The Current State of Leona
Now before I begin, I am not a pro player. I'm currently in Bronze II and climbing, so if you wish to look at it that way, a lot of this doesn't have much credibility.. But bare with me.
Though I feel that I've gotten a decent grip of champion design and what kinds of changes can and should be made to make a champion have less of a negative impact on gameplay. Today I'd like to talk about Leona.
Leona as it stands is a kill-lane mega support carry, with heavy cc, a great gapcloser and scaling tankiness. As an ADC main every time Leona isn't banned in a ranked game, I fear for my rank that she might be picked.. Even more so in combination with J4.
Lets look at her abilities.
Passive: Sunlight When Leona hits a target with a basic ability, it applies sunlight, which is consumed and deals damage if an allied champion attacks the target tagged with 'Sunlight' Comments: I like this passive! A lot! It has a nice combination with hard engage champions that also rely heavily on basic attacks, a good example of this is Tristana.
Q: Shield of Daybreak Leona's next AA will stun the target for 1.25 seconds, and dealing damage. Comments: The only issue I have with this ability is how short the cooldown is.. It may just be me, but I feel like being able to stun a target every 7 seconds at max level, is a bit ridiculous.
W: Eclipse Leona has a shield applied to her, gives armor and magic resistance for 3 seconds. Upon those 3 seconds passing, the shield explodes dealing magic damage in a range of 275. Comments: As you might notice later, a lot of these are going to have to do with range. 275 on the explosion seems like a bit much for champion that is supposed to be so up close and personal. If she's always in the midst of a fight, doesn't it seem like 230 or even 200 seems like a more fitting AoE?
E: Zenith Blade Leona throws a 'solar image' of her sword, and dealing magic damage and applying Sunlight. The enemy is shortly rooted in place as she travels to the target. Comments: This and her ultimate are where my real problems with this champion begin. Not only is the hitbox really kind of stupid (as with almost all hooks in this game) but the fact that it roots you in place as she travels is rather frustrating in the worst way. Thematically, it's fitting, but I feel like if she kept traveling with the champion as they move, or even apply a short slow while she moves, would be better. (Although thinking on this, it is possible that a replica of the Darius tele-pull glitch could result from her E.)
R: Solar Flare Leona calls down a large beam of sunlight (in a radius of 250) after a short delay, stunning targets in the center for 1.5 seconds, and slowing targets on the outside by 80% for 1.5 seconds. Comments: This is the real kicker. This ultimate has a range of 1200, a 1.5 second stun and slow, deals magic damage, and an AoE of 250. Not only does it have more utility than Sejuani's ult, it also has more range and deals far more damage, as well as having less time to react to it AND a 60 second cooldown at max rank. I feel as thought the range of 1200 should be nerfed to about 1000, and apply a 50% slow instead of 80%. If the cooldown was also increased to 90 or 100 seconds at max rank, that would be a lot better. This combined with any other CC, absolutely dominates every game I've been in with or against Leona.
**Further notes: ** Leona can be countered, of course. Every champion can be countered. But in the current live state of Leona, it's VERY difficult. I've heard comments such as, "You can just poke her down", "Just kite her", "Leona is super easy to beat tbh." As I'm sure people better than me are aware, it's not that simple.. There are people behind champions, and they typically know how to work around the weaknesses that a champion has. As far as I can tell, there aren't many weaknesses on Leona to exploit to begin with.
TL;DR: Leona has a lot of mechanics that promote toxic play, and I think there are some pretty basic changes that could be made to promote more legitimate and genuine counter-play (both with and against Leona).
Please try not to be negative! Give me your feedback and other ideas, and keep the discussion rolling. Thanks!
