Welcome to the League of Legends Champion Spotlight featuring Leona, the Radiant Dawn.
Leona is a pure tank, specializing in disruption and soaking up damage for her teammates. She has great mobility and excels at helping take down enemy targets quickly.
Shield of Daybreak causes Leona’s next attack to deal bonus damage and stun her target. This ability refreshes her attack timer, so it’s ideal to use it right after making a successful attack.
Eclipse temporarily gives Leona bonus armor and magic resist. After a few seconds, Leona damages all nearby enemy targets. If she damages an enemy this way, the buff duration is doubled.
Zenith Blade sends out a skill shot that damages all enemy targets in a line. Leona then blinks to the last enemy champion hit this way.
Leona’s ultimate is Solar Flare. Solar Flare targets an area, which explodes after a brief delay. Enemy units in the area take damage and are slowed, while enemies in the very center are also stunned.
Leona’s passive is Sunlight. All of Leona’s abilities mark enemy units hit. Allied champions who hit these marked enemies deal bonus damage and consume the mark.
Aggressive play early on gets our opponents low. When Morgana lands Dark Binding, I push in for the kill.
Notice my ability order. I turn on Eclipse, allowing its three second delay to tick down. I hit Maokai with Shield of Daybreak and wait for Morgana to trigger Sunlight.
Immediately I land Zenith Blade and Eclipse which contribute to our first kill of the lane.
We get into a fight in bottom lane. To halt Akali, I hit her with Shield of Daybreak. After activating Eclipse I notice Morgana lands Dark Binding and Tormented Soil.
Estimating that her health is low enough, I stay for the kill with Eclipse and run once I see Vladimir coming. I use Zenith Blade targeting Vladimir to get back underneath my turret.
As Vladimir gets out of Sanguine Pool, I retreat from him so that he won’t land Tides of Blood.
I continue to kite back and forth and as Maokai gets too greedy for the kill underneath the turret, I stun him with Shield of Daybreak for a triple kill.
A teamfight starts in the river. I cycle my abilities to maximize Sunlight’s damage on Maokai, opening with Shield of Daybreak and then Eclipse.
As the fight ensues, I see Maokai get low. I burst him from about half health with Solar Flare, Zenith Blade, and finally Shield of Daybreak.
Afterwards, I see Akali get low, so I wade into her Twilight Shroud and activate Eclipse, picking up the kill as she runs.
As Annie gets low, I Flash into the enemy team, stunning Amumu with Shield of Daybreak but turn back as I’m afraid of Vladimir. I should have just kept hitting Amumu as he ends up getting away when I miss Zenith Blade.
I turn back around once I notice I can’t pick up Amumu, activating Eclipse to pick up the kill on Vladimir as he runs.
While laning up top against Vladimir, I get ganked from behind by Ezreal. I calmly walk into the brush and line up Zenith Blade. With the projectile in the air, I activate Shield of Daybreak.
Once I appear behind Ezreal I stun him and walk away.
As Annie catches our opponents I lead Vladimir with Solar Flare, but he dodges it with Sanguine Pool.
As he retreats, I Flash into range, activate Shield of Daybreak and once it comes off of cooldown I catch Vladimir underneath his turret with Zenith Blade.
I immediately head back into the fight, stunning Maokai, giving us the kill thanks additionally to Sunlight.
Solar Flare combines well with either your or a teammate’s stun. Here Annie flashes onto Ezreal, getting him extremely low. I follow up with Solar Flare, killing him before he has the chance to escape.
Mid-way through a teamfight, we catch up with Maokai. We kill him and then turn into Akali after a great Pillar of Filth from Trundle.
Note my positioning: I see Trundle head toward the top, Jarvan is off to the top left, and Morgana is below, so I head to the right hand side of Akali’s Twilight Shroud.
Sure enough, I catch her trying to escape out that way, stunning her with Shield of Daybreak, picking up the kill soon after.
We catch a teamfight in mid. I split off to attack the most important target: Vladimir. I first try to lead with Solar Flare, but save it since I can kill him with just Shield of Daybreak.
Immediately after, I head toward Maokai. With Frozen Mallet and Shield of Daybreak we take him down easily.
We head toward their base and again I try to hit Amumu with Solar Flare, but upon noticing my team isn’t following, I stop and turn to support Annie. I tag Akali with Solar Flare but Annie dies.
I sit in Akali’s Twilight Shroud with Eclipse active and Zenith Blade ready to hit her. As she jumps Morgana, I blink to Amumu with Zenith Blade and take down Akali with Shield of Daybreak.
After that, I peg the running Ezreal with Zenith Blade and Shield of Daybreak. Then I keep Amumu pinned down with my Frozen Mallet, even despite his Flash.
As Trundle and I chase, we pick up the kill with Shield of Daybreak and Zenith Blade.
For runes I build pure tank, with flat magic resist marks, dodge seals, flat magic resist glyphs, and flat health quintessences.
My masteries are 0/21/9, making sure to take Nimbleness in defense to synergize with my dodge seals, and Greed in utility to help me stack up items.
I max Shield of Daybreak right away to get lower cooldowns on my stun, making sure to max Eclipse second for durability, but grabbing a point in Zenith Blade at level 2 to help me initiate fights.
For items, I open with a Regrowth Pendant and Health Potion, taking a fast Philosopher’s Stone and grabbing Mercury Treads. I find Aegis of the Legion to be a must-buy when supporting your team.
I then go for a bit of crowd control and damage with Frozen Mallet and Sunfire Cape. I round out my build with Shurelya’s Reverie and Randuin’s Omen or Force of Nature depending on the enemy team.
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