Guide to Leoric Skeleton King
Introduction
Skeleton King didn’t have a guide, and he’s fun and easy to play, so I decided to write him a guide. This is an awesome hero if you’re a new player, and is a good hero to learn DotA with.
Range: 128 (melee) Move Speed: 300
Str: 22 + 2.9 Agi: 18 + 1.7 Int: 13 + 1.6
Damage: 54 – 56 HP: 568 Mana: 169
HP Regen: 0.91 Mana Regen: 0.53
Attack Speed: 1.39 Armor: 3
Skill descriptions
Storm Bolt
A magical hammer is thrown at an enemy unit, causing damage and stunning the target for 2 seconds.
2 second stun, decent damage, and the cooldown is low enough that it’s a good initiator and can then be used for chasing.
Level 1 - 100 damage.
Level 2 - 150 damage.
Level 3 - 200 damage.
Level 4 - 250 damage.
Mana Cost: 140
Cooldown: 8
Vampiric Aura
Allied melee units within 600 AoE gain hit points when they hit enemy units.
This aura applies to yourself as well. It’s one of the skills that makes Skele King so powerful, and useful to his team.
Level 1 - Gains 5% of attack damage.
Level 2 - Gains 10% of attack damage.
Level 3 - Gains 15% of attack damage.
Level 4 - Gains 20% of attack damage.
Critical Strike
Gives 15% chance to do more damage on an attack.
Critical Strike is absolutely amazing coupled with your Vampiric Aura. With damage items, critting will result in you getting massive amounts of health regenerated.
Level 1 - 1.25 times normal damage.
Level 2 - 1.75 times normal damage.
Level 3 - 2.25 times normal damage.
Level 4 - 2.75 times normal damage.
Reincarnation
When killed, this hero will come back to life at the cost some mana.
Skeleton cannot reincarnate if he is silenced, therefore Doom, SA’s Smoke Screen, Bloodseeker’s silence, Death Prophet’s silence, Drow Ranger’s silence, etc. stop this ultimate from activating.
Level 1 - 300 second cooldown. 100 mana.
Level 2 - 240 second cooldown. 150 mana.
Level 3 - 190 second cooldown. 200 mana.
Skill List
Level 1- Storm Bolt
Level 2- Stats
Level 3- Bolt
Level 4- Stats
Level 5- Bolt
Level 6- Reincarnation
Level 7- Bolt
Level 8- Critical Strike
Level 9- Critical Strike
Level 10- Critical Strike
Level 11- Critical Strike
Level 12- Vamp Aura
Level 13- Vamp Aura
Level 14- Vamp Aura
Level 15- Vamp Aura
Level 16- Reincarnation
Level 17- Reincarnation
Level 18 - Stats
Level 19 - Stats
Level 20-25 - Stats
Skill Explanation
This build is taken pretty obviously. Early Storm Bolt and stats for ganks with your team and better lane control/survivability. Reincarnation at 6, but not taken until 15/16 because the mana cost is too high earlier and isn’t really needed as much. If you’re finding you’re really needing the lower cooldown, you can take it earlier then 15/16. Crit taken before Vamp.
Tank Item Build
- Two circlets, tangoes OR RoR, Circlet if going Hood
- Boots, Bottle
- Two Gauntlets, two bracer recipes
- Hyperstone
- BoT
- Assault Cuirass
- Optional: Hood
- Heart OR Radiance
Items Bought Throughout the Game:
- Observer Wards (For watching runes)
Damage Build:
- Two circlets, tangoes OR RoR, Circlet if going Hood
- Boots, Bottle
- Two Gauntlets, Treads
- Two bracer recipes
- Sacred Relic
- Radiance
- Heart OR MKB
Item Explanations
Bottle is for rune-whoring, this hero is exceptionally strong when comboed with a haste, invisibility, or DD rune, and the Bottle itself will give you practically permanent staying status in your lane, and some good mana regen between ganks and storm bolts. Hyperstone is taken to make use of Vamp Aura and Critical Strike, BoT next for movespeed and farming, Assault Cuirass to use the Hyperstone, help yourself and your team. Heart taken if you wanna be a huge tank, MKB for more damage oriented. Hood taken if lots of intell heroes on the enemy team, and if you wanna be more tank centered. Obs. Wards taken to watch runes.
