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Does Leona need anything to improve her? If so, what?

darkdill··2 votes·394 views

Leona's great as an initiator, has some of the best CC around, and is really tough to kill, but these things only happen if she gets ahead. She unfortunately has a low pick rate in high tier play because if she gets behind early, she stays behind and generally cannot recover. She's also easily counter-picked by Janna, Morgana, Alistar, etc.

Meanwhile, super-supports like Thresh, Braum and Zilean out-strip her usefulness because even if they fall far behind, their base mechanics mean they will ALWAYS have a role later on. Zilean can always Chronoshift a carry, Braum can always inflict strong stuns and block shots, and Thresh... don't even get me started on him.

I feel like this started the moment she got that "love tap" nerf a few months ago, where she lost base health regen and -5 AR/MR on Eclipse. Granted, Riot will not revert this without good reason, but it still sucked to see my Solari get nerfed, which put her into less-than-ideal territory. It could just be a kind of power-creep for the supports, but I feel it goes beyond that.

I doubt too many people agree with me on this, but I think Leona might in the future need to get her kit upgraded. It works very well at its job, but said job tends to be unwanted or found better on said super-supports.

IMO, this is what I think should be done for Leona.

P - Sunlight: If an ally triggers Sunlight on an enemy Champion, they are given a 2-second shield. Shield strength is equal to Sunlight's damage. Shields do not stack, but refresh if reapplied.

W - Eclipse: Same AR/MR bonus as before. While active, nearby allied Champions (within 400 range; does not include Leona herself) take X% reduced damage from all non-tower sources. This damage is instead dealt to Leona; damage type dealt to Leona is the same as the original source, and is reduced by appropriate resistance. Leona cannot transfer damage to herself if she is below 5% health. Does not work against true damage.

These might help Leona a bit in her support-tank role. The W change would be particularly good, as right now any smart enemy will almost never target Leona first, even if she's isolated from her teammates.

12 Comments

jjookkeerr2 votes

she needs a nerf

Marthian2 votes

She doesn't need any buffs. Her ult could actually stand to have it's range reduced.

shppy1 votes

yeah, let's take away the one advantage Leona's ULT has over Cho's Q.

Marthian2 votes

Leona's ult has a bigger AoE, better slow on outer area, and has an extremely forgiving long range.

I never said Cho'gath was ok with his Q, but on the other hand, he also has that brief casting time in order for Rupture to start. Leona does not have a cast time.

Kuroi861 votes

Both have a delay.

Marthian1 votes

Cast Time, not delay.

Leona: Delay - Solar Flare Cho'Gath: Small Cast Time - Delay - Rupture

Kuroi861 votes

Solar Flare: RANGE: 1200 Leona calls down a beam of solar energy to a target location. After a 0.625 delay, it deals magic damage to all enemies within 250-range and slows them by 80% for 1.5 seconds. Enemies within 100-range are stunned for 1.5 seconds instead of being slowed. 150 / 250 / 350 (+ 80% AP)

Rupture: RANGE: 950 Cho'Gath stamps the ground, causing a 175-radius target location to tremble for 0.625 seconds. Afterwards, spikes erupt from it, dealing magic damage to and knocking up all enemies hit for 1 second. Targets hit are slowed by 60% for 1.5 seconds after landing. 80 / 135 / 190 / 245 / 305 (+ 100% AP)

Cho's Rupture does have a momentary cast time, though it's not even half as long as the delay on both abilities. Add to that the fact that Rupture is on a 9 second cooldown while Solar Flare is at max rank 60 seconds. They deal comparable damage and both give considerable CC.

Again, we're comparing a lvl 1 ability with a champions ULTIMATE...

Kuroi862 votes

Leona has been in a good spot for a long time. Even among champs that can counter her, she still has the potential to outplay and come out on top in trades and even net some kills for her lane. She's not the face roll champ that many think she is, she takes thought because if you fall behind, you're going to struggle to become relevant again before late game. Positioning and timing are key, if your team doesn't follow you in when you engage, you just fed the enemy team a free kill.

darkdill1 votes

The "struggle to become relevant again before late game" thing is exactly the problem. If she falls too far behind, she will never approach late-game because of no money.

At that point, she could just AFK and her team would be relatively unaffected.

Kuroi861 votes

This falls on the shoulders of the summoner. If my first dive fails, then I'm going to relax and wait for a jungle gank before I try going aggressive again. That's the risk/reward of Leona, you don't get a free ride. You have to think before you engage, you have to be ready for the consequences. Who do you go on, who do you stun, who do you exhaust, who do you focus your attacks on. What happens if you see the enemy jungle suddenly jump out and charge your AD?

As mechanically simple as her kit may seem, the skill curve lies in knowing when to use your skills. You have no super short cooldowns, when you use them, it has to be calculated.

Sailor Mint1 votes

All-in > Sustain > Poke > All-in While very few supports fall strictly in one category (i.e.: Sona has both Sustain and Poke), it's a general idea of what the rock-paper-scissor triangle looks like.

Anyway, Leona is a hard engage support in a heavy disengage meta. She'll be better off when the meta shifts.

shppy1 votes

Meh, I'd just want a new passive for her, to help her be a little more independent:

Sunlight: Leona's abilities apply Sunlight to all targets struck. Sunlight marks act as damage reservoirs, initially containing 6 (+4 per level) (+6% of Leona's bonus health) of potential damage. When Leona damages targets marked by Sunlight, up to 15% of the premitigation damage from abilities/items or 25% of the premitigation damage from basic attacks is drawn from the mark's reservoir and dealt to the target as bonus magic damage. When allied champions damage targets marked by Sunlight, the entire mark's reservoir is immediately emptied and dealt to the target as magic damage. In either case, the damage is treated as Leona's (and therefore benefits from her magic penetration and spell-hit procs, with spell-hit procs applying at multi-target values where applicable). Marks do not stack; when a new instance of Sunlight is placed, old marks are replaced (after the 15% bonus damage from the ability that placed the new mark is drawn out of the old one).

It'd give her the same ally-procced effect (but with early game values roughly halved, lategame value will be slightly lower with typical bonus health values), but in a solo capacity (or in cases where allies can't fit in attacks before marks are replaced) she'd get to use it to gradually draw out a little more damage (dependent on both her raw damage output for the amount amped and her bonus health for the maximum amount she can derive from the amp).

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