Skill usage Edit

• Maximize  Sunlight's potential by timing your skills to give allies enough time to consume each mark.
  •  Sunlight can be activated by any skill including DoT like  Despair.
•  Shield of Daybreak can be used to help Leona destroy towers, or get last-hits as it resets her attack timer and deals bonus damage, even to structures.
• With high natural CC, Leona can set up kills for her jungler even if they lack natural CC like Shyvana.
• If Leona is hit by a knock-back while  Zenith Blade is in flight, she will be knocked back, but then immediately blink to the last enemy hit by the skill, even though she has been knocked farther away.
  • Against champions with knockbacks or blinks, it is generally better to save  Zenith Blade until after they expend their distance-creating ability whenever possible.
• A standard combo would be to activate  Eclipse at a distance and then use  Zenith Blade to dash to an enemy champion, activating  Shield of Daybreak in mid-flight.
• Leona lanes well with aggressive teammates with powerful early-game harassment skills such as Graves, Tristana and Varus.
  • Conversely, Leona is a poor partner for lane-mates who require significant babysitting early game like Ashe, Vayne or Kog'Maw.
• When not voice-chatting with your lane-mate, activating  Eclipse can be a good signal to them that you are about to initiate your combo.
• Her ultimate  Solar Flare can be used to steal enemies Dragon kill or Baron Nashor if casted on right time or with your teammates abilities.
• Place  Solar Flare where it will hit as many enemies as possible, not only for the stun and 80% slow, but also to maximize  Sunlight's bonus damage.
  • The cooldown on the ability is fairly low, so don't be afraid to use it to set up kills or to save teammates.
• It is a good idea to prioritize skill points into  Eclipse. It deals the most damage of any of your skills, and has the most significant bonuses upon level-up.
  • It is important to get a point in  Shield of Daybreak early to complete Leona's combo, but extra points in the ability aren't particularly noticeable.
  • Maxing  Zenith Blade after  Eclipse is the best way to help Leona overcome her lackluster farming, enabling her to kill minion waves with one combo by level 9 .
•  Zenith Blade can be used even against enemies who you cannot see, making it good for chasing enemies who become invisible or flee into brush or over walls.
  • Remember,  Zenith Blade will not reveal a stealthed enemy so Leona will not be able to follow up with a  Shield of Daybreak, though  Eclipse can still damage them.
• Spell shields, like on Banshee's Veil will prevent Leona's abilities from applying  Sunlight. But they will not stop  Zenith Blade from pulling Leona to her target or prevent  Eclipse's defense bonus.
• Aim  Zenith Blade so that the desired target is the last enemy hit by the skill.
•  Zenith Blade and  Eclipse can be used to mark minions with  Sunlight to make it easier for your lane-mate to last-hit large waves, especially if they have AoE skills.
• Beware casting  Zenith Blade near enemy towers; you can be pulled under the tower and take aggro.
•  Zenith Blade's projectile does have a travel time, so it is generally unwise to use the spell at the tip of its range since the enemy champion has time to dodge.
• When laning, control the brush whenever possible as her ability to set up kills gives her excellent zoning.
• If Leona's lane-mate is fed enough, and/or her laning partner is a good 1 v 2 champion (like Urgot), she can begin roaming as soon as she purchases movement speed and at least 1 (if not 2) gold generating items.
  • Her massive CC allows her to set up kills easily, especially when  Solar Flare is available.
  • When coordinating a roaming gank with your team's jungler, Leona's ganking ability is more potent.
• Leona's abilities have a decent amount of base power, especially  Eclipse. Use this to your advantage to kill fragile characters who underestimate your burst damage.
• Leona has the ability to clear enemy wards just after their placement. Deal a basic attack, activate  Shield of Daybreak for another attack, and immediately issue an attack command afterwards.

