Community Guide to Wraith King (Safe Lane & Offlane)

Introduction

Hey everyone, welcome to this community Wraith King guide. In this guide, we'll be going over all the essential info you'll need to get started with Leoric. This guide is aimed at lower level play or for players unfamiliar with the hero.

This guide was written with contributions from community members like you! Thank you to the following DOTAFire members for contributing to this guide:


Please feel free to leave any comments or suggestions if you have feedback on the guide. Without further ado, let's get started!

Abilities

Wraithfire Blast - Lockdown and slow - perfect for keeping enemies under control while you’re taking them down. The damage isn’t too high, but combined with your basic attacks, skeletons and other allies, it might be enough time to take down most enemies, especially supports. All your skeletons will focus on the target of your Wraithfire Blast. Keep this in mind when you’re focusing a target, as having extra damage from your skeletons will always come in handy. However, it’s important to be aware of your skeleton positioning if they’re already spawned but not near you, as the stun might not be long enough to give them time to reach your target and deal damage. The blast can be disjointed by using Blink Dagger, any Blink abilities (e.g. Anti-Mage and Queen of Pain) or activating Manta Style. Be aware who you’re against and what items they’re wielding! At level 25 this ability will be automatically casted on all targets surrounding you when you’re killed. It’s a painful process to kill Wraith King, it’s even worse to take him down and have to kill him again!

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Vampiric Aura

Vampiric Aura - Grants life steal and bonus damage to yourself, your skeletons, melee allied heroes and dominated neutral creeps. The bonuses will be higher on yourself while lower for all other units affected. Increases your sustain and allows you to farm safely, always having the ability to regenerate your health by dealing damage. Can effectively farm neutral creeps without buying additional life steal items. Great when pushing towers with your teammates, as their sustain and damage will also be increased (only melee heroes). Make sure to check what other heroes your team has picked, as having more melee allies will mean this aura will be more efficient.

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Mortal Strike - Remember to use this every time you get max charges or whenever you really need to push. Drastically increases your farming speed and also helps gain map control by passively pushing lanes. If you get the +6 skeletons spawned, even with zero charges the ability will spawn 6 skeletons. Super good to just use off cooldown if needed to continuously pressure the opponent Also good to use when engaging in skirmishes. Once you use skeletons, they will automatically target whoever you stun, this can provide a little bit extra damage to kill opponents or win trades in the lane

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Reincarnation - Great ability in the late game but not so much in the earlier stages of the game. Requires mana to be effective and the cooldown is long. Be aware of abilities and items that can burn mana, as having no mana will completely render this ability useless until later stages of the game. For instance, Anti-Mage’s Mana Break or Phantom Lancer building Diffusal Blade. You can keep a few Enchanted Mangoes at all times in your inventory to have an extra chance to get some mana right before being killed. Also, Magic Wand also helps in this situation, as it’ll give you a significant health and mana boost if you have enough charges. If you know for sure that you will be killed, inform your allies so they start coming towards you. Your Reincarnation might give them just enough time to come in and save you, or even potentially win a fight. Can be upgraded by Aghanim’s Scepter, transforming nearby killed heroes into wraiths that are alive for 7 seconds, giving them more time to partake in fights. With the level 25 talent, Reincarnation Casts Wraithfire Blast, it might be a good idea to die early, so the enemy team cannot escape since they all will get stunned if close to you, even the slow from the ultimate without the talent is already very useful for that.

Reincarnation can be skipped until level 8 or 9 at times but in general you should level it, mostly if you have a risk of dying. The general idea is that if you max Mortal Strike you get a very strong critical damage chance and the skeletons which greatly help with farm, and the bonus damage and lifesteal from Vampiric Aura gives you sustain to farm.

You can even skip Wraithfire Blast if you have a completely free lane with no kill potential, but in general you get a point in it to fight for runes first, then max your damage and farming spells.




