Leap attack mechanics

I'm looking to build a leap attack barb. I've heard mixed reviews about them and I have a couple of questions I want to clear before I start dumping points in it.

1. Does leap attack still work when within striking distance of an enemy? That is, can I keep leap attacking without initiating the jump or does the game just make those normal attacks? I ask because the game does allow you to continue to attack with LA without jumping but I can't figure out if it's giving the huge %ED bonuses (i.e., can it work as a physical damage variant of berserk?).

2. Does IAS affect LA speed? I read on another thread that weapon type affects the speed of the animation but the poster didn't specify any breakpoints. Other threads say just to get the heaviest hitting behemoth of a weapon and use that.|||You have to leap in order to get the %ED bonus.

I've made one and he's pretty fun, if frustrating at times. I found this guide somewhat useful.|||Shoot...that's strange bc he still makes the LA sound when attacking and my mana still drains from LA use.|||quoting the booyaka...

The "Alt" Button:

Problem:

If you try to Leap Attack an enemy positioned right next to you, you'll only do a regular attack, and won't recieve any bonuses from the skill.

Solution:

...During game play, holding down the alt button effectively removes point & click targeting. If you hover your pointer over a monster, and hold down alt, you'll see that monster's name disappear from the top of the screen. This is a good thing, because now you can jump right on top of his monsterly bootox, even if he's directly adjacent to you.

A good, simple tactic is to hold down alt, and just repeatedly click L.A. at your character's feet, especially when he's surrounded - anything nearby gets "the business", because your character auto-targets when he lands. For me, this ended up being my main combat method.

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Now, that sounds like you don't need to initiate the actual leap sequence to activate the LA %ED. Can anyone speak to how this tactic actually works? And how successful it is in practice?

I was thinking of the following build:

1+ Leap

20 Leap attack

20 Polearm mastery

20 Battle orders

20 Warcry

1+ natural resists

1+ iron skin

1+ shout

Strategy: LA into a boss pack, warcry, then LA smash them until nothings left standing|||Interesting.I alway wondered wether standing attack got the full bonus as I had a dual wield and he'd go hoo hoo hoo pretty fast.Might try that Alt trick sometime.|||Using the Alt trick still causes your character to leap. It just lets you leap even if enemies are in close range, something you couldn't do with just with just clicking. It works fairly effectively.|||How did you deal with crowd control? Leap into a pack of monsters, sending them to the far corners of the board, then LA them one-by-one? I still think LA into a pack of monsters with a subsequent WC and BC to stun and reduce defense followed by more LA pummeling would likely be the best strategy.

On another note, I just realized the ungodly amount of life/mana leach you could achieve with a LA build...doing 1000+ %ED would return insane amounts of life/mana with each successful hit!