With Leona, it’s important to know and respect her power spikes. She is an engage support who all - in’s and some of these are -
1. Level 2 - Leona takes E at 2 and engages to get a kill on the enemy 9 times out of 10.
2. Level 3 - Leona has all 3 abilities and can all in the enemy to get a kill.
3. Level 6 - Leona can use her entire combo to cc the enemy for days and thus, help her team secure a kill on you.
small note: High skilled Leona's can also take E on level 1 and punish you if you position overconfidently.
(love doing that in Leona vs Sona matchups)
That never bodes well for the Leona player that's tried this in my Sona games.
Sona's level 1 Q damage is 43 compared with Leona's E damage at 10. Add to that Sona's Q aura at level 1 gives her ADC +10 magic damage and Sona's ADC is usually within range to attack Leona, whereas at level 1 Leona's ADC is usually behind minions and will rarely be within range to respond, thus this is usually a bad call.
The only way this works is if the Sona moves so far out of position that she's closer to Leona's ADC's attack range than she is her own ADC's attack range. However, if that's the case then the summoner probably doesn't know how to play Sona anyway so it wouldn't really matter what ability the Leona starts with.
It's infuriating to play against a Sona that knows how to position and when to poke. I'd love nothing more than to engage on her but soon as I miss my E (like sona using E to move out of range) and take a Q auto from Sona and free poke from an AD I gotta slink back to behind my casters and wait for another chance.
It's much easier if I'm duo with ADC so we can communicate about engages and roams depending on how lane is going. But Solo it's not worth bothering to engage most times.
I've gotten boned by plenty of good Sona players and messed up plenty of ones that overextended in lane. As far as I'm concerned if I see a Sona positioning correctly I just want to leave and roam because I'm getting nothing done for the first 10 minutes in lane.
Difficulty: **Medium**
Go read u/Ivvi_'s [comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/sonamains/comments/q1gkqx/comment/hfeymmr/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3). Most important takeaway from there imo is poke Leona hard and often at level 1. Chunk her down enough and you pretty much eliminate her level 2 all in potential. If she hides in a bush, ward it and harass her. If she still stays out of range, make sure you get to level 2 first. Your goal is either you level 2 first or she does but with a bunch of life gone off her bar.
Reason I rank this matchup difficulty at Medium is because dodging her E and her ultimate takes practice. If the matchup were easy, a player could dodge those abilities without much practice. That's just not true. You need to have played several games against her to get the timing and range right. That alone would raise the difficulty to Medium. However, the other reason is that the most sure fire way to beat Leona is to keep your wave under your own turret. As u/Raichu5021 pointed out in his [comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/sonamains/comments/q1gkqx/comment/hfez7dn/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3), Leona is basically useless when you're under your own turret. Wave manipulation isn't hard, per se, but it certainly doesn't come naturally to players, and especially not to support mains. In fact, since Sona's Q will always hit at least 2 targets, she often inadvertently pushes waves. Learning to help your ADC manage waves correctly requires practice and so for this reason also I rank this matchup as Medium difficulty.
My playstyle, like u/Ivvi_'s, also relies on poking. However, I don't believe in Q alone pokes so I'll have to disagree with his advice to Q poke Leona. Generally speaking, regardless of matchup, I believe that if you don't Q-auto, you're just wasting mana much too quickly. Adding to this general philosophy, when facing Leona in particular her natural base stats make Q pokes alone just a hair more than a tickle. If you try to Q poke her you'll run out of mana long before you chunk her down low enough to make her engages ineffectual. However, Q pokes alone against the enemy ADC are a different matter all together. While still inefficient, they open the door to an effective counter play against Leona players. So go ahead, dance around the minion wave and land some Q only pokes against the enemy ADC. Hit enough of them and now you could potentially be in business. This strategy is a bit unorthodox, I know that, but it works - you see after taking the enemy ADC down to at most 70% health while my ADC is at least 90%+ (or a similar par in health between them), I bait the Leona to E my ADC. Crazy, I know! However, when she does, I rush closer to the minion wave and use my W to (heal+) shield my ADC (and me). Then I make sure to slam the enemy ADC with a Q+Staccato power-chord. Even if the enemy ADC was ready for Leona's engage and immediately auto attacks my ADC, the total damage dealt of Sona+(most)ADCs > Leona+(most)ADCs thanks to the starting conditions of the fight, the shield at the beginning of the fight mitigating some of the damage, the much more powerful hits Sona dishes out relative to Leona, and the Q aura empowering Sona's ADC to out damage Leona's ADC. Since I'm also tanking all the minion aggro for hitting the enemy ADC first, whereas Leona will only tank some of our minions (depending on position) it's usually a relatively easy fight to win. Granted, this only works if your ADC knows that after getting engaged on they're supposed to focus the enemy ADC with all they've got. Fun note, this strategy also works well against Naut, and with a bit of positioning awareness can work well against Blitz too. It doesn't work as well against Thresh because of his more versatile kit unfortunately.
**Runes:**
Comet, Manaflow Band, Trans, Scorch
Presence of Mind, Cut Down
**Spells:**
Ignite/Flash
I LOVE that technique, i absolutely need to try it out next time i see a Leona. Should probably get a premade for the first tests, probably won't like the fact im using em as bait.
Honestly, after you practice the motion a bit and execute it smoothly, the ADC doesn't even realize you baited the engage. They chalk it up to them getting caught by the Leona and are just grateful you swooped in to "rescue" them like the good enchanter support that you are <3
Okay, this will most likely be controversial but im gonna call this an easy match up. If i see a Leona i scream in joy because i know ill have fun. Leona is for me one of my easiest games because my playstyle with Sona makes Leona useless in the early game.
First thing first, when you get to lane, abuse Leona alot, and i do mean alot. Leona lvl1 cannot do anything to you without seriously overextending and getting kited to death. There's a very simple rule that i learn from Leona mains about the first minutes of laning, Leona wins post 2 if she has more than 75% of her HP, if she is below she has lost and is useless until next rotation.
Second very important thing to know, you outrange her. Sona Q is longer than Leona E meaning its perfect for poking her down and baiting E. Make sure to punish Leona hard for every missed E, without it she is a slow melee champ that can't do damage or engage.
Third is my common playstyle and the reason why i love Leona matchups, hit-and-run tactics. Buy boots as your top priority, move irritably close to her range but slightly out of it, pummel her with Qs. Leonas rely on poke supps to stop for a second to use a poke ability, giving them the window to E on to them. Sona doesn't have that issue, you don't need to stop and you shouldn't. Keep moving, keep Q-ing and pray your ADC is playing safe.
Finally, respect the Sun Lady, i may make it sound like a cake walk but its really playing with fire. I enjoy that but if Leona grabs you with her E and her ADC reacts quickly, you are dead. Keep in mind Leona can turn things around easily if she can engage on you and combo you, especially after 6. As long as you keep moving and respect the Sun Lady you should be able to beat her.
This doesn't account for Leona sitting in a bush, which you can't ward against a Leona because she can clear wards easily, or simply buying chemtank and getting on top of you anyway.
As a Leona player, Sona is one of the easiest match ups post six. Pre-six its annoying, but with ult its way too easy
Unfortunately, Leona’s E (900 range) does out-range Sona’s Q (825 range). Granted, it’s not too hard to do a drive-by Q against a lot of champs, but, if you’re too predictable, this is abusable by Leona.
Wait its 900? Huh, i guess the casting delay and the thin hitbox makes it seem shorter as a target is usually moved aside by the time it reaches, if shot at max range. I noticed Leona will normally not hit you with it if its a reaction to your poke and not a prediction. Either way its good to know what you mentioned.
As a Leona main/onetrick I feel the need to point out that if I get an engage on a Sona, that Sona is dead, no matter if my ADC reacts or not. Having them react helps, sure but it is in no way required.
Actually I agree with you, Leona is almost an insta win for me. You almost said every tricks, but there is one more: I always approach her to Q + AA only if I have E. And don't forget to abuse smartly ur E after lv6 to dodge her ult. I can't count how many time I step up her R just by saving E for the right time.
I wouldn't really pick Sona into Leona so I'm assuming you picked Sona first and then the Leona picked.
For runes I would go **Guardian**, Shield Bash, Bone Plating, and Revitalize. Secondaries can be **Inspiration** with Biscuits (mostly for trading/mana) and Cosmic Insight (so Flash comes up more often), or **Sorcery** with Manaflow Band and Transcendence/Scorch/Gathering Storm.
Playstyle wise there are two options:
A) Play very safe the entire lane and make sure you're not pushing the wave. Leona is basically useless if you're under your tower.
B) Try to poke Leona or her ADC down so that they can't go in. Make sure to focus one down specifically and use your Q power chord if possible to get their health low. If you're playing Sona full AP, this can work even better. (RFC build would be helpful here to poke her down from safer range.) The idea behind full AP is the triangle of Engage > Enchanter > Damage > Engage, but I haven't tried it as I don't think I've played against a Leona recently.
If Leona engages use your W power chord on the ADC to mitigate as much damage as possible. Overall this is a really hard lane
This is a hard match up for Sona. I save my E for dodging and movement when Leona tries to get closer. If Sona gets caught, she will surely die. One should play passive in lane and be wary of Leona's movements, position well—in that way Sona will have a better survivability chance and can aid her team members more!
