due to the damage reduction that exhaust brings with it. In setting up kills, this, along with my point in Summoner's Wrath (which rends MR and armour), really up the kill potention in a fight. Some supports don't take this as they are squishy and are unable to get in range often enough to use it (some still do though), but Leona will always be going in and getting into range, so this is a perfect spell for her.

Flash is the number one most used summoner spell in the game. It's extremely handy in running away, or to be used offensively (flash > stun). However, lately I do find that due to Leona being an all-in type champion, it is difficult to save myself in many situations and I feel like I probably would be able to replace it with another summoner skill. It still has a multiplitude of uses such as flashing over terrain, or out of range of a skillshot that just may lose the game/give a kill.

Ghost is as good, if not better, of an initiator as flash is. It provides movement speed and ignores unit collision. Better yet, it also happens to be on a short cooldown. Unfortunately, it does have its short-comings. You are unable to pass over terrain with ghost, and if you get CC'd while you are ghosting, it's deemed useless.

As the support tank, you'll be babysitting the AD carry a lot early game, but you could be helpful elsewhere with Teleport. This will allow you to quickly get around the map and help out where you are needed. However, it does have a very long cooldown.

Heal does have a problem of falling off lategame, but helps out a lot in the early game, ESPECIALLY since Leona has no sustain of her own. When it hits late game teamfights, this just may save someone's life and keep your team in the fight for just a little bit longer to beat out your opponents. I've tried taking Exhaust and Heal instead of flash, and for the most part, it works out well for me.

You can never have enough vision. Clairvoyance also happens to be on a short enough cooldown to be used rather often. Perfect for scoping out jungle, checking for a gank, checking dragon/baron, etc... ESPECIALLY if you haven't had the chance to go back and retrieve more wards.

Not so great choices

Clarity is KIND OF like Heal? Unfortunately, I don't find it quite useful on Leona. I understand that some supports enjoy constantly harass and poke (ie, Nidalee or Lux) and could do with that mana restoration. Leona's mana costs aren't actually that high, and can be managed quite easily. Unlike some supports where I may need to take a mana potion or two, Leona is one that I can just take health potions on. This is also due to her high rate of regen. If I get low on mana or health, I can sit around passively until I regen enough for use, so this summoner spell isn't really worth it, to me.

Although I did mention before that as the tank, you are likely to have enemy CC blown on you, Cleanse isn't really the best choice for you either. Although it is good for saving your own hide, I feel like choosing this spell limits you from choosing better choices.

If you really, really, REALLY need to secure a kill, then sure, take Ignite. But I usually leave it up to my AD carry for that.

You don't really need to come up that much faster. Even in a situation where your team is aced and needs someone to defend, Leona is not really one to do it. Very few champs/people can utilize this spell really well, and Leona is not one them.

Details

Leona's passive is what makes Leona a powerful support and kill-lane pick. Sunlight is the single ability that makes her a stronger support pick than Maokai, or Nautilus. The application of her sunlight makes her AD carry do an incredible amount of early game burst damage. When trying to clear minions or quickly take jungle creeps/dragon/baron, I use my abilities to apply sunlight to help the my carries deal more damage to them.




Probably one of my favourite abilities. It can be used in many situations. You can Q an enemy and run away if need be. If you can catch your opponent by surprise, you can initiate with this ability and follow up with your others. It has a decently low cooldown even at level 1, and allows for you to take down turrets/objectives even quicker due to the fact that it resets Leona's swingtime, does additional damage AND applies sunlight (except not to structures). The only true benefit that comes from leveling it, is to reduce its cooldown, however the other skills are more important to level, so I do hold back on leveling it until the end. Leveling it also increases damage and mana-cost, neither of which we are looking for as a support.




Eclipse is the skill that turns Leona from a regular support-tank, to a "HOLY **** WHY ARE YOU DIVING ME AT THIS LOW OF A LEVEL!?"-tank. You want to max this first as it gives a whopping 70 MR/Armour at level 5. However I do get this skill LAST out of QWE. This is mainly due to the way E and Q are chained together, and is a better combo to get earlier on, than any other abilitiy paired with W. You do have to be careful with this skill as when you do max it out earlier on, it does a surprising amount of burst, and if you're not used to it you may end up accidentally kill stealing your carry.




