Analyzing competitive plays with Wraith King, by Peppo_o'Paccio

I'm just wondering why you say that WK would not benefit from a cleave item. I've found that a Battlefury makes his jungle clear near godlike as well as horrendously increases his ability to push a lane when split pushing. Maybe it's not the first item to get but I feel like it could be of benefit in either of those two roles. Just a thought, if I am wrong for some reason I would like to know.

I like your guide, it give many knowledge to improve myself.
Usualy, I never buy Blink Dagger cause I keep gold for other items(sometime I buy Shadow Blade for the same situation), but after I read your guide, I know when I should to buy it.

In the competitive scene Wraith King is only picked when you want to put very early aggression (mostly versus teams with good late game): getting a Blink Dagger lets you initiate like a Beastmaster, but it's even better as there won't be any BKBs by the time you get your Blink and you can spam your Wraithfire Blast every 8 seconds. Think about him as a Slardar or Ursa with a single target ranged disable instead of an AoE stun/nuke.
Competitive players also rush a Blink Dagger on Sven for the same reason.

really good build, overall i like it. But i don't really get it why pick Blink Dagger ? i never really try it though

First off, I changed the skill build for two reasons: the buff on WK's starting INT and the Drum addition. Now you have more mana for your spells, and by taking the Vampiric Aura at level 4 you also have a valid form of sustainability (since you delay the Helm of Iron Will to get Drums) for your laning phase plus the ability to semi-jungle when the lane is pushed. The extra lifesteal for your creeps shouldn't bother you that much if you have a support that pulls, and it also helps when pushing.

I'm not completely satisfied with the Phase + Drums build on him since they kind of delay your BKB, but I still think it's better than going straight Treads + Armlet because that way Heroes can escape from you after your Wraithfire Blast and your mid-game power is much less. But after all, you should pick WK when you don't necessarily need a quick BKB most of the time.

Hi, excellent guide as usual. Really like the Phase Boots/ Drum of Endurance Skeleton king (yes, I still call him SK - I don t understand why they would change the freakin' burning skelton with a green old man but hey..).
I wanted to ask you why the vampiric aura at lvl 4? at that point you should have around let's say 70-75 dmg, 15% of this is 11HP which is not that much. You want to last hit only so this means ~8 hits per minute so around 90HP, not to mention that the creeps with aura will push the lane, especially now that Vampiric aura works on ranged units.
Your old build was ok if I remember well you went for stats at 2 and 4, why change that? anyway , you had +1 from last year when I read it the firs time.
By the way, love the second build, never thought about Radiance / Manta on SK, it seems really fun. Nice job

@Kheean
I may not have paid enough attention when I played SK some time ago, but I believe I nuked myself once or twice back then. I though it didn't increase your max HP. So when for example you have 1000 HP and your opponent has the same. If you cast it at the start of a fight, you will borrow 200 HP from your opponent, so he now has 800 HP. Since you're already on max HP, you won't gain any HP. But after 7 seconds, 200 HP is returned to him, so you'd lose it and have effectively nuked yourself. But I may have been mistaking back then. When you get a buffer HP, you can't nuke yourself and it's not all that bad.

Would still be a shame to use it like that though. It would just be a waste of mana and crits. When used just before the enemy has fallen to 20% of his HP, you've used the crits to their max and you can finish him of easily. In general I wouldn't use it when the enemy is at half HP yet. He might just survive for those 7 seconds and get his HP back. Whenever you use it, at least make sure you can kill the enemy within 7 seconds without critical stikes.

I agree that Skeleton King can combine rather well with Ursa if he plays semi-support. I wouldn't advice to lane with Drow Ranger though. Both of you are carry, so at least one will be underfed. You may try to play semi-support her, but she won't benefit from your Vampiric Aura like Ursa. Your stun may be helpful when ganking, but others have stuns too, like Vengeful Spirit who really complements Drow Ranger in many ways. Wave of Terror can spot unseen te reduces armor to weaken enemies. Drow Ranger won't be able to semi-support you effectively either. A bit of slow and a Silence may be nice, but you won't benefit from her Precision Aura, so it's not like the two of you are very great together.

@Peppo: I was wondering if you could shed a light on the whole thread switching/armlet toggling in combination with Mortal Strike, as I requested before

mortal strike is not a nuke against yourself when u cast it with full hp. it just gives u a buffer hp that is added to ur max hp. after 7 secs, u return to ur original max hp if u ddnt lose hp over the duration of the skill. u shud get it at lvl 2. u hit the opponent until he is close to half hp. cast mortal strike then stun. u shud only need 1 or 2 hits to kill. he is a very good lane partner to ursa, traxex, sniper, viper, or any hero that has at least a stun or a slow. i get magic stick 1st, then treads and armlet. that is usually my core. items after that depends on the enemy team. if there is a lot of spell caster, i usually get hood then pipe if im the incharge to make it. this item is a necessity against spellcasters but usually another support will make pipe. if an autoattack carry poses a big problem, i get halberd, especially if range (4.5 sec disable is awesome) plus the evasion. if illusions are a problem like PL,naga, meepo or with minions like enigma, broodmother, chen, etc., i get mjollnir. i usually get cuirass late since it synergizes well with my aura for the whole team.

