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Is there any reason to play as Leona anymore?

Tusutaki··5 votes·1,067 views

I loved Leona back in Season 4 and she was my main for that season. I loved her playstyle with heavy engages and while being highly defensive. She is nothing but a tank who just stuns people. Thats fine and dandy, but as time goes on I find less and less reasons to play her as new supports comes in and Leona's nerfs.

Lets look at some of the other supports and see what they have to offer.

Alistar Alistar - Knock ups, stuns, displacement, tanky, and heals

Thresh Thresh - Pulls, Lanterns, slows, knockups, shield, and damage if you collect enough souls

Janna Janna - Knock ups, Shields, Heals, Movement speed buff, Slows, AD buff, and Displacement

Braum Braum - Shield wall, stun, knockup, resistance steroid to himself and target, and slows

Lets even look at Jarvan IV JarvanIV - Knock up, Armor Pen, Attack Speed, %health dmg, slows, shield, dashes, poke, and a terrain trap.

And now compare that with Leona.

Leona Leona - Stuns, self resistance steroid, slows, and mediocre damage.

And this is where my topic comes into play, Is there any reason to play as Leona anymore? Especially compared to the above champs? It feels like she fell off the face of the planet of relevancy. Why choose her as an hard engage champ when I can choose J4 for example?

20 Comments

Lovely Pants7 votes

Leona still provides the most reliable CC-chaining out of any of these champions as well as providing the largest threat range of any of these engage champions except perhaps Jarvan, who seems a much swingier support pick from the few times I've ever faced that.

I think she is locked out of her full potential a bit easier than most of these other champions if she has a rough early game, but then again there's few other supports that are as punishing as she is when ahead. At least out of personal experience. She wombo combos better than most if she can spread her ability procs to multiple champions. Her early damage is also better than nearly any support when she can commit to her combo. Her dive defense is good and her dive enabling is good. Lots of risk and reward about her, but she's not completely helpless either when playing on the back foot.

Tusutaki1 votes

Her CC chain while decent is not worth sacrificing the majority of the utilities that others have. Her ult does have a decent range however it can be easily avoidable due to her stun radius being rather smallish. Not something I want to bank with unless we're far ahead.

I dont know why everybody says her early game damage is good enough for her to stand out either especially in a case where she cant poke. In order to do any amount of damage she would have to fully commit. While at the same time fully committing doesnt guarantee good trades hence by what you said by "risk and reward". As it currently stands, she's far too risky to obtain any awards compared to other hard engage supports as they are much much safer and has about the same reward potential.

Im not bashing Leona because I hate her, but because I want to have more of a reason to pick her over other champs.

Lovely Pants1 votes

Noting Leona's early game damage potential is relevant because, even if you can't commit to trades, the threat of Leona's tankiness and damage means the enemy also can't play super aggressively against you in most cases. Leona's laning phase is about on par with other tank supports, I would say. If she has a jungler who wants to ambush a lot she shines because she can setup a lane far more reliably than most. She's tanky enough to soft trade and keep control of her zone except against your stronger utility.poke supports that can sustain constant trades. If she can't even do that, Leona doesn't have to play aggressively and can just sit back and counter-engage, even if that's kind of boring.

Maybe in high-level coordinated team play Leona is outclassed by engage supports that function more safely with the lower amounts of gold/exp supports will more commonly get there, but I don't think that risk/reward balance is skewed against her for your average player with reasonable strategic focus. Personally I pick her for decisive late game team fight power that works as a blind pick against all but the very worst poke lanes. If you don't think the chain cc, teamfight burst supplement, and potent picks are worthwhile gains for her risks, then I guess she doesn't have anything for you.

DrNova3 votes

I like how you describe Leona in your biased manner to reinforce your opinion that she isn't a good pick.

Tusutaki1 votes

How did I describe her in a such skewed way when I detailed her as exactly what she is capable of. She doesnt have displacement, heals, dashes, pokes, or provide any buffs to her allies aside from the small damage.

So how about you describe her then since I obviously twisted my words to fit my narrative as you claim. Convince me and other people that she's a better pick than the above listed.

Reaper Soraka2 votes

Keep the rakas in check. I don't know how, but they can do it if they're played well even with how strong we are now.

Tusutaki1 votes

Blitz is more of a counter to Soraka then Leona will ever be.

Reaper Soraka1 votes

I most definitely agree, but I can't think of many supports that are as good at catching players out of position. Thresh Blitz obviously can, but they can be easily dodged. Nami can catch people pretty well, but she doesn't bring as much cc or durability.

Quepha2 votes

Leona does mediocre damage? Maybe if you forget to count her passive...

Her single target lockdown beats everyone else on your list.

hh the thinker1 votes

i like to pick leo into blitz. it's a really easy match up.

Mysticman891 votes

Her passive damage procs can be pretty impactful early game, so I feel like shes good with early champs who can snowball (e.g. draven), and/or with adcs who have their own cc to chain with. She's actually pretty scary with jhin, as if he can proc her passive with each bullet, the 4th one could potentially be a kill shot (not to mention, adding in his w somewhere for even more cc).

