13.1 Leona Tank/Support

Table of Contents

Introduction

Pros & Cons

Abilities

Summoner Spells

Wards & Trinkets

Stats To Consider

Which Boots & Why?

Items

Runes

Rune Shards

Summary

Introduction

Hi, my name is Demonsedge, and I've been enjoying my time on league of legends. I can't say enough about this game.

If I'm playing support, I consider since I know her setups and combos. I will provide an in-depth look into 's team s and itemization, along with some tips and tricks as you read this guide.

I hope you enjoy this guide and follow my suggestions to understand how works optimally.

So let's kick things off in style with my guide on - The Radiant Dawn.

Leona - The Radiant Dawn
Vanguard, Support

Specialties: Durability, Engage, Lock down
Why choose Leona?:
- A simple champion to pick up in the support role and can be fun to play.
- Provides effective crowd control engages 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 support 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

+ Good team fight ult

+ Good backline access

+ Good all-in setup

+ Fits into most team setups

+ Great peel & engage tools for teammates

+ Great roaming support

Cons

- No sustain in lane

- Succeptible to constant harass

- Mana intensive

- Ability animations are easy to spot

- Team reliant

- No easy way to disengage from fights

Ability Rundown

Sunlight

Damaging opponents with your spells marks them for 1.5 seconds. After the mark is consumed from damage by a nearby ally, they take bonus magic damage when struck.

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

Shield of Daybreak

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

Once you activate this ability you gain bonus attack range and have 6 seconds to stun a target dealing magic damage and once applied it will last for 1 second which applies on enemies along with any on-hit effects (applies a stack of too).

A great engage/interrupt tool with looking to peel for your team or when getting ready to engage the enemy in a team fight or skirmish.

Eclipse

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

One of the most impactful combat abilities for . Increases your armor, magic resistance and provides flat damage reduction in combat against your enemies, but remember that once the ability finishes you will lose the resistances gained unless you hit a target within 3 seconds upon the abilities detonation. Something to consider is that after the shield detonates, you will deal magic damage to any nearby targets hit.

Best used when you are looking to start a fight or after you have stunned a target in anticipation of follow-up damage.

"Do note that has a self slow attached to it even though the ability description doesn't share that with us up front."

Zenith Blade

is 's primary source of engagement and deals magic damage to all targets hit. Helpful with looking down isolated targets or hitting targets you wish to eliminate.

Note this ability will target the enemy at the very back of the group, making it great for hitting the backline targets you're looking to kill.

Be mindful when using it around a cluster of enemies because it might get you killed if you can't disengage from the fight you started.

Solar Flare

The ability that defines you in combat since it allows you to stun/slow an entire team while also dealing magic damage to all within its epicentre. Best used on high-priority targets or targets who try to run away from you and your team.

Note the animation time is slow, meaning enemy champions flashing out of your ultimate can be a likely 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 wouldn't 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


-	-	-	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 to use on targets who recently used their dash/blink or .
- Due to its high cooldown, should only be used to pick off isolated enemies or foes you're looking 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're quick.
- Avoid standing directly in front of , so you're not being rooted by then stunned from .
- Have your handy to dodge 's .

Summoner Spells

Summoner Spells

Flash: The most integral summoner spell for and should be a 100% pick in all your games. Another reason it's important for her is because if you get caught or stuck in a rough situation, you can to safety or dodge a very crucial ability with ease.

Ignite: A strong support spell used to reduce healing and wear down the opponent dealing true damage (based on champion level). Helps your teammates to secure a kill or to grab yourself a kill if you are stuck in a duel with another champion. In most games as , this will be your other go to spell.

Exhaust: This spell is good when against very mobile/assassin or strong mage champions that will burst you down quickly. Great when applied on targets you need to slow down or to reduce their incoming damage from all sources (includes bonus damage from -related items & abilities).

Heal: Not your typical choice on support tanks, since they mostly favor or . If you're taking this option as , you'll gain access to a small heal/movement bonus for you and your bot lane.

Wards & Trinkets

Wards & Trinkets:

- s are stored in your inventory (max 2) and can be placed anywhere on the map (limit 1), revealing and disabling enemy wards within a 900-unit radius. s function similarly to the trinket revealing stealth & camouflaged based champions (, , and ) that approach them. As support, you'll get this most of the time to clear as much vision as possible. Always try to get one or two when backing if you can afford it.

