Our enemy is crushed and our victory assured!

Introduction

Hey guys it's me WhosNuker back with another guide. This one will be on one of my personal favorites, Legion Commander, also known as Tresdin. Legion Commander has a strong early game nuke and a great late game presence. Now I'll be honest here I always did a jungle, Hand of Midas, and Shadow Blade build but now that I've tried this lane Legion Commander I am starting to doubt myself.(P.S. The jungle, Hand of Midas, Shadow Blade strategy did work. It just wasn't as ideal as the one this guide is talking about.) I have put a build guide for my jungle Hand of Midas and Shadow Blade if you wanna try it out. I'll explain it at the end of the guide. Without further ado, let's get started.

Skills

(Note: The Press the Attack and Duel are pictures if you have the Legacy of the Fallen Legion Banner and the Blades of Voth Domosh Arcana.)

Overwhelming Odds

Overwhelming Odds is a really good early game nuke. You want to use it to control your lane. The reason you want to skill and max this first is because of the good lane control and damage. Another good thing about Overwhelming Odds is the movement speed you get. You need to chase someone down? Use it on them and a creep wave if you can otherwise on the creep wave. Need to run away? Turn around blast them with arrows and run. If they are low enough and you are confident, you can chase them and hope for a Moment of Courage proc. You can easily secure kills on enemies who think they're safe and keep farming next to creep waves. Keep in mind during the laning phase,
you only want to use this to harass. If there are no heroes in the A.O.E., than don't use it. Only use this to clear waves after the laning phase if over.

Press the Attack

Press the Attack isn't as important if you decide to go to late with Legion Commander instead of jungle. You only want to put one point into this because it is unlikely you will be able to self-cast this, run to your enemies, and than cast Duel as they will just run away from you. This is why you max out your Moment of Courage after the Overwhelming Odds as you don't need to cast it due to it being a passive special.

Moment of Courage

Moment of Courage is the second skill you want to max. It is a lot better than Press the Attack. In the time you Duel someone, you are more likely to heal more than if you have used Press the Attack. Another reason you want to max your Moment of Courage right after your Overwhelming Odds is because it scales really well. As you level it up, you get more lifesteal and the cooldown reduces significantly. Since I recommend the level 20 talent as the +10% Moment of Courage Proc Chance, you want the cooldoown to be the lowest cooldown which is .8 seconds.

Duel

Duel is the ability that made Legion Commander such a popular hero. This is the one skill that makes her viable into the late game and a carry. Each win you get, you get 10/14/18 Duel damage based on the level of your Duel. Also, at level 25, I recommend getting the +40 Duel damage talent. This means that for each win you get, you will receive 58 Duel damage. Keep in mind, however, that if you lose to your opponent, they will receive 10/14/18 Duel damage and at the level 25 +40 talent, they will get 58 Duel damage.

Items

There are many things that you can build on a Legion Commander. She is very flexible and you can build her based on your play style. This is my ideal build and if you can't think of a build, feel free to use this build. (P.S. I will be combining the 4 Early Games together as they are essentially the same build just based on the game.)

Starting Items

So for the starting items, you want to get a Stout Shield,a set of Tango, and a Quelling Blade. I put in the Town Portal Scroll and the Clarity because you will be spamming Overwhelming Odds a lot so you want to have a Clarity just in case and a Town Portal Scroll if you need to gank around the map. You don't need to buy these items if you don't want to but I do suggest it.

Early Game

Alright so for the 4 early game builds. You wan't to build your Phase Boots first of all, well you always want to get boots first. You want Phase Boots because it gives you really good damage and that little bit of phase movement speed can get you a kill if you are smart with it. Now onto the parts of the build that are different. So you can either build Blink Dagger before Blade Mail, which you build if you trust your team enough to help you get the Duel win. (I don't recommend either the Blink Dagger before the Blade Mail or the Blink Dagger before Armlet of Mordiggian. 10% of the time, the team will actually help you get the win. 40% of the time, the team will either not help or be unable to kill them cause they don't to "waste" their skills. And the last 50% of players will sit there and try to steal the kill just to act cool so don't recommend relying on your team unless you are with friends.)You can build Blade Mail before Blink Dagger. Build this if the enemy has good right click damage. You can build Blink Dagger before Armlet of Mordiggian, which again do not recommend but build this if the enemy has 2 or more supports. Finally, you can build Armlet of Mordiggian before Blink Dagger which you build if you are going to go hunt for supports instead of carries. Most of the time you want to do the Blade Mail before Blink Dagger because you have the movement speed with Phase Boots and Overwhelming Odds so the Blink Dagger isn't as necessary.

