This does not cover the entire selection of potentially good items on Slark. Read "Item Build" section for details and more item choices."

Skill Build (Standard):


Item Build:

Starting items:


Early Game Items:


Core Items:
or

Situational Items:

Hello DotA community! I am Oblivion, here to introduce to you a guide on the critter from Dark Reef: Slark. Before I go into Slark, here is my profile and status on Slark.





Any and all sourced images and/or videos are solely used for the purpose of this guide. And, you know the rest…

Here is my official guide to Slark, the Murloc Nightcrawler.


(Source: http://www.cyborgmatt.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Dota2_Slark_Splash02.jpg)

(Source: http://www.cyborgmatt.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Dota2_Slark.gif)

Slark is an Agility melee hero. His strength comes from being able to take down his target and shake off everything else. His main roles focus on roaming the map, ganking, and effectively snowballing in extended fights if no one takes the time to kill him.

(Source: http://www.dota2wiki.com/wiki/Slark)

As you notice, his overall stats are average at best. His stat gains are even lower than some of the support heroes. He makes up for this by having extremely strong survivability through his skillsets, a passive that gives him the ability to snowball in successful fights, and overall low mana costs and Cooldowns.

The only thing I would note is his attack animation (indicated by his Attack Duration). It has quite a backswing and follow-through, which can make last hitting a bit difficult if you struggle with it. The best way to master Slark is to experiment and get comfortable with Slark’s animation.

(Source: http://i1-news.softpedia-static.com/images/news-700/New-Dota-2-Update-Adds-Slark-and-a-Special-Chatwheel.jpg?1353056944)

Little known to the inhabitants of the dry world, Dark Reef is a sunken prison where the worst of the sea-breed are sent for crimes against their fellows. It is a razor barbed warren full of murderous slithereen, treacherous Deep Ones, sociopathic meranths. In this dim labyrinth, patrolled by eels and guarded by enormous anemones, only the vicious survive. Pitched into Dark Reef for crimes unknown, Slark spent half a lifetime without kin or kindness, trusting no one, surviving through a combination of stealth and ruthlessness, keeping his thoughts and his plans to himself. When the infamous Dark Reef Dozen plotted their ill-fated breakout, they kept their plans a perfect secret, murdering anyone who could have put the pieces together--but somehow Slark discovered their scheme and made a place for himself in it. Ten of the Dozen died in the escape attempt, and two were captured, hauled back to Dark Reef, then executed for the entertainment of their fellow inmates. But Slark, the unsung thirteenth, used the commotion as cover and slipped away, never to be caught. Now a furtive resident of the carnivorous mangrove scrub that grips the southern reach of Shadeshore, Slark remains the only successful escapee from Dark Reef.

(All numbers and images taken from http://www.dota2wiki.com/wiki/Slark)


Dark Pact:
After a short delay, Slark sacrifices some of his life blood, purging negative buffs and dealing damage to enemy units around him and to himself. Slark only takes 50% of the damage.

Slithereen are capable of quickly regrowing appendages, in case of critical injury, to save their own lives.

Radius: 325
Delay: 1.5 seconds
Damage (Magic): 75/150/225/300
Mana Cost: 55/50/45/40
Cooldown: 9/8/7/6 seconds

Dark Pact is an active instant ability. It will deal damage in 10 pulses over a short 1 second after a 1.5 second delay. Dark Pact will also remove debuffs during any of these 10 pulses. Slark can suicide himself with this ability, but only under special cases. Overall though, the damage he receives from this ability is non-lethal in many cases, so don’t consider committing suicide with this ability.

Notes about Dark Pact:

• Dark Pact is a Purge, but will not remove positive buffs..
  
• Certain debuffs can not be removed. Check out : "Lists of Spells/Abilities..." section.
  
• Dark Pact will halt immediately if Slark dies before the 10 pulses are used up.
  
• Magic Immune units are not damaged by Dark Pact.

Pounce:
Slark leaps forward, grabbing the first hero he connects with. That unit takes damage and is leashed to Slark, and can only move a limited distance away from Slark's landing position.

Time in the Dark Reef made Slark a dangerous assassin; aggressive and fearless.

Range: 700
Leash Radius: 325
Leash Duration: 3.5 seconds
Damage (magic): 70/140/210/280
Mana Cost: 75
Cooldown: 20/16/12/8 seconds

Another active instant ability. Pounce will launch Slark forward based on the direction he is facing and NOT by where your mouse cursor is pointed. He also ignores terrain and any other units besides enemy heroes when using this ability, allowing him to be very mobile with its low cooldown and mana cost.

Notes about Pounce:

• Pounce will not latch onto any Magic Immune Units.
  
• Pounce will destroy trees in a small area where Slark lands.
  
• Blinks or any movement displacement from an item or ability will break the leash from Pounce.
  