Mecha MaIphite1 votes

tbh alistar heal is just glorified regen that eats mana

Registeel12341 votes

I'd rename it "Ardent Censer's Proc spell"

Frick Mako1 votes

I too enjoyed playing Leona in S4 and S5, but I don't play her that much anymore. My issue with Leona is that I don't find her fun to play, and that her cc is mostly single target. Yes, her ult can stun or slow multiple targets, but that's her ult, and it's unreliable. Her core abilities are zenith blade and shield of daybreak, which is her single target stun. It's good for locking down an enemy squishy, but it's not really fun to use.

Baby Ghoul1 votes

As a Support main with mostly Soraka games in the past 4 months, Leona definitely keeps her in check better than Blitzcrank.

It's easy to bait out Blitzcrank early on, and most of the time they end up pulling minions. If he misses a single pull, her sustain is going to push them out of lane. Leona not so much. Blitzcrank is still an effective pick, but I'd argue it's not as effective as Leona.

As Soraka, you're so vulnerable early on, and Leona applies relentless pressure that you almost need to farm under your turret. Your ADC is forced to play on the defense because of all the potential stuns, and naturally Soraka is useless when her ADC cannot carve out space for them in lane. Bot lane is so isolated in season 6 as well. Not many junglers are coming down for multiple ganks anymore like they were in previous seasons, which makes the lane a little more deady for her ADC.

Leona is a very effective counter pick, and while that's not an ideal place for her to be right now, the insane spike in popularity of Soraka recently makes her viable enough, which is more than you can say for many other supports.

Jakubrus1 votes

{quoted}

Bot lane is so isolated in season 6 as well. Not many junglers are coming down for multiple ganks anymore like they were in previous seasons, which makes the lane a little more deady for her ADC.

Maybe it's because we're at different elos, but I've had the complete opposite experience this season. I play mostly bot lane, and we get junglers, mid laners, heck, even top laners coming down for the good ol' 4-man towerdive before 15 min in nearly every game I'm in. On the bright side, never has bot lane been more action-packed, and I've really been able to brush up on my anti-towerdive skills.

As for OP, Leona is still a top-tier support if your lane partner is willing to play aggressively (Jhin/Graves/Draven + Leona is scary). Her single target lockdown is among the best, and a well-placed ulti can stop an entire team. She's also currently my highest winrate champ (75% over the last 12 games).

Baby Ghoul1 votes

{quoted}

Bot lane is so isolated in season 6 as well. Not many junglers are coming down for multiple ganks anymore like they were in previous seasons, which makes the lane a little more deady for her ADC.

Maybe it's because we're at different elos, but I've had the complete opposite experience this season. I play mostly bot lane, and we get junglers, mid laners, heck, even top laners coming down for the good ol' 4-man towerdive before 15 min in nearly every game I'm in. On the bright side, never has bot lane been more action-packed, and I've really been able to brush up on my anti-towerdive skills.

As for OP, Leona is still a top-tier support if your lane partner is willing to play aggressively (Jhin/Graves/Draven + Leona is scary). Her single target lockdown is among the best, and a well-placed ulti can stop an entire team. She's also currently my highest winrate champ (75% over the last 12 games).

You're not at a different ELO than me. I was Gold 5 last year, and this year I'm Silver 3 currently. I frequently get matched with people in Silver 5 to Gold 4. Last year I got matched people from Silver 2 to Gold 1. We're both low ELO.

The truth is that there are many more champions in the meta right now that gank top more often. This can create a one sided situation. I'm not saying there are no ganks bot. In fact what tends to happen is one jungler neglects bot, and the nearly all of the enemy team comes bot to take a tower and dragon. Then the game snowballs out of control. 4 enemies bot lane happens so often because of a jungler that does not give adequate counter pressure to bot lane.

Last season there were so many even battles bot lane, but now we're facing one sided situations at best. It was not as one sided as it is now. Every other game I have there's one jungler on one side that doesn't pay attention to bot lane as much as they should because of how crucial ADCs are.

Tower diving is common in all lanes, even very early game now. Frankly though, if 4 people were pushing an outer turret and my teammates weren't close by, I'd abandon it unless we were truly pinned down.

woobat1 votes

how dare you

Zorasama1 votes

She may not has CC variety but, you forgot the fact that she has 3 stuns. (well, one of tham is just a mini stun but still counts right?)

Her passive damage is also totally rad.

Wolfess1 votes

leona has easy engage and stunlock, and her def-up self buff. Not only that but allies can proc the debuff she places on enemies from damaging them with skills. Leona with max CDR can keep someone CC'd very hard. Her ult has a decent range and is amazing for starting a teamfight as it can stun and/or slow multiple people and put them in a bad starting situation, she can then W to the back line and even ignores minions for where to pull her, meaning that enemy laners trying to hide behind minions for safety won't really get that safe feeling and her Q is an auto reset. Sure other supports have different utilities but leona is a very in-your-face-tank-and-cc support.

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