Introduction
“I come to tip the balance!”
Leshrac is a ranged intelligence hero who is typically played as a support pusher. Although he has sometimes been picked competitively in a core role, this is almost unheard of in public matchmaking.
Leshrac's complete character profile can be found here.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Melts through towers incredibly quickly
- High burst magic damage
- Has a stun and a slow
- Can transition into a core
- High base movespeed
- Good creep clearance capability
Cons
- Stun is difficult to land
- Very squishy
- No escape mechanism
- Mana problems
Item Build
As Leshrac is almost always played as a support hero this guide will focus on support Leshrac.
Starting Items
As a support hero it’s your job to ensure that the Courier and/or Observer Wards are bought at the start of the game. Usually these duties will be split between yourself and another hero on your team, but you can’t always guarantee this in public games. If no one else ponies up the gold for one then you should bite the bullet and buy both for your team.
Good starting items if there’s another support on your team:
Courier or Observer Wards, a Set of Tangos, a Healing Salve, 3x Iron Branches, Clarity.
And if you’re forced to solo support:
Courier, Observer Wards, a set of Tangos, a Healing Salve, and an Iron Branch.
Early Game
Ensure that the Courier is upgraded into a Flying Courier when it comes off cooldown at the 3 minute mark. Also ensure that Observer Wards are always purchased when they’re off cooldown.
Get your Boots of Speed up and running as quickly as possible to help reduce your vulnerability to ganks, then upgrade any Iron Branches you have into a Magic Wand, and then get to work on your core. At this stage you may wish to invest in a Bracer, in order to get some early stats and tankability, but this is entirely optional/situational.
Core
Arcane Boots are a no-brainer on Leshrac; they allow you to use his abilities much more liberally, all of which are actives with fairly high mana costs and low cooldowns. They also make for a great team utility item, as they allow you to give a quick burst of mana to your nearby teammates.
Luxury Items
Luxury items for Leshrac can be neatly divided into those which augment his supportive/utility role, and those which are more selfish pick-ups that are oriented towards transitioning him into a core:
Supportive/Utility
Mekanism - If there are no more viable Mekanism carriers on your team that will get it up much faster than you (such as a mid-Viper, or a jungle Chen), then Mekanism should be your go-to luxury/core item – it’s absolutely necessary for your team and as a support hero you’re a decent candidate to purchase it. Be sure to check with your team to see if anyone else intends to build one before you get started on it though; if someone else does intend to build it then you can move straight onto a luxury item pick-up.
Drums of Endurance – Drums of Endurance are a great option because they give your team bonus attack speed and move speed auras, whilst at the same time giving you plenty of stats and being easy to build into (since the components are so cheap you can buy them up whenever you have the spare unreliable gold, meaning you won’t lose much gold when you die). You may also have a Bracer from the early game as well, making Drums a natural extension to your inventory.
Heaven’s Halberd – A fantastic anti-carry item, thanks to the ability to disarm an enemy core for 3.0-4.5 seconds, Halberd will also give you a much-welcome chunk of health an evasion, making you a lot less fragile.
Veil of Discord – Veil gives decent all-round stats - +6 all stats, +6 health regeneration, +6 damage, and +6 armour, but the main reason it’s purchased is for its active, Magic Weakness. Magic Weakness increases the magic damage taken by an enemy caught within its 600 unit radius by 25%, which augments your abilities superbly as they all do burst magic damage.
It lasts for a lengthy 25 seconds, making it a great active for teamfights, and won’t just buff your own magic damage output either - it will also increase the potency of any other magic damage spells your teammates cast on affected enemies in that time frame too.
Rod of Atos – Huge chunks of health and mana, and an active that slows an enemy by 60% for 4 seconds (especially useful if your team is ahead but the other team is attempting to avoid direct engagements). I'm actually a fan of Atos and its pseudo-disable, but most people are not. If you like it, you can get it on Leshrac as a luxury pick-up.
Eul’s Scepter of Divinity – The active is good for taking an enemy carry out of the fight for a couple of seconds. In that respect it’s sometimes referred to as a poor man’s Scythe of Vyse, the downside being that the hero selected cannot be attacked. Nonetheless, it’s useful for buying your team time. The other downside is that whilst a Scythe use is universally beneficial, Eul’s can sometimes be disadvantageous to your team, perhaps saving an enemy when they would otherwise have died, or trapping an allied hero who would otherwise have escaped. If you’re not confident in your decision making abilities in the heat of battle then don’t go for Eul’s (and for the love of the RNG Gods don’t Eul’s an enemy that you’ve just cast your ultimate on).
