Skeleton King

Skeleton King

The Dire

22 + 2.9 18 + 1.7 13 + 1.6

Level 1 16 25 Hit Points 568 1423 2259 Mana 169 507 923 Damage 54-56 99-101 143-145 Armor 3.52 7.3 11.92 Attacks / Second 0.69 0.85 1.04

Movement Speed 300 Turn Rate 0.4 Sight Range 1800/800 Attack Range Melee Missile Speed Instant Attack Duration 0.56+0.44 Cast Duration 0.35+0.51 Base Attack Time 1.7

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 while he is also able to stay in his lane longer because of his lifestealing passive.He can become hard carry in later stages of game depending on his farm.

Bio

Ostarion, the Skeleton King Play "Bone is strongest where it's mended." Role: Durable / Carry / Disabler 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: Dave Fennoy (Responses)

Abilities

Hellfire Blast Q T Ability Affects Damage Target Unit Enemies 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. Slow: 20% Slow Duration: 4 Seconds Stun Duration: 2 Seconds Damage over Time: 15/30/40/50 Damage: 50/100/150/200 Range: 525 8 140 Ostarion calls on his hellish lineage, laying waste to his opponents.

Notes: Total damage: 80/160/230/300 2 seconds stun, then 2 seconds slow and damage

Vampiric Aura W V Ability Affects Aura Allies Nearby friendly melee units gain HP based on their damage dealt when attacking enemy units. Lifesteal: 15%/20%/25%/30% Skeleton King's blade drains the marrow of bones into his own kingdom.

Notes: Fully stacks with other life-steal effects and with orb effects. Has a radius of 900.

Critical Strike E C Ability Affects Passive Self Skeleton King gains a chance to deal bonus damage on an attack. Critical Chance: 15% Critical Damage: 1.25×/1.75×/2.25×/2.75× Red critical numbers are before illusion and armor reduction. The power to crush a skull.

Reincarnation R R Ability Affects Passive Self Skeleton King's bones reform after death, causing him to resurrect when killed in battle. Upon reincarnation, enemy units in the area will be slowed by 30%. Reincarnation Time: 3 Seconds 260/160/60 140 Slow does not affect magic immune enemies. Conspirators of the Skeleton King wonder why he never stays dead.

Notes: Slows enemies in a 700 radius by 30% for 4 seconds Will revive even if silenced on death. Will not revive if Skeleton King does not have required mana. If Skeleton King has an Aegis and Reincarnation is cooled down upon death, Reincarnation will trigger first. Revives with full HP and full mana.

Recommended items

Explanation: Power Treads is a core item on Skeleton King because of the much needed attack speed. The ability to swap between Strength and Intelligence could mean the difference between life and death for Skeleton King also. Armlet is gotten because Vampiric Aura can negate the negative effects of Armlet. Skeleton then should maximize his team fight presence. Increasing his DPS and utilizing Critical Strike is a very viable way of doing this. Items including Desolator, and MKB increase his damage output significantly. Heart or BKB are always viable options if Skeleton King is struggling to stay alive during team fights. Rapier is a Situation Item only because of Skeleton King's Reincarnate ability. However, even with Skeleton Kings innate survivablity it still is a very risky item and should only be gotten in extreme circumstances. Although not suggested, Soul Ring is considered a very strong item on Skeleton King, as it gives him the necessary mana to either cast one more stun, or even his ultimate.

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.
• Critical Strike drastically increases Skeleton King's melee DPS. Synergizes well with Vampiric Aura, healing Skeleton King a big chunk of health every time he crits.
• 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 two levels of Stats on early levels to improve Skeleton King's mana pool and health. Alternatively take two levels of crit for slightly more dps early on, only do so if you really know what you're doing with Skeleton King though.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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. It allows you to potentially Reincarnate twice in a fight allowing you to be that much more useful in a team fight as well as solving all of your mana issues.
• 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.
• It seems counter-intuitive, but you should try to initiate or try to soak all the damage; if you are the last to die, nobody will be able to help you when you proc Reincarnation!
• Although some people think that Divine Rapier is risky even with Skeleton King, combining it with his critical and vampiric aura allows him to deal insane damage and heal insane amounts of HP, making it also an excellent item to improve his already enormous survivability.

