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Healing Salve
Iron BranchIron BranchIron Branch
Tango
Stout Shield
Boots of Speed
Poor Man's Shield
Orb of Venom
Magic Wand
Diffusal Blade
Power Treads
Town Portal Scroll
Skull Basher
Black King Bar
Drum of Endurance
Orchid Malevolence
Sange and Yasha
Vladmir's Offering
Shadow Blade
Urn of Shadows
Abyssal Blade
Assault Cuirass
Butterfly
Daedalus
Eye of Skadi
Satanic
Ethereal Blade
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4 | 12 | 13 | 14 |  |
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Hello DotaFire community!
Since there are not many guides for 
Slark on this site, I wanted to give a short overview.
I do not have time to create a in-depth guide for him, but i guess this still will help beginners to do some awesome ganking with this really fun-to-play hero.
+good ganking semi-carry
+2nd highest agility gain in the game
+runs around with very high movement speed
+can be some sort of anti-carry with his passive
+cheap and spammable AOE nuke
+squishy heroes will tremble in fear
+as soon you hit lvl 6 you will never have to go back to the fountain
+is (or at least was) a Murloc :)
-super squishy
-lowest STR gain of all heroes
-his nuke deals half of the damage to himself
-skill shot disable
-falls off late game
-his disable is useless against blinkers
-and in case you forgot: super squishy...really
Q: Dark Pact: The reason I'm maxing this skill first is pretty simple: It is a 300 damage aoe nuke for only 40 mana at level 4. Combined with Pounce you can deal heavy damage in a short time early on and that's what you are supposed to do as a Ganker. Also can be used for farming.
!Note: This spell removes all negative debuffs of yourself!
W: Pounce: You have to get this at lvl 1, no matter what. It serves as a Disable,Escape and (somehow) as a Nuke. Using it as a Disable can be tricky though. It works like 
Leap, but to bind the enemy to you and deal damage, you need to hit. It's like using a combined Leap and 
Meat Hook ;)
BUT: you can not hit creeps with Pounce !
!Always keep in mind, the bound target is still able to attack and cast spells!
E: Essence Shift: This funny passive reduces the enemies Strength, Agility AND Intelligence by 1, every time you hit them. On top of that you increase your own Agility by 3 for each hit. Sounds really fun, doesn't it?
You may wonder why I am maxing it so late. Level 1 is far enough early in the game, because points only increase the duration (15/30/45/60 sec), but not the points drained.
Every stack of Essence Shift has its own timer!
R: Shadow Dance: The most fun, while playing Slark is his ultimate (imo). As soon as you get this, you will neverever have to return to your base, because you regenerate like crazy, as long as you are out of the enemies sight. On top of that, if you use it, you get invisible for a few seconds, still able to use spells, attack and ofc regen like crazy.
Also it boosts your movement speed, while out of sight. This really increases your ganking potential, because you will run around the map in no time to surprise your enemy.
In this chapter I want to give some thoughts about items and why to buy/not to buy them.
Early Items:
Poor Man's Shield: gives some agility for damage and some nice protection against physical harrass.
Magic Wand: Solves pretty much all of Slark's mana issues; especially against heroes with spammable spells it is always worth buying.
Orb of Venom: really, really good on slark (or any other melee ganker). Gives you a decent slow, which makes you a even more scary ganker.
Core:
Power Treads: They give you more survivabilty and IAS; also the stat swap is useful on anyone.
Diffusal Blade: It is just a real good item for any agility based ganker. It also helps you to land your Pounce.
The reason why I didn't add any other items as core is, that Slark can be build in various ways, so all the other items are pretty situational. Even Diffusal Blade is situational and you may play a game, where you need to get other items first.
Situational Stuff:
Urn of Shadows: again some more Strength. Only get it early on right after your early game items. Also its a nice item for any ganker (and that's what Slark is) without 
Bottle and Bottle is not worth buying with slark, since you don't really need it as soon you reach level 6. Urn gives you all the mana regen you need and you can heal your allies/damage your enemies.
Black King Bar: Don' get it, if the enemy team got some major disables that ignore magic immunity. (e.g. 
Bane, 
Beastmaster, 
Enigma, etc)
Skull Basher/ Abyssal Blade: Since the agility you get from Essence Shift increases you AS, the bash works pretty well with Slark.
