A short foreword

Welcome to my guide for Leshrac.
A lot of people don't pick Lesh at all, amny think that it sucks.
They are, however, gravely wrong.

Leshrac the Malicious

16 + 1.5

23 + 1.7

26 + 3

Affiliation: Neutral
Attack Animation: 0.4 / 0.77
Damage: 45 - 49
Casting Animation: 0.7 / 0.8
Armor: 3.3
Base Attack Time: 1.7
Movespeed: 310
Missile Speed: 900
Attack Range: 600
Sight Range: 1800 / 900

As we can see, Lesh has a nice int gain.
His base damage is something horrible, but his
attack animation is at least good enough for some lasthits.
His base armor is okay and his casting animation is mediocre.
Leshrac has a poor str gain, which is a problem for him,
as 2 of his skills require him to stay very close to the enemy.
His agi gain is not that great either. His movement speed is
a bit over the median.

Summary of Lesh

+ A great pusher
+ Good at eliminating farmers early
+ Has a stun
+ AOE
+ Assault panzer in ganks
- Bad stat gain for the hero's role
- A common target
- No scaling skills
- Needs a lot mana

Skills

Split Earth

The ever notorious stun of Lesh.
With this you move close to the enemy and
unleash your seething rage barrage.
Some say it is hard to land, but it is actually
pretty easy to land. Easier than Torrents or Sunstrikes.

Diabolic Edict

This skill ensures you victory in 1v1 early game.
It gets pretty weak lategame, but should still be used
to make your ulti more useful. It hits buildings, which
is pure awesome. Lesh can pretty much solo a tower
with a few creeps to eat the tower ammo in a couple of seconds.
Also awesome when taking raxes, since it damages both.

Lightning Storm

A farming/harassing spell.
Shoots some bolts down from the skies to hit
multiple enemies. It is Chain Lightning, really.
Highly spammable.

Pulse Nova

Your ultimate to unleash some quick damage on multiple foes.
Eats a lot of mana however,
so do not forget to turn it off.

Skill build

1. Split Earth
2. Diabolic Edict
3. Diabolic Edict
4. Split Earth
5. Diabolic Edict
6. Split Earth
7. Diabolic Edict
8. Split Earth
9. Pulse Nova
10. Stats
11. Pulse Nova
12. Stats
13. Stats
14. Stats
15. Stats
16. Pulse Nova
17. Stats
18. Stats
19. Stats
20. Stats
21. Stats
22-25. The rest.

Start with getting a level of your stun, since it is the
only worthy spell at start when thinking of getting
First Blood or preventing of such. Max Diabolic Edict asap
to get towers and early kills with chasing down enemies after stunning.
Even if you die, Diabolic Edict won't go off. I've many times died
and managed to kill an escaping invisible enemy Clinkz after dying.
We will skip that lightning thing, since it honestly
is a useless skill when you play the game right and later
on becomes completely obsolete. Granted, it is ranged, but Leshrac
needs to be in the middle of the fight, not hiding behind some tree
and shooting led. Stats are vital for your
survival as a melee mage firstly because you need hp to
stay at close range and secondly to use your spells.

Early game

Starting items

Start with these items.
The gauntlets give you some hp to survive on your lane.
GG branches give cheap stats and should be taken.
Healing is a no-brainer.

Pick a lane.

I suggest you do not take the solo if there is someone
else who could use some farm. You're going to score kills,
not afk farm creeps.
Target an enemy with Split Earth, turn on Diabolic Edict
and finish the enemy off. I suggest you do not chase the enemy if there
is a lot of creeps. At level 5 and upwards, you can try to take the tower.
Your goal is to get the following items:

Urn gives you some mana regen as well as a 200 damage spell to
finish off (un)lucky heroes who manage to survive your bombard.
Treads are put to str. We buy them to get you some tankiness.
Also nifty to swap to int when short of mana to stun a foe. Also gives
attack speed, which hastens tower smashing.

Mid game

Mid game is when your powers peak at pushing.
By now you have level 8+ and you can really hurt towers as well as
stray heroes. Don't be afraid to roam around and owning the enemies
while their hp is not too high for soloing them in seconds.
Pulse Nova hurts a lot and you should use it, but remember to cast
the other 2 spells before it, because they are far more cost efficient
at this phase.

Now you must make a choice.

If the enemy team does not have too many disablers,
I suggest you get Linken's Sphere.
It gives stats and regen and in general makes your hero
better, unlike Black King Bar, which only gives 10 str and some damage, which your hero does not need anyway. BKB should however be made if the enemy team has got a lot of disable and nukes,
let's say Tiny, Slardar, Akasha, Sven and Mirana.
It allows you to move freely and have more time to
burn their asses with your exploding flames
You however lack tankiness and hp regen,
thus you fall victim to DPS quicker or need to go to base.

Late game

By now you probably have pushed all the towers down.
If your team has played good, maybe even a rax or 2.
Clashes become more frequent and your AOE is needed
in team battles. At this point you must think whether you
are not tanky enough or if you are not dealing enough damage.

If you are not tanky enough.

If you need to make them die faster.

If you can't make up your mind.

You should end the game with a strong push after a clash. Leshrac eats
raxes very quick and you should use this benefit to its full extent, assuming
you survived the clash.

Optional items