Please read the ITEMS section at least before you downvote me

Leona is for me a great tankand should be played as one. You will get some kills but honestly what you are going to enjoy more is feeding your lane partner

Pros
-Great tank
-Lots of CC
-Great initializer
-short CD's

Cons
-needs intuition when you initialize
-you may find yourself alone among 5 enemies while your team is still on its way
- fairly low damage output
-not a good farmer

i prefer


because all your skill are AP based


because you are the TANK and it gives you a great headstart

The mastery build is more or less how i play malphite. 9/21/0
Mostly Tank with a pinch of m penetration to help your damage output a bit.

Start with its great when you wait in the brushes and stun the first guy trying to face check them. It gives you a great opportunity for first blood if you have a heavy dps/stunner with you in the lane

At level 2 get Shield of Daybreaker to complete your initializing combo. If you are against melees in the lane its a great thing to have. E+Q combo will definately catch off guard someone feeling safe behind enemy creeps and can give you a nice kill.

if you lane against range champs you might consider getting instead of . No need to say you have to max your first. Its going to be your farming skill plus it does substancial damage.

i max after because it deals more damage than and i tend to use it more so i really need it to be in a short cooldown as soon as possible.

it totally UP TO YOU. if you want shorter CDs on Shield of Daybreaker max it right after .

Will get you out of a bad or closer for a stun/slow it's great either way


it's great for any tank. He can be anywhere to help the team, backdoor, get to a lane quickly keeping the XP/farming up all the time. I especially use it when i get enought money to get a Philosopher's Stone and teleport back into the lane quickly so i can get this gold per 10 asap.

anything else except will work fine on Leona

Rush Philosopher's Stone ASAP and i mean it. when you get the money go back buy it and teleport back to lane. You are not such a good farmer and you can rely only on your or for last hitting creeps. but in most cases your partner is going to be better at farming

Stay in the lane as long as possible after that or if things go bad consider buying a also.

In your next trip back to base buy Mercury's Boots. they provide some nice M resist and of course Tenacity.

Now the weird item you all going to downvote me for that will later on will become . The reason i buy it it's because it's cheap CD reduction. Plus the fact that it gives nice AP and Mana regen makes it a great item. Also because Leona is great with CD reduction and the other item she can get is i really prefer when i need armor plus you dont always need armor.With that in mind it makes it a great item from my point of view.

DO NOT BUY IT UNLESS YOU ARE FEELING COMFORTABLE FARMING/GETTING ASSISTS IN EARLY GAME

and i mean it. there is absolutely no point in getting such an item if you are getting shredded in your lane.if you do just skip it and go for more tanky items depending on the situation.

Usually after that i get to boost health and of course Cooldown reduction!!!!. so the big question--->when do you turn the items you got to there isnt an answer. if you need cash just leave them like this and continue getting money from Philosopher's Stone if you are feeling ok on the progress of your item build and that you dont DESPERATELY need that extra cash buy it.

At this point you are on your own.

if the enemy team has more Attack Damage champs i usually go for


Ability Power opposing team
and either after that or completing and

Hybrid opposing team
. At this point you should check
-who is more fed from the other team
-is he AP/AD
-do i die easily on 1v1 so i buy resistances? or i get focused so i should buy resistances+health
-if you are still in laning phase...what are your opponents (AD/AP) and act accordingly

YOU SHOULD ALWAYS ASK THESE QUESTION TO YOUR SELF WHEN YOU PLAY A TANK

depending on the answers you either go for and or and ...or any combination you see fit.


As your last item you can add great for the magic resist it gives you and ofc the penetration it comes along!

Your combo is W+E+Q--->+R if needed

+ + Shield of Daybreaker

always remember that will get you to the last target you hit (furthest) so try either to save it after you engage and focus the squishy carry. or initialize and be in the middle of the fight if you have many ranged allies to nuke opponents down.


HAS A HUDGE RANGE.
use that to your advantage.
-when chasing enemies.
-when a group of enemies is gathered to initialize a team fight its a great opener (specially if they are close to each other) followed by your combo.
-when you are a bit far to someone + an ally is being targeted and you need a few secs to save him

i found out that laning with a heavy dps or even better another disabler works like a charm. i had great success laning with




these combos are just insane!i will test more and i will get back to you.

i will update this section soon as i upload some pictures of the results i got from this build

but till then my last game were like this

13/7/28
finished game with Banshee's, Shurelyas, Mercury's Boots,Morello's,Force of Nature, Thornmail