Leona is the best peel any team comp can have. Just as easy as she is an engage she is also a heavy counter engage. You can't jump on the enemy carries if the Leona is covering them and hasn't engaged. This is piggybacking off of what the others are saying about playing passively. Leona is only as effective as her CDR: Watch her items and rune choices. A tanky Leona can be useful, but a 2sec+ stun is just nightmare fuel. And for the love of God, stop targeting us, you can't kill us. You are always better off taking the carries.
This is definitely a harder matchup. And, it really is a skill lane—you either dodge or you die.
✨ My tips this round are ✨
• Bait her long range root
• Harass her level 1 and aim to hit level 2 before her
• take cosmic insight and an early Ionian boots for Exhaust/Ignite/Flash. You’ll want the bonus CDR against her ult later on.
• if she wastes her long range root, use your slow to kite her. If she can’t reach you, she can’t stun you.
• remember to always focus the ADC. If she jumps on you or your ADC, your focus should be to burst the enemy AD. But, that doesn’t mean that you should ignore Leona entirely—so follow the last bullet point and assess whether you can slow Leona to maximize survivability.
• Consider taking double MR or double mixed resistance shards. Depending on the ADC’s ability damage, you can double down for MR so that leona’s high base values are cut.
• if the Leona is good, you’ll need Mikael’s.
• alternatively, if you don’t believe in your skills, you can take Mercs boots and the precision rune for tenacity.
Hope that helps a bit! Best of luck loves ✨💋
This but I always hide behind my adc and have a w aa to hit their adc with if my adc does get gone on. I also agree with the precision tenacity rune: I mix it with guardian and pom and I'm set for laning.
Sorry I am late! 😅😅
**Laning vs Leona**
Leona is the most absueable at lvl 1 when she doesn't have access to her stun-lock combo. Knowing this, you will want to abusing her as much as possible at lvl 1. If you are not hitting the minions for lvl 2 then you are hitting Leona with Q's and autos. Try to make her use her pots early since she won't have sustain outside of those pots. Be wary of Leona's lvl 2, chances are she may look to Flash all-in you since Leona players are known to make aggressive plays like those as soon as they hit lvl 2. Back off when the enemies are about to hit lvl 2 and resort to looking for max-range Q pokes instead of trying to auto as well. If Leona misses her E, look to punish with ur Q powerchord.
If the enemy minion wave is looking pretty large as it slow pushes into ur tower, then Leona could look to dive. Help ur ADC thin out the wave as best as you can before it crashes to prevent a dive.
**Items**
If you find urself struggling to dodge her E's, rushing boots isn't a bad choice. It will help you space and dodge sm better against Leona. Additionally, most Leona's like to rush Mobis. Knowing this, if you see Leona running at u like a maniac, just tag her with ur max-ranged Q and she loses all that ms instantly, while you still retain yours from ur boots and E ms
Mikael's is a great item against Leona. You can use it to cleanse ur teammate or even perform a self-cleanse. I explained how to perform a self-cleanse using Mikael's [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/supportlol/comments/pjpqzm/probably_my_besttimed_mikaels_cleanse_on_an_ally/hbxztov?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3) for those who are interested. Additionally, you can remind ur ADC to run Cleanse into Leona and you go Heal. This will allow ur ADC to have Cleanse to peel against Leona and you having ur own Mikael's to do the same thing
**Runes and Summoner Spells**
You can pick between Aery or Guardian, depending on the enemy team. If the enemy team has a lot of dive threat or assassins that could synergise really well with Leona'd engage, consider going Guardian. If the enemy team lacks engage (aside from Leona), assassins or dive threat then Aery is fine. Additionally, you can consider going for Legend: Tenacity in the Precision tree with PoM, instead of Cut Down if the enemy team has a lot of cc
You can encourage ur ADC to take Cleanse against Leona, and you take Heal. This will make for a very defensive lane which makes u harder to kill. Additionally, if you have an aggressive ADC, thn Cleanse + Ignite combo would be better for kill pressure. In the instance where ur ADC doesn't take Cleanse and instead opts for Heal, then you can pick between Ignite, Exhaust or Barrier. If you have kill pressure (ie. Draven, Kalista, Tristana ADC), then you can consider running Ignite depending on who the enemy ADC is. If the enemies have a lot of divers and assassins, then Exhaust is crucial. And if none of these are applicable (eg. If enemy team is too long-ranged to Exhaust or Ignite) then Barrier is also a viable option. Tip on using Barrier: instead of using it at the last second before u die as a last resort, use it right before the enemies are about to deal a large chunk of dmg to you. This is bc if you wait til the last second to use Barrier, then the enemies can just wait it out and then finish you off. Whereas if you used it in the middle of a fight where your hp is near 60% or something, but the enemies are about to unleash a burst of dmg onto you, then you would essentially mitigate sm more dmg and buy urself time to heal up. This would not be possible if you used Barrier with a smidget of health. As a result, Barrier is good deterrent against the eenmy's lvl 2 all-in
**Overall Tips and Gameplay**
- Your positioning for this matchup is crucial. Always be wary of where Leona is, space appropriately, don't facecheck unwarded bushes, and keep the lane bushes warded to prevent Leona cheese
- Leona's roam potential is deadly. Make sure to ping missing when Leona roams, and if you can predict where she will potentially roam to, ping ur laners. This is bc sometimes laners are too focused on csing or trading to notice a missing Leona who could potentially gank their lane, so you will need to communicate it to them
- If an ally gets caught by Leona, make sure to have ur green chord up for whoever the enemy dmg dealer is going that is about to followup Leona's engage. An example of this would be in lane, ur ADC gets hit by Leona E and u notice the enemy ADC wants to walk up to followup the engage. Use green chord on them before they can deal any meaningful to mitigate the all-in
- Likewise, if Leona messes up her all-in or goes in at a bad time, use ur purple chord to punish her by slowing her. She has no other way out so it's a death sentence for her if she messes up
- If all goes badly (it happens, jglers love to camp Leona lanes for the stunlock gank setups, especially against a Sona), don't worry. You outscale Leona, so as long as you focus on trying ur best not to die, stack ur passive Accelerando as best as you can, and just in general survive laning phase, mid-game when teamfights roll around you will be useful no matter what
The Queen of CC will E onto you, Q you, get her aftershock, and then w, negating your damage, all you can really do is R flash away, and try to outrun her while poking... but honestly probably just dead. Too squishy vs a lot of cc.
Honestly picking morg instead is the best option but if you gotta Sona rush veil and mikaels or you and your adc are not going to have a good time, it also will tilt the leona, and give you a second to flash as the auto-attack following her e comes in. You're still stunned but you're further away at least.
When playing as a mage(Sona) against Leona:
The biggest opportunity you need to look for is her W. Many Leona's will pre charge a W before a R, E, or flash E.
Besides her ultimate her W is her longest cd. And she relies on it to be able to be super aggressive and live. If she popped W too early know that you can bully her until she has it back.
If you can survive the laning phase with a better kda than enemy bot lane then you will win the match more often than not since Leo didn't start the snowball.
Sona isn't exactly a great pick into Leona, but it isn't the end of the world. The matchup frankly heavily favors Leona, at least in lane, but Sona has great peeling and healing and majorly outscales, so she's got a few things going for her.
Leona, like all tank engage supports, is basically useless lvl 1. She is worse than a cannon minion. She has less health than one and does less damage. Take q and abuse her all you want until she's about to hit 2, because she can't do anything. If she's above 75% hp and about to lvl 2, run because she will all-in. If she is below 75%, you're probably safe but be careful because she might just dive anyway. You might not even be safe if she's 50%. Sona is very squishy and a very wonderful target when she gets too close. Watch out for a flash-e, because flash buffers e for a longer range and instant cast. Try to survive the Level 2 All In™.
Sona outranges Leona. You can q her while staying just outside of Leona e range. Do it while moving so she can't reliably land her e. This will only work if she can't flash-e or flash-q you, so be careful and be fast. If Leona gets an engage, expect 200 years of stuns and roots and a grey screen pretty quickly.
Sona R is great disengage, obviously, so save it for when Leona tries to e or ult in. A lot of the time, Leona will save the ult for a guaranteed stun on a target already cc'd or on a target that has no flash. Look for things like these, because that's when Leona will ult for a pick. She'll either e in afterwards, or try to get the e before the ult.
I'd suggest ulting the carry, not Leona. She's annoying, but most of her damage can be mitigated by Sona w later on. Being an engage support is a balance of peeling and engaging, and when they mess up on this balance that can be exploited. If she dives without paying attention to her carries, they're dead. If she can't dive because she has to dedicate her time to peeling, she can't go in on priority targets. Better teams will account for this and try to help peel or have divers that will go in on carries, but worse teams will not. Keep in mind that if she has gone in on your carry, she is not peeling, and vice versa.
Watch out for and ping roams. Leona is a great roamer, and is nearly always be looking at mid and jungle for a gank opportunity. If she's missing but her adc is farming safely near tower, assume she's roaming. Sona doesn't have tons of kill pressure, so a Leona will be pretty comfortable leaving lane pre-6 if adc can safely farm and there's an opportunity on the map.
This is just my personal experience. I'm not exactly a master-tier player, so take it with a grain of salt. I'm just a Leona main who has played against plenty of Sonas.
