Welcome to our complete guide on how to build and play Leona in season 11 of LoL! We’re showcasing the best runes, items, and strategies to win games with this champion. The Leona build here is based on the best performances of high elo players worldwide so it can be useful to everyone else. Let’s begin!
Leona is a true carry support in the bot lane. She is an extremely proactive champion that can enable every lane through her ganking power. Leona’s biggest strengths are crowd control and tankiness. Both of these things are extremely effective, especially in the current “bursty” meta. So naturally, this Leona build has the second-highest win rate among the supports, right beside Thresh.
At the moment, supports are divided into enchanters, such as Lulu or Janna, and tanks, such Naitulus or Leona. And while the first ones are looking to enhance others, the second are the real playmakers. We definitely recommend you to try Leona if this is your preferred playstyle, particularly if you’re looking to carry solo queue games yourself.
What can you expect of using this Leona LoL build?
Well, you can safely rely on the fact that you will be useful in any game, regardless of the matchup. The runes and items are structured in such a way that they boost all of Leona’s strong points, as well as fill the gaps in between. This champion can be pretty obnoxious once you understand how to utilize the abilities, so we’re here to help!
Let’s check the runes, items, and Summoner’s Spells that you should be running on Leona in season 11 of LoL!
LoL Season 11 Leona Build – Runes
Runes in order:
- Aftershock
- Font of Life
- Bone Plating
- Overgrowth
- Biscuit Delivery
- Cosmic Insight
Aftershock
The keystone that you should always go for on Leona is Aftershock. Once you read its tooltip you know that the rune has been made especially for her. It fits the way she plays the game and offers many obvious benefits.
Aftershock grants Armor and Magic Resist when you apply one of your stuns as Leona. This “shield” stays for 2.5 seconds on you, then it bursts and deals damage around. And it is a vital weapon for fighting 2v2 in the bot lane and team fights as well. The Aftershock keystone is the most important rune in this Leona LoL build.
Font of Life
Font of Life is one more tool that fits perfectly into Leona’s playstyle. After successfully putting an enemy into crowd control, you mark them for 4 seconds. And if your allies damage them during this time window, they get healed in return. One thing that you should keep in mind is the fact that Font of Life doesn’t have an internal cooldown. This means that any time you use your stuns, this rune will take effect.
Bone Plating
Another extremely useful rune is Bone Plating. This is your most defensive option for the laning phase, giving you damage reduction once in 45 seconds. Bone Plating makes it so you don’t die quickly by burst damage. And when paired with your W, the rune makes Leona of the most difficult to kill champions in League of Legends. Of course, Bone Plating can be used both offensively and defensively, so always keep track of its cooldown.
Overgrowth
And in the last row of the Resolve tree, we have Overgrowth. The reason why we have it in our LoL Leona build is pretty simple – it increases your maximum HP. Leona needs as much Health, Armor, and Magic Resist as possible, so a source that offers it passively is always welcomed.
Note that you can sometimes swap Overgrowth for Unflinching. This is recommended in games where all your enemies have some kind of crowd control and Tenacity is what you need more. Otherwise, Overgrowth should be your general choice.
Biscuit Delivery
Like the rest of the support champions, Leona needs Biscuit Delivery. This is a fantastic choice meant to help your early game. As Leona, you’re almost always looking for trades and playing aggressively. Being able to regenerate most of your HP and mana is extremely valuable, so we advise you to have Biscuit Delivery with you.
Cosmic Insight
And in the end, we have Cosmic Insight. This is just a helpful rune all around, granting you overall Haste. As you can imagine, the 10+ Item Haste is super good, especially when considering all the support items like Mikael’s Blessing or Redemption. And lowering their cooldown is always good!
This Leona LoL rune build is meant to make you tanky and durable. Leona performs the best when she is able to engage the enemy and continually lock targets down. For this she needs many defensive options, so let’s check out the items and conclude the idea!
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LoL Season 11 Leona Build – Items
Items in order:
- Locket of the Iron Solari
- Zeke’s Convergence
- Knight’s Vow
- Thornmail
- Redemption
- Mobility Boots
Locket of the Iron Solari
Between the different mythic items for supports, the one that fits Leona the most is Locket of the Iron Solari. This is an improved version of the original item which gives shields to all allies nearby. In a meta such as this, where everyone can one-shot a squishy target, a tool such as this is much needed.
Other than that, Locket of the Iron Solari offers Health, Ability Haste, Armor, and Magic Resist. As we stated above, these are the key stats for Leona so always build Iron Solari first.
Zeke’s Convergence
Leona’s second item should either be Zeke’s Convergence or Knight’s Vow. There is no strict rule as to which one you should go first, except for this. When you’re playing against assassins or one-shotting champions, Knight’s Vow is the item to get. However, if you want to be more offensive, Zeke’s Convergence should be purchased first. The latter enhances the attacks of your teammates, so having it can help you slay enemies quicker.
