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Healing Salve
Tango
Stout Shield
Iron BranchIron BranchIron Branch
Power Treads
Bottle
Magic Wand
Poor Man's Shield
Town Portal Scroll
Diffusal Blade
Black King Bar
Town Portal Scroll
Eye of Skadi
Sange and Yasha
Butterfly
Abyssal Blade
Daedalus
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2 | 12 | 13 | 14 |  |
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Welcome to Altima's Guide to Slark. 
Slark is a ganker and semi-carry with very good escape mechanic. In early game, Slark can play aggressively with high base damage and Essence Shift. He can gank effectively if he can land Pounce to right target enemy hero. Dark Pact is very good skill to farm, to damage and to cancel the debuff. When Slark get Shadow Dance he can go in to the fog to regenerate his health as quick as in the fountain and quicker than the fountain when Shadow Dance reach level 2 and 3.
I'm not English speaker. You can suggest to fix my grammar and I will fix it in my guide. Thank you !
Dark Pact [Q] [C]
Ability : No Target Affects : Enemies Damage : Magical
Cannot be blocked by 
Linken's Sphere | Can be blocked Magic Immunity ( Black King Bar)
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.
Radius: 325 Delay: 2 Total Damage: 75/150/225/300
Cooldown(s) 9/8/7/6 Mana Cost 55/50/45/40
Notes:
- 1.5 seconds after cast, a series of 10 pulses separated by 0.1 seconds deals 75/150/225/300 total magic damage to enemies within a 325 radius, and half that damage to Slark.
- Each pulse also removes debuffs from Slark.
- If Slark dies, the pulses stop.
How to use this skill ?
When Slark use this skill the dark particle will grow at Slark's body. After 1.5 second after Slark cast this skill the particle will explode and do damage to enemy unit in 325 radiun around Slark.
Despite low mana cost this skill also do half of damage to Slark. Slark cannot deny himself with this skill.
Dark Pact can use to farm creeps waves. This should be used when you can land Pounce to target enemy.
Do not try to attack target enemy when active this skill while chasing because animation when you attack make you stop walking and enemy will go out of radius of this skill. Slark should only walk near enemy when active this skill while chasing. Moreover, you can chase better with Shadow Dance.
Pounce [W] [E]
Can be blocked by Magic Immunity.
Ability : No Target Affects : Enemy Heroes Only Damage : Magical
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.
Range: 700 Leash Radius: 325 Leash Duration: 3.5
Damage: 70/140/210/280
Cooldown(s) 20/16/12/8 Mana Cost 75
Notes:
- On cast, Slark leaps forward at a speed of 933.33, stopping when he latches onto an enemy unit in a 95 radius, or has traveled 700 distance.
- Magic immune units cannot be leashed.
- Trees are destroyed in a 200x200 square around Slark's landing area.
- Blinking, teleporting away, using force staff will break the leash.
This skill is the key to be a good Slark. Like 
Mirana's arrow and 
Pudge's hook the target should not survive when you can land this skill in early phase of game.
This skill is also an escape skill for Slark. 700 radius is long enough to trigger Shadow Dance again at night(in the game). Slark can jump over the cliff with this skill.
Slark can aim this skill easily by
|right click the enemy| > |if enemy running straight back from you| > |Pounce| or
|attack the enemy| > |immediately after you can land the attack| > |Pounce|
This will do the trick. However, you have to aim this skill manually by click the floor in front of you if you want to target enemy hero behind the forest or on the cliff.
You can also max this skill first because this skill scale better than Dark Pact. Its cooldown reduce drastically and I highly recommend to max Pounce first when you can master it.
Essence Shift [E] [N]
Ability : Passive Affects : Enemy Heroes
Slark steals the life essence of enemy heroes with his attacks, draining each of their attributes and converting them to bonus Agility.
Duration: 15/30/60/120
Strength, Agility, and Intelligence Lost: 1
Agility Gained: 3
Cooldown(s) 0.4/0.35/0.3/0.25
Notes:
When an enemy hero dies under the effect of Essence Shift, the hero will revive with their stats restored but Slark will not immediately lose them.
This skill is simple. More attack, More damage output. This skill make Slark strong in early game because Slark will do 19 more damage when steal STR form enemy hero.
Shadow Dance [R] [D]
Ability : No Target Affects : Self
When used, Slark hides himself in a cloud of shadows, becoming invisible (attacking, casting spells, and using items do not reveal Slark). Additionally, when not visible to the enemy team, Slark gains bonus movement speed and health regeneration.
Duration: 5.5
Bonus Movement Speed: 30%/35%/40%
Health Gained per Second: 3%/5%/7%
Cooldown(s) 25 Mana Cost 120
Notes:
- Slark loses bonus movement speed and health regeneration if he becomes visible.
- Has a 0.5 second delay on activation and deactivation.
- The passives of Shadow Dance do not work if Slark is under the effect of Doom.
- If Slark is damaged by a neutral unit, the passive effect is removed for 2 seconds.
This skill has 2 parts. Passive part and Active part.
Passive part - When not visible to the enemy team, Slark gains bonus movement speed and health regeneration.
Not visible by enemy team also include ward, tower and creep's sight. This mean if they can see Slark in mini map Slark will lose this buff.
Active Part - Slark hides himself in a cloud of shadows, becoming invisible (attacking, casting spells, and using items do not reveal Slark).
When active Slark will cover himself with cloud of shadows that noticeable by enemy team but Slark will be invisible in the shadow. This mean enemy team cannot target Slark but they know that Slark is in the shadow. Moreover, Slark can attack, casting spell and use item when this skill active. (Slark can use Town Portal Scroll while use this skill)
Duration of this skill is only 5.5 second so Slark should not use this to start the fight.
Slark should use this skill to chase escaping enemy and escape when something go wrong with the gank. (like when enemy friend go to help him/her)
Slark can hide behind the tree to trigger regeneration and come back to fight with enemy team again in a few second.
Do not use this skill in unnecessary situation . This skill cost 120 mana to cast and it will make Slark's mana pool run dry in no time.
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