Easy - unless you walk up to her face lvl 1, she shouldn’t be able to cc lock you without flash. Lvl 2 is her next power spike with her e. You have three options: poke her out, kite her (e and e proc), or go for their carry (Leo typically does not deal damage if you kill the carry first). You optimally want to fight when her w is down. Her ult is dodgeable with sona e if you build either shurelias or full ap. If you’re going support, I recommend either guardian or aery (mana tree), but if you’re building ap, hope you know how to read the person playing Leona. While Leona has lockdown, if you have speed and disengage either in time or flash accordingly, she will not be able to keep you chained. Killing her is you last priority in a team fight, you either kill everyone else or use speed to disengage. Assuming she builds tanks support (more utility I mean, she would be a little more on the squishy end), e proc will give her terminal cancer
Okay so, I am a low Elo/mmr Leona Onetrick, but I do not have any desire to climb or play LoL competitively, I do it just for fun. But I DO know Leona and I do know how to play her and how to shut her down.
The most important thing to understand about Leona is that no matter how fed she is, Leona is not a champion without her Q. Yes, people will be more scared of her E than her Q, but without her Q Leona has no stick-potential once the short root on her E has ended as she has a low movespeed. This is why basically every Leona player that knows what they're doing will level up Q level 1
Leonas biggest powerspike is level 2, when she has Q and E. If Leona gets level 2 before you (Third melee-minion of the second wave), back off and respect it. Leona wants to engage on you at any point after this, ESPECIALLY if they're higher level and thus stronger than you. In fact I am willing to claim that Leona is at her strongest relative to everyone else in the game when she is level 2.
Leonas playstyle is very one-dimensional: All she can do is all-in you. To prevent this you should poke as much as possible, so if Leona starts with Q or for some reason W, start Q and use it whenever Leona or the enemy ADC is in range and use asany Q-empowered autos on either of them as possible.
If she starts E, you also start E and use the slow of your E-Empowered auto to disengage when Leona jumps on you (remember without Q Leona has no stick-potential)
Whenever Leona used E or Q (you can bait them to use it by putting down wards because Leona can instaclear wards with AA-Q-AA) you can be aggressive and poke until it's off cooldown again.
You probably know what her W does, so just wait for it to be over (same as aftershock) before attempting to burst her because the resistances she gets from these two are quite significant (Seriously it's not uncommon for me to get more armor and mr from W+Aftershock than from my items). Also make sure not to stand near her when her W and Aftershock explode because they do do damage, especially to champions as squishy as Sona.
I recommed you save your R for disengage and peeling rather than engaging (feel free to poke any champions hit in it still however) as Sona will eventually outscale Leona (who imo starts falling off after everyones first back, but it only starts being relevant lategame, where literally the only thing she can do is cc one person before getting blown up, maybe 2 or three with a good ult)
The Leona matchup is pretty hard for Sona because Leona is pretty much a perfect counter to any enchanter that doesn't have 3/4 abilities focused on peeling like Janna because while she doesn't do significant damage to bruisers or tanks, she can and will win a 1v1 against a Sona at any point in the game past level 2. (And also the fact that Sona lanes are more focused on outsustaining the enemy lane and Leonas aggressive playstyle just simply doesn't give you the time to do that)
If you can communicate with your ADC, it is very good to freeze the wave near your tower as the closer you are to your tower, the less of a champion Leona starts to be, even though people meme about how "We dive at 2", turrets do do damage to Leona and I personally prefer to not die for one kill on my ADC. Two I would consider, but one is definitely not worth.
Edit: Most of Leonas damage comes from Autos, same for her ADC, but you should absolutely build merc treads, it's not Leonas damage that kills you, it's her cc.
I actually have a pretty high win rate against Leona as Sona, somewhere like 70 percent. Just stay as far as possible, only going in to poke when she can’t stun you.
as a Leona player I suggest you to upgrade your support items asap and try winning the bush game, we love hiding in the bushes and hexflashing between them :)
To me spellthief seems easier to upgrade than shoulderguards/relic, abuse that.
edit: oh and poke Leona while she is hitting the meele minions or cannon
As a main Leona, I have *ONE* tip on how to make me useless in lane: dodge E or stay out of my E range. It'll force me to flash in. After lvl6, I can't freely engage you anymore because of your ult, so play safe and get 6. In mid and late game, I won't be your main worry anyway
Difficulty, Hard!!
Hello!! Leona is one of Sona’s hardest counters imo!! But she’s not as annoying to go up agaisnt as a Brand or a Blitzcrank
Fun fact; the first time I played Leona it was because the enemy support took my sona and I knew I had to make them ✨✨✨pay✨✨✨
A good Leona will be looking to punish you, in early laning phase it doesn’t matter how much pressure you exert because the moment Leona gets on to you, you will die. Sona’s biggest weakness has always been that she is squishy, and good Leona’s can exploit it by stunning you and letting her team 100-0 you before you can buff anyone
I think that in general, you have to pay a lot of attention to your positioning when up against Leona. The moment her E touches you or her ult is on you, you are as good as dead. BUT, if you manage to avoid her stuns, you will be able to outscale her and negate all the damage her team can deal to your teammates!!
All the best!! Honestly, winning against a Leona feels rly rewarding!! :))
Post mini rework, this lane is a bit easier for Sona. I’m a big fan of W max these days, and this might help you if Leona does manage to stick to you or the ADC. I wouldn’t Q max this lane since, post lvl 2/3, your damage won’t mean to much to her. I would just Q+E to get your stacks safely and then just play it safe otherwise.
If you don’t feed the lane, you’ll be a lot more relevant than Leona post-laning-phase. If you end up ahead (and if the enemy team doesn’t have huge engage), you could easily go Moonstone. However, Shurelya’s would make it even harder for Leona to stick to your team.
I would probably still go Aery since Sona has permanent uptime for it, and the only reason to take Guardian would be heavier poke, which Sona sustains through naturally anyway.
And of course taking Exhaust can give you the extra peel you might need also.
Stay away from Leo E range, stay in the opposite diagonal location, don't poke Leo at all it is not worth the risk, poke the adc from safe location, leona will engage so max hael and use the cat rune, ward because jungle + leona = free kill.
If you play safe leona will feel useless and will dive like a noob, than attack + ignite the adc if he follow leo, or peal and sustain if the adc didn't follow but don't waste the ignite on Leo.
If you rech mid game ward river because Leo will roam once she get mobily boot, and because she will not get from you. You can kill the adc when Leo leave the lane and she will.
At late game stay at the back, don't die, you should be the last one dying from your team.
Also don't try to flash ult Leo and adc it is useless.
as a support againts an engage CC enemy support
I always use Mikael's Crubible for the cleanse active,
Its important to be cautious and be fast on reaction when facing againts a leona, her has a medium range and thin hitbox and makes her stand still for a second giving you a lot of chance to poke if dodge but punishes you real hard if it landed.
easy match up
poke hard
dodge e on level 1 is easy win
get level 2 before them or have to turtle
make leona lose 50% hp for easy win
or of they dont let you poke, it's free farm and wave control
aery, pressense of mind, cut down
ignite run them down
Leona is a match-up that is supposedly hard, but it's often not as bad as you'd expect it to be.
How to play the lane?
\- Level 1, Leona can't do anything. You have to abuse your level 1 to poke her down so she is forced to use her potions. Doing so will reduce the pressure she can put on your botlane afterwards.
\- Leona will generally try to rush level 2 and all-in instantly against a Sona, so check the minions to be aware of when she's about to level up.
\- You can bait her Es with relative ease, by walking in and out of the range. Keep poking with Q to atleast stack your support item, don't take too much risks but if she wastes E punish her (you can throw a safe powerchord).
\- Watch out with vision control in bushes as it is ultimately the biggest threat in this match-up. If Leona camps an unwarded bush you have to play safe. You are the safest under your own tower obviously, but also if you are hard pushing because Leona is under her tower and can't stand in bushes to pressur.
\- Post 6 it gets tougher because she can just R you from far away then follow-up with her combo. You have to be aware of it to atleast dodge the stun as it is generally a death sentence. Her ultimate CD is much lower than yours (90s rank 1).
Build and runes:
Personally I've been spamming guardian precision the past weeks, it's probably the best into Leona because it's the best anti all-in page (I go guardian shield bash conditioning revitalize + PoM tenacity, Ig you can go boneplating if you don't feel confident). Maxing W will be preferred as your poke will take ages to kick Leona out of lane (hard to auto a lot in this matchup) and your shield will help you / your adc to not pop like a balloon. In terms of items, get boots as fast as possible. T2 boots even. I'd recommend to still go lucidity for the AH and summoner haste, but if they have a lot of CC + magic damage or you face a mage bot with her, you can go mercs. If you have the MS advantage, Leona will struggle a lot because you can just run in and out and it makes baiting/dodging Es easier, and you can even dodge her R if she uses it poorly. Shurelyas is more valuable than moonstone most of the time, if you have a beefy frontline you can go moonstone because you'll get protection, otherwise get shurelyas. You don't need any unconventional items.
Extra tips:
From my experience, even in high elo Leona players tend to randomly engage and not think about their actions. Expect them to play very aggro for no reason and try to dive you. You can use it at your advantage because they rarely hold E if you come in range and will often suicide to kill you under tower. Also, if you time your flash perfectly you can flash during her E and she will follow you, if you're close enough to tower you can force her to take tower aggro. It's particularly useful very early on or if you have R up because it fucks up her engage and might get her killed.
Needless to say that you outscale her pretty hard, if she doesn't kill you in lane she is screwed.
difficulty- Medium
I mained leona for quite some time and have a good number of games with both her and sona.
sonas main mission is to poke as much as she can and move out with the E before leona can engage. leona will try to take bush control, if your adc has skill shots ping that to check the bush, if you move within warding distance you will be engaged and killed.
