I know how to pick-off out of position players, roam, and peel, but initiating is a problem for me. Do I ult first before zenith blade-ing in or zenith blade in and then ult? And is it mandatory for Leona to initiate team-fights? If I initiate, then I won't be able to peel for my adc, which is very important, in my opinion. Thanks in advance.
It depends on how strong your frontline is other than you. In games where you're the only real tank, what you'll often want to do is engage to start a fight and then kite back towards your team.
enemy is at least in midrange: e q w, chain r with q stun, autoattacks for passive
enemy is only in ult range: obviously engage with ult
activate w first if you are unseen or if you want to warn your enemies before engaging...for whatever reason...
Leona does not REALLY initiate
She is like the sun, she marches on a location and if something is there then it better have suntan lotion.
She's like a front line guard rather than a charger who rams into the enemy like alistar or something. She doesn't cause chaos in the enemy team, she is like the sun. She oppresses and wears them down over time.
On a Leona team you will find that that space you don't want to enter for fear of getting poked down simply doesn't exist when her ult is up.
TL;DR
Leona = primary advancing shield lady / secondary initiator
I'm not sure how the other commenters have their play styles and whatnot, but when I play Leona, as soon as I see a good opportunity, I start w, q, and e onto their frontline and ult the highest priority target.
Haven't played Leona in a long while.
But typically e in, since it's a bit less telegraphed than r. R first if need be to get into range, or if you're sure to hit several people.
Usually w after engaging to make the initiation a bit less obvious and to increase its overall uptime in the fight.
Only initiate if your team is ahead or you have a secondary peeler for your adc.
I'm silver, so take all that with a grain of salt.
It basically just depends on how good you are at landing your ults. It can be easier to land it on a Q stunned target, but I usually find it better to use the ult to affect a priority target's position and then lock them down with the rest of my kit. Just hope your team is in a position to follow up.
In my limited experience I like to initiate with e. Ult initiation is too risky - if you whiff everyone knows your best ability is down and they can fight pretty easily. If you even catch just the slow, you need to be ahead to make use of it.
If you go in with e, your ult is a great follow up if they insta-focus you. If they don't and try to dive your backline, your ult is a great ranged-peel for them. If they try to disengage your ult is a great tool to stop it.
Basically, I wouldn't engage with R unless they were in a choke-point.
I don't play support FYI, just have played leona when auto-filled. So not a pro.
you dont initiate as leona when there is a warwick or an akali on the enemy team
You probably want to ult first, and then Zenith Blade in. That way, you're a bit safer from enemy CC, and they can't disrupt your combo as easily. Something to consider as Leona is that you can wait out your ult's stun and then Q the same enemy to keep them locked down, or you can ult one enemy and immediately Q another important target.
Either way, make sure you don't initiate alone. As a support tank without much gold, you're durable, but you're not 1v5 durable, like a fed Nasus or something. If it's going to be a 2v2 skirmish, you can definitely engage to catch someone out, and it will provide you and your ally with a huge advantage, but if it's going to be a 5v5 teamfight, don't initiate unless someone is there to immediately follow up your engage by dashing in or something. Ideally, target an enemy before you engage, so that your team knows you're going to do it.
(And speaking of 2v2s and such, I should probably remind you not to ult unless you're really committing to the fight. Don't do it if you're just going to trade; do it if you're going to secure a kill.)
And as for the last bit, if you're focused on protecting an ally, Leona can help someone else engage by just using her R to stun some enemies, giving your teammate an opening to use their engage. Then move up after them, and be ready to CC anyone who tries to dive your backline. But make sure your teammate gets followed up, instead of just letting him jump in and die. Again, tell them what you're going to do. Communication is key.
Go in, make stupid play, get blamed by adc, then say it's not your fault and the adc always blames you and that supports can do nothing wrong other than not buying sightstone.
well it depends on your team comp... if you have alot of champs who can gap close if you can use the range of your ult as leona to hit someone and your team can gap close and blow them up then do that... sometimes i play leona as a counter engage champ... meaning ill let the other team dive/ engage etc and i will counter engage and peel using my q/e and r to do so so they are closer to me and i can use the low cooldowns on q/e to peel and engage on more then one target.