Mid Game

Alright so for the mid game items. You want a Desolator, Boots of Travel, Vanguard, and Shadow Blade. The Desolator is quite self explanatory. Increase damage by lowering their armor. Boots of Travel because you want to be able to roam around the map and get more duel damage. After that, you want a Vanguard. As you get later in the game, it'll be harder to get duels as the enemies will start bunching so you want to get a Vanguard to get more survivability. Finally, you want to build a Shadow Blade. When you build this, you will be 6 slotted so sell your Phase Boots for this. You want to have a Shadow Blade if you need to escape or initiate. I recommend to use the Blink Dagger to initiate and the Shadow Blade to escape because once you finish your Duel, you can instantly Shadow Walk if not stunned but can't blink out.

Late Game

For the late game items, you are pretty much just taking the items you bought before and upgrading them. First one you want to get is an Abyssal Blade. Use this to stun tanky heroes so you can ado some damage before you duel them. Another use for the Abyssal Blade is to break an enemy's Liken's Sphere. Next you want to upgrade your Shadow Blade into a Silver Edge. Pretty much just to upgrade it but it can become useful if you need to break a passive such as Phantom Assassin's Blur. Than get a Moon Shard to just get that bonus attack speed and finally upgrade your boots into Boots of Travel 2

Situational Items

For the situational items, Black King Bar, Satanic, Monkey King Bar, Heart of Tarrasque, Gem of True Sight, or Divine Rapier. The reason I put Black King Bar in the situational items is because for some games you don't need to have the item. Yes a lot of people think of it as a core item but I.M.O., it really isn't. Since towards the end of the game, you can usually kill them in a few hits, you don't need to worry about being stunned if you can surprise them. Satanic is really an item you don't buy. Only buy it if an enemy that your team requires you to lockdown has one. Monkey King Bar is if the enemy builds evasion items. Heart of Tarrasque is if you really need to become tanky. I don't recommend this item as you can just go into the jungle and heal yourself. Gem of True Sight can be bought on her even though I don't recommend it as if you die that might mess up your team. Finally, the Divine Rapier should only be bought if you are unkillable.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Good early game nuke
Has really good base movement speed
Duel makes her really powerful in the late game
Good lockdown with Duel
Good survivability with her decently high armor and her Moment of Courage
Easy hero to farm with
Generally easy hero to learn
Can zone the enemy out of lane

Cons

Without Duel damage, you will be quite useless in the late game
Kinda sorta item dependent
Doesn't have a built in stun
Doesn't really like to build Monkey King Bar so she struggles with evasion

Talents

For the level 10 talent, you have +20% experience gain or +7 strength. You always want to choose the +20% experience gain. The +7 strength talent gives you +.42 health regeneration and +140 health. This is just not worth it. Also, Legion Commander has good talents higher up so you want to level her as fast as you can along with the extra Duel damage you get from higher levels of Duel.

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For the level 15 talent, you have +30 damage or +20 movement speed. Most of the time, you want the +30 damage. The +20 movement speed, to be honest, is really trash on Legion Commander. In the early game, you should have Phase Boots by the time you have Overwhelming Odds at level 2. By using Overwhelming Odds, on an entire creep wave and one or two heroes while using your Phase Boots, it gives you around 524 or so movement speed. You don't need that extra +20 movement speed unless they have super fast heroes like Night Stalker at night or Chaos Knight with a stun and a horse. The +30 damage can be the difference between getting a Duel win or not.

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For the level 20 talent, you have +7 armor or +10% Moment of Courage proc chance. You usually want to get the +10% Moment of Courage proc chance. The +7 armor is good yes, but the lifesteal from Moment of Courage is far better. The +10% Moment of Courage proc chance raises the chance to 35%. Now this may not seem like a lot but it really is. I've had countless fights that by having the +10% Moment of Courage proc chance has saved my life. You should only take the +7 armor if they have absurd physical damage and I mean absurd.

