This is a guide on how to counter Leona, and the champions Leona is strong against

“Break their lines” she exclaims as the mistress of sun roots you in place and then stuns you for three to five business days (2.5 seconds). Leona is an in your face, heavy tank, frontline, and cc based support that’s hard to deal with for every champion that isn’t (spoiler alert-Morgana). She roots you in place with her E(Zenith Blade) and then follows it up swiftly with a stun from Q(Shield of Daybreak) and a slow from her W(Eclipse), and if that wasn't enough she can stun you at range with her ultimate ability.

I as a seasoned support player struggles to play against Lleona so in this article we will cover 5 champions that are strong against her, 5 champions that she is strong against, and the best ways to outsmart a leona player! Let's dive right in!

Champions Leona is weak against

1. Morgana

Blade Mistress Morgana

I feel that this champion is somehow always on my mind whenever I see the enemy team hover Leona. Her spell shield is the main reason why she counters leona 100% of the time. Her spell shield lasts the duration of Leona’s entire stunlock combo, man what a bummer! Not only that but you can also Q Leona after she stuns you following the root which gives you enough time to get away from her before she can ult you. Morgana's ultimate is also a very strong Anti-Leona ability because you will stun Leona and any possible followup she has

• Use your E to protect yourself and your teammates from her stunlock combo
• Allow you/allies to take the E (the root) and then spell shield the stun, slow, and ult
• use your ult to engage Leona or Disengage leona, Soul shackles is versatile

Leona Counter Rating: 100/100

2. Thresh

High Noon Thresh

Scary ghost man is scary, even more so because of his E(flay). A seasoned Thresh is able to flay Leona from her dash:procked by the landing of her E(Zenith Blade). Not only that but using his Q (hook) he can yank Leona off of whomever she’s managed to land in a combo. Thresh's E has a passive that empowers his autoattack the the icon turns red on the HUD, you can use this empowered auto to chunk Leona down and make her more vulnerable to your own All-in.

• Time your E until you see the animation of her dash start to flay her backwards and stop her engage
• Use your Q to pull her away from your teammates and then reactivate the Q to dash to her and Flay her further away
• auto attack Leona with your empowered flay auto

Leona Counter Rating: 80/100

3. Zyra

Infernal Zyra

Unlike Thresh or Morgana she lacks abilities in her kit that completely shut Leona down. However her kit Q,W,E and R all provide damage, and high poke and kill potential which will make Leona think twice about going in. While in lane Zyra can stand far enough away from Leona to avoid getting caught by any of her abilities while also providing strong kill pressure on the ADC trying to follow up. Even more impactful is that Zyra's root does enough damage by itself to keep her too weak to fight without death.

• Actively poke at Lleona in lane with your Q W combo
• Lock her in place with your E when she walks up to look for that engage
• If you get engaged on use your R’s knock up to peel her away

Leona Counter Rating:  85/100

4. Maokai 

meowkai, so creative

An unorthodox support pick but he’s definitely useful against Leona players for 2 reasons. The first being that his E (sapling toss) is amazing for controlling bushes that Leona will try to cast abilities from. And the second being that he has a point and click root (W) which sets his ultimate up nicely to have a similar “stunlock” effect of his own.

• Use your W at level one to gain the upper hand on Leona, your stunlock combo happens faster than hers because of the root and the slow from E (sapling toss)
• Use your ult if Leona engages on you or your ADCadc to root her in place and get her low to force a flash

Leona Counter Rating: 70/100

5. Nami

Program Nami

This champion is actually extremely susceptible to Leona but that’s why she must position behind the ranged minions at all times. As Nami you want to play this lane solely to disengage, the only real reasons that she hard counters Leona is because if you time your Q correctly Leona will be stuck in it as she dashes through it; and her ult knocks Leona up just enough to combo a bubble into to keep leona stuck in place for a while.

• Don't try hitting a dashing Leona with your bubble. Instead drop it in front of her so that she dashes into it
• Save your ult to peel Leona off of yourself or your adc

If you can’t play the champions listed here don’t worry, I’ll tell you 5 champions that Leona is strong against so that you don’t accidently pick them into her!

Leona Counter Rating: 68/100

Champions Leona is strong against 

Janna

Star Guardian Janna

Janna is probably one of the most annoying champions to play against as Leona but she’s very punishable and you can turn an 0-0 Janna into a 0-15 Janna very easily. The key here is to play around her shield cooldown and her Tornado cooldown. Depending on whose playing her in what games some Jannas will shield the ADC to help them push lane faster. Punish this mistake by all-ining either one of them so long as you know where their jungler is and as long as you have more minions than them.

• Aii-in her if she walks up to W you (if there is an opening ex. adc too far away, Janna has no flash)
• If she misses a tornado pressure her by walking up on her

Soraka

Dryad Soraka

Soraka, similar to Janna is easy to abuse. She can’t deal with Leona all-ining her because her only peel is a silence, which she should be stun locked from using

• If she uses silence for no reason, look to all-in
• Avoid being poked by her Q because that damage does add up
• most people will ping you like crazy but in solo Q grab and executioners calling to stop Soraka from winning lane trades with her healing

Sona

DJ Sona-Ultimate skin

This champion is extremely squishy and thus very easy to focus down and kill without much contest from the ADC, most Sona players will walk up to try to Q you because for some reason alot of sona players are unaware of just how long that Q is. If you see a Sona that's way too close to you all-in on her but make sure that you let your ADC know because some people may not be on the same page.

• Abuse the fact that she’s a glass cannon
• At level 3 you can engage on Sona and almost always get a flash or a kill
• ping your adc when you want to go in to make the sona think twice before she overextends again

Lux

Imperial Lux

Unreliable cc mixed with a Leona in lane is bad for business. Lux is however very difficult to stick because she pretty much outranges you, but that doesn't mean you can’t abuse mispositioning. Not only that but as Leona you get so tanky that Lux really can't burst you, so in later stages it will be a little easier for you to focus her.

• At level 6 you can engage on Llux with your Ultimate
• This is the only real guaranteed way of getting her
• Build MR before attempting to all in lux early/mid game because she will burst you 

Blitzcrank

I-Blitzcrank

There is a such thing as a horrible Blitzcrank hook. You can easily kill Blitzcrank's teammates if you make sure that you’re the one taking the pull. Even just standing in front of your adc will make Blitzcrank back off some because he knows that if you get pulled you're right in range of his backline. 

• Take Blitzcrank’s hooks in lane because he will put you right next to his teammate
• In the mid game be careful because there is more damage but the same concept still applies.

How to Outsmart a Leona Player

As a champion in game Leona wants to punish mispositioning with devastating cc that will almost always lead to a burned summoner spell or a kill. Avoid getting to close to her because a good Leona will all in you as you try to last hit (applies to adc and support)

• Play passively and let her come to you

Sometimes though positioning isn’t enough to stop her, especially in the later stages of the game. In my opinion Leona has an easier time mid to late game because people pay less attention to her as there are more things on the map and in game that require your immediate attention

• Purchase Merc Treads these are hard cc reduction boots

Remember too that Lleona is extremely abusable due to the fact that she has no escapes. You would think a champion with so much forward momentum would respect inertia *gasp* for shame!

• Save your hard cc for her to keep her from helping her team during a counter engage (or just kill her)

You made it all the way to the end summoner, props because I wrote a ton. In this guide we covered champions that counter Leona and champions to avoid if you don’t want to get dominated by this flaming sun ball of valor and radiance. We also looked at how to outsmart Lleona players as they all too often don’t really understand how to engage in lower elos. With that being said as always good luck summoners happy climbing in season 9!

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