Leona Build Guide by

14.8 Chosen Of The Sun

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Leona Build Guide By Updated on

Guide Discussion (16) Reviewed (1) More Leona Guides

Runes: Engage Tank

1 2 3 4

Resolve

Aftershock

Font of Life

Conditioning

Unflinching

Precision

Triumph

Legend: Tenacity

Bonus:

+10% Attack Speed
+10-180 Bonus Health
+10% Tenacity/Slow Resist

Spells:

1 2 3

Standard

Flash

Ignite

Items

Starter Item

World Atlas

Tank/Support

First Back (Ahead)

First Back (Behind)

Core Items

Boot Options

Trinkets & Consumables

Situational Items

Armor Options

Magic Resist Options

Utility Options

Standard Final Build

Tenacity Build

Build Versus Full Magic Damage/Burn

Chase Down

Ability Order Standard Build

1 2

Leona Passive Ability

Threats & Synergies

Threats

Synergies

Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny

Show All

None Low Ok Strong Ideal

Extreme Threats

Ideal Synergies

Brand

Extreme

Brand pokes you hard and makes it hard to help your team. Moving around as much as possible is the only thing you can do in this fight, or wait and try to catch him on cooldown.

Draven

Ideal

The ideal support for Draven because of his need to snowball the lane quickly. It's effective because you can root and stun them to make it easier for him to cash in on his adoration stacks and promptly get to his power spikes.

Synergies

Ideal Strong Ok Low None

Draven

Ideal

Table of Contents

Introduction

Pros & Cons

Abilities

Game Plan as Leona

Summoner Spells

Trinkets & Consumables

Stats To Consider

Which Boots & Why?

Itemization

Runes

Rune Shards

Summary

Introduction

Hello there! My name is Demonsedge, and I'm a fan of League of Legends. I love this game and can't recommend it enough.

When I'm playing as a , I tend to choose because I'm familiar with her setups and combos. In this guide, I'll take a closer look at 's team and itemization and share some tips and tricks to help you get the most out of playing her.

I hope you find this helpful guide and follow my suggestions to improve your gameplay with . So, without further ado, let's dive into my guide on playing as - The Radiant Dawn!

Leona - The Radiant Dawn
Vanguard,

Specialties: Durability, Engage, Lockdown
Why choose Leona?:
- A simple champion to pick up and can be fun to play.
- Provides effective crowd control engagement for teammates while setting up picks for her carries, and she can be that big damage soaker when you need to get objectives such as or .
- She has great potential to make plays, the odd time she can carry for her team while being a potent frontline team fight asset.

I always enjoy taking her on the rift when playing league matches, and I hope you will, too.

Pros & Cons

Pros

+ Strong crowd control effects (ex: & )
+ Excellent team fight initiator
+ Very durable (with )
+ Fits into most team comps
+ Great peel & engage tools
+ Great roaming support

Cons

- No sustain in lane
- Susceptible to constant harass
- Mana intensive
- Ability animations are easy to spot
- Team reliant
- No easy way to disengage from fights

Ability Rundown

Sunlight

is a fantastic way to increase your allies' damage in fights with the enemy or when taking neutral objectives ( or ).

works well when mixed with other on-hit item effects.

Shield of Daybreak

| Cooldown: 5 | Cost: 35 / 40 / 45 / 50 / 55 Mana |

A great engage/interrupt stun tool that is effective to peel for your team or when getting ready to engage the enemy in a team fight, all-in, or skirmish. That helps lockdown your target and makes them easier to kill.

Additionally, when attacking with , you will trigger any on-hit effects ().

Eclipse

| Effect Radius: 450 | Cooldown: 14 / 13 / 12 / 11 / 10 | Cost: 60 Mana |

When playing as , one of her most impactful abilities is . Increasing her durability during combat and reducing the damage she takes makes it great to use when you are looking to start a fight or after you have stunned a target in anticipation of follow-up damage.

It is important to note that has a self-slow attached, even though the ability description does not mention it upfront.

Zenith Blade

is a strong engage tool for . It is an effective way to engage and lockdown isolated targets or eliminate specific targets. Remember that this ability targets the enemy at the back of the group, making it an excellent choice for hitting backline targets.

However, it is essential to be cautious when using it around a cluster of enemies because it may result in death if you cannot disengage from the fight you initiated."

Solar Flare

This ability defines you in combat, allowing you to stun/slow an entire team while also dealing magic damage to all within its epicentre. It is effective when used on high-priority targets or targets who try to run away from you and your team.

Note that the animation time is slow, meaning enemy champions flashing out of your ultimate can be a scenario, thus wasting your engagement and making you lose a powerful ability.

