Dota 2 - Slark Build Guide

BIO
Little known to the inhabitants of the dry world, Dark Reef is a sunken prison where the worst of the sea-bred are sent for crimes against their fellows. It is a razor barbed warren full of murderous slithereen, treacherous Deep Ones, sociopathic meranths. In this dim labyrinth, patrolled by eels and guarded by enormous anemones, only the vicious survive. Pitched into Dark Reef for crimes unknown, Slark spent half a lifetime without kin or kindness, trusting no one, surviving through a combination of stealth and ruthlessness, keeping his thoughts and his plans to himself. When the infamous Dark Reef Dozen plotted their ill-fated breakout, they kept their plans a perfect secret, murdering anyone who could have put the pieces together--but somehow Slark discovered their scheme and made a place for himself in it. Ten of the Dozen died in the escape attempt, and two were captured, hauled back to Dark Reef, then executed for the entertainment of their fellow inmates. But Slark, the unsung thirteenth, used the commotion as cover and slipped away, never to be caught. Now a furtive resident of the carnivorous mangrove scrub that grips the southern reach of Shadeshore, Slark remains the only successful escapee from Dark Reef.

INTRODUCTION
Slark is a hero that move very fast. Slark is the real runner in DotA. If you don't have a decent chasing skill, then you can't never reach him.  Not just fast movement speed, he also have a jump that can faster his movement for chasing a target or for escaping.Slark also can steal the opponent's stats with each attack and make him stronger while making his opponent weaker. He is considered a carry that will be stronger for late game teamfights.

PROS	CONS
A decent chaser	Kinda bad against tanky heroes
Fast HP regeneration
Enemy cant attack while on his ultimate
Insta lock > kill, against squishy heroes
Can removes buffs
Fast movement and also can jump

ROLE

Melee - Carry - Escape

STATS

LEVEL	1	15	25
HIT POINTS	549	1,028	1,750	SIGHT RANGE	1800 / 800
MANA	208	554	1,061	ATTACK RANGE	128
DAMAGE	54-62	75-83	110-118	MISSILE SPEED	N/A
ARMOR	2	5	10

ABILITIES
1. Dark Pact

After a short delay, Slark sacrifices some of his life blood, purging negative debuffs and dealing damage to enemy units around him and to himself. Slark only takes 50% of the damage.

MANA COST: 55/50/45/40	COOLDOWN: 9/8/7/6
ABILITY: NO TARGET	DAMAGE: MAGICAL
DELAY: 1.5	RADIUS: 325
DAMAGE: 75 / 150 / 225 / 300

This is your nuking ability. Deal some damages to nearby opponents around you. A good nuking skill for farming and harassing on early-mid game. The damage is considered high for early game and you can hurt squishy heroes with it.
Farming with this skill, you will deal AoE damage to enemy's creeps, this will faster your farms.
And for nuking heroes, you need to be near your target and damaging him.
This skill also removes buffs such as poison, track or if you already activated this skill and then get stunned, the stun will be removed immediately.

2. Pounce

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.

MANA COST: 75/75/75/75	COOLDOWN: 20/16/12/8
ABILITY: NO TARGET	DAMAGE: MAGICAL
DISTANCE: 700	POUNCE DAMAGE: 70 / 140 / 210 / 280
LEASH DURATION: 3.5	LEASH RADIUS: 325

This is your jumping skill. With this skill, you will catch the enemy and also can be use to escape from the enemies. 1 enemy in front of your jump will be leashed and cannot run away, and that's your chance to harass him.
This skill also deal some damage that useful to harass your target.

3. Essence Shift

Slark steals the life essence of enemy heroes with his attacks, draining each of their attributes and converting them to bonus Agility.

COOLDOWN: 0.40/0.35/0.30/0.25	ABILITY: PASSIVE
AGILITY GAINED: 3	ALL ATTRIBUTE LOSS: 1
DURATION: 15 / 30 / 60 / 120

Steal enemy's stats with each attack. On the late game, this skill is so fierce, because you will get so many stats quickly and make your enemy hopeless.
Like you get 30 Agility in just a few sec or something, and this stats boost will really increase your damage and attack speed so you can carry your team into victory. And your enemy will have his stats reduced and become weak and squishy.

4. Shadow Dance

When used, Slark hides himself in a cloud of shadows, becoming invisible (attacking, casting spells, and using items do not reveal Slark). Passively, when not visible to the enemy team, Slark gains bonus movement speed and health regeneration.

