Leona/Strategy

Skill usage

 * is primarily played as a support and her strength as a champion comes from her incredible amount of hard CC from, , and , the team damage potential from , and her natural durability from her stats and.
 * Maximize potential by timing your skills in a way that gives your allies an opportunity to consume each mark.
 * can be activated by any damage so long as she is not the source, including a DoT like.
 * can be used to help destroy towers or get last-hits as it resets her attack timer and deals bonus damage, even to structures.
 * With high natural CC, Leona can set up kills for her jungler even if they lack it themselves, such as.
 * can be relatively easy to land during the early laning phase when ADCs do not have very much attack speed and thus have a long enough attack animation to close in on them.
 * If is hit by a knock-back while  is in flight, she will be knocked back, but then immediately blink to the last enemy hit by the skill even though she has been knocked farther away.
 * Against champions with knockbacks or blinks, it is generally better to save until after they expend their distance-creating ability whenever possible.
 * A standard combo would be to activate at a distance and then use  to dash to an enemy champion, activating  in mid-flight.
 * lanes well with aggressive teammates with powerful early-game harassment skills such as, and , however many ADCs can easily take advantage of her kit.
 * When unable to directly communicate with a lane-mate, activating can be a good signal to them that you are about to initiate your combo.
 * Likewise, it can also tell your enemies that you're about to engage on them. Be quick or hide in the brush to prevent the enemy from disengaging.
 * can be used to steal or  from significant range. However, its small delay and low damage requires good timing.
 * Place where it will hit as many enemies as possible, not only for the stun and 80% slow, but also to maximize  bonus damage.
 * The cooldown on the ability is fairly low, so don't be afraid to use it to set up kills or to save teammates.
 * It is a good idea to prioritize skill points into . It deals the most damage of any of your skills, and has the most significant bonuses upon level-up.
 * It is important to get a point in early to complete Leona's combo, but extra points in the ability aren't particularly noticeable.
 * Maxing after  is the best way to help Leona overcome her lackluster wave clear, enabling her to kill minion waves with one combo by level 9.
 * does not need to be taken until level 3 as a and  combo will allow you to exchange harass damage against enemy lanes.
 * can be used even against enemies you cannot see, making it good for chasing enemies who become invisible or flee into brush or over walls.
 * However, will not reveal a stealthed enemy so you will not be able to follow up with a .  can still damage them however.
 * Spell shields, such as that from, will prevent her abilities from applying , but they will not stop from pulling  to her target or prevent  defense bonus.
 * Aim so that the desired target is the last enemy hit by the skill.
 * and can be used to mark minions with  to make it easier for your lane partner to last-hit large waves, especially if they have AoE skills.
 * Beware when casting near enemy towers; you can be pulled under it and take aggro.
 * On a similar note, can potentially put you in a bad position and out of range of your teammates.
 * projectile does have a travel time, so it is generally unwise to use the spell at the tip of its range since the enemy champion has time to dodge.
 * When laning, control the brush whenever possible as her ability to set up kills gives her excellent zoning.
 * Using while  is winding up can result in the range of the ability being extended and harder for the enemy to dodge.
 * If lane partner is fed enough, and/or they are able to handle a 1 vs 2 lane, she can begin roaming as soon as she purchases movement speed and a gold generating item.
 * Her massive CC allows her to set up kills easily, especially when is available.
 * When coordinating a roaming gank with your team's jungler, ganking ability is more potent.
 * abilities have a decent amount of base damage, especially . Use this to your advantage to kill fragile characters who underestimate your burst damage.
 * has the ability to clear enemy wards just after their placement. Deal a basic attack, activate for another, and immediately attack again to kill it.

Build usage
Leona can be built in multiple ways with the most favorable being a supportive tank. Less common builds include more offense, while utilizing her natural crowd control and tankiness.

Tank

 * With defensive items,  can be very hard to kill. Armor, magic resist, and health help her to make a very strong front line. can not only provide initiation, but can also lock down targets with her numerous stuns and immobilizes in the middle of the fight.
 * Since  provides Leona a high amount of armor and magic resist, she will generally gain more of a survivability boost from building health as opposed to more armor or magic resist, although the bonus does scale with extra defense.
 * The or  are great starting choices for  depending on how you want to play her.
 * will allow her to help sustain herself and her partner during the laning phase and builds into, which can provide a decent shield and possible nuke depending on who you use the active on.
 * On the other hand, active will allow her to engage easier and quicker with her team. The choice can be made based on team composition and the needs of the team.
 * The more team related items that  favors include ,, and , granting herself a good handful of stats and team beneficial actives.
 * If you have, try to use its active ability while  is up as the active increases in duration the higher your armor and magic resist. At max rank, by itself without any extra defense items, provides enough to increase the active's duration by 1.3 seconds.
 * , while somewhat expensive and uncommon, will allow you to keep targets locked down for much longer due to the slowing field in addition to providing good defensive stats. Though you won't be able to take advantage of the proc as frequently as other champions, the utility it provides may be just enough.