Build usage Edit

• Leona is described as a "pure tank", favoring builds that only emphasize her defensive stats.
  • Despite the fact that all of Leona's abilities scale with ability power, it is not suggested to build AP as she has low AP ratios and long cooldowns.
  • However, due to the fact that all of her abilities including her passive deal magical damage AND she tends to be in the center of the battle, Abyssal Scepter is an acceptable choice.
• In between her cooldowns, Leona can be quite vulnerable early game and your opponents may decide to focus you down (especially when  Zenith Blade often puts you behind enemy lines). Consider getting Sunfire Cape early to make your enemies think twice about coming near you. It gives a nice chunk of defense and also helps with farming/pushing.
• If you have Randuin's Omen, try to use its active ability while  Eclipse is up. Randuin's Omen's active increases in duration the higher your armor and magic resist is which  Eclipse provides (the total armor and magic resist are taken into account).
• It is recommended to build as much cooldown reduction as possible without hindering her survival items. The more CDR she has, the more she can spam her CC and tank for her team to clean up. Remember that the cap is 40% CDR.
  • Frozen Heart, Locket of the Iron Solari, and Shurelya's Reverie fit this description perfectly.
•  Shield of Daybreak resets attack timer and applies on-hit effects, so it will work with Sheen and Trinity Force. Since  Shield of Daybreak has a base cooldown of (11/10/9/8/7) seconds, spacing out your ability usage is necessary to maximize Sheen procs. In lane, this can lead to very strong burst -  Zenith Blade activates one proc on the way in and places  Sunlight on your target and  Shield of Daybreak resets your attack timer for another strike and reapplies  Sunlight.
• Alternatively, you can get plenty cooldown reduction items (the cap being 40%) to bring down  Shield of Daybreak's cooldown to 4.2 seconds at skill level 5.
• Due to being melee range, having subpar farming and normally being paired with someone who needs last hits more than her, Philosopher's Stone is a good choice on Leona.
• Since Leona has no direct way to support her lane-mate, it may be beneficial to build an early Emblem of Valor to provide a health regeneration aura. The Emblem of Valor can later be built into an Aegis of the Legion and eventually a Runic Bulwark for further aura support.
• Since  Eclipse provides Leona a high amount of armor and magic resist, even with no items, she will, generally, gain more of a survivability boost from items, runes and masteries which provide bonus health as opposed to more armor or magic resist.
• Leona's effectiveness is heavily based on her ability to position herself correctly in team fights. Runes, masteries, spells and items which improve her mobility and/or increase her resistance to slows, stuns, etc. should be considered especially useful.
• Leona can be built as an AD tank, due to her high armor stats when you use  Eclipse, you have two stuns (one with  Shield of Daybreak and the other with a well timed  Solar Flare). If you consider this build, you must buy Trinity Force and Ionian Boots of Lucidity for CDR, durability, as well for getting a decent amount of health, mana, and attack damage.

Recommended builds Edit

Summoner's Rift recommended items
Starting
Essential
Offensive
Defensive
Consumables

The Proving Grounds recommended items
Starting				5
Essential
Offensive
Defensive
Consumables

The Crystal Scar recommended items
Starting		3
Essential
Offensive
Defensive
Consumables

The Twisted Treeline recommended items
Starting
Essential
Offensive
Defensive
Consumables

Countering Edit

• In lane, Leona will attempt a combo of  Eclipse immediately followed by  Zenith Blade to jump to you and  Shield of Daybreak to stun and ensure Eclipse damage.
  • This combo is especially dangerous from brush - keep track of her.
•  Zenith Blade hits a rather small area - staying at range will allow you to dodge it.
• If Leona uses  Zenith Blade to farm minions, it can sometimes be advantageous to make it hit you - without her combo lined up, she doesn't hit too hard.
• Stay mobile in order to make it harder for her to effectively initiate with  Solar Flare and her combo.
  • Spread out to minimize how many people will be hit by the stun from  Solar Flare, and possibly the entire ability.
• Catch Leona alone whenever possible, as she cannot make  Sunlight deal damage without a partner.
• Any damage from her lane partner will proc  Sunlight, greatly increasing damage taken. Avoid her partner's attacks, especially Damage over Time effects.
• Leona is hard to finish off in combat due to to bonus defensive stats of  Eclipse. Only commit to killing her if you are sure of victory.
• Leona's largest source of personal damage comes from  Eclipse, which also provides her the most defense. Try to keep your distance from her when you see her activate it.
• It is difficult to disengage from Leona, but once you do  Zenith Blade may be a fantastic gap closer, but the projectile speed and cast animation are slow enough that it makes it hard for Leona to effectively chase with it. Coupled with her low base movespeed, it is quite possible to escape Leona simply by running in a straight line away from her.
• While laning, Leona is most effective when she can surprise her foes from the brush; warding your lane's brush can be a very effective way to shut down her zoning ability.
• Be careful about using knockback abilities such as  Condemn or  Buster Shot on Leona when she uses  Zenith Blade. If you fire before Leona starts her dash, she will be knocked back only to dash to the last enemy champion hit regardless. Instead, try to time the shot to hit just as she starts to dash, which will break her dash and knock her back, effectively canceling her gap closer.
• Remember that  Zenith Blade places Leona behind her target with respect to her point of view on using  Zenith Blade. This can be exploited by knockback abilities to either throw her into one of your turrets, into your team, or to  Condemn her into a wall with proper positioning.

Champion spotlight Edit