Why'd Leona fall off?

RookPusher·Dec 19, 2016·6 votes·1,544 views

Awhile back, S5 maybe, she used to be the god of the bot lane. I almost never see her anymore. Did all the Leona mains climb out of my bracket, or did something cause her to fall from grace?

41 Comments

RequiemsfireDec 19, 20164 votes

They nerfed her with a slight rework shifting her early power to her ultimate and gated behind auto attacking 3 times. The meta for the bot lane is always a bit of a circle but farm lanes are favourable due to hyper carry popularity like Vayne and Twitch making disengage champions preferred which in turn counter hard engage,

Gear KittyDec 20, 20164 votes

She's actually stronger than she used to be, but the problem is that she has an entirely aggressive playstyle. If she starts a fight or dive and her team doesn't have her back, she's done. If she stays back and does nothing but peel, she's wasted potential.

Add in that all of her kit is telegraphed in a way, and she doesn't see pro-play much either. Leona is right where she needs to be, it's the meta and nature of how the game is played that leaves her under par. It's safer to, well, play it safe.

Leona doesn't do safe.

[slayer-jinx-wink]

venomous frostDec 19, 20163 votes

the rise of queen poke and run, making leona useless in lane, aka Karma

RookPusherDec 19, 20163 votes

Thanks, man. Much more helpful than the clown who downvoted.

venomous frostDec 19, 20163 votes

her ult change was also generally regarded as a straight up nerf. but this was more perception than anything else imo, she traded some burst for much more dps.

Maximum MordeDec 20, 20162 votes

Not just Karma. Tons of ranged poke supports in the meta right now and they all shit on melee supports.

Shuyin178Dec 19, 20163 votes

Leona is still my best Support champion. I get S ranks with her like it's free candy.

Sup im CarrierDec 19, 20162 votes

[deleted]

SnugglePuggle94Dec 20, 20161 votes

Leona has more CC than him bro. Besides his shield I say she benefits the team more than he does.

NekoniClawsDec 21, 20161 votes

Thresh fits really nicely into both pick and seige team comps, makes him a safer pick.

SkpyDec 19, 20162 votes

heal-y safe mage supports like Janna Soraka Nami Sona are all the rage right now.

chipndip1Dec 19, 20164 votes

Why do people talk about Sona like anyone uses her? Maybe in low elo, but Sona's back to where she was before.

MohawkBirdDec 20, 20163 votes

[deleted]

chipndip1Dec 20, 20163 votes

Sona's not "all the rage" right now, though. Viable enough for solo queue, maybe, but not much to rage about.

SkpyDec 20, 20163 votes

Ikr what do people have against her?

AhristocatsDec 21, 20161 votes

Sona is far from being meta right now, where the fuck are we living

top 3 sup are thresh/bard/braum

MohawkBirdDec 21, 20162 votes

[deleted]

AhristocatsDec 21, 20161 votes

oh my fucking god i'm so done

Sona always had a HIGH WIN RATE due to the nature of her kit, just like lee sin always had 46% win rate before being broken, when sona was broken her win rate was 57-59% win rate

if you don't take skillcap into account your stats won't mean shit

instead of looking at stats play Sona yourself or play against a Sona as Bard/thresh/braum

MohawkBirdDec 21, 20161 votes

[deleted]

AhristocatsDec 21, 20161 votes

Sona isn't trash, Sona isn't the best support right now

that's a big difference and once redemption and locket are going to be nerfed she will be even less the best support right now

ValexforDec 19, 20162 votes

Leona is still viable, it's just that the meta supports her counters (heal/shielding supports) and passive farming which means that, unless she snowballs heavily early, she will start to fall off during mid game only to return later on, when her ult will actually be extremely valuable.

Luna Ather SolisDec 20, 20162 votes

Leona got nerfed, thats why

FioraWillCarryDec 19, 20161 votes

Leo is still quite popular and still quite strong. She is one of my main supports when I have to play the role.

OglafDec 19, 20161 votes

Because an all-in melee tank Support isn't exactly favoured in this meta of pokey Midlanders going bot and pretending to be Support.

That being said, if you play her duo with a ADC who you can trust to go all-in with you she is still pretty damn good.

You just gotta know that the ADC has got your back.

RookPusherDec 19, 20162 votes

{quoted} You just gotta know that the ADC has got your back.

Ah, so you're saying "never go in"

OglafDec 19, 20161 votes

{quoted}

Ah, so you're saying "never go in"

No, I'm saying "Never pick her with random ADCs".

Her level 2 all-in is still as much of a first blood guarantee as it ever was - if your ADC is in on the play.

VekknaDec 20, 20161 votes

Taric is the tank for this meta, imo. Benefits from heal and shield power, strong dive and anti-dive, and scales off armor when the majority of junglers and busted champs are dishing out physical damage.

Maximum MordeDec 20, 20161 votes

He's pretty mediocre. All tank supports are. Tanking damage isn't as good as all out avoiding it in the first place by being a strong disengager.

VekknaDec 20, 20161 votes

I mean, he seems pretty mediocre, but his stats look more overpowered than mediocre.

I don't disagree with your statement overall that tank supports aren't great at the moment, mostly because they just can't tank much. But I'd argue that Taric isn't a classic tank, and I'd also argue that his ult is the epitome of avoiding damage in the first place.

