Slark

Slark the Nightcrawler is a melee agility hero that utilises his abilities to spring onto enemy heroes and slip out unhindered. He is a very mobile ganker, but remains attribute-wise below most other carries unless he is able to steal away attributes with his abilities. Once he does, though, only a few heroes can hope to be as fearsome as the Nightcrawler - extremely mobile to the point of ever-presence; his strikes only hitting harder and faster.

Slark can quickly leap forward onto enemies with Pounce to leash them and bind them from escaping. His Dark Pact releases a delayed purge that breaks even the most powerful disables. This gives him one of the most flexible abilities to start and end fights in the game. He is also capable of stealing attributes by attacking his victim to boost his own attack damage temporarily with Essence Shift which can rapidly shift engagements in his favor, even when merely performing hit-and-run maneuvers. Slark's ultimate, Shadow Dance, allows him to remain unseen even while attacking for a short duration and allows him to move quicker when not under the watch of enemy eyes to strike in and out of enemy ranks unhindered.

Tips

 * is a great hero to match enemies with strong single target disables or damage skills such as, , , or strong carriers that rely in right click damage such as , and  thanks his ultimate . However his Achilles's heel is in heroes with point target skills such as  's  that inflict damage and applies the hook effect even during  and AOE ultimates such as ,  and , this weakness is can be remedied buying a
 * / is an often picked item for Slark, as it gives you another escape and immediately activates 's passive, assuming the other team has no detection. Using Shadow Walk to sneak up to an enemy hero and hit for 175 bonus damage before pouncing is a good combo for taking down heroes faster. makes this combo even stronger.  can be used to make sure you are undetected as you move into position.
 * The standart ganking combo is to sneak to the enemy and hit him with the / bonus damage follow by a and immediately  to remove a possible reaction and infflict more damage, and then using  to finish without reaction or retreat, however be careful to not be baited by the enemy team as this combo will leave you completely off guard with all of your abilities in cooldown.
 * Be careful when going to lone gank enemy heroes in their side of the map, if the whole enemy team is missing they might be waiting for you!
 * is fairly unique in that he can excel in every lane, if up against the right heroes, and can even be played as a solo offlaner thanks to.
 * is good for both chasing and escaping enemies. It can be used like a to jump into, from, or through otherwise impassable terrain to great effect.
 * is a wonderful tool for purging the negative debuffs placed on him. When used at the right time, during the delay, the waves emitted from Slark will also remove the incoming debuffs about to be placed on him, allowing you to "dodge" or shorten their duration.
 * Unlike most purges, can purge stuns from  - bear this in mind if you have been targeted by a slow moving projectile stun (such as 's  or 's ) and time your activation of  to remove it as it strikes. With enough practice you can time it to almost completely nullify their usage.
 * also offers a very interesting kind of advantage against certain defenses. The burst from  is calculated as 10 attacks very quickly after another, meaning that  can use it against buffs like, which offer protection but only defend against a set number of damage instances before disappearing.
 * is a great way to finish off an invisible unit that has been leashed, as the AOE damage affects invisible prey.
 * When being chased, try to get out of sight from the enemy, be it around trees, up hills, et cetera. The passive from 's ultimate will activate when out of enemy sight and give you a boost to move speed and HP regen for a short moment before sight is regained. This can be the difference between life and death.
 * You can also use a to cut off a tree and hide between the fog to regen your HP of take a shortcut, shortcuts can be made in the laning stage and before the battle begins.
 * If timed right, can be used to dodge some projectile spells such as 's ultimate, as  is invulnerable during his jump (note that some disables can catch Slark mid-air, though no damage will be dealt).
