Leoric Talents

Level	Choices
1	? ? ✓
4	? ✓ ?
7	? ✓ ?
10	✓ ?
13	? ? ✓
16	? ? ✓
20	✓ ? ? ?

Consume Vitality is a good Talent that makes Skeletal Swing heal Leoric for each enemy Hero hit, something that works well in long team fights but it is not that interesting while laning, although it can be useful against some Heroes. Consume Vitality slightly benefits from Ghastly Reach at Level 4.

Fealty Unto Death is a good Talent that allows Leoric to regenerate both Health and Mana whenever a nearby allied or enemy Minion dies. Pick this Talent when you will not really need the alternatives during team fights and you want to empower your self-sustain while in lane.

Ossein Renewal is a strong Talent that increases Leoric's survivability during relatively short team fights while also boosting Leoric's self-sustain tool in the solo lane.

Ghastly Reach is a good Talent that slightly increases the area covered by Skeletal Swing, making it easier to hit multiple enemy Heroes with it.

We find this Talent quite useful when going for Consume Vitality at Level 1 and/or Royal Focus at Level 16 because they give more value when hitting multiple enemy Heroes with Skeletal Swing.

Paralyzing Rage is a strong Talent that increases the Slow provided by Skeletal Swing, which can be good either offensively or defensively.

In general, we strongly recommend this Talent because it helps you with Drain Hope and Basic Attacks. If your team does not have a main Tank, you have to pick this Talent to make up for that as it allows you to engage or peel decently.

Kneel, Peasants! is a situational Talent that increases the damage done by Skeletal Swing to Mercenaries and Monsters.

Although this Talent makes you faster at clearing enemy Mercenaries in lane and/or at capturing Mercenary Camps on Maps with many of them (such as Garden of Terror), we only recommend it on Infernal Shrines because the cooldown reset from Monsters helps securing the Objective and can also provide value during team fights.

Willing Vessel is a situational Talent that increases the healing provided by Drain Hope, especially if it lasts for its full duration. Pick this Talent only if you desperately need the additional healing it provides and you are confident that Drain Hope will not be disconnected before its end. Do not pick this Talent against healing reduction effects.

Drain Momentum is a strong Talent that offers a significant Movement Speed bonus for a few seconds, which not only allows you to both chase and escape from enemy Heroes much more efficiently, but also helps you stick to the enemy Hero targeted by your Drain Hope, damaging and healing for more as a result. Drain Momentum indirectly helps Talents that require Drain Hope to last for its full duration.

Hopelessness is a good Talent that increases the range of Drain Hope, decreasing the chance that the targeted enemy Hero will disconnect from it too early. Pick this Talent if you need the additional range it provides. Hopelessness directly helps Talents who require Drain Hope to last for its full duration.

In this section we discuss when and why to pick a given Heroic Ability. If you want to read how they work in detail and/or you are looking for some tips on how to use them, check them out on the Abilities and Strategy page.

Entomb is a strong Heroic Ability that gives you access to otherwise weak crowd control, a strong tool to swing the battle in your favor, especially if your team has decent burst damage as a follow up (for example Jaina).

March of the Black King is a situational Heroic Ability that increases Leoric's survivability and damage, other than making him Unstoppable for the duration. You may need this Heroic Ability when your team does not have enough burst damage as follow-up for Entomb, when you desperately need to increase the damage output of your team, or when you feel the urgency of extra healing to keep yourself in a good shape during prolonged team fights.

Unyielding Despair is a good Talent that allows Leoric to use Drain Hope more often, especially if the target enemy Hero does not break the connection too early. Unyielding Despair requires either Drain Momentum or Hopelessness at Level 7, Talents that help with the aforementioned weakness.

Ominous Wraith is a good Talent that makes Wraith Walk reduce the damage done by enemy Heroes hit by its trail, especially useful on Heroes that can deal a lot of damage. Remember that damage reduction effects work on Unstoppable enemy Heroes as well (for example Deathwing). When going for Ominous Wraith, pick Royal Focus at Level 16 for the cooldown reduction.

Spectral Leech is a strong Talent that empowers Leoric's Basic Attacks with a leech effect. In particular, Basic Attacks against enemy Heroes will deal percent-based damage and heal Leoric for twice that amount. Spectral Leech has good synergy with Mithril Mace at Level 16, unless you want Crushing Hope at the same Tier to increase your burst damage.

Crushing Hope is a good Talent that increases Leoric's percent-based damage even more, something that may be useful against enemy Heroes having high maximum Health and no mobility at all (such as Azmodan). Crushing Hope requires either Drain Momentum or Hopelessness at Level 7, else the enemy Hero will just get out of range before Drain Hope ends and this Talent will not trigger.

Royal Focus is a good Talent that increases Leoric's damage by a fair amount and reduces the cooldown of Wraith Walk by 7 seconds for each enemy Hero hit by Skeletal Swing, a powerful boost to Ominous Wraith at Level 13.

Mithril Mace is a strong Quest-based Talent that increases Leoric's Attack Speed by 20% when picked, up to 50% after killing enough Minions and/or Heroes. Mithril Mace has good synergy with Spectral Leech at Level 13: the increased percent-based damage and self-healing can cause severe issues for enemy Heroes with high maximum Health (for example Stitches).

Buried Alive is a strong Talent that turns Entomb into an even more scary engage tool thanks to the Silence effect it provides to the already impactful unpassable terrain. Consequently, it is an excellent choice against Heroes with mobility or defensive Abilities because they are completely defenseless when caught by Entomb. The additional damage is nice to have, but this Talent is already powerful without it.

Death March is a good Talent that makes the last swing of March of the Black King apply Drain Hope to all nearby enemy Heroes. Keep in mind that any instance of Drain Hope applied by Death March will be empowered by Talents as well.

Assuming you do not need Buried Alive, you should prefer going for Burning Despair over Death March because it gives similar damage but constant Armor rather than delayed healing and it works even when your Heroic Ability is on cooldown.

Burning Despair is a strong Talent that offers a significant amount of extra damage and survivability. While it passively deals damage around Leoric, the damage and the area covered are doubled while Drain Hope is active on an enemy Hero.

The survivability boost only comes when Drain Hope is being channeled, in the form of bonus Armor, which you will be able to keep constantly active thanks to Unyielding Despair at Level 13.

Burning Despair has good synergy with either Drain Momentum or Hopelessness at Level 7 because they help Leoric to keep the enemy Hero affected by Drain Hope in range for more time.

Shroud of the Dead King is a decent Talent that, when manually activated, makes Leoric unkillable for 3 seconds, a powerful tool against burst damage. All that said, you should rarely pick this Talent because the alternatives will be more valuable most if not all the time.