Greetings, fans of Leona!

In this guide I hope to shed a little light on the latest addition to the League of Legends.

A special thanks to Searz for the guide format, also to Piksel4o for showing it to me and last, but not least, to jhoijhoi, for taking her time to review my former guide and provide me with constructive critizm which I used to update and repost.

Explanation on Abbreviations, in case you don't understand any shortened text in my guide.

Before we move on, I promise thorough explanation of everything I do, but if something bothers you, leave a comment below!

Items and skills have links attached to them for extra information, courtesy of the League of Legends Wiki. Enjoy!

The TL;DR version of my guide. Useful if you don't feel like reading too much or need some quick tips before champion selection.

Runes:
9x Greater Mark of Desolation Greater Mark of Desolation;
9x Greater Seal of Resilience
9x Greater Glyph of Warding
3x Greater Quintessence of Fortitude;

Masteries:
Standard 9/0/21 or 9/21/0, with the former focusing on increased move speed and mana regen and the latter focusing on dodge.

Summoner spells:
Flash and Exhaust. Ignite for a stronger early game, Fortify for more team utility.

Skill order:
> > > . Level shield over stun if you take mid.

Tips:
- Large casting range on ultimate ;
- Stun resets your auto- attack timer;
- Dash has a built- in 0.5 second snare, space out your abilities to maximize your CC on a single- target;
- The duration of the resistances the shield gives you is increased only if the explosion hits an enemy target.

Items:
Focus on tank items depending on the enemy team. Get an early Sheen, finish Trinity Force last.

Leona serves a very specific role in any team. Although various builds are available, I think they shouldn't strain too much from her obvious design point. Leona is:

- A durable fighter, adds a lot to her role of a tank;
- A powerful combo- initiator. -> -> -> makes you feel ninja.
- With a cooldown reduction build build, excellent disabler and gap - closer;
- Does reasonably well on all lanes, although her strength is the duo- lane;
- A great Utility hero, her passive encourages players to build her as a viable team member, not just a 1v1 facestomper.
- Overall good farmer with two AoE spells;
- A viable champion in every stage of the game;
- Very strong chaser, her abilities chain together for a relentless pursuit;
- a perfect candidate for a Commando Skin, let's see what Riot thinks about it.

With all that said, here are some key points to remember. Leona is not:
- A potent damage dealer;
- Solo hero, depends strongly on her team;
- A viable jungler;
- Useful in any way if not played properly.

As a monk from the famous World of the Disk once said, "That's a tough one."
Why would you go Utility on a tank hero? First let's look at both trees.


To summarize, the Defense Tree offers very little to support its role for tanks. Ardor is practically useless on Leona, and Veteran's Scars loses its effects very early on.
Meanwhile, Utility offers noticable stat increases, the most major of which is your ability to use way more often.
The only reason I would favor Defense is because Nimbleness has great synergy with the optional Dodge Seals. Of course, you can always go 0/9/21, sacrificing some magic penetration and cooldown reduction for the extra dodge and movement speed, while still getting all the necessary masteries in Utility. This is further enhanced by purchasing Ninja Tabi.
These Masteries give you solid 9% CDR to begin with. Add a Frozen Heart and you'll be near cap value.

Note: The change to Masteries is only noticable once you've played Leona 10 - 15 games. For people who are just now starting to learn her, I suggest playing the standard 9/21/0 or 0/21/9 build until you feel comfortable with the switch.

Optional Runes

Sometimes you just have to be the "scout" of your team. Either your support will want to take something he needs, such as Clarity or you may lack one entirely. Clairvoyance has a very low cooldown, even lower when improved, so make sure you scout the map constantly to avoid or setup ganks. Here are the best locations to reveal:

Mid Lane / Triple Bush

Blue Golem Buff / Wolf camp

Red Lizard Buff / Golem camp

Side Lane / Double Brush

Side Lane / Gank Brush

Dragon Brush

Dragon / Red Lizard buff

Baron Nashor buff

Notes: Clairvoyance reveals any brush area, which is what makes this spell so powerful. It also reveals a very large portion of the map, so always try to scout multiple locations of interest with a single Clairvoyance. This is also a nice spell to back you up when pushing a tower.

