Leshrac/Guide

Hero

Strategy

Equipment

Gear

Gameplay[]

Playstyle
Leshrac is renowned as one of the strongest nukers in the game, who is capable of putting out tremendous amounts of area magical damage in order to destroy his foes. These nukes are strong at killing both heroes and creeps, making Leshrac a powerful foe in teamfights. Additionally, he can push down towers quickly with Diabolic Edict.
Pros	Cons
Great wave clearing. Good tower pushing with Diabolic Edict. Large amounts of area magical damage. Good movement speed. Low cooldown abilities.	Low strength and mediocre armor. Needs to be in the thick of the fight to deal damage. Poor cast animations. Spell immunity negates most of his damage.

Pusher/Carry[]

Prioritize Diabolic Edict for its massive damage against lone enemies and towers in the early game. Use this to pressure and claim all outer towers to establish map control and vision. Then, you can gank or farm constantly with Scythe of Vyse's mana regeneration. Later on, buy survivability items like Black King Bar or Shiva's Guard to stay alive and continue to radiate damage onto enemy heroes.

Support[]

Grab a teammate with reliable disables to follow with Split Earth, gaining some income and lane dominance so you have some space to stack, pull, or help other lanes. You should probably max Diabolic Edict to help with pushes. Choose to put some points in Lightning Storm for slow and damage or just Split Earth for larger stun radius and damage. Additionally, you can forgo Pulse Nova as the ability requires too much mana to deal damage. Acquire small and efficient items like Infused Raindrops, support items like Glimmer Cape, and set up items like Eul's Scepter of Divinity to help teammates.

Ability Builds[]

Generic Leshrac
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	20	25

Talents[]

Hero Talents
+25 Diabolic Edict Explosions	25	Pulse Nova triggers Lightning Storm
+35 Pulse Nova Damage	20	+20% Damage Reduction during Pulse Nova
+10% Movement Speed during Pulse Nova	15	+100 Lightning Storm Damage
+40 Split Earth Radius	10	+1.5 Mana Regen

Tips & Tactics[]

General[]

One of Leshrac's greatest weaknesses is his long cast animations. In order to counteract this, good positioning and prediction are key, as Leshrac must stand still for an extended period of time before the spells takes effects.
While Leshrac has tremendous nuking power, much of it is damage over time, requiring him to survive long enough to cast multiple iterations. As such, not only is a large mana pool required in order to sustain such casting, but also enough survivability to avoid dying to the enemy while casting.
Mind that because the vast majority of Leshrac's damage output is magical damage, he can be easily countered by spell immunity, and his frailty allows enemies to use his damage against him via Blade Mail. If Leshrac is to be effective in teamfights, he must focus on disabling enemies to prevent them from activating spell immunity, and build spell immunity himself both to increase his survivability and block Blade Mail damage.
Leshrac can usually be played as a core or a support.
- Played as a support, Leshrac has powerful disables that can greatly aid his team in fights, and can deal tremendous damage to enemy towers as well. His nuking spells also allow him to obtain gold fairly reliably for buying more support items. A support Leshrac should focus on purchasing utility items to aid his team in fights.
- Played as a core, Leshrac has tremendous pushing and nuking power that can allow him to deal large amounts of damage in teamfights, or push lanes and take towers by himself. Once he has enough mana, he can use his nuking spells to farm very effectively as well. Core Leshrac should aim to build items that enhance his survivability and casting, as he must stay alive in order to put out the damage to kill enemies, and requires steady mana regeneration in order to fuel his costly and low-cooldown spells.
All of Leshrac's spells have differing priorities to max out depending on his farm priority, team lineup and expected opposition. There is no one-size-fits-all build, as certain abilities may greatly synergize with those of allies, cover for their weaknesses, or exploit a flaw in the enemy's lineup.
Diabolic Edict and Pulse Nova will continue to run under the Cyclone of Eul's Scepter of Divinity, allowing him to deal damage while invulnerable.
Build mobility items to keep Leshrac running and dealing damage with Diabolic Edict and Pulse Nova.
Use Lightning Storm and Pulse Nova to soften up the creep waves, then use Split Earth to grab all the last hits for it deals the most damage in an instance.

Abilities[]

Split Earth[]

Split Earth is a ground-targeted spell that stuns enemies within its radius while dealing damage.
Split Earth will stun any targets it hits for 2 seconds, no matter how many levels were put into the spell. Therefore, it should be leveled up if you need the wider radius to make hitting the spell easier, or the increased damage.
Remember that the stun's effect occurs 0.35 seconds after the cast animation, so it will stun and damage roughly one second after Leshrac is commanded to cast the spell. If an enemy is watching your cast animations to predict when the stun will land, they can dodge its effects with certain spells (such as Phase Shift or Blade Fury). Therefore, if landing the stun without a leading disable, it can be useful to cancel the animation mid-way to fake out tricky opponents.
When using Split Earth as a support, it is best to only put one point into it early on and have a teammate lead with a reliable targeted disable first, preferably a stun or root. Once an enemy has been immobilized, they cannot move to avoid Split Earth and its long cast animation and small effect radius do not matter. This way, you can chain-disable an opponent and spend your skill points on your other nuking abilities.
Use Split Earth against Roshan for guaranteed stun as it will not trigger Spell Block.