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For the level 25 talent, you have -8s Press the Attack Cooldown Reduction or +40 Duel damage bonus. You should always take the +40 Duel damage. The -8s Press the Attack Cooldown reduction is just redundant. At level 25, your Press the Attack has an 13 second cooldown with a 110 mana cost. If you decrease it to 5 seconds, you will be wasting so much mana and that is not desirable due to Legion Commander's fairly low mana pool. Also, this isn't a move you want to be spamming anyways. At max level, Press the Attack only heals 300 hp. If you think about it, that's nothing when you have items in the late game. Even supports will have almost 2,000 hp at around 45 minutes. Pretty much, the -8s Press the Attack Cooldown Reduction just isn't as good as the +40 Duel damage.

Runes

This is just a section about which runes benefit you the most and which you don't really need. This part really isn't that important so you don't need to read it but it's good information to know.

Rune of Invisibility-This is the second best rune you can grab in the game. This allows you to sneakily gank other lanes with duels. If you have your Blink Dagger, don't use it. Grab the Rune of Invisibility and sneak up behind your enemy but before you Duel, use Press the Attack and Blade Mail if you have it for a higher chance of getting the win.
Rune of Regeneration-This rune really isn't for Legion Commander. If you need health, just go into the jungle for a few seconds and you can just walk right back out with full hp it's that simple. The only reason you should grab this rune is if you just happen to be next to it, need mana, and need to join back in the fight. Otherwise leave this for your teammates.
Rune of Haste-This is the third best rune to grab. This will let you get around the map quickly and get to low hp heroes to Duel and get easy damage.
Rune of Double Damage-This is the best rune you can grab. It doubles your damage output which is so significant to winning duels. Also, if you are losing in the late game and you have 350-400+ duel damage and you just happen to see a Rune of Double Damage, grab it and go backdoor with Press the Attack. Hey you may hate it but you never know, could win you guys a game.
Rune of Illusion-This like the most useless rune for you to grab. The only use for this rune as a Legion Commander is to bait them into a trap. The illusions don't deal damage so there is no point as you don't build a Radiance.
Bounty Rune-This is a rune you can just casually grab. You don't really need this as you can just go in the jungle for a bit and get more gold and exp than taking it. Best left for supports and roaming supports but if you want to, feel free to grab this.

Heroes

In this section, I will be talking about the heroes that help and harm you pretty much.

Allies

Nukers are of utmost great importance. Having a nuker on your team that will willingly follow you and help you get some Duel wins is great. Here are a few examples.

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Lina has an arsenal of nukes. Her Laguna Blade does insane amounts of damage and if that doesn't finish them off, she can even use her Dragon Slave. One of the best nukers in the game, she will be a great assistance.

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Lion has one of the best nukes in the game, Finger of Death. Afraid you'll die too soon and don't want to test your luck with Moment of Courage? Lion has your back with a stun and a hex disabling them and making sure you make it out alive and your enemies dead.

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Invoker is one of my favorite heroes to play with Legion Commander. With a global nuke, Sun Strike, it almost guarantees you a win. Dealing up to 512 pure damage with an Aghanim's Scepter on Invoker.

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Axe is generally not considered a nuker by any means. However, I included him in this part of the guide because Culling Blade can help you secure a kill. Think you might not be able to finish the Duel in time and there is an Axe nearby? Hit him up.

Ok so survivalists may not make a lot of sense right now. What I mean by survivalists are heroes that keep you alive during Duels These prevent you from losing the Duel to your opponents and getting flamed by your team. Here are a few examples.

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Dazzle is a great support to have with Legion Commander. Having Shadow Wave to heal you and hurt your enemies, Shallow Grave to prevent you from dying, and Weave Armor to increase your armor while decreasing your enemies, these two are a force to be reckoned with.

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Omniknight is another great example. With Purification, it heals and damages with pure damage. This will help you secure Duel damage much easier. Along with Purification, Omniknight has Guardian Angel if it is needed as a last resort and Repel to protect you from spells.

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Treant Protector has Living Armor, which blocks damage and heals you. If you are about to die and you need a little bit of extra healing and damage block, Treant Protector has got your bark.<-- Heh see what I did there? Bark. Funny... I'm pathetic sorry. Onto the next one.

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Oracle pretty much stops all damage you receive for a short period of time. False Promise stops all damage and amplifies healing for a certain period of time. Need to clutch out a win before you die, leave it to Oracle. He can heal you while you have False Promise on so you get an amplified buff and a higher chance of surviving after the effect wears off along with your own passive, Moment of Courage.

