Hello! Welcome to my Leona Support guide! Support is my main role, and Leona is one of my most favorite supports. She is a unique support, because her CC is unmatchable. Support role has carried me from the 900s, all the way to my highest elo (1476), and now sitting at the high 1300s. From all those games, I think I have learned the support role really well, and decided to make a guide to share my knowledge of support with you guys.

And my guide name means "Radiant Dawn" in French.

Pros:

Passive really helps in lane
Makes lane a kill-lane
A lot of CC
Very good support

Cons:

Lacks sustain/heal
If not careful, can easily KS
Works well with aggressive champions only.

The runes I use are:
9 Greater Mark of Armor - I find armor marks useful for Leona since she's a tanky support.
9 Greater Seal of Armor - Same reason as above. If you wish to exchange this with Greater Seal of Gold then that would work as well, as I used to do that.
9 Greater Glyph of Magic Resist - I know that Leona gets Magic Resist per-level, but getting some more Magic Resist at the start doesn't hurt.
3 Greater Quintessence of Gold I know that movement speed quints are the other option, but since you're a tank, you don't have to run away.

Feel free to change any of the runes to your liking, but I find these specific runes to work well with Leona.

My masteries may look a bit weird, as it's 1/11/18. The reason why, is that you're Leona. You dash to people in lane, and getting the Indomitable and Tough Skin mastery really helps, along with all the other defensive goodies in the defense tree. Because you're tanky at the start, you can probably go for a first blood at level 3. You can change it to 0/9/21 if you want, but the tanky support masteries fit Leona much more.

Before we move on with the guide, I'd like to list AD Carries from my experience, and how they work with Leona.

Probably the best AD Carry to pair with Leona. He's innately tanky, can trigger Leona's Sunlight passive easily from his abilities, and has good burst damage. Leona/ Graves is a complete kill lane at bot.

Surprisingly, this lane works awfully well. Once Leona Zenith Blades to a champion, Ezreal can easily follow up with his kit, and can also trigger your Passive (which is really important for harassing) well.

Same as above

Having CC really helps you line up your dashes and stuns as well. Though Ashe is a bit more passive compared to the other carries, she can work well with a Leona.

Draven's kit should work well with Leona's initiations and stuns.

Leona makes Vayne's early game a bit easier on her. Leona can stun, which means Vayne can line up her Condemn easier than usual.

I tested a Tristana/Leona lane and it actually works. The fact that any attacks trigger Leona's passive, I found that Tristana can just use her E to trigger it.

You can Zenith Blade a minion wave, and let Sivir Boomerang Blade it. The minion wave will be gone. Sivir's damaging abilities can easily trigger Sunlight. You can also stun, then she will follow up with a boomerang blade.

She tends to act as a bit more passive carry since she's mostly a safe-farmer. But once you go in she can definitely utilize your passive because of the range of her abilities. However getting a more passive support like Sona or Soraka would work better with Caitlyn.

He can easily follow up your initiations with Piercing Arrow. Once he gets his Chain of Corruption, your opponents have no escape.

This lane does work decently. As long as Miss Fortune stays on the aggressive side you'll be fine.

Landing your stuns can really help him position his Living Artillery. Pre-6 Kog will follow up with his slow and W.

Try not to dash to him as he will just Headbutt and Pulverize you. He's probably one of the only supports that will give you a hard time. If you need to initiate on their AD Carry, try to let them be distant from each other, then go in on the carry. It will give Alistar no time to react, and it will probably be unexpected for him as I will explain in the laning chapter. Overall, it's a pretty average-hard lane for you, in terms of dominating your lane.

One of the most feared supports. However, once he grabs you, it will mean bad news for him. Basically, when he grabs you, it would act as if you dashed to him. Once you get grabbed, just stun him and everything will be fine. Easy lane.

Be careful. She can easily interrupt your dash with her Howling Gale. Also, just as you think you're about to kill your opponent, she can just Monsoon you away. Try to avoid her harass and don't waste everything until she wastes her ultimate. Average laning difficulty.

Has a decent amount of poke, but once you CC her, she probably won't be able to escape. Just be aware of her Wild Growth bait. Other than that, it's a pretty easy lane.

This is a bit popular. His harass is really annoying and once he snares you it can probably take out a lot of your health since you're rooted for a good duration. If the Maokai is playing passive however, you can be the aggressive one and probably dominate the lane.

She's a pretty passive support. Once you do your combo on her, it's almost impossible for her to escape unless she uses Flash Very easy lane for you.

She's almost the same as Sona, but she has a silence, big heal, and a spamming Q. Basically it's a Sona that heals and harasses more. Just do the same as you would do to Sona and you will be fine. Easy lane.

