Despite the flavour of the month and even season steering away from support junglers, such as Maokai and Nautilus, the Radiant Dawn can still shine from the Jungle bringing surprising burst and unrivalled crowd control. Let's have a look at how you can dominate in style, shades not included.

The Skill set

Shield of Daybreak - The stun

A basic attack reset that stuns the target on hit, level it up once it shares Zenith Blade's cooldown, allowing you to combo them and have them reset at same time.

Eclipse - The tank

Leona's trademark skill gives her the tankiness she needs to both survive in the jungle, and be the tank her team needs. Take it level 1 and max it first as it explodes to damage all enemies around.

Zenith Blade - The gap closer

A skill shot which damages all enemies it hits, and acts as a gap closer on the last champion on its path and root them, giving the start of her combination. Level it up so that its cooldown is that of Shield of Daybreak.

Solar Flare - The initation

An AoE stun and slow which can slow down an entire team and prevent champions with escapes from fleeing Leona's ganks.

Sunlight - The passive support

All Leona's spells proc her passive, giving any target hit the debuff. Once an allied champion hits the target the passive will explode giving surprising burst damage, especially with Area of Effect. This damage is credited to the allies, allowing the carries to get extra damage and kills

Runes and masteries

Taking 21 points in Defense tree allows Leona to fight the jungle effectively, Perseverance allowing her the sustain she needs before her core build, and Legendary Guardian synergises with her team fighting kit. The other points can be in either Offence for quicker clear speed, taking Attack Speed and AD, or Utility for movement speed and longer buff duration. Bladed Armour can be useful if you don't want to go into Offense.

You can change masteries to represent your play, swapping Magic Resist for Armour, or Utility for clear speed.

In terms of runes, you can build on your innate tankiness with Health and Armour, or take aggressive Attack Speed or Attack Damage quints with Hybrid Penetration Marks for better clearing and early game damage. This allows Leona to Jungle more effectively without being bogged down with monsters.

Movement speed is always a good option for gank heavy junglers and Leona is no exception, MS Quints allow for more ganks, and easier Zenith Blade initiations.

Although tempting, you should avoid AP Runes as Leona's scaling is relatively poor, meaning AD and AS is better for both damage and clear speed.

Itemisation

Being a tank, Leona should always get Spirit of the Ancient Golem as it provides health, vital cooldown, and Tenacity. This also allows for flexibility in boots, such as Mobility Boots for more pressure, or Ninja Tabi to counteract an AD heavy team.

Items with high Armour and Magic Resist go well with Leona's Eclipse passive as opposed to Health items, yet ones with both types of stat are usually most beneficial. Randuin's allows for extra lockdown during Leona's downtime, and Sunfire cape gives bonus damage as Leona engages into the enemy team, as well as helping her clear speed.

Glacial shroud is one often overlooked item which gives Leona many key stats. Building into either Frozen Heart for extra tankiness, or Frozen Gauntlet for extra slow and burst, going well with Shield of Daybreak it gives damage that you may be missing.

If the enemy team has a great deal of Magic Damage, avoid Spirit Visage and Abyssal, go for Locket of the Iron Solari and Banshee's Veil. Locket fits with Leona's supportive style and Banshe is the strongest Magic Resist item currently, but we are seeing Junglers build Locket more often, and it does go suit Leona well.

Towards the end of the game, you can replace your Spirit of the Ancient Golem with an additional defencive item, but if the enemy team is CC heavy be sure to pick up Mercury's Treads as well!

How does the sun come up?

To start your game as Leona jungle, you can have any buff, but must make sure your counter buff is defended. Take Eclipse first and clear your Red or Blue, before making your way to the second buff.

Unlike many junglers, you may not have time to do a camp before your second buff due to her poor clear time, this can be changed with runes setup, however you should secure your second buff immediately.

Before going to a lane, you need all three skills, otherwise you will be low on damage and utility. As soon as you have your third level, look for an opportunity to gank but be weary of counter ganks. Leona is a great counter ganker, but is poor when her skills are down.

Ganking early means some lanes may not have their escapes, allowing easy kills with Leona's CC and gap closing abilities. Forcing a flash at the start opens up a large window for Leona to return at any time.

If the first gank does not work, you should be able to quickly go to a different lane due to Leona's tankiness as not much health should have been lost. Only kill smaller camps early with Smite up as it can be time consuming.

Behind but not forgotten

Leona excels at initiation and lock down, meaning she will always be able to utilise her stunning abilities. Even when you are unable to get items, you can be an annoying threat to the enemy carries.

You have to still be careful, as without Eclipse you lack tank stats and can be easily blown up once you Zenith Blade in. Try stay out of trouble while Eclipse is on cooldown and then go back in once it is, if you are behind.

Late game support

Once lanes are over Leona's high point comes to an end, she does not farm but is a super-support for every lane, granting them kills. This means she becomes more traditional as the game goes on and is the key engage for the team. Your increased gold from the Jungle means you should be acting as your team's main tank and be on top of the enemy carries, but your supportive nature and cooldown on Zenith Blade allows you to quickly reposition and peel for your carries.

Sundown

Unfortunately, Jungle Leona does have her expected downfalls, which are the main reason for her being unpopular. We saw this when Joshua "NintendudeX" Atkins faced criticism for his Jungle Leona in NA LCS. She has poor clear speed until the later levels, which means she needs successful ganks for gold, this opens her up for easy counter jungling at the start of the game.

Her poor dueling abilities, and support nature also plays into how easy she can be counter jungled, so be aware of enemy junglers wanting to take advantage of this!

Leona's kit also makes her an all in champion, her gap closer is one way ticket and once you are in a fight, it is very hard to get out, meaning that you have to pick your fights.

Sunrise

There are ways to avoid these short comings however, with good team communication you can delay an invading jungler with Leona's tankiness and stuns, allowing for your team to collapse. This tankiness also allows counter gankers to be tricked into over-extending and focusing Leona while her cooldowns return.

When you go in, your team should go with you, every second of your Eclipse is vital so use it as you go in rather than waste time starting your combo with it, Zenith Blade only works on enemy champions but this can be a great team mate saving skill! If you are unable to get to the enemy carry, protect your own by dashing to the melee champions attacking them.

Play for fun

At the end of the day, the sun sets and Leona isn't a top tier jungler. She is outclassed by the modern junglers and her style has been outside of the meta for some time. Despite this, she is fun and rewarding, she can carry games by supporting all around the map and surprises enemies with her damage and utility. It's Summer, so get out and enjoy the sun!