Zenith Blade is also a high utility skill. I tend to get this first as you can use it to apply sunlight to multiple targets, and is a great initiator in lane. Unlike say... Blitzcrank's Rocket Grab or Amumu's Bandage Toss, Zenith ignores the enemy minions, however its range is MUCH shorter by comparison. Do remember that it pulls you to the LAST person hit. I've had several incidences where I am attempting to hit the closest enemy while they're near their tower, and accidentally end up pulling myself to the farther enemy nearer to their tower, which not always ended well. In such a situation, remember to angle your zenith so that it only hits your main target. Zenith is also a great peeling tool. While you want to save Shield of Daybreak for the high priority carries, you can use Zenith blade to root that pesky tank or bruiser trying to claw their way towards your carries, and then land a Q on the most important target.

I max this second due to the utility it brings. It also has a higher cooldown than Shield of Daybreak so leveling it for its cooldown also helps.

Also do note that certain annoying champs like Ezreal can cast certain abilities like Arcane Shift during your travel towards him, and be out of range for your Q follow up.




Solar Flare is an extremely powerful intitiator. It's range can surprise people as it does come out of almost nowhere. It does have a slight cast delay which makes it easy to avoid if one is wary, so if you miss it, it may ruin a teamfight for you. Although it is a good initiator, it is best to save it for the confusion of a teamfight to stun the high priority target with, and to use a stronger form of initatiation in your team if you have it.

It's stun radius is very small (100) which makes makes it best for landing on one single important champion. Thought it would be nice to land on the entire team, it's best to land and stun someone of importance, than to try to hit the entire team and whiff it, only getting edge slow on a few people. Do not, however, underestimate the slow, as it is an 80% slow which is ALMOST as good as a stun. Almost.

THINK SMART!

Always keep in mind the cast delays on Zenith Blade/ Solar Flare. Predict and aim where your opponent is going to run, not where they currently are. If they see it coming, they can easily Flash or use an innate skill to avoid your shots.

Combo?

The most common combo for Leona is W > E > Q. The logic is simple. Start up Eclipse, land a Zenith Blade and jump to the enemy, Shield of Daybreak them in place, and splash your W damage as it detonates. This however, relies on you landing that skillshot.

DO NOT, press Q if you miss your E. I know it's a habit to quickly chain together skills, but you will likely waste the skill and be kited to no end as you watch your Q fade away. There is plenty of time for you to activate Shield of Daybreak during the time you transport toward the opponent should you land Zenith Blade. If you accidentally activate it and you know the enemy won't be letting you near them anytime soon, feel free to just use it on a minion to reset the cooldown sooner.

How exactly do you go about laning phase?

That's a good question.

You show them who's boss. Really. That's all there really is to it.

If you establish early lane dominance, with a strong AD carry, you will be able to easily scare them off with your presence alone.

As mentioned above, Eclipse > Zenith Blade > Shield of Daybreak is a powerful CC combo that allows you to constantly apply sunlight, and if your carry is following up in between, your enemy will end up worse for wear in trade.

Leona can start off her harass as early as level 2 as soon as she has both Zenith Blade and Shield of Daybreak. Eclipse does offer nice burst but it is mostly used for the tankiness. Remember that and take advantage of that. If you've poked enough, you can even dive the enemy as early as level 4.

Remember to aim your skillshots predictively and try not to make it obvious to the enemy that you intend to go in, or they will be ready to avoid your skillshots.

Once you've reached level 6, with the help of your jungler, you should be able to grab a surefire kill. (Sometimes even without their help.) Solar Flare is good for pining down the enemy carry so your jungler can swoop in and use any of their available CC, or for sniping and nailing them down while they're running away.

If you happen to do extremely well in lane, and snowball enough to get your carry fed, you can try to take an early tower, shove the lane, and wander around with Mobility Boots, ganking other lanes with your ult-from-nowhere.

You have two jobs in teamfights.

To peel for your carries, and to stun high priority targets.

Think before you act, but try to use all your skills as quickly as possible. In a situation where you are focussed down first, you want to get your stuns and Exhaust out ASAP before you go down. It just might be the thing that turns a fight into your favour.