Timing this ability is necessary and can make or break a team fight, and with its long cooldown, I would not recommend spamming just because you see a target in sight.

Combos:

In this section, I will share some of the effective combos for that are simple to understand and that you can apply while playing summoners rift (draft and ranked) games.


Auto	-	-	Auto

Auto


-	-	-	Auto	-	-	Auto

Tips & Tricks:

Playing As :
- Lead the charge and mark your foes with before your allies’ deal damage.
- and form a powerful offensive combo.
- The damage reduction effect from cannot reduce the damage below 50%.
- Save your for targets recently using their dash/blink or .
- Due to its high cooldown, should only pick off isolated enemies or foes you want to eliminate.

Playing Against :
- When activates , you have three seconds to get away from her before she deals damage.
- Only foes in the center of get stunned, so you can often avoid this if you are quick.
- Avoid standing directly in front of , so you are not being rooted by and stunned by .
- Have your handy to dodge 's .

Game Plan as Leona

In this section, I will outline the things to focus on/consider at each game stage as .

- Early game: Your primary focus as involves establishing as much vision as possible to protect both you and your bottom lane partner from incoming enemy dives. Doing this will ensure that both of you are safe and can react quickly.

With the aid of your item (), you will earn gold passively, and with the charges it offers, you will also be sharing gold with your team.

Be sure to gain as much gold & experience as possible to acquire your core items while also getting ahead in your matchup. Also, be sure to roam when you can (hitting other lanes or setting up deep wards), letting your bot lane know when you do so they can play safe while helping your teammates.

Setting up a freeze (holding the just outside your ) or trading with the enemy can ultimately deny them gold & experience.

- Mid-game: By now, you should be gathering with your team and focusing on team fighting and objective securing (, or ). Continue to place vision throughout the mid-game, and always try to block as much damage as possible for your team.

- Late game: If your games reach this stage, you'll want to be with your team on the frontlines and continue to put up wards around primary objectives while also grabbing soul, & , which are essential to close out the game if ahead. Make sure to deny your opponent these objectives.

Things to consider:

- Rotate towards early or other objectives to assist your . Also, be sure to gather enough experience so you'll be relevant to your team and be able to soak up the damage needed for your backline carries to take over the game.

- If a team fight erupts during your games, always consider the risk of the upcoming battle, meaning will you impact the outcome of that fight or objective, or does your team come out on top without you being there?

- When deciding to enter combat with , you should be mindful of where you are during the fight (positioning) and also be aware of where the enemy is when attempting to engage with your abilities.

Always be mindful of this when playing .

Summoner Spells

An essential spell for that you should pick for your games 100% of the time. If caught out or stuck in a rough situation, having at the ready can help when dodging a crucial skill shot or escaping your enemy's auto attack range. It is also effective when looking to make aggressive plays.

It helps reduce healing, so you can finish off kills that your adc may not be able to secure immediately. With the damage it provides, you can secure advantages in team fights; therefore, I recommend as your other go-to spell in most games, as . If your adc is , let him take and opt for another option.

Good against very mobile/ or strong champions that will burst you down quickly. Great when applied on targets, you need to slow down or reduce their incoming damage from all sources (includes bonus damage from -related items and abilities).

You'll only acquire it if your adc wants to pick other offensive or defensive spell options. (Since adc's typically take this spell, you shouldn't have to unless they don't wish to acquire it).

Trinkets & Consumables

s can be placed anywhere on the map, revealing and disabling enemy wards. s function similarly to the trinket displaying stealth & camouflaged based champions (, , and ) that approach them. As support, you will buy this most of the time since you want to clear your vision as much as possible.

is a ward trinket that we tend to avoid with when playing since your job is to deny vision. Therefore, it's better to acquire any other of the other listed options instead.

is your best choice for and should be acquired on your first back so you can start denying enemy vision and protect critical areas of the rift while making dives more accessible for you and your team. Formidable when dealing with stealth champions who plant traps, such as , , & . It's also beneficial against champions who use stealth as a means to engage/disengage, like , , or .

is the default trinket as , revealing units within a target location. With a maximum of three wards to place, you'll create sightlines for you and your team when roaming the rift. Great when side laning/placing deep wards in enemy territory or getting vision on objectives ( & ).

Upon acquiring the final upgrade to your item ( or ), you're granted four s, giving you the option to mix and match between the different trinkets above, making vision placement and denial much more accessible to control around the map.

Stats To Consider

- Armor/Magic Resistance: The best stat to have on . It provides excellent synergy with and offers additional durability in combat. Always get as much armor & magic resistance as possible to become very hard to kill in fights and skirmishes.

