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Leona Build Guide by

Leona: Don't stare at her for too long

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Leona Build Guide By Updated on

Guide Discussion (5) More Leona Guides

Spells:

Fortify

Teleport

Ability Order

Leona Passive Ability

Mission Statement

This Guide is to provide a simplistic and straight-forward guide to a Leona play style. Intended for Summoners as a quick reference while playing.

Introduction

*Disclaimer* Leona is not the perfect tank in every situation, in fact she is really only ideal in high damage low cc groups to provide the necessary initiation. The best recommendation I can give is to have a couple of Tank champions and switch depending on group make-up, selecting the ideal tank for the ideal situation.

Goals and Objectives

Pros/Cons

PROS
Good laning harassment
Strong Initiator
Good peeler/chaser

CONS
Poor Damage output
Low Magic Resist
Long Cooldown area of effect crowd controls
Not strong solo laner

Skill Sequence

Goals in Skill Sequence

Coupled with a high damage laning partner, Zenith Blade and Shield of the Daybreak allow for early gank attempts, and also allows for early lane control (Health regen items and hp pot allow you to be a little aggressive early). Avoid using Eclipse early to farm!! During the early stage of the game, your eclipse will not get an many last hits, but it will allow you minions the chance to advance to far into enemy territory (thereby eliminating the chance for ganks)

Summoner Abilities

Synapsis of Summoner Abilities
Fortify

Teleport

In this chapter I will attempt to justify why I choose these two abilities over all else. Of all options in character customization these are the most dynamic and subject to change, ultimately it breaks down to player preference and play style. Especially with Leona.

Fortify- The reasoning I use Fortify is pretty straight forward, to either prevent the enemy from backdooring a turret (the process by which a high speed assassin, like Yi, will charge a turret away from the main battle then flee). Another great way to use fortify is too use when an opponent is tower diving you. Most tower dives are calculated so that the enemy can kill you then barely escape. By fortifying as he's diving, it increases the turret damage and attack speed to a level high enough to kill the opponent.

Teleport- During early game, teleport is one of the best tools to keep a presence in lane. By having teleport, this allows you to blue pill back and buy gold per 5 items then returning without losing travel time and thereby keep exp gains on par with opponents. Although many summoners skills are highly fungible, teleport is a must in any true tank. Also makes a great initiator, many times when an enemy sees a teleport in bound, they prep they're abilities for who is coming by opening with stuns before you land you can give time for you allies to get into position to chase.

*Disclaimer* If you do use teleport to try to initiate, make sure your allies are closing, otherwise you are a pig to the slaughter. Best time to try and use teleport to initiate is actually when a battle has already initiated, find a minion and try to get in there.

Fungible Summoner Skill Replacements
Ignite for Fortify- Lower cooldown compared to fortify along with the added bonus of a ranged dot is very viable for Leona, especially as a last hit spell, instead of tower diving.

Items and Order

Goals and Objectives

The best thing I can recommend to any aspiring Leona players, Establish Gold per 5 item as soon as possible. By using philosopher stone and heart of gold (HoG even before reg boots), allows you to hide in lane bushes and set up ganks instead of having to worry about farming, this also allows for less competition for mobs with your laning partner.

The next part of my build order is cooldown reductions, HoG and PS give you enough laning and mid game health to work on cooldown reduction. Through using Boots of lucidity and Kindle gem, this gives enough cooldown reduction to keep pressure on fleeing enemies.

Once you get Kindlegem, begin picking up warmog pieces, especially Giant Belt and Ruby Crystal. Do not get Shureyla's Reverie until Warmogs is done, but get it before Trinity Force The speed boost is nice, but the gold per 5 is much more important at that stage, but the speed boost is more important than the damage, you will never do that much damage, but the speed will help you stop a fleeing enemy and allowed those that can do damage to get to them.

Final Build items are designed to increase damage, but mostly for tower killing. Because of cooldown reductions, your skills are up too fast for you to be auto-attacking champs. Atmas impaler gives a substantial boost to damage (mainly b/c you have 4,200 hp). Sunfire Cape is the very last item, it is just a replacement for Heart of Gold, (which you won't need gold per 5 at that time)

Runes

Goals and Objectives

The goal of runes is too supplement the lack of armor and magic resist the item build provides. Because Eclipse gives bonuses to both, the need to purchase armor and MR items is somewhat diminished but additional armor and MR on a tank is never bad, especially early game. Increased health is also an all around plus for a tank, (especially one with atmas impaler)