Not trying to push you to rush it, but I was wondering whether you're going to upgrade the guide with the changes in the Mortal Strike...

Basicaly what I came up with and saw confirmed in another guide, you may now want to pick one level it instead of stats at level 2 (or possibly 4).

The use of it's active is pretty straightforward. You take 20% of the opponents max health for 7 seconds during which your critical strike will not work. The enemy won't die from the HP drain though, at least, not from just that. When fighting someone, don't use it at the start, since you won't be able to land crits, while the enemy probably will outlive those 7 seconds, gaining his health back. That way it will only work against you. Besides, if you were at full health when casting, it effectively works a nuke on yourself for 20% of the opponents health.

Instead you want to use the active when he is low on hp, as close to 20% as you can get, probably between 20 and 30%. You have until then to land your crits and at that point your hp will have lessened too. When you use the active, you "borrow" 20% of your opponents max HP for 7 seconds, which is longer than he has to live. Just hit him once or twice thereafter to finish the job.

I'm still trying to figure out whether this has consequences for you when toggling armlet/treads though. For example, if you cast the active to gain 20% of the opponents max HP while you have armlet on active, does this mean you will lose part of it again when switching it off, because both armlet and treads have their switching linked to a percentage of your HP, rather than the amount of hitpoints on its own. So I would suspect that it's best to use the active of Mortal Strike when the enemy has slightly more than 20% of his HP left, while you have your armlet switched off and treads on something other than STR. Or if you do, don't switch it off until the end of the duration. Or am I wrong because I'm overlooking something about the borrowing, switching of toggling? I guess you are skilled enough to share some insights...

I didn't think people would accept the idea of SK as a support, but in pubs I do like to play him that way. I even ended up with Arcane Boots and stuff. It's rather ridiculous when you think about it, but it worked. Mortal Strike was a cheap "nuke" for the times when I couldn't get close enough to contribute to the fight. Its active surely adds to SK's role of a semi-support and is pretty fun to use.

I guess in competitive play the Mortal Strike will be used mostly in team fights when targeting a badass tanky hero? In a one of one this ability may just make all the difference when fighting Axe for example. When at low health, instead of being chopped down at once by his ult, you may just turn the game around. Although both Axe and Skeleton King aren't such frequent picks, so this specific scenario won't likely happen in a competitive game. Can't wait to see your guide into using this skill to the max though :)

I kinda forgot to update the Mortal Strike, thanks for clarifying that. I still think that one point at level 8 is enough since 20% less health wouldn't be that much of a difference if your lane partner(s) do their job properly. About the lane pushing part, even at my matchmaking level there are some people that keep Basilius or Aquila turned on and refuse to turn them off; I still think that if your support is able to pull no push can leave you underfarmed.

Also, Skeleton King is pretty decent as a last-resort support since his stun does scale with levels and he can deal some autoattack damage (just like a support Sven); in this case an early 20% damage "nuke" can be useful since you don't need stats, and if you know how to pull the aura push souldn't be a problem. I think he belongs to these fun pub supports (along with Spirit Breaker, Slark, Magnus and some others) that, given enough space in the early game, can still snowball against careless enemies. Very fun to play, at least. :D


You're welcome, and thanks for your feedback!

Great guide. Like the Tread switching part in particular. SK is played so wrong often in pubs. At my level at least, but at my level it's hardly ever possible to play him well because people who push the lane are so common that the main reason not to take Vampiric Aura isn't that relevant anymore. But off course in a higher level of play, your build should be just great.

Gave it +1

Can you update the guide to add the functionality of the updated Mortal Strike? Does this make you choose 1 point in it early after because of it's active? Or should you still avoid it until mid game? When and how is it used best?

I've played SK as a semi support once to early Rosh with Ursa (yeah at my skill level you can still sometimes do that without being detected) and played him as a semi support to Ursa. I know this is all wrong, but it kind of worked. So I got a point in all skills early.Hellfire Blast was used to stun so Ursa could get in range to kill, Vampiric Aura helped us survive amd Mortal Strike's active just lowered the opposing hero's health while Ursa was raping him. Since the health is returned after the duration, I didn't use it when I was at full health (just nuking yourself), but that was about it. At my level of skill, we succeeded and it was fun, but I know that this is all wrong and should never be tried on a higher level. I'm just wondering how it should be used...