- Health: This stat is essential for fights, adding another layer of survivability when playing . Always look to obtain this when itemizing for combat. Though we don't scale with it, having more on makes you durable alongside your other necessary stats.

- Ability Haste: A useful stat for when looking to use abilities more often. It is not something we aim for above all others, but it is still good to consider.

- Movement Speed: As , it can help with roaming, keeping up with enemies, and dodging skill shots.

- Attack Speed: Not heavily prioritized on outside the rune shard option we get (explained below), so we typically ignore this stat in every other way.

- Attack Damage: As the of your team, your main goal is to take damage and not deal it. As , it's best to skip this stat and aim for a more defensive style with more defensive stats.

- Life Steal: Another stat that's skipped on as . Since our attacks don't deal enough, which would make the healing weak and not noticeable.

- Omni Vamp: Avoid this option since we must do more damage to warrant using it effectively.

Which Boots & Why?

Boots of Swiftness > Slow Reduction
Your premier mobility option when roaming lanes or dealing with slowing effects like 's ///, or other movement impairing abilities that would leave you vulnerable when trying to escape.

Ionian Boots of Lucidity > Ability Haste
Grab this pair in games where ability usage will serve you more as . Access to the summoner spell haste gives you more access to or any other spell you currently have sooner, providing extra pressure in team fights.

Mercury's Treads > Magic Resistance & Tenacity
A strong option for , helping to reduce the effects of crowd control from enemy champions while offering a small amount of magic resistance. Standard choice into teams with heavy magic damage threats.

are also great when combined with the runes (), shards (tenacity & slow resist, or 's that improve tenacity for even more resistance to crowd control effects.

Mobility Boots > Movement Speed
are useful when looking to catch up to your targets much quicker than if you were to use as . They have the highest speed value among all while out of combat, though once engaged with the enemy, the value drops significantly. Also very effective to take when roaming the map faster or looking to invade the enemy .

Plated Steelcaps > Basic Attack Damage Reduction
is an excellent choice when playing as a . The armor provided and the auto attack damage reduction passive make it easier to soak up from basic attacks for your backline. Great when facing heavy physical damage teams or auto-attack-centric champions.

Itemization

Starter Items

Your standard option for , offering sustain and income gain over the course of your matches.

Then you might be asking: Well, Demonsedge, how do I complete the support item quest?


	->		->
	->		->

That's a great question, and here's how:

You'll receive your first charge before the first three units perish.

When charges are available, always use them when possible, as it increases your gold gain and your teammates.

When executing , or a , you'll gain a fixed amount of gold with each charge. At the same time, your nearby teammate will earn the total value of the executed .

Damaging champions will yield higher gold values (compared to executing ), allowing you to quickly complete your item.

Either strategy is effective when looking to complete your item.

Core Items

Using makes you exceptionally durable in team fights, allowing you to turn your health pool into a damaging tool against the enemy. It is an excellent buy when stacking high armor and magic resistance or other items that scale with health (ex: , or ).

With builds durability overtime during combat with the enemy, granting increased frontline potential. A solid rush option as to consider in every game as the resistances also aid in boosting , allowing for more survivability from enemy abilities and autos.

is a potent supportive option as . The shield provided can help in near-death instances should they arise. Take this when facing burst heavy or damage over time champions.

Situational Items

is an excellent choice when dealing with heavy magic damage champions. It is also potent when you want to amplify the damage of your team's magic damage sources in combat.

With , you make yourself and your team durable against a specific fed target while also making them weaker to crowd control while you are nearby. It is beneficial when playing against champions you know can annihilate you very quickly or when looking to reduce their effectiveness in combat.

It gives mobility to chase down targets or when escaping dangerous situations. It is also highly effective when roaming or travelling to objectives/team fights. Also a great purchase to counter enemies who have movement slows built into their kits () or within items they purhcase ().

It synergizes well with , due to how effectively you can apply shield during combat. I suggest picking this up if you need more team fight durability.

Very efficient when dealing with multiple

immobilizing effects or against teams with magic damage based abilities. allows you to sustain burst damage champions like / or with heavy-dot damage play styles.

Buying helps to reduce enemy attack speed, effective against auto-attack-based champions ( or other auto-attack-heavy champions). It also reduces damage on incoming auto attacks you receive.

is similar to in every way. However, the main difference is that you'll run it when dealing with magic damage centric foes, and it scales nicely with any health items you acquire. Best taken on against melee champions such as , , or opponents who love to get up close and personal. With the added health regeneration, you'll have an effective way to regain some health outside combat.

