Slardar

Slardar the Slithereen Guard is a melee strength hero who uses brute force, low cooldown spells, and high physical strength to bring his enemies to their knees. He excels and thrives in close combat situations, and has high mobility, strong initiation and ganking abilities, and good synergy between his abilities. Sprint greatly increases Slardar's movespeed for a lengthy duration, and allows him to chase down heroes and escape with ease. It does increase the damage Slardar takes by 15%, so it must be used with extreme caution. Sprint is used to get right next to enemies so Slardar can use Slithereen Crush, which delivers an area of effect stun to nearby enemies followed by a minor slow afterwards, all on a very low cooldown. This allows Slardar to take on multiple opponents simultaneously and deliver a potent initiation. Bash serves as a strong steroid, locking enemies in place while Slardar whacks at them with impunity. Finally, his ultimate Amplify Damage is a great armor reduction modifier and allows him to reveal an enemy for its duration (25 seconds), making Slardar very potent against tanks and invisible heroes alike; it will also increase the damage dealt by his Crush and Bash. Although a strength hero, he has high physical damage output and an agility growth and armor value that rivals that of most agility heroes, allowing him to carry quite well if the situation calls for it. All his bashes and stuns are physical, so their damage is increased with the armor reduction. Chasing enemies relentlessly and pummeling them into the ground, Slardar is a fearsome opponent to be next to.

Tips

 * stacks with armor reducing spells/buffs and items.
 * should be used on Roshan as it will allow to bring him down much faster. Even if you do not have any target abilities to break his Spell Block, cooldown is lower than the Roshan's Spell Block (5 seconds vs 15 seconds)
 * Because of, buying attack speed items can be useful on disabling magic immune enemies.
 * is capable of beating hard carries by becoming a hard carry himself, thanks to his and . This can give carries like, , and  a hard time in defeating him.
 * supports a highly aggressive early game playstyle. Should the lane be pushed close to your tower, an easy kill can be acquired even with high health heroes if you are laning with someone with a reliable slow or stun.
 * Use carefully in the early game however - it increases the damage you take in addition to raising your movement speed, which can sometimes make the kill easier with an opponent who can chase you efficiently (such as  with his  ability).
 * is a very cost effective way of increasing 's DPS. In longer engagements some form of HP sustaining items to counteract the drain may be useful. Combining it later with a negates the health loss.
 * gives cost effective mana regeneration and the active stacks nicely with.
 * Remember, grants true sight on the affected hero, which means that it will reveal the enemy,  or

Trivia

 * In DotA, Amplify Damage was auto-castable.
 * Slardar's voice lines Slar death 12.mp3 "That is not dead that can eternal lie." and Slar respawn 02.mp3 "And with strange aeons even death may die." are direct quotes from H. P. Lovecraft's short story The Nameless City.
 * Another Lovecraft story, The Shadow over Innsmouth is also referred several times in Slardar's backstory and voice files with mentions to "The Old Ones" and "The Deep Ones".