Leona's damaging spells affect the target with Sunlight for 3.5 seconds. When allied champions deal damage to those targets they consume the Sunlight debuff to deal 20 / 35 / 50 / 65 / 80 / 95 / 110 / 125 / 140 additional magic damage. Leona is unable to activate the additional damage herself.
A very solid passive. The damage increases with levels, reaching 140. Given the fact that all your spells do damage, this can add a lot of pain in teamfights. Note that each ally does this damage depending on their own magic penetration, not yours. You cannot activate your passive, so always have a teammate around to maximize your damage output.


Leona's next basic attack will deal additional magic damage and stun the target for 1.25 seconds.
This is your bread-and-butter skill. It resets your auto attack timer and has a nice stun built to it. It has a low mana cost, making it a viable last-hitting tool. The stun is extremely powerful early on but does not scale with leveling.


Leona raises her shield to gain bonus Armor and Magic Resistance for 3 seconds. When the effect ends she deals magic damage to nearby enemies and prolongs the effect for a bonus 3 seconds if any enemies are struck.
Your signature tank skill. This skill has a nice twist as it does decent damage after 3 seconds. Your combo should always be timed so Eclipse explodes when you dash to an enemy. This gives your foe less time to react with an escape ability. The bonus to resistances is extended only if you manage to hit an enemy with the explosion, so keep that in mind.


Leona projects a solar image of her sword, which deals magic damage to all enemies in a line. When the image fades, the last enemy champion struck will be immobilized for .5 seconds and Leona will dash to them.
A powerful dash. As mentioned earlier, you should take only one point it. Zenith Blade is a difficult skillshot, as the hitbox is really small. There are a couple of important things to note.
1) Zenith Blade warps you to the last enemy hit. The damage is largely ignorable, so always aim for the target you want to catch in your combo.
2) After warping, Zenith Blade immobilizes the target for a brief moment. This is a snare, not a stun, so abilities such as and will not be interrupted. It works on the same principle as Lux's snare . For maximum effect, activate your shield after you've dashed to your target. That extra half a second might just be what you needed to take your enemy down.


After a brief delay, Leona calls down a beam of solar energy dealing damage and slowing enemies by 80% for 1.5 seconds. Enemies in the center of the beam are stunned instead of slowed.
A very powerful ultimate. Some of its subtle uses are assisting ganks early on or as a last resort to escaping, but it truly shines in a team clash. Resist your temptation to cast it on a single enemy in a teamfight, unless you absolutely need to. Even if you don't stun, severely slowing 2- 3 enemies is often prefferable to CC-ing just one target. I strongly recommend you smart-cast this ability, as it makes the stun way easier to land. The stun zone will always be around your cursor.

Shield of Daybreak

Range: Melee
Cooldown: 11 / 10 / 9 / 8 / 7
Mana Cost: 45 / 50 / 55 / 60 / 65

Eclipse

Range: 500
Cooldown: 14
Mana Cost: 60

Zenith Blade

Range: 700
Cooldown: 13 / 12 / 11 / 10 / 9
Mana Cost: 60

Solar Flare

Range: 1200
Cooldown: 90 / 75 / 60
Mana Cost: 100 / 150 / 200

> > >

Your priority is maxing out your stun first . This will increase your overall team presence, give you a nice last - hitting tool and reduce the cooldown of this ability. Note that the stun duration does NOT change.

Your shield is necessary for effectively taking damage for your team. It's also a great farming tool.

Obviously, take your ultimate whenever available.

Your dash serves more of a utility purpose. Its cooldown and damage are not worth investing points into. Also, it is NOT certain damage, as is a line skillshot. One point at level 4 works lovely.

Tanking is a tricky art. Always choose your gear to best counter the enemy. The build I've described works best against a balanced team.

Starting items:

Core items:

Optional Items

Item paths vs AD or AP

The Casters Begone path: > > > > >

The Unbreakable path: > > > > >

These are my favourite item choices for Leona. Generally, you should stay away from any AP items, as Leona's scalings are very poor. I know for a fact that more damage-oriented items work nicely on her, although I don't think that's her role. If you find another item path that suits you better, please share it in the comments!

