Guide · Support

Leona Guide

the Radiant Dawn

Tank

Support

Tier B Support

Leona, the Radiant Dawn, is a tank and support champion of medium difficulty. Across our 961 analysed ranked games, Leona is mostly played as Support (100% of its games), with a 51.7% win rate in that role: tier B among Support champions (#17 of 38, ranked by win rate). Leona's damage is mostly magic (65%): magic resistance items are therefore effective against this champion. Win rate stays steady whatever the game length (50.5% to 54.3%): a reliable pick in every phase of the game.

Updated Oct 10 2026 · Patch 26.22

Averages measured over 961 Support games played with Leona, from our ranked Solo/Duo data collection.

How to play and combo preview

Leona is an engage tank: her spells mark enemies with Sunlight, which your allies pop for bonus magic damage. Shield of Daybreak stuns on your next attack, Zenith Blade roots the last champion hit and dashes you to them, and Solar Flare stuns in the center and slows on the edge.

The lane engage

E › Q › AA AA

When: An enemy is within Zenith Blade range.

Zenith Blade hits every enemy on a line, roots the last champion hit and dashes you to them; Shield of Daybreak stuns them on your attack.

The team ultimate

E › R › Q

When: Several enemies are grouping.

Solar Flare stuns those in the center and slows those on the edge: center the zone on the carries.

See all 3 Leona combos: key order, when to cast them, cooldowns →

Laning phase

Shield of Daybreak has a short cooldown: use it to stun as soon as you can attack. Mark enemies so your team can pop Sunlight.

Common mistakes

• Engaging with no ally to take advantage of Sunlight.
• Casting Solar Flare so that it only hits the edge.
• Using Eclipse too early: its protection is short.

Riot's official tips for playing Leona

• Lead the charge and mark your foes with Sunlight before your allies deal damage.
• Shield of Daybreak and Zenith Blade form a powerful offensive combo.
• You can absorb a huge amount of damage using Eclipse, but you must stay near enemies to gain the bonus duration.

Build, runes and summoner spells

The most-played core build is Bandlepipes, Knight's Vow, and Locket of the Iron Solari (51 games, 49.0% win rate).

Bandlepipes+Knight's Vow+Locket of the Iron Solari

51 games · 49.0%

Protoplasm Harness+Knight's Vow+Locket of the Iron Solari

36 games · 61.1%

Thornmail+Knight's Vow+Locket of the Iron Solari

32 games · 59.4%

Skill order

Max order : W > E > Q57.6% · 59 games

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
Q	●													●	●
W			●	●	●		●		●
E		●						●		●		●	●
R						●					●

The order shows which abilities reach rank 5 first; the grid shows the most-played level-up sequence with that order (measured over 130 games).

Starting items

Health PotionHealth Potion47.6% · 126 games

First completed items, in order

Locket of the Iron Solari›Knight's Vow

27 games · 59.3%

Locket of the Iron Solari›Bandlepipes

15 games · 53.3%

Laning phase (averages)

At 10 min: 2823 gold, 15 CS, 2631 XP. At 15 min: 4309 gold, 20 CS, 4105 XP.

Summoner spells

Flash + Ignite52.7% · 535 games

Flash + Heal52.6% · 272 games

Exhaust + Flash46.8% · 154 games

Most-played runes

Aftershock + Inspiration

52.0% · 542 games

Primary tree · Resolve

Font of Life97%

Bone Plating82%

Unflinching89%

Secondary tree · Inspiration

Cosmic Insight95%

Hextech Flashtraption49%

Shards

Ability haste91%

Health scaling58%

Health scaling55%

Aftershock + Precision

54.7% · 274 games

Primary tree · Resolve

Font of Life98%

Second Wind82%

Overgrowth85%

Secondary tree · Precision

Legend: Haste100%

Triumph96%

Shards

Ability haste98%

Health scaling65%

Health scaling60%

Aftershock + Domination

45.3% · 64 games

Primary tree · Resolve

Font of Life89%

Bone Plating55%

Unflinching62%

Secondary tree · Domination

Relentless Hunter67%

Sudden Impact55%

Shards

Ability haste64%

Movement speed64%

Health66%

For each row, the most picked rune among the games played with this page (share of games in brackets).

Which items to build against the enemy team?

