Leona is a tanky support that has a lot of Crowd control (CC) that is used to disrupt the enemy team. She can engage on the threats from enemy team such as champions that deal a lot of damage or those who threaten your carry. She can also tank, peel, and help the team with dealing damage by marking her enemies with her passive.

Abilities

Passive: Sunlight - Leona's abilities mark enemies hit with Sunlight for 1.5 seconds. Subsequent applications of Sunlight will refresh its duration. Damage dealt by ally champions consumes Sunlight, dealing 25-144 (based on level) bonus magic damage.

Q: Shield of Daybreak - Leona illuminates her shield, causing her next basic attack within 6 seconds to gain 50 bonus range, deal bonus magic damage, and stun the target.

W: Eclipse - Leona radiates a solar eclipse around herself for 3 seconds, taking reduced pre-mitigation damage from each tick of damage, up to a maximum of 50% reduction. Leona also gains bonus armor and bonus magic resistance.

The eclipse detonates after the duration, dealing magic damage to all nearby enemies and granting Leona Eclipse's damage reduction and bonus resistances for an additional 3 seconds if she hits an enemy

E: Zenith Blade - Leona projects a solar image of her sword in the target direction, dealing magic damage to all enemies hit. If she hits an enemy champion, she will dash to the last one struck and root them for 0.5 seconds. Leona is unable to move or attack while Zenith Blade is in flight.

 R: Solar Flare - Leona calls down a beam of solar energy to the target location which strikes after a 0.625 seconds delay, dealing magic damage to all enemies struck and granting sight of the area in a 350 radius for 3.8 seconds. Enemies hit are slowed by 80% for 1.5 seconds, and also stunned for the same duration if hit by the epicenter.

Skill Upgrades and Combos

Leona has a very straightforward skill upgrade order. Typically you would want to max her Eclipse (W) first, then her Zenith Blade (E) and lastly her Shield of Daybreak (Q). Below is a very nice video that shows you the order of the combos and how it looks like when they are executed. Take a look!

<iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/MbRhGaJlM8g" width="560" height="314" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>

Runes

Let’s take a look at what runes we run on Leona. To tank for your team, there is sometimes a necessity to adapt to what you see on the enemy team. Your main rune page should be Resolve, and the most common subpage will be Inspiration. The reason for Resolve is because Leona is a tank, and to complement that, most tanks need some extra tools to help their team.

Resolve, the most used runepage for Leona

An example of what you could run.

Keystone

On the Resolve tree, the most common Keystone is to choose Aftershock. Aftershock has a similar passive to Leona’s W, except that you have to inflict Crowd Control (CC) for it to start.

Aftershock - Immobilizing an enemy champion grants a static 35 (+80% bonus armor) bonus armor and 35 (+80% bonus magic resistance) bonus magic resistance for 2.5 seconds. The bonus resistances are capped at 80-150 (based on level). After the duration, you release a shockwave that deals 25-120 (based on level) (+ 8% of your bonus health) magic damage to nearby enemy champions and monsters.

On the contrary, some Leona players are using other Keystones such as Guardian. It is viable if your main objective is to peel for your team, but in the long run, when you engage for your team it will be hard to trigger the passive to start. That is because not all teammates will be in the range because you are in the frontline, and most likely in the middle of the enemy team.

Guardian - While within 350 units of an allied champion, you raise your Guard. Allied champions you affect with unit-targeted abilities are also Guarded for 3 seconds, regardless of distance. If you or a Guarded ally would take 90-250 (based on level) damage within 2.5 seconds or lethal damage from an enemy champion, monster or turret, you both first gain a shield for 70-150 (based on level) (+25% Guardian's AP) (+12% of Guardian's bonus health) for 2 seconds. Guardian only goes on cooldown when the shield is triggered.

Slot 1

Demolish - You generate stacks on enemy turrets within 600 units, up to 6 after 3 seconds. Your next basic attack against a turret with 6 stacks deals 100 (+35% of your maximum health) bonus physical damage. Demolish will only go on cooldown upon triggering the damage. Stacks fall off slowly if you move out of range. Range 600. Cooldown 45 seconds.

Looking at what is available on slot 1, the most suitable rune would be Demolish. That is because Font of Life is not suitable. After all, Leona does not build items such as Athene’s Unholy Grail or Ardent Censer. She can apply the effect with CC, but it won't be as effective as it is for supports like Rakan or Taric.

Slot 2

Conditioning - After 12 minutes, gain 9 bonus armor and 9 bonus magic resistance and increases your total armor and magic resistance by 5%.

