League of Legends Champion Guide: Leona (The Radiant Dawn)

League of Legends, has Champions that can deal damage from across the map, or invade the enemy’s comfort zone. If you enjoy doing the latter, consider picking up Leona and staying tuned to this guide.

Leona comes from a tribe that worships the sun, but has managed to turn the focus of her worship into her greatest weapon. As a support champion, Leona utilizes the power of the sun to deal magic damage and immobilize her opponents. Although the power of the sun undoubtedly hurts, Leona is best suited to let others deal consistent attack damage while she controls her foes and keeps their attention. For this reason, Leona is best played as a support. However, playing support doesn’t necessarily mean playing defensively. Leona excels at being right in the heart of the battle, where she burns bright like the sun.

Leona’s Abilities and Runes in League of Legends

Leona’s abilities are geared towards getting in the middle of the fight and using crowd control abilities to allow her teammates to land their damage. Here is a basic overview of her abilities and when she might benefit from using them.

Leona’s passive, Sunlight, applies a 1.5 second debuff to enemies hit by any of her abilities. When afflicted by Sunlight, damage dealt by ally champions will consume the debuff and deal bonus magic damage based on Leona’s current level. Since only ally champions can consume the sunlight charge, Leona will benefit the most from this passive by using teamwork and sticking near her team’s ADC.

Leona’s first active ability, Shield of Daybreak, has Leona use her shield to perform her next auto-attack. This next attack deals bonus magic damage to an enemy and stuns them for 1 second. This ability works best when it can be followed up with more crowd control from Leona’s teammates. Essentially, Leona’s Shield of Daybreak is meant to be the first ability used on an enemy that gives her teammates time and opportunity to land their abilities on the target as well.

Leona’s second active, Eclipse, casts a solar eclipse around Leona that protects her for 3 seconds. Eclipse provides a flat damage reduction while also providing bonus armor and magic resistance. If enemies are within the AOE radius of Eclipse when it runs out, magic damage based on Leona’s level is dealt to them and Leona receives damage reduction and bonus resistances for another 3 seconds. This ability is best used after flashing into the middle of a fight or after using Zenith Blade to jump onto an enemy. Leona’ will want to be as close to the enemy champs as she can when activating the ability because it is ideal to deal the magic damage from the detonation and also prolong her protection. However, 3 seconds is more than enough time for an opponent to flash away to safety so make sure you’re right in the thick of the battle when you activate this ability.

Leona’s Zenith Blade is her third active ability and it allows Leona to project a solar image of her sword in a straight line with a limited range. If an enemy is hit by the sword’s projection, magic damage is dealt to them and Leona dashes to the enemy hit last. When Leona dashes to an enemy hit by Zenith Blade, they are rooted for 0.5 seconds. In the early game, this ability is best used to punish enemy Champions that are alone in lane or may be coming a little too close to the minion wave, but later on in the game it will be your tool of choice for initiating fights and landing Shield of Daybreak. Following this ability up with her Shield of Daybreak allows her to immobilize an enemy champion for a whole 1.5 seconds, more than enough time for a teammate to land his or her’s next crowd control ability.

After a less than 1 second delay, Leona’s Ultimate ability, Solar Flare, directly beams a target location with solar energy. Enemies struck by the center of this beam are dealt magic damage based on Leona’s level. Enemies directly struck by the beam are also slowed by 80% and stunned for 1.5 seconds. Enemies that are within the AOE of the Solar Flare but have not been struck directly by the center are dealt the same magic damage and slow, but not stunned. This ability is best used when the enemies are in very close proximity to each other. Since its an AOE ability and not a single-target one, you can stun multiple enemies with the epicenter as long as they manage to be right on top of each other. Using this ability after Zenith Blade and Shield of Daybreak means that an enemy can be immobilized for a whopping 3 seconds, which is more than enough time for your team to back you up.

