it helps for sticking to people early (before you get some form of reliable slow), it helps for rushing to a threatened lane or teammate (which flash can't help with very much), and it helps a bunch for swapping targets in teamfights (as Leona nowadays, i've typically gotta E to a carry and stun them early to get them killed, then try to get back and peel one or two bruisers off my own carries... flash doesn't quite cut it for that, especially if i gotta peel two enemies; i prefer sustained teamfight mobility)


It's also just a habit of mine. I run ghost on virtually every melee, I've adapted my playstyle to using it. With map awareness and an ability to anticipate, it typically does just as well as flash as an escape mech. Offensively (assuming you can survive taking some damage) sustained movement is often better than flash's instant movement in teamfights and ganks. And it's on a lower cd.

There are times when my preference for ghost over flash burns me (like not being able to walljump or being just out of range to hit an ability), but there's more times when ghost allows me to pull off things that flash wouldn't.

What's your standard build? I know it will vary depending on the game, but what's your core build that you use most often?

Sunfire is almost always in there, as a very early item (usually first item after spirit stone); it helps jungling a bit, gives me a bit more sustained damage that i sorely lack in ganks/1v1s, and gives some pretty useful early-game survivability (don't need to worry about magic damage much with a 70 MR steroid to absorb burst, especially with the extra hp on sunfire. But against the sustained nature of physical damage, i could use some reliable armor early). I swear i don't just get it thematically!

Aside from that, i pretty much always want an offensive slow to tie opponents down... in most cases i prefer mallet for the hp (which Leona syncs with well due to her mitigation steroid) and guaranteed slow (RNGs don't like me, so i'll take the sure thing). But sometimes i will go with trinity instead if i need to be a bit more offensive (the ms is nice, as is the sheen proc, and the rest of the stats still are useful to one degree or another), or iceborn if i'd want the AoE disruption instead.

Beyond that, it really is whatever. I really like getting spirit of the lizard elder (eventually... it's not an early buy) for the attrition damage on top of sunfire (and 50 AD doesn't hurt, when i'm already constantly auto'ing to tie people down and deal a bit of damage between spells)... it's so tough to kill me, and i'm just constantly dealing sunfire and lizard damage to most targets around me... it really adds up, in a relatively subtle way.

Bulwark is always nice too, and warmog's always helps. Also, since i do stack plenty of hp, a late atma's isn't bad either (armor and ~60 AD, and crit can help a bit). And as i mentioned, you're pretty much always auto-attacking, so wit's end is pretty reasonable. Twin shadows can be good too, for catching enemies out of position and making them easy targets to pick off with an ult>E>Q while the team catches up and finishes them off. And of course there's always Randuin's and Frozen heart.

This thread is now saved.

I really like Jungle Leona It's pretty fun. I did it a while ago when I was just trying to jungle every champion, and then forgot about it. I built the tanky spirit stone thing, Aegis, Shurelya's Reverie, and that was all I was able to get. But I would have probably gotten a randuins...and a Sunfire! But they were pretty heavy AD... :P

heavy AD tends to be the case nowadays anyway. It's not uncommon to see 3 physical, 1 magical, and a support. Which frankly is my preference, armor items are better overall... everything on the MR side kinda lacks useful actives/passives... there's... uh... Bulwark. And that's about it for useful MR (well, useful for tanks). While on the armor side we've got sunfire, randuin's, FH, and iceborn. And even thornmail and atma's, conditionally.

Honestly it irks me a bit when i wind up against a magic-heavy team, cuz i feel like my build is so lackluster. If there's just one mage, it's fine; in that case i barely need any MR... between merc's, my high hp, and my MR steroid i can soak up what they've got just fine. But multiple of them and i gotta itemize a bit for it, and it feels weak.

What i would suggest to satisfy this condition of a magic heavy team would be to build a hex/ maw. The nature of most magic damage is burst, so leona would become basicly unkillable with her natural tankyness, and you can take advantage of that passive shield and damage. Else, get a GA or, if your fed, Mecurial.

Also, thank you for helping me get leona out of bot lane. this build could also work for top, no? just my thoughts at the moment....

This is a great idea, gonna try it out once some buds get back online. Bookmarked and +1'd!

And i was just think weather i should get leona or naut next, i was going for naut because he can preform more rolls even though i have always liked leona

I just want to say, thank you so much for putting this up. Jungle Leona is the most fun I've had in a while.