Wraith King

Ostarion the Wraith King is a melee strength hero, a carry and tank capable of both dealing and taking plenty of damage. His infamous Reincarnation allows the Wraith King to rise again after death, acting like an Aegis of the Immortal, making him especially difficult to kill. But if left alive, the Wraith King can wreak havoc upon his enemies; his Wraithfire Blast provides reliable damage and a stun on a short cooldown, Vampiric Aura grants his team sizeable lifesteal, and Mortal Strike helps make short work of foes.

Gameplay
Wraith King is a durable core with a reliable stun. As his ultimate, Reincarnation, effectively doubles his health in a teamfight, he is commonly built as a tank carry. He is traditionally popular among new players for his survivability and potentially simple playstyle. However, Wraith King can also be played at a high level of skill, particularly by using active items. For example, well-timed Tread switching can make his expensive stun much cheaper in the early game.

Tips

 * is a decent nuke early on, which also allows Ostarion to disable and slow at the same time. A perfect tool for ganks and team fights, it has a relatively low cooldown, but its relatively high mana cost does not allow it to be used frequently. It should be saved for when it is really needed.
 * It is generally best to have maxed first as both of Ostarion's passives are not very effective in the laning stage, since both are based on attack damage.
 * Learning during laning phase shifts the creeps equilibrium, since it also affects the allied lane creeps, forcing Wraith King to farm and fight closer to the enemy tower, which makes him more susceptible to enemy ganks in the early game. If no early pushes are planned, it should be skipped until after the laning phase.
 * has quite a high mana cost for a Wraith King's rather low mana pool and regeneration. It is best to always keep his mana pool high enough for Reincarnation to trigger, or to make sure that enough charges of his Magic Stick are present incase of an emergency.
 * Another possible solution to this problem is to have a, since it grants enough mana to sustain Reincarnation's mana cost when already having at least some left-over mana, unless the enemies have mana burning capabilities. The health loss from Soul Ring's active ability is usually not a problem thanks to.
 * Due to Wraith King's sustainability, he usually should initiate fights and tank up some damage first. Sometimes, it is great to even die first, triggering which heavily slows every nearby enemy. At this point, the enemies usually either prepare to take him down again, or try to escape when they can't take him down a second time. This is the perfect opportunity for Wraith King's team to follow up and catch the enemies off-guard.
 * Besides these, dying as last as Wraith King basically just wastes his Reincarnation, since he cannot do much on his own after respawning besides dying a second time right away.
 * is highly situational, as it allows Ostarion to potentially use twice in a fight allowing him to deal damage for a longer period of time.
 * Picking up the after killing Roshan is an excellent idea. It essentially gives Wraith King a 3rd life, though  activates first as long as he has sufficient mana. If his mana is too low for Reincarnation, Aegis activates first instead.
 * should be considered if Wraith King is counter picked by illusions and mana burn, as the Chain Lightning and Static Shield is effective against them, as well as giving some protection and retaliation when he initiates. However, if illusions are the only problem, a  is a better choice as it gives health and mana regeneration as well as extra creep damage for.
 * When going for a, it should usually be used after having used Reincarnation, since enemies can surround him and prepare during the reincarnation delay and disable him before he can even do anything.

Trivia

 * Prior to December 13th of 2013, Wraith King icon.png Ostarion, the Wraith King was known as Skeleton King icon.png Ostarion, the Skeleton King.
 * On December 10th of 2013, Skeleton King was removed from the game for "pressing ceremonial reasons". After the Wraith Night event, he returned as the Wraith King.
 * His model was completely reworked from the previous skeleton model to the current model. His color theme was changed from red to green and all his icons were changed accordingly.
 * He also got a new voice set, by the same voice actor who also voiced Skeleton King previously. Skeleton King's responses can be found here.
 * In DotA1, Wraith King's (who is still known as the Skeleton King in DotA1) name is Leoric. This is a reference to the Skeleton King of Diablo who is also named Leoric. In transition to Dota2, his name was changed to Ostarion to avoid copyright issues.
 * Copyright issues may also be a reason to why Skeleton King was remodeled and re-titled into Wraith King. Another likely factor for the remodeling was to solve many cosmetic item conflicts with the low-violence model which was made for the Perfect World client. A low-violence model was required for Skeleton King due to strict policies in China against the usage of skeletons in video games.
 * Wraith King's responses for buying Wraith items 02.mp3 "I NOW HAVE ALL THE SEXY", buying a  Wraith items 18.mp3 "Oh, Rapier. NOW YOUR KING IS BALLING OUT OF CONTROL!" and his battle begin line Wraith ally 01.mp3 "I'LL HELP MY WEAK AND PUNY ALLIES WHERE I CAN." are a reference to a popular DotA hero guide called "CAPS LOCK LEORIC".
 * In several responses, he refers to himself as the "Once and Future King", which is also a title for the legendary King Arthur.