Introduction:

I am NVe Shouran, currently a diamond support, and I want to talk about my overall favorite champion, Leona. I picked up Leona when the meta shifted around a little bit and aggressive laners came into flavor. Over the past three seasons I've held an overall win rate of 55.5% on Leona. I have also brought Leona into competitive play with my team NVe White representing the University of Nevada, Reno in collegiate league circuits such as the Collegiate Star League.

I find Leona to be quite an interesting champion. Her hype was caused due to being the first female tank to be released. Leona is a fantastic support that embraces an aggressive playstyle while staying relevant throughout all stages of the game.

My current stats in Season 5 with Leona:

Pros:

-Incredible amount of CC with her E+Q combo, along with her ulti providing an AOE stun and slow.

-Gets free tank stats from her W.

-Lanes well with almost any ADC in the game.

-Amazing initiation power with her Q and E.

-Adds a fair amount of damage in lane due to her passive.

Cons:

-Susceptible to poke.

-Due to lack of disengage, requires 100% commitment if you decide to go in.

-If you miss E, you give up pressure for a short amount of time.

-If you are pushed up and the enemy jungler comes to gank, you're more than likely to burn at least one summoner spell.

Runes:

I really enjoy this rune page. 9x armor marks, 9x health seals, 5x flat magic resist glyphs, 4x scaling magic resist glyphs, 2x armor quints, and 1x health quint. This page gives Leona an incredible amount of early efficient health while scaling well into the mid game stat wise. Armor marks are easily the best decision on Leona. Leona is a tank, there's no real reason for her to sacrifice stats that make her tankier for stats that attempt to give her more damage. I like having a bonus 10 armor and 8 magic resist from having W activated then dumping stats for damage.

Masteries:

I personally run 0/21/9. Going 21 into defence gives you bonus max health, health regen, and tenacity at the cost of movement speed, starting gold, CDR, and CDR on activated items. i like going deep into the defensive tree because it gives you an insane amount of resistances that can greatly help you out mid to late game.

If you would prefer to run 21 into utility, you can run the 0/9/21 masteries seen here:

Summoner Spells:

On all supports I always run Exhaust and Flash.

Exhaust: I absolutely love exhaust on Leona. You are the CC train so why not just add more lockdown potential. Exhaust can help entirely shut down enemy priority targets. The potential to almost instantly make a 5v5 into a 5v4 in your favor is too good to pass up in my opinion.

Flash: Flash is, easily, still the best summoner spell in the game. It's your "Peace mang!" if the enemy jungler comes down, or you're "Get rekt nerd" to E+Q someone low. Flash also makes it easier to land your E spell if the enemy flashes/blinks/dashes away from you.

Skill Order:

R>W>E>Q

At level 1 take a point in your Zenith Blade (E). By starting with your Zenith Blade you're enemy's mentality of you transforms from someone that does no damage, into someone with the ability to snare for .5 seconds and augment damage on multiple targets.

At level 2 take a point in your Shield of Daybreak (Q). At level 2, with the addition of Shield of Daybreak, you now have your bread and butter combo.

At level 3 take a point in your Eclipse (W) and then commence to max it first. It is literally free tank stats, and also provides a nice little AoE burst damage.

I prefer to max Zenith Blade second to lower the cooldown. Since it's your lowest cooldown ranged spell, maxing it second helps you to prevent yourself from being kited around easily. Another reason I like to max it second is because it can hit multiple enemies, thus proccing more applications of your passive.

Skills:

Passive - Sunlight: Leona's spells mark enemies with Sunlight and deals bonus magic damage when allies deal damage to marked targets.

The biggest thing to know about Leona's passive is that it is counted as an ally's damage so damage is calculated based upon your ally's magic penetration. This may be an overlooked passive, but I find it to be very strong. Even in the late game, you can easily contribute 400+ damage just by marking multiple targets with your multiple AoE abilities.

Q - Shield of Daybreak: Leona's next auto attack will stun your target for 1.25 seconds and deal bonus magic damage.

Leona's Q is her bread and butter skill. This is a guaranteed stun to land on the target and is on a low cooldown. The only problem with this spell is that you are melee, but this is easily patched up by using your E.

W - Eclipse : Upon activation, Leona surrounds herself with sunlight, gaining bonus armor and magic resist for 3 seconds. At the end of the duration, the shield will explode dealing bonus magic resist in a small area around her. If you do damage to enemies with the explosion, you maintain the bonus armor and magic resist for an additional 3 seconds.

Always max this first. Eclipse is one of the, if not the most, cost efficient skill in the game. This the main reason that you can become tanky without any items.

E - Zenith Blade: Leona throws a projection of her sword, dealing magic damage to all enemies in a line. If you hit multiple targets, you will travel to the last hit champion, along with rooting them briefly.

I personally max this skill second. Because the difference in cooldown (13/12/11/10/9 on E vs. 11/10/9/8/7 on Q) I like to make Zenith Blade have as close of a cooldown as possible as Shield of Daybreak so it's far easier to chain CC and lock someone down. Zenith Blade is the reason that Leona can project a ranged threat. In lane, being strong with skillshots and being able to consistently land your Zenith Blade is crucial to set up your ADC in kills.

R -Solar Flare: Leona calls down a ray of light to a targetted location. Solar flare deals bonus magic damage, along with offering an 80% slow on the outer circle, with a 1.5 second stun in the inner circle.

Solar Flare is my favorite skill in the whole game. Although it has a big AoE, there is a slight delay which can make it hard to hit from time to time. Something to note is that although the slow radius may be big, the stun radius is somewhat small.

