Leona Guide by Pro Player IgNar - League of Legends
Learn the tricks of one of the most famous Leona pro players, IgNar!
One of the most famous Leona plays comes from none other than Lee “IgNar” Dong-geun, back during Worlds 2017 with Team Misfits, against then SKT T1. Against one of SKT’s long-standing bot lane duos, Bang and Wolf, IgNar and Hans Sama secure a double kill in a 2v2 off the backs of IgNar’s Leona with Fervor of Battle, unexpectedly dishing out large amounts of damage to Bang’s Vayne and Wolf’s Lulu through Leona’s really powerful basic reset on her Q.
These days, however, Leona has taken somewhat of a more backseat to the many other engage supports, seeing much less professional play. However, as a champion for solo queue, Leona is more than serviceable, and with IgNar’s guidance, we’ll get you building and playing Leona like a pro.
Leona in the metagame and potential “aggressive” playstyle return?
We asked IgNar about Leona roughly at the time Hail of Blades was reworked, giving bonus true damage on its auto attacks and now functioning with basic attack resets, a key feature of what made Fervor of Battle and Leona powerful at one point.
Hard to say about that playstyle [aggressive], but I feel like it's really hard to play Leona in this meta. There are so many ways to make it hard to lane. Rune-wise, I haven't tried yet, but I feel like aftershock or melee support is still really good with Spellbook. I think as a melee, you can't win or dominate only the laning phase, just handshake as a melee support. So, in my opinion, choosing Spellbook and being useful or creative is better. I also think especially pro players these days, they don't give that winning angle in lane. I also think the runes as a melee support don't change the lane that hard, which is why people choose Spellbook more.
Unfortunately, it’s a very different kind of metagame from 2017. Players have gotten better over the years at punishing, but also melee supports themselves have found less of a focus on lane dominance, and more of a focus on creative play with spellbook, especially in higher ranks of play. Especially in pro play, there are a lot of situations where they’ll often handshake as neither side gives any room to get any kills.
So while Hail of Blades definitely has some silly cheesing potential, it perhaps is not the Fervor of Battle successor we’re looking for that can push Leona out of her current runes.
Skill Rankup and Usage
Against ranged support, you usually need to start E and camp in the bush, or you start Q and use Flash-Q. Against melee, Q start; basically it's just on the situation. If you can't reach, choose E, because you don't want to just Flash-Q, because nothing will happen.
Generally, you’ll find that you will end up ranking Q or E first, with her W then maxed next because it has really high value with skill points put into it. Afterward, put points into E to lower the cooldown. Leona’s Q is more of a one-point wonder, as it only gets bonus damage and no reduction in cooldown as you put points into it.
Ignite vs Heal
In my opinion, in this meta, Heal is way too broken. You need to take Heal on every support in my opinion.
To be fair on the viability of both spells, you’ll usually see one of the two in solo queue (with the occasional exhaust). Heal is the more generalist option, as in a 2v2, the movement speed and burst of healing is often matched with the other support, and not having it can make you and your carry feel more vulnerable. For Ignite, it primarily is used in kill lanes where you’re certain you’ll be trading for kills and trying to snowball.
For IgNar, most likely values more of a stable play style as Leona tries to scale into the mid game to make picks, which heal lends itself to. With spellbook, Leona can also take Ignite when she’s actually roaming and have heal early on for stability.
Items
Incidentally, IgNar happens to play a lot of his melee engage supports similarly with spellbook (aside from Rell, who he goes a more standard aftershock build). Item builder site - Shyv.net
Leona tends to follow a very standard melee support build, with items like Locket, Knight’s Vow, Bandlepipes, and other low-cost, high-value items that give utility. For support quest items, you’ll find that Leona generally will always go Bloodsong due to the synergy with her kit, giving free damage in her rotation naturally due to her always shoving in autos between her Q and easily proccing Spellblade. It also increases damage dealt to the target for allies, making it easier to pick off key targets.
What’s holding Leona back from being played as much as she did before?
I think just Leona picking is low because there's just so many picks that can bully her. Like, Nautilus is pickable because he's really hard to bully as a ranged support. These days, people are so good at punishing the lane, the meta is like that, and if you lose lane, it's really hard. The game is way harder than before.
We’ve all been there, where the enemy support plays primarily to neutralize the lane. The enemy Thresh who always flays Leona out of her E. The Nami who avoids getting caught and pokes you out of lane. Part of it is due to the multiple Guardian rune nerfs from season 10 aimed at pushing out tank supports, at a time when Leona was a lot more dominant, but another is that enchanters are really strong in lane, more so than before.
Leona Tricks/Knowledge Checking
For IgNar, he suggested mostly how you want to chain your crowd control.
I think Leona only has one trick. You can do E-R, but it's kind of predictable that you're going to use E. You can use a basic trick to look cooler instead, like Flash-Q, E-R for more than a 3-second stun. It's really good.
What IgNar means is a really old animation cancel with Leona’s R and E, where you can cancel the R animation with Leona in the middle of the E (Leona stops for a moment pressing her R, which those moments can be crucial as it gives something for players to react to).
Aside from that, Leona’s W – Eclipse – has a rarely seen flat damage reduction effect. This is particularly incredibly powerful against tiny but multiple instances of damage, especially when paired with high defenses (which Leona naturally gets from pressing W). Think DoT effects, low-cooldown spells, and especially basic attacks early on where you can mitigate a ton of damage when going all in.
You can also use Leona’s Q – Shield of Daybreak – as a way to quickly clear wards due to a weird function of her auto attack reset immediately refreshing her third basic attack. (This is also why Fervor of Battle back then was so strong on Leona!). It’s also her basic bread and butter for DPS, where you’ll get three auto attacks extremely quickly with auto-Q-auto. Leona also happens to buffer her auto attack when he lands her E on the target champion, making it more straightforward to follow up with Q after.
Zenith Blade can technically hit minions if you’re really desperate to push the wave and have a teammate who can hit all the marks (you don’t have to hit the enemy champions). It can make for a weird surprise level 2 push that comes really fast.
I think you don't usually use E for the push.
Although IgNar did have something to say about this, as it tends to leave you incredibly vulnerable, it may come in handy if you’re shoving in the lane with your lane partner, or if you’re really confident that your level 2 will be strong without E.
Conclusion
While we’re past the days of aggressive Fervor of Battle Leona, you certainly can still play her to high effectiveness, as her kit remains mostly unchanged functionally. If you’re looking for a tanky melee support with strong engages and good roaming potential, consider Leona as one of the many viable options!
