Leona General Guide by thedarkpassion
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TOP LANE
Spawn
Early game
Example build
Ability Sequence
Not Updated For Current Season
The masteries shown here are not yet updated for the current season, the guide author needs to set up the new masteries. As such, they will be different than the masteries you see in-game.
Masteries
Introduction
"Leona's parents were traditional Rakkorans, both bred for the heat of battle. To them, Leona was a problem child. She was capable of fighting as fiercely as any other -- including her childhood friend, Pantheon -- but she did not share their zeal for killing. She believed that the true worth of a soldier lay in her ability to defend and protect. When it came time for her Rite of Kor, a ceremony in which two Rakkoran teens battle to the death for the right to bear a relic-weapon, Leona refused to fight. For this, the Rakkoran leaders ordered her execution, but when they tried to strike the fatal blow, sunlight burst forth, bathing Mount Targon in light. As it faded, Leona stood unharmed and her executioners lay unconscious around her. The Solari immediately claimed Leona, demanding that her sentence be repealed. She donned the golden armor of the Solari and they bestowed upon her the sword and shield passed down from the ancient sun-warriors of legend. The Solari helped Leona focus her abilities, and when she was ready she left to join the League of Legends."
This is part of the history of one brave and honor warrior,no matter of her gender.I will show how to play with her and enjoy yourself playing with her.
Pros / Cons
Pros :
Leona is one of the tankiest support champions in the game.
She has an incredible amount of crowd control
She takes advantages of mistakes made by the other team by preparing chain cc for your team
She has a large aoe stun which can be nice with proper team compositions
Cons:
She has no sustain 
Heal in lane, for herself or her duo partner.
She's considered a snowball support champion. Without kills in lane, she tends to fall off mid and late game
She has low base stat values for HP and her movement speed is very slow (makes initiating hard).
Team Work
As a tank, you want to be in the middle of the enemy team and soak up as much damage as possible. However, realize that as a support champion you'll have very few items to make you truly tanky. You rely on your Eclipse (W) to mitigate a huge portion of incoming damage. As soon as Eclipse is down, you should retreat and go back into the fight when it's back up. You'll be a vulnerable and easily killed target without it.
You should maximize how much damage and utility you have by trying to hit as many people with your abilities as possible, and spacing your uses of abilities out so that your teammates have a chance to set off your passive, Sunlight. Sunlight is your main source of damage, though you're not the one directly dealing it. Anyone who hits an enemy after you've hit them with one of your abilities will deal additional magic damage.
The Laning Phase
As a support champion, the laning phase is fairly boring. You'll want to ward the river and the triangle brush adjacent to river to avoid ganks from the enemy jungler or mid. After that, you basically sit in lane and soak up experience, occasionally helping your laning partner go aggressive. Leona is by far the most aggressive support champion in the game. The only problem with her is that she doesn't give her laning partner any healing or shields, so you should try to pick your fights wisely.
When you finally hit level 3 and get all of your abilities, this is likely when you want to go on the aggressive. Landing all of your abilities and spacing them apart so that your teammate can take advantage of Sunlight will deal devastating damage and most of the time leave the enemy dead or very close to dead.
If you can't go aggressive for whatever reason, 
Leona is not a strong champion for playing passively. You'll essentially be sitting back for the vast majority of your time in lane and waiting for the right time to strike.
Strengths: Tankiness and Crowd Control
Leona is a ridiculous tank with her W ability, Eclipse . Basically, using this ability properly will grant you an enormous amount of armor and magic resist, which is why she's so hard to kill. Her natural +87 health and +3.1 armor per level make her a natural tank. Overall, it should be hard for the enemy team to focus her down and kill her despite the fact that she won't be getting very many items through the course of a game.
She also has three crowd control abilites. Her Q, Shield of Daybreak , is a 1.25 second stun. Her distance-closing skillshot, Zenith Blade , is a short snare. Her ultimate, Solar Flare , is a 1.5 second AoE slow and stun. She can effectively keep someone stunned for 2.75 seconds, and her Shield of Daybreak has a very short cooldown for repeated crowd control. The reason why she's so strong with all of this crowd control is that unlike other champions such as 
Sona, she can reach the back line of vulnerable enemy carries to stop them from doing damage. This is because she shrugs damage off as she runs into the enemy team and pounds in her crowd control.
Weakness: Reliance on Teammates
While she can indirectly deal enormous amounts of damage through her passive, Leona doesn't have very much direct damage. She's probably the worst champion for a one-versus-one scenario because half of her damage can't be activated unless a teammate is hitting her target. Because of this, she needs to always be with her team. Being off by her own makes her a useless champion that crowd controls enemies while hitting them for horrible damage.
Positioning
As a tank, you want to be in front of your carries, protecting them and soaking up damage while at the same time trying to hit and crowd control the enemy team. You'll have moments of vulnerability when your Eclipse is on cooldown, so you should retract and let your team's bruisers and melee take the heat when you think you're going to die. Being in the middle of the enemy team and hitting them all with your abilities to put the Sunlight debuff on them will maximize your usefulness and damage dealt to the enemy team.
TACTICS
The Laning Phase Before Level 6
Simply sit in brush and wait until your laning partner is ready to set up for some ridiculous damage with you. You do a lot of damage at level 3 because you have all 3 of your abilities for the Sunlight debuffs, so you should arrange to go aggressive as soon as you and your laning partner hit level 3. You'll likely land a kill or at least blow the enemy's summoner spells.
Because you're really not doing much except for sitting in brush and occasionally dipping out to play aggressively, try to use 
Clairvoyance to find the enemy jungler and watch out for your team's lanes.Call out MIA's and incoming ganks as you see them to give your team better communication.
Using Leona's Abilities in Succession
Most of the time, you activate Eclipse and jump onto someone with a Zenith Blade, wait until a teammate hits them for the Sunlight debuff, then follow up with a Shield of Daybreak. Before your Eclipse explodes and deals damage, a teammate should have broken the Sunlight debuff off of your target again. Spacing out your abilities is key.
You can throw in a Solar Flare before or after this combo of abilities, depending on how easy it is for you to land a Zenith Blade. If need be, you can initiate a fight with Solar Flare.
Using Eclipse Properly
As your Eclipse is about to explode, try to position yourself to hit the most number of enemies.
Sometimes you'll get caught up in trying to hit people with your Shield of Daybreak and position yourself in a way that you hit only one person. You should avoid doing so when the AoE on your Eclipse is large enough to hit entire teams during a fight.
COUNTERPICKS - DUO BOT
Leona has very few counters because as a support champion, your job to protect your teammates and be a utility to them is difficult to stop. Bruiser-type champions that shrug off crowd control and run at your carry as an unstoppable force make your job pretty hard, but not impossible. Basically any champion that makes it so you're helpless to tank damage for or protect them can be a counter to Leona. The best counters are those that interrupt her combo; champions like 
Janna and 
Alistar.
SYNERGIES
She does very well with champions that have consistent damage or damage-over-time effects, such as Brand during the mid/late game. These champions can almost instantly proc her Sunlight so that no instance of Sunlight is overlapped and wasted. Bottom lane, every AD carry works well with her because they are a source of pretty consistent damage and can take advantage of her stuns as well as her inherent ability to tank damage. During the laning phase she does well with champions that can combo with her stun and play very aggressive. Champions like 
Jarvan IV, 
Tristana and 
Ezreal.
Videos,pictures and more on...
Look at this compilation for more strategies:
GOODBYE! ^_^
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