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In this guide, I will tell you how and why I play/build Leona the way I do. I will try my best to explain why I build the way I do and how my play-style is with this champion. I will also explain why you should at least appreciate your support because, to be honest, we are very underrated for what we do.


Where do I start when it comes to describing supports and the rules they follow?

Support is probably one of the most important roles, and underrated roles, in the game. They control the flow of the game and a great deal of map control. A lot of things happen behind the kills that most people do not realize or refuse to. As the name implies, this role helps the team to achieve victory by enabling them to get kills and objectives, such as the Rift Herald, Baron Nashor or the Dragon.


As a support, you head to the bottom lane with your AD Carry, and as the name implies, you support them. When you are in the Laning Phase, don't last hit the minions for gold. There are items that will passively give you gold as the game progresses (That being said, you can farm the minions when your ADC is out of lane). Your job is not to take kills, but to set up kills for your team, so try not to kill steal!

Watch the whole map, not just your lane, and ping/inform your allies of approaching enemies. Pinging missing champions and maybe even writing in the chat goes to this section and even if your Mid doesn't say anything, but the enemy is gone there, you can ping it instead. Remember to buy and put wards and beware of ganks, inform your Jungler of the enemy wards and set up ganks. Remember: you can only place 3 wards at a time and 1 Control Ward. Remind others to ward as well, this is a team game.

Even though Leona is not a popular supprt for this meta, I still believe she's a strong pick. She has a lot of CC--which she uses to help protect her allies. She also has an engage with her E-- Zenith Blade which is nice when you need someone to start a fight. Leona is probably the first tanky support I learned!

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Pros + Super tank + Strong CC + Nice engage + Nice disengage + Stuns + Strong lane presence Leona is a great support when you need to focus on tanking and surviving! Not only does she have two stuns with her Q and her ultimate--but she also has a nice engage when it comes to her E and her ultimate. Her disengage comes mostly from her ultimate, which I use mostly for that purpose (though I will use it to help engage a fight). Your enemies in the lane will also stay behind, knowing that you could combo them in an instant.

Cons - Vulnerable to poke - No escape - No lane sustain - Risky playstyle - Skill-shots While I love Leona and all her tanky-glory, she has her downfalls. She's a risky support to play due to the fact she has a hard engage--which can lead to an early death if you have no communication with your team. She also has low mobility--which means no escape.

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This is where I try to explain why I chose the masteries I do and compare them to the others that I do not. I will attempt to do this as clearly as possible without too much-unneeded text!

RESOLVE

Aftershock is my choice. I find it to be very effective as it triggers on crowd control (which she has a lot of) and it provides a major stat buff for a short period of time. Since you start team-fights by CC, either way, you'll start off the battle or fight with the buffs it grants.

Demolish is my current choice when it comes to the second mastery. It allows you to take turret plates quickly for yourself and your ADC--which means extra gold! This is a super useful early game when you are fighting for your lane.

Conditioning is useful. It's a nice sustain pick that will give you a big amount of permanent armor and magic resist after 10 minutes of the game.

Unflinching works well after utilizing your summoner spells (you gain extra Tenacity every time you use one)! This is also useful with teams that have heavy CC.

INSPIRATION

I like using Magical Footwear on my tankier supports for a couple of different reasons, but the main one is that we don't earn gold as fast as other roles do. It's honestly nice to not have to worry about buying them, especially when you're behind or need to focus on another item.

I prefer using Biscuit Delivery soley for the extra sustain that it'll give you in lane. It'll deliver a biscuit 4 times in 12 minutes and when you consume it it'll grant you health and mana regeneration.

Grasp of the Undying and Guardian The passive will grant you 1 stack when you deal or receive damage within 2 seconds and generates one stack every second. At 4 stacks, your next basic attack within 6 seconds, against an enemy champion, deals 4% of your maximum health bonus magic damage. While within the range of allied champions, you will raise your Guard, which means your or the Guarded Champion (usually your ADC) would take damage from an enemy champion or monster. You both first gain a shield as well as a 20% bonus movement speed buff that lasts for 1.5 seconds.

