With the meta shifting towards tank junglers, we've seen a variety of tanks on the rift. Yes, tanks can carry, but most likely you're just playing like a glorified support. Leona being one of the best supports can really make a case for being a solid jungler in this meta with the Cinderhulk and having a kit that can almost guarantee a kill with huge CC. But... If you don't snowball your team, you're gonna have a bad time. So make sure to gank, especially at level 6.



NOTE: This is my first guide. Criticism is welcome, but please make it constructive. :D

Quints - The percentage health quints could be subbed out for flat health, movement speed, or whatever you want. It's just a personal preference to keep the percentage health along with the bonus percentage health that you get from the Cinderhulk.


Marks - The attack speed marks are standard for most junglers and Leona definitely should have these for an early boost in clear speed.


Seals - Armor seals are usually necessary for any jungler, unless you go with armor quints which can be a great choice for quints too.


Glyphs - The cdr glyphs are somewhat important. The idea is to combine this with your Masteries 5% cdr and giving you 10% to start with. However if you don't have the ip for the cdr glyphs, full mr glyphs will suffice.

6/24/0 is what I suggest.

I'm a huge fan of cooldown reduction. Getting the 5% cdr in the Masteries is great to mix with the 5% cdr you'll have with your runes. Take the last two points in the offence tree for the additional damage to creeps and the health and mana you back when you kill creeps.


The rest all goes toward tank stats. Being a tank with maxed out cdr is going to give you the chance to use your abilities as much as possible. Which gives you the best chance to do a lot of damage from your passive and to survive as long as you can.

Without the Cinderhulk Leona Jungle would still be okay, but this item really makes her more viable in the jungle than ever before. I like the added CC you get from the chilling smite. However, go with Trailblazer to help sustain in the jungle early if you get invaded or fall behind.

With the current patch Cinderhulk did take a nerf for damage while in combat. The increase in damage to monsters is a pretty nice perk, though. We'll see how the Cinderhulk progresses or if they're done tweaking it for now.

Getting Locket of the Iron Solari and Frozen Heart are pretty big for Leona. I like getting Warmog's for the health increase and the passive is pretty nice too. Leona can honestly be built with any tank items. It's just a personal preference to max out the amount of cooldown reduction on her.

It's pretty simple.

Q - This ability you'll max last, but take this ability first. It's the lowest cooldown of all the abilities at level 1 and will help your clear speed the most.

W - Max out W for the amazing stats and aoe damage you get from it.

E - You actually get pretty decent damage from this ability and you're going to want to max this second. Reducing the cooldown will help sync up your E/Q combo on similar cooldowns early.

R - Obviously level your ult whenever you can for the amazing aoe stun and slow it gives you.

PROS:
-Pretty good early ganks, shines at level 6 (Psst, camp bot lane. You will kill both enemy laners almost every single time at level 6).
-Decent clear speed.
-Dive potential.
-Scales well into the late game.
-Decent Dragon/Baron control when ult is up.
-Can still be useful if behind.

CONS:
-Her ult is a skill shot and can take some getting use to.
-Teammates might flame and blame you if they get behind.
-Counter-jungling can set Leona back early.
-If you're the only one with CC you can be peeled off the carries pretty easily.
-Relies on team to proc passive to utilize her damage.

Blue Side:
If I'm on blue side, I'll start with the Krugs first for the extra person to help leash and then proceed to the Red buff. Skip the Raptor camp and kill the wolves and smite for vision of your jungle while you go back to base. Then head to blue or kill gromp, then blue.

Red Side:
If I'm on red side, I'll start with Gromp first again for the extra help you get from your bot lane. Get the blue buff, get wolves. Then depending how well bot leashed you could try to get red and finish with Krugs for extra gold to buy a ward or two. But I tend to go back and buy, then grab red.


Then look for a gank. If you don't see one, I personally like to control the vision of the river and get the scuttle crabs for the gold and I like the fact you take no damage getting that monster for the amount of gold you get. If you don't have any options for ganks try to find out where the enemy jungler is. Get a few wards in their jungle and set up for a gank and put pressure on the opposite side of the map or set up for a counter gank.

If you're controlling the vision in the river you shouldn't need to ward dragon, but make sure if you're against a jungler who can take an early dragon to ward it if your support doesn't. You want to control the dragons.

If you can, try to avoid using your E (Zenith Blade) to engage and use it as a gap closer. If your ally can engage that would be ideal, but most likely you're going to have to use E to engage.

Go in, try to use your abilities on the same champ and make sure to proc your passive before using the next ability for the max amount of damage.

Grab a sweeper, sweep the brush closest to your top or bot turret and try ganking through lane. It can catch your enemy off guard and give you more room to work with to secure the kill.

Make sure you use your ultimate to do one of two things in team fights. Use it as a way to pick someone off or land it on multiple champions for a hard engage. The second way is if your carries getting jumped has been a problem, to use your ult to peel for your carries and proceed to keep peeling and keep them safe.

With a lot of champs you need to figure out your role on the team. Are you there to split push? Are you there to flank and assassinate? Are you the engage? Are you the tank to peel for the carries?

Make sure you're focused on what your team needs you to do because the answer in most games is you're going to be both engage and peel. Adapt to the situation and recognize if you go in and there is no one to peel for the carries, then the carries will probably die first and you'll follow. If someone else initiates and you just sit back and protect the ADC while everyone else dies you're going to either die or have no help to defend turrets and you'll possibly lose objective control. So again, be aware that your kit allows you to peel, engage, and gives you the chance to quickly transition from the engage to becoming the peel and vice versa.

Leona is an aggressive, ganking tank jungler that scales very well as the game progresses and can give you control over a lot of team fights, as well as objectives. Hopefully this guide will give her more exposure to the jungle this season.