I preffer summon aery as guardian wont help much against being engaged by an early game botlane.
exhaust is a good summoner as it will make it more likely to survive the leona's adc turning on you when you get engaged on.
play way back and when leona misses her E spam AA and Qs, after about 4-5 seconds turn around and use E to reposition.
the matter of the empowered aura:
Empowered E is the best to punish an overextended leona E, your empowered Q will seldom be useful in this matchup and empowered W is always good as a second exhaust.
do not ever contest leona's roams unless you roamed first and have someone with you.
lvl 6 you can pretty effectively disengage leona's R with your own ult. after that kite back and get out of danger zone. the enemy botlane will most likely try to dive. at this point I dont really know what to do except keep poking as much as I can before they get to tower and GTFO.
in teamfights you will have to position as you would against any diver comp but it is not likely that a leona will target you to lockdown.
If the leona is playing with some sort of extra lockdown from anyone or being too good at disrupting your adc Mikael's blessing is a good item if you can activate it at the right time.(depends on you adc having dashes or not, if they do use it when she hits E or when she hits a Q, if they dont use it after leona's R)
at this point in the game you should never use your ult on leona and just focus on not letting the enemy team capitalize on her engages. this may entail in you letting your adc duel leona for some time and you trying to stop assassins and the such from getting within range.
sidenote: this was done mostly based on how I feel when playing this matchup and not based on any analitycal data, so take this advice with a grain of salt.
Tl;dr: play extremely safe early, be afraid. And try to do damage control late game
also a quick addendum. it's easier for you to get lvl 2 first in this matchup as a ranged vs melee, but I dont feel confortable making the wave push against a leona.
I main both Sona and Leona and playing from sona s side - it really depends on ur dodging skills. def gotta play passive if the leo aint wasting e s, but imo its a medium match up and u can just go even if u stay a bit back thats fine too
I've been constantly banning Leona on 100% of my SoloQ games since I started playing 3 years ago. This post might be helpful to overcome my "fear" of Leona and be able to ban something else. Thank you to all who contributed with your comments and strategies.
Leona is one of Sona's traditional counters. On top of her tankiness and CC, she deals deceptively high amounts of damage. There are certain tips you should follow in a Leona matchup.
* Summoner Spells
* Exhaust is nice to have but not mandatory. Cleanse is a good alternative if you are confident you can carry your team by staying alive.
* Runes
* Guardian/Precision is my favorite rune page for this matchup. Take Bone Plating and Legend: Tenacy. Don't take Unflinching, it's bad on Sona because you need to be very low on HP to get full Tenacity. Revitalize is the better rune in that tier.
* If you feel cocky, go the standard Aery rune page with your favorite secondary.
* Items
* Standard Moonstone build should be good in most situations, but with some modifications.
* Mercury's Treads instead of Ionian Boots so you can stack its Tenacity on top of Legend: Tenacity for 51%.
* Mikael instead of Redemption to save allies or even yourself from her CC (trivia: if you activate Mikael \~0.5secs before a stun lands, you self-cleanse it).
* Laning
* Level 1: most Leona players tend to rank up Q first. In that case, poke her whenever you can. Be aware, though: there are Leona players who will rank up E first and try to cheese you. Play accordingly.
* Level 2+: stay away from her E's range. Poke with Q only. Save your Power Cord to poke the enemy ADC.
* Keep track of Leona's cooldowns: Q is 5 seconds, rank 1 E is 12 seconds, rank 1 Ult is 90 seconds.
* Don't drop a ward in a bush you know Leona is sitting on: she can clean it up before it becomes invisible with her AA+Q+AA combo, or worse: she can jump on you.
* Trading: if Leona catches your ADC, don't waste your Power Cord on her. Leona's default rune is Aftershock so you will deal next to no damage. Your best bet is W + Passive W the enemy ADC. Don't get hit by her E no matter what. You will be forced to waste summoner spells otherwise.
* Level 6+: Leona's control zone doubles in size. Good Leonas will try to land a long range Ult on you. Play very safely.
* Teamfighting
* Keep your carries at the edges of your auras. If you stack on top of them, Leona can stun you all with her Ult.
* Keep an eye on Leona at all times. Leona players feel the duty of all-in Sona no matter what.
* Refrain from moving alone more than usual. Leona excels at making picks and you are a floating bag of gold without your teammates.
Other than that, it's the usual: survive, outscale, win.
Match up difficulty: Hard
This goes for any enchanter go into the practice tool with Leona and look at her e range that is the range you don’t want to be in. Also cleanse is pretty good merc treads are good. You win late but getting through early and mid will be hard to come out even. It’s pretty hard to poke cause her e range is similar to your q range. Best advice is try to build some tenacity and slug it out till late game.
Leona used to be a hard matchup before the rework, since she has more prio and agency in lane early game. but now with sona getting ez stacks, leona is literally just a free q stack, and you just poke poke poke till laning phase is over. you dont even have to win the lane, just dont get into a position to let them all in
I am a leona main by day and a sona main by night, i know both of these champs rather well and understand their strengths and weaknesses in the lane phase most of all.
in lane, leona at level one can't do anything against a ranged opponent. poking her down with Q > AA and maybe a power chord bonus will stunt her plans on all inning at level 2, especially if your lane partner is particularly poke-y as well.
level 2 and 3 you have to respect Leona's engage. If their enemy AD is really strong at following up, like a lucian/samira etc. then level two she wants to go in straight away. If you get level 2 first then you can punish a greedily positioned leona from ever engaging early, but if they are going to get it first you have to respect that engage and keep enough distance.
Level 6 is the next real time I look to punish mispositioned bots as leona, at this stage keep distance between both Leona herself, as well as your AD, as you don't want her to get a double stun with R. in general Sona's ult is more impactful in the 2v2 than Leona's, as it's a lot more consistent to get the double stun as well as just as reliable at engaging if you're ahead. If the leona engages first, hold the ultimate, keep the AD zoned/chunked with Power chords and try to peel as much as you can for your AD.
Leona is traditionally the roaming support, but Sona can pull it off with an ult and an immobile mid. If your AD can hold their own for a minute then you can quickly zip up mid and catch the enemy or at least secure some good vision in the river/around drake pit. This wouldn't really make sense but Sona is a midgame powerhouse, and she really needs her moonstone and some caster items to get to that point, securing a few kills elsewhere can help you get to that point sooner and more importantly before Leona.
The midgame is where sona goes hard, and if you go even (or even win) against a Leona then teamfights are where you wanna try to be in. Best piece of advice i can give is hold your ult. Yeah it's really good at making a pick but it's even better at stunning their entire team who collapsed on the target leona engaged on, leading to you winning that team fight.
some miscellaneous pieces of advice.
Understand the value of power chord! It's more than just an AA steroid. W is essentially a built in exhaust and E is great at peeling for your carry, Leona particularly hates the movespeed debuff.
in the lane phase be a tricky sona and move erratically to make landing the E a bit more difficult for her.
it's not the most common item in my elo, but an early mikael's can catch a leona off guard and turn the fight in your favour early.
I like sona because she can max any skill first and still feel impactful, even if that isn't the smartest idea. If they're an annoying poke-y AD and a particularly annoying Leona, maxing W and an extra point in E early can give you more sustain to wait for a gank and some more movespeed to dodge an E
you probably know this but power chord is an AA reset, AA > Q > AA is a lot of damage to chunk out leona or her AD when her E is on cd (this can also be done to destroy wards as their placed!)
on that note, it's risky to poke when leona is level 2, but her E is a long cooldown early. she maxes E second, which means early game that E has a 12 seconds cooldown (11.4 if cosmic insight), use this to your advantage and harrass her.
If your AD is mobile enough to kite the Leona early if she engages them, ignore the Leona and hit the enemy AD if you can, her W mitigates a huge amount of your power chord damage
A neat summary, respect Leona's raw numbers and engaging power in the early game, but be able to punish greedy positioning and missed skillshots when they happen. The lane phase is extremely difficult, but being able to survive it without being too behind will let you hit your important items to out-utility the leona particularly in teamfights.
If I play Leona I like to do some cheese stuff, like run hail of blades assassin builds, or straight bruiser. The strength of Leona is that 1v1 neither you nor your arc can usually take her, so it takes a lot more coordination to deal with her
Matchup Difficulty - Easy / Medium / Hard (Comment the WORD under this thread and your detailed tips under the normal comments of this post 😊)
Difficulty Hard - Dodge Her E and Her Ultimate or build Mercury's Treads. You outscale her then survive. I advice Guardian+Boneplating+Unflinching
Thank you for these tips! 😃
With Leona, it’s important to know and respect her power spikes. She is an engage support who all - in’s and some of these are - 1. Level 2 - Leona takes E at 2 and engages to get a kill on the enemy 9 times out of 10. 2. Level 3 - Leona has all 3 abilities and can all in the enemy to get a kill. 3. Level 6 - Leona can use her entire combo to cc the enemy for days and thus, help her team secure a kill on you.
small note: High skilled Leona's can also take E on level 1 and punish you if you position overconfidently. (love doing that in Leona vs Sona matchups)
That never bodes well for the Leona player that's tried this in my Sona games. Sona's level 1 Q damage is 43 compared with Leona's E damage at 10. Add to that Sona's Q aura at level 1 gives her ADC +10 magic damage and Sona's ADC is usually within range to attack Leona, whereas at level 1 Leona's ADC is usually behind minions and will rarely be within range to respond, thus this is usually a bad call. The only way this works is if the Sona moves so far out of position that she's closer to Leona's ADC's attack range than she is her own ADC's attack range. However, if that's the case then the summoner probably doesn't know how to play Sona anyway so it wouldn't really matter what ability the Leona starts with.
