Slark is one of the hardest heroes in the game to lockdown and can snowball very easily if he gets kills in the mid game. His spells make him very good at ganking and hard to kill.
Slark’s passive Essence Shift makes it beneficial for him to buy as much attack speed as possible. Items that disable enemies are also effective on Slark as they allow him to attack enemies for a longer time. Slark thrives in team-fights which last a long time because he can gain many Essence Shift stacks this way.
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[/column]Slark Skill Build
- Pounce
- Essence Shift
- Dark Pact
- Dark Pact
- Dark Pact
- Shadow Dance
- Dark Pact
- Pounce
- Pounce
- Talent
- Pounce
- Shadow Dance
- Essence Shift
- Essence Shift
- Talent
- Essence Shift
- –
- Shadow Dance
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After 1.5 seconds, Slark will purge himself of most debuffs and damage nearby enemies as well as himself for half the damage. This should be maxed first because each level decreases the cooldown and increases the damage. This gives Slark more killing potential in the early game.
You should use Dark Pact after Pouncing onto an enemy. Often the enemy will anticipate you to use Dark Pact and wait with their disable (if they have one) until after you used it. Take this into account and use Dark Pact after a short delay to counter this. This doesn’t always work, especially if there is an ally behind the target you go on. Timing Dark Pact well is key. Try to use it like a BKB; when you anticipate an incoming disable. You can be more efficient with Dark Pact by switching the primary attribute on your Treads to intelligence before you cast it, to strength before it removes your HP and lastly back to agility. After you get a mana regeneration item, you can use this to farm neutral camps faster as you will regain your HP afterwards.
Slark pounces onto the enemy, dealing damage and tying them down to a small area. This is usually gotten at level 1 because it can be used as an escape mechanism as well as to secure kills. It can be used to traverse cliffs as well as trees. It affects invisible heroes, so it’s possible to use it to snipe invisible enemies on low HP, especially when paired with Dark Pact. If you are being ganked, enemies will often try to position themselves between you and your escape route so that you can’t Pounce away. Be patient and unpredictable. Try to move away from them first or jump in a different direction. Be careful with your aim as it may be the difference between life and death.
Slark steals one of each attribute with every attack and converts them into bonus agility. Essence Shift is maxed lastly because it only becomes effective with high attack speed. Slark also tends to fight more in the mid to late game, which makes his other nuking spells more relevant.Essence Shift is the reason that Slark prefers items that give him attack speed and items that slow/disable the enemy rather than raw damage. Essence Shift often allows Slark to trade hits with enemies advantageously in lane.
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Slark hides in the shadows, becoming immune to true-sight. Shadow Dance will also passively increase Slark’s movement speed and health regeneration when not visible by the enemy team. Shadow Dance can be used to detect enemy Observer Wards. When you lose your passive bonus, the enemy has vision of you. Try to work out where the enemy’s Dota 2 ward is and relay that information back to your team. Be aware that there could also be an invisible hero tailing you instead of there being a ward. A good way to find out is to hide in some trees or turn corners and see if it flickers from being active to not.
At level 6, you can harass enemies out of your lane very easily by trading hits until you and the enemy are low then escaping and healing up. The enemy will likely not have a good way to heal up and you will have a free lane. It may take a while to regen your HP back up though, so consider whether you should or not. Using a preemptive Shadow Dance to avoid taking damage from a strong single-target spell may be necessary. This may be the case when diving an enemy hero behind their team or tower. This is particularly good if the enemy doesn’t have many AoE stuns, as Slark is still susceptible to those.
The extra agility provides Slark with more damage, attack speed and some armor. This will help you to kill enemies faster and increase your farm rate. The extra strength will give you an extra 160 HP. This may be a better option if the enemy has strong disables that can prevent you from casting your spells. The extra HP can, in some cases, allow you to survive for long enough to cast your ultimate and heal back up. In most cases, the agility is a better option but if you are dying too quickly or are facing many disables, the extra HP can be a better choice.
The attack speed will let you steal more stats faster through Essence Shift as well as allowing you to farm a bit faster in the mid game. The extra Lifesteal will give you some more sustainability in team-fights in the mid game. Unless you’re taking a lot of damage in fights, then the lifesteal won’t be necessary. The attack speed will also let you proc more bashes when you get a Skull Basher.
The extra Pounce Leash duration will help you to kill enemies that have no way to escape it, or any defensive items to keep themselves alive. It’s great against heroes like Weaver, Mirana and Magnus. Otherwise, the extra Dark Pact damage will increase your DPS in fights, especially as it has quite a low cooldown.
The extra Essence Shift duration will effectively give you more stats in longer fights, increasing your damage, HP, armor attack speed and mana pool. The extra Shadow Dance duration can be good if you need it to fight an enemy carry 1 v 1, for example, or if there’s a strong spell that is making fights hard for you. Usually, the Essence Shift duration has a bigger impact than the extra Shadow Dance duration.
Slark is generally quite squishy until he gets his ultimate. For this reason, a Stout Shield is good on him in Dota 2 esports. His early level stats and stat gain is quite low. For this reason, cheap stat items can be good and can be built into a Ring of Aquila and Magic Wand. It can also be good to buy items that build into a Magic Wand with your starting gold. A Healing Salve will provide Slark with enough regen until he reaches his level 6.
Power Treads are the boots of choice on Slark. This is because they give him more attack speed which allows him to attack faster and get more stacks of Essence Shift up. The agility will also give him some extra damage.
An OoV can help Slark to get some kills in the early game. It’s a good pickup on Slark because it will slow the enemy enough for him to get several more attacks off, which equates to more stacks of Essence Shift. It can also be built into an Eye of Skadi later.
