Leona Build Guide by Demoney

TO BE UPDATED

THIS IS THE FIRST GUIDE I MADE WHEN SHE WAS RELEASED.

Items updated.

Masteries updated.

Runes updated.

Pros / Cons

Pros

- Good initiator.
- Awesome at locking down enemies / saving allies with her 3 disrupts.
- Powerful duo laner.

Cons

- Really low damage output.
- Poor farming ability.

Introduction

This is my first guide ever for any champion and the reason I'm making one for Leona is because I see way too much crying about her on the forums and I personally don't agree with half the threads I read.

She is not underpowered as in "she is useless"; she is viable.

However she does need a slight damage boost, like a better AP scaling on her skills, but the current ones doesn't make her useless.

Masteries

I lean towards the Utility tree more than the Defense tree because I find it to be more useful for Leona.

We want that CDR, we want that mana regen, and we want our Summoner Spells to be ready; the faster the better.

And from the Defense tree we have enough with what we chose; Health regend, Magic Defense, and Physical Defense! All we need.

Summoner Spells

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I found Flash & Ghost to work the best for her. You need to react fast for that unaware target and be able to have a good mobility during teamfights. These Summoner Spells provide it.

Othe viable options:

Always combine these with Flash and prioritize as listed below:

- It's nice to have one in the team, but normally this fits best on a solo top. Remember to drop the Ghost mastery and get the Teleport one instead if you are getting this spell.

- More crowd control & easy early kill! If you know you are going to duo lane with some specific champion, and he doesn't have this skill, it's not horrible if you take it.

- Nobody have this skill? Well, one of these is always good to have in the team.

The rest of the Summoner Spells don't fit well enough on Leona to bother having them. The ones listed above should do the trick in pretty much every situation.

Skills

- Most of the people don't understand still how her passive works. It's normal the champion is new. It's sort of like Lux's passive; you mark a target for some period of time with your skills and your teammates damage on the marked target is higher for one hit. I love this passive, any burst is noticiable higher.

- Your second skill to max. A single target stun for a short period of time.

- You want to max your Eclipse first as it gives you amazing tanky stats and has the higher damage output. Plus, it will help you at the farming phase significantly.

- Getting only one point on Zenith Blade at lvl 3 will be more than enough as this skill will be only used to move towards a target you want to lock down. Yes, this skill also disrupts so use it! It ignores minions and it will teleport you to the farthest target it hits so use it wisely!

- Your initiator skill. Use it on that carry hitting minions that has no idea what's coming to him/her! It has a great range. So yes! You have 3 disrupts if you can land this right on top of the target!

Items

Early game:

Gold per 5 items are your bread and butter as you lack farming ability.

Mid game essentials:

Keep your gold per 5 items Philosopher's Stone & Heart of Gold still.


Now start building towards end game depending on what the enemy team is composed of. If it's heavy AP you want to finish your Force of Nature first. If they have a fed AD feel free to finish your Randuin's Omen and Frozen Heart so:

Core build:

Situational items:

Prioritize these depending on what the other team have. There's no point on finishing the Frozen Heart for example if the enemy team have a 7-0 AP carry.

- If you see that you're lacking more Magic Resist get one.

- Same stuff than BV, if you feel that you still need more Armor. Do not rush this! You are building towards Randuin's Omen, why rush more armor if they are AP heavy? That's why this item is listed as situational.


Upgrade your Philosopher's Stone to a Shurelya's Reverie as your last item.



But you don't have any damage!? We don't want to deal damage! We want to last the longest possible between the enemies and crowd control that situation.

Team Work

Ok let's get to what matters the most! What to do in a teamfight.

As a initiator in the team you want to land your skills on an unaware carry starting with your Solar Flare. You want to lock down that carry and not let him be able to deal damage while your team is getting him/her down.

However most of the times you will initiate and the rest will try to ignore you and try to get your carries. Don't let them. Watch back and see if any of your carries are in trouble. That's your priority! To help your team. You have a great mobility thanks to your Zenith Blade, so make sure that none of your carries are getting harrased and if so do something about it!

Summary

I hope this guide will help everybody to understand how good of a tank Leona can be! Exactly, you are a tank, means that get ready to sacrifice for your team and live with assists.

This is not a guide to get kills with her, it's a guide to last long in a teamfight locking down enemy targets, the way she was meant to be played.



I hope you liked it, and any feedback will be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!