This matchup can be even if you keep watching his movement but the minute you slip up and get too close with no way to fight back you are done.
Ashe
Not a hard matchup to deal with, so long as you don't get poked down to often or stunned by her ultimate. Once you are durable the rest of the game against her is very easy.
Bard
Bard's not to hard to deal with except when he hits you with q stun as you trying to engage on him. The big threating thing to worry about is when he ults you. Just play this lane safe and it's smooth sailing.
Blitzcrank
The only real issue with him is being hit by his q. Using e into him gives him access to the same plays he could do if he used q, so pay attention closely when you decide to engage on him.
Brand
What can I say he just pokes you hard and makes it hard to help your team. Moving around often is the only thing you can do in this fight or wait and try to nab him on cooldown.
Braum
The only thing the makes your engage bad is his r and passive, otherwise you don't have to worry about Braum.
Galio
Galio just hard counters all your tools except your ultimate. He has more disruption to interrupt your engage, thus making it hard for you to peel for your team. He also has access to poke that you can't match.
Janna
Janna's displacement abilities (q, w & r) are what you have to mindful of all game. In this fight just wait for her to misposition. She is very immobile and you can root her with your ult if need be.
Karma
This match up is just plain boring because she plays so far back that you can't do anything pre 6 to Karma. When trying to get close to her she will typically back away from you, but if she doesn't or missteps then it's a good time to hit her with e or r and see if you can hold her in place. Otherwise don't engage her without aid from your jungler or another laner.
Lulu
This matchup is only an issue if you don't respect her w. Otherwise you have the best chance to beat her pre 6 and afterwards.
Lux
Facing a Lux isn't a hard matchup but if you get caught too much by her q, then you will not able to do much in lane.
Maokai
Maokai's passive gives him a heal so you need to watch this and don't overcommit to him, watch his bot lane and look to focus them and always respect him when making your decision.
Morgana
This is the one matchup where it's a game of chance. You have to respect Morgana's e all game and make sure to target multiple champions when you use r to engage to make it hard on her to prioritize her black shield.
Nami
Nami isn't much of a threat to us outside of her q in lane unless she has tempo from us being behind (which we shouldn't be in this matchup) while in lane. All you need to do in this fight is make sure you get her immobilized when she outpositions.
Nautilus
Nautilus hard wins in a duel with you even if you were to exhaust all your skills on him, so to prevent this make sure he is unable to use his hook and r and you should have an easy lane. Also make sure to engage with your aftershock up.
Neeko
Neeko just has way more range than you in lane, so you have to time your engages precisely and make sure you can hit eliminate her from the equation before you target their bot lane.
Pantheon
A very rare pick now in support but when it happens you have to anticipate the point click w he will engage you with. If after that's said and done you can retaliate, then be aggressive as you can.
Pyke
Pyke isn't a hard lane to deal with, so all you have to do is watch his q and engage appropriately. Feeding him is a bad thing so try and coordinate effectively to ensure he get's behind and you thrive.
Rakan
Rakan just makes your engages hard, since he can do it all from range while you have to get real close. To make sure you can safely engage try to bait out his w or r then counter engage with your e, q, or r depending on how close you are to him.
Rell
Rell isn't a hard matchup for us since we have better tools pre 6. So just watch where she stands so that you don't get stunned from her e when trying to hit her.
Renata Glasc
The only real thing to worry about with Renata is her ult taking control of you when you are trying catch someone, otherwise you have more utility than her.
Senna
Senna just doesn't let you walk close due to her passive and all her heavy poke. This match involves a lot of patience.
Seraphine
Seraphine is a strong poke champion who Leona really doesn't want to be close to when the threat of her r is looming. To deal with this you need to catch her sleeping and hit her when she least expects it.
Shaco
Respect his invisbility and the fact he can place boxes on the ground. Also watch out when he ults and try to pay attention to which one is the fake and which one is real. The matchup isn't hard so just watch his movement and you should be fine.
