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4 Votes

Ace's Guide to Slark

January 13, 2013 by GGnet.Ace
Comments: 12    |    Views: 10832    |   


Hero Build

DotA2 Hero: Slark




Hero Skills

Dark Pact

3 4 5 7

Pounce

1 8 9 10

Essence Shift

2 12 13 14

Shadow Dance

6 11 16

Talents

15 17 18

Introduction/Pros & Cons

Slark is an agility semi carry hero with small stat gain.He isnt a beastly carry like most agility heroes but still he can be quite effective in mid game.

Pros:
Escape mechanism
Debuff ability (which removes pretty much everything but Doom and Rupture)
Insane mobility &Regen
Excellent ganking skills
Spammable Nuke


Cons:
Very Squishy
Very weak in the first levels
Can be countered by true sight
Average late game potential
Very little stat gain overall

Best allies

Basicly slark doesnt do any significant damage with his first 3-5 hits till he steals some agility which is smooth for him and his enemy hp pool dropping which is why you need people to HOLD YOUR TARGETS
Best examples are
Atropos,Bat Rider,Crystal Maiden,Witch doctor,Lion
Special mention to Shadow Shaman Shadow shaman has shakles the longest (non ulti) single target stun in the game and has a decent nuke to help you kill the enemy.

Worst Enemies

Whoever gives enemy vision on your hero destroys his regen and his insane movement speed need I say more ?Also true sight counters Slark's ulti
The most significant of your worse
enemies are: Bounty hunter,Slardar,Bloodseeker,Doom Bringer,Gem of Truesight,Sentry wards,Blade mail,orchid malevolance
Note:Why not Dust ?Because dust can be debuffed with dark pact and has a cooldown of 50 seconds.Same applies to track of bounty hunter and amplify damage of slardar (with the diffrence that their cooldowns are way shorter) so save dark pact for removing those spells from u.

Special mention to:Bloodseeker:that hero is a pain for you because if he is close to you and you are under 50% he sees you in an aoe of 6000 which doesnt give your ultimate's regen.

Laning phase

Well you gonna have a hard time buddy ...

Generally this hero is pretty weak on the laning phase versus a decent enemy lane combo.
So play defensive until you get to level 6.It would be ideal if you dont die until then.
Also if you are on the easy lane get your lane partner to pull because you dont wanna share experience (cause you want your level 6 SO BAD).Until you get level 6 I suggest that you get poors man shield so that will make your consumables last a bit longer but generally tower hug.Farm your boots and orb of venom as well.

You are level 6 ?**** YEAH forget all the weaknesses mentioned above.Now you are the boss.If enemies are squishy go for the kill (I suggest getting level 7 first for max dark pact) after an allied setup.If you got no setup in lane Roam go for the middle lane or the other sidelane.Dont worry buddy you can do it prety fast with ultimate's movement speed.

Note:If the enemy has defensive and safe lineup (escape mechanisms) consider farming more.

This phase ends when you reach level 10 without more than 2 deaths.

Mid game

Spend 5-7 minutes on farming the non luxury core built
You have your core (Non luxury) built ?

Now is the time that you become a beast.Use medalion on your enemies and watch them melt.ASk from your supports to get wards on the enemy jungle so that you can venture and make the enemy team dread of you.Find Solo heroes jump on them, slow them by hitting (orb of venom), reduce their armor (medalion) use ulti and kill them.You can do it all alone however its better to do it with team and it significantly reduces the chances of it failing.
If you take rosh during the mid game pick aegis ONLY if there is no harder carry than you.

Late game

In the late game Slark starts to fade (unless you raped your enemies).And here your items must start helping you.
Turn slowly your orb of venom into eye of skadi.Yeah skadi is expensive but its worth the trouble (if you get it before 30 minute mark) because it makes your ultimate's hp regen huge and you get tanky enough to steal enough stats to kill enough heroes.If you dont get skadi diffusal blade + vitality booster works miracles too,use purge hit them till they regain their movement speed and pounce on them,there is no getaway from diffusal blade slark.Black king bar is crucial at this point.Because you cant avoid everything with dark pact
Consider getting basher and abyssal blade only if the enemy plays 1 core carry game so you need to shutdown their carry.
To fight correct you must first trade some hits with enemy heroes to steal at least 40 agility (10 hits) and to exhaust enemies that dont you have your (non combat) regen.Then engaging is safer.At this point your damage isnt enough unless you have 1-2 more items than your enemies.So you have to outnumber them or trade hits .

Extra tips and items

1.You should engage with dark pact clicked a bit before you use pounce so it will explode once you hit the enemy (while he tried to stun/slow you to make a run from you and you debuff his stun or slow) and you will be able to use it twice in a fight.
2.You can use your ulti for finding wards or invis heroes.For example if you go to a rune and you dont have the movement speed bonus its probably warded or there is someone invis behind you.It works great against riki bounty hunter etc...
3.Never start fight with ultimate.Exhaust yourself a bit get to half hp or something then USE ulti otherwise regen is wasted and probably the movement speed.
4.DONT MAN UP MAN FIGHTS ARENT ALLOWED ON SLARk(u are gay).Unless you are fighting a support hero on your peak (mid game with the non luxury core).Trade some hits go away from enemy in fog regen and do it again.Remember stolen stats last 60 seconds, 60 ****ing long seconds that your enemy is gonna flame you for stealing his max hp manapool etc ...
5.Slark isnt so tp based hero.Since you got 498 movement speed with treads and ulti out of enemy sight you can Run around from lane to lane unless you are split pushing.


Explaining the item choices:Orb of venom is great cost effective item becauase it helps you chase the enemy due to slow with only 275 gold.Drums are good for stats giving making you less squishy and giving you a larger mana pool that you need you dont really profit from movement speed bonus though.Medalion works miracles on slark because if you use medalion and then use dark pact you debuff the negative medalion from yourself so its free desolator on the effect.
Reject the mask of madness and sange yasha in most cases.Mom will make you even more paper when you are revealed and Sange yasha is prolly the worst item of dota at the moment.
Daedalus Butterfly Heart and Ac are considered luxuries

Note:THIS IS A PUB GUIDE BECAUSE SLARK IS A PUB HERO
Ty for your time leave any positive or negative feedback

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