Slark, Short guide. How to really play him

Meiun &jfox --- couldn't agree more with you on dark pact.... i build the same and use it only as situational debuff.

you dont have to build stout shield into anything. its good to pick up as anyone at any point in the game and easily one of the last things you want to sell. if you ever fight in or near creeps mid or late its still an extremely good item and will save you a couple hundred hp in auto attacks before the creeps implode from the deathball or whatever. well it will save you that hp against heros too but ususally by late 300or so hp on a squish isnt an issue.



shift has no cooldown restrictions on slark in dota 2, despite the tooltip. more aspd has significantly more of an impact on your damage than youd assume because of that. people would get essence over pact for the same reason that professional players do it in competitive. 15s is not enough to take a tower after a fight, creep a jungle (which you will do faster than even pact with good essence), control a lane better, and just generally do more single target damage.

the only limit to your number of stacks is your aspd and how long they last, where pact is mostly useful for its cc removal. out of curiosity how often do you need to do mass aoe damage as slark in your games? how many can you get off more than 2 pacts without putting yourself in jepordy?

not really sure why you would only lane slark in safe since hes got a fine escape for hard and scales well out of mid as long as hes not out picked there. not sure why youd stats over finishing dark pact.

pact is the more situational skill build, not shift; both dedicated slark players from dota1 and the more recent pro fans of slark know this and skill him accordingly.


would like to remind both of you that this authors build has seen some professional play, though its not done well any time ive seen it. seems like its more of an issue of team generally losing vs players like zsmj than an issue with the build though, but who could say.

on the other hand this skill-build, if you swap stats and finishing out pact, is the one that's used 99% of the time at this tier of play and is quantifiably superior to pact in the vast majority of circumstances. one main reason they single point pact often is because you dont want to use your pact and have your free linkens on cd when they actually storm hammer or whatever.

outside of pro play youll find that, if you swap stats with finishing dark pact, you get a skill-build with a whole percent higher winrate in pubs than a pact over shift build. http://dotabuff.com/heroes/slark/skills



i have never seen pros (alliance for instance, who like slark) having problem with getting kills with the commonly skilled essence shift build and i have NEVER had a problem killing with an essence shift build.

to be honest if i wanted to have a ****ty right click and strong aoe nuke presence i wouldnt pick slark. id pick something int or a 4 or 5 position hero instead. its a good skill build if you play slark as a 4, but you have a greater chance of a win playing him 2 or 3 with stealth>leap>shift>pact>stats due to his scaling.

why are you playing a slark if you are trying to force him to be something other heros do better and not taking advantage of whats uniquely slark? the free linkens is nice, the leap is nice and ult is enough movespeed to chase anyone. if you dont blow your pact and keep your free linkens then you dont need to ult right away.



my main problem with this guide is a lack of a casual yasha, a lack of manta as a situational (illusions even get the stacks of shift you gain AFTER creating them), placing bkb in situational and generally lacking HP items. even a casual point or vit booster built into nothing else is a big thing on slark.

i like soulring and often get it but even i wouldnt say its enough to constantly rolling gank.

i dont get mjolnir as hes not a 1 position character, not a strength and he isnt like mirana in that he lacks right click and needs the bolt to actually do damage. mkb is cool but i dont know why i wouldnt get something with more aspd, utility and/or some survival. basher or even a yasha for instance seems better.

not sure i would get an orchid on slark, never tried it but seen it even in pro. might try it next time i play.

I liked yours guide, It offered me some variety on my slark builds. About the skill build i see reason on yours (i think that slark's build depends on the game u're playing, the heroes u're facing), when i have a good support i can go whit only 1 level in dark pact and do well, but in some cases i like to max it sooner.
I also liked the malevolence, because it gives us some space to do our damage without being disrupted, and its also a great surprise when the other team sees a OM on slark (in pubs). It do not give us the best damage, nor the best attack speed, but still is a good item on him (especially if u're not the carrier).
Voted up, for the innovative way to build him and for sharing it whit us!

I think that one point of essence shift at level 4 is enough, and should be maxed out in late game, I don't see why you would max it out early, 15 seconds are enough, and the cooldown doesn't actually work, I think darkpact should be leveled early, the mana cost and cooldown decrease with each level. Maybe you should add Eye of Skadi? I get that item almost every time, I don't understand why HoT is in the items build, you already have a passive much better than it.

1) As a momentum hero, not maxing out Dark Pact is weird. A Pounce->Dark Pact-> auto attack combo kills a pretty sizable portion of the hero pool and you can regen the health lost super quick. Dark Pact also allows you to jungle super easy in between ganks with basically no risk to yourself because of your ultimate.

2) Orchid is a bad choice on Slark as a first item IMO. He's not the most mana intensive char out there as his stuff is pretty cheap and using the silence is what will kill your mana pool on him. His biggest downfall is a poor health and agilty gain. Basically he needs stats/damage badly. There are a couple of ways yo could do it on him. Aquila/Drums/Treads is fairly common as far as I've seen. They defintly make him good as soon as you get it going (which is really quick as they are all fairly cheap), the other method (and the way I've been going lately) is Treads/Soul Ring/Armlet. a little more expensive, but a ton of extra damage.