A Magic Wand is good on Slark because he relies on his spells to survive. A fully charged Magic Wand will give Slark enough mana to cast several more spells. It’s also good because Slark tends to gank quite a lot in the mid game, after getting Shadow Blade which will allow it to build up many charges.
Ring of Aquila gives Slark more damage and some mana regeneration. This is a great item on Slark because his spells cost very little mana and will give him more sustainability.
Shadow Blade is core on Slark because it gives him more attack speed, damage and invisibility. This is important for Slark as he can vanish and heal up from Shadow Dance very quickly. Shadow Blade will allow Slark to become a ganker and find kills all across the map. As soon as you get it, you should look for a kill somewhere on the map. When ganking, make sure to attack once before using Pounce to get the extra damage off. This isn’t crucial however. It may be the case where the duration on invisibility is about to expire and you can’t reach the enemy. In this case, it would be better to just get the Pounce off onto the enemy and try to get the kill.
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Echo Sabre is a great item on Slark because it gives him great stats and will cause him to attack twice every 5 seconds. This will make it even easier to get stacks of Essence Shift up. The mana regeneration will also allow him to cast spells more frequently and to use Dark Pact when farming to speed up his farm.
Silver Edge is the natural extension for Shadow Blade. It does not have to be upgraded every game, although it is very strong against heroes with strong passives.
BKB is a good item on Slark as it spares him of having to use Shadow Dance when going on some enemies. It’s absolutely necessary against lineups with lots of magic damage and/or disables.
Skull Basher gives Slark a chance to disable enemies when Pouncing on them in the form of a bash. This will allow him to get more attacks off and gain more stacks of Essense Shift. Slarks high attack speed will allow him to get bashes off very frequently.
Orchid allows Slark to lockdown enemies that rely on their spells to escape, such as Puck or Storm Spirit. Normally, they could break Pounce’s leash very easily and escape from Slark. Orchid makes Slark a stronger ganker because of the damage boost and silence. This will force the enemy to buy a means to purge it or risk dying in every fight. The mana regeneration will also allow you to cast your spells very frequently which is helpful in long fights.
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Abyssal Blade will allow Slark to disable an enemy, attack them and gain many stacks of Essence Shift. This is a very strong item, especially because Slark can use it after initiating onto an enemy with invisibility. It will also tank Slark up and give him a passive damage block.
Butterfly gives Slark lots of attack speed and some damage. It will also provide him with evasion which can be very helpful against the enemy carries. The attack speed will allow him to get more stacks on Essence Shift and additionally butterfly can be used to gain movement speed to chase down enemies more easily.
Skadi gives Slark lots of great all around stats and tanks him up considerably. Most importantly, Skadi applies a movement and attack speed slow on enemies. This allows Slark to chase enemies much more easily. The attack speed slow is also very strong against lineups with lots of physical damage. This is a great item if Slark needs to just tank up.
Moon Shard gives Slark a massive boost to his attack speed which is very helpful for Essence Shift and bash procs. It can be consumed to gain an inventory slot, although it is highly effective when kept in an inventory slot as well.
Bloodthorn is a natural upgrade to Orchid. It will give Slark true-strike onto the target enemy and allow him to dish out much more damage through the crits. Bloodthorn also provides lots of damage and attack speed, both of which are helpful for Slark.
A gem will allow Slark to be able to gank and kill heroes with invisibility. It’s a good item on Slark because he is very hard to kill and as such is unlikely to drop it. He can also deward very easily thanks to Pounce and the fact that he roams the map looking for ganks very often.
Mjollnir can be a good item on Slark because it gives him a lot of attack speed. Generally, there are more useful items to buy, although it can be very good against creep or illusion heroes.
Blink Dagger can be good against heroes with lots of mobility as it makes you better at chasing. However, given that Slark has high movement speed from combining Shadow Dance and invisibility, it is often unnecessary.
MKB gives Slark lots of attack speed and accuracy. However Bloodthorn and Silver Edge are both ways to deal with evasion which are more natural purchases on Slark. It may still be a good purchase however, especially against several sources of evasion, as the attack speed works very well with Essence Shift.
Diffusal Blade can be a great item on Slark if he can make good use of the purge. It will slow enemies, allowing him to attack them more easily and purge them from positive buffs that make them harder to kill.
A Linken’s Sphere may be needed against lineups with lots of strong single-target spells. Usually Slark can deal with these with Dark Pact, Shadow Dance and/or BKB, but a Linken’s Sphere can help Slark a lot.
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AA’s ultimate ability will prevent Slark from healing up from Shadow Dance and make it more risky to cast Dark Pact. It is undispellable, so play very carefully when affected by Ice Blast.
Blink heroes are hard to gank as they can easily escape from and kite Slark. Orchid Malevolence and Skull Basher/Abyssal Blade are good items against them.
Bloodseeker will be able to detect Slark when he is low on HP. This will make him visible to the enemy team and prevent him from healing up from Shadow Dance unless he activates it.
Slark cannot purge Disruptor’s Glimpse or escape from Kinetic Field. Static Storm will also prevent you from using your spells to survive. You will most likely need a BKB when playing against him.
Puck is similar to the aforementioned blink heroes in terms of being hard to kill. However, she also has spells that can be hard to deal with as Slark.
Drow Ranger and Sniper are very vulnerable to melee carries that can close gaps very easily. Slark can approach under the guise of invisibility and lock them down with items like Skull Basher. The Break from Silver Edge is also very effective against both of them as it removes a large chunk of their damage. Eye of Skadi can also be a great a pickup against these heroes because the attack and movement slow are effective against them.
Troll Warlord’s ultimate ability works very well with Slark as it gives him a massive boost to his attack speed.
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