, equipping is an effective option for slowing down your opponents every so often. Items granting health, such as or , assist in amplifying the strength of the icy terrain created, making it more difficult for your target to escape you or your team.

When is paired with , she gains a shield similar to 's , providing excellent durability against burst and assassin-style mages on the rift.

An effective sustain option for while being a strong durability option for her attached ally. It is helpful when taking extended trades or during team fights with the enemy.

Like , you will reduce the damage of auto attacks you recieve, though instead of reducing attack speed, you will reduce the damage of critical strikes dealt to you. Especially useful when dealing with champions who build these items (the class, , , , , or ).

will burn enemies when you are near them, scaling with any health items you acquire. Best taken on against melee champions such as , , or opponents who love to get up close and personal. It also helps against full attack damage team compositions.

Provides anti-heal, which is helpful against champions such as , , () or to counter healing items such as , or .

Similarly to , gains mobility to chase down targets or when escaping dangerous situations and damages enemies on with a follow up action, though with , you'll provide a trail for your allies to follow similar that is similar to 's and the speed effects. It is helpful to get you and your teammates to important fights or objectives faster.

A great asset in vision control when paired with your or support items, utilizing all four s it offers, and allows you to store three s within this item and place two of them at any given time on the map. It benefits your team when opting for more vision control around important objectives and map locations.

A great alternative option for sustain and durability in team fights and skirmishes. Regeneration begins out of combat once you have acquired enough additional health (through keystones, runes, items, or levels).

creates an area of effect slow (upon casting ), while also damaging nearby targets. The slow field helps stick close to fleeing targets.

If at any point you no longer require your support item ( or ) in your match, sell it and buy a situational item from the list above to complete your build path.

Also, be mindful that when you purchase , you will not be allowed to buy ; the same goes if you buy you'll be unable to purchase . Therefore it's essential to determine beforehand which option will serve you better for your particular situation.

Runes

The following keystone and rune choices are great for and will complement her in combat. Always pay attention to the enemy team comp, plus your item builds when selecting your runes to get the most value in each game.

Keystone Runes:

- is an excellent keystone for during team fights and short trades because of the slow it provides. This keystone is best when paired with other champions with slows or crowd-control impairing effects.

- Choose for a more aggressive bruiser option. After 4 seconds in combat, attacking a champion as gives you increased max health, deals magic damage equal to a % of your max health and heals for a % of your max health. Pairing this keystone with runes such as and provides durability in fights and strong turret sieging in lanes.

- After hitting any of your

immobilizing abilities on targets triggers , gaining bonus armor and magic resist and then dealing magic damage + a portion % of your bonus health to all nearby enemies in the shockwave—the standard option for in most games when .

Domination Runes:

- is excellent for , dealing bonus true damage upon damaging a target afflicted with crowd control effects. Great for because of her many crowd control effects, meaning the extra damage application will be easy and allow for more efficient team fighting.

- provides a smoother ability setup when engaging/chasing down the enemy with its out-of-combat movement speed bonus. Helps get to lane faster when getting to team fights/reaching objectives on the map.

is great for because her ultimate has a stun/root component depending on where you land it on your target. As a result, it's a good team fight initiator, effectively locking down targets running away or near dead targets you want to finish.

Inspiration Runes:

- allows to channel a hexflash, travelling a short distance. Great for catching your opponents off guard if they aren't paying attention to your movement and positioning, surprising them with a cheeky combo. You gain access to hexflash while your is on cooldown.

- is reliable for ramping into your core items, thus offering better duelling potential. It is effective in matchups where you want item advantages against your opponent to snowball much easier.

- is helpful when you need additional sustain after trades and skirmishes while giving you more maximum mana per biscuit (max 3). An optional choice for , though helpful when dealing with poke matchups.

- provides access to more summoner spells (, ) and item/ward trinket haste. This rune is excellent when paired with items like or other active item effects. It is also beneficial for increasing your vision score.

- is an excellent rune for . It synergizes well with all her crowd control spells or those of her allies, granting you movement speed toward any nearby targets affected by crowd control. Great when paired with champions such as , or .

Precision Runes:

- restores a % of your missing max health and grants additional gold upon getting a kill or assisting in fights with your team. In addition, it is a form of sustain for and helps with faster item purchases in the lane.

- is a must-have rune for 's play style. Grants you increased tenacity when dealing with champion effects (, , ) and (, ) based crowd control effects, reducing their effectiveness.

- offers increased damage when under 60% health. Further damage increases gained as you approach 30% health. Since we build minor damage with , it won't be that noticeable in team fights with this rune. Compared to other tier three rune options, it's the best for 's play style.