Trivia

• In DotA, Ostarion was known as King Leoric. Leoric was a recurring boss in the Diablo franchise, another game made by Blizzard. He is an iconic boss in Diablo; he reprises his role in Diablo III, through the alias "Skeleton King."
• King Ostarion Leoric has made an AMA thread on r/Dota on reddit

Update history

November 30, 2012 Patch

• Pseudo Random chances are now enabled for these abilities:
  • Phantom Assassin's Coup de Grâce
  • Slardar's Bash
  • Faceless Void's Time Lock
  • Brewmaster's Drunken Brawler's critical strike
  • Sniper's Headshot
  • Juggernaut's Blade Dance
  • Chaos Knight's Chaos Strike
  • Lycanthrope's Shapeshift's critical strike
  • Skeleton King's Critical Strike

February 16, 2012 Patch

• [Undocumented] Added injured animations for Skeleton King.
• [Undocumented] Added chase animations for Skeleton King.

December 16, 2011 Patch

• Buying an item while dead no longer puts it in the main inventory. Fixes an exploit of buying items while dead with Aegis or as Skeleton King and respawning with the item.

November 17, 2011 Patch

• Added more movement lines for Dazzle, Dark Seer, Dragon Knight, Furion, Huskar, Riki, Skeleton King, Slardar, Spectre, and Jakiro.

November 03, 2011 Patch

• Fixed loss of vision while reincarnating.

October 27, 2011 Patch

• Fixed Aegis not working on him once he levels up Reincarnation.
• Fixed Vampiric Aura on mechanical units.
• Fixed Vampiric Aura on denies.
• Enabled Broodmother, Skeleton King and Queen of Pain in Captain's Mode.

October 20, 2011 Patch

• Added Broodmother, Queen of Pain and Skeleton King!

July 01, 2011 Patch

• Fixed Reincarnate to trigger first if he also has Aegis.

June 10, 2011 Patch

• Fixed bug that could result in invisibile Lina and Skeleton Kings.

January 18, 2011 Patch

• Characters with a 0.4 turn rate such as Skeleton King and Earthshaker now turn around faster.

Balance changelog

6.75

• Hellfire Blast slow increased from 15% to 20%.

6.73

• Reincarnation
  • Slow duration increased from 3 to 4 seconds
  • Cooldown decreased from 300/220/140 to 260/160/60

6.72

• Reincarnation
  • Now does a 700 AoE 3 second 30% slow around the area where he respawns
  • Delay decreased from 5/4.5/4 to 3 seconds

6.69

• Hellfire Blast damage redistributed to some on impact and some dps
• Reincarnation
  • Scoreboard now displays Skeleton King's ultimate cooldown time
  • Skeleton King will be automatically selected for you after he reincarnates

6.68

• Vampiric Aura lifesteal improved from 10/16/22/28% to 15/20/25/30%
• Reincarnation manacost increased from 100 to 140
• Reworked Hellfire Blast

Old Hellfire Blast:

Stun Duration: 2

Damage: 100/150/200/250

Cooldown: 8

Manacost: 140

New Hellfire Blast:

Ignites the target on fire, dealing damage over time. Stuns the target for a brief period followed by a movement speed reduction.

Stun Duration: 2

Slow Duration: 2

Slow Amount: 15%

Damage per second: 30/45/60/75

Cooldown: 8

Manacost: 140

Note: The dps duration is the full 4 seconds.

6.67

• Vampiric Aura AoE increased from 600 to 900
• Reincarnation now costs a constant 100 manacost instead of 100/150/200

6.64

• Vampiric Aura increased from 5/10/15/20% to 10/16/22/28%

Replaced Abilities

Hellfire Blast (Old) Q T Ability Affects Damage Target Unit Enemies Magical Skeleton King fires a sphere of hellfire at an enemy unit, dealing damage and stunning. Stun Duration: 2 Seconds Damage: 100/150/200/250 Range: 525 8 140 Ostarion calls on his hellish lineage, laying waste to his opponents.

Gallery

• 

  Splash artwork

See also

• Skeleton King responses