How to Play Leona Like an LEC Pro

Put into effect a look at how Mikyx and Hylissang make the most of The Warm Dawn to help up your game

Leona has seen a steady rise in presence in professional play since the League about Legends European Championship 2020 Spring Season. In new season, she was picked once and banned once, and even both were very surprising, as Leona had never truly been commonplace outside of solo queue at that point in time.

This unique all changed in the regular Summer Season, when her appeal bumped up to 20 percent, and then 30 percent in playoffs. Within Worlds, she exceeded 50 percent presence, becoming the most portrayed and most contested support pick throughout the entirety of the games. From the LEC, Leona was prominently played by G2 Esports' Mihael "Mikyx" Mehle and Fnatic's Zdravets "Hylissang" Iliev Galabov.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Leona is in a fantastic spot immediately where it seems that her strengths far outweigh any weaknesses. Her biggest attribute is the sheer amount of crowd control your lover possesses. Her kit comes with a low-cooldown targeted stun, any area-of-effect stun and slow, and a dash which plant's roots on-hit. All of these make peeling, engaging, and disengaging as simple as 123 for leona guide. She is one of the tankiest supports thanks to Declive (W), an ability that increases both her shield and magic resistance for several seconds upon activation.

Various may call this a pro, and others a con, still Leona’s playstyle is very aggressive. On the one hand, there are few encourages so effective at getting their botlaners some kills. On the contrary, Leona has a difficult time when she’s not capable of going in plenty. As such, she will struggle if she doesn’t get on top in the early game, and she may have a hard time generally if the enemy jungler camps bot lane. While she has no difficulty getting into the thick of a fight, she may find that it is hard to get out, since her gap-closer (E) only works one way of many. As a melee support, she can also have trouble going through poke supports, particularly ones that also have a lot of software to disengage, such as Lulu and Janna.

Abilities

Uva and uvb rays: Any enemy Leona damages with an ability gains a collection of Sunlight. Sunlight can be popped by an ally towards deal extra damage to the target. In the early game, the damage can make or break a 2v2 skirmish, which means that be sure to give your botlaner a chance to pop a Sunlight stack before you reset it.

Shield of Daybreak: Once running, the next enemy targeted by Leona's auto-attack gets stunned. This is a powerful ability because there is little counter-play available, instead of not getting too close to a Leona. Shield of Daybreak contains a very short cooldown, meaning you can potentially stun a good target more than once within a single fight. Also worth observing is that this ability resets your auto-attack animation, meaning that you can actually instantly remove spotted wards with the simple AA-Q-AA mix.

Flash plus Shield of Daybreak makes for an easy remove in the bot lane.

Eclipse: Eclipse is what makes Leona really powerhouse tank. Upon activation, Leona gets a large develop to her armour and magic resistance. The boost guitar scales with your items, so the ability remains strong throughout the whole entire game, provided you invest some money into resistances.

Zenith Blade: Zenith Blade is an extremely powerful tool for Leona, as it is her only gap-closer. It’s a skillshot that, if this connects to an enemy champion, dashes Leona into their melee range, where she is free to wreak havoc with her various abilities, most notably the undodgeable Shield of Daybreak (Q). It's important to remember that this ability can be cancelled by skillset such as Howling Gale or Flay.

Leona is one of the most profitable tower-diving supports, with Zenith Blade allowing her to shut the gap unexpectedly and Eclipse keeping her tanky.

Solar Flare: Leona’s ultimate is a long-ranged stun together with slow which always proves invaluable in team fights. It is able to hit multiple targets and applies Sunlight to all enemy hit, making it deadly in combination with other area-of-effect abilities that include Orianna's Command: Shockwave or Miss Fortune's Bullet Effort.

Runes

Leona's keystone of choice is Aftershock. This keystone synergises both with the sheer amount of crowd control Leona contains and her need to be a durable tank. In the Take care of tree, you will also want to pick up Font of Life, Area Plating, and Overgrowth. The latter two are useful so that you can combat poke, whereas Font of Life takes advantage of Leona's CC to grant her bottom laner a tad bit more sustain.

When it comes to your secondary tree, some Leona players wish to go with Domination, and others with Inspiration. In the Domination bonsai, your best options are Cheap Shot and Relentless Hunter. The previous makes you deal more damage to enemies with impaired exercise, which has great synergy with Leona's kit. Relentless Rogue boosts Leona's movement speed, making roaming and warding all the easier.

The Inspiration tree offers many wonderful options for Leona too. You can pick up Biscuit Delivery much more sustain, which may be necessary when you're up against a heavy poke duet bot lane. Cosmic Insight lowers the cooldown of this spells and items, and Hextech Flashtraption gives you some other gap-closer, making it easier to engage fights.

Items

Leona’s build not changed all too much since the Preseason has begun. You will also start your game out with Steel Shoulderguards, the most economical starting item for a melee tank. On the first make contact with the shop, many Leona players prefer to rush Associated with motion Boots. These will make you all the more intimidating in blevins, allowing you to roam into the River to ward and de-ward more efficiently and rotate to mid or top barry to gank more quickly.

When it comes to your next big purchase, it's time for it to pick a Mythic item, and Locket of the Iron Solari seems to be the best choice for now. The stats complement Leona spectacularly, superbly, magnificently, making both her and her allies tankier, and also shield is extremely useful in any skirmish.

The next item you should look is the brand new Watchful Wardstone. In the past, and especially in experienced play, supports would have to recall very often to refresh their valuable wards and purchase more Control Wards. Watchful Wardstone will likely make this easier for you by increasing your ward capacity and making for you more movement speed. At level 13, upgrade this unique item to Vigilant Wardstone to increase the benefits.

You can complete your build with many different items, and the way to choose can be to examine your team and your enemies. If your botlaner preferences more protection, consider a Zeke's Convergence or a Knight's Promise. If the enemy team consists mainly of physical affect dealers, Randuin's Omen and Thornmail are good options. Abyssal Mask is your go-to for dealing with enemy team compositions which includes a lot of magic damage. Finally, Gargoyle Stoneplate is a great preference when playing against mixed-damage teams, when you just need other raw durability.

Laning Phase

Leona remains powerful in the whole game, provided things are going smoothly. Her set up ensures that she can create many opportunities for her botlaner so you can get kills, stay safe, and farm up.

Leona’s level only two is one of the strongest in the bottom lane. With both Zenith Sharp edge (E) and Shield of Daybreak (Q), you can tight the gap between yourself and the enemy botlaner or possibly support and stun them with ease. With a level appeal at level two, Leona can easily either secure some kill or burn a few Summoner Spells.

Hylissang reflects on Leona’s early game power.

Leona's an excellent roamer caused by her ultimate. You should be especially vigilant in ganking lanes that have no Summoner Spells or gap-closers. Ganking beside your jungler is all the more deadly, so try to show style with them to pull off successful ganks, and turn the kills into objectives as well.

Team Fights

Team struggling is Leona's forte. She excels at initiating matches, either by catching enemies out with her Zenith Dagger or stunning several enemy team members with Solar Flare. The latter is also a terrific tool for disengaging damaging team fights.

An excellent team fight from Hylissang simply because he keeps Selfmade safe, counter-engages, and keeps main targets locked down.

If your botlaner is very strong, perhaps it is worthwhile sticking by their side throughout the entire prevent and peeling. With Shield of Daybreak (Q), Zenith Blade (E), and Solar Flare (R) all together, you’re able to keep enemies stun-locked long enough that your botlaner can stop them, or flee.