I'll start off by saying that this is my first guide, but I've been building and playing Leshrac this awesome and much more fun way for years.

Leshrac is a squishy Intelligence hero with powerful damaging AOEs and a penchant for using up all his mana in seconds. This guide is about transforming him into a difficult to kill hero who has one goal in life: bring the enemy team or their towers into Diabolic Edict range and brutally rape them.

Pros:

-Can usually bring down a tower in 30 seconds or less
-Insane AOE damage that is only (partially) stopped by silences
-Melee heroes worst nightmare since he can move while letting his AOEs damage them.
-Decent base armor and agility gain for decent armor throughout the game

Cons:

-AOEs are short range and he has only a small AOE stun with long cast time to disable with.
-Is dependent on items to increase survivability and fix early game mana problems.
-Ultimate is disabled by silence
-Terrible starting strength and strength gain

If your not sure what Leshrac's (hereafter referred to as "Lesh") abilities are or what they do you should check playdota.com's hero page.


THE TANKLESH SKILL BUILD:

I'll start with the skill build since it is one of the most different (from other Lesh builds) and important parts of playing the TankLesh. It is also not as dynamic as other skill builds or the item build, which we will get to in a minute.


Level 1 - Split Earth - Stun is essential and should be taken first


Level 2 - Diabolic Edict - This will be your core ability


Level 3 - Diabolic Edict - Now does 100 mixed damage/second

STATS
Level 4 - Stats - Makes you more tanky and gives you more mana


Level 5 - Diabolic Edict - Now starts dealing serious damage 150 dmg/s


Level 6 - Pulse Nova - Its your ulti and other AOE damage abil
(OR you can take stats here if you want more survivability and mana)


Level 7 - Diabolic Edict - Of course this gets maxed first

Level 8 - Stats - Your Ultimate takes tons of mana
Level 9 - Stats
Level 10 - Stats OR Pulse Nova
Level 11 - Pulse Nova - More damage faster
Level 12 - Stats


Anyone who has played Lesh will probably notice something about this skill build, there is absolutely no Lightning Storm. If you are feeling VERY tanky, are doing VERY well, and somehow have TONS of mana, go ahead and grab Lightning Storm at levels 12-15, I recommend stats though. Lightning Storm is good for harassing, but it is also good for eating up your mana and taking skill points out of stats (HP and Mana) and Diabolic Edict. In fact you should also note that this skill build calls for taking only a single level of Split Earth, so you better be able to land it with its small AOE. You can put another point or two in Split Earth if you just can't get used to the small level 1 AOE.

About Diabolic Edict:


Diabolic Edict is the centerpiece of the TankLesh build, early game it is your damage and gives you the ability to decimate a tower faster than any other hero. There are some things to remember about Diabolic Edict however:

-It deals mixed damage, meaning it is reduced by armor and magic resist meaning it scales terribly into late game.

-It hits random targets in a 500 range AOE, so to kill one hero you need to carefully try to get them alone in the AOE.

-It hits invisible and out of sight targets, juking around trees and using fog of war will be your friend if someone tries to (foolishly) chase you at close range.

-Since it does mixed damage it passes through magic immunity, notably Juggernaut's Blade Fury and Naix's Rage. Generally by the time a hero has BKB Diabolic Edict won't be as devastating as it is early.

-It is disabled by NOTHING, once you start it nothing can stop it not silence, not stun, not Black Hole, not even killing the TankLesh.

-It hits towers and hits them hard.


About Pulse Nova:

Pulse Nova is Lesh's ultimate and the other part of TankLesh's AOE damage "combo". It's a toggle ability and drains a serious amount of mana, use it very sparingly. Unlike Diabolic Edict however, it hits all targets in its 400 range AOE every second. This makes it useful for clearing out creeps before you turn on Diabolic Edict.


THE ITEM BUILD:

Unfortunately, due to Lesh's weak starting strength, low strength gain, and near total lack of defensive abilities making him difficult to kill usually requires a decent amount gold. However the exact items you should buy will vary greatly depending on the enemy team, your allies, and other in game dynamic factors that you should consider when buying items.

For starting items, you can be pretty flexible:

I prefer:
2x Gauntlets of Strength, 2-1x Tangoes, 1-2x Salves

You can be pretty flexible, but for the non-consummables I'd stick to:
Gauntlet(s) of Strength - for Bracers or Urn later
Iron Branches - for Magic Wand later
Circlet of Nobilty - for Bracers or Null later
Magic Stick - for Magic Wand later
Mantle - for Null later

Other potential starting items:
3x Branches, 1x Gauntlets of Strength, 2x Tangoes, 1x Salve
3x Branches, 1x Circlet of Nobility, 2-1x Tangoes, 1-2x Clarities
1x Branches, 1x Circlet of N., 1x Gauntlets of S., 1-2x Tangoes, 1-0x Salve

For lanes that are safer go for more Int and mana regeneration.