Shen
This matchup comes purely down to timing of your skills against his. Just watch out for his taunt which makes it hard for you counter engage safely. Pay attention to his movements closely and you should be fine.
Sona
Sona has good poke that you need to repsect prior to diving her with your team. Pre 6 is where you need to respect her unless she missteps, but after 6 you have full agency on her and can eliminate her with good coordination.
Soraka
Soraka isn't a pain on her own, but a pain due to her healing. You need to make sure to rush thornmail and force of nature to make sure she can't poke as much and still be able to cut her healing. Not a hard matchup. Due not that her e can silence you which disables your engage and you need to plan around it.
Swain
Swain is just a lane bully support who will make things hard for you. Trying to get farm for your bot lane will be hard since he can use e and pull you towards him and his carry. That can help you in some cases because then you stun him back or root him, but if you are pulled and have no backup then you might be in trouble. Play the lane cautiously versus Swain.
Taric
This is a skill matchup with Taric. He can soak up your damage and heal it out so you need to attack him when all his skills are on cooldown. Also make sure to watch for his ultimate when you decide to all in a target since it makes all his nearby teammates invulnerable. As stated before it's a coin flip so play this one safe.
Tahm Kench
He just has too many surprises up his sleeve. This matchup requires a lot of patience and timing of your skills. You can interrupt his w with any of your engage skills (q, e, and r), which can sometimes turn the fight in your favor. Still watch his movements closely prior to ulting or stunning him since missing a key skill could mean certain death against him.
Thresh
Thresh is basically an anti-Leona when you try to engage him with e since he can flay you away. So it's to deal with him when that skill is on cooldown. As always make sure you are engaging when he doesn't have aftershock at the ready and he doesn't have a way to stop you from diving him.
Vel'Koz
Similar to most heavy damage mages Vel'Koz spams out skills quick and does everything he can to get you to fountain. The only way to beat him in lane is to catch him napping and force him back as often as you can.
Xerath
There's just no laning into Xerath because he just has too much mana sustain and can poke you down pretty hard. If he slips up and falls victim to your engage make sure to punish him.
Yuumi
You just hard win into her, since you can stop her from reattaching to her bot lane and make life miserable for her. Still watch out for her team.
Zilean
Zilean is so easy to lane into unless they are very proficient in how he manages his bombs and e slow. It's not someone you really need to worry about either since he can't match your roams either.
Zyra
The only real threat to Zyra is being in a large plant group otherwise she won't fight unless she has tempo. Take advantage of that when you can.
Aphelios
With his myriad of weapon stances he can be a hard champion to time your crowd control with, but if you coordinate well good things can happen.
Ashe
Ashe has good ways to make your crowd control easier to hit but it's not always guaranteed to hit them. Make sure you both are on the same page when going for an all in.
Caitlyn
Caitlyn and Leona are pretty common but again there's not much to scream home about, still this synergy isn't bad but there are better options.
Draven
The ideal support for Draven because of his need to snowball the lane quick. This is made possible by the fact that you can root and stun them to make it easier for him to cash in on his adoration stacks and quickly get to his power spikes.
Ezreal
Not much to really go over here, because you don't work as well together when compared to other supports in your pool (Lux, Soraka or Seraphine). So just play the lane like normal and play safe to get clean picks.
Jhin
This duo is pretty spicy, since your stuns can lead to some pretty explosive damage for Jhin since you enable his w and make it really easy for him to land a dark grenade/lotus trap and/or 4th shot pretty effectively.
Jinx
Leona and Jinx have some synergy if you are able to trap a target with your roots/stuns and follow that up with Jinx's chompers or vice versa. Can be pretty tough for the opponent.
Kai'Sa
This duo isn't bad to have in lane but to make the most of this, you need to time your passive with her passive so you can deal the most damage quickly and efficiently.