Font of Life and Shield Bash I find this to be my second go-to mastery when it comes to Leona. This mastery will tag enemies whose movement speed you're impaired. Allies who attack this target will get slightly healed. When you get a Shield, your next basic attack deals extra damage. While she doesn't have a shiled, some items will provide one

Conditioning and Second Wind On paper this mastery looks nice, but I have never personally used it. It's a decent sustain pick as it will give you 9 armor and 9 magic resist and will also increase both by 5% after 10 minutes in game. I have also never used this mastery, but it would probably be my other option. After taking damage from an enemy you will gain 4% health regeneration for 10 seconds.

Overgrowth and Revitalize Overgrowth is my second pick for Leona. After every 8 monsters or minions that die near you, you gain 3 bonus heath. What's nice about this is that soem items do not give you bonus health, or very little bonus health. This mean you can stay alive in lane longer. Why this mastery would ever be on Leona is the question that i ask. She does not have a heal or a shield to utilize it.

When you pick your secondary stats, I feel like you can change them for different games. I tend to take the CDR Time for the first tier that way I don't have to focus on CDR Items very often and can focus on Health or other viable items that I need. For the second tier, I tend to take the Armor because it's something that all my Supports on this page can benefit from, but you can also take the MR one. For the third tier, I tend to go straight health, but take the MR or the Armor one if you think you'll need it.

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- FLASH: This is standered on every champion, support or not. Since Leona does not have any real escape, taking this spell will be a life-saver! EXHAUST: This I find is a must on any support champion! Not only does it slow the enemy champion affected by 30% for 2.5 seconds in order to help secure your carry a kill, you can use it to get out of a sticky situation or disengage if need-be. IGNITE: This is not a spell I perosnally use or would reccomend, but that does not stop me from seeing other people take. I see it mostly in aggressive play-style. I would still personally recommend Exhaust and Flash.

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PASSIVE ABILITY

Salvation (Passive): This is her passive. It applies a debuff to enemy champions that you with with your Eclipse, Zenith Blade, and your Solar Flare. You cannot activate this ability, but your allies can when they hit them.

Q

Shield of Daybreak (Q): This ability has you charge your basic attaack to stun an enemy for 1 second. It's got a low base cooldown--but max this last because leveling doesn't affect the cooldown of this ability! You use this ability in combination with Zenith Blade--going Zenith Blade then Shield of Daybreak in order to engage the enemy.

W

Eclipse (W): This is probably shields yourself, increasing your armor and your magic resist for a short period of time. After the 3 seconds, it blows up in an AoE radius and further extends the armor and magic resist buff. In my experience, this pairs well with Aftershock because they basically do the same thing (except Aftershock doesn't extend the stat bonus buff duritation)!

E

Zenith Blade (E): This is the ability you will use to enage most of the time. It is a linear skill-shot that passes through minions to the enemy champion. This will be the first ability used in your combo (which usually goes Zenith Blade > Eclipse > Shield of Daybreak).

R

Solar Flare (R): This is your ultimate ability. This ability sends down a ray of sunshine that stuns all your enemies around the triggered area and slows the rest in the outer ring. This also increases your basic attack damage and applies Sunlight to the enemies.

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#1 Solar Flare 6 / 11 / 16 #2 Eclipse 3 / 4 / 5 / 7 / 9 #3 Zenith Blade 2 / 8 / 10 / 12 / 13 #4 Shield of Daybreak 1 / 14 / 15 / 17 / 18

> > > Alright, so to be clear I tend to vary on my skill sequuence, but I always start off with my Q and E first and second, followed by my W. I usually max my Eclipse first due to the buffs it grants, then I usually go Zenith Blade afterwords. I always max my Shield of Daybreak last because maxing it does not decrease the cooldown that it has.

