Leshrac the Malicious
~Table Of Contents1. Story
2. Introduction
3. Info and Stats
4. Skill Usage
5. Skill Build
6. Item Build
7. Strategy
~7b. HERO'S Key Points
8. Hero Synergy
9. Conclusion
1. HERO's Story
Torment around me. Torment in me. Torment be with me. And let us conquer our foes. They do not understand our pain. Do you? No. Not a soul can. And for that, We shall make them feel the torment... The torment that inhabits my soul.
2. HERO'S IntroductionLeshrac has been my favorite hero since I first started playing around three years ago. It’s hard not to like the quintessential glass cannon that he represents, and there’s hardly a battle that a well positioned, well equipped Lesh cannot swing to his team’s favor. I want to save you all the trouble I went through in learning Lesh’s greatest strength, which hinges on the enemy’s inevitable attraction to attacking him. You will not find another hero in DoTA that is so frequently the first target in team fights, and few are such a sought after gank target. I call this the Tetraodontidae Technique because Tetraodontidae are a family of fish who at first appear unassuming and weak, but upon being attacked, they puff up in a mass of poisonous spikes, killing their would-be predator. Soon you will discover how to turn Leshrac into a similarly unassuming Tetraodontidae; so please, read on.
3. HERO'S Info & StatsPros:
[+] Extreme AOE dmg with a 2 second AOE stun
[+] A very predictable enemy's first target
[+] Amazingly versatile spells
[+] Being disabled has negligible effect on damage output
Cons:
[-] Very low hitpoints early game
[-] All abilities are massive mana drains
[-] Extreme item dependence
For complete stats, click below:
Tormented Soul - DotA Hero Details
4. HERO'S Skill Usage
Split EarthLeshrac's single disable, there is a .35 second delay between this spell's cast and its actual impact. This means you must be predictive, because the enemy will not stay in one place when you try to cast this. It stuns for two seconds from level one to four, increasing only in area and damage. You do NOT require vision in the area you cast it. This fact makes the spell useful for chasing when a hero runs uphill or around a corner, because that reduces your sraight-line distance to them slightly and may provide the reduction in distance that you need to land the stun.
Click to see Split Earth's primary uses:
The rule of thumb is: if you know for sure where a hero will be in about half a second, you should probably be casting this spell.
Diabolic EdictDiabolic edict essentially saturates the area around Leshrac in 32 explosions; if anything is inside this area, all explosions will concentrate on it. If there are two enemies within the AOE, they will randomly strike each of the two enemies, roughly cutting its point-target effectiveness in half. At level one it deals 400 total damage (more than any level one spell in the game), at level four it deals 1600 (50 dmg per explosion, 50x32=1600). Note that this skill deals what is called "mixed" damage, meaning its damage calculation takes into account both magic resistance and armor resistance.
Click to see Diabolic Edict’s primary uses:
As stated, this spell is impacted by both armor and magic resistances. Because of this, as you move into late game it becomes less and less powerful. Thanks to recent changes, shields no longer bock this ability, which make it much harder to defend against. Also remember that if an ally gets a Desalator, or an Assault Cuirass, that will increase the damage output of Diabolic Edict by decreasing the enemy's armor. It also synergizes well with the enemy being in any kind of Ethereal state, either from Pugna, Ghost Scepter, or Ethereal Blade, because it benefits from the 40% damage increase, meaning total damage output of 1600x1.4=2240. Not bad.
Lightning StormMany consider Lightning Storm to be the Leshrac's "bread and butter." Of all of his skills it is probably the most straightforward and has the least interesting possibilities in terms of utility. It is a point target-hopping spell that deals anywhere between 80-265 damage to its targets. This spell is a great finisher and lane harasser, as well as being a lane pusher.
Click to see Lightning Storm's primary uses:
Pulse NovaPulse Nova is your simplest and most powerful ability in terms of raw damage. It deals up to 177 damage (level 3 with Scepter) to everything around you per second, or 177x5=885 dmg/sec to an enemy team (on top of the other spells you can throw simultaneously), with zero cast time. Note that when Pulse Nova is active, if Leshrac becomes disabled it will remain on. This applies to most everything, including Voidwalker's Chronosphere.