Kalista
Since Kalista has low mobility Leona can make it so she can get out of dodge with her whole kit. Also if your Kalista ults you into the enemy then you can both make some really sweet plays in team fights.
Kog'Maw
Kog'Maw can work with you in terms of lining up your crowd control together, but he just doesn't perform at his best with you since he prefers buffer supports (Lulu, Karma or Janna). Just try to keep him alive as long as possible.
Lucian
What can I saw Lucian loves stun heavy supports. The passive you have goes very nicely with Lucian's kit and allows for some really strong plays.
Miss Fortune
Miss Fortune loves to have a tank with hard crowd control setting her up and Leona is no exception. She makes all of Miss Fortunes skills powerful and your r with her r is just icing on the cake in team fights.
Nilah
The two of you can really make a splash in lane. Once you hit any of your stuns or roots you allow for Nilah's q, e and r to do some massive damage.
Samira
Since Samira's passive applies on displacement ablities (roots and stuns just to name a few), Leona really compliments her since whenever you hit a q, e or r Samira's passive triggers instantly and can really add up when she is going to setup her combos off yours. This is a very strong duo pair in the bot lane.
Sivir
You really don't mesh but still you can make it work. For example if you can't get a good e or r or are unable to get a clean engage Sivir can pop her r for you and put you within range to make that happen. This duo requires a lot of timing and coordination.
Tristana
A very strong choice for Leona to have in bot because when you clean engage Tristana can follow you up with her w and then pepper them with e and the two of you can make a quick meal out of your opponent. It's a great duo in bot lane but not the best by any means.
Twitch
I hate to say this but Twitch has zero meshing with you in terms of a kit perspective. Though if you chose to go with this duo play the lane safe and you have no reason to falter.
Varus
Varus q and r are the reasons you are both a great pair. When you have your engage going he can follow up with q or even slow them with his e.
You each have good crowd control options that make the lane very strong for you.
Vayne
Vayne isn't a great pick with you because if you don't coordinate her condemn could mess up your tools to lock some down and get the kill. Coordinate with your Vayne to make sure she doesn't throw away the kill opportunity.
Xayah
Leona offers Xayah a clean way to lane all her feathers with q after you have engaged with all your skills. You hit e and r then follow up with q, Xayah can then ult off your engage and get her feathers to either root them or finish up with a clean kill.
Zeri
This champion I feel is the same as Twitch in terms of having no synergy with you, also it takes too long to get going. Still do your best to keep her alive.
Synergies
IdealStrongOkLowNone
Aphelios
With his myriad of weapon stances he can be a hard champion to time your crowd control with, but if you coordinate well good things can happen.
Ashe
Ashe has good ways to make your crowd control easier to hit but it's not always guaranteed to hit them. Make sure you both are on the same page when going for an all in.
Caitlyn
Caitlyn and Leona are pretty common but again there's not much to scream home about, still this synergy isn't bad but there are better options.
Draven
The ideal support for Draven because of his need to snowball the lane quick. This is made possible by the fact that you can root and stun them to make it easier for him to cash in on his adoration stacks and quickly get to his power spikes.
Ezreal
Not much to really go over here, because you don't work as well together when compared to other supports in your pool (Lux, Soraka or Seraphine). So just play the lane like normal and play safe to get clean picks.
Jhin
This duo is pretty spicy, since your stuns can lead to some pretty explosive damage for Jhin since you enable his w and make it really easy for him to land a dark grenade/lotus trap and/or 4th shot pretty effectively.
Jinx
Leona and Jinx have some synergy if you are able to trap a target with your roots/stuns and follow that up with Jinx's chompers or vice versa. Can be pretty tough for the opponent.
Kai'Sa
This duo isn't bad to have in lane but to make the most of this, you need to time your passive with her passive so you can deal the most damage quickly and efficiently.