• Pounce will not latch onto illusions.
  
• Pounce can disjoint projectiles (except for some special cases, like Phantom Assassin's Dagger).

Essence Shift:
Slark steals the life essence of enemy heroes with his attacks, draining each of their attributes and converting them to bonus Agility.

With each strike at his adversaries, Slark's knowledge of their weaknesses improves.

Duration: 15/30/60/120 seconds
Strength, Agility, and Intelligence Lost: 1 per stack
Agility Gained: 3 per stack
Cooldown: 0.4/0.35/0.3/0.25 seconds

A passive that provides his main form of DPS. Although this ability has a Cooldown, it rarely affects the mechanics of how Slark is played or built unless he has maxed out attack speed with a level 1 Essence Shift, which is very unlikely.

Notes about Essence Shift:

• Slark will not be able to steal attributes from illusions.
  
• Any enemy unit that dies with Essence Shift stacks will return with their original stacks, but Slark will still keep the stolen Agility as normal.
  
• To turn it around, if Slark dies with Essence Shift stacks, he will return with no stacks, while the enemy will keep theirs.

Shadow Dance:
When used, Slark hides himself in a cloud of shadows, becoming invisible (attacking, casting spells, and using items do not reveal Slark). Passively, when not visible to the enemy team, Slark gains bonus movement speed and health regeneration.
Duration: 5.5 seconds
Bonus Movement Speed: 30%/35%/40%
Health Gained per Second: 3%/5%/7%

The hidden Thirteenth is a slippery foe.

An active instant ability. This provides both mobility and survivability both in and out of fights. This is also the only invisibility ability that will not break stealth when you use other active abilities. A general rule to remember about the passive of this ability is: If the enemy can see you on their minimap, the passive will shut down.

Notes about Shadow Dance:

• Shadow Dance has a 0.5 second delay both when activating the ability and when the ability ends.
  
• If Slark is damaged by a neutral unit, he will lose the passive effects of Shadow Dance for 2 seconds.
  
• Shadow Dance can disjoint targeted spells if Slark is not revealed in the process.

All of his abilities make up for his poor base attributes and scaling attributes:

• His survivability comes from all his active abilities; he can remove debuffs with Dark Pact, leap across terrain with Pounce, and go Stealth and regenerate with Shadow Dance. But all of this aside, he has one of the lowest overall health pools in the game. With this fact in mind, you need to have a sense of smartplay when you are picking up Slark. He is a very strong pub stomping hero, but can be easily killed if one of your abilities are on cooldown when you desperately need it.
  
• His damage comes from his strong early game nukes that transitions into DPS. He needs to effectively snowball in order to truely take over a game. This means you will be roaming around and ganking the majority of the game. And because he has to transition into that stage, you will have to hang back and avoid being in the middle of the fight and focus down key targets in order to shift into a heavy damage dealer in fights.
  
• Slark's low mana cost and even lower cooldowns allows him to spam very effectively. This also means you will have to invest in some early INT stats and regen if you plan to spam. Items as simple like a Magic Wand along with a Void Stone can solve all your mana issues for the entire game, which is huge with Slark's cost-effective skills.

In almost every case, Slark is consider to be a hit-and-run hero. He excels taking down one target at a time and avoid group confrontations. Slark can not take on a large group by himself; any cases that involve 3 or more enemy heroes is always going to be a heavy disadvantage for Slark and will require his team's help, which will be frequent in team fights or objective fights such as Roshan or team pushing.

Dark Pact will be mainly used to remove any disables on you throughout the entire game. The 1.5 second delay on your Dark Pact means you will have to time Dark Pact properly in order to remove debuffs. This means you will have to play some mind games with your opponents in order to bait them into using their abilities too early. Since Dark Pact will remove all debuffs for each pulse, you are essentially immune to disables for that short 1 second period. Certain debuffs can not be removed by Dark Pact (The list is provided in the next section). The most important use of Dark Pact is that it can remove debuffs that reveal you, like Bounty Hunter’s Track, Slardar’s Amplify Damage, and Dust of Appearance.

The next notable effect of Dark Pact is that it deals damage in 10 pulses instead of a single instance. This mechanic will allow you to remove buff instances such as Templar Assassin’s Refraction and Treant Protector’s Living Armor very effectively. And because it deals damage in pulses over 1 second, you will have to be within 325 range of your opponents in order to deal the maximum amount of damage for Dark Pact; along with Pounce Leash, this should be no trouble.

Dark Pact is your best damage ability early on, but remember that you will take half of the damage from the current level of Dark Pact. Make sure you have some kind of early regeneration with Tangos or a Ring of Health if you are maxing out Dark Pact. Once you hit Level 6, you shouldn’t have a problem keeping up with the self-damage.