- is the default trinket as , revealing units within a target location. You get two charges that refresh every 240-120 seconds (based on champion level). The max allowable s to place is three. Great when side laning/placing deep wards in enemy territory or getting vision on objectives ( & ).

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

- The last trinket (available at level 9) is one we avoid with when playing support since your job is to deny vision.

With support items granting (4) s upon completion, vision is much easier to set up when on the rift.

Stats To Consider

- Armor/Magic Resistance: The best stat to have on . Providing excellent synergy with & offers additional durability for you in combat. Always look to get as much armor & magic resistance as you can 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: Definitely a useful stat for , when looking to use abilities more often. 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 & dodging skill shots.

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

- Attack Damage: As support, 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 don't do enough damage to warrant using it effectively.

Which Boots & Why?

Boots of Swiftness > Slow Reduction
Your premier mobility option when roaming lanes or when dealing with slows effects like 's ///, or other movement imparing 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 . Having 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 also offering a small amount of magic resist. Standard choice into teams that are magic damage heavy.

Plated Steelcaps > Basic Attack Damage Reduction
Another great option for . The armor provided along with the basic attack damage reduction passive make it easier to soak up from auto attacks for your backline. Great when facing heavy physcial damage teams or auto attack centric champions.

You might be asking why no , here's my take: those boots aren't worth the gold for this simple reason: they may have the highest boot value of movement with (115 movement speed) while out of combat, though once you are engaged in combat the value drops to (25 movement speed) and then you're at a greater risk of dying if you get caught out. When you are looking to roam just get , trust me you'll thank me for it.

*Do note that you get diminishing returns on tenacity the more you stack, so avoid & if you take the runes and .*

Items

Starter Items

Picking on is the best choice as her starter item. You gain additional auto attack damage, helping you in combat and making you more formidable in fights. 's auto attacks aren't that effective overall, but even a minor increase could make a difference. Works in tandem with 's auto//auto combo.

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

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

Make sure to use your first two charges on the melee minions in the first wave you encounter. After that, make sure to have a 1 per wave in this order:
melee
melee
cannon
Keep following this pattern unless you can have a charge for both the cannon and a melee minion.

Repeat this process until you complete your support item and avoid targeting
caster minions
since they offer very little gold value and slow down your support quest progression.

Apart from getting our support quest done we should focus on what build will make us have the best success in lane:

- Damage Reduction Build: Take this when you want to be a walking tank that stacks heavy armor and magic resist (coupled with your ), being that durable frontline your team needs.

- Aura Build: Grab this in games where being near the enemy causes them to feel weaker and more susceptible to all your teams item effects and abilities.

Damage Reduction Build:

Mythic Items

Grabbing is excellent by increasing your resistances and is helpful in matchups where you'll be immobilizing the enemy or could potentially be immobilized yourself. When the immobilizing effect occurs, all nearby enemies take increased damage for a short time.

With , you'll gain increased max health with each attack against your target, scaling throughout the game, making you very durable in team fights. With this mythic item, your max health becomes a damaging tool against the enemy.

on is significant for its unique spellblade effect granting more physical damage on our next auto attack and a slow field that increases based on health. Excellent in matchups where you need to stick to your target or where you need to have an increased tenacity & slow resistance from crowd control effects dealt to you by champions such as , , or .

is a potent supportive option as granting resistance to your allies, ensuring more team durability. The shield provided can help in near-death instances should they arise. Take this when facing burn or other forms of dot damage.

Getting either of these mythics as your first item depends on what the enemy team is comprised of and not how best plays in most matchups, since it really makes a big difference in her survivability.

Core Items

With , gain health & ability haste and a nemesis passive that allows you to gain damage reduction from a specific target and removing their resistance to crowd control while you're nearby. Very helpful when playing against champions who you know can annihilate you very quickly or when looking to reduce their effectiveness in combat.

Very efficient when dealing with many

immobilizing effects or against teams with magic damage-based abilities. This item will allow 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 gives you damage reduction on incoming attacks based on the small percentage that additionally scales with every 1,000 hit points you have up to a maximum of 40% damage reduction.