There's a reason why I've included another build and it's to show you the diversity in Leona's utility. While both builds are off-tank with Trinity Force , they focus on completely different gameplay, skill order and itemization.

1) The second build focuses on the Defensive path, taking Nimbleness and Veteran's Scars, along with your core items and runes, gives you about 20% dodge chance late game and 643 hit points on level 1 without health items;

2) As you can see, I level up Eclipse over Shield of Daybreak. The reason behind it is Eclipse makes your farming easier and makes you tankier. What it doesn't do is give you consistent crowd control. You may think 4 seconds off Shield of Daybreak is a small feat, but it will often decide a kill in the early game. Again, the second build does not focus on aggression.

3) Because you no longer benefit from Meditation nor Awareness, your early game dominance is slightly diminished. Thus, you need to play safer and not be forced to recall. Rushing Philosopher's Stone Philosopher's Stone is extremely solid for this build.

4) A solid choice for this build are 3 Quintessences of Fortitude. However, my recommendation for experienced players are 3 Quintessences of Swiftness. Because of Leona's low base movement speed and her need to be up in people's faces in fights, these have great synergy with your kit.

5) Why Shurelya's Reverie? This is in my opinion the greatest counter to every "faceroll melee champion" in the game. The issue with their balance is they need to stay close to your allies, thus champions like and will do extreme amounts of damage really fast. Here comes your AoE speed buff, empowering your team with skyhigh movement speed. 3 seconds are just enough for a squishy target to escape an assassin. I recommend this item only in Build 2, because you're focused on dodge, thus your build hard- counters melee compositions. Once again, this is an extremely powerful choice for a utility hero, can be built straight up from Philosopher's Stone and works wonders even with the first build.

6) Because you cannot reach Intelligence in Utility, you need to adapt your item choices to complement the loss of 6% of CDR. Viable choices are: Soul Shroud, Ionian Boots of Lucidity and, of course, Shurelya's Reverie.

Leona is a great duo-laner. Here are some excellent lane-mates who can fully utilize your crowd-control abilities.


Generally, any skillshot heroes or heroes who need to get close to do their damage are perfect lanemates for Leona.
Early on, your passive is not so noticable. However, the base damage on your abilities is really powerful. A standard strategy is charge your shield for a second in the bush, then dash in and stun with your shield . Zenith Blade has a very fast travelling particle, making it difficult to avoid if cast from a brush. If you don't overcommit in your attempts at harassment you should be able to establish lane control. Note that Leona is best suited for the bottom lane. She is not a good solo laner and due to her lack of ranged harassment she may be denied experience and gold.
If all goes well, you should recall when you have the money for Boots of Speed and a Heart of Gold. Early game agression is important on Leona and your lane mate should be aware of it. Your > > combo is both extremely powerful and relatively safe, due to Eclipse's resistance boost.

I see a lot of Leona players relying on their Solar Flare only when they've closed the gap with Zenith Blade .

First of all, solar rays hurt like hell so stop dropping them on your head.
Second, your ultimate has amazing range, abuse it if you're good. Stick to a brush and aim it when the enemy comes closer to last hit. Following quickly with your standard combo not only results in a more surprising CC-chain, but also gives your ally more time to close the gap and help your burst down that adorable Ashe you caught with your blade.

Another thing you should consider is the amount of utility your ultimate can deliver in a gank or teamfight. If your spidey senses are tingling and you sense a dragon fight about to commence, hold on to your Solar Flare . The same goes for any gank attempts.

The combination of amazing CC + sniper range make Leona's ultimate an invaluable tank tool. Its cooldown isn't that big, so if some poor fool flashes away, don't think twice and call down the laz0r!

Following the general pattern of a passive play, followed by an agressive level 6 move are also Kassadin , Kennen , and others. Again, the rule is not to play defensively, but beating them at their own game with a tank- counter.

