JUST bought her. She seems so fun, and a friend of mine (who hardly ever logs in anymore) is super duper good with her. (I remember him carrying with 26 kills or something like that one time).
Anyway, as I've played her, I've managed to do very little damage. Any advice at all? Especially for item builds? (Maybe runes too?) Compared to my friend who goes tanky and does tons of damage. No idea how.
Leona can kill wards by herself; just AA + Q (auto reset) + AA :)
In lane, Leona thrives by diving in, but you want to make sure that you and the adc are on the same page before you play super-aggressive, or else you will just die.
Usually, you don't want to initiate a fight with your ult (they can just walk away and you will look very silly). Instead, you want to engage with your E, then when a couple people are cc'd or the team is distracted, THEN you ult a clump of them and win the fight for your team. Also, don't be afraid to use the ult to escape; if you are in a bad spot running from the enemy in the jungle or something, aim the ult just barely in front of them to zone them out. The cooldown for leona's ult is pretty short, so it's not too punishing. Similarly, Leona's ult is great for catching people trying to escape; just aim slightly in front of them, so they either have to turn around or eat the stun.
Also suggest Mobi boots before the others. Good luck, and dive into the fray!
A good bit of her damage is in her passive, which cannot be brought out without an ally. To save the time of looking it up, all her abilities apply a non-stacking debuff (applying again with another ability will only refresh the duration) that will deal bonus magic damage if the subject takes damage from an ally champion in the next 3.5 seconds. The debuff is consumed after that. The damage is based on Leona's level and uses her ally's magic penetration. Champions with sunglasses take one less damage from her passive.
Maximizing her damage is largely about chaining her abilities in between ally attacks so as to proc her passive as much as possible.
The one other trick is if you activate Q right after an auto attack it resets her attack timer allowing another auto instantly.
Other than the random sheen this shows a pretty typical build for me on her: http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/#match-details/NA1/1618305135/218693738
Usually I do not get many kills with her, I was invited by a much lower level friend and my team was pretty bad except for Sion. I did set up five kills for Sivir who I was supporting by 11 minutes it (she also got Ashe once without me for a total of 6), but then gave up on her for the most part when she started running into unwarded bushes after Nidalee and Rengar and getting insta-killed.
I also like the Captain boot enchantment, as it makes allies move towards you faster. Useful for allowing them to follow up quicker when you jump on an enemy with Zenith Blade. Mobi boots are good if you need to roam a lot to be where you are needed during the mid game.
You definitely do not want to worry about your damage on Leona. By locking down the enemy team, you're providing assistance that is more useful than damage.
Your history shows a 
and a 
on Leona, and those aren't really ideal. Scepter is applying a slow to people who are already stunned or rooted, and it's rare that Leona will be focused enough to make Thornmail worthwhile. There are other armor items that provide more utility. 
slows attack speed, and 
provides an activateable slow. 
is also very solid when the enemy has decent magic damage.
If you hit level 2 before your opponents, Leona can go in hard. Land your E then immediately walk forward before autoattacking. Walk forward again, autoattack again and hit Q to immediately auto with the stun. Walk forward again before doing the next auto. Delaying the Q gives your ADC more time to proc the first application of your passive, and delays the realization that "oh yeah, I'm in trouble here!" Few ADCs take their escape/disengage ability at level 1, so there's no danger that they will get out in between the E and delayed Q (unless they flash out, in which case you got their flash!).
If you hit 3 before they hit do, same deal except turn on W as you go in. This mitigates damage to you and blasts some more damage after the stun. If the person you land on has an escape ready like Ezreal, be ready to switch to the other. Don't be too aggressive if your ADC isn't ready or if you're at a disadvantage or if the enemy jungler might be lurking.
Once you have all 3 abilities, max W first, focusing E next to bring the cool down down to be even with Q.
I just went on what I thought would be good at the time. I saw I was taking lots of auto attack damage so I got thornmails, and I got rylai's because health + ap, since her abilities scale off that, and her w slows, and her ult would slow harder.
I just played a game before checking this and didn't think I did too bad. I got a couple early kills by doing more or less what you were saying. There are some good tips here. I can always e in, and q another person to lock two people down at once, too, I suppose.
I used R then went in a couple times to make it easier. I managed to ulti a group of 3 people pushing a turret, then team came in and swept them up. I think I'm learning slowly. Its just difficult to get used to a tank that does no damage, as opposed to Volibear, who I do really well with. Interestingly enough I didn't even get targon's brace. I went straight for sunfire because I was getting in the opponents faces so much I thought it'd come in handy more than a shield, especially since we were doing much better than them.
Though i played against a Twitch adc and Xin supp, so that was odd. Wasn't expecting Xin. Didnt seem too useful to me.
As Leona, you typically shouldn't be worried about doing damage. Instead, your focus is becoming tanky, engaging for your team, and CC'ing priority targets.
Leona doesn't really scale well with AP because of how her ratios and CDs work, so I would recommend getting 40% CDR when you can.
If you get fed and want to do damage, I would recommend any of the following items:
For me, a standard Leona build looks something like:
I just played another game with her. I was doing great in the beginning. At one point I was 4/1/7 with a fed lucien pushing bot lane all the way. Then Swayne got fed because our Zed had d/c issues (or so he said). Their Yorik went afk and they ended up winning. Swayne literally 1v5'd us, and only Lucien and I got away. I'm not sure what to do. Almost every single game I play with her is a loss, even when I do well in the beginning.