Dark Pact also has a low Cooldown and low mana cost, making this ability a spamfest. This makes him very effective jungler and farmer in conjunction with Shadow Dance’s passive, since he can clear waves very quickly and just be able to regenerate all the damage he’s taken by sitting back for a few seconds. Remember that you will lose your passive for 2 seconds if you take damage from a neutral creep. You might need to consider buying some early mana regeneration or stick with INT Power Treads if you plan to use Dark Pact a lot because of the spammable nature of Dark Pact.

Kunkka - X marks the spot
Brewmaster - Thunder Clap
Brewmaster's Blue Spirit - Cyclone
Centaur - Stampede
Tusk - Walrus Punch (The knock up isn't purged, but the slow is)
Axe - Battle Hunger
Axe - Berserker's Call
Doom Bringer - Doom
Undying - Decay
Sniper - Assassinate (it is displayed as a debuff if he marks you. You can still dodge it with a good Pounce.)
Naga Siren - Ensnare (can be dodged with Pounce)
Bloodseeker - Rupture
Shadow Fiend - Requiem of Souls
Razor - Static Link
Razor - Eye of the Storm
Venomancer - Poison Sting
Viper - Poison Attack
Puck - Dream Coil (The leash can not be purged; the stun can)
Rubick - Telekinesis (can not purge the lift; the stun can be purged)
Disruptor - Thunder Strike
Disruptor - Glimpse (can't break with Pounce)
Keeper of the Light - Mana Leak
Bane Elemental - Enfeeble
Lion - Mana Drain
Witch Doctor - Maledict
Enigma - Black Hole (pretty obvious, but just making sure...)
Warlock - Fatal Bonds
Warlock - Shadow Word
Dazzle - Poison Touch (can be dodged with Pounce)
Dazzle - Weave
Dark Seer - Ion Shell
Ancient Apparition - Ice Blast
Invoker - Tornado
Invoker's Forge Spirit - Melting Strike
Invoker - Deafening Blast (neither the stun, knockback, or disarm are purgable)
Outworld Devourer - Astral Imprisonment
Shadow Demon - Soul Catcher
Shadow Demon - Demonic Purge

Eul's Scepter of Divinity - Cyclone
Veil of Discord - Magic Weakening

Pounce is both your ganking and escaping tool. This is the ability that makes or breaks how effectively you play Slark. I would spent your first few games really nailing down the mechanics and land those Pounces before getting into a serious game with Slark.

Here are a couple images to show you the distance of Pounce:



____________________________________________________________________________

Let’s look into Pounce mechanically. The speed of Pounce and the distance traveled from it is the same at all levels, so once you get comfortable with Pounce, you shouldn’t have to adjust to any mechanical changes (unlike his old Pounce, where the range was much lower at earlier levels). The important thing to remember is that Pounce will propel him in the direction he is facing. This means he will path around terrain and units if you click on a location that forces him to do so (Don’t do this, by the way). The best way to cross terrain and cliffs is by clicking right at the point where he would run into it and just Pounce across. This is what makes him extremely difficult to pin down, even in organized ganks, because he can just Pounce into trees and TP out if opponents lack a non-targeted spell to pin him down or Pounce across cliffs.

Speaking of pinning down, this ability is his best escape tool arguably. If you take the time to max this ability first, he becomes very tough to get away from or catching up to. The 8 second cooldown on this ability at level 4 and the 75 mana cost at all levels makes this ability just as spammable as Dark Pact. But again, make sure you have some mana regeneration and/or switch to INT Treads if you plan to spam this ability a lot.

But the best use of Pounce is to gank single target enemies. The 3.5 second leash makes it impossible to run away from Slark in a direct confrontation. And it sets up your team very effectively for their respective disables, especially those that have a long cast time like Leshrac or Lina. Ideally, you want to be close to your intended target as possible so you can land Pounce without having to worry about it missing from max range. But if you are going to be playing the ganking role (which you should be for the majority of the game), you will have to learn to lead your target with Pounce in order to land those great leashes for your team. So treat it like a skillshot.

But, like most beginners, you will be awful with Pounces, let alone landing them. I would recommend you let your teammates start with their disables and then Pouncing onto an enemy in order to guarantee the leash. Remember that this is his only form of disable, so if you miss the leash, you will have a much harder time getting right clicks in and you leave yourself vulnerable to counters with nothing to hold the target down. It’s best that you partner up with another hero with a more reliable disable in your first few games before trying to start up a serious gank.

Essence Shift is pretty weak at early levels. With only 15 seconds of added Agility at level 1, you won’t be able to utilize his DPS potential in longer engagements. The single point in Essence Shift is perfect for skirmishes, where you only need the Agility for that particular situation.