Vladmir's Offering/ Drum of Endurance: Only get these, if noone else in your team does, but your team needs it.
Orchid Malevolence: Good item for gankers. ONLY get it, if your team needs the silence and there is no other hero more suited for a Orchid pickup.
Sange and Yasha: Slark is one of the few heroes, where SnY is a viable item on (imho). Gives you some damage, survivability and the maim slow. The movement speed bonus is pretty wasted on him, though. You can get this before Diffusal, if you really need the survivability.
Shadow Blade: Also a pretty nice item on Slark. Can be used defensive (captain obvious :o), it also applies the nightcrawler buff to you.
Also a nice item to gank. sneak up on them -> Pounce (you shouldn't be able to miss now :P) -> kill them
Special Mention!
Ethereal Blade: Well, IF your game is going really well, you can get this item before Diffusal Blade. Only get it, if it is your first major item.
It will improve your ganking power pretty good. Ether Blast your target -> Pounce and Dark Pact can't miss now and will deal additional damage. Later on use it after stacking your agility with Essence Shift. In team fights you can reach 
Morphling like agility, so it will deal a good amount of damage.
Anyway, only get it, if your team is spelldamage based, otherwise the immunity to physical damage could screw your team ;)
Rejected Items:
Mask of Madness: Slark is super squishy and this makes him even more squishy. On top of that it increases the self inflicted damage of Dark Pact. Since you will be dealing most of your early/midgame damage through Dark Pact and Pounce you don't really need the IAS. If you really want some Lifesteal get 
Helm of the Dominator, which can build into Satanic or maybe Vladmir's Offering.
Radiance: Slark is simply not tanky enough to make good use of this item. On top of that the aura tells enemies, that you are nearby and takes away your surprise effect when ganking. (aura can be deactivated though, but it's still not good at all on him)
Blade Mail: again, you are not tanky enough to use it to its full extent.
Friends:
-your best mates for laning are some disablers, who help you to land your Pounce (this also works vice versa, if they have a stun that is hard to land)
Foes
-your worst enemies are nukers like 
Tinker, 
Lion, 
Lina, 
Zeus and so on
-also look out for 
Bounty Hunter, 
Slardar, 
Bloodseeker; not only do they reveal you while using your ult, they also disable your regen/ms buff, because they see you all the time (BUT: you can remove 
Track and amplify damage by using Dark Pact!)
How to gank/fight:
1. activate Dark Pact, then you have 1 second to jump on the enemy before it actually deals damage (if you are not sure, if you will get him, activate it after you jumped on him)
2. Pounce instantly after you activated Dark Pact
3. use Shadow Dance (skip this, if you are not sure, wether you need an escape or not)
4. use Dark Pact and Pounce as soon as they are ready again
5. profit :)
6. get out of sight to regen
Hint: Of course, you need to alter your fighting style, depending on the game itself/your enemies/your allies; but this should work most of the time
Here are 2 matches, where I played Slark myself using this skill build. (ended 14/1/12 and 16/0/10). these are my sole 2 games with him (atm) so it's not like picking 2 good games ouf if 10 bad ;)
Watch the replays, if you want to see, how Dark Pact can secure (multi-)kills in early stages of the game.
1. https://dotabuff.com/matches/63710017
2. https://dotabuff.com/matches/63920656
some random tips:
-always keep in mind how squishy you are (can't say this often enough)
-don't initiate teambattles (and if you do, make sure they don't have detection and instantly pop Shadow Dance), that should be done by the real initiators
-you are not a hard carry so do not steal your carries farm
-if invisble enemies or wards are nearby, that spot you, your nightcrawler buff will go away; so you can "scout" them that way
-as soon as you hit level 6, start roaming around and gank the **** out of them
-i wouldn't go solo mid as Slark, you will lose the lane to most other mids
-if timed well, Dark Pact can be used to dispell stuns on yourself; try to anticipate when the enemy is going to stun you, or if you see the animation/projectile use it before you get hit
(i will update this section from time to time :) )
Last Thoughts:
I AM MURLOC !
1.0.0:
Published it
1.0.1:
Slightly altered Items:
- Urn of Shadows moved to situational
- Orb of Venom added to earlygame items
- Power Treads moved to core
Swapped Level 9 and Level 12 skill point
Added some Rejected Items
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