Situational Items

Gives mobility to chase down targets or when escaping dangerous situations. While moving, charge up bonus on-hit damage as physical damage. When colliding with a target at maximum momentum stacks, they are slowed upon impact. This item helps when roaming or when travelling to objectives/team fights.

Provides damage reduction via redirected post-mitigation damage for a specific nearby ally and then healing yourself for a percentage of the damage they deal to champions. Very nice pickup if you have the means to soak up tons of damage in prolonged fights.

While not picked up by or other support champions, but still great to consider against dot/burn damage/when forced into a low health state often or when needing extra duelling power. Offers a portion of your base attack damage as bonus attack damage and a portion of your total bonus health as a shield if you fall below 30% health for 4.5 seconds (60-second cooldown).

Provides your accomplice on-hit and max health damage after you

immobilize an enemy champion within an 8-second window. Great item to pick up if you wish to make all-in trades during team fights and skirmishes.

Aura Build:

Mythic Items

Grabbing is excellent by increasing your resistances and is helpful in matchups where you'll be immobilizing the enemy or could potentially be immobilized yourself. When the immobilizing effect occurs, all nearby enemies take increased damage for a short time.

With gains increased armor and magic resistance while in combat with the enemy. After reaching the maximum stat cap, you'll drain health from all nearby enemies. While the drain effect may not be as potent, it can be very effective in team fights on .

is a potent supportive option as granting resistance to your allies, ensuring more team durability. The shield provided can help in near-death instances should they arise. Take this when facing burn or other forms of dot damage.

is your healing support tank item for . While not your first choice as mythic for compared to other mythic options at our disposal, it's helpful in situations where you don't have a healer on your team and don't feel pressured by the enemy team composition.

Getting either of these mythics as your first item depends on what the enemy team is comprised of and not how best plays in most matchups, since it really makes a big difference in her survivability.

Core Items

grants a debuffing aura that reduces their magic resist and increases yours by the same amount for each cursed enemy. It's potent when you want to amplify the damage of your team's magic sources on the enemy.

Provides damage reduction via redirected post-mitigation damage for a specific nearby ally and then healing yourself for a percentage of the damage they deal to champions. Very nice pickup if you have the means to soak up tons of damage in prolonged fights.

Provides your accomplice on-hit and max health damage after you

immobilize an enemy champion within an 8-second window. Great item to pick up if you wish to make all-in trades during team fights and skirmishes.

Situational Items

Synergies well with because of how easily you can gain the effect of the shield the item offers. I'd suggest picking this up if against teams you need a little more survivability when in team fights.

Very efficient when dealing with many

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

Similar passive to with its damage reduction of basic attacks. Instead of a passive that reduces flat attack speed, you gain two passives, one that reduces the targets attack damage and another that reduces critical strike damage. On top of this, you'll gain an active that slows enemy movement for 4 seconds (60-second cooldown). Very useful when dealing with champions who build critical strike items (, , or ).

A great asset in vision control, when paired in conjunction with your and support items, allowing you to place one extra (4)/ (2) on the map for your team. Very good when you are looking to secure vision on important objectives and map locations.

Situational Items For The Damage Reduction and Aura Builds

Grab if you need more magic resistance coupled with a spell shield. Good versus high crowd control teams or in situations where you might need to avoid a pesky ability or attack that would otherwise disrupt you.

Increases your armor and magic resist as you take damage and gain a health shield based on bonus health. Very good when paired with runes/keystones and items that focus heavily on health.

is a good situational item on . Helps when dealing with problematic crowd control effects (except airborne) from champion abilities ('s , 's , 's or 's ) that would impair your movement or be hard to dodge. The active effect grants extra tenacity and slow resistance. I'd only get this after you've purchased your core items or if the need to dodge a particular ability is essential for combat survivability.

Best taken on against melee champions such as , , or opponents who love to get up close and personal. Also very useful against full attack damage team compositions.

A nice grievous wounds option for when struck by auto attacks or when immobilizing foes. Very helpful against auto attack heavy teams and healing from champions (, , Red ) or items (, ) that pose a threat.

A great alternative item for when you need sustain/durability in team fights and skirmishes. The passive effect regenerates max health out of combat once you have acquired enough health (through keystones, runes, items or levels) to trigger it. The regeneration effect will only apply after taking no damage from minions (3 seconds) or champions (6 seconds).