But if you spend the time to max out Essence Shift first, it can be a very powerful lane controlling tool, especially against melee heroes, where you will have a much easier time getting some harass in. No matter what attribute hero you are up against, you are guaranteed to steal away not only each of their attributes, but also their last hitting potential in lanes since it will take away some damage.

In these cases, a maxed Essence Shift is best if you plan to play aggressively. This will be best against enemy solo lanes, since you only have one person to deal with. But even against two enemy heroes, if you have reliable partners, you can really take advantage of Essence Shift with just 2 levels on it early. Just be prepared to take some damage back from minions and, of course, the enemy.

Because you have to stack up Essence Shift in order to gain the maximum effect of it, this means you will have to be actively engaged, whether it is small skirmishes or a large team fight. Remember, you have to snowball with Essence Shift in order to become a true threat for the enemy team.

The ability becomes very noticeable once you hit Level 6. It gives you massive regeneration and a lot of movement speed when you are not spotted by your opponents. With this fact in mind, you should have no trouble surviving a lane without getting into a lot of trouble. But this will become difficult if the enemy has wards in your lane. In this case, just move to a different location to avoid getting murdered with your squishy hero.

But if your opponent does not take the time to counter you, you can easily trade with any hero and get away before they can do anything to you. And even better, give you kills. This is very important to a hero that relies a lot on snowballing early, since he is level dependent. Don’t forget that the active use of Shadow Dance will not reveal you if you use any items, abilities, or even just attacking. This is added insurance that you can trade and jump out, since you will not lose the passive benefits of Shadow Dance (unless you are revealed by your opponents).

Shadow Dance is another ability that allows you to avoid death with its active use. The stealth that you gain from it insures that you gain the passive benefits in an escape sequence. And Dark Pact will remove any revealing debuffs that your opponents placed on you. And if that isn’t enough, you have Pounce. Yeah, this is why Slark is labeled as a powerful Escaping hero. He is just that tough to kill with proper usage of his abilities.

And like his other active abilities, his Cooldown and Mana Cost of Shadow Dance are fairly low. At 25 seconds with a 120 mana cost, you should have this active up all the time. But since the mana cost and cooldown are much higher than your other abilities, you need to be more judicious about using this spell. Shadow Dance can set you up for Pounce easily, but make sure you have the mana cost to be able to get out as well.

Remember that in order to gain the regeneration from Shadow Dance, you need to be visibly out of sight of your opponent. This means you will need to know some of the treeline areas where you can juke your opponents in order to quickly regenerate health. The images below will show a few great spots for Slark to regenerate in situations where he needs them. If you want to see more areas where Slark can hide, check under my Screenshots in my Profile. (I will redo the Radiant area as Dire in the future, but these spots should work regardless.)

(Tools used for this section are taken from http://www.dotafire.com/dota-2 )

Skilling Slark all depends on what you are up against. What you skill will dramatically affect the outcome of your performance as Slark:

• Maxing Dark Pact will increase farming potential with the AoE and better form of burst damage early game.
  
• Pounce will always be first or second to max out in any build.
  
• Essence Shift will either be two early points or ignored until it is the last skill to max.
  
• Your ultimate will be leveled whenever it is avaliable (6, 11, 16).

Standard Build:

The standard skilling will be 2 early points on Pounce and Essence Shift, with one point on Dark Pact at Level 4. This will allow you to take down single targets efficiently with the decreased cooldown on Pounce and the longer duration on Essence Shift for slightly extended fights. What you choose to max after Level 6 is personal preference, but maxing Pounce will be the safest way to go.

Dark Pact/Pounce

This build will be used if you are solo suiciding or for burst damage. You won't be able to get into range safely in order to harass with auto attacks with this build, which makes leveling Essence Shift kind of worthless. You can choose to add a point on Essence Shift at Level 4 just for the passive, but a 15 second stack is hardly any good.

Essence Shift:

This build is for aggressive early gameplay. You will focus more time harassing your opponents by stacking Essence Shifts with your auto attacks. This build is best against melee heroes, since you will have a much easier time getting those Stack on them. The lone point on your Dark Pact will be used to remove disables throughout the entire game. Because you won't be maxing out Dark Pact, your farming capabilities are signifciantly lower than the Dark Pact/Pounce build. This means you will need to snowball (gank, kill, push, repeat) in order to farm effectively with this build.

Before I go into the item build for Slark, let me note that this build is based on the games I've played and the guides I've read. This is not a definitive build for Slark by any means. In fact, Slark is fairly flexible with item builds. This build will focus on covering his weaknesses as soon as possible, while giving him good DPS in order to stack Essence Shift effectively. I've had the most success with this build, but don't be afraid to experiment with your own.
______________________________________________________________________________

Starting items:


The safest and best build at the start of the game. Shield will help you against harass; Branches build up stats; early regeneration will keep Slark's health up until he hits Level 6.