We sort every game by the enemy team's damage. These are Leona's completed items and their win rate in each situation; "▲" marks an item that does at least 3 points better than its usual win rate.

Mostly magic-damage enemy team54.5% · 275 games

At least 50% of their damage is magic

Locket of the Iron Solari 53.9%

Knight's Vow 58.6% ▲

Protoplasm Harness 51.6% ▼

Bandlepipes 64.7% ▲

Zeke's Convergence 67.6% ▲

Thornmail 66.7% ▲

The item that stands out most is Thornmail: 66.7% win rate, +15 points versus its usual win rate.

Mostly physical-damage enemy team51.1% · 270 games

Less than 35% of their damage is magic

Locket of the Iron Solari 52.0%

Knight's Vow 53.1%

Protoplasm Harness 52.8%

Thornmail 45.8% ▼

Bandlepipes 65.2% ▲

Zeke's Convergence 43.8%

The item that stands out most is Bandlepipes: 65.2% win rate, +7 points versus its usual win rate.

Balanced enemy team50.2% · 416 games

Mixed physical and magic damage

Locket of the Iron Solari 51.1%

Knight's Vow 54.4%

Protoplasm Harness 58.5% ▲

Bandlepipes 48.7% ▼

Zeke's Convergence 51.0% ▼

Thornmail 46.5% ▼

The item that stands out most is Protoplasm Harness: 58.5% win rate, +4 points versus its usual win rate.

Counters and matchups

Who counters Leona as Support

Rell Leona: 26.9%26 games

Rell has the edge in 73% of the 26 Support duels against Leona. See the Rell guide.

Thresh Leona: 42.5%47 games

Thresh has the edge in 57% of the 47 Support duels against Leona. See the Thresh guide.

Milio Leona: 45.0%20 games

Milio has the edge in 55% of the 20 Support duels against Leona. See the Milio guide.

Braum Leona: 47.8%23 games

Braum has the edge in 52% of the 23 Support duels against Leona. See the Braum guide.

Blitzcrank Leona: 47.8%23 games

Blitzcrank has the edge in 52% of the 23 Support duels against Leona. See the Blitzcrank guide.

Who Leona is strong against

Nautilus61.5% · 52 games

Lulu60.7% · 28 games

Janna60.0% · 20 games

Karma55.6% · 18 games

Bard54.2% · 24 games

How to play against Leona

• When Leona activates Eclipse, you have three seconds to get away from her before she deals damage.
• Only foes in the center of Solar Flare get stunned, so you can often avoid this if you're quick.

Win rates measured over direct same-role duels; only matchups with more than 15 games are listed. See all of Leona's matchups.

Leona Support: what our games say

Laning phase against the Support average

Measured over 130 Leona games with a timeline; the average covers 51 champions played Support in our ranked games.

Win rate by game length

Best result: short (under 25 min). Only groups of at least 30 games are shown. A gap of several points shows the phase where the champion is the most reliable.

Abilities

PassiveSunlight

Damaging spells afflict enemies with Sunlight for 1.5 seconds. When allied Champions deal damage to those targets, they consume the Sunlight to deal additional magic damage.

QShield of Daybreak

Leona uses her shield to perform her next basic attack, dealing bonus magic damage and stunning the target.

WEclipse

Leona raises her shield to gain Damage Reduction, Armor, and Magic Resist. When the duration first ends, if there are nearby enemies, she will deal magic damage to them and prolong the duration of the effect.

EZenith Blade

Leona projects a solar image of her sword, dealing magic damage to all enemies in a line. When the image fades, the last enemy champion struck will be briefly immobilized and Leona will dash to them.

RSolar Flare

Leona calls down a beam of solar energy, dealing damage to enemies in an area. Enemies in the center of the area are stunned, while enemies on the outside are slowed.

Other Support champions to know

Most played

Nautilus49.9 %Lulu51.2 %Thresh50.1 %Nami49.0 %Bard50.9 %Alistar52.8 %Karma45.9 %Seraphine49.1 %

Strongest (at least 100 games)

Poppy56.9 %Zilean55.0 %Neeko54.9 %Galio54.2 %Brand54.2 %Lux53.6 %Maokai52.7 %LeBlanc52.3 %

Frequently asked questions

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