Leap · Game Mechanic Compendium

Definition

A leap is a jump well beyond the user’s ordinary one that carries it on an airborne arc to a chosen point or target, over whatever stands between. Dash crosses the space along the ground and can be blocked by what is in the way; blink relocates without crossing it; flight is sustained and freely steered, while a leap is one arc committed at take-off. A charge rushes along the ground into an attack, where a leap attack passes over everything and strikes on landing. Ordinary, double, and wall jumps belong to the movement model of platforming; a leap is a separate, gated ability layered on top, as Zelda II’s JUMP spell is.

Behaviour

The user picks a point (Heroic Leap, Rocket Jump), a creature (Leap Attack, the Dragoon’s Jump), or a direction within a limit (the 1978 spell, Gloomhaven). Being airborne lets it pass over figures, traps, and difficult terrain, though Gloomhaven requires a legal last hex. Many forms carry a landing payload: area damage, a slow, or knockback, which belongs to the knockback ability. Counterplay is limited to the landing spot or to the menu turn in which the user is gone.

Variations

Leap-granting buff (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons; Zelda II; Dungeons & Dragons, 5th edition): enlarges the user’s jumps, as a count of leaps (1978) or tripled distance for a minute (2014).
Leap slam (World of Warcraft; League of Legends; Path of Exile 2; Space Marine 2): area damage on landing.
Targeted leap attack (Diablo II Leap Attack; League of Legends Jarvan IV): the destination is a creature, a border with charge.
Delayed-landing jump (Final Fantasy III; Final Fantasy IV): the user leaves the battle, cannot be hit, and lands a turn later on a target.
Obstacle-ignoring jump move (Gloomhaven): a grid move over figures and terrain.
Escape leap (Diablo II Leap): used to spring free of a swarm rather than to engage.

Gating

The 1974 boots have no per-use limit once found. The 1978 spell spends a memorised slot, a material component per leap, and a one-turn window, and its leap count grows with level. Final Fantasy III’s Jump is free, its cost the turn spent airborne. Diablo II prices leaps in mana; World of Warcraft uses a long cooldown (60 seconds, later 45), and League of Legends pairs cooldown and mana with a conditional reset. Gloomhaven spends one of a card’s two actions. Space Marine 2 uses a recharging charge with refills tied to other actions. The limit moves from acquisition and slots to turn cost, cooldowns, and then charges.

History and provenance

The earliest documented use is the Boots of Traveling and Leaping of Dungeons & Dragons (1974), an item property; the earliest spell form cited is Jump in the AD&D Players Handbook (1978). Seven-league boots, John Carter’s leaps in A Princess of Mars, and Superman’s early leaping are often credited as antecedents. The earliest video instances cited are Zelda II’s JUMP spell (1987) and the Dragoon Jump of Final Fantasy III (1990), a year before Kain’s in Final Fantasy IV. Heroic Leap, reportedly designed for Wrath of the Lich King and dropped over pathing problems, arrived in World of Warcraft patch 4.0.1 in 2010.