Diabolic Edict[]

Diabolic Edict causes pure damage explosions to surround Leshrac once cast, targeting any enemies near Leshrac and following him as he moves.
Diabolic Edict deals tremendous amounts of damage if all the explosions land on a single target. It is best used after other enemy targets in the area, especially creeps, have been cleared away by your other spells, in order to make the most of its damage.
Diabolic Edict can deal damage to buildings. Max the ability first if Leshrac wants to push.
Leshrac may want keep Diabolic Edict in reserve when pushing a tower, as the enemy may use Glyph of Fortification in response. Therefore, Leshrac should keep track of the enemy glyph usage to deal the most damage with Diabolic Edict.
The explosions follow Leshrac, and are focused on a radius around him, so even if there are enemy creeps near a tower it is possible to re-position Leshrac so that the tower is within the spell's radius but the enemy creeps are not. This also allows Leshrac to chase enemy heroes with the spell after casting it, as they will automatically hit any enemies that he is walking next to.
The explosions will still home in on invisible units if they are within the radius of the spell, and as such can be used as a weak form of detection. This means that Edict can be used as a counter against abilities such as Cloak and Dagger, Shadow Walk, Meld, and so on.

Lightning Storm[]

Lightning Storm is a low-cooldown unit-targeted spell that damages and slows its target, then jumps to other nearby enemies. As such, it is a great spell to pop Linken's Sphere, although only the first bolt pops it.
Lightning Storm is a strong farming and wave-clearing spell, as its low cooldown and area targeted nature allows Leshrac to deal large amounts of magical damage in a short amount of time.
Clear creep waves with Lightning Storm so Diabolic Edict can focus down towers alone.
Use Lightning Storm on creeps, allowing it to bounce to enemy heroes and harass them effectively early game.
Lightning Storm has a huge cast animation that will often result in the enemies running out of range of Diabolic Edict or your Pulse Nova before you catch-up with them again. Consider Aghanim's Scepter to alleviate the problem of having to stop and use Lightning Storm.
Use Lightning Storm to slow an enemy target, making it easier to aim Split Earth.

Pulse Nova[]

Pulse Nova deals tremendous amounts of damage to all nearby enemies, and is a toggled spell that does not require a cast animation. It is a powerful spell to use when chasing or fleeing, especially alongside Diabolic Edict, as it can remain active while moving, allowing Leshrac to run down foes or discourage them from chasing him.
Keep in mind, Pulse Nova requires Leshrac to stand fairly close to the targets he wishes to damage. If you intend on using Pulse Nova in team fights, do purchase survivability items for Leshrac to survive.
Note that since Pulse Nova can be toggled, it can also be used as a farming spell by turning it on while farming creep waves or jungle camps, adding to your nuking power.
Since the first damage instance is dealt immediately upon toggling the spell on, the damage per second of Pulse Nova can be increased by constantly toggling it off then on after every two damage instances. However, the cost of this tactic is a significantly higher mana cost due to incurring the toggle cost multiple times, so ensure that Leshrac's mana pool is sufficient to support it.

Nihilism[]

Nihilism makes Leshrac and all nearby enemy units turn ethereal, alleviating Leshrac's vulnerability to the enemy's physical damage while also letting Leshrac or his allies deal more magic damage. It also slows down enemies' movement speed while Leshrac's movement speed is increased. Overall, it is a very useful ability that helps Leshrac keep up with his enemies and hit them harder with his abilities.
Bear in mind that Nihilism can be dispelled off of Leshrac, thereby cancelling the entire aura.

Items[]

Starting items:

Tango sustains health to stay in lane.

Healing Salve restores large amount of health.

Clarity restores mana. In the early game, having mana to use Split Earth more frequently can help with setting up kills for your team. Later on, the item keeps his mana up so he can spend more time on the map as opposed to the fountain.

Observer Ward establishes vision of enemy movements, saving your team from getting ganked or planning your own.

Null Talisman gives intelligence to use abilities as well as some damage to last hit.

Early game:

Magic Wand provides attributes and increased charge storage for more burst restoration.

Bottle helps with sustain and storing runes for the right occasions.

Arcane Boots sustains mana to Leshrac and teammates, which is very valuable for offsetting his huge mana consumption.

Mid game:

Eul's Scepter of Divinity disables an enemy to land Split Earth, while the increased mana pool and mana regeneration allow for more sustained abilities usage. The additional movement speed also helps when chasing with Diabolic Edict and Pulse Nova.
Kaya helps sustain Leshrac's massive mana usage while also improving his damage output.
Black King Bar grants strength and debuff immunity, enabling Leshrac to run rampant through the enemy ranks without fear of disables and magical bursts.

Late game:

Bloodstone greatly improves Leshrac's staying power with spell lifesteal and Bloodpact. The AOE bonus is exceptionally valuable as well since all of his abilities benefit from it.

Shiva's Guard enhances Leshrac's survivability and damage output with Arctic Blast and an armor bonus, preventing enemies from fleeing while making his spells more damaging.

Boots of Travel allow Leshrac to teleport globally to join ganks and pushes. Furthermore, the enhanced movement speed lets Leshrac chase down almost any enemy target.

Octarine Core improves Leshrac's health, mana and mana regeneration while letting him use abilities more frequently.

Situational items:

Phylactery gives cheap stats and an extra low cool-down nuke that can be used to land combo Lightning Storm into Split Earth.

Blink Dagger grants exceptional positioning for surprise Split Earth, also useful to keep up with targets of Diabolic Edict and Pulse Nova.

Rod of Atos gives HP, intelligence and a root to set up Split Earth at long range.

Lotus Orb bolsters defense with armor, regeneration, and Echo Shell that reflects spells back to enemies.

Linken's Sphere gives attributes, regeneration, and spellblock that protects against unit-targeted abilities occasionally.

Scythe of Vyse grants attributes, intelligence, and mana regeneration to let Leshrac use more abilities. The active Hex disables a dangerous target and set up for Split Earth.