Hi guys, this is Solar Support with a Leona guide. I've seen all these beautiful builds with 6-item synergy that just never play out. Supports are starved for cash, and it's not in your best interest to buy your first item with your eye on the 6th. That's why I've made a realistic guide based on my games with Leona.

I am a Leona main, with probably around 80 games played and level 6 mastery. I'm unranked, but I estimate myself to be in Silver I. I've tried out a lot of different builds of my own design, and some have made it into this guide, like my Redemption build, a set revolving around my favorite item.

I hope you enjoy, and as I am inexperienced, I would love any feedback you could provide. Be sure to check the notes, although information for spells, synergies, abilities and runes can also be found below.

A lot of ADCs expect Leona to take Ignite. I'm not sure why. Their job is to get kills, my job is to keep them alive. I think our summoner spells should reflect that. Regardless, in most circumstances I highly recommend that exactly one person in bot lane has Ignite, even if it has to be Leona. There are so many situations in which it can either out-dps a character like Master Yi or get that final kill.

I go with Shield of Daybreak first to punish aggressive champions at level 1 who dive under tower. It's actually pretty easy to get a kill when a level 1 pounces you under tower, no matter how low health you are.

I virtually never engage before I get Zenith Blade. I take it next so I can feed kills to my ADC.

Max your Eclipse first, partially because it allows you to clear but mostly because you are a crowd control tank. Upping your other abilities doesn't effect your crowd control, but upping Eclipse increases your tankiness.

Shield of Daybreak is used to punish those who jump into the back lines, stop ultimates, get away from ganks, and directly after Zenith Blade to start off a fight. It has a pretty low cooldown, and will usually be used more than once a team fight.

Use Zenith Blade to engage. It can't disengage. It also does the most damage of anything besides your ultimate, which is why I max it second, and it can finish off very low health squishies. If you're charging into crowd control, it's absolutely vital that you use Eclipse before Zenith Blade.

Solar Flare is pretty hard to aim, but the casting time is so fast that once you get the hang of it, your enemies really can't dodge. Use it to secure kills after casting Shield of Daybreak. This is very useful for killing damage carries. If you're a little late to a teamfight, throwing Solar Flare into a clump of enemies can be very effective. Solar Flare can be used defensively in many circumstances. It has a pretty low cooldown, so don't be afraid to use it. If you're going to use Solar Flare offensively, always make sure a damage carry is nearby. Your stun is utterly useless without them.

The main rune tree is Resolve for the tankiness.

Aftershock is your main rune. It gives a ludicrous amount of Armor and Magic Resist whenever you use your Shield of Daybreak, which is pretty often.

Edit: I originally said here that you could take Demolish instead of Font of Life. However, demolish often does more harm than good as it can take valuable turret gold from your ADC.

The Tenacity from unflinching is pretty nice, but as a tank less useful. I recommend Overgrowth for the 2.5% HP.

Next is Inspiration, notably not in the default Resolve set.

Biscuit Delivery is utterly amazing and I use it on almost every character. 200 max mana is great, but it also gives back a total of 60% of your missing HP and Mana.

Cosmic Insight is impossible to notice, but very nice nonetheless.

Finally there are the 3 stat bonuses.

All of Leona's abilities benefit from Cooldown Reduction immensely.

I take armor only because you know you're gonna have to fight an ADC.

HP stacks multiplicatively with armor.

It's important to note here that Leona is a tank support. She is able to serve as a support better than, say, Garen, because she has crowd control. Leona has a 1 second stun on her semi-spammable Shield of Daybreak and a 1.5 second stun on Solar Flare. Stun is one of the best crowd control effects in the game. Affected champions cannot move, cannot activate most items, cannot take actions, and cannot cast Flash or Teleport. On top of that, stun interrupts all channeling effects, including some ultimates.

What does this mean? Well, all ADCs benefit greatly from crowd control, but some need a pretty long duration to make anything of it. I'm looking at you, Jinx. Since Leona's crowd control is short and sweet, ADCs that do a lot of burst damage, such as Miss Fortune and Kai'Sa, benefit more. In addition, Leona's ultimate is an AOE stun, which melds beautifully with AOE damage. Keep this in mind when there's an Ahri, an Ezreal, or- God forbid- a Veigar on your team.

Unlike supports like Janna and Soraka, Leona brings some muscle to the bot lane. A lot of your worth will be in body blocking skill shots. Keep in mind that some ADC pokes and pokes of other champions are piercing while some are not. Jinx's Zap! and even her Super Mega Death Rocket! do not pierce enemies, while Caitlyn's Piltover Peacemaker does. Always remember that it's better for you to die and your ADC to farm than the other way around. It won't take a lot of standing around in lane to find out Leona's weakness otherwise.

Leona's greatest weakness is her damage. It is absolutely deplorable. She can 1v1 virtually no one. This makes since, however. If Leona had any damage, she could execute her own crowd control combos, making her both the set up and the finish of every fight. Never 1v1 with Leona, and never stun someone with the intent to kill unless you have a damage carry nearby.

Hopefully with these general rules you can decide yourself weather or not to opt for Leona in champion select.

Thanks for reading!