Wraith King

Ostarion, the Wraith King, is a melee strength hero, as well as 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.

Recommended items
Starting items:
 * As a melee carry health regen is much needed as it is easy to an enemy ranged hero to harass Ostarion. Buying a and/or a  provides Ostarion with a decent amount of regeneration in the laning phase.
 * Buying a gives Ostarion more opportunities to set up kills early on with.
 * Starting with two es give Wraith King enough mana pool to cast two times at level 1.
 * A is an excellent starting item for Ostarion as it allows him to get last hits easier. It also makes Mortal Strike hit harder against creeps which makes you clean camps and creep waves faster. Increases the effectiveness of Vampiric Aura when attacking creeps. It can be used to cut trees and move faster from one camp to another while farming the jungle.

Early-game items:
 * A can sometimes be the difference between a death and a kill. Its active usually grants enough mana to sustain . It also combo with  toggle, as one can deactivate, use magic stick, and reactivate buying enough time for it to provide the 500 bonus hp.
 * provide an excellent boost of speed for any hero.
 * A gives permanent health regeneration once tango and salve are consumed. It also provides extra survivability in the form of armor and can be built into an  later on.

Core items:
 * provides the same kind of benefit as the Magic Stick does, but it also provides a small amount of attributes. It makes great use of the earlier bought branches, making room for new items.
 * provides attack speed which is one of Ostarion's main needs. Attribute switching also make his limited mana pool go much further if the treads are switched to intelligence before casting a spell. Due to Mortal Strike and his already high base damage it is better to leave treads in agility form to achieve maximum dps. One can use strength if tanking is essential or if last hitting is difficult.
 * is a very cost efficient item which provides lots of damage at cost of health degen, however easily negates the health drain effect making it Ostarion's main core item.
 * solves another of Ostarion deficiency, mobility. It negates countering through kiting, helps with positioning, as well as moving across the maps quicker, thus increasing farm speed. Another possible trick is to instantly blink away after using, as Reincarnation delay as Dagger cooldown are both 3 seconds.

Situational:
 * causes Ostarion's physical attacks to hit harder, especially against targets with already low armor. Vampiric Aura also benefits greatly from it, as it heals based on dealt damage after armor reduction. It also helps pushing towers.
 * is a very situational item that you want to avoid. There are two situations, however, that it may be necessary: 1) Against heavy mana burn, which counters . 2) Being heavily kited even after buying . It is better to spend gold on items that give you more health and/or more damage, forcing the enemy team to spend their spells on you first, which creates space for your teammates during a teamfight.
 * increases Ostarion's damage output by increasing his attack speed and further reducing enemy armor. The aura from this item also increases his team's armor and attack speed. Since Wraith King usually survives longer, the item's aura provides more impact. It has nice synergy with.
 * provides Ostarion a decent HP and some damage bonus, blocks 40 damage from incoming attacks and it also gives his attacks a chance to bash. On top of another active stun which also pierces spell immunity provides immense control, which is very handy as he is easy to run away from.
 * gives Ostarion a great health, health regeneration, and attack damage boost, making him even harder to kill and harder to ignore. It also provides enough hp regen to compensate health drain.
 * gives Ostarion some evasion against enemies which rely on their physical attacks, and lets him cut off an enemy carry from their primary source of damage for a while.
 * increases Ostarion's attack damage, counters enemies with evasion abilities or items such as or, and provides him with a high chance to interrupt channeling spells when Wraithfire Blast is not an option.
 * is an excellent item for Ostarion to get due to it not dropping if activates upon death, thus making it less likely for him to lose it. When carrying the Aegis of the Immortal, Ostarion has to die 3 times to lose the Rapier. The great damage boost also increases his endurance by improving his lifesteal aura's returns.
 * is a useful item for Ostarion if he is playing a support character, as it makes him able to elongate his teammate's lives, potentially getting more kills or other objectives. It also provides overall decent stats.
 * is able to be consumed by Ostarion, granting him more attack speed and allowing him an effectively higher chance to proc Mortal Strike.

Gameplay
 Strategy & Tips Counters & Matchups

Audio
 Responses Sounds

History
 Lore Old Abilities Changelogs

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 the transition to Dota 2, 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.
 * One of Wraith King's lines is "We'll lead as three kings" when he activates an . This line has close reference to the song "City Hall" by Tenacious D with the line "We'll lead as two kings".