The thing about him is that he doesn't really fill the role of a frontline tank. His actual tanking tools are nowhere near as strong as Naut, Leo, Alistar, etc., and he has no cc chain. What he does have is a pretty unique mix of engage, disengage, sustain, dive, and anti-dive.

I've just started spamming him, and my results are pretty good so far. I've won 11 out of 20 games so far, but two of those games I started item 3302 and one of them I ended up top lane due to a troll/griefer on my team. Honestly, is just trash right now.

So I take 12 armor, 12 MR, and 175-ish flat hp in runes. Rush item 3069 and run Windspeaker's. So far I've won 11 games of the 17 where I've used that setup, and it's not a coincidence. You get the hp and mana regen from the coin line, plus the early armor and MS from raptor, plus the higher income compared to the relic line, plus you start the game with 10% CDR. And you don't have to build swifties or a mana or regen item with Talisman.

The main thing is that it's absurdly hard to push you out of lane after just a item 3096 because you're healing 60 hp off every minion wave with enough mana to actually heal when you have 2 or 3 stacks on Q.

Maximum MordeDec 20, 20161 votes

Yeah he's not bad.

Titanium70Dec 20, 20161 votes

Well Leona simply doesnt scale good with the current itemization. ^^ Sure - she has Knights Vow and Redemtion is okish - but compared to Supps utilizing Heal-Power-UPs she falls off.

Still a great pick for someone who wants to go ham in laning! x'D

MunchCrunchLunchDec 20, 20161 votes

mostly because shes a lane cheese pick. chain cc and do more damage an the adc early on. later in the game its very hard to follow up on such hard engage as her usually teams are able to recover from it. shes much tankier early game than late because of her W. also after a while she runs out of options on who to cc due to QSS. and a lot of frontliner can just keep her off them because she doesn't have any mobility. her E is blockable.

she doesn't exactly fall off. what she does just doesn't work out as well late game because she will end up jumping 1v5 at some point and probably getting instakilled.

The Yetii RiderDec 20, 20161 votes

Leona is one of very few supports who really can't get away with rushing item 3107 (Her Eclipse means she really can't afford to go 4000 gold into the game without a single armor/MR item).

As long as that item is overpowered, Leona will be second best.

Friendly RamDec 20, 20161 votes

Idk i've seen her more since collosus came around. She has 3 ways to proc the mastery so why not.

cTrixDec 20, 20161 votes

Because all she does is all-in. If an all-in isn't a valid strategy she's useless. In lane that is. She's a bad support at winning your lane.

NekoniClawsDec 20, 20161 votes

So, pros and cons - it becomes pretty self explanatory why she's not popular >

CONS: She does not fit kite comps, and only rarely fits pick comps. She has to all-in or go home She relies on teamwork and skilled play to follow up her engages She is not self-sufficient and can't carry She can't do anything if her ADC is, or has to play passive She is a pure support, and her job is to feed her team the kills. (a con to most people) In low elo your adc does not want to play Leona-style. If you try and syngerize with your ADC, they'll ask you to play a support like item 3072 or item 2031 or item 3401 item 2140 item 3009

PROS: She ganks. She tanks. She feeds her ADC like no-one else. And if she has time, mid too. Towers don't exist when she's around. They just don't. She lane-bullies more than anyone else- You can't hide behind your own minions, nor your own support, like you can with Thresh and Blitz. Oh, and you -can't dodge- zenith blade. She is actually highly effective against ganks, people are too obsessed with shields. Just stun the jungler... duh. She is a counter for Jhin, MF and Jinx's Ults She has only one counter. Thresh, Braum and Morganna are not it. The counter for Leona is a team comp she does not fit.

Leona acts as a sort of... avalanche trigger, in playstyle, she can snowball multiple players in the right circumstances. Unfortunately those circumstances are rare. 'Pick' comps and passive adcs are really common. But when the stars allign and I get to play Leona, (usually higher-elo ADCs ask for her) there are more enemy FF@20s and ragequits than you can begin comprehend. Praise the Sun!

VekknaDec 20, 20161 votes

My Taric post below got downvoted, but go look at the new data from champ.gg. Leona down, Taric way way up.

Leona's problem right now is that sustain and peel supports are so strong. The stronger Janna and Soraka are, the harder time Leona has.

Honestly, I think Leona is still very good, but another part of her losing the sustain war is the relic shield line being pretty weak. I think item 3069 would actually be stronger with way better hp regen, higher gold income, and stronger engage/dive potential. You would just have to stack some flat hp in runes to make up the hp gap early.

IA9hRfpP5qDec 20, 20161 votes

Leona Leona Leona Leona

When did she fall off? She's as constant in the meta as the sun on the sky.

LUL

Typical Leona player goes full tank... but a real leona player goes tank + item 3078

Leona Leona Leona Leona

Ranged AoE Stun+Slow Her E roots/stuns for a millisecond Her Q stuns Her W makes her one of the best divers, its like "THIS TICKLES LUL"

Her diving potential becomes online once she gets a stupid item 1028 or a item 2045

TusutakiDec 20, 20161 votes

Because Nautilus is a better Leona in essentially every way. Until they allow Leona to proc her own passive on monsters to allow her be a jungler, she will always be considered 2nd rate.