The amphibian renowned for being one of the biggest pubstompers in history. Rarely considered completely broken, he doesn’t get nearly as much recognition in competitive play.
He is perhaps the single best Hero at taking advantage of the chaos in the map; lack of teamplay is his ocean, and countless pubs have drowned there.
Today, I’m going to analyze how I tend to play Slark, with a decent amount of success.
Slark is what we’d call a snowball Hero, meaning he does best when he manages to get some quick farm, then proceed to roam around the map, killing everything in sight, and keep getting more items until he’s unstoppable. He’s not the type of Hero that plays too well from behind.
His stats are horrible, but his skills are quite powerful. In fact, it’s one of the strongest skillsets in the game, both in terms of progression and effectiveness.
With these in mind, pick the fish, and go to the safelane. You can go mid occasionally if it’s an easy lane, but the way we’re going to play, safelane works better.
The reasoning is to make sure we get some early farm. Start with
Get a point in
Don’t risk dying for kills too much. I know Slark is the type of Hero that should look for kills, but you’re still the safelane carry and you’re not that strong yet.
Buy a
With these, plus level 6-7, you’re set to start clearing waves. I used to make the mistake to start ganking heavily after hitting these levels, only to fail miserably. You still need at least a core item.
Start rotating between your safelane and your jungle. Spam your
Always switch the attribute of your
Work towards
Now is the time to start pounding faces in. Start by picking off easy kills. Supports should melt from the
Always be vigilant of the
Don’t hold on to
From that point on, there isn’t too much to discuss gameplay-wise. Your role is to keep picking off enemy Heroes and be a constant threat around the map. Even when you’re farming, try to mostly do it out of sight. I’m not saying to ignore the 4 waves pushing your towers, but Slark is the type that should be missing in action most of the time. When enough enemies are dead, push their towers with your team.
Your next core item will usually be
There are times however when you’ll need to get something else instead of
On the other hand, if the opposition possesses too much silence, I personally like
As for your luxury items, there’s really a variety of choices.
Don’t hesitate to tweak your build around accordingly. Since you’re a Hero killer, you need to be able to kill 5 specific characters with specific items each time.
If despite all that, the enemy has superior team fight, remember that you don’t have to clash 5v5. Contrary to popular belief, Slark can be a decent split pusher, mostly due to the fact that he’s so hard to kill. Start shoving those lanes in and split the enemy apart while getting more farm, then try to pick them off like usual.
If game goes really late and you’re having trouble, consider getting a
Slark can stand against most enemies. The nature of his
1. Illusion carries. Try to work around those and kill their team first, unless your own team can clear the illusions for you. If you absolutely have to manfight one of them, you can always get a
2. Blinkers. Or similarly elusive targets, since you can’t pick them off on your own, even with a lot of items, unless you change your build.
3. Strong lane controllers. You early game is crucial, as you need to come online as soon as possible. A strong dual or triple offlane is really what can hurt you the most in a game. There aren’t many solutions to this rather than looking for early kill opportunities or rotating elsewhere.
As a final note, keep in mind as a Slark player that he isn’t your typical carry that farms for 20-25 minutes then proceeds to manfight anything. He’s more of an assassin type, an opportunist. Feed off the weakest targets when they’re alone. Get out of vision and re-engage with full HP. Generally, let your team take the extra punch and sneak in from behind. If you see someone jumping on your ally, there’s probably gonna be backup coming. Don’t go on that guy. Use your
Like that, he gets stronger easily, both in terms of items and stacking agility, and then you can deal with the bigger fish.
I hope you find this guide useful!