Talk:Leona/@comment-2231554-20140215013834/@comment-4591890-20140315180354

Leona's balanced in the sense that she doesn't work very well (Or in some cases, even at all) with some ADCs, lacks genuine disengage mechanics, and is hard countered by ADCs and Supports with displacement/knock up disengages like Janna and Alistar. Add to it that unless she is at least aggressively zoning the enemy ADC with her own carry close enough to follow up on any engages she makes, she's a liability. What this all means is that she's often in a place of vulnerability against junglers, and her carry often is as well. Essentially, her playstyle is predictably aggressive. Some experienced Junglers are able to count on this. Additionally, she has the weakest level 1 of all supports as her Q is hard to land without E, and her E has no follow-up without Q, and initiating before lvl 3 tends to be quite squishy relative to other tanky supports. Add to it that unlike the vast majority of supports, she lacks both sustain AND ranged harass.

Additionally, it should be noted that while she has a very easy time at getting into trouble... she has a terrible time getting herself out of it as well. If you are lucky enough that the enemy jungler came in from the towerside opening while your Zenith Blade was off cooldown, you can escape a gank and positioning yourself to interrupt any attempt at CCing your carry while they get themselves out as well... but otherwise, all you have to hope for surviving the gank is a well placed Solar Flare if the Ganker and the Laners group up foolishly. It's one of the reasons that I LOVE laning with Vayne as Leona. Condemn makes Jungle Ganks pointless and provides em an opportunity to disengage when I land a Zenith Blade to try to initiate a trade rather than going for a straight up kill.