Wraith King/Guide

General

 * 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.
 * is a great pickup on since he doesn't have any teleportation or move speed skills to close the gap on enemies, and  allows you to blink into the fights and stun the most fragile enemy with, or to escape in tricky situations.


 * Wraithfire Blast} 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 Wraithfire Blast maxed first as both of Ostarion's passives are not very effective in the laning stage, since both are based on attack damage.


 * Having Vampiric Aura active during the 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 toggled off until after the laning phase.
 * Vampiric Aura's life-stealing particles are hidden from the enemy so long as they do not have vision of Wraith King, so there isn't a need to toggle it off when jungling or ambushing to mask Wraith King's location.


 * Unlike other sources of critical strike, Mortal Strike deals more damage against non-Hero units than against Heroes. If Wraith King has a source of cleave (e.g. ' or a ), he is potentially able to deal even more damage to Heroes indirectly through the splash damage than by actually attacking them head-on, especially if the enemy Heroes are under Armor-enhancing buffs.


 * Reincarnation 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 in case 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 Vampiric Aura.
 * It is generally beneficial for Wraith King to die first during a gank, as the slow only activates upon his death, which will greatly benefit his other team members. This prevents the enemies from effectively escaping or attacking back, allowing Wraith King's allies to pick off their targets with ease.
 * Additionally, if Wraith King is the last to die, the benefit of the slow is greatly reduced, as there would be no allies around to make the most of the slow.
 * The bonus works even while Wraith King is reincarnating himself. Allies will still enter Wraith form so long as they are within range of Wraith King when they perish.

Items
Starting items:
 * Buying a 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 and increases the effectiveness of Vampiric Aura when attacking creeps.

Early-game items:
 * A can sometimes be the difference between a death and a kill. Its active usually grants enough mana to sustain.
 * provide an excellent boost of speed for any hero.
 * A can be built into an  later on and gives extra survivability in the form of armor and health regeneration.

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.
 * increases Ostarion's damage per second; attribute switching can also make his limited mana pool go much further if the treads are switched to intelligence.
 * is Ostarion's main DPS item. It is also easy to negate the health drain with the help of.
 * negates countering Ostarion through kiting, as well as helping him with positioning.

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.
 * negates Ostarion's main weakness: being chain-stunned and then burst down after . Furthermore, as long as he isn't disabled, he can keep hitting enemies, healing himself up with his aura.
 * 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.
 * provides Ostarion a decent HP and damage bonus, blocks 40 damage from incoming attacks and it also gives his attacks a chance to bash and, on top of, another active stun which also pierces spell immunity, which is very handy as he is easy to run away from if his own stun is on cooldown.
 * gives Ostarion a great health, health regeneration and attack damage boost, making him even harder to kill and harder to ignore.
 * 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.