Kalista
Since Kalista has low mobility Leona can make it so she can get out of dodge with her whole kit. Also if your Kalista ults you into the enemy then you can both make some really sweet plays in team fights.
Kog'Maw
Kog'Maw can work with you in terms of lining up your crowd control together, but he just doesn't perform at his best with you since he prefers buffer supports (Lulu, Karma or Janna). Just try to keep him alive as long as possible.
Lucian
What can I saw Lucian loves stun heavy supports. The passive you have goes very nicely with Lucian's kit and allows for some really strong plays.
Miss Fortune
Miss Fortune loves to have a tank with hard crowd control setting her up and Leona is no exception. She makes all of Miss Fortunes skills powerful and your r with her r is just icing on the cake in team fights.
Nilah
The two of you can really make a splash in lane. Once you hit any of your stuns or roots you allow for Nilah's q, e and r to do some massive damage.
Samira
Since Samira's passive applies on displacement ablities (roots and stuns just to name a few), Leona really compliments her since whenever you hit a q, e or r Samira's passive triggers instantly and can really add up when she is going to setup her combos off yours. This is a very strong duo pair in the bot lane.
Sivir
You really don't mesh but still you can make it work. For example if you can't get a good e or r or are unable to get a clean engage Sivir can pop her r for you and put you within range to make that happen. This duo requires a lot of timing and coordination.
Tristana
A very strong choice for Leona to have in bot because when you clean engage Tristana can follow you up with her w and then pepper them with e and the two of you can make a quick meal out of your opponent. It's a great duo in bot lane but not the best by any means.
Twitch
I hate to say this but Twitch has zero meshing with you in terms of a kit perspective. Though if you chose to go with this duo play the lane safe and you have no reason to falter.
Varus
Varus q and r are the reasons you are both a great pair. When you have your engage going he can follow up with q or even slow them with his e.
You each have good crowd control options that make the lane very strong for you.
Vayne
Vayne isn't a great pick with you because if you don't coordinate her condemn could mess up your tools to lock some down and get the kill. Coordinate with your Vayne to make sure she doesn't throw away the kill opportunity.
Xayah
Leona offers Xayah a clean way to lane all her feathers with q after you have engaged with all your skills. You hit e and r then follow up with q, Xayah can then ult off your engage and get her feathers to either root them or finish up with a clean kill.
Zeri
This champion I feel is the same as Twitch in terms of having no synergy with you, also it takes too long to get going. Still do your best to keep her alive.
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 Leona since I know her setups and combos. I will provide an in-depth look into Leona'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 Leona works optimally.
So let's kick things off in style with my guide on Leona - 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 dragons or baron nashor.
- 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.
Sunlight works well when mixed with other on-hit item effects.
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 Sunlight on enemies along with any on-hit effects (applies a stack of Press the Attack 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.
One of the most impactful combat abilities for Leona. 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 Eclipse has a self slow attached to it even though the ability description doesn't share that with us up front."
Zenith Blade is Leona'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.
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 Leona that are simple to understand and that you can apply while playing summoners rift (draft and ranked) games.
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Tips & Tricks:
Playing As Leona:
- Lead the charge and mark your foes with Sunlight before your allies deal damage.
- Shield of Daybreak and Zenith Blade form a powerful offensive combo.
- The damage reduction effect from Eclipse cannot reduce the damage below 50%.
- Save your Zenith Blade to use on targets who recently used their dash/blink or Flash.
- Due to its high cooldown, Solar Flare should only be used to pick off isolated enemies or foes you're looking to eliminate.
Playing Against Leona:
- When Leona activates Eclipse, you have three seconds to get away from her before she deals damage.
- Only foes in the center of Solar Flare get stunned, so you can often avoid this if you're quick.
- Avoid standing directly in front of Leona, so you're not being rooted by Zenith Blade then stunned from Shield of Daybreak.
- Have your Flash handy to dodge Leona's Solar Flare.
