Slark-Vigor goes the Victor

Intro

I don't like to drone on and on about the ins and outs of how to play slark. He is not for everyone especially for people that are not used to some of the finer points of timing and positioning required in DOTA2. Slark is a very fun hero to play not used in every match so you wont get the usual DOTA2 flame chat when you pick drow/sniper etc you "talentless hack nub hero picker!!!"

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Once on a roll with Essence Shift can hit Hard and Fast
• Very good "Guerilla Warfare" style tatics hit and run
• When not in vision High regen and movement speed
• Played properly with communication can help all over the map

• Very soft early game
• Requires a decent farm to be effective
• Bad early game is hard to recover from
• Wards and True sight severely hamper effectiveness

SKILLS!!!

Dark Pact- I generally skill this one last the way i play slark is fast and aggresive I prefer to save my mana for pouncing and my ULTI. That being said Darkpact is good for the buff clearing it gives on activation and for grabbing those pesky invis chars that like to hang out by you to "escape" Riki/Templar im looking at you!!
Pounce- Your bread and butter, once maxxed it does a decent chunk of dmg and the 3.5sec leash is great for finishing people and early ganks as long as you work with your team. Pounce is also a good escape as it with go through terrain(trees/cliffs etc)
Essence Shift-When I first started playing slark I thought this skill was pointless. And at level 1-2 its not particularly effective because the duration is so short. Maxxed you have 2minutes(thats FREAKING LONG in a Dota Match) when I am on a roll i generally run around with a base damage of 275+ from Essence. Not to mention the bonus AS(ive never looked at it with a bunch of stacks because I am to busy wrecking face and roaming for a next kill)
Shadow Dance-Your Ulti and the key to victory. Not only when active are you basically BKB'd but you increase your movement speed to help chase down those runners. The BIG PERK is that when you are not on enemy radar you gain the active as a passive(max speed once you get yasha HIGH regen that scales as your hp grows due to be % based) Allows you to pretty much stay in lane killing/last hitting unless you spam all your skills and run out of mana. Another nice perk of shadow dance is if you are shadowd up OR the passive is on and you find yourself no longer active with no heroes/creeps around you know that they have a sentry ward or Observer ward in place which makes in visable to the entire map.

Runes :D

Bottle just doesn't make sense on Slark, unless maybe NO ONE else on your team is buying a bottle for some reason.

INVISIBILITY- NO

REGENERATION- SITUTIONAL(when ULTI PASSIVE is up your regen is already very high, except early game when your hp pool is smaller)

DOUBLE DAMAGE-YES!(unless your big carry is near by and will put it to better use)

ILLUSION- NO

Haste- NO(you can move 522 when not visible)

**Note-When the situation comes about that one of the "no" runes is up and no one else needs or is by feel free to take it so that the other team won't

Early Game.

The beauty of Slark is that he pretty much fits into any team and can lane with anyone. I tend to find there are much better mid heroes than slark but he is viable if none of the big ones are in play(drow/sniper/outworld/pudge/the list goes on). PLAY SAFE you are not a true carry you do not need LH as much as you need to STAY ALIVE AND LEVEL. You cannot level if you are constantly dying or running to fountain because you wasted all of your regen being silly.
Almost all support types and the AGI carries are killable at lvl 2 with a decent lane partner and possible some stunning(witch doctor is an AWSOME lane partner). I actually like to lane with a carry and just deny/harras and let the carry have the creep farm. If you PICK slark I always buy tang/salve/agil boots/stout shield. The shield helps with harrasment and you can finish Poor Mans from the side shop. A good Slark will have completed PMS/Treads by the time they reach lvl 7.

ROAMING FUN YA YA !!!

This is where Slark shines. You have gotten your ULTI maxxed pounce and have lvl 3 in Essence. You should have your Poor Man's Shield and Treads by now. Your goal here is to be EVERYWHERE. Carry a TP and just roam around communicate with your team. If you go for a 3v2 gank in the top lane you can initiate with pounce from the trees(you will only initiate fights in the early/mid stage because later on you will get smoked fast trying to take on alot of heroes. I run from top to bot lane helping gank where I can and snagging last hits on creeps i see in passing. The beauty of your ulti is that when u are transitioning to and from ganks when you don't have heroes or enemy creeps in your LOS you gain a huge MOVEMENT and REGEN bonus. Great for staying the in trenches and killing people. Your Ulti can also be used as an escape when activated you cannot be targeted unless they have TRUE SIGHT on you. This Allows you to find a sqishy with a beefy hero pounce in from forest finish the squishy pop ulti and run off unscathed. Be mindful of your MANA, shadow dance takes 120mana pounce is 75 last thing you want is to pounce just below your ulti mana and not be able to run off into the foggy night to heal.

Late Game

If you noticed I do not have anything beyond Hyperstone for a build order. That is because generally my Slark games do not last past this stage either that Or im killing so fast i just don't spend my money. I always buy hyperstone because more AS=More agility stolen=More DPS and AS. If the game moves into the late phase(40mins) and victory is anything but assured I will either build an assault cuirass from the stone or the Mjolinir depending on what heroes I am facing(assault for tankyness/Mljoinir for dmg). Enjoy and please keep in mind, if you are not roaming you are playing slark WRONG!!

Foes/Friends

FOES- Anything with a silence is hurtful obviously and anything that will prevent you from being able to Shadow Dance:
Drow Ranger, Slardar, Skywrath Mage, Silencer, Death Prophet, Bounty Hunter

Friends-You biggest friends will be the stunners. Pounce is a 3.5sec leash so it is pretty good but having an additional 2-3seconds of disable will always ensure a kill:
Witch Doctor, Shadow Shaman, Crystal Maiden, Lion

If you find yourself constantly being attacked with SHADOW DANCE up either spend the gold for Sentry Ward so that you may counter-ward them or hopefully talk with your team and one of your supports can buy them.

Closing.

This is my first guide so please only give constructive criticism. Thanks. I tried to insert links for the skill section and couldn't find out how. If anyone can give me some pointers in the finer point of guide making I would greatly appreciate it.