Always consider what you're using each skill for.

In my opinion, Zenith Blade is your best skill for peeling, while Shield of Daybreak is best saved for important targets. Likewise with Solar Flare. Try to nail the enemy carries in the centre of the flare while at least trying to catch others in the perimetres. The more sunlight you can apply, the better.

Exhaust is to be used up to your own discretion. It's best used for keeping the enemy carries in place, to keep them from running and dealing damage, but it can also be used as a tool for peeling others off your carries.

And try not to forget you have actives as well. Pop your actives if you have it. But remember to save Shurelya's Battlesong for enages or disengages.

Supports have responsibilities beside warding. People just don't realize it.

Most people that play support tend to pick a sustain champ and constantly provide healing for their ally and call just that supporting. That isn't it, you're just being a battery with no other uses other than healing.

Supports have other responsibilities to keep track of as well.

• Keeping your carry alive
• Peeling
• Setting up kill opportunities for your carries
• Keeping track of enemy wards
• Keeping vision on vital ares of the map.
• Keeping Baron/Dragon timers
• Zoning the lane opponent
• Help your carry farm

Keeping your carry alive is not the same as sitting back and passively healing. It means if you need to blow a flash to block a Caitlyn ult, or an exhaust to save your carry's arse, you go and do that. Few things are worse than losing your carry in lane to the enemy carry, leaving you who does no damage against two enemies. Leona may not have a heal or shield for her carry, but she can still use her CC to peel in a bad situation. Which thus ties into...

Peeling for your carries. Your carries are the damage dealers and have the biggest bounties on them. Everyone wants to focus them, so you need to use your natural presence or your CC to keep them from doing so. You're also a ticking tanky timebomb with your Eclipse up, so don't be afraid to shove yourself in their faces while your AD carry happily deals damage from afar.

Setting up kill opportunities as Leona is EASY. Land your stuns, and if you carries follow up, almost sure-fire kill. Sunlight too stronk.

Keeping track of enemy wards is always a good idea in bot lane. The enemy support is likely to be warding as well, so keeping track of when and where they ward really helps your jungler out. There are several ways to do this. Usually they will often ward where you ward, so if you see it, ping it and let your jungler know. If you really wanna get fancy, you can add 3 minutes to the current time to tell your jungler when the ward will die out. Sometimes the enemy is less subtle. Sometimes, they ward early, or they try to ward when you can't see. Check their inventories at the beginning of lane and assess what kind of start they went with, and guess where they placed their wards.

Sometimes other supports take Wealth in the utility tree. One way to spot it is if they began with four wards, as opposed to one. In that situation, they will often have only purchased one health pot, so if you spot a Faerie Charm, three sight wards and only one Health Potion, chances are, they snuck a ward somewhere.

Also spot when the enemy support sneaks off to ward elsewhere. (Usually up river) A common place is infront of dragon. The longer they've been gone, the more likely it is that they went there to ward. Just keep that in mind, and let your jungler know. Don't be afraid to engage/trade the enemy carry at this time, because you know that they are alone in lane.

Keeping vision on vital areas of the map. Wards are largely your responsibility. Early game, during laning phase, Baron is out of the question, but it is ALWAYS a good idea to keep a ward on Dragon as often as possible in case the enemy tries to sneak one. For best results, try to use a Vision Ward if you can afford one, because it is likely that the enemy has also placed a ward in that location.

Baron and Dragon timers are... the jungler's responsibilities, no? Well, sort of. Everyone should have an idea of the timers for both. Especially top lane, so they can scurry on down and catch an enemy off guard if you have the exact timers on Dragon. At least one person keeping track is a good idea, so why not take the initiative to keep track of it as well?

Dragon spawns at 2:30 and respawns every 6 minutes.

Baron spawns at 15:00 and respawns every 7 minutes.

Zoning your lane opponent is also important if you can do it. If you've established early lane dominance, this is extremely easy. Your very presence will frighten the your lane opponents. You can even chase them outside of EXP range if you've snowballed even a little. Don't try and do this if your carry is passive, or your lane opponent kites you to the point where you lost unecessary health.