Leona is one of my favorites, and now one of my main supports. I build her purely tanky, even during some crazy jungle Leona games. Although, she can be run top lane as AP or bruiser, bruiser being more popular.
But for support, starting items can be either 
or 
. It's a matter of preference, but I always run because the stats are perfect for Leona. When using Relic Shield make sure to use your passive: Spoils of War as often as possible, on melee and canon minions as they give the most gold.
Leona is a tanky initiative support, your job is to protect, peel, engage or disengage for your carries. If you're not used to being the initiator, talk to your jungler or someone else who has a strong engage and let them go first.
Your build will mostly depend on the enemy team. Your core items of course are and 
.
Boots depends on if they have heavy magic or physical damage, so usually choose 
or 
.
Merc being my favorite as the current meta has a lot of CC champs.
Your other items will depend on the enemy team, if they have a lot of magic damage, build MR. If they have a lot of AD champs, build armor.
MR: 
Armor:
If they have an even amount, say, 2 AP, 2AD, 1 tank. I would probably see who's the most fed on their team.
After you get your 3 main items, , it's generally easy to tell who's ahead on the enemy team, and who will be doing the most damage. Do I want MR against the 6/0 Syndra? or armor against the 1/3/0 Tristana? Look at the enemy team's items as well, that can determine who's going to be doing the most damage.
During team fights, try not to get yourself or carry lost, protect your carries at all cost, especially if they're fed. Use your Face of the Mountain. For me personally, I sometimes use FOTM on the person who engages team fights, for example, Jarvan. But also use it on your carry if he's out of position or low on health.
As for what to level and max first, I always start Q. Then level 2 I get E, which is all you need to get your combo off. You can do it QE or EQ if you're quick enough, just make sure you have your Q stun ready when/if your Zenith Blade lands on someone. Leona, in my opinion, requires communication from your ADC. I've had games where I engage with her, and my ADC just sits back and farms. It's a terrible feeling. ;_;
Certain champs will be harder to stick to. Anyone with a dash or jump pretty much. Ezreal, Vayne, Tristana. Don't even get me started with Sivir/Morgana bot lane. SPELL SHIELDS FOR DAYS. Level 3 get your W and max your W first (put points in your ult of course), it's the best because it makes you more tanky, and I've ended up stealing a lot of kills with it, hah. I would do the QEW combo, my ADC would go in, by the time the enemy was low enough, my W would pop, and end up taking the kill. What to max second is up to you, I generally max Q second.
Runes and Masteries. This is highly up to preference. I've seen pro players use all different kinds of runes and masteries for Leona, or supports in general. What I use for runes is the same rune page I use for all my supports, and I love it. I run 14MR/14Armor/15AP. Pretty simple rune page. I've experimented with others, but I like this one the most.
For masteries I always go 9/0/21 for my pokey AP supports like Sona, Karma, Nami, etc. BUT for Leona I go 5/4/21. For the longest time I ALWAYS went 0/9/21 on Leona, but after experimenting I realized I really wanted a point in Offense for Expose Weakness. Every time you damage an enemy with a spell, your allies do increased damage to that enemy by 1% for 3 seconds, which synergizes perfectly with Leona's passive. But as I said, this all a matter of preference.
I was gonna do synergy list but there isn't enough room in the post. :( ANYONE WITH GAPS CLOSERS AND BURST! Graves, Corki, Lucian, Quinn, Ezreal, etc.
I was under the impression tanky masteries would be better. I have a 0/16/14 on her right now, with points for gold income as the supp, I feel thats needed. Anyway, I wanted the 16 in defense for tankiness, but taking that 5 for Expose Weakness is a good idea. I'm unsure how to synergize with it. Maybe a 5/16/9 instead?
I wonder how a 5/4/21 fits with an "in your face" champ like Leona. Generally good advice I find. I like it. I played another normals as Leona again, and didn't do as well, I kept nabbing kills because adc couldn't catch up in time (too close to turret or w/e reason), so I took kills, and got more than her...
In the end, we grouped up again, and went to team builder to switch roles, where I adc'd and had a cs of 160 and 8 kills 20 min in xD.
Anyway, I don't need adc advice. I do feel like I get a lot of poor adcs though. I HATE blaming other people, I always feel like if I lose lane, its partly my fault. Always something I could have done.
Leona is a tanking support champ. you should run 21 defense in masteries at the very least and the other 9 points can be up to you based on your playing style. for runes, armor marks, armor or health seals, mr glyphs, and health quints.
as for the build, depends what's happening, but in general, defense items. if the other team has ap, get locket. if the other team has ad, you can get frozen heart(helps vs auto based teams since it lowers attack speed) or randuins (in general, a very strong defense armor/health item) or sunfire (like randuins, but weaker with a bit of damage).
for boots, merks (other team has enough cc to be annoying) or tabi (auto based team)
you will of course get sightstone in there fairly early on and Relic Shield.
if your adc is dependable, protecting them would be good. getting Mikael's Crucible (removes any and all cc and heals for a bit) can help with this.
if you get super fed, like 26 kills or assists (assists give half the gold, which can still be a massive amount if you are catching people often), you will hurt building defence. if you build damage, you will end up dying and that won't help anyone, unless they have no damage for whatever reason.
Thanks for the advice. Its helped. I'm getting the hang of her a lot more, but I need to work on securing more assists, and being assist hungry. I cant seem to be at the proper place for team fights a lot though I don't think. Its really irritating.