Knight’s Vow
Similar to Zeke’s Convergence, Knight’s Vow can be activated on an allied player. And when you and your bound ally are close to each other, the portion of their damage taken will be redirected to you. This is a very unique way of protecting someone, and Leona excels at it. Obviously, Leona’s tanky nature lets her take more damage than most champions, so the redirected damage isn’t a problem at all.
Thornmail
As a third item, though, Thornmail is considered the best. At the moment, champions like Zed and Talon are extremely popular. The AD items are particularly strong, so getting more Armor is always a good strategy.
Besides that, Thornmail is one of the few support items that offer the Grievous Wounds effect. Whenever your opponents attack you, Thornamail will damage them back and apply up to 60% Grievous Wounds. This is extremely good against any healing or self-healing in League of Legends.
Redemption
You might not reach your fifth item in every game, but it’s good to be prepared. Redemption is the general recommendation, given the importance of team fights later on. This item is a nice way to support your teammates even after you die. It heals in a large target area, so it can be pretty helpful, especially if you don’t have any other heals in your team.
Mobility Boots
As for the boots, Leona goes best with Mobility Boots. The primary reason why take these is to roam around the map and gank. The Mobility Boots enable you to follow your jungler wherever he goes and secure vision and objectives. Keep in mind that you can also go for Mercury’s Treads or Plated Steelcaps if you need extra defensiveness.
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Situational Items
Support champions are very flexible when it comes to itemization. Leona can be played with many different items and build in a completely different way in each game of LoL. And the situational items that we have provided here can all be purchased in the right circumstances.
For example, you should have Mikael’s Blessing against CC champions, such as Zoe or Morgana. Similarly, Frozen Heart is excellent against multiple marksmen on the enemy team. And items like Gargoyle Stoneplate and Spirit Visage will boost your resistance to damage and make you a true tank.
And lastly, the next most played mythic item on Leona is Shurelya’s Battlesong. This one gives you and your allies a burst of movement speed and has a cooldown of 75 seconds. It can be a very useful engaging tool, but it lacks the needed Armor, Health, and Magic Resist.
LoL Season 11 Leona Build – Summoner’s Spells
Choosing Summoner’s Spells for Leona is pretty easy. Flash should always be a baseline because it allows you to create plays, such as Flash into Q stun. And Ignite is also pretty valuable, especially against champions like Soraka or Yummi. However, you can also go with Exhaust to stop Samira, Zed, or similar picks from killing everyone else.
Flash + Ignite =
your best combo for bot lane.
Flash + Exhaust =
less aggressive but equally reliable.
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Leona’s Skill Order and Ability Combos
Skill Order
There are a couple of ways that you can max Leona’s abilities. Generally, you want your W to be the strongest one first. The reasoning here is because League of Legends has an enormous amount of damage currently. And while previously Leona could max E or Q first, now W is almost mandatory for survival. This is the skill order that you should follow in season 11.
W > E > Q > R
or E > W > Q > R in some cases.
Ability Combos
When it comes to combing your abilities on Leona, you have multiple choices. It’s important to know what each one of your buttons do, so make sure to familiarize yourself with the champion first.
Generally in lane, you want to engage with your E first. This spell roots the target down and brings you to them. You can always follow this with a Q stun and continue auto-attacking them or using your ultimate.
However, Leona’s R can also be used as an engaging tool. It has a decent range and can catch enemies off guards. If you hit it right, Solar Flare will stun all enemies in the center, while slowing the rest. And this can give you the opportunity to catch up with them with your E.
Other than that, you can always use Flash or Hexflash to gain the distance needed for Q or E.
E > Q > W =
regular combo during the laning phase.
E > Q > R =
post level 6 all-in.
R > E > Q > W =
locking a target from range.
F > Q > E > R =
flashing for a secured Q stun into a chain CC.
F > Q > R > E =
similar effect as the previous combo with different execution.
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LoL Leona Build for ARAM in Season 11
Runes
Runes in order:
- Aftershock
- Font of Life
- Bone Plating
- Overgrowth
- Triumph
- Legend: Alacrity
Items
Items in order:
- Sunfire Aegis
- Thornmail
- Abyssal Mask
- Force of Nature
- Warmog’s Armor
- Mercury’s Treads
Additonal Info
The ARAM LoL build for Leona isn’t much different. On Howling Fjord, your job is pretty much the same as on Summoner’s Rift. This means that you’re looking to help your team by crowd controlling the enemies and tanking most of their damage. For this, you’ll need items like Sunfire Aegis, Thornmail, Abyssal Mask, Force of Nature, or Warmog’s Armor.
This LoL build for Leona can give you big advantages throughout the entire game of ARAM. While most champions against you will be buying offensive items, you will be building resistances that cannot be broken. And if you manage to hit your ability combos regularly, you can be very annoying to your opponents in ARAM. But that’s how you win with Leona!
If you want a professional guide on how to build and play Leona, check this video!