# Leona Counters, Matchups & Tips | Baron Buff See Leona counters, hardest matchups, and tips to play against or draft around Leona in League of Legends. Canonical HTML: https://baronbuff.com/champions/leona/ Markdown URL: https://baronbuff.com/champions/leona.md Language: en ## Breadcrumbs - [Baron Buff](https://baronbuff.com/) - [Champion Tier List](https://baronbuff.com/champions/) - Leona ## Page Content Tank · Vanguard · Support Prepare for battle with Leona — master their strengths and exploit their weaknesses before the game starts. ## Playstyle Profile Leona is an initiator — excels at engaging grouped enemies with impactful openings Teamfight Role Vanguard Initiator Power Spike Early game Split Threat None Backline Access Low ## Leona's Strengths - Starts fights on your terms — Leona's engage forces enemies to react, giving your team the initiative - Dominates early fights — Leona's base stats and kit spike early, punishing passive opponents ## How to Play Leona Champion-specific pre-match tips ### Lane Phase Push the second minion wave to hit level two first, immediately casting E and Q to engage before the enemy levels up. ### Lane Phase Buffer your Q-empowered auto-attack by right-clicking the target out of range, then Flash into range to guarantee the stun before they can react. ### Lane Phase Cast W while your E is traveling to guarantee your defensive stats activate early and the explosion damage hits your rooted target. ### Mid Game Activate W before stepping into unwarded brush around river objectives to survive sudden burst damage if an enemy is hiding. ### Mid Game Cast your ult from the fog of war to lock down isolated targets, then follow up with E to chain the crowd control while they are slowed or stunned. ### Mid Game Space out your E, Q, and ult casts during skirmishes to allow your allies to trigger your passive damage between each ability application. ### Late Game Hold your Q and E to peel for your primary damage dealers when the enemy team has assassins, rather than instantly diving into their backline. ### Late Game Position yourself near multiple enemies during 5v5 teamfights to ensure your W explosion connects, which extends its bonus defensive stats for an additional three seconds. For matchup-tailored tips, download Baron Buff's AI Coach & Companion App. ## Core Build Ranked from real ranked-match itemization We look at ranked games after each item was bought. If the player or team gained ground in gold, we rate that item higher. - Locket of the Iron Solari — 2,200 - Plated Steelcaps (Boots) — 1,200 - Kaenic Rookern — 2,900 - Knight's Vow — 2,300 - Thornmail — 2,450 - Bandlepipes — 2,300 total: 13,350 ## How to Counter Leona Counter strategies and draft context build percent-health damage, kite effectively, or bypass them entirely to reach carries - Weak to disengage and spread comps — Leona's engage loses value when enemies aren't grouped - Falls off significantly after 25 minutes — Leona's early dominance doesn't translate to late game - Split-push threats that avoid 5v5 team fights entirely - Compositions with strong disengage to negate engage windows ### Leona's Weaknesses - Heavy disengage compositions — Leona's engages get peeled off before the team can follow up - Safe, scaling enemy compositions — Leona's early advantage fades when opponents survive lane without falling behind ## Best Synergies with Leona Team synergies and draft context - Follow-up damage dealers who capitalize on Leona's engage — burst mages and ADCs with range - Aggressive junglers and roaming supports that snowball leads alongside Leona's early power spike - Assassins that flank while you hold enemy attention at the front - Follow-up damage dealers that capitalize on your engage and CC ### Draft Context - Pairs another engage champion with no follow-up damage to capitalize on Leona's initiation - Pairs Leona's early power with other early-game picks that all fall off together after 25 minutes ## Learning Curve [Based on 1.2M+ matches](https://baronbuff.com/blog/mastery_by_tier/) across all ranked elos, showing how Leona's win rate changes with mastery level Leona has exceptional depth — there is always something new to learn, with a straightforward learning process. Steady improvement comes over a moderate number of games. Skill Cap Very High Cost of Learning Medium Win Rate Delta by Mastery Mastery Level | Win Rate | 1-2 | 41.3% | 3-4 | 50.8% | 5-6 | 50.8% | 7-8 | 50.8% | 9-12 | 50.8% | 13-16 | 51.1% | 17+ * | 52.5% | [← Champions](https://baronbuff.com/champions/) ## Machine-Readable References - [LLM index](https://baronbuff.com/llms.txt) - [Full LLM reference](https://baronbuff.com/llms-full.txt) - [Sitemap](https://baronbuff.com/sitemap.xml)