 * A helpful side effect of 's passive is that gains a weak form of detection. If you find that you've suddenly lost your movement speed and health regeneration bonuses while seemingly alone, it means one of three things. First, it can mean enemies are lurking around in the area that you can't see and you should be extra cautious- a gank may be incoming. Otherwise, if your enemies are all accounted for, it means the enemy has wards in the area, and you should let your team know this so they can react accordingly, or deward. Lastly, if  has leveled his, 's ultimate will be disabled while he has low health as it reveals Slark's location to his foes. This makes  one of the most effective counters to Slark in the game. But building an  can remedy this, as you can get a steady +400 health from each active in early levels, which assures you the ability to get "off the grid" and continue your ganks after level 6.
 * functions a bit differently from most carries - while a standard carry capitalizes on sustained damage, Slark can take on more of a hit-and-run approach. You can maximize his 's duration by continually harassing and retreating. Go for the kill once you think you have enough damage and attack speed to take down enemy heroes. Slark's base attributes are average at best, although with enough stolen Agility and damage items he can keep up with hard carries such as and.
 * Maximize 's efficiency by taking objectives using his stolen attributes. After a large teamfight, it is not uncommon to find that Slark has stolen upwards of 50 agility, making quick work of untended towers or Roshan.
 * is a great item on for multiple reasons. First, it gives you much needed armour and mana regen. Second it gives you lifesteal and a small amount of HP regen, which is great for the survivability of a squishy ganking hero like Slark. Most important however, is the 15% boost to your base damage which, due to, is constantly increasing with each attack that Slark makes on an opponent. This drastically increases the effectiveness of  over time.
 * provides a cheap source of instant mana, as can easily regenerate the health cost when out of battle
 * If played as a midlane hero however, a can be a much better choice, healing you in combat situations and giving you mana when needed. 's passive speed boost from  also means he can out rune control most midlane heroes easily.
 * offers all the mana regeneration you will ever need, bonus attack damage and speed, as well as the damage amplifying Silence ability. Together with, it will lock down any target almost completely. Note, however, that this item choice does not supplement your naturally low health at all. is most useful against intelligence heroes that can easily burst-damage you down, such as , and heroes that can escape from 's leash, such as  and.
 * Against Physical Damage dealers, such as for example, a  works extremely well on Slark.  gives you an added escape mechanism early along with much needed attributes, and builds into.
 * gives Slark a huge damage and attack speed boost, Some HP, Armour and Mana, and yet another nuke and slow that synergizes well with Slarks skill set. This is due to 's nuke damage coming from how much agility Slark has, and thanks to this can be an absolutely devastating amount of damage, especially if followed up by a  and . Note that Ethereal debuffed units take 40% additional magic damage, boosting the damage output from both of your other nukes. One might think this is counter intuitive, as  deals self damage. However, if done correctly Slark can use, time his  and  so that Slark can do full extra magic damage to the ethereal unit, and then be able to physically attack the leashed unit for an almost guaranteed kill. 's Active can also be used to catch up to and/or finish off fleeing foes that are out of Slark's reach, as the nuke has a very long cast range.
 * serves as a dual purpose item for Slark, giving him a passive bash and a huge damage boost, while also providing some HP. Late game can be upgraded into an  for even more damage and HP and a guaranteed stun that goes through spell immunity.
 * is a great item for, allowing him to close distances to set up a well-timed . It also greatly helps him escape sticky situations, due to the duration of being longer than 3 seconds, he can easily blink out towards safety.

Trivia

 * Slark's murloc heritage was completely removed in transition to Dota 2 to avoid copyright issues, since the murloc are an existing race in the Warcraft universe.
 * Slark's response, slark doubdam 02.mp3 "Met you once, cut you twice." is a reference to the carpentry phrase, "Measure twice, cut once."
 * Slark's respawn line, slark respawn 08.mp3 "Griefer madness..." is a reference to the propaganda film, . As well, a is a role a player assumes while in a multiplayer game to deliberately irritate other players.
 * Slark's weapon, a Shiv, is the traditional prison weapon and is a reference to his backstory.
 * The set deep sea scoundrel is a refernce to silence of the lambs character hannibal.