Leona is often overlooked but is one of my favorite champions now. She is just so fun to play and for being a pure tank, she does have some descent damage with this CDR build. If your looking for a champ to p'own with you will want to look else where. Your job is to tank, initiate and fight with teammates. You can CC like crazy and chase down just about anyone trying to get away.

I see some AP builds, but they just don't work with her. She does MUCH more damage with cool down and a tank build. Giving her lots of time to get out multiple combos while staying in the thick of the fight. You want to start fights, then watch over your team. You have lots of stuns and you will need to use them to get enemies off your teammates.

Take Eclipse (w) first and max this whenever possible. Then at level 2 get your Zenith Blade (e). Now you are able to harass by activating , then to your target. You will do a good small burst of damage and your passive will be applied to the enemy making your laning partner do more damage.

I like with Leona. Then I usually get . Dropping in a fight will quickly turn games around.

You could also get it works well with her.

- She really does not need and I am a fan of Clarity on some champs)
- You could get Ghost instead of Flash, but Flash is better with her.

I prefer flat runes for early game. I get about 20 Armor, 7 Magic Resist, 52 Health and 5% CDR.
You could take a little less Armor and add magic resist instead to even those numbers. I prefer the extra armor for the minions and helps if you need to tower dive early to finish off enemies.

You will need some farm but let your carry get 2/3's of the laning phase if possible.
You are also very capable of top solo if your team needs you too. In fact Leona is very good at this position, I've solo'd against Monkey King top and was able to kill him a few times. Just play smart and harass with your , once your hit the enemy your shield is extended another 3 seconds. However the enemy is usually retreating after your , , . She has some great small bursts for early harass. With your range your enemy can even be completely zoned out. When Leona strikes an enemy with then all your skills will hit so her burst is an enemy deterrent.

I much prefer the dual lane, It's so easy to get kills perhaps with a good lane partner. You are great stunner and you will be very tanky with your shield up giving your teammate plenty of time to take them down. Once you learn the
After laning phase, you can finally start using to clear mobs and finish them off with an Eclipsee. Most will be dead and if you have a sunfire by now, they will all be dead.

Start with the and a and build into a Philosopher's Stone. I would get the first 5 items in that order, then finish the core items when you can. You could also pick up Boots early as you may not have enough gold to get something else. Mid game you could also pick up if you feel its needed.

While most characters need boots fairly quick with her zenith blade she can get around pretty quick to different targets when needed. If you get in trouble just use your flash.
For your last item you can basically get anything, I chose Warmogs since CDR was max, resists were good and health and health regen will help.

*** These 3 items are an absolute must! ***


** Highly Recommended **


If the game last a long time, pick your last item.
- Top off your build with godly health and regen.
Or Perhaps a - Enemy team has a lot of stunners? You may want to pick this one up early.

You are the teams front line Hero! You will be tower diving and you launching yourself into the fray and adding Daylight to the enemies. Your will almost always be up late game with this cool down reduction build so use it and keep it active! It's your most important spell it not only helps you but spreads your passive making your teammates do more damage.

Once your master her skills timing, then you will start adding in her Ultimate . The bullseye area will stun and outside will slow. I've had so many people stand at their tower with 40% health or less early game. This screams please kill me!

Your Ultimate has a nice range, you can land your ultimate , activate then , to them. This is Leona's Shock and Awe!

Here's one of my games I wrote a blog about.

Been playing Leona this week, she is pretty awesome and underestimated a lot. Ashe wanted me top, she went bot with Soraka and Nid was mid. It turned out well for me, I was solo against Monkey King I wasn't sure what would happen, but I was able to harass him early and often and stopped him from farming and finally killed him at lvl 4 with a quick tower dive and flashed out. Jarv came over and held tower until he got back. I kept hara***ing him as I was farming very nicely and teleported home and back and boots and philo stone. Twitch was wandering so I got a pink ward for the lane, but it was jarv who ganked me at 6 and ulted me from the bush but I was able to flash out without taking any damage at all. Monkey King was zoned out pretty good so he was never close to help on the ganks. It was the first time I got flash, I wanted to see if I could escape ganks with her better, the answer is YES. Around level 7, jarv and kat came up to gank me but I was able to escape with a quick stun to Kat's ult and walked away nearly full heatlh. Nid came up and Nunu while they were near our top tower. I speared kat, then ulted jarv and Kat and we were able to kill all 3. Nunu spent most of the game near bot as that lane had a little trouble. Pantheon and Twitch were 5-0 and 4-0 from bottom lane so they were the ones to watch.

A fight broke out mid and it looked pretty bad, we had a minion still alive, I teleported on them all just AS pantheon ported in, I ulted the area with a stun/slow and it pretty much turned the fight and we won the battle apart from the death before I got there. Monkey did get away, but died a few seconds later defending mid tower. My team was quick, every time launched in to stun, they were following me in.

I was up 5-0 very quickly after that and built sunfire and another chain armor as they were mostly DPS keeping my level 1 boots for a while. Leona has so much CC she can keep an enemy locked down for a little bit (her spear if it lands takes you to your target like amumu bandage toss).

After another skirmish at top tower, I ported home to finish Randuin's and Shurelya's. There was fight near mid in the river, kat was in a bush and i was chasing her, but she was JUST a hair out of my sword's throw range. Ashe somehow landed her arrow on kat's turn in the bush, I blindly sword's tossed and landed my combo on kat and we finished her off before she could jump.( I used my triple stun combo). At this point they were mostly running from us even defending towers with Soraka healing and Nid off healing it was a slaughter at this point and we never had any deaths once we grouped pushed, we could rush and kill them all. Nice having a good team!

I actually did a good amount of damage, I was about the same as everyone else that game. Then looking at the 2nd image below, it was mostly magic damage.
Most players don't realize Leona's biggest power, its her passive that adds sunlight to enemy players (stackable 3 times and ONLY if your spells land on them for a few seconds) causing all other teammates to use the sunlight for up to 400 odd extra damage. Leona cannot use the sunlight just her teamates, this is why she is best always with a dps of some sort.