The graphical effect of Pulse Nova can further confuse enemies, cause them to lose track of their heroes, and hide Leshrac enough to mask effects such as Blade Mail or Ethereal Form. By and large, as soon as you activate this spell in a team fight, you will instantly become Enemy #1 of the opposing team. This build is designed to turn that apparent downside to your advantage.
5. HERO'S Skill Build
Bottom Line Up Front – There is no best build for Lesh. You must size up your lane opponents and select skills that counter them while synergizing well with your lane partner (if you have one). I am going to provide on example of a good skill build, but even this build I only use maybe 1 in 3 games. Alternate builds, such as all Split Earth + Diabolic, or all Lightning + Split Earth, are equally common and equally effective in the right circumstances.
Click for one powerful skill build:
Click for full skill build explanation
6. HERO'S Item Build
STARTING ITEM BUILD
x3
II recommend starting with a ring of protection, three clarity potions, a health potion (or Jango if you prefer), and three ironwood branches. This will give you the ability to heal if they get the jump on you, and allow you to harass/farm while regenerating your mana, and the branches provide some of the stats you badly need.
Generally, you will want to grab a Sobi Mask first for Ring of Basilius. Ring of Basilius will provide you with armor, equating to effective hit-points (EHP), some damage for last-hitting creeps, and a great deal of mana regen for so early in the game – all very important. When able, grab a second sobi mask, this will provide yet more mana regen, actually providing more mana regen from level 4 onward (Basilius provides .65/sec, sobi mask provides .7 at level four assuming base stats, .76 with the branches). Finally, grab a ring of regen for the staying power it provides, it will allow you to be less risk-averse and go in for more audacious harassment. Note that if you were being harassed badly in the beginning, you should buy ring of regen earlier – use common sense. Once you have all three you are self-sustaining, and should have used your clarities by now. Next, grab boots; if you don’t your opponent will use their speed to chase/harass you out of the lane. At about this point in time, if you have a lane partner and he even remotely synergizes with Lesh, you should have your tower pushed. Once pushed, immediately port to another lane and push its tower, and finally to the last lane if it still has its 1st tower. The only thing that takes precedent over this are immediate ganks of opportunity. During this time, grab either point booster, or energy booster if you are starving for mana. Generally point booster is preferable. You should be able to afford it shortly after taking down the enemy tower in your lane. You should look something like this:
EARLY CORE ITEM BUILD
The reason I call this "early core" is simply because these are the non-expendable items you will purchase first that will carry you through mid game. This build flows seamlessly, so there is no clear delineation of "core" and "late" build items.
In any case, the next item you want to go for is Bloodstone. Bloodstone is your backbone, providing you with hit/mana points and synergizing well with your later items for several reasons. First, this build, as you will see, uses blademail to its fullest. For blademail, consider which option is better: A: lots of armor thereby equating to a high EHP, or B: lots of hitpoints thereby equating to a high EHP. Remember, blademail only returns damage after all reductions, so if you don’t take lots of points worth of damage, it will not return lots of damage. It is always better to have less armor and more hitpoints with blademail, because to return damage you must take it. Thus, EHP from high armor is actually not as desirable as raw hitpoints. Additionally, grabbing Bloodstone early solves one of Lesh’s most difficult problems: mana regen. The earlier you obtain Bloodstone, the sooner you begin building charges. Those charges not only give you great mana regen, but also reduces your time between deaths and heals your allies - perfect fallback abilities for the kamikaze style of Leshrac.
Click for Bloodstone build order
After you have Bloodstone, the next item you want is Point Booster - again. Point Booster is a very efficient item in terms of cost, and as I said before, hitpoints synergize well with blademail because you must take damage to reflect it. This Point Booster will go towards Aghanim's Scepter eventually, but not yet. After point booster, you are ready to pick up blademail . For Lesh, running in and casting blademail in the midst of battle will cause a great deal of chaos and confusion, because everyone considers Leshrac the obvious first target 99% of the time, but the question is: who do you target next, with a live blademailed Leshrac still pounding your team? What’s worse, diabolic edict and pulse nova will make tracking individual hero’s that much harder, and the chaos that all this will create is one of this strategy’s greatest strengths.