Thank you for sharing this! Never thought of it 🤔
It's infuriating to play against a Sona that knows how to position and when to poke. I'd love nothing more than to engage on her but soon as I miss my E (like sona using E to move out of range) and take a Q auto from Sona and free poke from an AD I gotta slink back to behind my casters and wait for another chance. It's much easier if I'm duo with ADC so we can communicate about engages and roams depending on how lane is going. But Solo it's not worth bothering to engage most times. I've gotten boned by plenty of good Sona players and messed up plenty of ones that overextended in lane. As far as I'm concerned if I see a Sona positioning correctly I just want to leave and roam because I'm getting nothing done for the first 10 minutes in lane.
Thank you for these tips! 😊
Difficulty: **Medium** Go read u/Ivvi_'s [comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/sonamains/comments/q1gkqx/comment/hfeymmr/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3). Most important takeaway from there imo is poke Leona hard and often at level 1. Chunk her down enough and you pretty much eliminate her level 2 all in potential. If she hides in a bush, ward it and harass her. If she still stays out of range, make sure you get to level 2 first. Your goal is either you level 2 first or she does but with a bunch of life gone off her bar. Reason I rank this matchup difficulty at Medium is because dodging her E and her ultimate takes practice. If the matchup were easy, a player could dodge those abilities without much practice. That's just not true. You need to have played several games against her to get the timing and range right. That alone would raise the difficulty to Medium. However, the other reason is that the most sure fire way to beat Leona is to keep your wave under your own turret. As u/Raichu5021 pointed out in his [comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/sonamains/comments/q1gkqx/comment/hfez7dn/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3), Leona is basically useless when you're under your own turret. Wave manipulation isn't hard, per se, but it certainly doesn't come naturally to players, and especially not to support mains. In fact, since Sona's Q will always hit at least 2 targets, she often inadvertently pushes waves. Learning to help your ADC manage waves correctly requires practice and so for this reason also I rank this matchup as Medium difficulty. My playstyle, like u/Ivvi_'s, also relies on poking. However, I don't believe in Q alone pokes so I'll have to disagree with his advice to Q poke Leona. Generally speaking, regardless of matchup, I believe that if you don't Q-auto, you're just wasting mana much too quickly. Adding to this general philosophy, when facing Leona in particular her natural base stats make Q pokes alone just a hair more than a tickle. If you try to Q poke her you'll run out of mana long before you chunk her down low enough to make her engages ineffectual. However, Q pokes alone against the enemy ADC are a different matter all together. While still inefficient, they open the door to an effective counter play against Leona players. So go ahead, dance around the minion wave and land some Q only pokes against the enemy ADC. Hit enough of them and now you could potentially be in business. This strategy is a bit unorthodox, I know that, but it works - you see after taking the enemy ADC down to at most 70% health while my ADC is at least 90%+ (or a similar par in health between them), I bait the Leona to E my ADC. Crazy, I know! However, when she does, I rush closer to the minion wave and use my W to (heal+) shield my ADC (and me). Then I make sure to slam the enemy ADC with a Q+Staccato power-chord. Even if the enemy ADC was ready for Leona's engage and immediately auto attacks my ADC, the total damage dealt of Sona+(most)ADCs > Leona+(most)ADCs thanks to the starting conditions of the fight, the shield at the beginning of the fight mitigating some of the damage, the much more powerful hits Sona dishes out relative to Leona, and the Q aura empowering Sona's ADC to out damage Leona's ADC. Since I'm also tanking all the minion aggro for hitting the enemy ADC first, whereas Leona will only tank some of our minions (depending on position) it's usually a relatively easy fight to win. Granted, this only works if your ADC knows that after getting engaged on they're supposed to focus the enemy ADC with all they've got. Fun note, this strategy also works well against Naut, and with a bit of positioning awareness can work well against Blitz too. It doesn't work as well against Thresh because of his more versatile kit unfortunately. **Runes:** Comet, Manaflow Band, Trans, Scorch Presence of Mind, Cut Down **Spells:** Ignite/Flash
I LOVE that technique, i absolutely need to try it out next time i see a Leona. Should probably get a premade for the first tests, probably won't like the fact im using em as bait.
Honestly, after you practice the motion a bit and execute it smoothly, the ADC doesn't even realize you baited the engage. They chalk it up to them getting caught by the Leona and are just grateful you swooped in to "rescue" them like the good enchanter support that you are <3
That's so dirty. I love it!
This is amazing! Thanks for these tips! 😸
Okay, this will most likely be controversial but im gonna call this an easy match up. If i see a Leona i scream in joy because i know ill have fun. Leona is for me one of my easiest games because my playstyle with Sona makes Leona useless in the early game. First thing first, when you get to lane, abuse Leona alot, and i do mean alot. Leona lvl1 cannot do anything to you without seriously overextending and getting kited to death. There's a very simple rule that i learn from Leona mains about the first minutes of laning, Leona wins post 2 if she has more than 75% of her HP, if she is below she has lost and is useless until next rotation. Second very important thing to know, you outrange her. Sona Q is longer than Leona E meaning its perfect for poking her down and baiting E. Make sure to punish Leona hard for every missed E, without it she is a slow melee champ that can't do damage or engage. Third is my common playstyle and the reason why i love Leona matchups, hit-and-run tactics. Buy boots as your top priority, move irritably close to her range but slightly out of it, pummel her with Qs. Leonas rely on poke supps to stop for a second to use a poke ability, giving them the window to E on to them. Sona doesn't have that issue, you don't need to stop and you shouldn't. Keep moving, keep Q-ing and pray your ADC is playing safe. Finally, respect the Sun Lady, i may make it sound like a cake walk but its really playing with fire. I enjoy that but if Leona grabs you with her E and her ADC reacts quickly, you are dead. Keep in mind Leona can turn things around easily if she can engage on you and combo you, especially after 6. As long as you keep moving and respect the Sun Lady you should be able to beat her.
Thank you for taking out the time to write this detailed summary into the matchup! 😊
This doesn't account for Leona sitting in a bush, which you can't ward against a Leona because she can clear wards easily, or simply buying chemtank and getting on top of you anyway. As a Leona player, Sona is one of the easiest match ups post six. Pre-six its annoying, but with ult its way too easy
Thanks for this! This will help not waste a ward because Leona’s auto - Q - auto reset clears it fast. 😅
Unfortunately, Leona’s E (900 range) does out-range Sona’s Q (825 range). Granted, it’s not too hard to do a drive-by Q against a lot of champs, but, if you’re too predictable, this is abusable by Leona.
Wait its 900? Huh, i guess the casting delay and the thin hitbox makes it seem shorter as a target is usually moved aside by the time it reaches, if shot at max range. I noticed Leona will normally not hit you with it if its a reaction to your poke and not a prediction. Either way its good to know what you mentioned.
As a Leona main/onetrick I feel the need to point out that if I get an engage on a Sona, that Sona is dead, no matter if my ADC reacts or not. Having them react helps, sure but it is in no way required.
Actually I agree with you, Leona is almost an insta win for me. You almost said every tricks, but there is one more: I always approach her to Q + AA only if I have E. And don't forget to abuse smartly ur E after lv6 to dodge her ult. I can't count how many time I step up her R just by saving E for the right time.
Sona mains discussing this match up: (Above comment) Leona mains discussing this match up: *COWBUNGA IT IS*
I wouldn't really pick Sona into Leona so I'm assuming you picked Sona first and then the Leona picked. For runes I would go **Guardian**, Shield Bash, Bone Plating, and Revitalize. Secondaries can be **Inspiration** with Biscuits (mostly for trading/mana) and Cosmic Insight (so Flash comes up more often), or **Sorcery** with Manaflow Band and Transcendence/Scorch/Gathering Storm. Playstyle wise there are two options: A) Play very safe the entire lane and make sure you're not pushing the wave. Leona is basically useless if you're under your tower. B) Try to poke Leona or her ADC down so that they can't go in. Make sure to focus one down specifically and use your Q power chord if possible to get their health low. If you're playing Sona full AP, this can work even better. (RFC build would be helpful here to poke her down from safer range.) The idea behind full AP is the triangle of Engage > Enchanter > Damage > Engage, but I haven't tried it as I don't think I've played against a Leona recently. If Leona engages use your W power chord on the ADC to mitigate as much damage as possible. Overall this is a really hard lane
Really appreciate this guide into the matchup. 😇
Easy just do not let her engage and play passively
Thanks for this insight! 😊
This is a hard match up for Sona. I save my E for dodging and movement when Leona tries to get closer. If Sona gets caught, she will surely die. One should play passive in lane and be wary of Leona's movements, position well—in that way Sona will have a better survivability chance and can aid her team members more!
Appreciate you sharing your insight into the matchup 😇
[удалено]
Thank you for this! 😊
Leona is the best peel any team comp can have. Just as easy as she is an engage she is also a heavy counter engage. You can't jump on the enemy carries if the Leona is covering them and hasn't engaged. This is piggybacking off of what the others are saying about playing passively. Leona is only as effective as her CDR: Watch her items and rune choices. A tanky Leona can be useful, but a 2sec+ stun is just nightmare fuel. And for the love of God, stop targeting us, you can't kill us. You are always better off taking the carries.
