Leona

Leona is the most violent engage support on the roster. Zenith Blade pulls her onto whoever it catches, Shield of Daybreak stuns on the next auto, and Solar Flare stuns again from most of a screen away. Chained together, that's more crowd control than any early-game carry survives.

Her Sunlight passive rewards coordination: every ability she lands marks the target, and it's your ally who detonates the damage. Leona on her own accomplishes very little. Leona with a carry who follows up is a death sentence. What she has no answer for is her own commitment, because she cannot leave. Engage with nobody behind you and you die in the middle of their team, which is the main way this champion loses games.

Her level two is the strongest in the mode. The moment you hold Zenith Blade and Shield of Daybreak, you can pin a target long enough for your carry to empty a full rotation into them. Eclipse hands you armor and magic resist during the entry, so you survive the return damage most supports would not. And your ultimate opens fights from range you don't even have to walk into.

The flaws are structural. No mobility outside the engage, no heal, no shield for anyone else. You don't protect, you attack. Your mana disappears if you throw abilities out for nothing. And an enemy composition holding a spell shield or a strong disengage neutralises your entire kit without spending a single item slot.

Don't look for a trade before level two. Put your first point in Shield of Daybreak to contest a minion or interrupt a cast, then wait for Eclipse or Zenith Blade. The real spike is holding two abilities: at that point walk up the side of the wave and fire Zenith Blade the instant the enemy carry commits to an auto attack animation, because they can no longer step aside.

Always chain in the same order: Zenith Blade to arrive, Eclipse raised to eat the return damage, Shield of Daybreak to extend the lockdown. Burn the stun on arrival and they simply walk out while you're on cooldown. And check where your carry is before every engage, because without her your passive never detonates and you've only donated your body.

Level two is your first genuine spike and it matters more than any item you will buy. Level six is the second: Solar Flare lets you open on the mid lane from the river, or cut off an escape after the first dragon. That's the moment a good Leona tilts three lanes at once.

After that your curve is a utility tank's, not a damage dealer's. Aegis and then Runic Bulwark change how the whole team survives, and Sunfire Cape makes simply standing on someone painful. Never build offensive power on her: your job at thirty minutes is to lock three targets down and stay upright while everyone else does the hitting.

You go in first, but not from anywhere. Look for the angle that puts you on the enemy carry without walking through their entire front line. Zenith Blade locks the last champion it hits, so don't fire it through a wall of minions and tanks if you're hunting a specific target.

Solar Flare is your best long-range opener, but only the centre stuns and the edge merely slows: lead the target's path, never aim at their feet. Once you're in the middle of them, stop trying to survive and start trading time. Every second you're alive should be a second one of them is locked down. A Leona who dies after stopping their initiator did the job she was picked for.