Dark Horses: Jungle Leona (unofficial)

darkdill·Apr 9, 2015·3 votes·821 views

Our Solari in the jungle? Yep, and she rocks it!

#Pros

Absolutely terrifying gank power
Very tough to kill with Cinderhulk
Solar Flare has better cooldown than other jungle tank ultimates (except Rammus)
Pretty decent at counterganks
Allows you to "trick-pick" by duping the enemy support into taking a Leona lane counter, then countering their counter

#Cons

Terrible clear speed without Immolation
Reliant on Gromp starter
Has no objective control on her own
Cannot fend off invaders well on her own
Cannot invade or counterjungle well

The key thing about Jungle Leona is that when she ganks, generally something happens. Either your team could get a kill, or at the very least that Solar Flare could force a Flash-burn. And Leona can afford to be a little frivolous with her Solar Flares because the cooldown of 90 seconds is very generous for a gank-tank. The problem with Jungle Leona, though, is that compared to Nautilus and Sejuani, she's not as good at damage. She's definitely sturdier, though, and her crowd control with 40% CDR can be awe-inspiring.

Give it a whirl, and I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

Personal Masteries: 0/24/6 Personal Runes: AR red, HP/lvl yellow, MR/lvl blue, HPR purple

4 Comments

Syn ZykanApr 9, 20151 votes

curious as to what you build on her item 3725 item 3025 item 3190 item 3110 item 3102 item 3271 tends to be the route I go when I feel the need to steal away Leona (like they 1st pick graves) and I am jungling. If they are full AD I trade out the 2 MR items for item 3075 and item 3083 (if their only magic damage threat is like they have a corki ADC I might keep locket and just drop banshees for warmogs)

darkdillApr 9, 20151 votes

My build is usually the following:

item 3717 item 3270 item 3056 item 3190 item 3110

The final item always depends on the situation.

item 3102 item 3143 item 3800 item 3075 item 3078

I get Trinity Force if I'm REALLY ahead. Jungle Leona can get a surprising number of kills if you're lucky.

I also tend to swap out Mobility Boots later in the game for Mercury Treads when lane-ganking is over. I don't like being disabled as Leona.

Syn ZykanApr 9, 20151 votes

I always grab iceborn early so trinity isn't really gonna happen for me :P I have grabbed Righteous glory a few times if I feel like my team needed the extra engage potential or some disengage.

Not a huge fan of Ohmwrecker but it does make dives go better if turrets are all still up by the time I would want to get it. The stats just aren't slot efficient enough imo =\

And yeah it seems to surprise people when you gank like top lane and just make the kill so easy XD I tend to let my laners get the kill if possible though unless I am close to a powerspike (Like finishing locket or iceborn) or it is like a level 3 gank and I want to make sure they die so I get some gold to build faster P:

If it gets to the point I need to swap out my boots I will pick up ninja tabi generally, since adc's scale the best into late game it feels fitting to be lowering their damage even more if I am swapping during late game.

darkdillApr 9, 20151 votes

The health regeneration on Ohmwrecker comes in handy more often than you think, and the Point Runner passive is SO GOOD for helping you retreat. Leona lacks reliable retreat options, so Point Runner really helps her.