Request: Can we get a "Dark Horses" segment for Jungle Leona?
I've been doing jungle Leona since the start of Season 5, and time and again I find it to be very powerful. The ganks our Solari can pull off are terrifying, and she does a pretty decent job too at counterganks. Plus with the upcoming Bami's Cinder and Cinderhulk Enchantment, Leona's jungle routes are just going to get easier since she'll have faster access to immolation for clearing.
The true power of Leona's jungle is her ganks. Not only can she initiate really effectively and stop most opponents from fleeing with her stuns, but your enemies will often misjudge how much damage they'll be taking due to Sunlight. Leona can also tower dive pretty nicely, though don't go totally Rambo unless you rushed an Ohmwrecker (something I don't advise until patch 5.5 comes out).
As an added bonus, Leona jungle can also play mindgames on the enemy team during Champion Select. If you pick Leona early, your opponents will probably think you're going to go bottom lane as the support tank, and counterpick you with either Morgana, Janna, etc. But then your actual support takes Sona, and then they're left going "WTF?!". Works like a charm.
But as expected, it's far from perfect (if it were perfect, Riot would nerf her). Leona's biggest weakness in jungling is her awful clear speed (without an immolation effect) and bad objective control. This means she's weak against invaders like Lee Sin, Udyr, Shyvana, and Nunu, who can easily beat her in one-on-one fights if she doesn't take Challenging Smite (which she likely won't; she needs Blasting Smite for clears early on). In particular, level 1 cheese invades can screw her over if she can't get her Gromp camp off the bat, leaving her without the ability to actually take a camp out. Make sure your teammates guard that Gromp zone and don't let the enemies in without a fight.
Those are my two cents on the gameplay.
#My Build
0/24/6 Masteries Flat armor reds, HP/lvl yellows, MR/lvl blues, Flat HPR/5 purples
Start-up Items
Core Items
Situational Items
That's right, no offensive items. This is pure tank Leona, as she's meant to be played. Even without damage items beyond Sunfire Cape, you can still cause a lot of trouble for your enemies if you get 40% CDR, spamming stuns and Sunlight to no end. Challenging Smite will also let you put the hurt on enemies you dive on, giving Leona surprising dueling power.
Can we give our Radiant Dawn a section alongside Support Brand and Jungle Irelia? That'd be great.
In the meantime, I'm off to catch more Ashe's who are out of position. XD http://beanbean1988.deviantart.com/art/E-From-Leona-315426477