Helping your carry farm. I bet some people didn't know this was in their job description. Should a lane be pushed up, it wouldn't hurt (well it would hurt you but barely) to tank the minions outside turret range to freeze the lane for your AD carry to grab as much of the wave as possible. If you see your carry is going to miss a CS, don't be afraid to take it. (Just not too much). It's better than wasting it. Another one that may help is if you see two minions dying at the same rate, hitting one will make it easier for your carry to grab both.

Quick tip for such situations. Melee minions take two hits from the turret before being able to be 1-shotted by your AD carry. Caster minions die in two hits, so the common tactic is to hit the caster minion once, allow the turret to hit it, and to last hit it immediately after. Keeping this rule of thumb in mind really helps if you're trying to help your carry last hit under the turret. This, however, does require a level of coordination and experience. (Also it is slightly difficult for Leona to saunter up just to whack minions if the lane opponent is a ranked poker, so keep that in mind too).

The thing about Leona as a support is that she has very diverse choices for her build. As a tank, she can build as your regular tanky support or as a full tank and still be useful for her team.

Core items

Like most other supports, I begin each of my builds with a Faerie Charm, two Health Potions and three sight wards. The early wards are extra important and can save you and your lane partner from incoming ganks.


Once upon a time, when I was leveling and junglers were a rarity, I tended to grab a Regrowth Pendant and a Health Potion as my first items. Again this boosts Leona's already powerful health regen and allows her to continue harass, taking constant punishment and healing it up not long after. However, as junglers began to make their appearance, I switched over to the safer faerie charm + wards start up. Sometimes, there happens to be no jungler, in which I happily forgo the wards and go ahead and buy myself that Regrowth Pendant.

Both choices are great as they build into the all important philosopher's stone. This is your key item. You NEED to have this. It gives execellent regen for in-lane sustain, passive gold gain, and not to mention it builds into a shurelya's revelrie, an all-round amazing item to have on Leona.


Sometimes in a time of need, I delay my boots until later on, but I usually prefer not to. Although wards and support items are important, you also need personal survivability. I tend to get these after I've finished my philosopher's stone. (Did I also mention I like movement speed?)


I put Ruby Crystal because this item is extremely useful and builds into many items that you actually need, even after upgrading it to Heart of Gold you are probably very likely to purchase another one for your next item.


This is an excellent item to follow up with. This builds into two situationally useful items, and the health and passive gold gain are perfect stats for Leona.


Finally, if you're staying alive well, and you know the enemy has many wards on the map, you are one of the best champs to get Oracle's Elixir on, as you are tanky and fast enough (well in the case of MS stacking) to clear wards effectively. Also good for that super duper annoying AP Teemo.

And you should ALWAYS be buying wards. Most of my friends make it a habit to keep a ward with them at all times and to pitch in with warding, but warding is also one of your many resonsibilities as a support. Vision is power. (Remember to use pinks for dragon and baron as often as possible)

Mid/Late-Game

Shoe shopping time~ There are plenty of options for you to choose from, but I feel like 80% of the time, I end up purchasing Mercury's Treads. The tenacity they offer is just too good to pass up, especially since all the other current tenacity items are nigh useless. There are very few situations in which I wouldn't buy them. In the situation that there is very little to no CC, or that I am doing extremely well in my lane.

In those situations, I tend to opt for building Mobility Boots. (More movement speed? What is wrong with you?) Hear me out! If you're doing well, these boots are amazing for roaming/clearing wards/etc... They're great for initation and for running away providing that you're not being aggro'd at the same time. These are definitely my second favourite pick for boots.

If the roaming boots aren't to your taste you could always get Ionian Boots of Lucidity. A powerful source of cooldown reduction for when you need it, and they can always be swapped out later on if you eventually surpass the 40% CDR cap.

And finally Ninja Tabi are for those heavy AD teams. More armour never hurts.


Squishy team? No problem, grab one of these and your problems will be gone. Well not entirely, but Aegis of the Legion will really help your team survive better in teamfights. I prefer to get this earlier on, as the armour and magic resist do fall of slightly during late game.