Item Builds:

Starting Build:

Relic Shield is a nice item to have on Leona. It gives Leona what she wants to survive early game, flat HP and sustain. By being a support that thrives on all-in engages having the gold income, slight sustain, and tankiness makes Relic Shield a great buy on Leona. Having the sustain from the health pots and Relic Shield helps immensely when pushing lane for level 2 and for getting through Leona's sub-par level 1.

I highly recommend getting an upgrade to Targon's Brace as fast as possible. Upgrading to Targon's embrace regenerates the Spoils of War passive faster at 30 seconds rather than 60, along with being able to hold one additional charge more.

Core Build:

Sightstone should need no explanation. You're a support, a part of your job is to keep ward coverage. Same thing goes with pink wards.

I can't stress how important it is to upgrade to Oracle's Lense. As soon as I hit level 9, upgrading to an Oracle's Lense immediately goes to the top of my priority list. Why? Because with how important vision is and how vision has an effect on a players playstyle, you need to control the map. Vision gives information. Information wins games. Therefore by transitive property, vision wins games.

Boots of Mobility gives you an amazing increase in movement speed. This helps you get to objectives faster, get to warding spots quicker, and gives you the speed to make roams or picks. It's an amazing item that shouldn't be overlooked.

Situational Items:

As a tank, you need to always think about the situation at hand. It's really rare that you will have the same build for more than 2-3 games in a row.

- Mikael's Crucible: I'm a fan of Mikael's Crucible. It gives some nice MR and CDR, along with a healing cleanse. The best part is how cheap it is. If you plan on buying a Mikael's, you need to first identify how much CC the enemy team has. If they have enough CC feel free to itemize towards one. But you should generally get it in the early-mid game. If the enemy does not have enough CC to justify building it, don't even try to. You don't need the mana regeneration at all.

- Randuin's Omen: Randuin's Omen is an absolute must buy on Leona. The mixture of Randuin's Omen with your Eclipse has such great synergy that it has too much value to pass up. Randuin's Omen gives Leona a nice increase in tank stats along with giving her the ability to drop a nice 35% slow in the middle of a group. The best thing about Randuin's Omen is that it gives Leona another way to help lock down targets while making you into an even larger tank.

- Locket of the Iron Solari: Locket of the Iron Solari is a nice MR item that gives an aura to your team along with an active that gives them a nice shield. If you're enemy has a lot of magic/AoE damage, I highly recommend building a Locket, especially if your jungler opted out of it.

- Sunfire Cape: Some people really like getting Sunfire Cape on Leona, but I don't find it to be that smart of a purchase. As Leona, you won't be split pushing all that much and I don't see much damage coming out of the burning passive. I'd far much rather build a Randuin's Omen and be able to lock targets down more easily than attempt to do damage by building it.

- Banshee's Veil: Banshee's Veil is a really nice item to have if you need magic resist. Although there is a low chance that you will be focused by CC, Banshee's Veil is nice to have to cancel a snare, slow, or stun while you are on your way to engage.

- Frozen Heart: Frozen Heart is a nice buy if you still find yourself needing armor. The CDR is a nice addition, and the passive 15% attack speed slow for enemies is a nice aura to help you peel as well.

- Ninja Tabi: Ninja Tabi is a good buy if your enemy has multiple auto attacking champions.

- Mercury's Treads: Mercury's Treads are a nice pickup if you find yourself needing more magic resist. Mercury's Treads also offers some tenacity to help break CC which can help you run back faster to help peel for your back line.

Example Final Build:

This build offers a fair amount of health, magic resist, and insane amounts of utility for your team. The only downside is you really rely on your W for armor since Randuin's Omen is the only armor item you built. If the enemy lacks CC feel free to substitute Mikael's Crucible for Frozen Heart, or Boots of Mobility out for Ninja Tabi.

Teamfights:

Leona is incredibly versatile when it comes down to her teamfight potential. In fights, Leona has the ability to fill in the role of the initiatior, and also the main peel. You should be paying attention to the game to figure out what your main role will be, but you should also remember that you have both a main and back up role. A good majority of the time, your role is dependant on the enemy team giving an opportunity to be caught off gaurd that can easily be taken advantage of.

Initiator:

Initiating is one of Leona's specialties. With the insane amount of CC and damage augmentation provided in her kit, if provided an opportunity, Leona can easily jump in and lock an enemy down. If you see 3 or more enemies bunched up in a nice group, feel free to ulti if your team is in a proper position to engage. If the potential to follow up is there you can go ahead and E to lock down high priority champions with Exhaust and Q.

Peeler:

With the insane amount of CC that Leona has, it's extremely easy to stop people from diving down onto your backline. If any assassins attempt to dive down on your squishies, you have the CC to stop them in their tracks. Also since youre tanky, be their bodyguard and body block any skillshots aimed at your squishies.

Although I gave two examples about Leona's possible playstyles, I recommend playing her and getting experienced with her in order to develop a playstyle that matches you.

LPT (Leona Pro Tips):

-Leona's Q acts as an auto attack reset allowing her to prevent vision is bushes in the early game.

-Saving Leona's W until after you land E allows you to maximize the amount of time of the bonus resistences and doesn't telegraph when you want to engage.

-To maximize damage output from your passive, allow your ADC to proc it in lane, rather than rushing your skills together. To give your ADC time to proc your passive, use your AA-Q-AA combo after you successfully land your E.

-Sometimes saving your ult is a smarter idea than attempting to force it upon your enemies. By saving it, you have the opportunity to prevent a teamfight from going sour when your team engages poorly.

Conclusion:

Thank you so much for reading my guide, I greatly appreciate the support (get it? support?). I hope to have at least given some insight as to how Leona should/can be played. I had a lot of fun writing this guide, if you have any questions feel free to ask me on Twitter: @dShouran or ask me while I'm streaming on Twitch.