General Concept
This build is to make sure that you’re your most useful early on with some bracers for health, mana, and a bit more attack power, and Bottle so you can rune-whore and have regen in between bolts and have more lane-power. Bottle will make your ganking more effective, and because your Vamp Aura and Storm Bolt synergize with almost every melee hero in the game, you’re a good ganker.
Alternatives
Stygian Desolater instead of MKB is okay if you want more -armor against the enemy team.
Satanic is okay, the new one is pretty nice, it’s just not my favorite item.
Radiance is a strong item on this hero, get it if no one else on your team is, get it in place of Cuirass, but still get the Hyperstone.
Items Not To Get
Dagon, Basher, Refresher are all bad items for this hero. Basher seems okay, but it’s so expensive and your problems can be solved with just a little teamwork and getting one of your teammates to help disable, rather then just get a basher. Dagon is just not effective with this hero, he doesn’t have the mana or the need for it. Refresher is dumb, he doesn’t have the mana for it, and why refresh Reincarnation? It has a somewhat low cooldown for how powerful it is, just don’t be stupid.
Gameplay Strategy: Early, Mid and Late Game
Levels 1-5
Grab your starting items, head to a lane with an ally ganker, preferably a stunner. Your two-second stun is a great skill to combo with another ally for an easy first blood, either at level 1 or 3. You’re not a very strong harasser either, so an allied nuker is recommended. Harass with Bolt when you get your Bottle, and remember to buy obs. wards to watch the runes, and at level 5-ish you can start ganking, but I would recommend waiting until level 7.
Strong melee ally that can make use of your Vamp Aura, and can combo LVL Death and Storm Bolt spam with you. A quick Doom, and you can both run up and bash on the enemy hero without fear of disables.
Strong ally for the extra stun, strong nuke, and chasing abilities. Your two stuns together are immensely powerful, and you can lead with your stun, she can stun from a distance, and then leap in and Starfall, and then you both beat on the enemy if it’s still alive (doubtful).
A strong melee that can make use of your Vamp Aura that is also a survival powerhouse and tank. You two together are a pretty unstoppable force, as both your ultimates are second chances, and you both have decent nukes. His Frostmourne slow is also powerful because you don’t have a slow skill of your own for fast enemy heroes, so you both get more whacks in with Frostmourne.
Remember to just play fairly safely and farm up early. You’re gonna need your Bottle before you start ganking. I suggest reading
Levels 6-9
Start ganking now. Bottle is awesome for mana regen and health regen in between ganks, and remember to keep your obs. wards up to watch the runes, and whore them up. Gank with allies, like the one listed in the previous section, as they’re pretty ownage when coupled with you. Any stunner is actually pretty godlike with you, so find a stunner and gank. If you’re having troubles ganking, just farm up. Not much to really say. When ganking, just storm bolt, run up, whack on them a few times, and chase them, storm-bolting when the cooldown is off.
Read this guide to runes: http://forums.dota-allstars.com/index.php?showtopic=82166
Read this guide to neutral creeps: http://forums.dota-allstars.com/index.php?showtopic=123531
Levels 10-12
Hopefully by this time you’ll have Hyperstone, but if not, that’s fine. Keep ganking/farming, but try to get your Hyperstone soon if you don’t have it. It’s pretty useful. Once you get it, you can blow through creep waves and neutrals fairly quickly, so farming up your Cuirass shouldn’t take too long. Support your team in pushes as well.
Levels 13-16
By now you should have at least BoT, and hopefully AC. From here, you need to make choice between tanking and straight damage dealing while being a semi-tank. If you’re going tank, get Heart, Hood if you want it, and then maybe Manta. If you’re going DPS, go MKB or Stygian.
At this point you’re a strong damage dealer and a good tank, and this is the part of the game where you should make use of this. Push hard, help gank with the enemy team, solo Roshan (you’re extremely good at it with your high HP, fast attack, and Vamp Aura), and remember to keep your Obs. Wards up and watch the runes. DD runes are MASSIVELY amazing on this hero late-game, as he can have a two-second stun (longer if you’re with teammates that have stuns/disables) to hit the enemy with 2.75 crits and heal 25% of all damage he deals. It’s amazing. Haste and Invisibility are also strong runes with this hero.
V. Notable Enemies
Silencers, if they silence right before you die, you can’t reincarnate. PH33R THEM.