Next, work towards BKB and Scepter. I recommend generally going BKB first, since the Avatar ability gives Lesh great staying power vs casters and disablers and allows him to resist anyone else’s Blademail (a common counter to Leshrac). BKB solves virtually all of Lesh’s hard counters and turns him into an over-all chaos machine. Why, then, don’t I recommend BKB before blademail? The reason is simple: virtually everything that BKB blocks, blademail reflects, but blademail reflects plenty of sources that BKB doesn’t block (namely any physical damage). Sure, there might be a hard counter direct-damage nuker you fear, but blademail will at least reflect the damage back. It is also vastly less expensive than BKB, meaning it fits better with this point in the game and is an overall better buy.
Thus, after BKB, you should like something like this:
LATE CORE ITEM BUILD
After that, pick up Scepter and Veil of Discord to complete your Build. When exactly you pick up Boots of Travels is situational (explained below). It’s not hard to get to the final build in –em games, but otherwise you probably won’t see it. If you do get there, you will look like this:
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TARGET ITEM BUILD
The reason this build is superior is the following: When you attack the enemy team, you Discord their team, initiate Pulse Nova, Lightning Storm them, activate Diabolic Edict, get the best AOE stun you can, and you Lightning Storm them again. At some point during that chain of spells, some or all of their team is going to switch from targeting your initiator, to targeting you (Lesh should never initate, just to clear any confusion on that point). Once they turn to you, or just before, activate your Blade Mail. Suddenly it will not be so cut and dry as to who they want to attack. Remember, all of your spells are still crippling their team. If you time it well, and wait until their carry just starts to attack you to active Blade Mail, the agi will kill themselves on you. In any case, during this sequence, you need to determine when the best time to BKB is. This is entirely situational, and is nothing more than a judgment call on your end. If they have heavy casters or disables, you should sense when they are about to target you – sometimes it’s as you run into the fray, sometimes not. BKB with travels allows you to outrun most anyone while burning them up with Pulse Nova as they chase. If you need to, you can teleport out while in Avatar to escape, which is a great tactic that you can use without even bothering to run at all (simply watch your health bar drop, make sure Avatar is up, and use your Travels to port out before your health bar will be empty). If executed properly, you will leave the enemy team crippled while you are still alive. Worst case scenario, you die before you can port or run out, which means your Bloodstone heals your whole team a very healthy amount, further setting them up for success. The beauty is that when you Blademail, the enemy team will turn and start focusing other targets, dealing damage to your allies as they become the new target, and the same applies for spells cast on other targets while you are magic immune. Normally, when Lesh is killed with Bloodstone, he has been the sole target of the enemy team, and Bloodstone's heal is useless. In this case, the synergy is great, and all the chaotic attacking that the enemy will have done to your allies will be largely undone by your dying heal. And to top it all off, while your allies finish them off, you share the experience and still spawn faster due to any Bloodstone charges you have accumulated.
With this build, you can easily solo even the most ridiculous carry. Once they engage you, Discord them, activate diabolic and Pulse Nova, then try to stun them, then put a Lightning Storm on them. Once they are no longer stunned, there will still be all kinds of explosions on the both of you, activate your Blade Mail. They will not be able to see it until it is near full size due to being hidden by Pulse Nova and the spikes that already come from your animation when you have Scepter, meaning several massive hits to themselves, and they will not be able to take the punishment that you can with all your point-increasing items. Of course, don’t forget to BKB as necessary. If you went Ghost Scepter over BKB (discussed soon), then you Ghost right before death, and the carry will be madly clicking on you for the killing blow. This will buy you the time you need to finish him off, and is actually better in 1v1 against a carry than BKB.
