Hey all this is my first published Guide on here and I just wanted to let you know how I am choosing to build Leoric. Please Check back as I learn him better and update this guide. Please comment letting me know what you think and what you would like to see.

My name is Dathrio and I have been playing HOTS since Alpha. Leoric is one of my new favorite tanks as he can dish out a good amount of damage and can sustain in line a long time. This build Focuses on building up his drain ability, making him a more DPS tank,, with built in health and mana control when in a lane.

Level 1

• -Best- I Choose Mana Thirst as Skeletal Swing is a great slow already and destroys minions. The best way to look at it is even if you hit just 1 enemy, like a fleeing hero, you get this abilities total cost reduced.
  
  OPTIMALLY, you can use this ability to clear lanes or engage heroes near minions to get this Cast for FREE! yes FREE! you get up to 50 mana back which the ability costs 50 mana.
  
• -Situational- I still need to test this ability to see if it just increase the cast range or the range at which your tethered opponent has to run to escape your drain.
  
  With the first, increased range does not help you as you want to get close then cast it, because at early levels you are slowed after use and the increase cast range means the enemy can get out of it quicker.
  
  If it is the later, I will be updating this guide and choosing that as this guide is focused around the Drain Hope and and increase to the range and enemy has to move is great.
  
• -Avoid- The only reason I would choose this is if I am building a very tanky build, which is not the focus of this build.
  
• -Avoid- Although the ability to pick up Globes while Undying is nifty, I have not had much issue with keeping his health up and have not needed this talent.

Level 4

• -Best- I like this one due to you being able to destroy minions with your Skeletal Swing. each minion wave has 7 minions if you are nearby them dying, you will get 7% of your total health back and 35 mana. CRAZY. At level 20 that equals 364 health. But that's not all.
  
  This ability activates when any minions dies nearby, including your own. So let's assume you trade waves, as in both your minions and the enemy minions are killed off in the middle and your by them. You will have received 14% of you max health and 70 mana! At level 20 that is 728 health.
  
• -Avoid- I do not take this talent as it only adds 5% max health heal for a full use of Drain Hope which comes out to 1.25% extra a second the ability is active. While it can be helpful, with this build I rarely needed extra heals.
  
• -Situational- This is a good pick if you find yourself in bad positioning a lot or getting focused down quick. Wraith Walk is your escape but leaving your body behind can still take you out of the fight and this can keep you alive longer.
  
• -Avoid- useless really. Only benefit you will get is to be able to close the gap on fleeing enemies and save 4 seconds on the cooldown. If you use Wraith Walk for escaping, this talent is useless as your body will definitely still be attacked.

Level 7

• -Situational- This is a good choice for going against highly mobile enemies and for securing that kill on a running hero. However this is my second choice talent at this level.
• -Avoid- 60% increase duration = 1.5 extra seconds for a total of 4 seconds. While that can be helpful for chasing down fleeing enemies, I have not had an issue not catching them with the already 2.5 seconds and I try to not leave my buddy too long while using Wraith Walk to escape as I will get focused and probably still die.
• -Best- The point is to keep enemies near you as long as possible to optimize you Drain Hope. This keeps them real close and helps your team secure more kills with that extra 20% move speed slow.
  
  Also while dead Undying lets you still use this ability to slow enemies so adds even more support for your team even if you die.
  
• -Situational- I would only get this if you have no healer on your team. Also the ability to use this while dead to revive faster is great if you plan to die a lot.

Level 10

• -Situational- can be great to stop fleeing heroes, but you can just use Wraith Walk to chase down that kill. Can also be used to block paths or borrow lanes kind of like t***ador's Force Wall. Granted you can cause damage with the level 20 talent upgrade = to 624 damage at level 20 if the enemy is inside it all 4 seconds. I usually avoid this ability.
• -Best- I choose this do to being able to plow through people and heal yourself. Yes if you miss you are probably screwed but at level 20 without the extra talent each swing does 410 damage and heals you for 7.03% max HP per hero hit. (Not sure if hitting the same hero 3x will heal 3x or just once will test).