Too Old guide!! Please update so we can upvote once more!

Just started Leona and have been using a CDR build, however I prefer this tanky build. Nice work and good advice.

I just started this build today (I modify it a bit based on the matchup) and have been rocking the house with Leona! Thank you for posting this!

According to lol wiki, runic affinity does not work on baron nashor's buff, so basically that extra point should be put else where for better use.

Ahh makes sense, I just always link it with Junglers and their constant use of Red and Blue buff, never think about getting it for the Baron buff.

The reason I put a point in Runic Affinity is for the Baron buff. It's basically a floater point that could be put anywhere but I feel it's worth it because fully geared plus Baron, Leona is unkillable.

Thanks for your feedback. If ever you see me in game say a hello cause I tend to forget usernames extremely quickly. Even happened to me to play 3 games in a row vs the same people and not even realise it until my friend told me.

Ok maybe you're right about the Thornmail, guess I'm too use to playing Rammus where you use his Defensive Ball Curl and then use his Puncturing Taunt and the enemy is forced to hit you causing them to damage themselves and sometimes even kill themselves with the damage returned that is similar to Thornmail. So I guess I keep thinking Thornmail should work like Defensive Ball Curl, but like I said gonna try it out later and see how it works and I'll post the results after the match.

Response to comments:

@drunken0elf I think we've played together before. I agree that Leona is lacking, anything she can do, another tank can do as well or better. As a female player, I prefer the female champions. Leona looks great, especially with the Iron Solari skin. I see Nautilus as a good team buddy for Leona as they compliment each other. Regarding masteries: Leona is highly dependent on gear for her output and her defenses. The extra gold means getting that gear faster. The extra exp compensates for poor early farming. When I look at the end options in the defense tree, they don't really give her much. The last point is nice but getting there is a lot of wasted points, compared to the cooldown reductions and other goodies I can grab instead.

@PunicaDrink Yep, agreed. Will be adding pics.

@Specola Thanks for the detailed feedback. Thornmail works on Leona, because the other team WILL hit her. I always stick myself at the front and people in randoms have a tendancy to go for the closest target. Leona represents a decent threat, as soon as one enemy hits her, they all jump on her, hoping to burst her down (often successfully).
- good point about the cooldown on Shield of Daybreak
- Frozen Heart is nice but I don't have any mana issues by mid-game. If I were facing an all AP team, I would get an MR item over Thornmail. The CDR is nice but I'd probably turn my Philosopher's Stone into a Shurelya's Battlesong as you also suggested.
- The extra mana from the support mastery is sufficient for me most of the game. I recall a lot to purchase and between Teleport and swiftness quints, I'm back out on the field, fully-regened in no time.
- I'll put in a suggestion for how I place Defensive masteries when I play her that way.

@Agoney Thanks, I will add that in some time. I have definite preferred lane partners.

I really like this guide and build a lot. Mabey add some lane matchups?

NJ over all, +1

Nice Guide! I've been using Leona as my main champ ever since I bought her.

The use of the Warmog's to provide extra sustain and health is useful for getting into a fight and surviving through it. The Thornmail is a unique idea just not 100% sure how well it works on her because it might just discourage people from hitting her and she has no taunt to force them to attack her, going to have to try it out. Will do later on Intermediate Bots, then post the results later.

Leona is a very viable tank even when using the Utility Tree as the mana, movement speed, gold per 5 seconds, and cooldown reduction helps her alot. Since it allows her to fill her 80%tank/20%support(have to get wards) role nicely., however I would take the point out of Runic Affinity and put it into something else like Improved Recall or Meditation because Leona shouldn't being getting buffs unless you steal it from an enemy champion. This guide looks really good, though I do have a couple of suggestions:

1. I would max Shield of Daybreak over Zenith Blade or along side it because even though it doesn't do as much damage as Zenith Blade the stun is more useful for the team and by leveling it you help reduce the cooldown for it.

2. I would put Frozen Heart as a viable option to replace Thornmail as Thornmail has a very limited spot but it can be very useful, as Frozen Heart offers almost as much armor, it has a nice amount of cooldown reduction which Leona needs a fair amount of (see #3), the mana also helps you prevent from running out of mana, and the aura it provides might be a bit of a waste because of Randuin's Omen Except it will catch people that aren't hitting you and it lasts longer than the active part but the other aspects of it are very valuable to Leona.

3. I would recommend an item just for cooldown reduction or one that incorporates it like Randuin's Omen but in a bigger amount. With your current build you only have 15% cooldown reduction without elixirs which is nice but Leona works best with more being concrete (no worries about elixir wearing off just before a big fight). Be it either Frozen Heart like I suggested in #2 or upgrading your philosopher's stone to Shurelya's Battlesong (Shurelya's Reverie also provides a decent amount of health, nice sustain through health and mana regen and an active that is useful). You want a nice amount so you can keep Eclipse up helping you survive as well as being able to semi-spam Shield of Daybreak to keep the enemy carry from doing damage.

4. I would recommend an item to help reduce Leona's mana issues. I've already mentioned some ( Frozen Heart, Shurelya's Battlesong), but there are more out there ( Chalice of Harmony). The main reason being is if you run out of mana you can't use Eclipse to help survive, or use your other abilities to help lock down and kill the carry.

5. Also maybe include how you would setup a Defensive mastery tree to help give another way to use the build. I have seen both 9/21/0 and 0/21/9 builds but it's always useful to find another way of setting it up.

Also a tiny error in your item section you have [Hexatch Gunblade]] you should have Hextech Gunblade with the closing

Once again, nice guide and maybe put some thought into those suggestions I made. Sorry for the big wall of text. If you need any help/have any questions just PM me and I'll respond ASAP.

Specolar