Notable examples

Notable examples, in chronological order. Notes describe how the ability behaves in each game; gating is what limits its use there; the latest reference is a widely played game from 2020 or later.
Game	Year	Medium	Gating	How the ability behaves
Dungeons & Dragons Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson (TSR)	1974	Tabletop RPG	At will	The Boots of Traveling and Leaping make the wearer tireless when walking and, underground, allow leaps of up to 1 inch of table scale vertically and 3 inches horizontally. No use limit is stated while the boots are worn; the gate is finding the item, rolled on the Miscellaneous Magic table.
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Players Handbook Gary Gygax (TSR)	1978	Tabletop RPG	Spell slots, Consumable	Jump, a first-level magic-user spell cast by touch in 1 segment, lets the recipient leap 30 feet forward or 10 feet back or straight up, in a slight arc, with no safety on landing. One more leap per 3 caster levels beyond 1st, all within 1 turn, and each leap breaks one grasshopper's hind leg, the material component.
Final Fantasy III Square	1990	Video	At will	The Dragoon job's Jump command takes the character up out of the battle, where enemy attacks cannot hit it, and on the next turn it dives onto the target for heavy damage. It costs no magic; access comes from the job. The user returns to its place in the party, so the movement is nominal and the payoff is damage and untargetability.
Diablo II Blizzard North	2000	Video	Mana	Two Barbarian combat skills: Leap jumps the Barbarian clear of surrounding enemies and knocks back those where he lands, and Leap Attack leaps onto a target and attacks on landing. Both spend mana from the shared pool.
World of Warcraft Blizzard Entertainment	2004	Video	Cooldown	Heroic Leap, added for warriors in patch 4.0.1 (2010), sends the warrior through the air toward a target location 8 to 40 yards away, damaging all enemies within 8 yards on landing. It is instant, on a 1-minute cooldown at release, later 45 seconds, and off the global cooldown from patch 4.1.0.
League of Legends Riot Games	2009	Video	Cooldown, Mana	Tristana's Rocket Jump propels her to a ground point up to 900 units away, damaging and slowing units around the landing spot. In 2024 data it costs 60 mana with a cooldown of 22 to 14 seconds by rank, reset by a full Explosive Charge; the 2009 values are unconfirmed.
Dota 2 Valve	2013	Video	Charges, Mana	Mirana's Leap carries her forward a fixed 650 units and grants 6 to 24% movement speed and 25 to 100 attack speed for 5 seconds. In 2026 data it holds 2 charges, each restored after 45 to 15 seconds by level, at 50 mana a leap; the Aghanim's Shard adds a third charge.
Path of Exile Grinding Gear Games	2013	Video	Mana	Leap Slam is a Travel skill that jumps to a point and damages enemies where it lands. Since 3.7.0 it always knocks enemies back on hit, always stuns enemies on full life, and costs 10 mana (from 15).
Gloomhaven Isaac Childres (Cephalofair Games)	2017	Board & card	Action cost, Per rest	A Move X (Jump) line ignores all figures and terrain effects during the move, including traps, hazardous and difficult terrain, and obstacles, but the last hex follows normal rules. The Brute's Trample pairs Move 4, Jump with an attack on all enemies moved through. It fills one of a card's two actions, and the card returns on a rest.
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 Latest Saber Interactive (Focus Entertainment)	2024	Video	Charges	The Assault class's jump pack launches the player across the level; holding melee while airborne aims a Ground Pound that slams the landing area, the class's answer to hordes. Each jump spends an ability charge that recharges, and perks speed the recharge or refill it on a perfect dodge. Multiplayer jumps are lower than the campaign's.

Provenance

Earliest documented use: Dungeons & Dragons (1974), tabletop rpg. Confidence: medium. The definition admits an item property, so the earliest documented use is the Boots of Traveling and Leaping in Monsters & Treasure (1974), which "allow leaps of up to 1" vertically and 3" horizontally" below ground. The text is a single clause with no rule for landing or combat, and pre-1974 miniatures rules such as Chainmail remain unsurveyed, hence medium. The earliest spell form cited is Jump in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Players Handbook (1978), with high confidence: Men & Magic (1974) has no jump or leap text, and Greyhawk (1975) repeats the boots on its table but adds no Jump spell. Zelda II (1987) is the earliest video instance cited.

