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.

Tips

 * Wraithfire Blast is a very good nuke, allowing you to disable and slow at the same time. A perfect tool for ganks and team fights, it has a relatively low cooldown, but your pathetic mana pool won't allow to use it frequently. Save it for when you really need it.
 * Learning Vampiric Aura during laning phase will shift the creeps equilibrium and you'll be forced to farm and fight under enemy tower. Good for pushing, but hurts your farm and puts you and your allies in disadvantageous position.
 * Always make sure to save some mana for Reincarnation, if you have less than 140 mana, you will not reincarnate. Soul Ring is handy for this purpose.
 * Wraithfire Blast is usually maxed first and Reincarnation is taken as soon as possible. It's also recommended to take one or two levels of Stats on early levels to improve Wraith King's mana pool and health, as both Mortal Strike and Vampiric Aura are not useful in lane (Due to the 6.79 patch Wraith King has more base intelligence and has more mana to work with. This allows you to level up mortal strike earlier, increasing your dps for possible team fights).
 * Armlet of Mordiggian and Soul Ring are commonly built for Wraith King because Vampiric Aura allows him to heal up quickly after taking damage from these items. With both items, at very low health, you can activate Armlet, then Soul Ring, then quickly deactivate and reactivate Armlet for what is essentially a free Soul Ring use.
 * Activating Drum of Endurance and then Phase Boots will give you enough mobility to chase and kill enemies.
 * Grabbing a Force Staff can help make up for Wraith King's lack of mobility, and it allows him to jump closer to his targets to make up for the short range of Wraithfire Blast.
 * Divine Rapier is a very strong item on Wraith King, allowing him to take advantage of his great survivability (from Reincarnation and Vampiric Aura).
 * Refresher Orb is situational, as it allows you to potentially Reincarnate twice in a fight allowing you to be that much more useful in a team fight.
 * Although picking up the Aegis of the Immortal may seem redundant on Wraith King, it is recommended if he is his team's main carry. This way, he has 3 lives to expend, and unlike Reincarnation, the Aegis doesn't require mana.
 * Try to initiate and tank as much damage as possible in team fights. If you are the last to die, nobody will be able to help you when you activate Reincarnation!
 * An alternate build known as wizard Wraith king is actually very viable. Due to the low cool down on Wraithfire Blast, by choosing to forgo any points in critical strike for stats, as well as building arcane boots it is possible to have enough mana to constantly spam your stun. Moving from here directly to a dagon makes you a formidable ganker, and allows you to knock out targets in teamfights with less worry of dying compared to a typical nuker due to Reincarnation. Another benefit of this build is that it is very rare to not have enough mana for your ult.

Trivia

 * In DotA, Ostarion was known as King Leoric. Leoric was a recurring boss in the Diablo franchise, another game made by Blizzard. He is an iconic boss in Diablo; he reprises his role in Diablo III, through the alias "Skeleton King."


 * Before the Wraith Night patch Wraith King was previously named Skeleton King. His name and skin were changed either so that the same model could be used in all clients as Chinese clients had a different model for Skeleton King due to cultural laws, or simply due to copyright issues, due to Blizzard releasing Heroes of the Storm, a game in the same genre/style as Dota, and features Diablo's Skeleton King Leoric as a character. This change was tied into a commemorative game mode; Frostivus 2013 or Wraith Night, together with his lore.


 * The responses for getting a Divine Rapier and an Armlet are a reference to a popular guide called "CAPS LOCK LEORIC".