Early Game Items:



These items will give him the much needed mix of damage and durability early game. Poor Man’s Shield gives you a bit of Agility and the guaranteed damage block against enemy heroes. Power Treads will give him attack speed which will give him more auto attacks in to take advantage of Essence Shift, as well as the ability to Tread Switch, which is extremely powerful on a hero that relies a lot on raw stats. Magic Wand charges will be the difference between life and death.

Offensive Item:

or

You need at least one strong Agility Item for Slark early to help stack Essence Shift. It will either be Diffusal Blade or S&Y.

Diffusal Blade will give you a huge boost in DPS much quicker than S&Y. The purge is also powerful to remove enemy buffs and give him a guarentee slow, allowing you to right click away with no resistance. The mana burn will also help against spell casters, especially those that can nuke your squishy butt.

Sange & Yasha provides damage, durability, and mobility all in one item. The extra movement speed and maim you gain from this item will give you better chasing potential and more opportunities to auto attack. You can also disassemble this item to get a Heaven’s Halberd and/or Manta Style, which has its respective uses later on.

(S&Y is better as an overall item, but is more expensive and weak in organized fights with its lack of hard utility. Diffusal Blade will grant you early DPS and a powerful purge, although it lacks any kind of durability. What you pick is dependent on the type of team you are running and what you are up against.)

"Magic Denial" Item(s):
or

Slark need to be able to dodge magical damage in some way, since this will be the main source of your deaths. You will need at least a Black King Bar and/or a Linken's Sphere on top of your Damage Item.

Black King Bar is a must if you are expected to participate in huge team fights (which you shouldn't, since Slark's team fight potential is pretty weak). You will need to be able to block a lot of AoE damage that goes on in a fight, since Slark's health pool do not allow him to do such a thing.

Linken's Sphere will be able to block "targetted" abilities at you such as Axe's Battle Hunger or revealing spells such as Bounty Hunter's Track or Slardar's Amplify Damage. This item also gives raw stats, which Slark deperately needs for mid game onward with his poor attribute scaling.

In almost every game, I try to fit in Linken's Sphere above BKB. The two main reasons are:

• Slark is not a strong team fighting hero. His strengths come from smaller fights that do not require him to jump in the middle of the fray.
  
  Rushing a Black King Bar takes away its utility. Every time you use it, you lose precious seconds of Magic Immunity on top of the long Cooldown, compared to Slark's abilities, which have short cooldowns. And there are still abilities that can go through Magic Immunity such as Batrider's Lasso and Doom Bringer's Doom, which murder him in an organized team confrontation.
  
  A Linken's Sphere, however, grants him the all-powerful spell block, which allows him to BLOCK abilities that he can not purge with Dark Pact and even block abilities such as the ones I stated above. This item also grants raw stats, which make up for his poor scaling of stats. You should not be in the middle of AoE spells anyways (weakness of Slark) since you will be staying back for an opening anyways. A Linken's Sphere will fit your needs more than BKB in the long run.
  
  
• Slark falls off late game. Even with a proper build, he just can not stack Essence Shift effectively in an organized team fight, especially if the enemy team takes the time to counter him. Again, his attribute scaling do not allow him to dominate extended games.
  
  Again, Black King Bar will allow him to survive most of the damage in team fights, but in games where enemy teams will take the time to counter you in fights (Sentry Wards, Abilities that go through BKB, good focus fire), you will never be able to contribute much for your team.
  
  With Linken's Sphere, you will have the extra Agility and Damage in order to do something else if the need calls for it (pushing lanes will be your late game goal). Slark will help his team more if he focuses on something else rather than participate in an actual team oriented goal.

Late Game/Situational Items:

Believe it or not, everything else is purely based on what you plan to accomplish on Slark. Slark can be built as a hard carry, but he is best served as a side-carry (or anything else besides a hard carry). His build should focus on early DPS with late game durability, since his stat gains do not have the scaling for a hard carry build. Regardless, here are items that can be good on Slark based on your game.

/
If you are doing terrible with Slark, you will need to rush one of these two items immediately.

Both items will give raw stats in order to pick Slark back up. Aquila will give mana regen and armor, while a Drum will give you movement speed and attack speed.


Best served early game. This will give you early mana regen and armor for yourself. The armor reduction active will also help you right click down your targets with less trouble. You can also purge off the armor reduction off yourself with Dark Pact, which gives you little reason not to use this active.


This item will cover all your mana problems, gives good DPS, and a powerful silence and damage amplifier.


These set of items are picked up if you are able to snowball with Essence Shift really well or if you need a hard disable. The respective stuns from both items will insure kills on tougher heroes.


These are if you are going to be the the hard carry for your team, but I really doubt you will be able to grab these items in a serious game, let alone be the main carry for your team.