Sources

Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. (1974). Dungeons & Dragons, Volume 2, Monsters & Treasure. Tactical Studies Rules. Rulebook Miscellaneous Magic table (58-62); Boots of Traveling and Leaping, c. p. 36. Accessed 2026-10-24. The 1974 item and its leap distances.
Gary Gygax. (1978). Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Players Handbook. TSR. Rulebook Magic-User Spells (1st Level), Jump (Alteration), c. p. 66. Accessed 2026-10-24. The spell's distances, arc, leaps by level, one-turn window, and material component.
Gary Gygax and Rob Kuntz. (1975). Supplement I: Greyhawk. TSR. Rulebook Miscellaneous Magic table, Boots of Traveling and Leaping (All), 99-00. Accessed 2026-10-24. The boots carried forward, with no Jump spell in the supplement.
Square. (1990). Final Fantasy III instruction manual. Rulebook Job descriptions, Dragoon, c. pp. 46-47. Accessed 2026-10-24. The Jump command, the next-turn dive, and immunity while airborne (Japanese text).
Square Soft. (1991). Final Fantasy II instruction manual (US SNES). Rulebook Dragoon Kain's Specialty. Accessed 2026-10-24. Final Fantasy IV under its US title; Kain's Jump Attack and immunity in the air.
Blizzard Entertainment (Blizzard North). (2000). Diablo II manual. Rulebook Barbarian Skills, Combat skills: Leap, Leap Attack, c. pp. 51-53. Accessed 2026-10-24. The escape leap with landing knockback and the targeted leap attack.
Nintendo. (1988). Zelda II: The Adventure of Link instruction booklet (NES, US). Nintendo. Rulebook Game Data, magic list (JUMP), pp. 41-42. Accessed 2026-10-24. The JUMP spell, which raises Link's jump above a normal one.
Wizards of the Coast. (2016). System Reference Document 5.1. Wizards of the Coast. Rulebook p. 85, Jumping; p. 158, Jump; p. 49, Otherworldly Leap; p. 212, Boots of Striding and Springing; p. 236, Ring of Jumping; p. 267, Bulette. Accessed 2026-10-24. The ordinary-jump baseline and the 5th edition leap forms; the rules date from 2014.
Isaac Childres (Cephalofair Games). (2017). Gloomhaven rulebook. Rulebook Movement, Jump, p. 19; terrain, p. 14; Trample card example, p. 7; enhancements, p. 47. Accessed 2026-10-24. Jump movement over figures and terrain, and Jump as a purchasable enhancement.
Matthew Rossi (Engadget). (2010). Cataclysm Beta: Build 12942 warrior changes. Article Accessed 2026-10-24. Heroic Leap's range raised to 8 to 40 yards from 8 to 25.
Zach Yonzon (Engadget). (2010). Cataclysm Class Changes: Impact on PvP, part 4. Article Accessed 2026-10-24. Heroic Leap "making a comeback in Cataclysm" and its positional use in PvP.
Warcraft Wiki, Heroic Leap. Wiki Tooltip; Patch changes. Tooltip wording, landing radius, addition in patch 4.0.1, cooldown changes, and the scrapped Wrath of the Lich King version.
Riot Games. (2024). Tristana.json, Data Dragon 14.1.1. Website Accessed 2026-10-24. Rocket Jump description, range, cooldown, and cost in 2024.
Riot Games. (2024). JarvanIV.json, Data Dragon 14.1.1. Website Accessed 2026-10-24. Cataclysm, a targeted leap that raises an arena, with its cooldown and cost.
League of Legends Wiki, Tristana. Wiki Rocket Jump. Tristana's 2009 release date, the slow and radius on landing, and the cooldown reset.
Aidan O'Brien (Shacknews). (2024). The best Assault Space Marine build - Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2. Article Accessed 2026-10-24. The jump pack, the aimed Ground Pound, recharge perks, and lower multiplayer jumps.
Zunair Shafiq (Gfinity Esports). (2024). Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 - Assault Class Guide. Article Accessed 2026-10-24. Ground Pound perks and the jump pack recharge perk.
Lowell Bell (PCGamesN). (2025). Path of Exile 2 Warrior guide. Article Accessed 2026-10-24. Leap Slam's wording and its gem, level, and Strength requirements.
Grinding Gear Games. (2019). Path of Exile: Legion Patch Notes (3.7.0). Website Accessed 2026-10-24. Leap Slam as a Travel skill, its knockback and stun on full-life enemies, and its mana cost.
Valve. Dota 2 hero data, Mirana. Website Leap. Accessed 2026-10-25. Current leap distance, speed bonuses and their duration, charges and restore times, mana cost, and the Shard's extra charge.

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Updated: 2026-10-25
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West, James, Jr. (2026). "Leap." Game Mechanic Compendium, updated 2026-10-25. http://localhost:4321/abilities/leap

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