Sparkzbarca, your comment is right on point!

I forgot to mention that I take the 2 minions at start to replenish my HP after tanking for the jungler. If the jungler starts on the other side though I take one.
I also enjoy the upside of taking two because of the faster level, the downside is pushing the lane and being open to an early gank which is why I try to take them when they are at the lowest HP possible.

I did fail to specify that and indeed is rewarding. I bait ward a lot and it's so easy to secure some gold and make them consume those wards.

Usually I don't see people who ward a bush where Leona is so I take E. They let's say are more careful and ward properly without wasting it like that. + If I duo with an ADC he knows to focus those wards and I just AA twice or once and the ADC takes the ward.

Okay, Morgana is something questionable. I have only met really low Morgana players and that's why she's so low in my opinion as a counter for Leona. (You can also engage after she uses her bind which is how I do it most of the time)

Annie can be killed easily early game. She is quite squishy, once her stun is go she can't harm you. I'd actually say she is tougher at 6 cause she can flash ult while the ADC kills us and with her having dealt a lot of damage as well. I wouldn't even get the chance to engage after her ult. If I'd get out alive I'd most likely don't have enough HP to continue fighting.

I haven't been matchmade against Jannas that often. Her Q is however frustrating to say the least. The ult same. She is quite the disengager, heh? I had no problems winning the few games against her though.

Worst lane I can get is against Brand. I totally hate that bastard and I'm making myself learn him on bott as well. I find his damage/poke and stun to be a great force on bott lane.

I will edit this guide, as it is still a work in progress anyway, and add the info you put in your comment as well! Thank you for your insight.

So some things I think you should have mentioned as a gold V leona main myself with like 1k games or so.

relic shield taking two minions at start is a bit situational

If you end up with a lateish start for whatever reason, jungle invade, screwed up leash or your just late to lane from recalling due to taking invade damage whatever.

you want to take a single creep because there is a very narrow window of time where you can take two creeps and still have a charge in time for the cannon minion in two waves.
If you take two at start too late you'll probably miss executing a cannon and even a melee from that second wave and have to either settle for the least gold off a ranged or wait for the third wave and get your melee.

You didn't really say either why to take two, certainly take one but there are upsides and downsides to the second.

The big upside is if you take two quickly and deny the enemy support from doing so you can early lvl 2 and abuse that for huge damage/ blow summoners pots etc

however you are denying yourself the heal off those two unless you tanked the jungle hard and guaranteed denying your adc any heal.

You failed to mention the ability to use your Q to AA>>Q>>AA and clear a ward before it goes invisible. sitting in the bush and baiting someone to drop a ward and then clearing it instantly can feel quite rewarding and is pretty unique to leona as far as supports, almost no other ones have an AA reset to do this with. You'd have to like go something off meta like support trundle to do this otherwise.

This by the way is why I think your E Q lvl 1-2 start isn't as Q E. Wards go down quick and denying them off a Q can really punish your opponent and let you blade from brush or force them to waste mana dropping AOE's into the brush to try to zone you because they can't see where you are in it.

I do really disagree with morgana not being quite the hard counter, yes you have to play around black shield and you can win that matchup with careful play but morgana's response to you dashing to her isnormally to insta cast bind which can't miss and now you can't get ot the ADC to land a stun.

You have to both get her bind on CD and her shield and your adc has to do a good job of prioritizing however isn't black shielded. that might mean he has to go for her which isn't what he's going to be inclinded to do.

I would say if you haven't found morgana that difficult it's because most skilled morgs go mid more than support. I find myself completely neutered and just babysitting against a good morgana. I'm not really threatened by her but I can apply zero pressure.

Even if everything goes right and you get her to shield herself and jump the adc you could wind up with him flashing and casting heal and escaping and now you have to do it AGAIN in the next few minutes or it's all for naught.

Janna though less popular is areally frustrating match up as well.

Annie you seem to place pretty low but i'd actually say annie is quite annoying until 6 and certainly is one of the supports that has an even stronger lvl 2/3 than you do.

Once your six i'd say you win because you ahve a stronger six than she does, her bear is deadly but your too tanky to be bursted down and if you engage on her and stun her hard she can't really get to your adc to cycle her spells on him. If she blows Q and E on you even if she does ult the adc it won't be enough to kill him or save her.

But any damage mage is going to win lvl 1/2 because your not a champion which has high HP that would allow you to counter high damage. Armor and MR aren't nearly as good early on when there working from a small HP bar. something like voli is much better if you want to win the lvl 2 for sure.
Support brand for example or vel koz also should scare you pre 6 and you play passive until you outscale them.