A great damage item against heavy physical teams. It gives a lot of Agility and Attack Speed, as well as evasion in order to survive those right clicks.


This is the alternate to Poor Man's Shield and will cover his health problems up to mid game. It gives Slark a lot of health and regen, as well as a higher damage block against right click heroes.


This will be built from Sange and Yasha later on. It gives plenty of stats, good DPS, and good survivability with the purging effects of this item.


This will also be built from Sange and Yasha later on. It will give Slark extra Strength, which will provide him with more health, a little bit of damage, and evasion, which will help against carries. The disarm will also be great against carries who will be right clicking a lot.


You will need to switch to this item if you need to be pushing for your team. It grants Slark a lot of Attack Speed and a good chunk of armor for you and your team. But the armor reduction is where it's at, as this will lower structure armor, which will help you push down towers.


The general slows from both these items will give you better chasing potential. But a Skadi will give Slark a lot of stats, raw health, and raw mana. The attack speed reduction will be great against other carries.

Rejected items:


Although it gives Attack Speed, Slark should not be the team's main carry or farmer. He should focus more roaming around the map and ganking in order to accumulate gold and experience. Save this item for real hard carries.


This item is deadweight for Slark. It grants very little health and mana regen, on top of the low armor. Lifesteal isn't really good on Slark either, since he shouldn't be relying his regeneration on autoattacks (he has Shadow Dance). This will also take up a precious inventory slot, which is something Slark can not afford, since he is quite item dependent. Let someone else get it, preferably a support.


You already have a passive health regeneration from Shadow Dance. It's a waste of an item slot that does, basically, the same thing that Shadow Dance does. This item is preferred on heroes that will be expected to take a lot of damage or be in the middle of team fights; Slark can not perform either of those two roles well.


I despise this item on Slark. It just makes him too squishy to use this item effectively. The damage amplification is devastating on a hero with the 2nd lowest health in the game. Any decent nukes will 1 shot you as soon as you activate it. And as an early game item, this is too much deadweight and risk involved when picking up this item, since you HAVE to snowball with it.

Questionable Items?



I have yet to use and test these two items (asked by a LOT of people who read my guide). I don't think I will add either of these two items to my Item Build, but who knows? Maybe I will. I will test and give updates as soon as I can.

Levels 1-5 Early Game:

Slark can go any lane and survive, but he is best on a safe lane with a reliable support to allow him to reach Level 6 as soon as possible.

Laning with a Partner:

If another carry is laning with you, you will have to play as the role of an offensive support for your carry. You will also have to rely on pulling neutral camps for farming. Since you won't be able to deal a lot of DPS, a Dark Pact/Pounce skilling will be necessary for harassment. Land those Pounces and your carry should follow up.

If you are the one farming on your lane (and get a good support), then congratulations, farm and harass as normal. The best supports are the aggressive ones, since they can help set you up for kills and give you room to farm. Let your support set you up while you farm up for those Early Game Items and that Level 6 mark.

NEVER EVER DUAL LANE ON A SUICIDE. Slark can not setup kills as an offensive support on the opponent’s side of the map without getting caught out of position. This is the same idea if he is farming the suicide lane, since he will be out of position most of the time to reach those last hits. You will also be sharing experience, which slows down Slark’s ganking and roaming potential until he can reach that level 6 mark. Avoid this situation. You have been warned.

Soloing a Lane:

If you are soloing, then you must use the Dark Pact/Pounce Build if you get stuck in a 1v2, especially on a suicide. You will need at least a Bracer or a Wraith Band if you end up getting denied hard core on your lane. Your survival is top priority; if you die, your ganking and roaming potential significantly decreases. You might even have to give up a tower if the 1v2 lane is push heavy.

But if you are against one guy, you have more options. Against melee heroes, you can go Essense Shift build in order to harass your opponents, but try not to use this build against heroes with Evasion or heroes that can cause you to miss attacks such as Phantom Assassin or Brewmaster.

Slark can also go middle lane if no one else is. Try to control the high ground as much as you can. Slark can control runes well with a good Pounce, but his focus should be reaching Level 6 as soon as he can. If your opponents leave lane early in order to grab a rune, ignore it. Just push hard and farm up experience.

On a suicide lane, you will have your work cut out for you. Smart play will make or break your lane. Do your best to block your creep waves in order to push the enemy wave closer to your side of the map. If the opponents attempt to pull, try to pull the enemy wave out by autoing the enemy wave a few times (or hope someone is kind enough to get wards). And if you get caught in a bad position, you have Pounce to jump over terrain and Dark Pact to remove most early game disables. Stay in experience range (1200) so that you can reach Level 6 ASAP.

Level 6: The Fun Begins

Yay! You finally have your Shadow Dance (I hope). Start roaming and ganking the map like crazy!