+15 Attack Speed - Wraith King has low agility and attack speed, professional/high MMR players used to often get a casual Gloves of Haste and some even still do, since more attack speed makes Mortal Strike more valuable.

+12 Strength - 240 health is much more useful than more Mortal Strike skeleton damage, the skeletons will not damage heroes basically, they will mostly split push and farm, but they do not despawn with time, so the time it takes for them to do such things does not matter really. It's all a matter of preference though!

+30 Movement Speed - Since reaching your enemies and getting kited is one of Wraith King's biggest issues, having more movement speed is always great for chasing and reaching enemies with escape. Feel free to go for the bonus skeletons spawned if you've picked the level 15 bonus attack damage for skeletons.

Reincarnation Casts Wraithfire Blast - Extremely strong, you can turn fights and even indirectly initiate/reinitiate with this talent. It is an area stun for everybody around you, so just rush in, if they kill you they have a problem, if they do not kill you, they also have a problem!

Items

Quelling Blade gives you additional damage to last hit, which is needed since you are a melee hard carry which needs farm. Tangoes are for regeneration while in the lane, you also have Vampiric Aura but the hero is generally squishy, later on you will run out of regeneration, but more levels in Vampiric Aura with Mortal Strike should allow you to sustain yourself.

Ring of Protection is very important because Wraith King has very low armor, it can be upgraded to Buckler which is going to be used in Assault Cuirass, the two Iron Branches give some nice attributes and are going to be used in a Magic Wand.



These items should keep you strong enough to deal with the early game until you get your bigger items ready. The Buckler will be later upgraded into Assault Cuirass, till then it’s going to be an useful armor aura for you and your team.

The Power Treads are the ideal choice for boots, as you really benefit from the stats and attack speed. Magic Wand is always useful to have, as it provides you with emergency boosts of mana and health when you have enough charges (great if you’re lacking mana for Reincarnation right before you die).

You will have to pick between Hand of Midas and Armlet of Mordiggian before continuing the build. If your farm is exceptional and you can get it quickly, consider buying Hand of Midas to further boost your farming speed and experience gain.

If you’re not feeling very confident or if your team needs some help in early fights, go for Armlet of Mordiggian instead that enables you to fight when needed.



These items will make you a real threat. Radiance will greatly boost your farming speed and the sooner you get it, the harder it will be for the enemies to fight around you.

Silver Edge will boost your damage output, will give you an escape and chasing option, and will also help you counter heroes that rely on their passives (e.g. Bristleback, Spectre). Assault Cuirass is good in any situation, as it’ll boost your defences against physical damage while reducing these same defences for the enemy units and structures. Make sure to check if anyone else is building Assault Cuirass in your team though, as having more in a time is not worth it.

Skull Basher will help you with keeping your target under control. Can also be upgrade into Abyssal Blade later on. This item benefits greatly from high attack speed!

Aghanim's Shard is essential to not worry about mana anymore and to boost your skeletons' effectiveness!

Must have against teams with multiple ways to disable you (e.g. Shadow Shaman, Lion). Be aware of enemy disables that can pierce magic immunity, as that can reduce the worth of this item (e.g. Bane, Batrider). If the enemy doesn’t have such disables, then Black King Bar will shine at its maximum potential.

If you’re against heavy damage dealers that you can easily counter with Blade Mail (e.g. Skywrath Mage, Tinker, Legion Commander), then consider picking this up as an early game item.

If you need more mobility and initiation, consider getting this item. However, you must be aware of how the enemies can disable your Blink Dagger (e.g. enemy Radiance), as it can significantly reduce the item’s worth this way. Great choice when you’re looking to focus the enemy backlines and take down squishy enemy supports quickly.

In case you’re dealing with enemies that have a lot of armor, this might be a good way to counter it. The armor reduction from this item will also stack with the one from Assault Cuirass, but it’s in the same boat as this item, if someone else in your team is buying it, you can skip it.

