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Leona Build Guide by

15.1 Chosen Of The Sun

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17 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author Demonsedge90

Leona Build Guide By Updated on

Guide Discussion (17) Reviewed (1) More Leona Guides

Runes: Fighter Tank

1 2 3 4

Resolve

Aftershock

Demolish

Conditioning

Unflinching

Domination

Sudden Impact

Ultimate Hunter

Bonus:

+10% Attack Speed
+10-180 Bonus Health
+10-180 Bonus Health

Spells:

1 2

Standard

Flash

Ignite

Items

Starter Item

World Atlas

Support Item Upgrades

Tank/Support

First Back (Ahead)

First Back (Behind)

Core Items

Anti Heal Options

Boot Options

Vision Control Options

Situational Items

Armor Options

Health Options

Magic Resist Options

Utility Options

Elixir Options

Standard Final Build

Versus 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

More Leona Counters

Table of Contents

Introduction

Pros & Cons

Abilities

Game Plan

Summoner Spells

Vision Control

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

Abilities

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.


	-		-


-	-	-	-	-

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

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

Default

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.

Secondary Options

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).

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 plans on running , let them take and opt for another option.

Vision Control

Stealth Ward

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 ( & ).

Oracle Lens

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 .

Control Wards

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.

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 stats to have on . Both provide 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.

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.

Swiftmarch > blessing of Noxus upgrade
With , you'll gain increased mobility, helping to improve your dodging of skill shots more efficiently and also assist you in travelling the rift faster.

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 (tenacity & slow resist), or 's that improve tenacity for even more resistance to

crowd control effects.

Chainlord Crushers > blessing of Noxus upgrade
With , you'll gain increased shielding that blocks magic damage and great into heavy burst or dot comps.

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.

Armored Advance > blessing of Noxus upgrade
, conversely to offers shielding that blocks any incoming physical damage, effective against auto-attacking comps.

To acquire the blessing of Noxus buff, you'll need to complete any two of the following actions during your games:
- Killing three different epic camps
- Acquiring first blood
- Destroying the first

Upon claiming the buff, you can purchase the upgrade to the you are currently using in combat.

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?


	->		->		-or-		-or-

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 ).

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. Also, it is an excellent option to consider when most enemy damage sources are magic damage.

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.

It is an excellent asset in vision control when paired with your support item upgrades (, or ) utilizing all the s they offer, while also gaining access to increased storage. With , you'll have 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.

Elixirs

is a strong late-game option for , granting extra health and resistance to

crowd control effects while also providing added mobility for your team (when behind you).

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.

- is excellent for a more aggressive play style, healing you while also permanently increasing your max health by a small amount during combat. With all the max health gained, it pairs nicely with runes such as (durability), (added sustain), and that contributes to a strong offensive when sieging turrets.

- 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. Since can trigger from any of her damaging abilities (, and ), it allows for more efficient dueling and team fights with her allies.

- After using or , we'll activate , dealing extra true damage regularly during combat, allowing for increased damage on specific targets. It's an excellent choice for when looking to be highly aggressive in fights.

- 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.

- helps gain more access to in teamfights and skirmishes. With the increased access to , you'll have more chances to isolate or subdue priority targets in teamfights allowing for the momentum to shift in your teams favor.

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 helpful when you need additional sustain after trades and skirmishes while giving you more max health 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 , granting you movement speed toward any nearby targets affected by

crowd control. Great when paired with champions such as , or .

Precision Runes:

- helps by restoring health and grants additional gold upon getting a kill or assisting in fights with your team. The sustain gained from (increased by max health) can help , while the income earned gets her one step closer to key item spikes.

- is a very helpful rune for to gain more access to your skills in combat. With the increased ability haste chasing targets becomes a bit easier and also helps to improve your teams overall presence in extended combat.

- offers increased damage when you're low health. Since we don't typically purchase bruiser or items as , 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 an effective way to apply tons of pressure on the enemy by dealing increased damage to all (based on a % of your max health) you encounter. It allows for improved lane sieging, gains gold plates faster, and increases roam timings from the lane. Another advantage of is when paired with the buff (from ), you'll reach the enemy nexus faster than expected.

- 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 maximum health after a skirmish or team fight. Stacking health (with items or runes) helps to improve the regeneration effectiveness. Very efficient into champions such as , , , or .

- offers excellent upfront durability for , reducing the damage you receive from champions in duels, skirmishes or team fights. The damage reduction is excellent on when dealing with burst or assassin champions such as , , or .

- for offers max health per / death. Though doesn't scale with health compared to other engage such as , , or ), I'd still 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 .

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? While auto attacks on can feel very slow, it is a good option when looking to chain autos after/during your combos.

• Do you need additional adaptive force? As , having adaptive force can be useful, but since we are opting to be the for our team, it's much more reliable to pass on this for something else (attack speed shard or ability haste shard).

• Do I require any ability haste? can benefit from the added ability haste, as that would enable us to use our engage tools more frequently and lockdown targets with ease.

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 with multiple

immobilizing effects. Excellent when combined with .

• 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.

To view my other guide click on the following link below:

Nautilus

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15.1 Chosen Of The Sun

Table of Contents

Introduction

Pros & Cons

Abilities

Game Plan

Summoner Spells

Vision Control

Stats To Consider

Which Boots & Why?

Itemization

Runes

Rune Shards

Summary

15.1 Chosen Of The Sun

15.1 Chosen Of The Sun

Recommended Items

Runes: Fighter Tank

Spells:

Flash

Ignite

Exhaust

Flash

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

Neeko

Pantheon

Poppy

Pyke

Rakan

Rell

Renata Glasc

Senna

Seraphine

Shen

Sona

Soraka

Swain

Tahm Kench

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

Sivir

Smolder

Tristana

Twitch

Varus

Vayne

Xayah