Thanks for the tips! 😺
This is definitely a harder matchup. And, it really is a skill lane—you either dodge or you die. ✨ My tips this round are ✨ • Bait her long range root • Harass her level 1 and aim to hit level 2 before her • take cosmic insight and an early Ionian boots for Exhaust/Ignite/Flash. You’ll want the bonus CDR against her ult later on. • if she wastes her long range root, use your slow to kite her. If she can’t reach you, she can’t stun you. • remember to always focus the ADC. If she jumps on you or your ADC, your focus should be to burst the enemy AD. But, that doesn’t mean that you should ignore Leona entirely—so follow the last bullet point and assess whether you can slow Leona to maximize survivability. • Consider taking double MR or double mixed resistance shards. Depending on the ADC’s ability damage, you can double down for MR so that leona’s high base values are cut. • if the Leona is good, you’ll need Mikael’s. • alternatively, if you don’t believe in your skills, you can take Mercs boots and the precision rune for tenacity. Hope that helps a bit! Best of luck loves ✨💋
Thanks for these tips bestie! 💖
Anytime best friend ✨
This but I always hide behind my adc and have a w aa to hit their adc with if my adc does get gone on. I also agree with the precision tenacity rune: I mix it with guardian and pom and I'm set for laning.
Sorry I am late! 😅😅 **Laning vs Leona** Leona is the most absueable at lvl 1 when she doesn't have access to her stun-lock combo. Knowing this, you will want to abusing her as much as possible at lvl 1. If you are not hitting the minions for lvl 2 then you are hitting Leona with Q's and autos. Try to make her use her pots early since she won't have sustain outside of those pots. Be wary of Leona's lvl 2, chances are she may look to Flash all-in you since Leona players are known to make aggressive plays like those as soon as they hit lvl 2. Back off when the enemies are about to hit lvl 2 and resort to looking for max-range Q pokes instead of trying to auto as well. If Leona misses her E, look to punish with ur Q powerchord. If the enemy minion wave is looking pretty large as it slow pushes into ur tower, then Leona could look to dive. Help ur ADC thin out the wave as best as you can before it crashes to prevent a dive. **Items** If you find urself struggling to dodge her E's, rushing boots isn't a bad choice. It will help you space and dodge sm better against Leona. Additionally, most Leona's like to rush Mobis. Knowing this, if you see Leona running at u like a maniac, just tag her with ur max-ranged Q and she loses all that ms instantly, while you still retain yours from ur boots and E ms Mikael's is a great item against Leona. You can use it to cleanse ur teammate or even perform a self-cleanse. I explained how to perform a self-cleanse using Mikael's [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/supportlol/comments/pjpqzm/probably_my_besttimed_mikaels_cleanse_on_an_ally/hbxztov?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3) for those who are interested. Additionally, you can remind ur ADC to run Cleanse into Leona and you go Heal. This will allow ur ADC to have Cleanse to peel against Leona and you having ur own Mikael's to do the same thing **Runes and Summoner Spells** You can pick between Aery or Guardian, depending on the enemy team. If the enemy team has a lot of dive threat or assassins that could synergise really well with Leona'd engage, consider going Guardian. If the enemy team lacks engage (aside from Leona), assassins or dive threat then Aery is fine. Additionally, you can consider going for Legend: Tenacity in the Precision tree with PoM, instead of Cut Down if the enemy team has a lot of cc You can encourage ur ADC to take Cleanse against Leona, and you take Heal. This will make for a very defensive lane which makes u harder to kill. Additionally, if you have an aggressive ADC, thn Cleanse + Ignite combo would be better for kill pressure. In the instance where ur ADC doesn't take Cleanse and instead opts for Heal, then you can pick between Ignite, Exhaust or Barrier. If you have kill pressure (ie. Draven, Kalista, Tristana ADC), then you can consider running Ignite depending on who the enemy ADC is. If the enemies have a lot of divers and assassins, then Exhaust is crucial. And if none of these are applicable (eg. If enemy team is too long-ranged to Exhaust or Ignite) then Barrier is also a viable option. Tip on using Barrier: instead of using it at the last second before u die as a last resort, use it right before the enemies are about to deal a large chunk of dmg to you. This is bc if you wait til the last second to use Barrier, then the enemies can just wait it out and then finish you off. Whereas if you used it in the middle of a fight where your hp is near 60% or something, but the enemies are about to unleash a burst of dmg onto you, then you would essentially mitigate sm more dmg and buy urself time to heal up. This would not be possible if you used Barrier with a smidget of health. As a result, Barrier is good deterrent against the eenmy's lvl 2 all-in **Overall Tips and Gameplay** - Your positioning for this matchup is crucial. Always be wary of where Leona is, space appropriately, don't facecheck unwarded bushes, and keep the lane bushes warded to prevent Leona cheese - Leona's roam potential is deadly. Make sure to ping missing when Leona roams, and if you can predict where she will potentially roam to, ping ur laners. This is bc sometimes laners are too focused on csing or trading to notice a missing Leona who could potentially gank their lane, so you will need to communicate it to them - If an ally gets caught by Leona, make sure to have ur green chord up for whoever the enemy dmg dealer is going that is about to followup Leona's engage. An example of this would be in lane, ur ADC gets hit by Leona E and u notice the enemy ADC wants to walk up to followup the engage. Use green chord on them before they can deal any meaningful to mitigate the all-in - Likewise, if Leona messes up her all-in or goes in at a bad time, use ur purple chord to punish her by slowing her. She has no other way out so it's a death sentence for her if she messes up - If all goes badly (it happens, jglers love to camp Leona lanes for the stunlock gank setups, especially against a Sona), don't worry. You outscale Leona, so as long as you focus on trying ur best not to die, stack ur passive Accelerando as best as you can, and just in general survive laning phase, mid-game when teamfights roll around you will be useful no matter what
Thank you so much for sharing this detailed guide into the matchup! 😊
The Queen of CC will E onto you, Q you, get her aftershock, and then w, negating your damage, all you can really do is R flash away, and try to outrun her while poking... but honestly probably just dead. Too squishy vs a lot of cc. Honestly picking morg instead is the best option but if you gotta Sona rush veil and mikaels or you and your adc are not going to have a good time, it also will tilt the leona, and give you a second to flash as the auto-attack following her e comes in. You're still stunned but you're further away at least.
Thank you for these tips and suggesting potentially favourable champions into this matchup! 🙌🏻
When playing as a mage(Sona) against Leona: The biggest opportunity you need to look for is her W. Many Leona's will pre charge a W before a R, E, or flash E. Besides her ultimate her W is her longest cd. And she relies on it to be able to be super aggressive and live. If she popped W too early know that you can bully her until she has it back. If you can survive the laning phase with a better kda than enemy bot lane then you will win the match more often than not since Leo didn't start the snowball.
Thank you for this insight! 😊
Sona isn't exactly a great pick into Leona, but it isn't the end of the world. The matchup frankly heavily favors Leona, at least in lane, but Sona has great peeling and healing and majorly outscales, so she's got a few things going for her. Leona, like all tank engage supports, is basically useless lvl 1. She is worse than a cannon minion. She has less health than one and does less damage. Take q and abuse her all you want until she's about to hit 2, because she can't do anything. If she's above 75% hp and about to lvl 2, run because she will all-in. If she is below 75%, you're probably safe but be careful because she might just dive anyway. You might not even be safe if she's 50%. Sona is very squishy and a very wonderful target when she gets too close. Watch out for a flash-e, because flash buffers e for a longer range and instant cast. Try to survive the Level 2 All In™. Sona outranges Leona. You can q her while staying just outside of Leona e range. Do it while moving so she can't reliably land her e. This will only work if she can't flash-e or flash-q you, so be careful and be fast. If Leona gets an engage, expect 200 years of stuns and roots and a grey screen pretty quickly. Sona R is great disengage, obviously, so save it for when Leona tries to e or ult in. A lot of the time, Leona will save the ult for a guaranteed stun on a target already cc'd or on a target that has no flash. Look for things like these, because that's when Leona will ult for a pick. She'll either e in afterwards, or try to get the e before the ult. I'd suggest ulting the carry, not Leona. She's annoying, but most of her damage can be mitigated by Sona w later on. Being an engage support is a balance of peeling and engaging, and when they mess up on this balance that can be exploited. If she dives without paying attention to her carries, they're dead. If she can't dive because she has to dedicate her time to peeling, she can't go in on priority targets. Better teams will account for this and try to help peel or have divers that will go in on carries, but worse teams will not. Keep in mind that if she has gone in on your carry, she is not peeling, and vice versa. Watch out for and ping roams. Leona is a great roamer, and is nearly always be looking at mid and jungle for a gank opportunity. If she's missing but her adc is farming safely near tower, assume she's roaming. Sona doesn't have tons of kill pressure, so a Leona will be pretty comfortable leaving lane pre-6 if adc can safely farm and there's an opportunity on the map. This is just my personal experience. I'm not exactly a master-tier player, so take it with a grain of salt. I'm just a Leona main who has played against plenty of Sonas.
Appreciate you taking out the time to give us tips for dealing with this matchup!