Increases your durability and also gives you more control. The passive bashes are great to have, but the best part is the Overwhelm active. In most cases, a few seconds of stun will be more than enough to take down a target, if you pick the right one to focus! Great against heroes that really need to be disabled (e.g. Ursa, Storm Spirit).

The King won’t be brought down by any evasive scum. Buy this item whenever you’re dealing with heroes benefiting from evasion (e.g. Phantom Assassin, Windranger) and don’t let them waste your hits!

Great item to diversify your damage output and to deal with heroes that depend on illusions or sticking together (e.g. Phantom Lancer, Meepo). Make sure to not forget about the active shield it provides, as it's very useful when used on the focused hero (probably yourself)!

Strong counter against heroes that rely on their basic attacks to deal damage (e.g. Ursa, Outworld Devourer). Also boosts your life steal and will go well with the evasion you already have from Radiance.

Gameplay

Your main goal in the early game is to get as many last hits and experience as possible. Since you’re a melee hero, you’re going to be vulnerable to ranged enemies that can harass you from a safe distance. However, since you have a stun, you can get kills pretty consistently with the help of your support on most enemy heroes.

Since you’ll be maxing out your Mortal Strike first, this will increase your overall damage output and also farming speed. The damage from critical strike shouldn’t be overlooked, as it makes you hit really hard and most enemies won’t expect the amount of damage you’ll dish out.

The spawned skeletons are effective both when focusing an enemy hero but especially when farming. Remember that the skeletons will focus the target you cast Wraithfire Blast on, meaning you can change their target when focusing an enemy. They can also be used to farm neutral camps or the lane when you’re in another place, as long as they have enough vision.

Vampiric Aura will help you sustain your health, but if you’re getting harassed constantly, you’ll have to spend gold on getting more regeneration using your courier. Don’t be too greedy with regeneration, as going back to base will lose you more gold and also experience.


Don’t be afraid of jungling once you have your Ring of Health. If you cannot get last hits in your lane, it is the better choice to go for. In addition, do not be afraid of switching lanes, is the offlane safer and they already destroyed their tower? Switch lane with your allies, they are stronger and you are easier to harass, so they can keep fighting while you farm.



You should continue focus on farming but also help your team when they need it. This is one of Wraith King’s advantages, he can teleport and help his team in fights, and his skeletons will continue farming for him. Try and quickly assess the fight’s worth, because if you’re sure it’s not going to be a fight worth your time, it might be better to continue farming instead, as wasting time and potentially losing a fight and getting killed is not ideal.

Once you’ve got your Radiance, you are going to be a major threat for the enemies. The earlier you get the Radiance, the more effective it will be. As soon as you have your Radiance, you will be farming way faster and you can already take fights more convincingly.

You are going to be very strong and you will feel that way, but make sure you’re not going to overextend in fights. Even if you seem unstoppable, in unfavorable situations enemies can take you down and receive a lot of gold, plus reducing your presence on the map and time farming.

Whenever your team has won a fight, make sure to take advantage of the downtime of the enemy heroes. Destroy towers, kill Roshan, farm the enemy neutral camps and plant wards, basically anything that your team could benefit from while the map is free. Never waste time and try to be as efficient as possible, meaning you should never go back to farming your own jungle when you can take down important objectives.

If you get caught and killed, remember that Reincarnation can give more time for your team to reach and help until you’re reincarnated. Do your best to run towards your team and juke the enemies as best as you can, to reach a position where you can meet your teammates. You’re tough to kill and you deal great amounts of damage, but you’re stronger when your team is around you! Also, it’s important to keep an eye on your mana and what ways the enemies have to burn it, as it can render your Reincarnation completely useless.

Conclusion

Thank you for reading this Community guide to Wraith King! If you'd like to contribute to this guide, please leave me a comment in the Discussion tab with your feedback or send me a Private Message if you'd like to contribute regularly to guides like this. Everyone who contributes to one of these Community Guides will be credited in the guide.

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