Hero Guide: Leshrac

In my experience, Leshrac can be played as a Utility hero (high farm priority, but not the highest; Chinese #2 position), or a Support (generally roaming/ganking, or trilane).

Personally, I don't like playing him unless I can have some farm, so my personal guide is focused around that.

Hero

Traits

• Pretty fast (315 Base Move Speed)
• Good attack animation (easier to last hit with than some heroes)
• Very Squishy
• Lots of AoE Damage
• Some Crowd Control
• OK Stat gains

Skills

• (1 - W) Split Earth
• Traits
• Stun for 2.0 seconds (all levels)
• Radius of 150 / 175 / 200 / 225
• Range of 750
• Magic Damage of 120 / 180 / 240 / 300
• Cooldown of 9 seconds, Mana Cost of 100 / 125 / 140 / 160
• Notes
• Awkward 0.35 second delay
• Destroys trees
• Gets easier to hit with each level
• Stun time does not change
• Uses 
• Stun (must be able to predict to some extent - using choke points helps e.g. ramps)
• Helps find juking enemies via tree destruction
• Cast on Nature's Prophet's Sprout (tree circle) to get rid of them early
• (2 - W) Diabolic Edict
• Traits
•  32 "explosions" dealing 12.5 / 25 / 37.5 / 50 Composite Damage
• Deals total of 400 / 800 / 1200 / 1600 Damage
• 32 Explosions over 8 seconds = 1 every 0.25 second
• Composite Damage (AKA "Mixed Damage") gets reduced by Armor, Magic Resistance, and Damage Block, but is not stopped by Magic Immunity (e.g. BKB). Ethereal units won't be affected.
• Edict, however, is not affected by Damage Block (e.g. Vanguard)
• Duration of 8 Seconds
• Radius of 500
• Cooldown of 22 seconds, Mana Cost of 95 / 120 /135 / 155
• Notes
• Damages Structures
• Unlike other Composite Damage spells, Edict is not reduced by damage block
• Continues after death
• Damages invisible heroes
• Hits random viable target within AoE (i.e. if there is only 1, then it will only hit that)
• Uses
• Pushing Towers
• Owning people that are dumb enough to follow you 1v1 into the jungle (or otherwise area devoid of other targets for Edict to hit)
• Because it hits invisible units, you can "guesstimate" where a Riki/Gondar/Etc. is
• (3 - E) Lightning Storm
• Traits
•  80 / 145 / 205 / 265 Magic Damage
• Jumps 4 / 6 / 7 / 8 times
• 700 Range, 650 Jump Range
• Cooldown of 5.5 seconds, Mana Cost of 100 / 115 / 130 / 145
• Notes
• Deals same amount of damage to each target
• Cast range is longer than your auto-attack range
• Blocked by Linkens
• Totally blocked if first target has Linkens
• Otherwise, does not deal damage to Linkens target, but continues to jump
• If gets max amounts of jumps, deals 400 /  1015 / 1640 / 2385 total damage
• Uses
• Last hitting in a dangerous lane/position
• Harassing in a dangerous lane/position
• Hitting a Hero too far normally, but hit-able via jumps
• (I think) getting vision uphill by jumping (if target is up there)
• (4 - R) Pulse Nova
• Traits
• Magic Damage of 66 / 100 / 144 DPS in an AoE
• 88 / 133 / 177 with Aghanim's
• AoE of 450 around Leshrac
• 110 Initial Mana Cost, 20 / 40 / 60 Mana Per Second
• No Cooldown
• Notes
• Will not damage if Leshrac is invisible
• Uses
• Team fights / DPS
• Clearing Waves / Farming

Build

Skills

There are a ton of ways to build Leshrac. Many of them focus on taking your ult late. This is because in early game, you lack mana, and your ult take a lot. Much of the time, it's better to max out your other spells that can do a lot of damage for less mana, take down towers, etc.