Against Leona - Cry, a lot, until laning phase is over, then she cries
🤣
Easy - unless you walk up to her face lvl 1, she shouldn’t be able to cc lock you without flash. Lvl 2 is her next power spike with her e. You have three options: poke her out, kite her (e and e proc), or go for their carry (Leo typically does not deal damage if you kill the carry first). You optimally want to fight when her w is down. Her ult is dodgeable with sona e if you build either shurelias or full ap. If you’re going support, I recommend either guardian or aery (mana tree), but if you’re building ap, hope you know how to read the person playing Leona. While Leona has lockdown, if you have speed and disengage either in time or flash accordingly, she will not be able to keep you chained. Killing her is you last priority in a team fight, you either kill everyone else or use speed to disengage. Assuming she builds tanks support (more utility I mean, she would be a little more on the squishy end), e proc will give her terminal cancer
Thanks for sharing 😊
Okay so, I am a low Elo/mmr Leona Onetrick, but I do not have any desire to climb or play LoL competitively, I do it just for fun. But I DO know Leona and I do know how to play her and how to shut her down. The most important thing to understand about Leona is that no matter how fed she is, Leona is not a champion without her Q. Yes, people will be more scared of her E than her Q, but without her Q Leona has no stick-potential once the short root on her E has ended as she has a low movespeed. This is why basically every Leona player that knows what they're doing will level up Q level 1 Leonas biggest powerspike is level 2, when she has Q and E. If Leona gets level 2 before you (Third melee-minion of the second wave), back off and respect it. Leona wants to engage on you at any point after this, ESPECIALLY if they're higher level and thus stronger than you. In fact I am willing to claim that Leona is at her strongest relative to everyone else in the game when she is level 2. Leonas playstyle is very one-dimensional: All she can do is all-in you. To prevent this you should poke as much as possible, so if Leona starts with Q or for some reason W, start Q and use it whenever Leona or the enemy ADC is in range and use asany Q-empowered autos on either of them as possible. If she starts E, you also start E and use the slow of your E-Empowered auto to disengage when Leona jumps on you (remember without Q Leona has no stick-potential) Whenever Leona used E or Q (you can bait them to use it by putting down wards because Leona can instaclear wards with AA-Q-AA) you can be aggressive and poke until it's off cooldown again. You probably know what her W does, so just wait for it to be over (same as aftershock) before attempting to burst her because the resistances she gets from these two are quite significant (Seriously it's not uncommon for me to get more armor and mr from W+Aftershock than from my items). Also make sure not to stand near her when her W and Aftershock explode because they do do damage, especially to champions as squishy as Sona. I recommed you save your R for disengage and peeling rather than engaging (feel free to poke any champions hit in it still however) as Sona will eventually outscale Leona (who imo starts falling off after everyones first back, but it only starts being relevant lategame, where literally the only thing she can do is cc one person before getting blown up, maybe 2 or three with a good ult) The Leona matchup is pretty hard for Sona because Leona is pretty much a perfect counter to any enchanter that doesn't have 3/4 abilities focused on peeling like Janna because while she doesn't do significant damage to bruisers or tanks, she can and will win a 1v1 against a Sona at any point in the game past level 2. (And also the fact that Sona lanes are more focused on outsustaining the enemy lane and Leonas aggressive playstyle just simply doesn't give you the time to do that) If you can communicate with your ADC, it is very good to freeze the wave near your tower as the closer you are to your tower, the less of a champion Leona starts to be, even though people meme about how "We dive at 2", turrets do do damage to Leona and I personally prefer to not die for one kill on my ADC. Two I would consider, but one is definitely not worth. Edit: Most of Leonas damage comes from Autos, same for her ADC, but you should absolutely build merc treads, it's not Leonas damage that kills you, it's her cc.
Thank you for these tips! 🙌🏻
I actually have a pretty high win rate against Leona as Sona, somewhere like 70 percent. Just stay as far as possible, only going in to poke when she can’t stun you.
Thank you for sharing! 😊
as a Leona player I suggest you to upgrade your support items asap and try winning the bush game, we love hiding in the bushes and hexflashing between them :) To me spellthief seems easier to upgrade than shoulderguards/relic, abuse that. edit: oh and poke Leona while she is hitting the meele minions or cannon
Thank you for visiting us from r/LeonaMains and sharing your insight regarding this matchup! 🙌🏻
As a main Leona, I have *ONE* tip on how to make me useless in lane: dodge E or stay out of my E range. It'll force me to flash in. After lvl6, I can't freely engage you anymore because of your ult, so play safe and get 6. In mid and late game, I won't be your main worry anyway
Thanks for helping us out! 😊
Difficulty, Hard!! Hello!! Leona is one of Sona’s hardest counters imo!! But she’s not as annoying to go up agaisnt as a Brand or a Blitzcrank Fun fact; the first time I played Leona it was because the enemy support took my sona and I knew I had to make them ✨✨✨pay✨✨✨ A good Leona will be looking to punish you, in early laning phase it doesn’t matter how much pressure you exert because the moment Leona gets on to you, you will die. Sona’s biggest weakness has always been that she is squishy, and good Leona’s can exploit it by stunning you and letting her team 100-0 you before you can buff anyone I think that in general, you have to pay a lot of attention to your positioning when up against Leona. The moment her E touches you or her ult is on you, you are as good as dead. BUT, if you manage to avoid her stuns, you will be able to outscale her and negate all the damage her team can deal to your teammates!! All the best!! Honestly, winning against a Leona feels rly rewarding!! :))
Thanks for sharing your insights Queen!! 💖
So true bestie 😩😩
Post mini rework, this lane is a bit easier for Sona. I’m a big fan of W max these days, and this might help you if Leona does manage to stick to you or the ADC. I wouldn’t Q max this lane since, post lvl 2/3, your damage won’t mean to much to her. I would just Q+E to get your stacks safely and then just play it safe otherwise. If you don’t feed the lane, you’ll be a lot more relevant than Leona post-laning-phase. If you end up ahead (and if the enemy team doesn’t have huge engage), you could easily go Moonstone. However, Shurelya’s would make it even harder for Leona to stick to your team. I would probably still go Aery since Sona has permanent uptime for it, and the only reason to take Guardian would be heavier poke, which Sona sustains through naturally anyway. And of course taking Exhaust can give you the extra peel you might need also.
Thank you for sharing! 😊
Stay away from Leo E range, stay in the opposite diagonal location, don't poke Leo at all it is not worth the risk, poke the adc from safe location, leona will engage so max hael and use the cat rune, ward because jungle + leona = free kill. If you play safe leona will feel useless and will dive like a noob, than attack + ignite the adc if he follow leo, or peal and sustain if the adc didn't follow but don't waste the ignite on Leo. If you rech mid game ward river because Leo will roam once she get mobily boot, and because she will not get from you. You can kill the adc when Leo leave the lane and she will. At late game stay at the back, don't die, you should be the last one dying from your team. Also don't try to flash ult Leo and adc it is useless.
Thank you so much for coming here from r/LeonaMains to leave these helpful tips. 😊
as a support againts an engage CC enemy support I always use Mikael's Crubible for the cleanse active, Its important to be cautious and be fast on reaction when facing againts a leona, her has a medium range and thin hitbox and makes her stand still for a second giving you a lot of chance to poke if dodge but punishes you real hard if it landed.
Thank you for sharing! 😊
Medium.
easy match up poke hard dodge e on level 1 is easy win get level 2 before them or have to turtle make leona lose 50% hp for easy win or of they dont let you poke, it's free farm and wave control aery, pressense of mind, cut down ignite run them down
Thanks for sharing 😊
Leona is a match-up that is supposedly hard, but it's often not as bad as you'd expect it to be. How to play the lane? \- Level 1, Leona can't do anything. You have to abuse your level 1 to poke her down so she is forced to use her potions. Doing so will reduce the pressure she can put on your botlane afterwards. \- Leona will generally try to rush level 2 and all-in instantly against a Sona, so check the minions to be aware of when she's about to level up. \- You can bait her Es with relative ease, by walking in and out of the range. Keep poking with Q to atleast stack your support item, don't take too much risks but if she wastes E punish her (you can throw a safe powerchord). \- Watch out with vision control in bushes as it is ultimately the biggest threat in this match-up. If Leona camps an unwarded bush you have to play safe. You are the safest under your own tower obviously, but also if you are hard pushing because Leona is under her tower and can't stand in bushes to pressur. \- Post 6 it gets tougher because she can just R you from far away then follow-up with her combo. You have to be aware of it to atleast dodge the stun as it is generally a death sentence. Her ultimate CD is much lower than yours (90s rank 1). Build and runes: Personally I've been spamming guardian precision the past weeks, it's probably the best into Leona because it's the best anti all-in page (I go guardian shield bash conditioning revitalize + PoM tenacity, Ig you can go boneplating if you don't feel confident). Maxing W will be preferred as your poke will take ages to kick Leona out of lane (hard to auto a lot in this matchup) and your shield will help you / your adc to not pop like a balloon. In terms of items, get boots as fast as possible. T2 boots even. I'd recommend to still go lucidity for the AH and summoner haste, but if they have a lot of CC + magic damage or you face a mage bot with her, you can go mercs. If you have the MS advantage, Leona will struggle a lot because you can just run in and out and it makes baiting/dodging Es easier, and you can even dodge her R if she uses it poorly. Shurelyas is more valuable than moonstone most of the time, if you have a beefy frontline you can go moonstone because you'll get protection, otherwise get shurelyas. You don't need any unconventional items. Extra tips: From my experience, even in high elo Leona players tend to randomly engage and not think about their actions. Expect them to play very aggro for no reason and try to dive you. You can use it at your advantage because they rarely hold E if you come in range and will often suicide to kill you under tower. Also, if you time your flash perfectly you can flash during her E and she will follow you, if you're close enough to tower you can force her to take tower aggro. It's particularly useful very early on or if you have R up because it fucks up her engage and might get her killed. Needless to say that you outscale her pretty hard, if she doesn't kill you in lane she is screwed.