These are just a few examples of the different types of allies and specific heroes. There are many more but too many that I can't cover them all so explore around and see which ones you think are best for you based on your play style.

For the enemies, they are literally all the allies to that are listed above. Anyone that can help Legion Commander can also harm her. I really don't want to rewrite what I just said above and I don't want to copy and paste and make you guys reread all of it. Pretty much, any hero that can help Legion Commander can also harm her.

Lanes

For this section, I'll be talking about which lanes it is best to play Legion Commander in.

In my opinion, Legion Commander works the best in the mid lane. As in the guide, you should skill and max Overwhelming Odds first. Since there will be an extra melee creep in the mid lane for the first 15 minutes, this means more nuke damage which means more lane control. You will struggle a bit in the mid lane if the enemy is a really harass heavy ranged hero but as long as they don't get farm it's all good, even if you do die a few times. A really important part of playing Legion Commander in the mid lane is as soon as you get your Phase Boots and Duel, you want to go gank another lane. It is easy for the enemy to just run under their tower and that's a risky Duel at early levels so you don't want to do that. Ideally, you want to gank your safe lane as the enemies will be closer to your tower and you can sneak behind them. The second best lane for Legion Commander. Legion Commander is a really aggressive early game hero. You have a really strong nuke to control the lane and as soon as you get your Duel, you can kill your enemies really fast. The reason off lane is the second best lane is because she has the tools to be aggressive and take harass without having to go back to base. Moment of Courage is a really good early game lifesteal ability to keep you in lane. The reason I don't like to play Legion Commander in the safe lane is because she's not a true hard carry and it's harder to play aggressive here. Legion Commander is only a semi hard carry. You want to leave your safe lane for your true hard carry, and even if you don't have one on the team, leave it for another carry. It is harder to be aggressive in this lane as the enemy has a shrine to rely on while you don't.

Conclusion 1

Well that's about it for this guide today. I hope you all enjoyed. Please don't forget to leave a rating and a comment, I would really appreciate it. Tell me what other guides you want me to create and I'll try my best. The next guide on the agenda at the moment is a Spectre guide so look forward to that. I will have a video of gameplay with this guide coming up shortly so also look forward to that. Sorry this guide is a bit long but thanks for reading and have a nice day.

For the people who want to check out the jungling part of the guide continue reading below.

Jungling

Alright for those who stuck around for the jungling guide. So, you want to start of with an Iron Talon like almost every jungle guide. The reason you don't want to get anything else is because 1. You don't need anything else and 2. You want to get to your Hand of Midas and Shadow Blade as soon as possible so you can help your team. (Note: When you are jungling, make sure you stack the camps whenever you can to maximize your farming potential.) Pretty much what you want to do is jungle till you have your Shadow Blade. In my experience, it is better to get your Boots of Speed before you leave the jungle but if you feel like you can get some Duel damage without it feel free to. The Town Portal Scroll is just to teleport into lane and get the Duel off. Than all you do is go invisible, run behind an enemy, preferably a support, use Press the Attack and watch them drop. Never duel tanky heroes when you are just leaving the jungle unless your team has a bunch of nukes and are willing to help you. Than just continue doing this until you get stacked. After the Shadow Blade, you want an armlet for more health and damage since you will mostly be dueling a support at the early part of the game. Boots of Travel are just so you don't need to keep buying scrolls and for greater mobility. Skull Basher is for the stun and Blink Dagger is for more initiation. The reason I have both Shadow Blade and Blink Dagger in both builds is because it is a safer way to initiate. You can blink in and once the Duel is finished, just go invisible and leave. You don't want to overwelcome your stay or there will be problems. Moon Shard is good on Legion Commander because she benefits more from attack speed than damage. Desolator for more damage and the rest is just upgrading your current items. This works really well if the enemy has a lot of squishy heroes. That's about it for this. You pretty much play Legion Commander the same just with this build.

Video

This is a work in progress, A.K.A. I still don't the video up yet but it will be coming soon don't worry.

Conclusion 2

And that's the end of the entire guide. Hope you found it useful. Don't forget to leave a rating and a comment and thanks to those who stuck around for the jungling section. Thanks again and have a nice day.