hi. wanted to make a Tanky AP Leona. hi.
You are likely to either solo top or mid with this build.

Yes. It may seem dumb at first, but it does actually make sense.

The basic idea is to increase her damage and hard cc per second through a combination of CDR, AP items with tanky aspects, and the proc from Lichbane, these 3 working in synergy on the foundation of her natural tankiness augmented by masteries and item choice within the AP category of stuffles.

So, yes. One needs full cdr to do a Q -> R --> wait a second... --> Q Sunlock

And some magic penetration helps you kill squishies. Full cdr also makes you likely to proc lichbane more often, which is a significant part of your damage output.

A mix of yellow mp5 to be able to harass more and more as cooldowns get lower and lower and some armor to help mid game and partially offset the late acquisition of the last two ranks of Eclipse ~ Giving increased 1v1 ability against tanky dps champions, and a little more of the crucial resilience against burst required for her to do her job and wreak havoc on the enemy carry in a team fight in the thick of things.

The thought is that Leona needs as much cdr from masteries as possible in order to reach near 25% from runes + masteries, making ionian boots or deathfire grasp sufficient to near-cap it.

Defensive masteries beyond CDR per level because she needs to be in the middle of things, and lots of these help with that as much/more than their offense tree counterparts. A Leona that doesn't get off a second Q and E might not score a kill. Longer fights will usually end in favour of AP CDR Leona when her CDR has grown to sizable amount.

Ionian boots because any other cdr solution is awkward to get early on her. The earlier she gets some cdr, the earlier she isn't stuck with lots of downtime of not being able to do much while her abilities recharge (having to be supremely careful, as she is quite easily preyed upon without eclipse or shield of daybreak up).

Catalyst is self explanatory ~ While she has among the highest level one and per level values of Health and Mana regen per 5 seconds, she lacks any source of sustain from abilities or passive.

Into ROA, which is preferable to Rylais not only because it as the catalyst component, but because the cc of 3/4 of leona's abilities eats up the Rylai debuff duration to various degrees, as well as giving less hp and lacking the significant mana pool boost of ROA.

Leona requires some more killing power, and is getting higher level, getting OK base damage and OK cooldowns. Adding a sheen now is good cost/damage output wise.


Some survivability in the form of mr or armor might be added before Deathcap ~ one should look at the circumstances and decide which, if any, are good/required at that point in time.

The rest of the sequence is self-explanatory.

Note: If laning against melee without reliable ranged melee abilities, get Zenith Blade at level 4 instead.

Usually, people max Eclipse first with Leona. While it is important to increase the ranks of this ability early, I don't think more than 3 ranks of it this early is a good idea, as Leona sorely needs the cooldown of shield of daybreak reduced to be more useful in teamfights and 1 vs 1 midgame, getting in that extra stun. The increase from 50 to 70 mr/armor isn't worth it. As AP, her farming is good enough without more ranks in this skill.

Ignite what makes her able to murder a carry without that it being being able to do much about it should leona land her Zenith Blade and get off her initial combo, even if it has summoners ready.

Given the recent flash nerf and how tanky she is, I think Ghost would usually be better for chasing and escaping, as she doesn't have to fear the initial burst as much as being overtaken and damaged over time to death. Cleanse could be an alternative, but it's not as versatile

The Mercury Threads + Deathfire Grasp combination can be chosen over Ionian boots + Abyssal Scepter, trading sustained damage (some AP and MR pen) and MR for more burst, more mana regeneration and crowd control reduction.

If you do good early, you might want to go this route and squeeze in Deathfire Grasp after Catalyst or Mercury Threads. If you are confident waiting longer for decent CDR, after ROA.

Late game, the Deathfire Grasp Mercury Threads option is probably best unless the enemy team is AP heavy, as it makes you nearly unbeatable 1v1 and a monstrous killer of squishies.

Farming with Leona is relatively straight forward. Use Zenith Blade through the melee minions as they approach you. Activate Eclipse and run to the middle of the wave and blow up. Before you have AP, you will need to hit minions with your melee attack at least once in addition to this, so be careful or you'll lose CS. One quickly gets the hang of this. It is similar to farming as Sion.