Welcome to my first guide on MobaFire - "Leona - She's a Stunna"

In this guide, I am going to give you an overview of the way I am currently playing Leona. I will tell you right now that I am no pro, but its been said more then once that I played the best Leona that my enemies have played against. The Leona that I build maximizes CDR. This is perhaps the single most important thing you can do, as her cooldowns are long. If you pop your combo, without any CDR your going to be about as useful in a team fight as an OOM caster. So read on, and please share your thought below.

Just locked Leona and never played her before? Here is the short and quick of it:

- Max sure to max CDR.
- Grab a ranged AD Carry and go Bot lane for laning.
- Control the brush & last hit. Do not push. Wait for enemy champs to get into range, then stun lock with your combo. If you communicate with your laning partner well, you will own the lane early game.
- W + E + Q is your combo.
- During laning, use R to either stun or slow after your Q, but only if your carry is not able to take the enemy champ down after your Q stun ends. You can also use R to get the killing blow on champs that think they're safe behind their turret.
- Late game team fights, initiate with R, then W + E into the enemy team. Once your in pop the active on Randuins, then stun the nearest carry. At this point you'll prob draw some heat, so kite and as soon as the cooldowns are up (thanks CDR) run your combo again.

For runes I go with flat CDR quints and glyphs. I take these to get me to a total of 10% CDR from my runes, since my items will get me the additional 30%, for the 40% CDR max. I take Mana Regen Seals, as you will need it if you are using your abilities a ton. For Marks I take flat AP.

For Masteries, I go a pretty classic 0/21/9. Some people may take the 3 points in Archmages Savy for the extra AP late game, but from my experience the addiontal damage is not going to be a difference maker, and will not make you more threatening, since Leona's threat comes from her ability to stun anyway. I don't recommend it.

My Item list above is the normal path I take. I gives you MR, Armor, Health, AP, and most importantly… CDR.

Regrowth Pendant and Philo Stone - give you that early sustainability with their health regen.

Ionian boots - For the CDR. If your laning against a team that has a lot of CC, and you are losing the early battle, take Merc Treads instead. If you have your CDR Runes, then the Merc treads give you 10% CDR and the +25 Tenacity early. If you go with Ionian boots, you now have 25% CDR. Since your early game AP damage is on the stronger side, you can completely shut down your lane with a good partner and spamable abilities.

Spirit Visage - More CDR? Yes, please. The MR is going to be necessary ontop of your shield. The best part is that it boosts your health regen. This links up nicesly with the Philo Stone, and also with Randuins Omen, which comes…….

Next. Randuins Omen - Now your starting to get built. Armor, Health, More CDR, and the Health Regen links up with Spirit Visage. Randuins Omen is probably the most important item you will get in the build and is core. Everything on it is great for Leona, and gives you its amazing Active. Now you have a Ranged AOE Stun/Slow from your ult, and then ANOTHER AOE slow from Randuins. This with your gap closer, will make you a GREAT initiator for team fights. But be careful! Leona is not as Tanky as other tanks. So once you get in, and pop all of your CC, get out, b/c your gonna get targeted. Thats why flash and ghost are the best summoner spells for Leona.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter - I like Rylai's b/c with your Shield, Randuins and Spirit Visage, I dont think you need to keep building Armor/MR. Rylai's gives you 500 extra health, and the passive from it will link to your eclipse. So now, whether you are hitting the with your abilities and Rylai's passive, or they are attacking you and getting proc'd from Randuins, they are getting slowed. Congrats. You are now a walking flash bang. Anybody around you is getting stunned/slowed/**** their pants.

Finally, Banshee's Veil - Banshee's Veil just completes the build, finishing off your tankyness for late game.

For Masteries I go with Ghost and Flash. These two together, should basically guarantee that you are not getting killed.

Flash - When you use your combo, and you have popped all your CC and are drawing some heat, chances are your gonna be the target of a stun or slow. Unless you've decied to take Merc Treads instead of the Ionian boots, your gonna need to use your flash to quickly get out of harms way. Don't take long though, as you are the tank and should be the person getting focused. If you do flash out, you should only be out of the fight long enough to refresh your cooldowns. Once Cooldown's are up, get back in there and start stunning those carries.

Ghost - Ghost will allow you to pick up a bunch of kills while kitting. Yes, I kite with Leona and I'm fulling capable of picking up kills this way. A lot of times, if your in a team fight and the other team starts to win, you may need to retreat. Most people dont realize that Eclipse can actually do some fair damage. Use W to chip away at anyone who is chasing you. When they get in range, pop W + R + Q. Make sure that as soon as Q lands, you start moving again. You can probably pull this combo 2 or 3 times if your kiting from the other teams base back to your own. Ghost will make sure your fast enough to really move if they are closing the distance too fast. Otherwise, Ghost is just another good escape skill, that will make sure you stay alive and stay on the Field.

Info Coming Soon.....

Pro's

Great CC
CDR lets you spam abilities with very little Mana issues.
Good Damage Early Game for a tank.
Good gap closer/stun combo.
Can be a difference maker in team fights.

Con's

Not a great farmer.
CC is reduced by Tenacity.
Mobility isn't as good as it should be.
Needs a strong, high DPS laning partner.

Spam W. Use the blast radius to hit as many minions as possible, then last hit with your AA. Once you level up Shield of Daybreak, this shouldn't take very long.