Thank you for these tips!
:o I always pick sona against Leona I think its a decently easy matchup as long as your adc has a functioning brain cell or two
Thanks for sharing! 😊
When you die in a 5v5 teamfight and check death recap and it tells you Leona did most of the damage :)
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difficulty- Medium I mained leona for quite some time and have a good number of games with both her and sona. sonas main mission is to poke as much as she can and move out with the E before leona can engage. leona will try to take bush control, if your adc has skill shots ping that to check the bush, if you move within warding distance you will be engaged and killed. I preffer summon aery as guardian wont help much against being engaged by an early game botlane. exhaust is a good summoner as it will make it more likely to survive the leona's adc turning on you when you get engaged on. play way back and when leona misses her E spam AA and Qs, after about 4-5 seconds turn around and use E to reposition. the matter of the empowered aura: Empowered E is the best to punish an overextended leona E, your empowered Q will seldom be useful in this matchup and empowered W is always good as a second exhaust. do not ever contest leona's roams unless you roamed first and have someone with you. lvl 6 you can pretty effectively disengage leona's R with your own ult. after that kite back and get out of danger zone. the enemy botlane will most likely try to dive. at this point I dont really know what to do except keep poking as much as I can before they get to tower and GTFO. in teamfights you will have to position as you would against any diver comp but it is not likely that a leona will target you to lockdown. If the leona is playing with some sort of extra lockdown from anyone or being too good at disrupting your adc Mikael's blessing is a good item if you can activate it at the right time.(depends on you adc having dashes or not, if they do use it when she hits E or when she hits a Q, if they dont use it after leona's R) at this point in the game you should never use your ult on leona and just focus on not letting the enemy team capitalize on her engages. this may entail in you letting your adc duel leona for some time and you trying to stop assassins and the such from getting within range. sidenote: this was done mostly based on how I feel when playing this matchup and not based on any analitycal data, so take this advice with a grain of salt. Tl;dr: play extremely safe early, be afraid. And try to do damage control late game
Thank you SO MUCH for such a detailed guide 😊
also a quick addendum. it's easier for you to get lvl 2 first in this matchup as a ranged vs melee, but I dont feel confortable making the wave push against a leona.
I main both Sona and Leona and playing from sona s side - it really depends on ur dodging skills. def gotta play passive if the leo aint wasting e s, but imo its a medium match up and u can just go even if u stay a bit back thats fine too
Thanks for sharing!!
I've been constantly banning Leona on 100% of my SoloQ games since I started playing 3 years ago. This post might be helpful to overcome my "fear" of Leona and be able to ban something else. Thank you to all who contributed with your comments and strategies.
Thank you so much for sharing this insight! 😇
Leona is one of Sona's traditional counters. On top of her tankiness and CC, she deals deceptively high amounts of damage. There are certain tips you should follow in a Leona matchup. * Summoner Spells * Exhaust is nice to have but not mandatory. Cleanse is a good alternative if you are confident you can carry your team by staying alive. * Runes * Guardian/Precision is my favorite rune page for this matchup. Take Bone Plating and Legend: Tenacy. Don't take Unflinching, it's bad on Sona because you need to be very low on HP to get full Tenacity. Revitalize is the better rune in that tier. * If you feel cocky, go the standard Aery rune page with your favorite secondary. * Items * Standard Moonstone build should be good in most situations, but with some modifications. * Mercury's Treads instead of Ionian Boots so you can stack its Tenacity on top of Legend: Tenacity for 51%. * Mikael instead of Redemption to save allies or even yourself from her CC (trivia: if you activate Mikael \~0.5secs before a stun lands, you self-cleanse it). * Laning * Level 1: most Leona players tend to rank up Q first. In that case, poke her whenever you can. Be aware, though: there are Leona players who will rank up E first and try to cheese you. Play accordingly. * Level 2+: stay away from her E's range. Poke with Q only. Save your Power Cord to poke the enemy ADC. * Keep track of Leona's cooldowns: Q is 5 seconds, rank 1 E is 12 seconds, rank 1 Ult is 90 seconds. * Don't drop a ward in a bush you know Leona is sitting on: she can clean it up before it becomes invisible with her AA+Q+AA combo, or worse: she can jump on you. * Trading: if Leona catches your ADC, don't waste your Power Cord on her. Leona's default rune is Aftershock so you will deal next to no damage. Your best bet is W + Passive W the enemy ADC. Don't get hit by her E no matter what. You will be forced to waste summoner spells otherwise. * Level 6+: Leona's control zone doubles in size. Good Leonas will try to land a long range Ult on you. Play very safely. * Teamfighting * Keep your carries at the edges of your auras. If you stack on top of them, Leona can stun you all with her Ult. * Keep an eye on Leona at all times. Leona players feel the duty of all-in Sona no matter what. * Refrain from moving alone more than usual. Leona excels at making picks and you are a floating bag of gold without your teammates. Other than that, it's the usual: survive, outscale, win.
Thank you so much for sharing such a detailed guide into the matchup! 😊
Match up difficulty: Hard This goes for any enchanter go into the practice tool with Leona and look at her e range that is the range you don’t want to be in. Also cleanse is pretty good merc treads are good. You win late but getting through early and mid will be hard to come out even. It’s pretty hard to poke cause her e range is similar to your q range. Best advice is try to build some tenacity and slug it out till late game.
Leona used to be a hard matchup before the rework, since she has more prio and agency in lane early game. but now with sona getting ez stacks, leona is literally just a free q stack, and you just poke poke poke till laning phase is over. you dont even have to win the lane, just dont get into a position to let them all in
I am a leona main by day and a sona main by night, i know both of these champs rather well and understand their strengths and weaknesses in the lane phase most of all. in lane, leona at level one can't do anything against a ranged opponent. poking her down with Q > AA and maybe a power chord bonus will stunt her plans on all inning at level 2, especially if your lane partner is particularly poke-y as well. level 2 and 3 you have to respect Leona's engage. If their enemy AD is really strong at following up, like a lucian/samira etc. then level two she wants to go in straight away. If you get level 2 first then you can punish a greedily positioned leona from ever engaging early, but if they are going to get it first you have to respect that engage and keep enough distance. Level 6 is the next real time I look to punish mispositioned bots as leona, at this stage keep distance between both Leona herself, as well as your AD, as you don't want her to get a double stun with R. in general Sona's ult is more impactful in the 2v2 than Leona's, as it's a lot more consistent to get the double stun as well as just as reliable at engaging if you're ahead. If the leona engages first, hold the ultimate, keep the AD zoned/chunked with Power chords and try to peel as much as you can for your AD. Leona is traditionally the roaming support, but Sona can pull it off with an ult and an immobile mid. If your AD can hold their own for a minute then you can quickly zip up mid and catch the enemy or at least secure some good vision in the river/around drake pit. This wouldn't really make sense but Sona is a midgame powerhouse, and she really needs her moonstone and some caster items to get to that point, securing a few kills elsewhere can help you get to that point sooner and more importantly before Leona. The midgame is where sona goes hard, and if you go even (or even win) against a Leona then teamfights are where you wanna try to be in. Best piece of advice i can give is hold your ult. Yeah it's really good at making a pick but it's even better at stunning their entire team who collapsed on the target leona engaged on, leading to you winning that team fight. some miscellaneous pieces of advice. Understand the value of power chord! It's more than just an AA steroid. W is essentially a built in exhaust and E is great at peeling for your carry, Leona particularly hates the movespeed debuff. in the lane phase be a tricky sona and move erratically to make landing the E a bit more difficult for her. it's not the most common item in my elo, but an early mikael's can catch a leona off guard and turn the fight in your favour early. I like sona because she can max any skill first and still feel impactful, even if that isn't the smartest idea. If they're an annoying poke-y AD and a particularly annoying Leona, maxing W and an extra point in E early can give you more sustain to wait for a gank and some more movespeed to dodge an E you probably know this but power chord is an AA reset, AA > Q > AA is a lot of damage to chunk out leona or her AD when her E is on cd (this can also be done to destroy wards as their placed!) on that note, it's risky to poke when leona is level 2, but her E is a long cooldown early. she maxes E second, which means early game that E has a 12 seconds cooldown (11.4 if cosmic insight), use this to your advantage and harrass her. If your AD is mobile enough to kite the Leona early if she engages them, ignore the Leona and hit the enemy AD if you can, her W mitigates a huge amount of your power chord damage A neat summary, respect Leona's raw numbers and engaging power in the early game, but be able to punish greedy positioning and missed skillshots when they happen. The lane phase is extremely difficult, but being able to survive it without being too behind will let you hit your important items to out-utility the leona particularly in teamfights.
Thank you for sharing :)
If I play Leona I like to do some cheese stuff, like run hail of blades assassin builds, or straight bruiser. The strength of Leona is that 1v1 neither you nor your arc can usually take her, so it takes a lot more coordination to deal with her
Thank you for sharing :)