Runes

The following keystone & 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 who possess slows or other crowd-control impairing effects.

- When dealing damage with autos and , it adds a stack of on the target hit. Once three stacks are applied, the vulnerable passive effect triggers, amplifying the damage the target takes for the next 6 seconds. A strong choice when paired with // or other auto-attack-based champions.

- For a more aggressive bruiser tank option, choose . 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 you 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 deal magic damage + a portion % of your bonus health to all nearby enemies in the shockwave. The standard option for in most games when support.

Domination Runes:

- is excellent for dealing bonus true damage upon damaging a target afflicted with crowd control effects. Great for because of the many crowd control effects she possesses, meaning the extra damage application won't be hard and allows for more efficient team fighting.

- provides 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 due to her ult having a stun/root component depending on where you land it on your target. It's a good team fight initiator, effective at locking down targets running away or near dead targets that you are looking to finish off.

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 mythic/core items, thus offering better duelling potential. Very helpful 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 also giving you more maximum mana per biscuit (max 3). This rune isn't necessarily required for , though helpful when dealing with poke matchups.

- provides more summoner spell (, ) and item/ward trinket haste. This rune is great when paired with items like or other active items effects. Also very helpful 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. Offers sustain for and to help with faster item purchases in the lane.

- A must-have rune for while playing as support. gives you increased tenacity when dealing with champion effects (, , ) and monster (, ) 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 don't build much damage with , it won't be that noticeable in team fights with this rune. When compared to other tier three rune options, it's the best for 's play style.

Resolve Runes:

- I see as a way to press lane faster because it will allow you to deal damage to turrets based on a % of your max health. Allows for quicker sieging of turrets and getting the plate gold quicker, 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 resist. It pairs nicely with 's and can be helpful when you need extra survivability & late-game durability.

- for as an engage support 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 great 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 supports (, , ), I'd recommended with other health items or when taking or .

- is very potent for when against heavy crowd control teams and great when paired with for more crowd control resistance. This rune gives you increased tenacity & slow resist when you fall below 30% max health.

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. With the inclusion of , we can make better use of our kit and allows for more constant spell use in fights due to its mana regeneration (gained after acquiring the 250 bonus mana).

- , while not often taken on can be helpful. This rune helps by offering permanent ability haste & a passive effect reducing your non-ultimate cooldowns by 20% when you score a takedown on the enemy. 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, then 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 little 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 select:

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 damage? (For this build, you can opt for it, but most might skip it when playing support).
- Do I require any ability haste? (We can choose this option, but it's not as popular).

Defensive Shards
- Do I require more armor? The default choice in most games when playing support.
- Do I require magic resist? Take this shard when the lane is double mage bot or heavy in magic damage.
- Do I require more health? A viable option for in games where only one type of resistance is needed, therefore adding health is helpful. Great into mixed damage team comps.

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

Summary

There are plenty of ways to build , but hopefully, this guide made it easier for you to understand what abilities/items and runes work well together and how to make the most of her kit.

I hope you enjoyed this guide and will refer this to your friends and fellow gamers looking for tips & tricks.

For any questions or thoughts, you wish to share, contact me in the discussion section. I'll be happy to talk things over with you and see how I can make sense of anything you need answers for to the best of my ability.

13.1 Leona Tank/Support

13.1 Leona Tank/Support

Choose Champion Build:

Runes: Engage Tank

Spells:

Flash

Ignite

Exhaust

Flash

Flash

Heal

Recommended Items

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

Ashe

Bard

Blitzcrank

Brand

Braum

Galio

Janna

Karma

Lulu

Lux

Maokai

Morgana

Nami

Nautilus

Neeko

Pantheon

Pyke

Rakan

Rell

Renata Glasc

Senna

Seraphine

Shaco

Shen

Sona

Soraka

Swain

Taric

Tahm Kench

Thresh

Vel'Koz

Xerath

Yuumi

Zilean

Zyra

Aphelios

Ashe

Caitlyn

Draven

Ezreal

Jhin

Jinx

Kai'Sa

Kalista

Kog'Maw

Lucian

Miss Fortune

Nilah

Samira

Sivir

Tristana

Twitch

Varus

Vayne