Leoric Abilities and Strategy

• Use Skeletal Swing to reduce the chance that Drain Hope will miss.
• Drain Hope is particularly effective when used on enemy Heroes with high maximum Health and who lack mobility.
• Wraith Walk allows you to walk through enemy Gates, but not through the permanent unpassable terrain that forms the Battleground.
• When necessary, do not be afraid to trade your life for something else because you can respawn faster with Drain Essence, but remember you still give Experience for dying.
• While in Ghost Form, use Ghastly Swing to reduce the chance that Drain Essence will miss.
• Remember to Slow enemy Heroes and try to give vision to your team while you are in Ghost Form.
• When respawning is dangerous, you can use your Hearthstone while in Ghost Form.

Leoric has a special Basic Attack: the first two Basic Attacks cleave for 100% damage, the third Basic Attack deals 225% damage to a single target. If you keep that in mind when clearing Minions and watch the dedicated tracker in the bottom-left corner, you can increase your waveclear and thus be able to join your team quicker than usual.

Skeletal Swing is a Basic Ability that provides Leoric with a reliable source of waveclear thanks to the bonus damage against Minions and also assists him at landing his Drain Hope more easily by Slowing enemy Heroes.

Hitting enemy Heroes with Skeletal Swing will heavily reduce its cooldown and refund half of the Mana cost. Considering so, you should try to hit the enemy Offlaner while using Skeletal Swing to clear enemy Minions.

Drain Hope is a Basic Ability that gives Leoric self-sustain while dealing percent-based damage at the same time. Use it carefully and efficiently in order to grant as much healing as possible.

Landing this Ability is important while dueling in the solo lane or during team fights. If you miss, you lose your only source of self-sustain and lower your damage output as well. To increase the chance it will connect, use Skeletal Swing to Slow an enemy Hero and then cast Drain Hope within 2.5 seconds, before the Slow fades away.

If you choose the wrong target, you lose part or all your self-sustain. Do not cast Drain Hope on enemy Heroes who can easily outrange it with mobility, unless you are certain they cannot use such Abilities for a few seconds because of cooldowns or even crowd control.

While the best target for Drain Hope is situational, you should try to use it on enemy Heroes who have high maximum Health in order to deal more damage; however, you will not get more healing based on that.

Wraith Walk is a Basic Ability that provides Leoric with great mobility and a bit of survivability. Use it as a gap closer to catch up to fleeing enemy Heroes, to escape from danger when needed, or to take less damage thanks to the bonus Armor it provides.

Entomb is a Heroic Ability that creates unpassable terrain that can be used as a form of indirect crowd control because it works on Unstoppable enemy Heroes as well.

While the Heroic Ability itself is easy to understand in terms of what it does, it requires you to know exactly when to use it and what target to use it on. Do not use Entomb on enemy Heroes that have access to an Ability that allows them to exit from it, unless they wasted that cooldown.

Before casting Entomb, make sure to take a brief look on the Minimap and determine whether your team is nearby and ready to follow up on the imprisoned enemy Heroes.

As soon as you cast Entomb, Leoric blocks its entrance. Sometimes you will have to decide if you want to prevent the enemy Heroes from escaping—recommended if your team has enough ranged Heroes to kill the encased Heroes from the distance—or allow allied Heroes to enter—required if most of the damage done by your team comes from melee Heroes.

If you want to know when and why you should pick this Heroic Ability, check the dedicated section in the Talent Build page.

March of the Black King is a Heroic Ability that combines raw damage with great self-sustain. Each swing damages nearby enemies in a large area in front of him and a small area behind him. During its animation, Leoric is Unstoppable.

The major drawback of this Ability is the fact that it causes Leoric to walk towards the starting direction without the possibility to change it, so you should aim very carefully before casting March of the Black King in order to avoid finding yourself in an unfavorable position at the end of its duration.

If you want to know when and why you should pick this Heroic Ability, check the dedicated section in the Talent Build page.

Undying is a very unique Trait which allows Leoric to have an impact on events even after dying.

While in Ghost Form, Leoric can only move and use two Abilities: Ghastly Swing to Slow enemies and Drain Essence to respawn faster.

Another important aspect of Undying is the fact that it provides vision to your team, as you can freely move around the battlefield in order to scout the position of every enemy Hero around you without them being able to kill you.

Keep in mind, however, that Leoric will materialize at his current location once his Health is fully recovered. Thus, when dying as Leoric, it is important to constantly check your Health while in Ghost Form in order to avoid respawning in the middle of the enemy team.

Leoric will not be able to use his Mount while dead. In case the enemy team is ready to kill you after respawning, you can use Hearthstone [B] while in Ghost Form to teleport in the Hall of Storms. It is important to know that resurrecting will automatically stop its 6-second channel, therefore you can only use this trick when Leoric needs more than 6 seconds to respawn.

Ghastly Swing is a special Basic Ability similar to Skeletal Swing that Leoric is able to use while in Ghost Form.

Although it does not deal any damage to your enemies, the Slow provided is still very useful to influence a team fight. Use this Ability as often as possible to help your team reach enemy Heroes or to run away from them, but also to increase the chance that Drain Essence will hit your desired enemy Hero.

Drain Essence is another special Basic Ability similar to Drain Hope that Leoric is able to use while in Ghost Form.

If you hit an enemy Hero with this Ability, Leoric gains Health as long as the target remains in range or the effect ends after a few seconds. As a consequence, this Ability is crucial to accelerate Leoric's resurrection process.

We recommend using Drain Essence as frequently as possible, but do not rush because it is important that it connects on an enemy Hero.