• General: (1) Stun / (2) Edict / (3) Edict / (4) Stun / (5) Edict / (6)Stun / (7) Edict / (8) Stun / (9) Ult
• This basically makes you good at pushing, good at landing stuns, and then goes into your Ult
• Some people will opt to not get Lighning at all (i.e. get Ult/Stats, Lighning from lvl. 21-25)

•  Difficult Lane / Suicide Lane: (1) Stun / (2) Edict / (3) Lightning / (4) Edict / (5) Lightning / Max Lightning/Edict
• This allows you to farm safely from far back
• Must be good at hitting stuns (note: stun is always 2 seconds, it's the AoE and Damage that increase)
• Getting Edict makes you hard to dive/chase, plus you can push the tower when they're not looking

• My Old Build: Max Stun / Edict, then Lightning, then Ult
• Reason was that you can push with lightning similarly to how you'd push with your Ult
• Lightning is pretty cheap and has a low cooldown
• Your ult takes a shit load of mana and regen to be maximally effective

Items

Starting:

• Wards / Courier
• 1 x Tangos
• 1 x Salve
• 2 x Clarity Potions
• 2-3 x Iron Branches

Early:

• Phase Boots - help you move around for ganks, escape, keep on targets while using edict/ult
• Magic Wand
• Perseverance -  I build Lesh as a Bloodstone carry, so you want this for the regen

Core:

• Bloodstone - Regen/HP

Situational/Luxury:

• Boots of Travel - at some point late game, you should swap your Phase Boots and get these. They help you push quickly after a successful team fight or gank, frees up a slot so you don't have to carry around TPs, and just generally make you a pushing niusance.
• Sheep Stick
• Eul's - More speed, great active, tons of mana regen
• Aghanim' - more DPS, HP, Mana, and Stats, but countered by Magic Immunity
• Shiva's Guard - Armor that you need, INT that you love, and an active that makes chasing easier, an aura that helps your team, generally pretty good
• Pipe - good team support item
• Necronomicon - good for pushing, revealing invis units, chasing, etc.
• BKB - pretty obvious
• Force Staff / Blink - additional mobility (or support)
• Orchid - locking down blinkers, good INT, mana regen, etc.
• Assault Curiass - doesn't help you exactly, but helps your pushes and team
• Veil of Discord - You do a lot of magic damage, this reduces magic resistance

Some people support with Lesh. In that case you'd opt more for:

• Mekanism
• Force Staff
• Pipe
• Ring of Basilius (mana regen in lane, armor, pushing)
• Drum of Endurance
• Medallion of Courage (this can work if you gank)
• Power Treads can be viable if you're dying a lot and need the extra HP (remember, you're already faster than most heroes by default)

The Support options also work well if you're not doing super well in early game with Leshrac. Drum is a great item. Ring of Basilius is easy to build and helpful.

Playstyle

Leshrac is an aggressive push hero (in my playstyle). His strengths are:

• Roaming the Jungle - he has a stun, and Edict owns pretty much anyone 1v1 early-mid game
• Pushing Towers - Edict owns them
• Ganking - he has a powerful stun/nuke, 2 second stun at all levels

Generalities:

• Want to fight heroes outside of the lane (e.g. lure them into the jungle) because Edict is so powerful 1v1
• His stun is best used as a follow up stun (i.e. pair him with a reliable stunner like Sand King, Vengeful Spirit)
• Leshrac snowballs
• Don't get Bloodstone if you're not doing well
• Push towers early for that delicious bonus gold
• Remember, use your positioning so that the explosions only hit the tower

•  You are a very good farmer
• Take lanes that aren't being farmed
• Stack the jungle and use your ult to farm it
• In a risky situation, get Edict going because it continues after your death --> bonus kills from people that don't understand Leshrac

A lot of people would disagree, but I say he's a decent Suicide Lane hero:

• Use Lighning to get farm and harass (it has a low cooldown, bounces around, deals decent damage, and is pretty cheap)
• Have a level of stun for certain situations
• You don't have an escape, but you have Edict which makes you hard to chase and dive
• You have to be careful because getting caught out of position will lead to your death (especially if you get perma stunned)

Always have TP Scrolls so you can:

• Take untapped farm
• Push lanes and get towers
• Counter Gank

That said, Leshrac is one of my favorite heroes. He's gained a lot of spotlight in the scene recently and isn't always banned. He's pretty versatile and adaptable (e.g. he can play Support, Pusher, Utility, and Bloodstone Carry). I think he's a ton of fun with a really interesting skillset. While this guide is mostly for myself, I hope others find it useful and leads to better games.