Can Leona Jungle?

Jabberwöcky·10/8/2018, 2:07:55 PM·1 votes·4,562 views

So ima silver scrub, Leona is my favorite champion by far, and i would love to jungle her... Ive played a few games here and there with her, and it "works", just trying to optimize it as much as possible.

For a build i think (Not in a specific order)> .

Gives out 30% CDR sadly, but 40% if you get blue, which should go to mid anyway so meh. But has plenty of HP, Armor and MR stats. Plus with her entire kit, she has SO MUCH ganking&lockdown potential that it makes up for her slower clears, which i could almost compare that to rammus or malphite.

Whats yalls thoughts?

9 Comments

TheMightyLamp10/8/2018, 2:12:48 PM2 votes

leona jungle. sure. tank leona jungle? no lol, go on hit or full ap, it's a ton of fun and actually pretty strong besides the fact you get one shot easily

ShadWooo10/8/2018, 2:28:55 PM1 votes

In silver elo everything is possible but usually high-dmg dealers like Lee Sin, Khazix, J4, Kayn, Rengar are better here. Also her first clear is awful and while she has good cc she lacks mobility to make good gank, Predator might solve that but domination primary is not exactly what you want to use for Leona.

So if you get resolve primary instead I recommend to take Sorcery second, Celerity+Waterwalking and take item 3117 (swap for mercury/ninja if the game goes beyond 25minutes).

As for items.

Consider item 3800 , will help with ganking and engaging. Right now tanks aren't so tanky anymore, the best defense is offense, if you activate this enemies will have to run and won't be able to attack you (and if they don't run they should die).

Second item to consider is item 3190 , a lot of tank junglers builds this, and on Leona it makes much more sense.

item 3143 is not so good lately, it used to be anti-crit items but right now crits deal true damage so it doesn't help. I would say item 3742 is better for the ms + bonus damage.

item 3512 has great passive, but it doesn't make much sense to have this on a jungler other than Udyr. To use this to full potential you want to splitpush but Leona excels in teamfights so not so good choice.

MrFawknSunshine10/8/2018, 3:04:43 PM1 votes

issue with leona jungle is her clearing camps, her passive dont help her q-e really dont either her W can be used to do some aoe damage and shield her to keep her from taking to much damage but she dont really have a way to clear outside of autos. so you would have to set up your runes to have attack speed. your Q can be used to stun the monster to get some free damage.

if you get invaded and you will you have no recourse let alone be able to out damage other junglers in fights in 1 vs 1.

for items

item 1041 item 2031 to start then item 2032 item 3751 item 1001 into item 1401

for me on tanks with bami cinder i like adding item 3001 for the increase in ap damage passive. plus cd/hp/mana/mr to me they synergize really well together

so we are at item 1401 item 3001 item 1001 now you have no armor so we need something to give armor and increase you gap closing item 3742 item 3800

so now we are at item 3001 item 1401 item 3800 item 1001 item 2032 to me this should be core

now this is where you can go situational based on what you are facing. as leona you are still a support and a tank so items to consider would be item 3118 item 3190 if not both. you are still needing to keep the adc or the carry protected to help you win these items does this and complete the build. however other situation items based on enemy team comp item 3143 vs crit item 3083 vs burst item 3110 vs alot of auto attackers item 3075 vs one fed auto attacker item 3194 vs dps magic damage item 3065 vs general magic damage. when it comes to boots they are always situational item 3111 vs lots of hard cc item 3047 vs auto attackers if vs neither really item 3117 to get into lanes to engage ganks faster get around map faster.

Pika Fox10/8/2018, 3:11:36 PM1 votes

Can she? Technically. Can she do so well? Not really. Way too slow on first clear.

Elite4Runner10/8/2018, 4:26:08 PM1 votes

As others have said, it isn't as good as meta-junglers, but it is certainly something that can work, and could even be good. Really anyone CAN jungle, but the biggest hurdle for any jungler is their first, and sometimes even their second full clear. I think absolute worst champion you could ever attempt to jungle with would be Azir, but if you could struggle through the first part of the game, he can clear jungle camps really fast.

As you said for Leona, she has a lot of hard cc, which is great for ganking.

Her decent base health and bonus resistances help with her ability to mitigate damage while clearing. Her auto attack reset and AOE damage really helps with her ability to clear with decent speed, but not fast. I'm not sure about her mana sustain, but the Blue buff and jungle item will really help with this matter. Sheen / Iceborn Gauntlet would nearly solve any mana issues all together.

I don't think full damage is really the best way to go about it though. As I said, her clear speeds are not ideal. Building more damage will be important for her to keep up with her team and to have an impact when she engages.

Her auto attack reset actually makes Tiamat / Titanic Hydra pretty valuable, despite the fact that she doesn't scale on AD, but it does have good synergy with Cinderhulk. I don't know that Stalker's Blade would be 'better' than Skirmisher's Sabre. You're already layering a lot of crowd control from her kit and with Iceborn Gauntlet. The Challenging Smite will actually work to her advantage because it gives her 20% damage reduction, and increases her damage output with a true damage burn.

Personally, I would decide on the rest of my build situationally. If you're ahead, go for more of a bruiser build so you can help your team snowball. If you are behind, you will need to be able to help your team defend and teamfight around objectives.

BeatzBoyFTW10/8/2018, 4:34:06 PM1 votes

If you have no intention of climbing, then Leona jungle is just meh. Her waveclear is seriously crap, her passive does nothing, and you're highly vulnerable to invades.

Ms Cougar10/8/2018, 11:19:48 PM1 votes

Her clear speed is sub-awful, her ganks are great, her deuling is meh. Even tanks designed for the jungle are weak at the moment due to the importance of 1v1 deuling power.

At least she wont lose scuttle fights, as she wont ever make it to any, being too slow to clear. It can sort of work as bad cheese (seen it done), but that was in the old days with real fat catch up xp. When you're 3 levels behind the enemy jungle, you're really going to wish you were on something else.

Wilyum10/8/2018, 2:12:39 PM1 votes

Probably not, she lacks sustain and reasonable clear speed. That being said anyone can jungle there are just better picks and you will have to rely on team a lot until at least Bambi.
If the enemy jg invades and you don't have any lane priority you're toast. Another thing is her ganks pre-6 would be weaker than most others if the laners have wards unless you took predatot

LeftyRaydy10/8/2018, 11:24:47 PM1 votes

Leona would not really be worth jungling due to effort - Reward. If you want to do a Heavy CC Jungle try Nautilus