As Slark, you should be the one to initiate the ganks with your Pounce Leash. Your active Shadow Dance can be used either at the start of the gank to give your opponents less time to react or when you are about to take a lot of focus. Either way, your teammates should not hesitate when they see you come in for ganks.

An important mechanic to keep in mind is if your passive is deactivated at any time you are roaming around the map, it means your opponents can see you either directly or on the minimap. In other words, they see you coming. You will always need to keep Teleport Scrolls handy or even a Smoke of Deceit if the opposing team is smart to keep Observer Wards up. This also means you might have to invest in a couple of Sentry Wards, not only to get rid of the Observer Wards, but also to get rid of other Sentries that can reveal you even when you use Shadow Dance (although your teammates should help you provide it).

Another important thing to remember is to choose your targets wisely. Remember that your Leash can be broken by blinking abilities or any ability with a movement displacement. This makes heroes such as Anti-Mage, Timbersaw, or even a Sand King, tough to pin down without another disable from your allies. It may be best to target an enemy that can not break the Leash on their own (until they get a Force Staff). AoE heroes can be annoying to deal with too, since they can hurt you without having to directly target you. But in most cases, targeting a hero with no blink or movement displacement will net your kills.

Levels 7-10: Early-Mid Game

Continue roaming and ganking as normal. If you maxed out Dark Pact, don’t be hesitant to farm in jungles when you have time to spare. Just be sure not to get caught by the enemy team while doing this. This is important since the neutrals will block your passive, which in turn, prevents you from knowing when your opponents will actually see you.

If you catch an opponent by themselves, punish them. You easily beat most heroes in 1v1 fights at this stage of the game, especially if your opponents are not prepared to face you directly. Just be sure to back off quickly before your opponents bring their friends to kill you.

Levels 11-15: Mid Game

Your role in the team switches from a ganker/roamer to an anti-carry assassin. You should be focusing on whoever will be the biggest threat for your team. This could mean a number of things:

• An enemy carry that is farmed or fed at this point. It’s your job to soften the carry as much as you can with Essence Shift so your team can quickly take him out of the fight. Jump in with Pounce and Shadow Dance and right click away to steal as much stats as you can. Save your Dark Pact when Shadow Dance ends (or if you get revealed) in order to safely jump out of the fight.
  
• Durable heroes. They will be in the thick of things and will be extremely tough to take down. Heroes such as Undying, Tidehunter, and Axe fit this description. These are the best targets to focus in order to stack Essence Shift since you will be able to gain large amounts. The attribute reduction will also force these heroes to use spells prematurely since they will lose INT. In this case, be prepared to purge any disables with Dark Pact.

Speaking of disables, avoid entering fights alongside with your team at the start. A coordinated initiation and follow up from the enemy team can kill you extremely quickly. Stay back and come in at an opportune time, preferably when your opponent’s spells are on Cooldown. You also need to be aware if your opponents have brought Sentry Wards (if they are smart, they will). In these cases, just stay back until everything settles down.

If the enemy team becomes too heavy on the Sentry Wards, you need to switch roles and become a pusher. Your team will be short handed, but if can grab some early Agility and Attack Speed, you can push down towers fairly quickly. Just be sure not to engage in fights under towers, since they will reveal you if you try to go stealth. Your team needs to be aggressively pushing their respective lanes, while you are busy with another lane.

Levels 16-25: Late Game

Your role will be split pushing at this point of the game. You will still dominate a lot of 1v1 scenarios, so don’t be afraid to get into a fight in order to force your opponent’s attention to you.

Don’t forget with your passive, you should easily be able to run across the map if your team needs your help. But in most cases, if your opponent does not take the time to stop you, you need to continue to aggressively push the lanes.

Slark enjoys having heroes that can set him up for kills, keep him alive in fights, or just simply allow him to survive the laning phase in order to hit Level 6. Pounce is also great for hard-to-land AoE spells or other right clicking heroes that just need the leash to keep enemies in place. Here are a couple of my favorite heroes to be with as Slark:


She has a single target stun that will easily set you up for Pounce. Her Wave and her aura are also powerful damage amplification tools throughout the game. And her ultimate pretty much insures that she will be dying and not you. A powerful support for Slark.


This guy will love your Leash. It will keep his target in place while he Bashes away in melee form. His Trance will also give Slark a lot of Attack Speed, which will help you stack Essence Shift.


Your successful Pounces will insure that Purification will heal you and hurt your enemies. Repel and Guardian Angel will also help keep Slark alive in extended fights, which help stack his Essence Shift without dying.


Sunstrike will be easy kills every time you land your Pounce. Alacrity is also another damage amplification that Slark will love having. And the general utility on Invoker makes up for Slark's lack of it.