I'd say the bit more passive version of Leona. Laning will be pretty easy if you avoid getting stunned.

Annoying to lane against. It doesn't matter who you are. Her Lucent Singularity will just annoy you because of it's huge range, and Light Binding will definitely interrupt some of your initiations.

Now, I know most of you will say. "If Leona is this OP, shouldn't she be a permaban?".
Do you know the saying, "Your results may vary?" Well that is very true with Leona. For Leona, you have no escape except Flash. If you happen to initiate on accident (which can happen very easily if you're not careful) then it will be bad for both you and your AD Carry. In other words, Leona is a pretty risky support, but in exchange for a lot of CC.

Now, supports don't really have a specific order of items they should get, it all depends on the situation. I will cover the obvious: Support Core Items

Start off with a

Faerie Charm, a couple of Sight Wards and a Health Potion.
Try to get Philosopher's Stone and Sight Wards on your first time going back.
You can go for Boots or go for a Ruby Crystal and into a Heart of Gold.
Once you have double GP5, boots, and wards, you should be set for mid game.

Now, just like someone said in the feedback section, the timing for getting boots are a bit too long. Since supports do not follow a specific order for their build, get your boots anytime you want. Best time would be early game.

The most common boots for supports are:

Ionian Boots of Lucidity - If you don't need Tenacity or armor, then you can get these shoes. They're pretty popular with Leonas.

Ninja Tabi - Get these if you have a hard time in your lane. Be sure to get this early.

Mercury's Treads This is another good option on Leona. People don't really consider this item on her because Leona acts like a tank, but having survivability on her really helps a lot.

Mobility Boots - Only get this if you're really confident in what you're doing.

List of items that will really help you team:

Aegis of the Legion - A must have for supports. You should get this as early as possible because it provides some nice stats to your team.

Locket of the Iron Solari - An item with a decent aura and in my opinion a really nice active. The active can shield your team from some auto-attacks or an Ignite, which can really change the outcome of a fight.

Shurelya's Battlesong - Because you are playing Leona as a tanky support, getting this item for your team can help in chasing/retreating.

Frozen Heart - This is more on the tanky side, but it will really help your team out. It provides you a lot of armor, and a really good aura.

Zeke's Herald - An item that most AD Carries request their support to get, provides nice stats to your team, especially if they're AD heavy.

Sunfire Aegis - Get this if you want to be more tanky, nothing wrong with getting this.

Randuin's Omen - It provides a really nice slow to the team. It works, but I'm not really a fan of this on Leona since you already have a lot of CC, but it's very viable on her.

In lane, your main job is to sit in the bushes unless it's warded. Your other roles are to ward. What makes Leona a unique support is that her harass is one of the best in the game. All you have to do is use Eclipse, Zenith Blade to a champion, and Shield of Daybreak them. Your AD carry will have no trouble in dealing a lot of damage to them. Doing that combo twice can easily result in a kill.

One way that your initiations will be unexpected is that you Zenith Blade from a bush, or a spot where the opponent isn't focusing on. Right when you see the dashing animation, activate Eclipse. When you dash to them, use Shield of Daybreak. What you have just done was your combo, but in a stealthy way because when your opponents see you Eclipse, they usually back off because they know you're about to initiate. I do this every game, and I can guarantee you that they won't know.

Sunlight is your passive. Basically, your abilities afflict sunlight to any enemies hit. If your allies attack someone who has been hit by your passive, then it will deal a decent amount of extra damage. It's very useful for small fights in lane.

Shield of Daybreak makes your next auto-attack deal extra damage and stuns the target. In my opinion it's one of Leona's most useful abilities to line up your other combos. This ability also refreshes auto-attack timer.

Eclipse gives you a huge amount of Armor and Magic Resist with a damaging boom at the end. You should max this first so you can get the most Armor and MR when you use this in lane.

If you don't know how this works, think of it as an Amumu's Bandage Toss. It works exactly like that.

Solar Flare is an AoE ultimate. If you hit a champion on the edge of it, it slows them. If you hit them in the center, it will end up stunning them. Very devastating in a team fight.

Since this is a support guide, adding places to ward a really essential. Credits to whoever made this map.

Leona is a very popular pick in Ranked play. She is one of those champions that can change the game. Leona can dominate bot lane, as her CC is unmatchable early game, and can rack up kills easily for your Graves. She has one of the best passives for a support. Compared to other supports, Leona is unique in many ways.

Hopefully, this guide taught you more about Leona, and how she is played as a support. All feedback is accepted. I'm new to mobafire, and I would really like to know what can be worked on my guides. If this guide helped you, you should tell me in the feedback section! See you on the Rift, summoners!

-La Garde Royale