An Examination of Leap Attack: Version: 1.03 Skill Level: Veteran Game Type: Any Author: Matman Objective: To Uncover the Many uses of Leap

Whirlwind, Whirlwind, Whirlwind. Of all the skills of all the character classes in Diablo II, Whirlwind is certainly one of the most coveted and talked-about, second only to Corpse Explosion. It's a vicious attack, and rightly so; you'll have to wait until you reach character level (Clvl) 30 to put even a single point into it. It's also the primary special attack of most Barbarians.

An often-overlooked Barbarian skill - but one that is just as useful as the almighty Whirlwind - is Leap Attack. So useful, in fact, that it's preferable to Whirlwind in many, many situations.

Click for a look at my char's stats. Note the Leap Attack damage is163-438. It's much higher when I don't have the shield equipped.

What exactly does Leap Attack (LA) do? First, the skill allows your Barb to leap across the field of battle to engage an enemy at point-blank range. Second, the subsequent attack is delivered with greater force than a standard melee attack. At level 1, LA gives your Barb a 50% attack-rating bonus and a +100% damage modifier. That's already substantial. Double damage is always good. By level 5, Leap Attack grants you a 110% attack-rating bonus and a 220% damage bonus. That's very impressive, for the allocation of five skill points. By the time you reach level 20 in Leap Attack, your attack rating/damage bonus is a whopping +335% / +670%. That means you almost never miss your target, and deal ridiculous amounts of damage when you land. Shortly after I "discovered" LA, I thought to myself, "My goodness, this is almost like cheating."

Leap Attack always costs 9 mana to use. The official strategy guide (and the official Blizzard website, last time I checked) lists a range for LA, with the yardage increasing with each point put into the skill. Ignore this. From level one, LA will carry you across the entire screen. It's a bug, and I understand there is no plan to fix it, as it may be inoperable. Lucky you.

Bypassing the goatmen to get at the Vampire (who has a nasty ranged attack).

So what are the practical applications of Leap Attack? Well, in layman's terms, LA turns your character into a ranged weapon. This is why it's such a powerful tool for the Barbarian. The Amazon wields a bow -- the classic ranged weapon - or a javelin, which may also be thrown. The Sorceress has a variety of ranged attacks at her disposal. The Necromancer usually stands behind a wall of his own Skellies, Golems and Revives, while launching missiles or curses at enemy monsters. The Paladin has no practical ranged attack, and only a fool would equip one with a bow. Ah, pity the poor, maligned Paladin; his lack of a ranged attack is just one reason I (and many others) consider him to be the weakest of the five D2 classes.

But I'm wandering. My point is that the Barbarian may use LA to target any creature on the screen, regardless of what's between it and you. When you approach a Fallen Camp in Act I, what's the first thing you do? You find the Shamen and kill them first, of course. If you are a Bowazon, you must jockey your character into position before you can pick off a specific target, and that's tough if there is a good number of monsters around. It's a tremendous pain to clear a path for your arrow if the Fallen you just killed is suddenly resurrected. Ditto for Firebolt. Ditto Teeth. Ditto any ranged attack that does not travel through its target. These problems can be overcome by these classes once they reach higher levels, of course, but that's a topic for another strategy article.

A Barbarian with even a level one LA (we're talking about Nightmare mode, in this specific example) can quickly wipe the camp clean of Shamen in ten seconds or less. Literally. You should reach Clvl 18 (the skill level requirement for LA) well before you begin Act III Normal, and believe me, LA is a blessing against the Fetish and all their cousins. Treat the Fetish Shamen the same way you would the Fallen Shamen: Leap from Shaman to Shaman until they're all dead, then pick off the Fetish at your leisure. Tired of chasing the blowgun-Fetish all over creation? That's no longer a problem once you have Leap Attack in your arsenal. Jump from blowgun to blowgun, just like you did with the Shamen. They almost always fall with a single whack of your sword. And as a bonus: you cannot be hit by any attack while in the act of leaping. It's quite possible to clear an entire field of Fetish - firebreathing Shamen included - without taking any significant damage. It's almost like cheating.

Here I am jumping past a horde of Doom Knights and Finger Mages to get at the pesky Oblivion Knight at the back of the pack. They usually fall with a single Leap Attack.

Using this same technique, I cleared out hordes of Oblivion Knights (Act IV) by leaping over the heads of the nasty Doom Knights that always seem to accompany them in Act IV. Naturally, the Doom Knights are in front of the Oblivion Knights, so other classes have to tangle with the Dooms first, while the Oblivions are happily getting in free hit after free hit. LA lets you eliminate the greater Oblivion threat, then move on to the weaker Doom Knights. Of all the applications of LA, the ability to take out the most threatening or bothersome monster first is the most powerful.

Another advantage of Leap Attack is one of convenience; and sometimes, that convenience can save your life. A Barbarian can leap across water, the empty space of the Arcane Sanctuary and, amazingly, through the grating you'll find in the Jail and other places, including the underground areas of Act III. (This is another bug, by the way. The game's creators had no intention of allowing the Barb to simply pass through metal bars at will. This bug, like the one mentioned earlier, may or may not be fixed in a future patch. Probably not, though.) So why not just use Leap instead of Leap Attack, and save myself 7 mana? Because a level 1Leap will propel you a pitiful 4.6 yards, while a level 1 Leap Attack has infinite range. You don't want to waste any valuable skill points just to get your Leap up to a decent range. Put one point into Leap, as it's a prerequisite for Leap Attack, then leave it alone.

Bypassing the goatmen to get at the Vampire (who has a nasty ranged attack).

But the leaping action does more than save you time by jumping over the pond instead of walking around it. You can leap attack Oblivion Knights in the Arcane Sanctuary without having to slog though all those goatmen first. Again, you want to keep the ranged attackers from getting in free hits while you take out the melee attackers. This strategy will become a key to your success as a Barbarian, and you will use in all four acts and all three difficulty levels.

Finally, LA gets you out of trouble as quickly and easily as it gets you into it ;-) Jumping into the fray is the natural inclination of the Barbarian, but sometime we get in over our heads. We're tough, but we're not invincible. Should you find yourself in the midst of a pack of Flayers (a common occurrence) or a gang of Claw Vipers (also common), just move your cursor to the edge of the screen - in the direction you came from, of course - and right-click. Boom. You're in the clear and drinking a health potion. ATTENTION: You can't drink a potion while you're in the air, so hit your belt key just before you jump, especially if you've been poisoned. Dying of poison while in mid-air is horribly embarrassing.

Not good. I'm outta here.

Another important fact to keep in mind is that your ability to leap away from a pack of Finger Mages will be greatly hampered by the fact that Finger Mages drain your mana rather quickly. You'll find most Finger Mages in Act IV. They're the floating, glowing things that look like giant face-huggers from the movie Alien.

I've included some shots of my character stats and skill trees. Please don't laugh. I didn't know how bad Find Potion was when I started playing this game. Although it's a testament to the power of Leap Attack that I could waste so many skill points and still breeze through Nightmare mode. (Howl??? WTF was I thinking?) I'm also carrying Sigon's Guard, BTW, which gives +1 to all my skills. So don't be fooled.

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