Skeleton King

Skeleton King 22 + 2.9 18 + 1.7 18 + 1.6
	Grants the following bonuses per point of attribute:
	+22HP and +0.1HP regeneration; +1 main attack damage
	+0.17 armor and 1 attack speed
	+12MP and +0.05MP regeneration; +0.1% base magic resistance ;
L0	Base Hero Values
L1	⤷ + Base Attributes
L15	⤷ + Attribute Gain
L25	⤷ + 6 levels of Attribute Bonus
L30	⤷ + 7 levels of Attribute Bonus
	All values shown are without talent bonuses.
Attack Animation	0.56 + 0.44
Gib Type	Default
Internal	Not Provided

This page is about the old hero. For the current one, see Wraith King.

Ostarion the Skeleton King is a powerful melee strength hero, capable of taking plenty of damage before dying. His ultimate allows him to rise again, acting like an Aegis of the Immortal, making him especially difficult to kill. He also has a nuke that deals reliable damage and stun, and he is able to stay in his lane longer because of his passive lifesteal aura. He can become a hard carry in later stages of game depending on his farm.

Bio

Ostarion, the Skeleton King

▶️ "Bone is strongest where it's mended."

Lore:

The victim of a longevity spell that backfired, the Skeleton King Ostarion has built an empire from the bones of his enemies. He lives only to extend his reach, for as long as he is perpetually building and adding to his domain he cannot die. The walls of his palace are formed of fired bone; the streets are paved with bones of every sort of creature and every enemy; and even the wood and other natural features of his land have been swept away and replaced with replicas formed of bone. From the Ivory Forest to Ostarion's towering Throne of Bone, nothing happens in the Empire of Bones without the full knowledge of its Skeleton King.

Voice:

[[Voice actors#|]] (Responses)

Abilities

Hellfire Blast

QT

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Ability
N/A

Affects
Enemies

Damage
Magical

Skeleton King fires a sphere of hellfire at an enemy unit, dealing damage and stunning, then dealing damage over time and slowing the target.

Cast Animation: +

Cast Range: 525

Base Damage: 50/100/150/200

Damage over Time: 15/30/40/50

Move Speed Slow: 20%

Slow Duration: 2

Stun Duration: 2

8

140

Ostarion calls on his hellish lineage, laying waste to his opponents.

Hellfire Blast travels at a speed of 1000 and can be disjointed.

Deals the base damage instantly upon hitting, and the damage over time in 1 second intervals, starting immediatly after the stun.

Can deal up to 80/160/230/300 damage (before reductions).

Vampiric Aura

WV

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Ability
N/A

Affects
Allies

Nearby friendly melee and ranged units gain HP based on their damage dealt when attacking enemy units.

Radius: 900

Lifesteal: 15%/20%/25%/30%

Skeleton King's blade drains the marrow of bones into his own kingdom.

The lifesteal is not a Unique Attack Modifier, so it stacks additively with all other sources of lifesteal.

Cannot lifesteal off of siege creeps, wards, buildings and allied units.

The aura's buff lingers for 0.5 seconds.

Does not affect invulnerable allies.

Mortal Strike

▶️EC

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Ability
N/A

Affects
Enemies

Skeleton King gains a chance to deal bonus damage on an attack.

Proc Chance: 15%

Critical Damage: 150%/200%/250%/300%

The power to crush a skull.

Mortal Strike makes use of pseudo-random distribution.

Unlike other critical strikes, this one also works against wards.

The sound and particles play upon start of the attack, not when the attack lands.

Increases attack damage by an average of 7.5%/15%/22.5%/30%.

Reincarnation

▶️RR

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Ability
N/A

Affects
Self

Skeleton King's bones reform after death, causing him to resurrect when killed in battle. Upon death, enemy units in the area will have movement and attack speed slowed by 50%.

Slow Radius: 900

Effect Delay: 3

Move Speed Slow: 50%

Attack Speed Slow: 50

Slow Duration: 4

260/160/60

140

Conspirators of the Skeleton King wonder why he never stays dead.

Skeleton King won't revive if he doesn't have enough mana.

If Skeleton King has an Aegis of the Immortal and Reincarnation off cooldown, the latter triggers first.

Reincarnation cannot be prevented in any way as long as Skeleton King has enough mana and the ability is off cooldown.

Revives with full health and mana. Spells and items are not refreshed.

Slow is applied at the beginning of the revival, not the end.

Recommended items

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Tips

Hellfire 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, so spam it if you have enough mana.
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.
Hellfire 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 Skeleton King's mana pool and health, as both Mortal Strike and Vampiric Aura are not useful in lane (Due to the 6.79 patch Skeleton 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 Skeleton 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 Phase Boots and Drum of Endurance at the same time will give you enough mobility to chase and kill.
Grabbing a Force Staff can help make up for Skeleton King's lack of mobility, and it allows him to jump closer to his targets to make up for the short range of Hellfire Blast.
Divine Rapier is a very strong item on Skeleton 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 Skeleton 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 proc Reincarnation!
An alternate build known as wizard skeleton king is actually very viable. Due to the low cool down on Hellfire 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.^[1] He is an iconic boss in Diablo; he reprises his role in Diablo III, through the alias "Skeleton King."

Update history

Template:Update History

Balance changelog

Template:Update History

Replaced abilities

Mortal Strike (6.78-6.79)

EC

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Ability
N/A

Affects
Enemy Heroes

Damage
HP Removal

Wraith King passively gains a chance to deal bonus damage on an attack. When activated, Mortal Strike steals a percentage of the max HP from the target hero, giving it to Wraith King for the duration, and returning it after. While Mortal Strike is active, the passive component is disabled.

Cast Animation: +

Proc Chance: 15%

Critical Damage: 125%/175%/225%/275%

Max health Drained: 20%

Drain Duration: 7

25

30

The power to crush a skull.