For slot 2, you can choose between 3 suitable runes. Conditioning is a good rune, but you have to take it into account that it takes 12 minutes to activate. It is a strong rune if you can survive in the botlane, the percentage you get is worth it if you're able to wait. Consider other runes if you face threats like mages as supports or enemies that poke a lot.

Second Wind - After taking damage from an enemy champion, regenerate 6 (+4% of your missing health) over 10 seconds.

Second Wind is a good pick if you face mages like Brand or Caitlyn that are constantly poking you out. They punish you for being melee and this rune will constantly trigger every time you receive damage. It means that even if the 10 seconds are not up yet, they will restart the regeneration, giving you more time to heal.

Bone Plating - After taking damage from an enemy champion, for 1.5 seconds, the next 3 spells or attacks you receive from the same enemy champion deal 30-60 (based on level) less damage. Cooldown 45 seconds.

This rune is also an option if you face champions that have burst, and the reason you choose this one is to survive through combos that require 3 spells, like Zed or LeBlanc's combos.

Slot 3

Overgrowth - Every 8 monsters or enemy minions that die near you permanently grants 3 bonus health. After gaining 15 stacks (120 monsters or minions), you gain an additional 3.5% maximum health.

Lastly, Overgrowth is the most suitable rune to give Leona some bulk. Comparing to Revitalize where you need to shield or heal to trigger it, and Unflinching that only triggers around 30% health, it is easier to say that it is not a safe rune. In fights, you would hope to survive with more than 30% HP to continue to help your teammates lock down the remains of the enemies.

Secondary Runes

There are many combinations that you could choose. Most would choose to go Inspiration as the second page, while I've observed that some go Sorcery or even Precision. We can discuss the best options if you opt for something else. Let's start with Inspiration.

Inspiration

Hextech Flashtraption - While Flash is on cooldown, it is replaced by Hexflash. ACTIVE: You begin charging, increasing Hexflash's range over the next 2.5 seconds. After at least 1 second, you can reactivate the spell. Releasing the button earlier than 1 second or entering combat with an enemy champion will put Hexflash on cooldown for 10 seconds. RECAST: You blink to the target location within range. Hexflash uses Quick Casting by default, which requires the Active to be held and the Recast to occur on release. Cooldown 20 seconds. Range 200-400 (based on channel time).

This is one of the most popular runes for tanks, and there is a good reason for that. Although you have to charge it, it can help with catching your opponents off-guard and allows you a "free" gap closer. Bear in mind that if that is not your style, you don’t have to choose this. This is something to get used to.

Perfect Timing - Receive a Perfectly Timed Stopwatch at 14 minutes (reduced by 2 minutes per takedown). The Perfectly Timed Stopwatch is identical to the Stopwatch, except it only contributes for a value of 250 gold. A free cosmetic, Commencing Stopwatch occupies one of your item slots before this time.

This rune is also observed on some tank supports, and the reasoning is that they want to build into items such as Gargoyle Stoneplate to make it cheaper. This item occupies the item slots that you could have gotten more Control Wards with and can be situational.

Biscuit Delivery - Receive a Total Biscuit of Everlasting Will at 2:00, 4:00, and 6:00. If the inventory is full while receiving a biscuit, the biscuit(s) will appear as soon as a slot in the inventory is available. Consuming a Biscuit will instantly grant 50 mana and permanently increase your maximum mana by 50, in addition to its effects. You will also gain the increased mana if you sell the biscuit for 30.

This is a very nice rune to go if you either play champions that have a high mana consumption, or you are facing poke laners. Leona will be using mana early midgame or so and being melee puts you at a disadvantage. Increasing your mana and having these in addition to pots will help you survive in lane, especially if you are using Second Wind.

Cosmic Insight - Gain 5% cooldown reduction and increases the Cooldown Reduction cap to 45%. Additionally, reduces the cooldown of summoner spells and item actives by 5%.

This is also a popular rune for tanky supports, this helps you with more cooldowns and especially summoner spells. Normally without this rune, your Flash will be at 300 seconds, but this gives you the cooldown at 285 seconds. Meanwhile, with Ignite it will be at 171 seconds when it is normally 180 seconds. If you run Exhaust which is normally 210 seconds, it will be at 199.5 seconds.

Future’s Market - You can enter debt to buy items, up to 145 gold (+5 per Minute), which is displayed as negative gold in your treasury. A 50 gold lending fee is added on to the amount of money you owe after leaving the store. You cannot borrow money before 2:00.

This used to be a popular rune, but currently it is not used as much. Supports have been doing pretty well with the current starter items, but if you feel like you need this rune, go for it. There are other runes you could go to, but this is not the worst rune to run.

Shards

Most common shards to take are:

Slot 1 Offense: 1%-10% (based on level) cooldown reduction

Slot 2 Flex: 6 magic resistance.

