Slark: From Ganker to a One Fish Army (Updated to 6.80)

I usually grab the Orchid Malevolence after Skull Basher or Butterfly at the place of Ring of Basilius for the silence and the damage amplification and also the nice stats it gives because your damage later will be higher. It's actually very good core but this guide is based on what I'm using most of the time and what works for me the best. Also I agree that early Malevolence is more effective vs late but it's good substitute for Basilius.

nice guide....rly :D :D :D

Perhaps grabbing the Orchid Malevolence first would be better, a lot of the time this Item falls off Late Game due to Heroes buying Items that can Purge it ( Diffusal Blade/ Manta Style), so there's little point buying it after Eye of Skadi imo

I have used Slark a lot, and I think he's useful even with Power Treads, Ring of Basilius, Magic Stick, Orb of Venom and Point Booster and also his skills to get kills. As I said in my guide, if you find Skadi very expensive as a first core, you can buy Orb of Venom and complete Skadi while making Skull Basher before it. The only time I used this was when I said the same as you. Please, look at my games, ALL of them have Skadi as a 1st core and I am carrying the team almost always.

Hey, thanks a lot. I used to take Sange and Yasha when I first started playing Slark but later when I tested this different build later, I found out that he works a lot better if tou take Eye of Skadi as early as possible instead of SnY, because you can farm that extra 1575 gold and make it Skadi, which gives you more bonuses than SnY. I know it's very expensive, but I usually buy Skadi from level 11 to 14. Also I don't like buying SnY a lot unless I will disasemble it to make Manta Style and Heaven's Halberd and I'm sure Slark doesn't need Manta unless he makes Diffusal Blade or has stolen a lot of agility since illusions benefit from atributes. Halberd is very situational, because it disables right clickers if he has trouble with slows and bashes. So, yeah that's why I don't like SnY on Slark but if you really like it, buy it I wont say anything.

Eye of Skadi IS without a doubt the item for Slark but it is still a 5000+ gold investment and is not what you would want for your first core item. As a ganking oriented semi-carry you really need some early power so I think there should be 1 or 2 core items in between boots/treads and Eye of Skadi.

Hi! nice guide. a question though: Why not Sange and Yasha? I mean Skadi is an excellent item, but it is very expensive for a first core pick-up. 16% movement speed and 16 everything else form SnY sounds pretty good to me. Indeed, if you get Skadi the game is over but still..expensive as shhhh