Resolve Runes:

- is a way to press lane faster because it will allow you to damage turrets based on a % of your max health. In addition, it allows for quicker sieging of turrets and getting the gold plates, thus giving you more freedom to roam sooner.

- With on , each time you apply an immobilizing effect, each teammate who damages them will heal them for a portion of your max health. Great in team fights and very helpful for a small healing effect in trades and duels with the enemy.

- helps by increasing her armor and magic resistance. It pairs nicely with 's and can be helpful when you need extra survivability and late-game durability.

- for as an engage helps to regenerate missing max health over 10 seconds after a skirmish or team fight. Stacking health through items or runes in conjunction with this rune helps improve the regeneration effect.

- helps to reduce incoming damage from a combination of three instances of damage for 1.5 seconds (55-second cooldown). The damage reduction is excellent on when dealing with burst champions (, , ) or in tough fights and skirmishes.

- for offers max health per / death, then gaining a % max health bonus once 120 minions are absorbed. Though doesn't scale with health compared to other engage such as , , or ), I'd recommended talking with other health items or when taking or .

- is very potent for against heavy crowd control teams increasing your durability. An excellent choice when fighting champions such as , or .

Sorcery Runes:

- In most scenarios, we don't think of on because our priority is to soak damage for our team and peel for them. However, with the inclusion of the , we can make better use of our kit, and it allows for more constant spell use in fights due to its mana regeneration.

- , while not often taken on , can be helpful. It helps by offering permanent ability haste, a passive effect reducing your non-ultimate cooldowns upon scoring a takedown. As a result, you'll have more opportunities to continue stunning and disrupting the enemy in the lane and team fights.

- is another option that doesn't get taken on , but if you feel like taking the scaling rune route, I'd suggest slotting this rune in to get some extra damage on her abilities. Now her abilities don't scale that heavily with ability power, but this doesn't mean you can't have a bit more damage, packing a bigger punch.

Rune Shards

When we are deciding on what rune shards (offensive and defensive) to pick for , you need to factor in a few things in champion selection.

Offensive Shards

• Do I need attack speed on my champion? (Auto attacks on can feel very slow, making it a good option when looking to chain autos after your combos.

• Do I need additional attack damage? For this build, you can opt for it, but most might skip it when playing for your team.

• Do I require any ability haste? We can choose this option, but it could be more popular.

Defensive Shards

• Do I require movement speed? A solid choice for roaming supports such as .

• Do I require tenacity & slow resist? Very strong into comps that possess multiple

immobilizing effects.

• Do I require more health? A viable option for . With scaling health for late game fights/skirmishes, or the flat health for an early to mid game health boost. Both are helpful in games where only one type of resistance is needed. An excellent option when against mixed damage team comps.

Always pay attention to the team compositions you are fighting when mixing and matching the rune shards listed above with your and items. It's a sure way to improve your overall survivability in games.

Summary

Upon reading this guide, I hope it has helped you understand how to build . By explaining which abilities, items, and runes work well together, you should now be able to make the most of her kit. If you found this helpful guide, please share it with your friends and fellow gamers.

If you have any questions or thoughts you wish to share, feel free to contact me in the discussion section. I'll be happy to discuss anything with you and help you find the answers you need to the best of my ability.

Demonsedge90 Leona Guide

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14.8 Chosen Of The Sun

Trinkets & Consumables

Runes

Summary

14.8 Chosen Of The Sun

14.8 Chosen Of The Sun

Recommended Items

Runes: Engage Tank

Spells:

Flash

Ignite

Exhaust

Flash

Flash

Heal

Items

Ability Order Standard Build

Sunlight (PASSIVE)

Shield of Daybreak (Q)

Eclipse (W)

Zenith Blade (E)

Solar Flare (R)

Sunlight (PASSIVE)

Shield of Daybreak (Q)

Eclipse (W)

Zenith Blade (E)

Solar Flare (R)

Threats & Synergies

Alistar

Annie

Bard

Blitzcrank

Brand

Braum

Galio

Janna

Karma

Lulu

Lux

Maokai

Milio

Morgana

Nami

Nautilus

Pantheon

Pyke

Rakan

Rell

Renata Glasc

Senna

Seraphine

Sona

Soraka

Swain

Taric

Thresh

Vel'Koz

Xerath

Yuumi

Zilean

Zyra

Aphelios

Ashe

Caitlyn

Draven

Ezreal

Jhin

Jinx

Kai'Sa

Kalista

Kog'Maw

Lucian

Miss Fortune

Nilah

Samira

Senna

Sivir

Smolder

Tristana

Twitch

Varus

Vayne

Xayah

Yasuo