Project: Slark

As in my previous reply, I disagree with getting Essence Shift before I normally do at level 8, when his attack speed is high enough to out benefit getting something else.

If you look at the items, all of them (with the exception of the Crystalys/Daedalys and Desolator are all stat items. The only item I would insist on out of those two would be the Crystalys/Daedalys, because the damage output increase is incredible and can't be out done by anything. The Desolator is something that can be exchanged with whatever luxury item you want/feel is better. I like it for taking down buildings faster, personally, as I am fairly confident on my ability to escape from most things, but if you need an MKB for that pesky dodge hero, or want a BKB, because you're getting stunned lots, take it instead.

Just my thoughts on your comments...

As far as getting an early level of Essence Shift I've played around with getting a point early, and it just doesn't do it for me. It takes ~4 autoattacks to equal the effective hp loss from the strength gain that gaining a point in one of the other skills gives me, which while it isn't many hits, Slark's attack speed isn't that fast early game so I'd personally rather have the burst damage from the other two skills more, and the added benefit of lowered cooldowns on both, and lower mana cost on Dark Pact. Pounce really is your main ability with Slark for survivability and damage and gankability, so you really do need to max it out first. That does leave a level of Dark Pact you could steal a point from, if you wanted to do so, but the benefit from Essence Shift is a lot greater when you have higher attack speed, and can steal more stats from more hits.

As far as survivability from my item selection, I guarantee that what I have is more than enough until Sange and Yasha is completed. The Poor Man's Shield blocks a lot of damage and basically gives you an additional 1 armour from the stats, and the Power Treads should be left on Str not Agi until Sange and Yasha is completed. I didn't include the Power Treads tip in my guide though so thank you for pointing that out. But between those two items and Pounce you should have more than enough survivability until you get the ultimate Shadow Dance.

The Drum of Endurance isn't worth the gold for Slark. By the time you complete it you will have your ultimate, and won't need the move speed it supplies. You'd be better off going straight in to Yasha (if you want move speed) or Sange (if you want more survivability), or even getting a stat orb for building Skadi than drum.

I don't know how you don't get the Crystalys pick. It's basic math. Given a percentage chance of having a result happen (in this case extra damage from a crit) every time a particular action is taken (in this case an autoattack), the more often that action is taken the more likely you are to get the result. For example, if I have a 25% chance of getting a crit from an autoattack, if I attack 4 times I should basically guarantee at least 1 crit (with RNG it isn't a given but odds are it will happen at least once). With a high attack speed I can get more auto attacks in, generating more chances for crits, and as hard as Slark hits mid/late game the only item that will give the same amount of base damage that could equal a crit on a regular basis would be Divine Rapier, and it's too risky and costly. (I mean by this that if you watch the game I posted I was doing 1k damage with crits, so 3 autoattacks with a Divine Rapier would be about 900 damage over 3 attacks which would be about how many attacks I'd need to get a crit). You're better off getting the Crystalys first and then getting the Demon Edge to complete the Daedalys for the amount of gold you will have at mid game.

Desolator may be outclassed by Skadi for the orb effect, but Skadi is too expensive to pick up at this stage of the game. You'll probably never complete it before the game is done. If you can, then you're a better farmer than I am, but I also prefer to finish a game quickly to prevent any chance of a comeback, than sit around farming for luxury items. MKB can be a great item if going up against a Hero with a dodge component, but otherwise it's too expensive for the raw damage. There are better items out there for that.

Good point about the ward "detection" though. I will need to update that and also add invisible Hero "detection" like for Bounty Hunter.

The Drum of Endurance is pretty good in the Early Game, before you get that Max Movement Speed, and cheap Stats are never bad on Slark. The only real issue is that there's a good chance someone else will want to build it.

As for the Vitality Booster, a Point Booster should be enough HP (not to mention building into the Eye of Skadi later on).

Speaking of things that build into Skadi, you should put an Orb of Venom in the Early Game Items. Coupled with Essence Shift, it makes your opponent's Laning Stage a pain if you can Harrass them.

Finally, Skull Basher/ Abyssal Blade is useful on him later on.

Like peppo said 1 level of essence shift is needed, also I feel like slark should not go raw damage items since he needs stats so badly. Unless the enemy has evasion I would rather not go any damage except mkb before you are tanky enough. A desolator aslo seens rather unnesecary. Slark's attacks removing str and agi (hp and armor) means getting attack speed is way better on him imo.

For the early survivability item, I would rather go for a raw Vitality Booster or even just a Bracer instead of the Drum of Endurance. The drum is nice, but the ms is really wasted because you'll reach max ms anyway at level 11 with Yasha.

The other stats are pretty ok, but nothing Slark needs terribly besides the 9 STR.

You need an early point in Essence Shift, it's a must: without it you aren't nearly as good in your laning stage since it makes autoattacks an uneven trade in your favor. Essence Shift coupled with Pounce makes this Hero so difficult to deal with that winning dual lanes when soloing is a pretty "easy" task according to the competitive players nowadays.

As for the item build, I think you lack survivability: either get a Drum of Endurance before SnY (so your movement speed gets improved even more) or go Eye of Skadi/ Manta Style after it. I also don't understand the Crystalys pick: if you want raw damage, since your autoattack damage isn't that high (unless you're fed) you'd better take a Demon Edge and finish your Daedalus (or even Monkey King Bar, which is better in my opinion) later; it gives more raw damage than the other component. The Desolator is also outuclassed by the Eye of Skadi when talking about orb effects, hence why you might want to get the MKB for damage.

You should also talk about Slark's ability to detect Wards: when you're far from the enemies and you aren't running fast and gaining extra HP/s, you know there's a Ward nearby.