Hello, my name is Flix. I work with the Dota 2 boost squad at Immortal Boost. Today, I will share the best build for Slark. This guide will cover all the aspects of Slark in the current meta. This hero can only be played as a carry. I prefer picking this hero while boosting MMR to 7k. The guide will help you win the most games and assist you in climbing up your MMR easily.
Introduction
Slark is an extremely powerful melee carry. Jumping over obstacles, he pounces on enemies and jumps away to safety, avoiding damage with Shadow Dance. When unseen, Slark’s natural regeneration replenishes his health, allowing him to return to the fight repeatedly. Slark is weak to area disables and magical nukes, and his damage is mostly effective against single targets.
Tip: As you load into the game, start running to scout opponents placing wards as you have night vision.
Type
Melee, Carry, Disabler, Escape, Nuker
LANE PRESENCE
| Period | Presence | Win Rate | KD | GMP | XPM |
| Safe Lane | 89.37% | 49.57% | 3.04 | 536 | 692 |
| Off Lane | 6.12% | 47.07% | 2.28 | 453 | 591 |
Hero Attributes
| Movement speed | 300 |
| Sight range | 1800/800 |
| Armor | 2.94 |
| Base attack time | 1.7 |
| Damage | 55 – 61 |
| Attack point | 0.5 |
Pros and Cons
| Many escape abilities | Weak in the early game |
| Can steal enemy attributes | Weak attributes without essence shift |
| Strong pick-off potential | Weak against too much vision |
| Strong is long team fights | Weak against crowd-control heroes |
| Powerful ganking potential | Farm and items depended |
Item Build & Skill Build
According to the current patch 7.35d, this is the skill build you should make.
Skill Build
- Take the Dark Pact on level 3.
- After a short delay, Slark sacrifices some of his life’s blood, purging most negative debuffs and dealing damage to enemy units around him and to himself. Slark only takes 30% of the damage.
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- Further, upgrade the skill according to the following sequence (4,5,7)
Tip: Activate Dark Pact after using Pounce or initiating on the enemy. The cast time is instant, meaning you can use the ability after your target turns to try and disable you, without interrupting Slark’s attack.
- Pounce should be taken on level 2.
- Slark leaps forward, leashing the first hero he connects with and applying Essence Shift Stacks. That unit can only move a limited distance away from Slark’s landing position.
- Pounce ignores illusions for Slark to find the real enemy heroes.
- Further, you can upgrade the Blink Stike according to the following sequence (8,9,10)
- Essence Shift should be taken later on Level 1.
- Slark steals the life essence of enemy heroes with his attacks, draining each of their attributes and converting them to bonus Agility. If Slark kills an affected enemy hero, he permanently steals 1 Agility.
- You can upgrade this ability according to the following sequence (13,14,16)
Note: An early Orb of Venom can allow Slark to steal from slow heroes that lack disables or escapes, especially if they lack any sort of boots
- When using Shadow Dance, Slark hides himself in a cloud of shadows, becoming immune to detection. Attacking, casting spells, and using items will not reveal Slark. Passively, when not visible to the enemy team, Slark gains bonus movement speed and health regeneration.
- During the laning phase, regain your health by simply retreating out of enemy vision once Slark is level six
- Always level up to this ability whenever it is up on level 6, level 12, level 18
Tip: Keep an eye on Shadow Dance’s buff icon to know whether or not the enemy has vision nearby
Note: Buying Aghanim’s Scepter on Slark is an excellent item as he gets an extra charge for the Pounce and increases range.
Tip: Getting Aghanim’s Shard on Slark grants him a new ability called Depth Shroud which creates a cloud at the target location when used. All allies inside the radius are hidden and affected by Shadow Dance.
Talent Tree Choices
- Level 10 Select -0.5s Dark Pact Cooldown.
- Level 15 Select +70 Dark Pact Damage.
- Level 20 Select +1 Agility gain/stolen per Essence Shift Stack.
- Level 25 Select +40s Essence Shift Duration.