The other upsides of Eul’s are the fantastic mana regeneration and the burst +40 move speed – both fantastic buffs for a mana hungry and quite squishy hero such as Shadow Demon.
Greedier Semi-Carry Focus
Bloodstone – If you really want to focus on tanking up then Bloodstone is the best option. +500 health, +400 mana, and a lot of regeneration. The reason I would recommend it over Heart of Tarrasque on Leshrac is for the mana and mana regeneration, which is critical because all of his abilities, and especially his ultimate, are really mana-hungry ability. His ultimate costs 110 mana per second but is an ability that you’ll want to use constantly during teamfights if you’re able to do so – Bloodstone allows you do to this.
Aghanim’s Scepter – +200 health, +100 mana, and +10 all stats are all fantastic to have on such a squishy hero like Leshrac that really needs all the stat gain he can get, but the buff to your ultimate is what makes it a good luxury option, increasing the damage from Pulse Nova from 80/120/160 per second to 100/160/220 per second.
Scythe of Vyse – You're unlikely to be rich enough to ever afford it, and if you are the game is likely already won anyway, but if the game is really stretching out it can potentially be a decisive item to get. 3.5 seconds of lockdown on a key enemy hero is the reason Scythe is considered one of the most powerful items in the game.
Black King Bar – If you find you’re being shut down in teamfights and unable to get off your abilities, especially Pulse Nova, then you’ll need the Spell Immunity from BKB to be able to make an effective contribution to teamfights – you’ll also get some decent health out of it.
Shiva’s Guard – A great late-late game item. By this stage you’re likely 4 or 5 slotted, and so it becomes a contender for your last couple of item slots. The armour will go a good way to making you incredibly tanky, while the aura is great to have for your team. You also gain a nice chunk of intelligence (always helpful for Leshrac; both as a way to increase damage and maintain your mana pool). You can also use the Arctic Blast AoE nuke to damage and slow enemies in teamfights.
Situational Items
Sentry Wards, Dust of Appearance, Gem of True Sight – all-important detection. You’ll need at least one of these in your inventory if the enemy line-up features an invis hero. Sentry Wards will also allow you to deward rune spots, and Gem will give you superior vision going into the mid and late game.
Smoke of Deceit – If you roam with another support in the early stages of the game a Smoke will allow you to do so more quickly and without being spotted by enemy wards. Smoke will also come in handy in the post-laning phase if your team wants to gank as 5.
Boots of Travel – When you are at that stage of the game when you’re becoming 6 slotted, swap out your initial set of boots for Boots of Travel. It frees up a slot you would otherwise have reserved for a TP Scroll and makes you much less susceptible to split-push.
Ghost Scepter - The go-to luxury pick-up if you find the enemy team is able to bring you down quickly with physical damage (typically in the form of right-clicks). Most often this will be the enemy carry taking you out of the fight quickly with a few auto-attacks. Ghost Scepter will buy you a clutch 4 seconds of physical immunity, which gives you time to create distance between yourself and the enemy carry or at the very least buys your team 4 seconds of distraction time.
Necronomicon – Great if you’re part of a pushing line-up or your team is struggling to break the base. Also a great item for teamfights and for countering any invis enemy heroes. Useful stat gain as well.
Pipe of Insight – If you didn't buy the team's Mekanism earlier on then consider getting a Pipe as a luxury item for your team. If you did buy the Mekanism then it's very risky getting Pipe as well - it's inadvisable to have both on one hero, doubly so when that hero is a squishy support hero like Leshrac.
Skill Build
Split Earth is Leshrac’s stun. It is always skilled first and usually maxed first too. Split Earth stuns enemy units in a 150/175/200/225 unit radius for 2 seconds and deals 120/180/240/300 magic damage to each unit hit. The way the stun radius and damage output both scale with levels is the primary reason it is maxed first ahead of Leshrac’s other abilities.
While it sounds extremely powerful on paper – and indeed it is, especially if you manage to hit more than 1 enemy hero with it – Split Earth comes with a significant downside: not only is Leshrac’s cast time fairly slow, Split Earth also has an in-built 0.35 seconds delay after casting, which can make it quite tricky to land.
Diabolic Edict is an AoE physical damage ability. It is usually skilled last, but maxed second. Diabolic Edit deals 9/18/27/36 physical damage per ‘explosion’ in a 500 unit radius around Leshrac. In total 41 ‘explosions’ take place over a 10 second period, with the explosions being divided equally amongst enemy units within the 500 unit radius.
