Let's Play || Slark [ 6.86 ]

I think that blink should be bought before Skadi because of the farming potential and the fact that you get its full value earlier. I get a casual orb of venom before blink though. Amazing guide!

Great guide dude, thx

If you don't like the build feel free to deviate!
I removed the BAT bullet, although if you do successfully cancel the animation Slark does have a quite big drawback/reset that can be used to your advantage.



Im glad it worked out for you thats the goal c:
Thannks for the +1

Also for everyone that thinks my skill build looks funny i did add in a section on why I think my build is better than the typical one. Check it out if you wish.

Very useful guide. I'm not a very good Slark player, but I played twice using your build and both were good matches. http://www.dotabuff.com/matches/2252103045 and http://www.dotabuff.com/matches/2250028942

Thanks, +1.

I am finding that skillbuild kinda questionable, as dark pact enables you to farm camps. Also, Slark doesn't have good BAT (as listed under "THE GOOD AND THE BAD"). He has 1.7, the same as most heroes.

wiki.teamliquid.net/dota2/Attack_Speed

I also think that Shadow Blade or Blink Dagger is a matter of preference, but until I get the level of Agressif or Miracle I'm going to continue building Shadow Blade. Also you cannot forget the Silver Edge which is a really powerful item and it needs Shadow Blade. I find the additional damage made after breaking the invisibility part of my combo and I think it helps a lot in bursting down a low hp support.
I tried rushing Eye of Skadi but I have to say that, or I suck big time, or it's really difficult to do that only with PMS, PT and Hand of Midas, if you can do it, congrats, but for the moment, I'm not going to do it. Maybe after I get my Shadow Blade I will give it a try and avoid Sange and Yasha, but I'm a huge fan of SyY.

Okay just to end all this feuding

Blink vs. Shadow Blade is a matter of preference and situation. My preference is Blink. If you dont want to build it, don't. Build Shadow.

Sure yeah Dark Pact looks good on papers because you can flash farm and do Nuke damage and whatnot. Try it in a match, or even a bot game, and then state how it went rather than basing it off theory. Once again, Im basing this off of experience. I'm also going for a late game oriented build, to counteract the drop off that you see past 25 minutes. Midas helps with that. Quick Sakdi helps with that. not building SnY helps with that.

Please see some of the new sections and features I just added, which incorporates some of this. If you cant find them check the CHANGELOG (Also Recently Added).

I'd disagree with this on the grounds that you'll rountinely see Shadow Blade Slarks in pro-games, you can't really get much more 'high skill' than that. While Blink Dagger is sometimes a situational pickup, SB is so good on him it's almost every game.

1) It's very hard to be appropriately stocked with Sentry Wards as a support when you're up against a core Slark who's rushing it. Double this if you're a pub solo support.

2) Even if you have Sentry Wards, you can't put them down everywhere on the off chance they might give you an extra few seconds to spot a Slark who moves faster than you and can Pounce, as well as purge your stuns/slows.

3) Gem is very risky at this point, easy to lose and you have no way to protect it. Even then, not everyone on your team can be a gem carrier, or stay close enough to one for protection without ruining their farm.

4) Dust is useless against Slark, never buy it. Even if SB only buys him a few seconds of increased move speed, combine that with Pounce and Shadow Dance and he can probably get out of your LOS anyway. And really, it's not an escape, it's an initiation - he can already Pounce over cliffs, purge debuffs and become completely untargetable.

5) Burst is very important early-midgame - that 175 extra damage helps you burst down enemies quickly - as a support I know if I can survive/wait out Dark Pact I can stun him, try and TP out, make a run for it, or whatever. If I can't, there's really nothing I can do but play super-safe and wait for a defensive item, which likely means poor warding, stacking, involvement, etc. His combo does 500 magic damage before reductions, 175 physical (plus attacks and stat loss) on top is quite a big deal at this stage.

6) Later on, supports can stay well stocked with Sentry Wards, but it costs them a lot of gold to do so, further delaying their defensive items. Yes, you're going to struggle more with pickoffs and initation now (teams tend to group more now anyway), but you shouldn't really be the primary team fight initiator anyway.

Basically this item has such good synergy with the hero, it rarely makes sense not to buy it, especially now you can upgrade to Silver Edge. If you need more escape, buy a BKB, which will also let you team fight better.

Hello, great guide although I wanted to ask a few things and such. (Just to clarify and stuff.)

Skill Build:
As a casual Slark player, wouldn't you actually need Dark Pact more than Essence Shift? Dark Pact gives off "burst damage" and a very good purge for the cost of some of your hp. (Which is kind of fixed with your Ult) On the other hand, why max Essence Shift before Dark Pact? Sure you need to snowball via kills and such but what if the enemy team is on the defensive tactic? Your extra points in essence shift would be wasted if you went up against heroes that could HARM you while you try to get hits off of them. Most of the time you wouldn't also be able to hit your foes in the lane so it would have been better off with dark pact. You said "If you're not fighting, then go farm" or something. Most of the time you won't be able to get pick-offs from enemy carries or supports, so you'd have to spend time farming a lot instead of fighting. Dark Pact would definitely help you with that.
Need your opinion about this.

