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Leona's decision tree and her E

Mandaari·10/19/2013, 1:52:59 AM·1 votes·237 views

This will end up being a buff to Leona. Just keep in mind it's not a buff for the sake of power, but for the sake of giving her more options in different situations.

Problem: Right now Leona has basically 2 choices in any situation: do nothing or go all in.

Give her the ability to reactivate her E to move her back to the original cast position. The window in which she's allowed to reactive the ability should be tiny - just long enough for her to Q and get out. This allows her to make more of a decision. She still has to be aggressive and engage in order to do anything, but it doesn't always have to be an all in.

The reason the window should be tiny is so that she can't get a full combo off. If she wants to get the W damage out then she'll need to use it well before she Es, in which case your opponent should be able to see it coming and back off at the right time.

I know Leona's a very viable pick, but her decision tree is practically non-existent. This just gives her a little more choice.

22 Comments

ploki12210/19/2013, 2:14:21 AM1 votes

I do agree with her desicion tree being flawed, but if you add that much power to her, you nede to make it disappear somewhere else... +4-5s on W and E?

Otherwise, I do believe that her decision tre is much bigger than you say. If you have a brush pinked, you can sit in it, going for the W/Q damage on the support, saving E for an all-in.

There is also the difference in combo between WEQ and EWQ. Basically, there is a burst all-in now combo (WEQ) and the Let me kill this guy and facetank everything for you combo (EWQ), and once you hit 6, you have that other ability coming in. Do you use R as a catch-up tool for after their flash? Do yo uuse it to initiate? Do you use it to zone their eventual help? Do you use it as a burst nuking an innate stack on everyone or use it to stun their adc for a little while more?

RiotRiot LilyHaze10/19/2013, 9:56:55 AM1 votes

I'm not sure Leona needs more of a decision tree than all in with E, but I also think you are thinking about it a little incorrectly.

E-ing into the enemy team is hyper aggressive, sure, but it can also be hyper defensive. By having EQ up, she makes anyone wanting to dive her really think about how hard they can go. R combined with E gives her the ability to pick a specific champion and ensure they can't get away. And, with her W, she ensures that her all-in has the tanky stats the back it up. She doesn't have a lot of choices, but she has a lot of impact, and needs to make her choice wisely.

Besides, not every champion needs to be hyper-flexible. Some are perfectly fine having limited choices. Lee Sin exists on one side of the scale, being hyper flexible in his choices. And Leona exists on the other, being fairly limited. Both are very strong and balanced around their kits. Lee Sin has very little hard CC, whereas Leona has a snare on her E, a stun on her Q, and a stun / slow on her ult. Giving her the ability to reposition herself on top of all that CC would likely make her too much.