Leash

“

▶️ Stay and amuse me! — Puck

”

Leash is a status effect that prevents affected units from casting some mobility spells, sharing the same list as root.

Mechanics

Attempting to blink while leashed.

Leash disables casting several mobility abilities (e.g. Blink-based abilities) and it shares a few interactions with the Root mechanic. Although, Leash prevents casting certain abilities, it does not cancel them when getting leashed while the ability is cast. Leash also does not interrupt channeling, but it always cancels Town Portal Scroll's and Keen Conveyance teleports.

Sources

Leash Sources

• Enigma – Black Hole
• Faceless Void – Chronosphere³
• Grimstroke – Soulbind
• Legion Commander – Duel
• Puck – Dream Coil
• Slark – Pounce
• Tidehunter – Dead in the Water

Leash Sources: Temporary Fence

• Disruptor – Kinetic Field
• Mars – Arena of Blood

¹ Requires Talent

^2a Requires Aghanim's Scepter.

^2b Requires Aghanim's Shard.

³ Requires selecting the corresponding facet.

Ignores Leash

Ignores Leash

• Chen – Divine Favor (Self-Cast)
• Dawnbreaker – Solar Guardian
• Io – Relocate
• Keeper of the Light – Recall
• Vengeful Spirit – Nether Swap
• Weaver – Time Lapse

• Fiend's Gate – Warp
• Twin Gate – Warp

Disable Certain Components

Leash Disables Certain Components [Conditional]

• Kez – Echo Slash
• Pangolier – Shield Crash
• Ursa – Earthshock

Other

Special Interactions with Leash

• Disruptor - Kinetic Field
  
  Healing Ward cannot pass through this fence, unlike other Spell Immune units.
• Grimstroke - Soulbind
  
  If Leashed target didn't move from the moment of being Leashed, some abilities can break the Leash by increasing distance between heroes.
• Puck - Dream Coil
  
  If you use Nether Swap on a leashed enemy that reflects the spell, the leash will not break.
• Hurricane Pike - Hurricane Thrust
  
  Leash prevents the ability from being used on the victim, but does not prevent the victim from using the ability on an enemy.
  Breaks Pounce Leash.

Special Interactions with Leash and Teleport

• Spirit Bear - Return
  
  Can't be cast while leashed.
  If already channeling, Leash won't prevent teleport.
• Templar Assassin - Psionic Projection
  
  Can't be cast while leashed.
  IF already channeling, Leash will prevent teleport if by the end of the chanelling unit it is still leashed.

Pulling out of max leash range

• Magnus - Skewer
  
  Can't pull through Temporary Fence and can't pull unit affected by Pounce out of max range.
• Slark - Pounce
  
  Unlike Dream Coil, the Leash will not be broken just because the unit went too far.
  However, Cyclone will break the leash in this case.
• Pudge - Meat Hook
  
  Can pull in any Leash case.

Version History

Version

Description

7.38b
(2025-03-05)

• Removed talent that added lesah to Sprout.

7.36a
(2024-05-26)

• Force Staff and similar abilities/items can no longer be used on Leashed targets.

7.32
(2022-08-24)

• REWORKED
  Aghanim's Scepter upgrade: no longer upgrade Stampede to leash enemies.

7.31
(2022-02-23)

• The following abilities now leash enemies:
  • Stampede
  • Power Cogs
  • Sprout

7.20
(2018-11-19)

• Added the Leash mechanic.
• The following abilities now leash enemies:
  • Soulbind
  • Dream Coil
  • Pounce

Patch History

Patch

Description

08 Aug 2019

• Added Leashed overhead text.