Leona Changes
To start with, I'm currently a Gold (DQ is the bane of my existence) Leona main (I was Plat last season). I've played her since Season 3 when I first got to Gold, and she's been my main support ever since.
I love playing her, and I can't wait to try out these changes. So of course, I'll have to throw my 2 cents in.
> Sunlight (Passive) > Damage lowered to 15-100 from 20-140 > Now hastes Leona and the ally for 50-84 flat movement speed for 1.5 seconds on proc
While I really love the additional ms boost being added on to this from proc'ing the passive, 50-84 flat ms seems a bit much as it applies to you and the ally who proc's the Sunlight. If you're laning with a Vayne or Lucian, the enemy that you lock down on is not going to get away without burning everything.
Maybe it will be balanced as is because the duration is only 1.5 seconds. I won't know until I've tested her out.
> Shield of Daybreak (Q) > Cooldown lowered to 9/8/7/6/5 from 11/10/9/8/7 > Mana cost lowered to 35/40/45/50/55 from 45/50/55/60/65 > Damage lowered to 30/55/80/105/130 from 40/70/100/130/160 > Stun Duration lowered to 1 from 1.25
As I normally build her with 40% cdr, I'll be able to stun enemy champs every 3 seconds for 1 second rather than stunning them every 4.2 seconds for 1.25 seconds. The stun duration being reduced isn't a nerf as that duration is now on the E snare instead.
The damage reduction does seem a bit much as it is 30 damage at rank 5. That's going to hurt a lot when I try to keep the enemy squishy locked down and dead. I'd rather the damage be changed to 40/65/90/115/140 because you're losing damage on the passive now for Utility and losing damage on the Q for a shorter CD.
What I would like to see if the scaling ratio changed from just AP to maybe an Armor or HP ratio. If this was added, I can see lowering the base damage to 20/45/70/95/120 or lower depending on the ratio. I love playing Leona, but at times, it just feels like me building tanky does nothing for my abilities other than my W Ar/Mr buff.
Eclipse (W)
Mana changed to 55/60/65/70/75 from 60 at all ranks
Damage lowered to 50/90/130/170/210 from 60/110/160/210/260
[new effect]: Incandescence
Grants Leona a stack of Incandescence for four seconds for each enemy champion hit by Eclipse (W). Auto attacks consume a stack of Incandescence to gain 50 attack range and deal 20/30/40/50/60 bonus magic damage on hit.
This is one ability that I really can't wait to test. From what I see, if I hit all 5 enemy champs, I gain 60 bonus magic damage on hit for 5 hits. So I can jump into an enemy team, and then pop their squishy champs. However, even with this change, you'd have to hit the enemy champ 5 times.
Also, while this looks like a lot of damage, You're losing 50 base damage at rank 5 for every enemy champ hit with your ability as well as losing 40 damage from your Passive being proc'd on each enemy champ as well, and you gain 60 magic damage per champ hit with your W on hit on a single target. This changes Leona to a single lock down champ of going in and sticking to your target rather than protecting your carry from the enemy front line now.
Again, I'll have to test her out when she's available on PBE for a better grasp of the new ability. I do admit that this will be huge burst damage with her Q though as you can get off 3 AA's in very quick succession due to her AA reset on Q.
> Zenith Blade (E) > Root Duration increased to 0.5 from 0.25
Thank you. Thank you thank you thank you thank you. This will make it so much easier to be able to actually AA a target that you E to in order to proc your Q stun on them. So many times have I E'd to an enemy champ and they flash away before my AA can even be used. This change is why I didn't complain about the stun duration reduction on the Q.
To sum everything up, I'm very excited for these changes, but I'm a bit leery of the overall damage loss for a MS boost and slightly better single target damage. This does add a new complexity to Leona though that I can't wait for try out. However, I'd still rather see some changes for more interaction with her build rather than just standard AP damage ratios. It just feels bland that your damage doesn't increase outside of buying AP items that you don't really need to support your carry.