Slot 3 Defense: 6 armor

Sometimes you might consider double armor if the enemy team is only AD.

Sorcery, Unleash Destruction

Waterwalking - While in the river, you gain 25 bonus movement speed and 3-18 (based on level) bonus Attack Damage or 5 − 30 (based on level) Ability Power (Adaptive).

It is possible to consider this rune if you want to roam through the river a lot. But should you choose Sorcery on a tank, you might have to run Nullifying Orb as the second rune.

Nullifying Orb - If you would take magic damage that would reduce you below 30% of your maximum health, you first gain a shield that absorbs 40-120 (based on level) (+15% bonus AD) (+10% AP) magic damage for 4 seconds. Cooldown 60 seconds.

Itemization

Starting Items: Leona's normal starting items are a Relic Shield and a Health Potion, but some likes to do Steel Shoulderguards for the AD to get extra damage on your auto-attacks. The difference is minimal.

Core build: When it comes to the core build, there is flexibility in it. When you want to choose boots, think about what purpose you serve for this game. If you roam a lot as support, pick Mobility Boots, but if you want to be tanky for the team, consider picking either Ninja Tabi or Mercury’s Treads. When you can’t decide between Ninja Tabi or Mercury’s Treads, take a look at the enemy team. Is there a lot of CC? perhaps there is a lot of AD champions or AP champions. Choose the version that helps you survive as long as possible.

Tanky supports often have it very rough when it comes to income. So, when you want to build expensive items, make sure that it is really one you want to build.

Gargoyle's Stoneplate scales well with Leona’s Eclipse (W), and if you did choose Perfect Timing, you might as well go this item early. Bear in mind that when you go this item, you might want to rush health right after since it will be low.

Building into Knight’s Vow after Gargoyle's Stoneplate is a good choice as you get more health. In general, these are the core items, but you can be flexible.

Should the enemy team have a lot of crit champions such as Vayne, Yasuo in the midlane, and such, you might consider Randuin’s Omen instead of Knight’s Vow. This will then in general make you tankier than Knight’s Vow.

Other Noteworthy Items

Zeke’s Convergence is also an item you can go instead of Knight’s Vow, sometimes you might want to replace Gargoyle Stoneplate or combine some of these items. The slow from this after you use the Solar Flare is very useful as you make the enemies stay within range. The stats you get from this item is also pretty good. Just remember to look at what your team needs, and what you can build to prevent the enemy team from winning.

Sometimes you might want to buy Thornmail as your last item if your team needs the Grievous Wounds or there are a lot of champions on the enemy team reliant on basic attacks. It does have the same unique passive as Randuin’s Omen, unfortunately, they don’t stack. Should you need to go for this, this is the only way for you to help applying Grievous Wounds as well.

Finally, Locket of the Iron Solari is highly situational. While you might have accumulated a lot of health near the game ends, this will not be bought unless there is a lot of burst damage from mages or assassins. The item scales with your max health.

Lane and Comps

When you lane as Leona, typically you would be looking to roam every chance you get. Helping your midlaner or going with your jungle when they invade sometimes. Most importantly it is to know where and when you can engage on the enemy botlaners.

The blue box is an interpretation of where the allied turret is, and the red box is the enemy turret. So the areas of a good fighting position would be the green circles, that is because those areas are safe and harder for the enemy to flee from. The red circle is where you should consider not fighting unless you are confident that you can survive and your team is going to tower-dive the enemy. The reason for that is because Leona has a hard time escaping without Flash. When you engage, you will be very far inside their team, and the chance of you tanking more than one shot from the turret is high. This is something to consider in teamfights as well.

To make it easier to think, I will illustrate it below:

Inner circle near turret

Middle safe zone near alcove and river

Outer ring danger zone near enemy turret

Last Tips

When you play Leona, the best ADCs would be someone who can engage as hard as you do. ADCs that can also proc Leona’s passive- Sunlight easily are good matches. Examples of that would be Lucian, Kai’sa, Draven, Vayne, and more. Although if your premade prefers someone else, that is fine too! Some champions just complement each other better.

There are also some things to remember when you engage, there might be times when you end up alone. Make sure that when you, for example, use your R to stop the enemy, make sure that you or your teammates have a chance of following that up. If that is not taken into consideration, you might have wasted your R and it will be unavailable for the first half of the next fight.

Another thing might be the fact that you hesitate with your combo, the E-Q-W-R combo. Sometimes the feeling of wanting to save your R for the important moments is the fatal mistake. This window gives the enemy a chance to escape which would be critical in some fights.

I hope you enjoyed the guide and that it can be of help for your future Leona adventures!