Strategy
Gameplay[]
| Playstyle | |
|---|---|
| Wraith King is a durable carry with a reliable stun in Wraithfire Blast that also slows and does damage-over-time. Vampiric Spirit allows Wraith King to gain lifesteal based on their damage, which can help in teamfights and pushing lanes. Mortal Strike allows Wraith King to deal 3 times his normal damage, and it can summon skeletons that are useful for pushing and farming. His ultimate, Reincarnation, effectively doubles his health in a teamfight, as well as slowing enemies by a large amount. He is traditionally popular among new players for his survivability and simple playstyle. However, Wraith King can also be played at a high level of skill, particularly by using active items. He is, however, particularly vulnerable to abilities that burn mana, as well as break. | |
| Pros | Cons |
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Carry[]
Wraith King is most often played as a farming position 1. Unlike other traditional carries like Anti-Mage or Phantom Assassin, he is equipped with a reliable stun and slow from the start with Wraithfire Blast. Therefore, paired up with an average support, your laning phase should have high kill potential from the get-go. To increase the likelihood you score a couple of kills, try to keep the creep equilibrium somewhere between your tier 1 tower and the intersection, in order to provide plenty of hiding spots for your support to initiate from the shadows.
One point in Wraithfire Blast is enough to do the job. A few points in Vampiric Spirit will allow you to quickly farm the jungle with skeletons or push down towers with your team. Then max Mortal strike to get the most from your lifesteal and deal deathblows to squishy supports in teamfights.
Ability Builds[]
| Carry Wraith King | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 20 | 25 | |||||
 |  | |  | |  | | | |  | | | | | | |  | | | | |||||
Talents[]
| Hero Talents | ||
|---|---|---|
| Reincarnation Casts Wraithfire Blast | 25 | -2s Mortal Strike Cooldown |
| +5 Minimum Skeletons Spawned | 20 | +35% Cleave |
| +23 Skeletons Attack Damage | 15 | +1s Wraithfire Blast Stun Duration |
| +25% Summon Skeleton Duration/-25% Cooldown | 10 | +10% Vampiric Spirit Lifesteal |
Tips & Tactics[]
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 Reincarnation 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 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.
Abilities[]
Wraithfire Blast[]
- Wraithfire Blast is a decent nuke early on, which also allows Wraith King to stun 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.
- Use Wraithfire Blast after Vampiric Spirit in a fight to order your skeletons to attack the stunned enemy.
Vampiric Spirit[]
- Vampiric Spirit gives Wraith King substantial lifesteal which is also applied to his skeleton army. This ability allows you to sustain your HP in lane just by hitting creeps. Combined with Mortal Strike, a single attack can cause large bursts of healing for Wraith King. This makes him especially tanky as long as he is able to continue attacking his target.
- The skeleton army produced by Vampiric Spirits' active ability allow Wraith King to quickly farm the jungle or siege towers with teammates. Additionally, casting Wraithfire Blast after casting Vampiric Spirit will cause all of the summoned skeletons to attack the Wraithfire Blast target. This makes for an excellent kill combo on squishy supports. Remember to bring Dust of Apperance if they have a Glimmer Cape!
- Units killed by skeletons will also grant additional skeleton charges.
- Skeletons do not block creep camps in the jungle from spawning.
- Since Wraith King has limited control over his skeleton army, avoid using Vampiric Spirit near enemies who can clear them for gold and experience, like those with cleave.
- Watch out for abilities like Fortune's End and Dispel Magic that apply dispel in an area to vaporize skeletons after they have reincarnated.
Mortal Strike[]
- Wraith King's Mortal Strike is cooldown based, so higher attack speed won't proc more crits. Instead, you can buy items that reduce enemies armor, like Desolator, to deal more crit damage.
- To minimize health drain from Armlet of Mordiggian, toggle it on just before landing your critical hit, then toggle it off afterward.
- An early point in Mortal Strike allows Wraith King to reliably harass enemies and last-hit creeps.
Reincarnation[]
- Reincarnation has quite a high mana cost for 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 Soul Ring, 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.
- Consider getting an Aghanim's Shard before swapping your Magic Wand for a bigger item, so that Reincarnation no longer has a mana cost and this is no longer an issue.
- 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.
