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Leona General Guide by Neobahamut

Tank Leona. the shining solari

Tank Leona. the shining solari

Updated on December 7, 2012
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League of Legends Build Guide Author Neobahamut Build Guide By Neobahamut 6,256 Views 2 Comments
6,256 Views 2 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author Neobahamut Leona Build Guide By Neobahamut Updated on December 7, 2012
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Introduction

This is my very first buildguide so please try not to be too harsh :) . so i decided to make my first guide on Leona as i find her to be the best botlane support/tank in game. the reasons for this are her amazing tankiness her turret diving ability, her amazing cc both pre lvl 6 and even moreso afterwards. and her ability to passively push a lane can be a massive bonus if u want that turret down fast after a successful fight. she is supreme at what she does which is control botlane and make the plays for an aggressive adc to really dominate early game. she is a master initiator and can tank any adc for a substantial amount of time.

this guide is not meant to be set in stone or followed to the letter it is merely my personal view of leona and what i believe her strengths are.

I would also like to apologise for the lack of aesthetically pleasing items in this guide as i said its my first and im honestly **** at the bbcoding stuff :) please dont rate the guide untill you have tried the suggestions in it as it would be a shame for you all to crush my hopes of making a decent guide so early :).
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summoner spells

i always choose Exhaust and Flash simply because leona has no natural escapes and pushes the lane with her passive so is in danger of ganks. both flash and exhaust can be used to avoid a dangerous situation and exhaust can be used to garauntee a kill on the enemy carry.

as always take the spells you see fit if exhaust is not your idea of a good use of the slot take something else its all about finding your balance
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Pros / Cons

Pros
    supreme CC
    awesome tank
    passive allows even poor adc's to farm well if used properly
    multiple item paths
    very good initiator
    can interupt multiple ulti's at the same time
    Cons

    has to be in the middle of the fight to be at her most effective
    no escapes except her cc stuns etc and flash
    if your adc is not aggressive enough you are often isolated 2v1 when you leash (E)

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Runes


I always take full defensive runes with leona, some will disagree but before you spam the red button in hate let me explain why. LOL players are very set in their ways and as such 99.9% of the time you will have an ad carry auto attacking you on bot and defense runes give you an enormous advantage over that carry early game. these runes in tandem with her W make her almost unkillable from level 5 onwards if you take points in W as often as you can.
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Masteries

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In the begginning

Starting items


Firstly i dont like telling people what to start with. if you have the 6300 ip to buy leona you know what you like to start with :P . alternately if you bought her with RP then you are committed to playing the game by spending real money on it and therefore will quickly learn what to start with!.

in general if you are supporting you will buy wards and a Faerie Charm to build into GP10 item philosopher's stone in this case. some people start boots and pots some cloth armor and pots. it is entirely your choice.

personally i always buy the wards and build into gp10 item if you are as aggressive as me you will have enough for boots and ur gp10 on your first visit back to the shop anyway :)

Boots


Your choice of boots should depend on the enemy but there are 3 i would consider on Leona

Ninja Tabi great for when your enemy has more than one auto atacker or are just ad heavy

Mercury's Treads great tenacity reduces cc so you can use yours :P magic resist is a good size too, these are my go to boots on leona unless the enemy team stacks ad.

Ionian Boots of Lucidity More cooldowns = more stuns from you = more chance of a win in a teamfight. choosing these is the ballsy option but could pay off if you trust you team. i would take these if the enemy team is very balanced between ad and ap or if they have very little cc of their own these boots could be a masterstroke!

after your gp10 and your boots the core items come into the picture. select one of the following 3 to build first depending on what you and your team currently needs.
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Core Items And situational items

Ok first let me begin by saying that on Leona i believe most items are situational. as you will be tanking their entire team your build should reflect the enemy teams strength, and not just some standard build. having a fixed build is very short sighted and very naive, you have to be able to adapt. As such there are only 3 items in this build that are core items that i would insist on those are Warmog's Armor , Randuin's Omen , and Runic Bulwark . all of the others are situational and depend on the enemy. there is no point stacking defence if the enemy ap champs are the ones killing you. in these cases there are many great mag resist items in game to help you such as Guardian Angel Banshee's Veil or Mercurial Scimitar . be fluid and adaptable, because if you are not you will be of no real use to your team. ok so lets take a closer look at the core items.

Core Items

Runic Bulwark is a new item its basically an evolved form of aegis of protection offers great defense mag resist health and an aura of those defensive stats that really boost your whole team in teamfights. many people say dont get this if your jungler has it but i disagree, if you and another have it then you both get the aura aswell as your own stats from the item which makes you even more tanky, if anyone should remove it then it's the jungler anyway as you will often be first into battle you need to know ur allies are protected :P.

Warmog's Armor what can you say 1000 hp and big regen ! vital to tank the mass damage they will be throwing at you. remember if you have no hp to defend then defense is useless!!

Randuin's Omen big defense big health enemies hitting you have move AND attackspeed reduced AND you get an AOE slow as an active. this item is tremendous. ticks all the boxes leona needs.