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-OR-

Randuin's Omen > SURVIVABILITY/UTILITY If attacked by an auto-attack, the attacker loses 15% AS for a second and you also take less damage from crits. Lastly, you gain an active which slows nearby enemies' movement speed. Not only is the passives nice, but you also get a good amount of health and armor from it as well! Gargoyle Stoneplate > SURVIVABILITY/CDR What I like about this item is that not only do you get a decent amount of armor, you also get 20% CDR and the passive reduces the attack-speed of nearby enemy champions. The only downside to this item, in my opinion, is the fact that you also get mana--which you don't really need. Either way, it is a viable item.

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Dead Man's Plate > SURVIVABILITY/UTILITY This grants you a nice amount of armor and health once you build it. It also has a passive which stacks while you're moving--and once you gain up to speed your next auto deals extra damage. I find it to be a great item all around! Thornmail > SURVIVABILITY/SUSTAIN This gives a nice mixture of armor and health--along with a nice passive when it comes to heavy CC teams. When an enemy hits you with an auto-attack it reflects 10% of their damage back onto them as magic damage. This damage scales with your level!

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Righteous Glory > SURVIVABILITY/CDR/SUSTAIN/UTILITY This item is good for a team with phyiscal threats and also helps you engage the team itself. You gain 75% movement speed for 4 seconds when moving towards enemies or tenemy structures. Once engaged you slow nearby enemies by 75% for 2 seconds. This is basically a better version of Shurelya's Battlesong. Zeke's Convergence > SURVIVABILITY/CDR/MANA I love this item on her! Casting your ultimate near an ally summons a "storm" around you that slows and burns the enemies. Since you go all-in, and you're always fighting with at least your ADC, you can see why I love it.

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Abyssal Mask > URVIVABILITY/CDR/UTILITY This item is really good if you have a lot of AP champions on your team. It increases the magic damage enemies take by 15% within 325 units. It also increases your survivability against AP champions. It increases your health and you get 10% CDR. The mana regeneration it provides isn't needed, but it depends on the team. Zeke's Convergence > SURVIVABILITY/SUSTAIN/UTILITY This is a nice armor and MR item. This increases your armor and your MR by 40 in team-fights or any kind of fight as long as there are 3 or more enemies nearby. This item works well with your W ( Eclipse). The active is also nice; it increases your size, health, and lowers your damage. You're a tank so you don't do damage anyway!

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This is where I'll talk about how I usually play as Leona. Please, keep in mind that you can either play this champion or any champion, aggressively or defensively--but here I will focus on my aggressive play-style!


This phase usually goes from the beginning of the game to when the first tower, ally or enemy, is down. So, with that in mind, the main thing you want to do during this phase is to keep your ADC alive and to try to get a tower. Do not forget that you are Leona, you're tanky and your all-in potential is stupid good. Don't be afraid to get aggressive--just make sure you have wards.

With the amount of CC you have, try to poke them down without losing too much health. Your ADC will follow-up and do damage as well. With this, you can win most trades!

Once you hit level 6 you'll get Solar Flare. With this, you can keep an eye out for a good opportunity to engage and hopefully get a kill. You can also use it to disengage a nasty gank or tower-dive.

Alright, now the tower is gone. This makes the game a little bit more tricky when it comes to your opponents. You won't be picked off as easily when you run off to ward your jungle, but I would suggest keeping a good eye on the map just in case (for rough warding map click here! Remember that wards/Results may vary). Always remember to keep vision on Baron and Dragon if possible! Those are very important game-changers.

You should usually be the one engaging team-fights, so make sure that your team will follow you up on the engage. When you engage, try to engage on their damage dealers because they can kite your team. Remember, you will not live every team fight--but always try to. Even if you die and your team wins that fight, it's well worth it.

This is probably the hardest phase to determine when is happening, but usually, it's usually when everyone starts to group together and 5v5 for towers.

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