Item Build:
Starting items
- 1x Tango
- 1x Quelling blade
- 1x Magic stack
- 1x Iron Branch
- 1x Circlet
Early game items
- Power Treads
- Orb of Corrosion
- Wraith Band
- Magic Wand
Mid-game items:
- Mage Slayer
- Harpoon
- Aghanim’s Scepter
- Aghanim’s Shard
Late-game items:
- Black King Bar
- Eye of Skadi
- Disperser
- Refresher Orb
Situational items:
- Butterfly
- Silver Edge
- Abyssal Blade
- Linken’s Sphere
- Monkey King Bar
- Bloodthorn
- Blink Dagger
- Revanant’s Brooch
- Nulifire
- Sange and Yasha
Early gameplay / Mid game / Late game
Early gameplay (0:00 – 12:00)
Slark is relatively weak at the beginning as he can be harassed very easily depending on the situation. He has to rush for Orb of Corrosion to harass the enemy in the lane with the coordination of supports if he manages to get kills in the early game that gives him an advantage in the lane and make sure to secure creeps safely when there’s no kill potential until you hit your level 6.
Mid gameplay (12:00 – 25:00)
In this stage of the game, Slark has some basic items like Diffusal Blade, Power Treads, and Echo Sabre to participate in the team fights, make sure if you drop your HP, move into the spot where enemies have no vision and regain your health to fight back into the gank. Dark Pact dispels most debuffs and disables from Slark, and needs to be timed well to maximise its effectiveness. If being chased, use Dark Pact immediately before Shadow Blade allows you to dispel Dust of Appearance without losing your invisibility. Activate it just before you are about to be disabled by abilities like the Storm Hammer or Unstable Concoction. After the projectile hits, Dark Pact will automatically remove the disable.
Late gameplay (25:00 – 60:00)
At this stage of the game, Slark needs to play safe on the map as Slark will be a big threat to the enemy team. Try to survive in the team fights as long as you can to become powerful by stealing enemy attributes and gaining high agility and armour. Every successful hit reduces an enemy’s maximum health, health regeneration, maximum mana, mana regeneration, armor, attack speed, and attack damage. Your positioning matters a lot in the fights, wipe out supports first to make your impact as they have disables all the time. Whenever you are in trouble, you can Pounce away or even Shadow Dance and teleport out. Don’t forget to pick up a couple of sentries to deward when you sense with Shadow Dance you are being seen.
Counters of Slark
Axe
- Axe’s Berserker’s Call forces Slark to attack him, even during Shadow Dance.
- Counter Helix will hit Slark in Shadow Dance.
Ancient Apparition
- Ice Blast stops Shadow Dance’s passive health regeneration, even when Slark is not in vision.
Grimstroke
- Phantom’s Embrace cannot be dispelled by Slark’s Dark Pact and will cause him to suffer damage if he doesn’t kill Phantom fast enough.
Bloodseeker
- Thirst stops Shadow Dance’s passive health regeneration if Slark’s current health is below Thirst’s visibility threshold.
Disruptor
- Static Storm and Kinetic Field lock down Slark, as he cannot use Dark Pact to dispel any disables, or Pounce out while silenced.
Earthshaker
- Earthshaker’s many AoE stuns help lock down Slark and will often waste the duration of Shadow Dance.
Omniknight
- Slark’s damage, even with a high count of Essence Shift stacks, is easily negated by Omniknight’s heals and Guardian Angel.
Outworld Destroyer
- Astral Imprisonment from Outworld Destroyer can disrupt any Pounce attempt by banishing the leashed ally.
- Slark’s low mana pool makes him more susceptible to Sanity’s Eclipse icon Sanity’s Eclipse.
Phantom Lancer
- Doppelganger lets Phantom Lancer dodge Dark Pact and Pounce and partially wastes the duration of Shadow Dance.
Puck
- Illusory Orb and Phase Shift allow Puck to avoid most ganking attempts.
- Dream Coil makes it very hard for Slark to escape.
Wrapping it up
Slark is a hero from which you will learn from the weakest to the strongest hero. This hero can get out of control once you start to play aggressively and have successful attempts. You will also understand the enemy’s vision on the map only with the help of this guide. Try the best Slark guide and let us know in the comment section.