Perhaps you didn't end up building that Heart of Gold or Aegis of the Legion. (Perhaps you did and you bought another Ruby Crystal. Kindlegem is a great item follow up because you get a good amount of CDR from it AND it builds into two key items. Shurelya's Battlesong and Zeke's Herald.


Shurelya's Battlesong is the logical follow up for starting with a philosopher's stone. It gives you everything you need on Leona. Health, Regen, CDR AND an amazing movement speed active that you can use to initate or run away with. A great item that you can never not get. Do try not to rush it too early as you will lose the GP10 bonus from it while doing so.


At the time being, Zeke's herald is probably my favourite item. This was especially the case when I was duo-queueing with an AD carry friend earlier on, at lower levels, I could only trust her to do consistantly well, so I tended to rush this item before. (Unforunately post season 3 changes, it will lose all its usefulness. RIP you beautiful item.) Building from Kindlegem, this item has an amazing attack speed and life steal aura. This helps boosts your team's overall damage output. Although this is a great help for your AD carry, do consider its overall usefulness for you team. I wouldn't really get this item if your team was caster heavy, but if you have a Jax, Teemo, Irelia, Shyvana, etc... this item is amazing for your team to get in more auto attacks.


If you bought a Heart of Gold, Randuin's Omen is one of your options. Again, it gives Leona exactly what she wants as a tank, health, regen, armour, CDR. What makes Randuin's powerful, however, is its unique passive that activates on being hit, and its active which instantly cripples enemy movement and attack speed in a radius. This is especially nice on Leona as she is often in the middle of a teamfight, locking down high priority targets, and this is a perfect item for crippling their damage output and escape. This item along with Shurelya's Battlesong can also be used to run away from enemies.


As tempting as it is to buy an item to match your champion, Locket of the Iron Solari is a situational build. I tend to build this in only one of three situations. 1. I have no gold to finish Randuin's. 2. There is a Karthus. 3. The enemy is caster heavy/AP carry is fed. It still does offer useful stats (Armour, Health, and a regen aura), but I find if I had the money, I would rather invest in something slightly more powerful. However, the active is useful for those annoying Requiems or to shield your allies from assassination nuke.


Don't forget Leona is also a tank. Building resistances is also imporant on Leona, so grabbing the appropriate counter items to the enemy team composition is also key. (Health is also one of the best counters to most things besides % damage.) This is the reason why I don't always build Aegis of the Legion on Leona. I lose the team bonus, but I can boost my own tankiness by a lot more. Remember to build intelligently and ask yourself if it's really a good idea to not buy those team oriented items.

Other options/Situational Items

Lots and lots of health and regen? WHY NOT? Because you don't need that much. If you didn't notice, all the support items naturally grant you health. It's good to be tanky, but what's the point if you're so tanky that no one wants to target you AT ALL? Your effectiveness as a support-tank has just be halved. Moreover, if you outlive all your damage dealers, what now? It's not as if Warmog's Armor gives you any other stat bonus for teamfighting. However if the enemy lacks focus, and you happen to have the gold (it is quite a pricey item), then go ahead and pick one up.


If you do end up getting the warmog's, Atma's Impaler is a nice way to follow up to actually boost your damage output. (It also gives you armour :D)


Sunfire Aegis is an alternative upgrade if you happened to pick up a Giant's Belt earlier on. It grants health, armour, and an AoE burning passive which is excellent for when Leona jumps straight into the fray. Its damage does fall off late game, but the health and armour are always nice, and if you really want, you could trade it off for something else later on.


Counting down to its impending removal, however right now, Force of Nature is an extremely powerful item on Leona. Giving THE MOST MR boost in the game currently, a tonne of health regeneration and... yep, that's right. More movement speed. Can't get enough of that.


Super annoying Vayne, Jax or Kog'Maw getting you down? FEAR NOT, Frozen Heart is here to the rescue, giving you all the armour you'll ever need. (Also, don't overlook the CDR and tonnes of extra mana for spamming your endless CC chains forever-more). The attack speed reduction is extremely helpful for carries who have built a lot of it. Unlike Randuin's Omen it does not require you to be hit, or for you to activate it. It does not, however, reduce movement speed.