MANA COST: 120/120/120	COOLDOWN: 25
ABILITY: NO TARGET	DURATION: 5.5 / 5.5 / 5.5
BONUS MOVEMENT SPEED: 30% / 35% / 40%	HEALTH GAINED PER SECOND: 3% / 5% / 7%

This is your main skill. With this skill, you can sneak attack while your body is surrounded by smoke. And if your enemy don't have true sight or AoE skill, they cannot attack you so you can act freely.
With the additional movement speed, your mobility will increase so you can chase or escape from danger quite easy.
You also gain a massive HP regeneration. You can fulfill your HP quickly using this skill.

SKILLBUILD

Level 1: Pounce
Level 2: Dark Pact
Level 3: Dark Pact
Level 4: Essence Shift
Level 5: Dark Pact
Level 6: Shadow Dance
Level 7: Dark Pact
Level 8: Pounce
Level 9 : Pounce
Level 10: Pounce
Level 11: Shadow Dance
Level 12: Essence Shift
Level 13: Essence Shift
Level 14: Essence Shift
Level 15: Stats
Level 16: Shadow Dance
Level 17-25: Stats

Why take Pounce for level 1? You need Pounce to escape if enemy wants to get firstblood by killing you. Jump out!!
Or this can leash your enemy and your team can get the firstblood.

Why maxed Dark Pact first?  This is your main nuke, you will need this for ganking, farming, and killing or early mid game. This skill also removes buffs.

Why maxed Pounce before Essence Shift?  The rule of DotA: Nukes for early game, physical damage for the late game.  Pounce is a nuke that will  deal more damage on early-mid game. And Pounce cooldown the lower the better for mid game because you need the mobility from this jumping skill.And Essence Shift is for physical attacks that will be the main source of damages for mid-late game.

STRATEGY
Early Game
On early fame, because you are the carry and needs lots of farm for buying the good items, so you need to farm as much as you can. Try to last hit every creeps on the lane, maybe Quelling Blade will helps you.
Always be careful of ranged or nuker heroes harassment on early game, they are like to harass you because you are squishy and will be dangerous on the late game if not being shut down on early game.
If your team want to get the firstblood, you should use Pounce to leash the enemy and attack him and nuke him using Death Pact, and also your friend will deal the damage too.

Mid Game
On mid game you should already learned Shadow Walk. With this skill, you will get very high mobility and can escape or chase enemies easily. Not just that, you also become invisible but still can attack the enemy. This is your main skill for the game. Always use it in every situation on the match. Mobility is what you need to gank, farm, escape, or killing.
In the mid game, if you want to gank, use the Pounce and leash your target and make him cannot move. Then you can attack him easily and also nuke him using Death Pact. Your attack speed is considered low on early game, maybe you need mask of madness to increase your attack speed, this item is so good because it gives attack speed, lifesteal, and also movement speed, that's all what you need to carry the game.
You can also use Death Pact to avoid being stunned because the stun will be removed immediately.

Late Game
On late game, what you need to do is: Be brave and focus attack on single target and not attacking the creeps. Focus is the first thing to remember as a carry, if you are not focus and attack the creeps, you will waste your time.
In this stage of the game, you should already have high attack speed to destroy your opponents. With the high attack speed, you will be able to gain maximum agility and stealing many stats from your enemy. With this, you will be so strong and can carry your team bravely.
Pounce is still useful here, with this skill, you will leash a target and make him easy to attack. And Death Pact can be useful to remove all buffs and make you still healthy for the fight.
If you already have Bkb, use that! This item will provide maximum defense from magical attacks, really helps you to survive in the hard teamfight. And also if you have the Battlefury you will have cleaving attack to demolish all your opponents.

ITEMBUILD
1. Starting Item
Your goal here is to find as many last hits as possible. No need to hurry in killing the enemy,

Quelling Blade You need this item for easier last hitting. You need lots of creep kills on early game.	Stout Shield Blocks enemy's damage on early game. Pretty effective to get last hits under your tower.	Tango Gives you some additional regeneration on early game. So you can keep farming safely.
MELEE BONUS DAMAGE: 32% Active: Destroy Tree - Destroy a target tree.	Passive: Damage Block MELEE BLOCK: 20  BLOCK CHANCE: 60%	Consume a tree to restore HP over time. Comes with 4 charges. DURATION: 16 HEALTH RESTORED: 115

2. Mid Game Item
Your goal in mid game is finding kills. You'll be doing so by using good items in initiating and chasing.

