From the Deeps,I rise!

Detailed Guide for Slardar

Introduction to Slardar
Slardar is a strength hero which is primarily played as an initiator/ganker, (not a tank till he gets bkb). He can be a space creating core which functions good in dual core strategies meaning you have another physical dps oriented core. I do claim that if you pick him under right scenarios(some of them listed in sectionWhen to pick?:) and follow this guide it will work for you in semipro/pro games

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Great Initiator/ ganker
• Low cd on skills required for ganking (blink/crush/smplify damage)
• Excellent Chasing potential, with low cd on sprint
• Possible early roshan with team
• Scales extremely well with items. ( People never realize it, as they never reach this point, but if played as listed in this fashion u will discover he is quite good in late game)

• Weak vs trilanes
• Low mana pool, 1 arcanes on team is must to get milage out of this pick
• Squishy w/o bkb due to sprint damage
• No farming skills, require regen oriented items
• Almost impossible to catchup if you fall behind as mentioned above
• Semi-level dependent
• Dual core lineups are essential to make this fucntion

When to pick slardar?

Slardar is a Situational pick

1. When you know you will not be agressive trilaned
2. Enemy team is split push oriented and not early-mid game 5 man oriented
3. Enemy team has greedy carries
4. Enemy team has squishy targets Squishy targets
5. And you are able to draft dual cores like sf/dk/morph
6. If you can dual lane offlane your 1 postion like weaver and potm which can split push in mid game when slardar is hunting for kills.
   
   The reason why you want 2 cores is you really want your lanes pushed out or you will have hard time getting mileage out of slardar if you are playing with lack of map control as smoke ganks become obvious when no one is defending towers,etc
   
   Supports around slardar
   Greedy supports which can jungle/split push and have a burst/disable like visage/sandking/disrupter.
   Your suceess is dependent on finding pickoffs which is possible if you have map control.

Item Choice : Explained

Before you read this Please refer cons section carefully.

1. When does a good utility mid like puck/panda starts being effective if they are having a good game? Min 9-12, 15-20 min if you have offlane puck etc
   
2. Why? They have their nukes maxed, and they have blink which is essential for excuting tower pushes.
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   1. Rushing midas: If you get free farm, this is best item you can get early game, because you can catchup with midas if your gank attempts fail,gives you a way around and you dont really need to gank at 7min in game when utility oriented mids are not at thier peek. Attack-speed is good as it increases your chance of lucky bash (always put a value point at lvl3). If you have played this hero enough you will realize that a bash can help you land 2 more auto-attacks which can be difference maker in forcing heroes out of lane.
      
   2. Blink: If you farm like I do you should be able to get blink after midas by min 10-12, this is when you buy a tp and gank mid/offlane and try to get a tower down. If you do this successfully go for vitality booster for raw hp.
      
      You really dont want to team fight because 1st you cannot run in and run out while teamfighting as most times as there will be lockdown ,mobility is less usefyl as teams will disable you. What you really want is to go in crush get nukes from other supporting heroes and get out and do the same and get value out of your low cd spells.
      
   3. I hate rushing bkb on this hero after blink unless absolutely necessary. (if teams have 5 man lineups). Rushing a bkb gives you ability to team fight and increased solo killing capacity, but u really dont want to waste the charges. It makes your bkb duration to 4 sec by the time you reach lategame which is useless in lategame. This is the reson why you should be taking early towers and getting pickoffs. Also when u get bkb complete your threads, it makes difference which you can olny realize by experience.
      
      I tend to switch my builds a bit, If i get 2 towers down i rush heart as it gives you sustain and you can farm be scary late game, if one of these pushes fail i go into bkb after vit booster. Please note do not farm vit booster by being in lane, it should come from ganks and tower. If you choose to farm, get a threads bkb instead.
      
   4. AC,butterfly- luxury items but if you have midas threads you tend to have a really good lockdown. I ahve had experiences where I killed am with 1 support just as I bashed him stunned him and followed by diable from support and got a gg bash and stun was off cd.
      
      Little evasion goes a long way and carries are forced to get mkb, which is not a natural item for many carries like luna/am/morph. Butterfly is usually wasted vs potm,sf etc as they naturally build into mkb.
      
      If yuo have stanic carries in game always go for halbard, as your bash goes through bkb and you can tank up a bit in late game and then disable them.
      
      
      Please pay attention to item build, it is better if you follow the order
      This is my first guide, I will improve it with your comments.

Skill Build:

Always start with sprint it helps with creep block, except: you want to lvl 1 smoke gank before creeps spawn or you go in mid.

Lvl up crush/sprint at lvl2 depending on your choice at lvl 1

Always get a value point in bash as it helps you to bully off laners which are underlvled, besides you can get 2 more auto-attacks off which can help him out of lane half the time, when you crush and attack for harass.

Lvl up sprint,crush,ult,sprint,crush,sprint crush. You typically want to lvl up srpint and crush in parallel fashion with preference to sprint. I did had good sucess with putting points in stats after lvl 11 till lvl 16 when enemy team was forcing pushes, but generally lvlup your passive if you are not forced to fight due to enemy team pushes