Compare Armlet to Orchid as a damage/health item and you see which is superior. As soon as you have your ulti, you can actually leave armlet toggled on all the time and just head into the fog whenever you are getting low. Armlet obviously doesnt give you the mana regen and mana capacity that orchid gives, or the silence, but its way cheaper. with soul ring it gives you all the mana sustain you'll need as well. simply activate soul ring from the fog while you are still regening and you will gain back most of the health anyways.

3) Replace Heart with Skadi in your luxury. Skadi is less health, but gives you extra damage and the health regen is wasted on Slark plus it gives all the mana you will ever need. Also the slow is pretty helpful and you are hybridy enough to not really use orb effects like Desolator.

For someone who claims that other people are playing slark wrong, you truly have some interesting item choices.

Stout Shield that builds into nothing, Sage's Mask's that build into orchid I am guessing, but are a whole 650 gold for minimal mana regen (about 1 per second in the early game)

Additionally, unless you are super pro at last hitting or are getting fed, there is no way you will get Orchid before the ganking stage begins. "rushing" a Radiance is getting it before 20 minutes. Ganking begins sometime soon after your mid is level 7.

I would more likely get normal starting items that actually give last hitting power to allow you to get farm in lane rather than assuming you are going to get free farm. As mentioned by someone else, Ring of Aquila or even just a plane old Ring of Basilisk make for very powerful mana regen choices, the Aquila also boosting Slark's damage quite a bit making for easier time in lane.

I like your skill build, but I am having a hard time telling myself your item build is superb.

Lancer makes some really good points, and I went through your guide as well and thought the same thing. For whatever reason, the white text just doesn't run well when making a guide. Don't splash different colors all around, but bolding and coloring important points is always a good idea... especially when starting new topics.

Brackets should be [ [<insert item name here>] ] (without spaces between brackets) in order to display the item. There's a fantastic guide that I highly recommend, and you can access it by clicking here. I'm gearing up to publish some more guides myself, and will be using that as a reference point for sure.

I like your build, but everyone's a critic. Stick to your morals and explain your items as best you can, but don't be afraid to experiment with suggestions.

I'll hang on to my vote pending your updates, and I'm looking forward to them.

Best of luck!

Oh yes, [orb of venom] im going to add it, its extremely good.

I get where you're coming from, I just disagree and figured I would try to make my points. I actually get Ring of Aquila a lot on Slark. Add runes and teammates with Arcane Boots, and I rarely have mana issues. Also, have you ever tried Orb of Venom in the early game? It can be quite effective.

I get where you are coming from, with not leveling Dark Pact the thing is in midgame you have around 1500 heal or even less and 50% damage goes towards you thats over 10%. also if you go this build you have no trouble at doing damage at all, atleast that's my opinion.

Thing about Orchid Malevolence on Slark. just getting those minor build up items from Orchid Malevolence in the laning stage makes you able to spamm everything you need if its aggressive or defensive purposes. (it feels so good)
don't forget the 25% damage amplify at the end of its shift. which could easily be 300 extra midgame. (can be more but then opponents will be death before it ends). 30attack speed and 30 damage isn't shabby at all. +a silence, + dagon level 1 like damage + 25int and 150%mana regen this item is good ;p.


then soulring, thought about it but i don't like it on slark.
for this reason, i get away with low hp so often and i just don't want to lose 150heal in many situations.

again thanks alot for commenting, and im currently reading into your item comparing effiences

Thanks alot for the tips.
tried to put the in this post. curious if i got it right.

I'm not going to downvote you because most people would say my disagreements are just a preference issue, but I will try to make my point otherwise.

1. A) I'm glad you understand the importance of Dark Pact and its purge. However, by not maxing it out you are losing A LOT of damage potential in the mid game. At around level 10, being able to burst an enemy with 600 damage ( Pounce and Dark Pact)is usually devastating. Most people will start running, but if they don't you can pop your ult and then they WILL run. By leaving Dark Pact at level one, you are essentially cutting your leading damage in half, at a time when your ganking should be strongest.
B) To counter your argument about being too squishy, just get a Bracer if its really a concern. But it shouldn't be a concern, because all you have to do is run out of sight after the fight for a few seconds and your hp will be fine.
2. I have issues with Orchid Malevolence on Slark. Unless you're facing a team with multiple escapes (ie Anti-Mage, Queen of Pain, etc) thats A LOT of gold to spend for not a lot of damage increase, and you don't even need that much intel/mana regen on Slark. Getting a Soul Ring or some equivalent is usually more than enough. For about the same price, you can get Mjollnir or Monkey King Bar, either of which would give you about 2-3 times the damage increase. As proof, see my guide on this topic: http://www.dotafire.com/dota-2/guide/items-comparing-efficiencies-5000.

This is not to say that these things are BAD, obviously you are doing pretty decent. I'm just trying to say that you could be playing Slark even better with a couple of changes.

A couple of tips:
To make heroes, skills, and items a link like in my words above, surround the name with double square brackets [ [ ] ].
Spend some time on general formatting, as it will make people more likely finish reading your guide.