- Reincarnation's active component allows Wraith King to die on demand, triggering the slow if the enemy is trying to target his allies and ignoring Wraith King. It can also be used to trigger Reincarnation against mana-draining abilities by letting him use it before his mana is depleted.
- The Aghanim's Scepter 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.
- Because Reincarnation heavily debilitates enemies and spawns skeletons when triggered, consider holding your Black King Bar until after it goes off so you can tank more of the enemy's abilities with no real detriment.
Items[]
Starting items:
- Tango helps Wraith King sustain his health against lane harassment.
- Healing Salve also restores health to Wraith King.
- Quelling Blade allows Wraith King to get last hits easier. It also makes Mortal Strike hit harder against creeps which makes you clean camps and creep waves faster. It increases the effectiveness of Vampiric Aura when attacking creeps as well. It can be used to cut trees and move faster from one camp to another while farming the jungle.
- Iron Branch gives attributes like intelligence so Wraith King will have enough mana to use Wraithfire Blast twice at level 1.
- Enchanted Mango provides passive health regeneration and burst mana to use Wraithfire Blast.
Early game:
- Magic Wand can sometimes be the difference between a death and a kill. Its active usually grants enough mana to sustain Reincarnation. It also combos with Armlet of Mordiggian toggle, as one can deactivate, use Magic Stick, and reactivate buying enough time for it to provide the 500 bonus hp.
- Boots of Speed provide an excellent boost of speed for any hero.
- Clarity sustains mana when jungling, where it is unlikely to be canceled by hero damage.
Mid game:
- Radiance can be picked up early to easily flash-farm and stack skeleton charges, while making Wraith King a very threatening presence in early teamfights.
- Desolator is an alternative to Radiance that shreds armor, boosting the damage output of Wraith King and his skeletons while improving Vampiric Aura's lifesteal, making him more powerful in ganks and against structures.
- Phase Boots Gives armor and damage to help contest his lane. Increased speed and phased movement allow Wraith King to stay on targets in fights when Wraithfire Blast is on cooldown.
- Armlet of Mordiggian provides lots of damage at a reasonable cost, while the health drain is mitigated by Vampiric Aura and Reincarnation. This item synergizes greatly with Desolator, causing larger crits and heals with Mortal Strike and Vampiric Spirit.
- Blink Dagger solves Wraith King's mobility issues, letting him engage and chase more effectively and giving him an escape after Reincarnating.
Late game:
- Assault Cuirass solves Wraith King's armor problems and gives bonus damage output to him, his teammates, and his skeletons.
- Black King Bar grants spell immunity to protect Wraith King against disables and mana break, so he can survive and output damage.
- Heart of Tarrasque gives Wraith King excellent amount of Health pool and regeneration, makes him difficult to kill, besides he also has Reincarnation which causes a long effective presence in fights.
- Overwhelming Blink upgrades from Blink Dagger to give a large Strength bonus and a more powerful initiation with its area damage and slow.
Situational items:
- Power Treads provides attack speed and attribute switching to make his limited mana pool go much further if the treads are switched to intelligence before casting a spell, though Wraith King usually benefits more from Phase Boots granting damage and Phase.
- Heaven's Halberd gives Wraith King strength, evasion, and status resistance to tank up, and lets him disarm an enemy carry, shutting down their primary source of damage output.
- Silver Edge grants Shadow Walk to help Wraith King initiate on enemies, and can shut down enemies reliant on passive abilities. The backstab damage from Shadow Walk supplements Mortal Strike to open fights with a large burst of damage.
- Blade Mail takes advantage of Wraith King's high durability to severely punish fragile damage dealers.
- Abyssal Blade gives Wraith King high lockdown potential in combination with Wraithfire Blast, and the bash lets him manfight more effectively.
- Mjollnir grants attack speed and can efficiently clear out hordes of illusions and/or summoned units, though it competes with Radiance.
- Refresher Orb is highly situational, as it allows to potentially use Reincarnation and/or Black King Bar twice in a fight allowing him to deal damage for longer periods of time.
- Divine Rapier grants damage that synergizes with Vampiric Aura and Mortal Strike, and is not dropped if Reincarnation activates; combine with Aegis of the Immortal and/or Refresher Orb for best results.