A quick note: Diabolic Edict is eight seconds long. In an ideal situation (enemy team clumped together), the following is how much damage Leshrac can deal in eight seconds assuming he lands a Discord on the enemy team:
1 x Diabolic Edict = 1600 x 1.25(Discord) = 2000
5(opponents) x Lightning Storm = 1325 x 1.25 = 1656.25
5 x Split Earth = 1500 x 1.25 = 1875
5 x Pulse Nova x 8(seconds) = 7080 x 1.25 = 8850
5 x Second Lightning Storm (only six second cooldown) = 1325 x1.25 = 1656.25
A grand total of 16,037.5 damage! Over sixteen thousand damage total, and over two thousand damage per second. That’s before any physical attacks, and not including any damage reflected by Blademail. Is it a lot to assume that every single one of your spells hits their entire team? Of course it is. However, the key to success with Leshrac is to make it your goal to get as close to that 16,037.5 damage every time your team fights the enemy team. Even without Discord, you can land 12,830 damage in eight seconds (with Scepter). Set those as the standards that you aspire to and not only will you never stop improving, but you will finally begin to see Leshrac’s hidden power.
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EXTRA/SITUATIONAL ITEMS
I already talked about why Arcaine boots can be advantageous until dissasembled for Bloodstone.
Bottom Line Up Front – Ghost Scepter can be better than BKB, but only in situations where enemy nukers and disablers are scarce. When this does happen, Ghost Scepter can be by far the better choice over BKB, but when this does not happen, it is completely out of the question. A highly situational item, use it with care.
Heart of Tarrasque can replace Blademail, but the only games that you will be able to afford/pull this off is during pubstomps or against crappy teams, and this guide is not meant to teach you how to beat crappy players, so its basically a moot point.
Click for full Ghost Scepter explanation
Click for full Heart of Tarrasque Explanation
Finally: Avoid getting Linkens on Leshrac - an idea I've seen far too often. Leshrac incurs way too much wrath for one blocked spell to make a difference. Pretend the Russians were to launch their entire nuclear arsenal at America, and the United States Air Defense shot down one missile - that's essentially what Linkens does for Lesh. You are likely to be targeted by so many spells that blocking one is a drop the in bucket, it just isn't worth it when you consider what you can get from other items for a much better price. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
7. HERO'S StrategyEarly Game
With your starting items purchased, focus on getting these in whatever order you need them the most (situational):
+ which becomes then another .That encompasses your early game. You are not weak during this period, but it is your most vulnerable time. Last hit carefully, harass when able, and land whatever nuke you chose to both harass the enemy and last hit creeps (simultaneously is best). Use those clarities, too. Your enemy is likely to underestimate you, especially if you get Diabolic Edict early. At level 2, Diabolic Edict can pump 800 damage to a lone target, which is nothing to sneeze at in the early game. If a player wants to stand toe to toe with you because every other Leshrac he's ever played got nothing but Split Earth and Lightning Storm, you should kindly oblige him, then light his ass on fire. One thing to remember: when using Diabolic Edict or Pulse Nova, do not dance around like an idiot. Keep attacking, that's what makes the spells so good, they fight with you, not for you.
I'm sure many will ask why I don't go for a wand for the early stat points, or for a bracer for the hitpoints, or grab an Urn, etc. I've tried those early builds and others and frankly, you will run out of inventory space way too early for far more important items and it simply won't be worth the gold you will lose. The wand is decent but in my opinion overrated, however the three branches you get early on make it a fairly easy snag if you are dead set on getting one. The extra sobi mask also makes grabbing an Urn not difficult to do. Leshrac does tend to be harassed, but some careful lane control and last hitting, either with spells or attacks, and you will have Ring of Regen in no time, which gives you all the staying power you need. As long as you watch the minimap you won't be caught by a gank. Just don't wander out way beyond a tower without knowing where all the enemy heroes are, or having your flank warded. It's not hard, and you won't waste a bunch of money on items that you will be forced to sell shortly thereafter. If you are set on being a wand monkey, or you have to have your urn, then you already have much of what you need to do so. I’ll leave the decision to you, the reader, but I encourage you to attempt skipping them. They simply don’t fit Lesh’s play-style, but if I absolutely had to pick one of them, it would be Urn.
Mid Game
Your mid game centers around three items:
I know it seems like a lot, but Blademail is really pretty cheap, and BKB is a mid-range cost.