Say the enemy team has built predominantly AD, then this item is PERFECT. Offers the most armour in the game from a single item, with a damage reflecting passive. Unfortunately, armour is the only thing that this item has to offer, so it is really situational, and not really worth buying just to counter a single person (unless they're super fed and carrying their entire team).


More of those saving-your-own-*** type items. Although, they do build off Negatron and offer decent stats, I prefer upgrading to other things, unless you're being surpressed each and everytime to the point of losing fights, in which case, makes little sence, but I guess you can buy a Quicksilver Sash if you want.


I suppose if your team really needs more spellvamp. It'll help if your team is caster heavy, but the chances are, someone might have already purchased one, but if they really need it, the double WoTA does work if the other person carrying one is doing extremely well. For the most part, I don't really get this as it doesn't really offer ideal benefits to Leona herself, as she scales poorly off AP.


Didn't you just say that AP isn't useful on Leona? Well yeah, it isn't very. But if you have a lot of money, these are your choices if you want to build some sort of damage as they give you AP and some sort of resistance/health. Rylai's Crystal Scepter give a good amount of health along adding a slow to your abilities. Eclipse and Zenith Blade suddenly got a lot scarier, making all your active abilities more powerful in CC. Meanwhile Abyssal Mask raises your own MR while lowering your enemies'. Most of the time, you won't have to build into this, especially if there is another more powerful AP tank on the team, but if your AP carry is carrying just that much, this item is awesome.


Trinity Force is pretty much the only other damaging item beside the I would EVER get. Really, there is almost no situation in which you would ever need or get this. It's more of like a cheesy, "I'm doing so well, let's get this". Or I guess, if your teammates are doing poorly while you're wrecking face, this could also work in that case. Gives a boost to all your stats. It doesn't work as well on Leona as it does on Alistar though, but it's a similar idea.

Please don't get these

You don't need attack speed.


I do believe this item needs 10 stacks to ACTUALLY pay off in the first place. Stacks are difficult to keep, and it's especially difficult as the team-tank. Just... don't do it.


You're not a bruiser, you don't scale well with attack damage items either. Although this does give you health, it does not give you enough damage output to really make a difference. (Unless if course, you've already built Warmog's Armor, Atma's Impaler, and Trinity Force, that is a completely different matter HOWEVER, this is definitely not recommended in most cases.)


Although this gives MR, it's passive is no use to you at all, even if you happen to build life-steal ( zeke's herald) or spell vamp ( Will of the Ancients) for your carries, you won't be utilizing it well enough to use spirit visage well.


You are not a bruiser or a jungler. You don't need the lifesteal or the minion damaging passive. As tempting as a freeward every minuite is, the trade off for you being able to purchase better stats with that gold is not worth it.


Way to make yourself less desirable as a tanky target to hit. No one likes fighting or focussing people with Guardian Angel. And again, this is another save-your-own-arse item than offers no team benefits and will leave you to outlive your allies uselessly.


I'm not THAT obsessed with movement speed.

Holy cow, there are a lot of items. Which ones do I choose when?

Well your job is to fit the roles that your team needs. Think about what it is that your team needs, and make it happen. Do they need a form of initiation? Escape? Life steal? Spell vamp?

For the situational items, one good way to go about deciding which ones you need is to look at the enemy team and see who is the greatest threat.

However against a balanced team, one good way to build (if you intend to build tankier) for that is to build one item for armour and magic resist respectively, choosing the most appropriate ones for the job. Armour and magic resist begin to lose effectiveness if stacked too much, so getting one of each is USUALLY a good idea.

So if you want try to grab one of these:

Atma's Impaler, Sunfire Aegis, Frozen Heart, Thornmail, or Randuin's Omen.

And one of these:

Force of Nature, Quicksilver Sash, or Abyssal Mask.

Beyond that, stacking health (via support items also works) is the best way to go.

-TO BE ADDED-

Well, thus concludes my first guide.

I will definitely be revisiting it (as evident by the above section, also a section on warding is needed), and will add sections fix it up to look nicer once I've figured things out properly... Images and other things will also be added in a future revision.

I've always wanted to write a guide for my favourite champ, but some of this may be repeated in other guides, but I hope you've enjoyed it nevertheless, and I hope that I've managed to teach at least one thing.