Slark is good with any dedicated support, even though only a few are listed in this guide.

Countering Slark is very easy to come by:

• Heavy nukes or burst damage will kill the 2nd lowest Health hero in the game.
  
• AoE compositions; they don’t need to target Slark directly in order to kill him.
  
• Heroes with “Illusion”; he can not steal attributes from them.
  
• Any form of vision. Of course, revealing capabilities are better in order to prevent him from going stealth.
  
• Mana burners to prevent him from using any of his escape mechanisms.
  
• Any abilities that can not be Purged by Dark Pact.
  
• Abilities that blink or displaces movement will effectively counter Slark’s Pounce Leash.
  
• Evasion or Miss Chance, which will prevent Essense Shift from procting anytime Slark misses (need to confirm this, but I think it is true).

I’ll list the ones that I truly hate going up against as Slark:


He counters everyone. But he definitely counters Slark. His Doom will not only block every single one of Slark’s spells, but also murder his pitiful health AND disable the passive of Shadow Dance. And if that isn’t enough, you can’t purge it off with Dark Pact. In other words, he SCREWS you.

How to manage: He is the reason why Linken’s Sphere is a core item of mine. He just can’t target you with Doom first without that spell block getting in the way (or just to block abilities that can't be Purged with Dark Pact).


Laguna Blade HURTS, especially on a hero with overall low Health. And a low cooldown AoE stun, which will force you to waste Dark Pact anytime it hits you.

How to manage: A Diffusal Blade is very strong against Lina in order to drain her mana. And Linken’s Sphere, to block that 950 damage Laguna Blade.


He can burst you down before you have the chance to do anything about it. Add a Dagon and he's sure to take you down.

How to manage: You will need a Gem or Sentry Wards to keep track of Nyx whenever you are alone. Also, keep an eye on Shadow Dance’s passive. If it ever deactivates whenever you are up against him, he is most likely stalking you. Run to a tower ASAP.


He generates illusions, which is very annoying, since you only have Dark Pact as an AoE spell. You will also not be able to steal attributes from any of the illusions he generates. And Diffusal Blade on Phantom Lancer can be tough to go up against with your pitiful mana pool.

How to manage: You will need to keep Dust or Sentry Wards to prevent him from going invisible whenever you Leash him. Don’t forget that your Pounce will go through his illusions, allowing you to reveal the real Phantom Lancer if he brings his army.


His Chronosphere is where he will dominate over you. Chronosphere will last long enough for him to bash you to death. And worse, it will reveal you if you are in Shadow Dance.

How to manage: In a lane, you need to be aggressive against this guy as much as possible to prevent him from farming. In fights, you need to stay far back to avoid getting caught by Chronosphere.


She has two AoE nukes to kill you and a built-in blink which will go through your Leash.

How to manage: Black King Bar will be able to block all of her AoE damaging spells. Diffusal Blade is also strong to drain her mana, while Orchid Malevolence prevents her from casting.

Special Mentions:


His Blood Scent is where he will shut you down to a high degree since you have a low health pool. He will be able to visibly see you whenever you are below half of your health, which will effectively shut down Shadow Dance’s passive. And if Slark is below 20%, he will be revealed under Shadow Dance. His Rupture also prevents Slark from running away, which is what Slark does best.

How to manage: Teleport Scrolls. You have no excuse for not keeping TP Scrolls against this guy.


These take away all survivability in team fights and skirmishes.

How to manage: You will need to invest in your own Sentry Wards or a Gem in order to take them out. If you won’t/can’t, then you better afk push lanes (but of course, they will get Sentry Wards for that too).


Even worse to deal with than wards, especially in organized fights, where it will be nearly impossible for you to go Stealth without being in a bad position.

How to manage: These Gem holders are priority one. You must kill them.

Slark is not really loved in either competitive or pub games, but I like him because of his ability to get around the map extremely quickly and his natural ability to avoid death. Slark is easily countered though, but not to the point where I don’t give up playing him. He’s still one of my strongest ganking/roaming heroes, which has its moments in pub games.

Thanks to Icefrog and the staff for bringing this Slithereen into DotA.

My extension is Oblivion2011 if you have any questions.

Please comment below, rate on top, and tell me what you think of this guide.


(Source: http://funnyberserker.deviantart.com/art/Slark-Murloc-Nightcrawler-345764763)

2/28/13:

• Added a couple abilities to Lists of non-purgable abilities.
  
• Updated "Welcome!" images.
  
• Added description for Pounce under "Abilities" section.

3/1/13:

• Updated "List of Spell/Abilities that are NOT puragable by Dark Pact" (will be completely finished once added neutral creep abilities).

3/4/13:

• Added "Quick Reference" section.
  
• Added "Questionable Items" section under "Item Builds...(cont.)"