For lanes that are dangerous, go more Str and health regeneration.


Starting items can vary depending on a few things, namely which items you plan on getting in what I will call the "beyond starting items" stage. Feel free to replace the Gauntlets with some combination of Circlets or Branches if you like Magic Stick or expect to use more mana.


After starting items, there are plenty of options of what items to get but they all share the same theme: they increase survivability.

Beyond Starting Items Items:

Well if you have a Gauntlet of Strength or two from your starting items, then either Bracers and/or a Urn should be purchased. Both options are pretty good on TankLesh, Urn is especially useful if you think your team will be ganking and getting hero kills to load it up with. I personally like 2x Bracers, which cost 75 more gold than getting an Urn but give twice the Strength and useful stats. You can also get a Magic Wand and one Bracers, or skip straight to boots and core item components.

Normally go for your boots right after or before upgrading your starting items of choice into Bracers/Urn/Magic Wand. Movement speed is important since Lesh can move while using his AOE's and you will sometimes need to chase heroes a bit to keep them in range.

- Power Treads(Str), I've really debated between whether Phase Boots (movespeed for keeping heroes in your AOEs) or Power Treads are better on Lesh. I've decided that straight up survivability (the +8 Strength) is almost always more beneficial. The attack speed is mostly wasted, but if you have 2x Bracers TankLesh's auto-attack DPS becomes relevant and is helpful in killing towers.

- Boots and . . ., Sometimes you'll be in a position to head straight for a core item and one of their useful build-up items and can skip treads. This is a good option if you find yourself with 1200 gold and are either dominating the game with no problems or already have some good early game (Bracers/Urn/Magic Wand) items.


THE CORE ITEMS:

I'll list the best options, since there are quite a few:

I highly recommend looking for 1-2 Core Items that have either Ogre Axe, Vitality Booster, or Point Booster as some of their components. Try to buy up two of those items early to gain some cheap suvivability while you build up the core item. For example, Ogre Axe and Point Booster while going for Aghanim's or Vitality and Point Booster while going for Bloodstone. You can ever go 2x Vitality Booster + 1x Point Booster while going for Bloodstone and a Heart later, or some other combination of core items that let you mass HP+ items.

Aghanim's Scepter - You can buy up the Ogre Axe or Point Booster for an immediate survivability boost. It makes your ultimate do more damage for less mana and its +Int and +Mana help you mana problems. Aghanim's is my go to item for TankLesh, it gives him a little of everything, +390 HP is no joke for survivability and the damage boost is great for keeping TankLesh's AOE's relevant. All around great item.

Blade Mail - You can build its pieces easily and the armor does offer some survivability, but overall this item gives much less survivability than other choices. However the Damage Return ability can easily make up for it, allowing you to deal even more damage to enemy teams or forcing them to flee from you AOEs. The +32 attack damage it gives you can add up surprisingly well with Treads and Bracers to give you decent auto-attack DPS. Very good if you can get it early and have enough HP from starting items and/or level advantage.

Kelen's Dagger (Blink Dagger) - If your team needs an initiator and you think you have enough survivability to handle blinking into the enemy team, this item can be hilarious. Also a good extension item after getting your first core item. A situational item.

Bloodstone - This item also lets you buy a Ring of Health, Point Booster, or Vitality booster to give you a survivability boost early game. Good if you have a good reason for keeping your ultimate on and will be able to load it with charges.

Heart of the Tarrasque - This is THE tank item that will transform you from a squishy or medium-HP hero to full tank, oh-sh*t-we-can't-kill-that level of awesomeness. Unfortunately does nothing for you mana problems and is very expensive. Note this item is also a great extension item after you get your first core item. An expensive item for when you need lots of survivability.

Ghost Scepter - Very useful against teams that are relying on auto-attackers for most of their damage. Bear in mind this will also make you an easy kill if the enemy team has high magic damage spells. Doesn't cost a lot either and can be a good extension item for when auto-attackers are getting dangerous. Situational.

Veil of Discord - I haven't used this item much, but it is kind of in the same boat as Blade Mail. It gives +5 armor but other than that it gives little survivability. However, TankLesh's AOEs deal magic damage or are affected by magic resistance so the damage increase is handy. Also helps with mana problems. Situational, very good if you have magic damage dealers on your team.

Necronomicon - A fun item, but it doesn't give that much survivability. Very useful for pushing however, but you have a hard enough time chasing enemies yourself, letting the summons auto-attack enemies will probably require support from allies. Situational item, useful in push strategies.

Guinsoo's Scythe of Vyse - Always a useful item, but it unfortunately doesn't give much survivability and is very expensive. It does give plenty of mana. It is a good extension item.


