Slark 101

Slark, the Nightcrawler

Before I begin 2 things:

1. Shout out to belk for his compiled guide list for Dota 2: here
2. To better understand the playstyle of Slark, watch this video [here] (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_QIa-wGcq8)

General Information

Slark is a melee agility hero who is a great ganker and semi-carry. If he snowballs he may carry, but only if your team does really well. He cannot be played as a farming carry. He is a hero who is extremely fun to play and if played well a very good pubstomper. But he has many critical limitations that make him an unlikely pick in the competitive scene.

• Slark's playstyle must be elusive. Abuse his high mobility and burst damage in the early game. Jump in and out of combat and deal damage wherever the enemy is weakest.

• Slark together with Luna, Enchantress, Meepo and Drow are one of the few heroes with full 1800 day and night vision. (Note that Drow has 1700 night vision not 1800 and Nightstalker has 1800 night vision but only 1200 day vision)

• All of Slark's skills have low mana cost and cooldown.

• Slark is extremely fragile in the laning phase, as a melee agility hero. He needs the safe lane, preferably with a ranged support/babysitter.

• DO NOT play slark mid, you will get demolished.

• If you are unfortunate enough to be forced to long lane slark, try to go solo long lane so you can atleast get the EXP. Have someone get wards so you can't be flanked through the forest and ganked.

More about Dark Pact

• Dark pact is an AOE nuke of 300 magical damage at max level to enemies around slark. There are several unique aspects about Dark pact which make it awesome.

• Dark pacts damage is divided into 10 pulses, each pulse occuring 0.1second apart. 10 pulses hence take 1 second in which all the damage is dealt. The most common situation where this is good to know is that Slark demolishes Templar Assassin's refraction because of this. Imo, this is the best anti-Refraction skill in game.

• Dark pact's MOST IMPORTANT aspect that is that it removes all debuffs from Slark upon activation

• There is 1.5 second delay between activating dark pact and removal of debuffs/triggering of the 10 pulses. This means that efficient Dark pact usage times the enemies stun to occur within this period.

• There are few things that Dark Pact doesn't remove. Dark pact does not remove Rupture, Axe's Berserker's call, Doom. Dark pact is bugged a little and may not remove some of the abilities listed here. A list of what Dark Pact removes can be found here

• Note that Dark pact does half the damage to Slark himself. I.e. at level 4, Slark himself loses 150HP.

• The most important debuffs that Dark Pact removes are Dust, Amplify Damage and Track. Hence, BH, Dust and Slardar do not counter Slark.

• Dark pacts costs a meagre 40 mana at level 4 with a 6 second cd making it extremely spammable.

More about Pounce

• Pounce is what gives Slark amazing mobility in battle. It is a literally leap ability of 700 range at all levels in the direction Slark is facing. At level 4, it has an short cooldown of 8 seconds and costs a mere 75 mana at all levels.

• Pounce only targets enemy heroes and ignores all creeps. Upon impact at level 4 it does 280 damage to the first hero it reaches. If a hero is <700 range in front of Slark, Slark will grab on to the hero and not travel the entire distance.

• When pounce hits a target, the target is leashed for 3.5 seconds i.e. he can't leave the area for 3.5 seconds. He can still attack and cast spells. Only blink abilities break the lesion. Force staff, haste and other speed buffs don't. Note that force staff interaction with pounce may still be bugged.

• 700 range allows you to effectively initiate on most ranged heroes in lane(except a levelled Sniper).

• The simplest way to aim Pounce is to right click your target hero so Slark lines up with said hero before hitting the button.

• Pounce is also what makes Slark elusive. You can use it to jump across Rivers and cliffs and enter juke spots to hide.

More about Essence Shift

• With each attack, Slark steals 1 of each attribute for himself and converts it to 3 agility. This is part of what makes Slark snowball.

• The only effect of levelling it up is that the duration of stolen attributes increases to 120 seconds at level 4.

• If Slark dies, you lose the bonus agility but the enemies you stole from still have the debuff left on them.

• Essence shift's most noticeable effect is that it leaches strength making Slark hit harder than what may seem

Shadow Dance

• Shadow Dance is Slark's core ability and his ult. When the enemy has no vision of Slark and he is not taking damage, it passively gives Slark a free heart worth of HP regen and a ridiculous 30% movespeed.

• Wards, BH's track and invis heroes all remove this passive.

• When activated, it turns Slark into a black cloud of smoke - Slark hence gains the regen and MS even when under vision of enemies. However, any form of detection applied on Slark removes the buff.

• To put things in perspective, when unseen by the enemy, Slark has a free heart and almost max movespeed. This allows him to be an extremely efficient ganker as he can move between lanes fast and regen in between ganks.