These are some of the examples of the typical mids. Because your playstyle has changed and your AP carry is no longer in position to farm mid, it's your job to make the most out of your better farm. Generally I rush Aegis of the Legion if I'm on mid as it gives my team an early advantage.
Again, tanks are the greatest counter to the typical level 6 burst on mid. My default runepage gives 52 Magic Resistance on level 1, further improved by Eclipse . Most tanks have either some skill that helps them soak a lot of damage, such as Galio - or Malphite - , or a way of quickly regenerating health, such as ChoGath's or Garen's , meaning they'll either tank the enemy's burst with little damage taken or will quickly regenerate it, making the role of the enemy nuker obsolete. Remember, assassins are generally extremely reliant on those early- game kills. If denied, they quickly lose their bursting potential.
As Leona on mid, you want to prioritize your shield over your stun , again taking one point in Zenith Blade at level 4. Remember to always activate Eclipse when you feel agressive play, it will significantly reduce damage taken and punish the enemy with proper counter- play. You should always factor the enemy's cooldowns - if a caster wastes a spell to last hit, this is your chance to act.

By now you should have reasonable resistances. More importantly, you should have your Sheen.

- This item takes time and effort to master its potential. What Sheen allows you to do is boost your next basic attack greatly every 2 seconds by activating a skill. This item requires fluidity in your playstyle. Always think about maximizing the damage output by spacing out your abilities. If you know your target won't get away, time your skills so they're about 2- 3 seconds apart. is a great way to initiate your combo as it has a Sheen-friendly 3 second timer.

Your job at this stage of the game is being where your team needs you- securing dragon, assisting a gank, helping an escape, etc. Leona has awesome utility and your teammates will often depend on it. You probably won't have enough of both resistances, so focus on stacking one first, taking note at both the enemy's farm as well as any potentially fed carry and react accordingly.

By now you should have most of your tank gear ready. This means you're not a desirable target, giving you plenty of opportunity to do your thing.
Rush first, tag as many people as you can with Eclipse's explosion for . Generally, you always want to be in the enemy's face, softening and disabling enemies for your allies.
-> -> -> -> are some of Leona's optimal combos. The dash gets you in range for the active slow of Randuin's and Exhaust makes it easier to land Solar Flare (but save it if your CC is enough already to take the target down). Soak as much damage as possible for your teammates, and make kills easier for them. Leona is one of the best tanks in the game, because with the proper team she can easily assure the enemy carry's death.
In the case the enemy's engaging, you want to play more defensively. Stick to your squishier allies, CC-ing any assassins that get too close, while keeping the enemy's carry at bay with Solar Flare .
Always remember to spread your damaging abilities, so your allies can take full advantage of Sunlight.

Thank you for reading my guide!
I hope it was as exciting and informative as you have hoped. If it wasn't, leave a comment below and let me know! I accept constructive criticizm. I apologuise for any possible grammar mistakes.
Leona is a very unique tank champion that demands a different approach to be maximally effective. She is a welcome addition to any premade team that understands her role.
So, put on your Sunfire cape, get out there and break their lines!

30/07 - Updated guide released, old one archived, added a Quick Guide section.
30/07 - Added the standard 9/21/0 build for Leona, which focuses on Cooldown Reduction and Dodge.
3/08 - Added brand new "Side note: Clairvoyance tips" and "Range of abilities" screenshots, fixed the spacing between columns, some grammar mistakes.
10/08 - New patch released. Tiny buffs to Leona's gameplay:

* Shield of Daybreak cooldown reduced to 11/10/9/8/7 seconds from 12/11/10/9/8 seconds;
* Zenith Blade: Mana cost reduce to 60 at all ranks from 60/65/70/75/80;
* Particle adjusted to more accurately reflect the area of effect (actual area of effect unchanged);
* Leona will now attempt to attack the target if she uses Zenith Blade to jump to a target;
* Solar Flare cooldown reduced to 90/75/60 seconds from 105/90/75 seconds;
* Fixed a bug where Eclipse would break enemy spell shields on activation.

10/08 - Added an "Immortal Leona (Build 2) section in my guide.
10/08 - Added an intro picture for my guide, hope you like it!


18/10 - Added a Riven section in my Early game chapter.

19/10 - Added a "Level 6! What now" chapter. This should help with the things I didn't explain thoroughly about Solar Flare.

I decided not to put a Wall of Fame for me. I think it goes without saying I've had very good games with her, but I want to see you succeeding with my guide, so share photos if you have any and I'll post them in a Hall of Fame section!