THE EXTENSION ITEMS:

I consider extension items to be anything after the first core item, many items listed under core items are good extension items for example:

Aghanim's Scepter - The damage always helps
Blade Mail - Damage Return gets better with the enemy team's DPS.
Kelen's Dagger - Blink is fun
Heart of the Tarrasque - As the game goes you will need the HP
Scythe of Vyse - Disables are always helpful and so is mana
Ghost Scepter - Be immune to auto-attackers
Veil of Discord - The more damage you deal the better

Some item's are really better only after getting a core item or just aren't good enough to be core though, those items are:

Shiva's Guard - This item's massive armor buff is great versus physical damage heroes or teams and is much better once you have a decent amount of HP. It gives tons of mana and an AOE slow/nuke.

Force Staff - This item can help you close with enemy teams, gives a small amount of mana, and doesn't cost much. Unfortunately it gives you no survivability which is why it isn't core.

Linken's Sphere - This item is expensive and gives mediocre survivability, but it is invaluable against certain powerful single target spells, especially ones that silence you (Doom).

There are plenty of other items that can qualify as extension items, but there are also some items that are just unusually bad on TankLesh and are REJECTED:

REJECTED ITEMS:

Black King Bar - At first glance this item might seem like a good choice on TankLesh, after all it prevents all magic damage and most disables. The reason this item is a waste on TankLesh is because one of his key strengths is that his AOEs are very hard to disable naturally, only silence will stop them. The only time I would recommend this item is if the enemy team has a very large amount of magic damage or magic damage that will scale into late game somehow. If the enemy team has so many silences that you need a BKB to get through them then do not play TankLesh.

Vanguard - Another item that at first glance seems to be decent, but the damage reduction is cut in half for ranged heroes, it doesn't give that much HP, and does nothing for you mana problems. It would be better to go RoH and Vitality Booster into a Bloodstone than into this.

Soul Ring - This item might seem good for fixing TankLesh's mana problems, but it isn't and it hurts survivability at the only point in the game when it would be useful: the early game. Later on its long cooldown makes it relatively useless and losing 150 HP on TankLesh would only be a good idea if you have Heart.


HOW TO PLAY TANKLESH:

The Early Game:

Well I should warn you that I don't have a lot of competitive experience and have never tried the TankLesh build in a competitive game (although I'm sure it would dominate).

That being said, there are a quite few options for laning with TankLesh.

Mid Solo - This is a pretty good choice since you can farm and level while being relatively safe from ganks. Unfortunately you lack a good harass since your TankLesh. However, a mid solo TankLesh is very good against melee heroes who try to mid solo. Harass them with auto-attacks and try to land a stun + Diabolic Edict to either force them out of lane or kill them.

Safe Lane - TankLesh is actually better in some type of side lane than in mid lane in my opinion, mainly because he can get closer to his enemies using trees and juke in trees while Diabolic continues to damage enemies. You should be able to solo in the safe (Sent Bot/Scourge Top) relatively easily. The more melee heroes fighting you in lane the better, harass them and try to get them to stand in Diabolic if at all possible. Against a very dangerous (tri?) lane play conservatively until level 3 or 5 and then start being more aggressive, especially by moving in and out of trees. If an enemy hero wanders too close to you in the forest or even just in the lane, Diabolic and stun them. Diabolic Edict does massive damage to lone targets early game, it can be very easy to get a kill This is especially true if an enemy hero wanders into you inside the forest where there are no creeps to absorb Diabolic and you can stun and juke to make it almost impossible for them to fight back.

Dangerous Lane - TankLesh lacks a good escape and won't have any long range harass combined with being squishy early game make going to the dangerous lane (Sent Top/Scourge Bot) well, dangerous. If you have support it isn't too bad though. I do not recommend trying to solo the dangerous lane if your going to be outnumbered unless the lane opponents are melee. Other than that it's pretty much the same as the safe lane, except be more watchful for ganks.

Ganking and Counter-Ganking:

Having an ally to help disable and keep people in Diabolic makes TankLesh much more dangerous, although due to his low range and weak disables TankLesh is not that good at ganking. With enough support, as in support with enough disables or slows that TankLesh will be able to stay next to the target hero with his AOEs turned on, TankLesh can be useful in ganks since he does so much damage early game.

However due to his high damage he doesn't have a hard time killing heroes, IF you can get close to them. This makes TankLesh particularly good at counter-ganking, combined with the fact that most people assume Lesh will be squishy and an easy kill. This gives TankLesh another potential option for "escaping" a gank, just turn on Diabolic and get ready to stun at the best opportunity. Doing this can be extremely dangerous and you should have a good idea of how much damage the enemy gankers will be able to do and how fast they can do it. If they can't kill you quickly then your stun combined with running around (keeping them within Diabolic's 500 AOE range) will hurt them badly and maybe even kill them. This can be made a lot better if you are in the forest with trees to hide in, Tangoes can be useful for this. Remember Diabolic hits enemies when they are out of sight as long as they are within 500 AOE of Lesh. You can also target your stun without seeing the enemy, allowing you to fight back against enemies when there is no line of sight.