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Tango
Healing Salve
Clarity
Iron BranchIron Branch
Quelling Blade
Power Treads
Blades of Attack
Gloves of Haste
Power Treads
Armlet of Mordiggian
Armlet of Mordiggian
Blink Dagger
Power Treads
Armlet of Mordiggian
Blink Dagger
Power Treads
Black King Bar
Armlet of Mordiggian
Blink Dagger
Black King Bar
Desolator
Power Treads
Butterfly
Daedalus
Divine Rapier
Eye of Skadi
Heart of Tarrasque
Mjollnir
Moon Shard
Monkey King Bar
Radiance
Satanic
Boots of Travel 2
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2 | 8 | 10 | 12 |  |
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1 | 3 | 5 | 7 |  |
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4 | 9 | 13 | 14 |  |
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6 | 11 | 16 |  |
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15 | 17 | 18 |
Slardar and 
Io
Disclaimer- This combo is meant for players in a party who know each others strengths and weakness. You need a very good Io (wisp) player, and a decent carry who knows how Slardar works.
*
SUPER IMPORTANT - GO MID WHILE USING THIS COMBO, YOU DESTROY ANYONE EXCEPT FOR 
Ember Spirit AND 
Viper!!!
*
Dota is the first MOBA game I have played. I never understood the MMR system until I was too late to realize what I have done. As soon as i got to Lvl 13, I went straight to ranked and lost about ten games in a row. I was placed in the 1400 mmr tier. At that time I was so blind that I thought I was the 1400th best player in the world. Boy was I wrong. I have come extremely far from level thirteen, this week I eclipsed Lvl 100. I know every hero backwards and forwards and have been on an Amateur team, winning Amateur Dota Two league Inhouses twice. Yet, I have only gone up one hundred mmr since lvl 13. I did not understand why I was still in this tier. I knew I was better than these players. I realized that just playing a carry and going twenty and zero is not the key to winning, unfortuantly. As a Trench Tier player, I know that players will do whatever they can to get out of said tier. You are playing with bumbling idiots, who on a daily basis buy two courier and upgrade both. So basically, you should never trust your teammates. The trick to winning rank matches is having a trustworthy companion play matches with you. I know that not everyone is really into the idea of having a lower solo mmr than than your party mmr, but hey, when you are in this tier you take what you can get. So now onto the focus of this guide, a combo of heroes that is brutal for the opposing team.
Io, Slardar, generally both rarely picked heroes with somewhat low winrates. Why does this work better than Io Tiny, or Io Chaos knight? To be honest I am not exactly sure, but it might have something to do with the mobility of Slardar, making it so Io is not the main thing keeping his carry alive. Mlapa, my Io player has around eighty - five games on Io. He has a ninety percent winrate. In this patch, we have only lost three games using this combo, and one due to a mass abandon by our teammates. The most important thing to know for this combo is the importance of the Io player. He (or She, hats off to you if you have a girl on dota) needs to be constantly watching the minimap, waiting to prey on unsuspecting carrys farming lanes. All you have to do is relocate [color=#ff0000]Slardar[/color] on top of the hero, and the hero explodes. All the carry sees is a blue light on the ground, and then a huge *** fish man pops out and two shots you. As the ally heroes team sprints to that lane to kill the Io and Slardar, Io just takes Slardar back to his jungle or ancients where he was farming. Now, onto the items and skill builds.
Early Game -
Io - Preferably nothing, but if there is no other support than buy a Courier, that's it, you want to rush 
Bottle.
5 min
Io - 
Boots of Speed, Bottle
10 min
Io - 
Urn of Shadows
15 min
Io - Bottle, Urn of Shadows, 
Arcane Boots
25 min
Io - Bottle, Urn, Arcane Boots, Mekansm
30 min
Io - Bottle, Urn of Shadows, 
Guardian Greaves
Skill Build -
Io - Get 1st lvl in tether, then max your third, then max your second, get ult asap, max stats until lvl 23 then max tether
Io needs to go for top rune with two allies, secure the bounty rune for Io and he will have his bottle coming on the courier. Meanwhile, Slardar is blocking creeps using his stop key (I assume most people know this). When Slardar loses the block, Io is waiting at the tier 1 mid to catch the block. This is devastating for the other mid, because usually in trench tier, the enemy will not block, so creeps are on your high ground. Io just zones off the enemy while Slardar farms. Io collects two minute rune, and Slardar should have level two and brown boots. You are ready to go aggressive now, creeps will most likely be on the enemies high ground since your lane pushed due to Io zoning the enemy. Slardar should stun whenever the enemy goes for a last hit, especially if it is a melee. Io can just regen his mana using tether, so feel free to spam that ****! Once the enemy is around 400 - 500 hp, you can easily kill him. Slardar stuns when the enemy goes to last hit, and during the stun duration, Slardar runs behind the enemy. This slows the enemy since the tether from Io is passing through him. You will most likely have to dive him, but as long as Io knows what he is doing, you will be fine. Io will be tethered to you and healing you with his bottle while he is overcharged. Overcharge has damage reduction, but it does damage to Io while he uses it, BUT this lets Io use his urn and bottle to keep you alive once he has lowered his hp and mana. You should easily get two to three kills against the enemy, unless he has a blink or port like QoP or Puck. Once Io is lvl 6, you can start ganking. The best part about this is that Io relocates you right on top of the enemy, giving them no time to reacts to what is happening. Slardar stuns and ults, and with a little RNG, you will not even have to chase the enemy down. Even if you do, you are tethered with sprint, giving you around five hundred movement speed. Then, Io just takes you back mid and you keep farming. One great thing about this combo is that once you are level 11 with armlet, you can easily solo Roshan. I mean, it isn't "solo" but Slardar and Io can kill rosh in about tirty seconds. Once you have aegis, Slardar can do whatever he wants, since if he dies, Io will relocate him back to base when he respawns from aegis. Get a beyond godlike streak and just push down mid. The best part about this combo is that Slardar wins early, middle, and lategame. He is a great early game initiator, mid game ganker, and a late game carry. It takes a little bit of time to get used to the fast paced game that this combo creates, but in the "Trench Tier" all people focus on getting items for late game, but Slardar ends the game before late game even starts, rendering heroes like Spectre and Slark useless.
When Slardar Io combo is utilized to its full potential, it is unstoppable in the Trench Tiers. I dont know how well it would do in 3.5k or above, but it has worked up to 3.2k. I have now raised my mmr about 1000, getting to 2600 in a few months. Three months to be exact. This is my first guide, so I am still learning how everything works around here. I know this is no where near the level of guides that people like Cuttleboss write, but feel free to leave some constructive critisicm below, I will greatly appreciate it.
Juiced
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