Skill Build

• This is the greatest source of confusion among people playing Slark. He is not a competitive hero and nothing has been validated. But there a few definite no-no's.

• Slark should have 1 of each skill at level 3. Pounce lets you escape and is critical. Dark pact purges debuffs and essence shift makes harass and your damage in general more powerful.

• Never max essence shift first. You lose the huge burst from his 2 other skills.

• Maxing Dark pact vs Pounce is player preference.

• Maxed pounce lets you chase better with almost 50% uptime on leashes and greater mobility

• I prefer maxing Dark pact for a few reasons. Firstly, Dark pact does 300 damage in an AOE vs 280 damage from Leap's single target. Secondly, Dark pact damages creeps and so makes Slark a strong jungler if he does badly in lane. Slark can easily clear stacked camps by spamming dark pact and regen HP w his passive ult. Finally, a lower CD dark pact lets you purge more debuffs.

• In most cases, essence shift should be maxed last. While the duration helps Slark snowball, most of the damage in early game is more efficient if nuke based.

Item Build

• Slark's item build needs to make up for his 2 major weakness - his low HP pool and low attack speed.

• Slark needs attack speed to maximise the damage from Essence shift.

• Slark will also run out of mana especially if there are no arcane boots in the team.

• Start the game off with 2 sets of tangoes, a stout shield or 2 slippers of agility and 3 branches. Your first 300 should go into completing the poor man's shield. Then buy boots and magic stick. Then finish off magic wand and treads.

I find that the core items on Slark are: Power treads, Magic Wand and a Poor Man's Shield.

• Vanguard is listed as Slark's core in recommended items in game. But the 875 gold RoH is a waste of money as the regen is useless when you have a free heart in your ult. Don't buy Vanguard. PMS + casual vitality booster is more efficient.

• Medallion is a great pickup. It greatly potentiates early game right-click damage and gives good mana regen. It is also a cheap item and hence can be used at a period when Slark is at his peak.

• The next item is situational and a subject of much debate but there are few ways you can go.

• Mask of Madness is often built. The argument is that when you activate your ult, you can't be damage and so activate MoM to maximise AS. I find that MoM is useless if the enemy gets sentries and an already squishy Slark will melt faster.

• Yasha has an easy buildup and is great for AS, agility and MS. Sange can also be completed for tankiness.

• An early Orb of Venom is great to harass if faced against melee opponents.

• BKB is one of the stronger items on Slark. It allows you to autoattack unhindered and snowball with Essence shift. It allows gives HP and damage. On the downside, it is a bad first item as Slark has not much innate damage due to shitty stat gain.

• My favorite item for Slark is a straight up Skadi. It has a decent buildup. Point booster especially is one of the best value for money items in game. Also, Slark can use all 3 stats - HP, mana and agility. Finally, the slow effect is great for staying on your target.

• Other items that may be considered include Diffusal blade and Helm of the Dominator.

• Glass cannon items are good when you dominate but absolutely fail versus a competent team. These include Mjollnir and Desolator. I generally do not recommend these.

A few more tips

• Be aggressive with Slark from level 7 onwards. Before level 6, only punish mistakes by the enemy. You are way too squishy before that to attempt kills unless you are in a good trilane or are versus other weak early game heroes.

• As when playing any other invis heroes, it is your duty to check enemy support items, particular for sentry count and gem. If you walk into a teamfight and a sentry is placed, there is no way out.

• There are 5 main ways in which Slark's ult is countered. These are

• Doom's Doom
• Zeus's lightning bolt
• Sentry Wards
• Gem
• Towers

Be wary of these. All other means of detection can be purged off.

• A successful Slark has to do well in lane and get alright farm to get the core early. This is followed by being very active on the map. Remember that if there are no gank opportunities use Dark pact to jungle. You can even farm the enemy jungle if you are doing decently and use Pounce to get away fast.

• You are a ward detector. If your ult's passive is not working, there is a ward nearby. Buy sentries or gem and get someone to deward. The other possibility is a Riki - use dust and kill that b***h

• Slark's greatest weakness is teamfights. Any competent team will bring sentry vs a Slark for teamfights. Hence, you shouldn't be the one to initiate teamfights. Your role is to entire silently and destroy the supports. Use your mobility to your advantage.

• Playing a good slark requires a good game sense and to understand the delicate balance between your own mortality and the enemy's.

Closing thoughts

Slark is extremely fun to play but no more than a pubstomper in his current state. He has critical limitations and these include crap stat gain, a very bad laning phase and no utility when there is detection.

Be careful as to when you pick Slark. Have fun!