Diabolic Edit thus deals significantly more damage the fewer enemy units there are nearby.
Note, also, that Diabolic Edict works on buildings and spell immune targets, and continues for the full duration even if Leshrac himself dies.
Lightning Storm is a magic damage nuke which also slows multiple targets. It is usually skilled second for the slow but maxed last. Lightning Storm deals 80/140/200/260 magic damage to a targeted unit and slows them by 75% for 0.75 seconds.
It then jumps to another target if there is one within 650 units of the initial target where it again deals magic damage and slows. It can jump a total of 4/5/6/7 times.
Pulse Nova is Leshrac’s ultimate. It is usually not skilled until around level 13 of thereabouts but is then always skilled (so levels 13, 14 and 16 is fairly typical). It deals burst magic damage in a 450 unit radius around Leshrac, dealing 100/130/160 magic damage per second to any enemy units within the AoE.
The reason Pulse Nova is not skilled early on, like most ultimates in the game, is that Leshrac lacks the mana pool and mana regeneration to sustain its 20/40/60 mana per second cost on top of the initial 70/90/110 mana cost. It is not viable to spam Pulse Nova as well as use his other abilities (all of which are fairly spammable and have high mana costs) until he has the items and levels necessary to support it. On a support Leshrac this is never likely to happen prior to the end of the mid-game.
Gameplay Tips
The slight cast delay of 0.35 seconds on Split Earth, on top of Leshrac’s own slow cast point, can make Split Earth hard to land, especially for new players. Take time to practice using the ability, and try to anticipate enemy hero movements so that you aim it slightly ahead of their expected direction of travel.
| Tip: Split Earth is the only ability of Leshrac’s that can destroy trees. If an enemy if attempting to juke through the trees or you feel they may be trying to teleport to safety after entering a tree line, you can use Split Earth to clear a small area of trees and (hopefully) stun the enemy who is attempting to teleport. |
Diabolic Edict is incredibly powerful against lone enemies. Not many enemy heroes can tank a full duration Diabolic Edict on their own early on; if you find an enemy on their own and not near a creep wave or jungle camp, immediately use Diabolic Edict and try to stay within 500 units of them.
For that reason, as well as its incredible pushing potential, Diabolic Edict should be maxed early on. Because it works on enemy towers it becomes a great way to quickly melt enemy towers – simply clear the enemy creep wave and then cast Diabolic Edict whilst your own creeps tank the tower. That concentrated physical damage really burns away at tower health.
| Tip: Because the Edict’s explosions only take affect within a 500 unit radius of Leshrac, you can potentially isolate a single target or structure even if there are other enemy units nearby. This is harder to do against enemy heroes, but against towers it is pretty easy to do – simply position yourself so that the tower is fairly close to Leshrac but the enemy creeps are just outside of the ability’s range. The tower will then take full damage. |
Note that Diabolic Edict is the only ability of Leshrac’s that does not deal magic damage. Instead, it deals what is called physical damage. Physical damage goes through spell immunity (unlike magic damage) and damage block, but is reduced by magic resistance and armour. Thus if an enemy if spell immune only Leshrac’s Diabolic Edict and right clicks will prove effective, not his other abilities.
Lightning Storm is another great pushing ability. While Diabolic Edict is effective at dealing damage to structures, Lightning Storm is a great way of dealing nuke damage to creep waves and quickly clearing them, as the magic damage will jump to all of the enemy team’s creeps.
Lightning Storm is also good for anti-push purposes. It has an 800 unit range – the longest from Leshrac’s abilities – meaning it can be cast further than Leshrac’s own auto-attacks can. You can use it on incoming creep waves to burst them down. If the enemy team is also right behind the creep wave they will take the damage from it too.
The slow effect is a fairly recent change to the ability. It does not last very long – a mere 0.75 seconds – but its reduction percentage is notable at 75%, and it can be just enough to allow your team to catch up with the enemy and kill them off.
Pulse Nova will clear creep waves and jungle camps extremely quickly, but it also costs a heck of a lot of mana in the process – 20/40/60 per second on top of an initial 70/90/110 mana, so only use it to clear creeps if you have a strong source of mana regeneration, such as a Bloodstone.
Early on, if you choose to skill it, save Pulse Nova (and your mana) for teamfights. Once you’ve used your other abilities you can use Pulse Nova somewhat freely to deal high burst magic damage if you’re being engaged upon by enemy heroes. Typically, though, you’ll want to hang back and use your other abilities, as Leshrac is extremely squishy without items.
Last Updated - Patch 6.83.