Summoner Spells
Summoner Spells
Flash: The most integral summoner spell for Leona 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 Flash 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 Leona, 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 Sheen-related items & abilities).
Heal: Not your typical choice on support tanks, since they mostly favor Ignite or Exhaust. If you're taking this option as Leona, you'll gain access to a small heal/movement bonus for you and your bot lane.
Wards & Trinkets
Wards & Trinkets:
- Control Wards 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. Control Wards function similarly to the Oracle Lens trinket revealing stealth & camouflaged based champions ( Twitch, Rengar, Evelynn and Kha'Zix) 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.
- Stealth Ward is the default trinket as Leona, revealing units within a target location. You get two charges that refresh every 240-120 seconds (based on champion level). The max allowable Stealth Wards to place is three. Great when side laning/placing deep wards in enemy territory or getting vision on objectives ( baron nashor & dragons).
- Oracle Lens is your best choice for Leona 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 Teemo, Shaco, & Nidalee. It's also very helpful for champions who use stealth as means to engage/disengage like Twitch, Pyke, Wukong or Shaco.
- The last trinket Farsight Alteration (available at level 9) is one we avoid with Leona when playing support since your job is to deny vision.
- Armor/Magic Resistance: The best stat to have on Leona. Providing excellent synergy with Eclipse & 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 Leona. Always look to obtain this when itemizing for combat. Though we don't scale with it, having more on Leona makes you durable alongside your other necessary stats.
- Ability Haste: Definitely a useful stat for Leona, 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 Leona, it can help with roaming, keeping up with enemies & dodging skill shots.
- Attack Speed: Not heavily prioritized on Leona 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 Leona, 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 Leona. 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 Ashe's Frost Shot/ Volley/ Serylda's Grudge/ Rylai's Crystal Scepter, 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 Leona. Having access to the summoner spell haste gives you more access to Flash or any other spell you currently have sooner, providing extra pressure in team fights.
Mercury's Treads > Magic Resistance & Tenacity
A strong option for Leona, 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 Leona. 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 Mobility Boots, 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 Boots of Swiftness, trust me you'll thank me for it.
Picking Steel Shoulderguards on Leona 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. Leona's auto attacks aren't that effective overall, but even a minor increase could make a difference. Works in tandem with Leona's auto/ Shield of Daybreak/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 Eclipse), 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 Evenshroud 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 Heartsteel, 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.
Iceborn Gauntlet on Leona 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 Morgana, Lux, Nautilus or Amumu.
Locket of the Iron Solari is a potent supportive option as Leona 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 Leona best plays in most matchups, since it really makes a big difference in her survivability.
Core Items
With Anathema's Chains, 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 manyimmobilizing effects or against teams with magic damage-based abilities. This item will allow you to sustain burst damage champions like Brand/ Morgana or Teemo with heavy dot damage play styles.
Buying Frozen Heart helps to reduce enemy attack speed, effective against auto attack-based champions ( Kayle, 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 Leona 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 Leona 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 youimmobilize 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 Evenshroud 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 Jak'Sho, The Protean Leona 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 Leona.
Locket of the Iron Solari is a potent supportive option as Leona 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.
Radiant Virtue is your healing support tank item for Leona. While not your first choice as mythic for Leona 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 Leona best plays in most matchups, since it really makes a big difference in her survivability.
Core Items
Abyssal Mask 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 youimmobilize 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 Leona 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 manyimmobilizing effects or against teams with magic damage-based abilities. This item will allow you to sustain burst damage champions like Brand/ Morgana or Teemo with heavy dot damage play styles.
Similar passive to Frozen Heart 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 ( Yasuo, Yone, or Master Yi).
A great asset in vision control, when paired in conjunction with your Relic Shield and Steel Shoulderguards support items, allowing you to place one extra Stealth Ward (4)/ Control Ward (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 Banshee's Veil 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.