Leona’s best choice for summoning spells are going to be Flash and ignite. Flash can help Leona get in the middle of a fight or help her easily retreat from one as well. Ignite can be swapped with a barrier or heal to go with a more support play style, but ignite will bag more early kills for an aggressive Leona. For her Runes, the Resolve path is best for playing divey and aggressive. First on the Rune path, get Aftershock as it synergizes well with Leona’s abilities and provides extra resistances on top of Leona’s already existing ones. For your second Rune, go with Demolish because if you are playing aggressive as Leona, you’ll be near the enemy tower a lot so it would be ideal to deal extra damage to it. The third Rune spot should be filled with Conditioning because it synergizes really well with Leona’s Eclipse ability. Conditioning is also a free and guaranteed spike in tankiness at minute 12, which will cause even more problems for enemy ADCs that are also spiking in damage at this time. For your final Rune slot, go with either Unflinching or Overgrowth. Unflinching can be more helpful if you’re playing an aggressive Leona that likes to roam because then you don’t have to worry about first being near minion kills to benefit from the Rune. Unflinching will also provide Leona with much needed tenacity and slow resist so she can better maneuver when in the middle of a battle. On the other hand, Overgrowth will provide Leona with much needed extra HP that can help her survive high damage output in the late-game, so it is worth taking Overgrowth if you suspect a long game.

Items for Leona in League of Legends

Leona is best played as a tank support, which means it can be difficult to accumulate gold in the game since your ADC should have priority over minion kills. Therefore, it’s best to focus on getting a few essential items that give movement speed, extra HP, and resistances.

When you begin the game, the Relic Shield and Health Potion will suffice for the first couple minutes of the laning phase, but for your early game items you want to get Boots of Speed and a Kindlegem. For your upgraded set of boots, it is common to go with Boots of Mobility if you want to be aggressive in lane and get early kills, but Leona may benefit more from the resistances given by Mercury Treads. During the early game it would also be wise to invest in either a Chain Vest or Stopwatch as both will help Leona tank up and build into a Gargoyle Stoneplate. Stopwatch’s unique active, Stasis, can be used when in the middle of a fight to dodge incoming attacks by making her unable to attack or be attacked for  2.5 seconds, but it can only be used once.

During the Early-Mid game you will want to grab your first essential item which will be the Gargoyle Stoneplate. This item will provide much needed passive resistances as well as its active will allow you to increase your max HP by 100% for 4 seconds which can be vital when in the middle of a fight. However, at this point Leona’s max HP is kind of low so it would be smart to turn the early game Kindlegem into a Knight’s Vow which synergizes really well with a support play-style. Knight’s Vow will allow you to designate an ally champion as your partner and grant you bonuses if you are within range of them.

In the late-game, it may be especially hard to earn gold as a support Leona. Therefore, it is best to get your essential items first and then leave the rest of your build open to adapt to the game. Although the choices in items may seem daunting at first, remember to invest in items that primarily provide damage resistances and bonus HP.

How to Play Leona in League of Legends

As discussed earlier, Leona is best played as an aggressive support that takes advantage of enemies that are alone or have stepped up too close to the minion wave. As a support, she is best played bottom lane with a preferably ranged ADC that is willing to combo with Leona when she dives aggressively. In lane, you’re going to want to harass the enemy ADC with Zenith Blade whenever they are alone or trying to last hit a minion. If you don’t have wards and an enemy is missing, hide in the brush beside the river to provide vision for your ADC and then punish any enemy junglers that are come to tank. Leona has a ton of wave clear with Eclipse and Zenith Blade, so it is okay to be aggressive and push lane to the enemy tower. This kind of play will also synergize well with Demolish as you can do a lot of damage to the enemy towers early on. Clearing and pushing the wave also provides Leona with the opportunity to leave the lane and help out middle or top. Thanks to her Boots of Mobility, she can rotate to other lanes and easily engage the enemy from the brush. In the middle to late-game, Leona will excel at tanking damage and providing crowd control. Use her abilities to get right into the middle of the fight and draw attention away from your team. Then, use her Shield of Daybreak or Solar Flare to deal damage while immobilizing the enemy ADC. If Leona is in the absolute thick of it, use Eclipse and Gargoyle Stoneplate to tank the enemy team’s damage output and let your team clean them up.

Two basic but important combos with Leona are her basic attack reset and her full combo with all her abilities. Since Leona’s Shield of Daybreak is a basic attack reset, you can follow up a basic attack with it and then also follow up the shield attack with another basic attack. First, right click an enemy and then use Shield of Daybreak to immediately hit them again. After the Shield hit, use your basic attack again which will result in 3 quick hits. Use this combo after Zenith Blading to an enemy or when destroying wards in the brush. For her full combo, either start with Solar Flare to stun enemies at a range, or use Zenith Blade to root them, then follow up with Shield of Daybreak and Eclipse. Since the enemy should be fairly immobile, it will be easy to land Solar Flare if you didn’t already start with it.

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