Click for an attack sequence walk-through at this point
Generally by the time you finish all three of these, mid game is at least beginning to transition to late game, depending on how well you've done pushing towers and how many heroes you've killed. If you find that by the time you get your early game items and grab your point booster you are extremely underfed and behind, I recommend grabbing Boots of Travel as fast as you can. Travels are good for catching up when you are behind on gold, but I find them to be too expensive to be worth the gold otherwise. If you aren't falling behind and your team is working together and getting proper ganks, pushing towers, etc., town portals should work just fine. If, on the other hand, your team is not working together well and your lanes are not being kept under control, Travels provides a way for you to pick up the slack and grab the gold in those unchecked creeps. I grab travels early maybe 2 out of 15 games.
Late Game
Late game your attack strategy changes very little from Mid Game with the exception of Veil of Discord, which allows you to increase your damage output by 25%. You should generally cast Discord before any other spells; the attack sequence otherwise remains the same. Use your travels for lane control, Lesh is one of the best late game lane controllers in DoTA, and try to rax the enemy when they aren't expecting it. Whatever you do, be present in team fights, you are a huge force in throwing the fight to your team's favor.
A note on Veil of Discord: Veil of Discord has the effect of making any one of your level four spells equivalent to a level five spell in damage. If you actually take the difference in damage of each of your spells as they level, and add 25% to the level four damage, you will see that it holds the damage trend that you would extrapolate a level five spell to do, and frequently does even more than that. With that said, it is obviously tempting to pick up Veil of Discord early. I do not recommend it, but it is a technique that I recommend trying just to learn first-hand why it fails. The problem with an early Veil is that the damage that it allows you to do is a luxury at a time when the survival that you require to do it is a necessity - period. This Leshrac strategy involves survival, damage reflection, and more survival. To do that, you need hitpoints, blademail, more hitpoints, and either a BKB or a Ghost Scepter. If you are going to grab Veil early, the only time I would recommend it is after you have bloodstone, pointbooster, blademail, and bkb (or ghost scepter), which means the only item left after Veil is Scepter minus pointbooster. Leshrac’s main problem prior to Veil being introduced was that in very long games, even his massive damage output could become too little to cut it. Veil solves that problem, but grabbing veil too early brings up a whole slew of other new problems for Lesh resulting in not being worth it, especially for the Tetraodontidae technique. 5 armor? Armor EHP are not what we want, we want hitpoints. +5 hp/second? Pure convenience. 12 intelligence? A joke for the cost. 25% damage? Ok, great, but you will never survive the positioning you need in battle to actually take advantage of that without the survival items I’ve already mentioned. Like I said, go ahead and try it, and then come back to papa and try the strategy the right way
7b. HERO'S Key Points
Be The Target
Leshrac is the most irresistble target in DoTA. He is a glass cannon AOE nuker with no hitpoints. It's your job to turn that against the enemy. Do that by getting points, points, and more points, and then use Blademail to turn your opponent's lust for Lesh against them. Position yourself dead in the middle of the enemy team during a teamfight, they will all suddenly turn in to kill you, and you will just know: now is the time for Blademail. Many will crap their pants and not know what to do while their hitpoints plummet. Then with BKB up, port out and laugh. Yes, it works.
Do no farm excessively
It can be tempting for players to farm with Leshrac due to his insane item dependence. A little farming is acceptable when there is nothing going on and you want to grab a quick neutral or two on your way somewhere else. Lesh is pretty good at it, too. But, do not fall into the trap of being absent when your team needs you, or of not watching the map! Focus more on ganks, and let the neutral farming happen when it happens. What's more, your Bloodstone needs the charges you can only get from player kills. When in doubt, join the party. If there is no party, you should probably make one. Lesh is a ganker, believe it or not. Diabolic Edict helps make it so.
Last hit heroes shamelessly
They will yell, fuss, and cry about it, but do not fall into the trap that "the carry needs all the kills." It's simply not true. A properly fed Lesh who follows this strategy can throw a game just as well as a one-trick-pony Agi DPS, if not more so. Let the enemy put all their eggs into one basket, and then let that basket smash itself to pieces on your Blademail, and you will see what I mean.