Silvermere Dawn is a good situational item on Leona. Helps when dealing with problematic crowd control effects (except airborne) from champion abilities ( Mordekaiser's Realm of Death, Warwick's Infinite Duress, Skarner's Impale or Malzahar's Nether Grasp) 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 Leona against melee champions such as Yasuo, Yone, Rengar 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 Leona when struck by auto attacks or when immobilizing foes. Very helpful against auto attack heavy teams and healing from champions ( Nami, Sona, Red Kayn) or items ( Immortal Shieldbow, Bloodthirster) that pose a threat.
A great alternative item for Leona 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 Leona 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:
- Glacial Augment is an excellent keystone for Leona 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 Shield of Daybreak, it adds a stack of Press the Attack 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 Miss Fortune/ Caitlyn/ Ashe or other auto-attack-based champions.
- For a more aggressive bruiser tank option, choose Grasp of the Undying. After 4 seconds in combat, attacking a champion as Leona 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 Overgrowth and Demolish provides you durability in fights and strong turret sieging in lanes.
- After hitting any of yourimmobilizing abilities on targets triggers Aftershock, 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 Leona in most games when support.
- Cheap Shot is excellent for Leona dealing bonus true damage upon damaging a target afflicted with crowd control effects. Great for Leona 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.
- Relentless Hunter provides smoother ability setup when engaging/chasing down the enemy with its out-of-combat movement speed bonus. Helps Leona get to lane faster when getting to team fights/reaching objectives on the map.
Ultimate Hunter is great for Leona 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.
- Hextech Flashtraption allows Leona 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 Flash is on cooldown.
- Future's Market 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.
- Biscuit Delivery is helpful when you need additional sustain after trades and skirmishes while also giving you more maximum mana per biscuit (max 3). This Inspiration rune isn't necessarily required for Leona, though helpful when dealing with poke matchups.
- Cosmic Insight provides more summoner spell ( Flash, Ignite) and item/ward trinket haste. This rune is great when paired with items like Iceborn Gauntlet or other active items effects. Also very helpful for increasing your vision score.
- Approach Velocity is an excellent rune for Leona. 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 Ashe, Amumu or Lux.
- Triumph 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 Leona and to help with faster item purchases in the lane.
- A must-have rune for Leona while playing as support. Legend: Tenacity gives you increased tenacity when dealing with champion effects ( Morgana, Lux, Rammus) and monster ( Baron Nashor, Dragons) based crowd control effects, reducing their effectiveness.
- Last Stand offers increased damage when under 60% health. Further damage increases gained as you approach 30% health. Since we don't build much damage with Leona, it won't be that noticeable in team fights with this rune. When compared to other Precision tier three rune options, it's the best for Leona's play style.
- I see Demolish 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 Font of Life on Leona, 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.
- Conditioning helps Leona by increasing her armor and magic resist. It pairs nicely with Leona's Eclipse and can be helpful when you need extra survivability & late-game durability.
- Second Wind for Leona 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.
- Bone Plating 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 Leona when dealing with burst champions ( Akali, Fizz, Sylas) or in tough fights and skirmishes.
- Unflinching is very potent for Leona when against heavy crowd control teams and great when paired with Legend: Tenacity for more crowd control resistance. This rune gives you increased tenacity & slow resist when you fall below 30% max health.
- In most scenarios, we don't think of Manaflow Band on Leona because our priority is to soak damage for our team and peel for them. With the inclusion of Manaflow Band, 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).
- Transcendence, while not often taken on Leona 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.
- Gathering Storm is another option that doesn't get taken on Leona, 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 Leona, you need to factor in a few things in champion select:
Offensive Shards
- Do I need attack speed on my champion? (Auto attacks on Leona can feel very slow, making it a good option when looking to chain autos after your combos)
- Do I need additional damage? (For this Leona 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 Leona 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 Boots & items. It's a sure way to improve your overall survivability in games.
Summary
There are plenty of ways to build Leona, 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.
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