Leshrac is a core that requires farm

In pubs, Leshrac’s win rate is negative at most ranks. In my opinion, this is caused by the attitude of the players that often relegate him to a support role: even if you know how to play him, the team won’t give you the space and opportunities necessary to farm gold and build items.

If we take a look at the matches during ESL One Birmingham 2018, Leshrac is played mainly as a core, and sometimes as a roamer. The hero requires multiple items to do his job and use his spells: a huge amount of mana regeneration, extra mobility and movement speed, and ways to increase his toughness and survivability.

Below, the most bought items on Leshrac in pro Dota during May:

Arcane Boots: 75

Magic Wand: 72

Infused Raindrops: 62

Eul’s Scepter of Divinity: 50

Bloodstone: 27

Black King Bar: 27

Urn of Shadows: 22

Boots of Travel: 20

Arcane Boots and Magic Wand are both helpful for extra mana during the early and mid game.

The Eul’s Scepter of Divinity is the most used core item because it helps the hero with enhanced mobility and mana regeneration. The active ability “Cyclone” is awesome in ganks and teamfights: Diabolic Edict and Pulse Nova keep damaging all enemies in range while you are immune to any attack for 2.5 seconds.

The Bloodstone is a great choice for mana regeneration and survivability, particularly if you are snowballing and can gain multiple charges.

Your spells have a low casting range, and you need to stay next to the enemies to exploit the AoE ones, so any stun or slow will interfere and reduce your effectiveness in teamfight. Magic immunity is mandatory, and you should buy the Black King Bar as 3rd or 4th item.

The Urn of Shadows is an optimal choice for a roamer, and will boost even more the total magic damage you can inflict on a target. Overall, I suggest to always have one in the team, but avoid it if you are playing as one of the main cores.

Leshrac is a great pusher who can annihilate entire creep waves and destroy towers quickly. The Boots of Travel give you extra movement speed, and the Teleport ability is fundamental when split-pushing.

Do not underestimate the Infused Raindrops

I want to point out the amazing utility provided by the Infused Raindrops. For 225 gold they give +0.5 mana regeneration and 5 charges that can block up to 120 magic damage each.

We have already discussed about Leshrac’s survivability issues and how the problem persists even after the recent buffs. The Raindrops will save your life countless times from ganks during the early game - when facing magic nukers. Do not neglect them just to save some gold!

I believe they have an even greater value in pub games where you can’t count on proper wards and communication from the team.

How to counter Leshrac

Leshrac is one of the heroes I recently covered in my “How to counter” series, where I explain items, heroes, and tips to deal against a determinate opponent.

Night Stalker - Roaming and map control

Efficient roamers and gankers are of great help in the current meta, and Night Stalker is a boss among them, especially if you can exploit his first night. I featured him in the best strength heroes of 7.07.

IceFrog nerfed him several times, reducing his daytime vision, the attack speed bonus of Hunter in the Night in the early levels, the duration of Darkness, and more. Recently, he was also affected by more direct nerfs as 7.13b weakened his base armor from 3 to 2 and the movement speed from 295 to 290.

Despite everything, he still remains a top pick in the meta thanks to his mobility, gank prowess, and vision advantages he gives to his team.

7.16 changes