Do not let your lane partner dictate your pace
This is a rule for pubbing: Leshrac plays at a different pace than most heroes. As Lesh, you have to consider the cost/benefit of casting that spell now as opposed to in 20 seconds when you will be a level higher, you have to wary of your very low hitpoints early game, and you especially cannot afford to fall behind in experience or gold early game. Lesh walks a very thin line in the early game, and if he falls behind it can be very difficult to recover. Other heroes do not have this problem, but because Lesh has such a low stat gain on strength, and because he is so mana and item dependent, and because his spells are not truly great until they are lvl 4, falling behind is a bigger risk for him than for other, simpler heroes. Do not let one of those simple heroes lead you into a bad gank or tower dive. Let them complain to the team and you just play your fight, they will be praising you soon enough.
8. Leshrac's Hero SynergyLeshrac synergizes with anyone who can initiate with a stun or a good slow. Lion, Leoric, Sven, Rylai, Dragon Knight, Centaur, Tiny, Alchemist, Earthshaker, Tuskarr, Pudge, Pit Lord, Slardar, Crixalis, Naix, Naga, Mirana, Vengeful Spirit, Slark, Nerubian Assassin, Prophet, Windrunner, Ogre Magi, Jakiro, Rhasta, Dazzle, Rubick, and Lich are most of them.
Additionally, his massive AOE synergizes extremely well with anyone who has a massive area disable. Tidehunter, Rooftrellen, Voidwalker, and Enigma all make the list. Enigma's ult can further be followed up by a Split Earth stun on the enemy team, making him Leshrac's best friend. Phoenix gets an honorable mention since Supernova can cause a massive stun and generally causes enough confusion and panic anyways to take the focus off of Lesh and synergize well with his playstyle, and Lesh's Split Earth helps Phoenix survive while in Sun form quite nicely.
Your worst enemies are anyone with a long silence. Lucifer and Bloodseeker fit that list, although Bloodseeker can be fended off with some smart Ghosting (discussed earlier). Nightstalker gets an honorable mention. Silencer is somewhat annoying, but his silences don't last long enough to have that much of an impact, and even his ult doesn't do anything to Leshrac if Pulse Nova is already activated. Ezalor, however, is one of Leshrac's worst enemies, he can harass the paper Leshrac very effectively as well as drain his precious mana in seconds. Finally, anyone with a point target mass damage spell is bad news for Leshrac's fragile early pre-BKB body; these include basically Lina, Lion, Pugna, and Necrolyte. You will note that BKB solves virtually all of these weaknesses.
Rubick is decent vs Lesh, but is by no means the counter many seem to think him to be. This is because while his 20% resist is nice, it isn’t enough to offset the extreme damage Lesh deals to a full team. If you are hitting five players with Pulse Nova, and Rubick is giving the whole team his aura, that’s 20% x 5 players which is equal to 100%, which means he turns your damage output into what it would be if four enemy players were there. That’s still very high damage, coupled with the fact that Veil of Discord makes up for Rubick’s aura and then some.
Finally, Magina can be moderately good vs Lesh, but in my opinion is also generally overrated due to how quickly he melts to Diabolic Edict in early game.
9. ConclusionLeshrac is an underutilized, misunderstood hero. There are two main things to remember with Lesh. The first: Turn your opponents tendency to attack you against him. This means grabbing the items that makes that the easiest, whether it is BKB, Ghost Scepter, Blademail, a combination, or something else. This guide covers the vast majority of games, but you must learn to size up the enemy team and be proactive about what you will need, not reactive to what fails to work. The second major thing: get your attack sequence down and remember – fools rush in. Don’t rush in early, wait until your initiator at least goes in. You must get your attack sequence down pat, which means casting the proper order with Diabolic and Pulse Nova utilized to maximum effectiveness, getting off your Discord early, and initiating defensive items at the right times. Do these two things and with even a basic level of dexterity and coordination, you will dominate.
Finally, I apologize for not having screenshots or replays up. My gaming rig is in another country and sadly the internet I have where I am blocks UDP packets. As a result, I can’t play DoTA right now in order to make screenshots, and I cannot access the many replays that I have saved.
Leshrac the Malicious the Tormented SoulAuthor: Andromedus
Map Vers.: 6.72c
Tetraodontidae Technique
Tetraodontidae Technique
Last Comment:17/05/2012
Total Votes: 68
Current Rating: 8.99
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