Item Build:
Rushing Midas is fine, but rushing Skadi after treads is just difficult. You don't have flash-farming tools (other than your midas which has a 180 cooldown I think) because you took extra points in Essence Shift. I don't get it why Sange and Yasha is in the "No" section. It offers cheap stats. More HP and more Attack Speed which is what Slark needs. Especially if you are having difficulty in getting Skadi early on and had a very bad start. Wouldn't you suggest a better stat item first? Like Ring of Aquila (since it solves the mana problem with Slark), or Drums of Endurance? (gives off good amount of hp and attack speed and helps pushing too with your ****ty damage without essence shift stack)

Blink VS. Shadow Blade
There is no RIGHT answer for this. It just depends on the situation. You are getting one of these items mainly for initiation and mobility. It's all up to your preference, for new Slark players I suggest shadow blade, and slowly transition to blink after once you get used to Slark. (still depending on the situation) One of the advantages of Blink Dagger is that it is cheaper, but only offers a mobility active (which Slark actually has but craves for more) while Shadow Blade is more expensive than Blink, it does give off a nice amount of attack speed and a decent mobility active with a 150 extra damage. (it also synchronizes will with his ult) to sum it up:

BLINK DAGGER
Advantage:
Blink out during Shadow Dance
Cheaper (but harder to get)
Surprise Pounces
Only countered by wards (Observer)
Far more mobility considering the instant blink.

Disadvantage:
Difficult to control (regarding swift blink-pounce timings)
You get hit it's disabled
Not able to scout and pick-off lone enemies

SHADOW BLADE
Advantage:
Synergizes well with your ult
Cost-Efficient
Easier to control (regarding initation pounces)
Can be upgraded to Silver Edge which gives off a nice amount of HP and a good debuff on-hit.
Nice little attack speed and damage.
Ability to move around the map while being invisible. (scouting)

Disadvantage:
Detection via Dust (which is actually useless lol) and Sentry Wards or Gem of True Sights
Easily countered

THE REASON WHY YOU BOUGHT ONE OF THEM:
You MAINLY bought one of them because Slark DEMANDS a good initiation and sure pounce is part of it but it's hard to land. You mainly got one of them for MOBILITY. JUST MOBILITY. The other things that the two items individually offer are just extra parts of the pizza.

To end it off it's just a matter of preference :P
Blink is not a better item than Shadow Blade (vice versa)

I thought I was reading at kyphoid for a moment, no offense. You don't get yasha or Shadow Blade for their damage alone, you buy yasha to speed up your farming because movespeed, and it gives nice stats. You buy Shadow Blade for the active. I mean, sure, if you put it that way Shadow Blade is better cost efficient wise, compared to blink, but in actual fact, you buy these 2 items to help you with one thing. To get you closer to your enemy. And escape sometimes. Ok that's 2 things, but you get the point.

Now, how much do you need to pay to get the full benefit you are looking for? 2250 for blink, and 2800 for Shadow Blade. You don't get the full effect of Shadow Blade for 750 gold, and you don't get Shadow Blade for stats. Therefore, I don't see the point of pricing Shadow Blade at 750 plus stats, and blink for 2250 flat.

Are the stats nice? Definitely. Is it needed on slark? Well it would be nice, but not necessarily. We aren't comparing what gives more to slark, we are looking at which item is better for slark. And I think most people agree that blink is a better initiation tool, and escape, compared to Shadow Blade.

So after saying all this, why do some people still opt for Shadow Blade? Even in high mmr and even among pros, some players still prefer Shadow Blade over blink dagger. The dps increase is certainly a part of the reason, and the damage on breaking out of invis is pretty nice to have. However, that alone does not cover the far superior mobility that blink dagger provides. Well, here's my take on the reason.

There is one big advantage Shadow Blade gives over blink, that is the ability to scout. Activate Shadow Blade and you can freely run through the enemy jungle to search for heroes to kill. If your supports don't qard well, Shadow Blade can give you very nice map control as long as your enemies don't put sentries to stop you, and even if they do, you'll find out soon because of your passives.

Against something like a legion commander, nature's prophet or a hero thar likes to jungle/farm out of sight, I would buy Shadow Blade every time just to scout for them.

But, watch out for sentries, your passive should tell you if your enemies can see you, so be careful.

I keep seeing these kind of arguments in blink vs SB discussions. But there's a huge issue with these.

Yes, the dagger active is better than the SB active in almost every way. But you cannot compare directly the two actives to say that one of the items is better. Because the two actives don't have the same price attached to them.

- The Blink Dagger active costs 2250 gold

- The Shadow Blade active costs FAR LESS. Shadowblade gives 30 attack speed and 22 attack damage. That's *more* DPS than what a Yasha gives you, since yasha is 31 attack speed and 16 attack damage. Since a carry like Slark needs all the damage he can get, the actual price of the SB active is the price of the item minus the price of the damage it gives you. If you substract the yasha price, you get that the SB active costs approximately 750 gold.
And I'm not even counting the 175 on-hit damage.

Blink is not "cheaper" than SB. Not on a carry. On a carry, SB's active costs 1/3 of the price that you pay for blink's active. SB is far, far more cost efficient.

Blink is a better escape if your enemies are good and know how to counter invis, and provides far superior positioning. Before the addition of silver edge almost every single guide by good players suggeat blink over Shadow Blade. You have problems getting close? Blink is better. Need to escape? Blink is better against players who dust/sentry/gem properly. Mobility? Blink can travel across cliffs and trees, far superior.

Well, I don't disagree that slark is indeed the best Shadow Blade carrier in the game, but that doesn't mean that Shadow Blade is better than blink on slark. HOWEVER, that being said, silver edge is a really good item on slark. Combine the synergy of Shadow Blade with the ability to break passives, and you get one of the strongest combinations of item and hero.

I'm not saying to never get Shadow Blade and always get blink, but I am pointing out that if all you want is mobility and escape, blink is better than solver edge.