Hi! My name is GaeisAtegiri and I am a small time HOTS player. I only joined during the open beta, and do not claim to be the best player by any means. However, I have found that Leoric, in the short time he has been out, is my favorite hero by far. If anyone reading this guide (assuming anyone does :3) wants to play a game with me, I am on the US server and my battle tag is GaeisAtegiri#1701! With that said, let's get into the Pros and cons! Additionally, if you have any thoughts regarding this guide, please leave them in the comments section at the bottom of this page. <3

Pros

• Awesome wave clear with Skeletal Swing
• Great self-sustain with Drain Hope and March of the Black King
• Can harass and scout while shortening his death timer with Undying
• Good initiate and escape with Wraith Walk
• Skeletal Swing also provides good CC with an additional slow
• Leoric deals much more damage than most tanks
  
  Cons
  • Very slow attack speed
  • Wraith Walk needs to be timed well to be effective
  • March of the Black King requires good timing and positioning
  • Some heroes can escape from Entomb e.g, Valla, Muradin, Sylvanas
  • Drain Hope can be very hard to land
  • Squishier than most other tanks

Leoric's abilities are mainly focused on dealing damage to heroes and self sustain. All of the damage dealing abilities require you to be in the right place in order to use them to the greatest possible effect. Leoric is classified as a 'warrior' and when most people see that tagline, they think 'Tank'. With Leoric though, 'warrior' means a hero who can dive into the frontline, deal a ton of damage, and then fly out and regen all of his health back



Skeletal swing is a frontal semicircle AOE damage ability with a nice 40% slow added on. When Undying is active, this becomes Ghastly Swing, which is awesome for situations involving a chase to allow your team to escape or to catch up to the enemy team. This ability is also your main source of wave clear and on top of that, refreshes your auto attack's cooldown, allowing for the combo of AA-swing-AA.



Drain hope is a skillshot ability with the likeness of Jaina's Frostbolt. However that's where the similarities end. This ability does percentage-based damage and it does it over time, while restoring your health as well. The only problem being, you can only use this ability on heroes, because, obviously, minions have no souls. While Undying is active, this becomes Drain Essence which allows you to shorten your death timer by a dramatic amount, but in exchange for being dead, like with Ghastly Swing this ability does no damage.



Wraith walk is your main initiator and escape. While in wraith walk, your body is left behind and you take control of Leoric's soul. The soul gains speed over time and can pass through objects, but your body that you left behind still takes damage. An interesting fact that I recently discovered is that if you cancel wraith walk before it has reached it's maximum range, Leoric will still gain movement speed until you reach as far as your spirit could have gone. Therefore, it should go without saying that Wraith Walk can indeed be cancelled.



Entomb is Leoric's more situational ult, but is by no means bad. Entomb creates an unpathable tomb in a U shape in front of him. The main use of this ability is to allow for ganks on a single or a few targets. The only downside, however, is that it is reasonably hard to land, and so I do not recommend this talent to new players. That being said, this talent is by no means bad.



March of the Black King is Leoric's more multipurpose ult, as it allows him to not only deal a ton of damage, but to also regen an awful lot of health in the process (At 7.03% a swing, if you hit any 2 heroes 3 times you'll regen 42.24% of your health in three seconds). You also become unstoppable while the ability is active, so the only way to prevent it lasting it's full length is Zagara's Devouring Maw. That being said, this ability does require a decent chunk of positioning and timing.

Undying is really what makes this hero unique. When you die, you become a mobile ward, able to scout and harass with Ghastly Swing and Drain Essence. However the trait does not allow you to mount while dead and you still give 100% XP when you die. While this trait seems simple enough, when you resurrect, you spawn right where you were standing when your death timer ran out. So be careful not to rez in the middle of the enemy team. As of the Punisher patch however, all healing done in Undying is reduced by half, so you should have more time to decide if you want to hearth.

Side note: If the enemy team decides to chase your ghost and kill you when you revive, just Hearthstone back to the Hall of Storms.

Guide to the choices: The smaller the frame, the less I recommend the talent in general.

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Block is always a good talent on tanks, but as I mentioned earlier, Leoric is not a conventional tank. Now, while some people think that Reanimation is just a retextured version of Regeneration Master, Reanimation is active even while Undying, meaning that for every regen globe you collect, you are permanently shortening your death timer.

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Fealty Unto Death and Willing Vessel are both fantastic talents, allowing for a shortened death timer and more health regen while alive. However hardened bones simply grants a limited shield, which in most cases you won't even need. Royal Focus however, is nigh redundant as in most cases, your body will take at least some damage during Wraith Walk.

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Ossein Renewal is practically essential in every Leoric build, bar super DPS builds, in which Ghastly Reach is used. But the ability to regen 20% of your max health while alive or dead is so invaluable. Lingering Apparition and Paralyzing Rage are seldom chosen because the Ossein Renewal far surpasses them both.

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Ah, level 10. Both Entomb and March of the Black King are fantastic heroics, but if you are new to Leoric, then I recommend March of the Black King. If you feel comfortable enough to take Entomb then, by all means take it. Entomb is fantastic when used well and so is March, so, both are interchangeable, but if you're new the the character, go with March.

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At this talent range, there are several good choices and one bad one, that one being Crushing Hope. Now this talent is not bad, it's just outclassed by the other three. Burning Rage and Spell Shield are both great talents, and in certain situations, one of those two would be the preference, but the talent that I find to have the most use is Drain Momentum. Now, you can be draining health from someone while chasing them at the same time, which means that you are doing damage over time, healing yourself and chasing someone at the same time.

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At this range there are only really two choices. Renewed Swing is amazing because you not only deal more damage for free, you also refresh your auto attack and re-apply the 40% slow. Additionally, this adds to Leoric's already amazing wave clear. Consume Vitality is another amazing talent, because, in essence, every time you hear a wave, you get 10% of your max health back, which is amazing for sustain. The other two, being Imposing Presence and Unyielding Despair are both good talents in their own right, but they are really no competition to these amazing talents.

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Finally, we reach level 20, and with it, Leoric's god tier talents. So, first we have Buried Alive. This talent is absolute garbage as it does too little damage too late in the game. Secondly, we have the two amazing talents, in the forms of Death March and Spectral Leech. In my opinion, both of these talents are interchangeable and invaluable. The last talent of this tier is Hardened Shield which, much like Imposing Presence is outclassed but not necessarily terrible.

So in conclusion, Leoric is by far my favorite hero and I hope that this guide shows you just how good Leoric can be if played well.


IMPORTANT NOTE: This guide is new and I will be constantly updating it, the first update I have planned is a detailed guide showing you what to do in the early, mid and late game. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this guide!

August 18 2015: Updated section on Undying to note the healing reduction while dead.
August 30 2015: Proofread and corrected.
September 13 2015: Added extra visual effects.
September 21 2015: Visual effects polished. Proofread again. Next update will contain the guide.