Situational items


Frozen Heart massive defence, cooldown reduction, 400 mana AND passive aoe attack speed nerf for enemies YOINK! take this if the enemy is ad heavy or if they have more than one adc which ive seen happen alot lately.

Banshee's Veil great situational item. very nice shield effect. take it if the enemy has an annoying ap carry or ap caster that is dealing too much damage.

Guardian Angel very good item on leona should be taken during late game to make an extra nuisance of yourself. the cooldown on your Eclipse will often be down once you respawn due to the angels effect so be sure to hit W the second you revive and you will once again be a massive addition to your teams power.

Mercurial Scimitar nice ad and big magic resist PLUS the ability to stop yourself being supressed by Warwick , Malzahar , Skarner and other such nuisances! not to mention clearing stuns, slows and all other negative cc on yourself.
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Team Work

ok your main job on leona is to facilitate your teams dominance in botlane AND in teamfights during mid and late game. it is also your job to shutdown various painful ultimates like Katarina's Death Lotus one well placed Shield of Daybreak in her face and Katarina is useless.

if leona's skills are used in sequence she is truly devastating to the enem team.

firstly lets look at her skill in more detail

Passive


Sunlight adds a mark of sunlight to any minion or champion hit by any of leona's skills. this mark explodes upon being hit with an autoattack by an allied champion. so basically if you are botlane and your adc deals BIG damage to anything marked by any of your skills increasing the adc's farming and pushing power. this passive works best when paired with an adc who has natural escapes. as the lane will naturally push. corky and Leona is truly devastating when used together as is Tristana or Graves. i'll get back to why [[corky] is best with her later :)

Shield of Daybreak your first stun once you have this and zenith blade you can start really bullying your lane.

Eclipse this is a sunlight shield that once maxed gives you 70 defense and 70 magic resist. thats right you heard me. this shield is VERY overpowered imo and is the reason leona can do so much so early. the shiled lasts for 3 seconds and then explodes doing small damage to anyone (minions included) around her, now heres the important part. IF the explosion hits anything the shield remains for another 3 seconds after the explosion. so you have a 6 second op shield instead of 3. add her passive to that and she adds mark of sunlight on EVERY minion and champ the shield explosion hits. starting to get why corky is op with her yet ? if not you will :).

Zenith Blade Leona's leash this fires out a shard of light that travels through minions but leashes to the first champion hit and roots them while leona jumps to them. this takes around 1 second depending on distance. it also adds sunlight to all enemies in the line hit and the champ.

Solar Flare Leona's ultimate is an aoe skillshot which explodes on the ground after a short time. all enemies hit by the blast take some magic damage and are slowed. however ALL enemies near the centre of solar flare are stunned! in theory you can stun the entire team at once or repeatedly stun one fleeing opponent.

now as to why leona is awesome with corki.

sunlight is ignited by autoattacks AND by some skills, one of these is corky's Gatling Gun . so his Gatling Gun lasts long enough for him to ignite 4 consecutive sunlights on his target if the leona is good and 3 if not but 3 is more than enough. this equals an enormous amount of damage on the enemy and if its a carry they are dead or using their escapes and are an easy kill next initiation.
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Skill Sequence

ok so here it is leonas skill sequence. obviously you use what needs using at the time. but whenever you initiate in botlane you use this combo if possible.

W to start Eclipse . now you have 2 seconds to land E Zenith Blade and leash to them landing sunlight passive too. your adc hits igniting sunlight then you q stunning and adding sunlight again. your adc attacks igniting sunlight. then your eclipse explodes adding sunlight again. your adc attacks again igniting the 3rd sunlight. you now have another 3 seconds of shield left so you can choose to chase (if they are still alive). you also still have your ultimate Solar Flare which really does mess with their escapes if u are desperate for the kill. just make sure to aim where they WILL be in 1.5 seconds NOT where they are :).

so skill sequence is w e q then r if needed.

In a teamfight 5v5 you may want to lead with E then w then r to mass stun if they focus you and q the person doing the most dmg ie katarina's ulti or their adc.

all in all you should always try to initiate as you are the tank and the cc queen. make use of your passive by landing spells on the target who your adc is focusing it should be the enemy ap carry ad carry or assassin.
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Summary

Leona is in my opinion the best tank to play botlane because of her amazing cc her passive adding to adc damage and her ability to initiate so your team are in control of the engagements during the whole game. a well played leona is devastating. If this guide can help even one player to become a leona that does that then my 5 hours of work has not been in vain! thankyou for reading my guide and thankyou in advance for any praise it gets.

I'd quickly like to thank
Sanguko for nagging me to start playing LOL
Nivoragestorm for showing me a community on here that is welcoming and fun
Meldritch and Driagan for making me laugh till my sides hurt on skype with their antics
GeneralSquid for showing me how bad i am and forcing me to get better :)

I'd like to thank every gamer who has not flamed cried or thrown their toys out of their prams during our games. remember games are supposed to be FUN.

thankyou very much for reading my guide and happy gaming!
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