Power Threads +attack speed and tankiness from STR-Thread. If you need to destroy tower quickly you can switch into AGI-Thread. And for instant mana you can switch into INT-Thread	Orb of Venom A slooowing attack that makes your enemy can't run away from you. This item will makes you can constantly stealing stats from your enemy	Blink Dagger A perfect item that makes you can jump and doing combo to your target. After jumping, immediately use Pounce to lock your target. Then use death pact and  then attack!
+ 55 Movement Speed + 8 Selected Attribute + 30 Attack Speed	Passive: Slower SLOW: 12% DURATION: 4 POISON DAMAGE: 3	If damage is taken from an enemy hero, dagger cannot be used for 3 seconds. Cooldown12

3. Late Game Item
Your goal in late game is to capitalize all you've got from early-mid game. So now you can ready for every big teamfight and become confident that you can take down all enemies.

Eye of Skadi Gives a massive slower for your enemy's movement speed and attack speed. Will makes you can kill your target easily.	Black King Bar A nice item to protect yourself against any enemy's magic. This is a must to get item for every carry.	Butterfly Gives a massive amount of attack speed and evasion so youll be so much more stronger thatn your opponent.
Passive: Cold Attack MOVE SLOW: 30% ATTACK SLOW: 20% + 25 All Attributes + 200 Health    + 150 Mana	+ 10 Strength + 24 Damage     DURATION: 10/9/8/7/6/5   Cooldown: 80	+ 30 Agility         + 30 Damage + 35% Evasion     + 30 Attack Speed

And don't forget this for the late game
4. Boots of Travel
Total cost: 2450
Recipe: Boots of Speed + Recipe

Active: Teleport - Teleports you to an allied non-hero unit or structure. Flat movement speed bonuses from multiple pairs of boots do not stack. + 100 Movement Speed Manacost: 75   Cooldown60

Why Boots of Travel? With the creeps becoming more powerful in pushing your base, you'll need a fast teleport to save your Throne.

ALTERNATIVE ITEM
a. Mask of Madness
Total Cost: 1900
Recipe: Morbid Mask/Mask of Death(Dota1) +Recipe

Active: Berserk - Gives 100 attack speed and 30% movement speed but causes you to take extra 30% damage. Lasts 12 seconds. Passive: Lifesteal - Grants lifesteal on attacks. Mask of Madness is a Unique Attack Modifier, and does not stack with other Unique Attack Modifiers. LIFESTEAL: 17%     Cooldown:25     Manacost: 25

Why Mask of Madness? It will gives you + Attack Speed to destroys enemies quickly. This is what you need as a carry, attack speed. This will also gives you movement speed and lifesteal.

b. Basher
Total cost:: 2950
Recipe: Javelin + Belt of Giant Strength + Recipe

>

+ 40 Damage     +6 Strength      MELEE CHANCE: 25%      RANGED CHANCE: 10% Cooldown: 2

Why Basher? Gives you the ability to give stun status to your enemy.  Stunned enemy is a piece of cake for you, make you easyly kill him. Upgrade this on late game into Abyssal Blade. With Abyssal Blade, you will have an active 2 seconds stun to disable your foe.

c. Desolator
Total cost: 5675
Recipe: 2x Mithrill Hammer + Recipe

Passive: Corruption - Your attacks reduce target's armor. Desolator is a Unique Attack Modifier, and does not stack with other Unique Attack Modifiers. + 60 Damage     ARMOR REDUCTION: 6

Why Desolator? Increase every damage for your target because this item reduces enemy's armor.

GOOD ALLIES

a. Supportive Heroes
(Example: Shadow Shaman, Crystal Maiden, Vengeful Spirit)

Supportive heroes have disables and nice skill to helps carries and makes a teamfight easier for the team.

Shadow shaman: Have hex, shackles, and wards to helps you disables enemy

Crystal Maiden: Have 1 lockdown, 1 slower, and have +mana regeneration

Vengeful Spirit: Have stun, swap, and +damage aura

b. Synergy Hero - Armor Reductor
(Example: Slardar, Shadow Fiend, Vengeful Spirit)

They have skill that reduce enemy's armor, very synergy with your quick-kill style because you will be able to quick-kill your target easily because your damage will be amplified.

BAD ENEMIES
a. High Instant Damage
(Example: Lina, Lion, Tiny)

They are all have deathly instant damage. And because you are squishy, you can instantly die, beware of them.