Attack Damage Bruiser

 * has very high base defense and utility. Using the right build and combination of items, she can dive into the enemy backline and be a major threat to their damage dealers. While being played as a solo laner or jungler, she can use this build to accomplish this. The best choices for this role contain a mix of damage, cooldown reduction and some defenses.
 * Without a lane partner,  becomes Leona's primary ability, as it grants an attack reset, extra damage and a stun.
 * works well with combo related items. ,  and  giving  some extra burst. In lane, this can lead to very strong trades - allows you to close the gap, using an auto attack for the extra damage, and  resetting your attack timer for another strike.
 * Be aware that  has a high base cooldown. Knowing how to pace your abilities is necessary to maximize procs.

Mage

 * With excellent CC and tankiness, and with all of her abilities scaling AP, has good capabilities of being a bursty AP offtank.  Between building the right defenses and AP items, she can easily handle a squishy lane-combatant, as well as pick off squishy AD carrys in teamfights whilst supported by her team.
 * In order to bring out the true magic-damage-dealing potential of, it is necessary to implicate high amounts of magic penetration, because her abilities do not have extraordinarily high AP ratios. It is also important to use a decent amount of Armor and Magic Resistance, so that her  can keep her alive while it ticks down to its explosion.  It is also important to have a decent amount of health to protect her vast amount of resistances and damage-dealing potential.  This being said, core items on Leona are considered to be ,  and.
 * If you are facing a team that is all or mostly AD, you should substitute with.
 * Offensive choices that stem from 's core items include, and .   is an excellent and generally a primary choice if you are facing a typical APC laner such as  or .   is an offensive choice against AD mids such as  because the AoE magic damage is an offensive trade off for the tankier stats of , and is also a great offensive choice because all of 's abilities require her to be in close proximity to the enemy.  Plus, the unique passive synergizes well with 's passive.
 * is best bought mid to late-game because it offers no boost to magic penetration, and the burn passive is more effective during team fights when 's AoEs can connect with enemies that are further impaired by your team's CC - although she has frequent CC, it is limited in duration.
 * is a better choice mid to late game than because the magic penetration stacks better on  than flat AP.
 * Defensive choices for include,  and .   synergizes a bonus duration slow with her , and 's spell shield is excellent at keeping  alive.   is a good substitute for  if there is little magic damage on the enemy team.
 * 's Unique passive will allow for an almost-always doubled burn application of against aa-oriented champions, therefore making for an excellent and quirky burn-multiplier.
 * In the build case of AP, becomes 's primary ability when she plans to initiate combat; however, if the enemy becomes close, using  to stun them becomes the better option, so that  will be available to stop escapees in their tracks, and  can finish the job with.
 * While using mage masteries, an easy combo to get Spell Weaving to level 3 is to, activate in the middle of or immediately after the flight of , finish the  animation into an auto-attack, cast , and then hit with a third auto before  explodes.
 * Because the most useful items on Leona do not have any cooldown reduction, it is best to implicate runes that have scaling cooldown reduction, and to take advantage of a blue buff offer.

Countering

 * In lane, will attempt a combo of  immediately followed by  to jump to you and  to stun and ensure  damage.
 * This combo is especially dangerous from the brush - keep track of her.
 * has a small width and slightly short range - staying back or side stepping can help you dodge it.
 * If uses  to farm minions, it can sometimes be advantageous to make it hit you and force her into a bad position.
 * Stay mobile in order to make it harder for her to effectively initiate with and her combo.
 * Spread out to minimize how many people will be hit by the stun from, and possibly the entire ability.
 * Catch alone whenever possible, as she cannot make use of  without a teammate.
 * Any damage from her lane partner will proc, notably damage-over-time, greatly increasing damage taken. Try to force her to use most of her skills before her teammate can activate the marks.
 * is hard to finish off in combat due to the bonus defensive stats from . Only commit to killing her if you are sure of victory.
 * largest source of personal damage comes from, which also provides her the most defense. Try to keep your distance from her when you see her activate it.
 * It is difficult to disengage from, but if you can dodge another , which has a small hit area and a notable casting time, you can cripple her ability to chase. Coupled with her low base movement speed, it is possible to escape from her by simply running in a straight line away from her.
 * When laning, Leona is most effective when she can surprise her foes from the brush; warding your lane's brush can be a very effective way to diminish her zoning ability.
 * Be careful about using knockback abilities such as or  on  when she uses . If you fire before  starts her dash, she will be able to dash to the last enemy champion hit regardless. Instead, try to time the shot to hit just as she starts to dash, which will break her dash and knock her back, effectively canceling her gap closer.
 * Remember that places  behind her target with respect to her point of view on using . This can be exploited by knockback abilities to either throw her into one of your turrets, into your team, or to  her into a wall with proper positioning.