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.

Recommended items
Starting items:
 * helps to mitigate harass damage taken by ranged lane opponents, extending Slardar's survivability in-lane.
 * and es provide basic health regeneration to prevent being harassed out of lane.
 * gives Slardar a way to replenish his mana pool from casting . Being able to cast his stun more than twice in-lane gives him more opportunities to get kills against lane opponents, and thus more opportunities at gold and experience.
 * provides a small boost to Slardar's attributes and can be used to make a Magic Wand later on.

Early-game:
 * gives cheap burst healing and mana, which can give Slardar more survivability or enough mana to cast Slithereen Crush one more time to secure a kill.
 * are absolutely crucial early on for any hero. In Slardar's case, it greatly improves the potency of, allowing him to more easily catch up to fleeing enemies or escape pursuers.
 * provides good sustain in lane and the extra armor makes you very survivable against physical damage in the early game. It builds directly into an Armlet of Mordiggian.

Core items:
 * provides a cheap boost to Slardar's attributes and a quick burst heal. Use it to survive that last bit of damage or cast one last spell in a teamfight.
 * is the best boot choice for Slardar, as attribute switching can give Slardar more strength for HP and base damage or more intelligence to reduce the mana cost of his spells. The attack speed improves his chances of proccing.
 * is very cheap and gives Slardar many powerful bonuses. Improving his attack speed, armor and damage makes him a much stronger fighter, while the HP regen keeps him topped up. The active gives him extra strength and damage, making him much tankier and making his attacks hit harder.

Situational items:
 * allows Slardar to ignore enemy crowd control spells, greatly improving his ability to kill important targets in teamfights. It also provides bonus strength for more HP, and increased physical damage output.
 * is extremely powerful in Slardar's hands, as he can instantly get within range to cast Slithereen Crush. It should be considered a core item in all circumstances, and rushed if possible.
 * is a strong initiating item that improves Slardar's physical DPS and allows him to roam invisibly for targets. Combining Sprint and Shadow Walk can allow Slardar to move at maximum movement speed while invisible, and allows him to deal backstab damage when attacking out of invisibility.
 * is the best survivability item in the game. Its raw HP and passive regeneration ability allows Slardar to stay in teamfights longer and recover from them faster.
 * is a relatively cheap item that provides increased bonus damage. Its Unique Attack Modifier can reduce enemies' armor and synergizes with, allowing Slardar to shred enemies with his attacks.
 * improves Slardar's armor and attack speed, making him more tanky and increasing his proc chance with Bash. The aura gives allies more armor and attack speed as well, and the enemy armor reduction further reduces their physical damage resistance on top of Amplify Damage.
 * provides Slardar with increased health, damage block and armor, drastically improving his tankiness and allowing him to shrug off most forms of physical damage. The active ability allows him to grant damage block and armor to all nearby teammates for a short time, increasing their survivability as well as his own.
 * greatly increases Slardar's attack speed, improving his physical damage output and a greater chance to proc his Bash. The Shade Sight passive also improves his night vision, allowing him to more easily spot targets while hunting in the darkness.
 * gives Slardar a way to counter enemy target spells, allowing him to disable enemy supports or discourage them from focusing him. It also provides armor for tankiness, and HP and mana regen to allow him to roam independently.
 * can be a good purchase on a roaming Slardar, as he can pick up runes while hunting for targets (both to refill the bottle and to utilize the runes for ganks). Slardar's small mana pool and damage vulnerability from Sprint means that he benefits from a source of HP and mana replenishment, particularly since he can treads switch to get more value out of it.
 * can be a useful early roaming item if Slardar intends to be very active in the early game. It provides strength for more HP and base damage, making him tankier and letting him hit harder, and provides a small amount of mana regen to help replenish his mana pool. As he can easily get charges from successful ganks, they can be used to heal Slardar after successful kills, particularly as he takes increased damage during Sprint, and can add damage to future ganks.
 * provides Slardar with an array of useful bonuses. The all-around attributes give Slardar more HP and mana, the latter of which is extremely helpful for allowing him to cast his spells, and the aura provides movement and attack speed bonuses, both of which greatly help Slardar in combat. In particular, the movement speed aura can combine with Sprint to allow Slardar to reach the movement speed cap of 522.
 * is a useful mid-game item that greatly increases Slardar's beefiness. The damage block and HP bonus help to reduce Slardar's vulnerability during Sprint, and the item can be upgraded into a Crimson Guard later for increased utility.
 * gives Slardar many strong mid-game benefits that can fill in some of his deficiencies. The bonus intelligence helps him to cast his spells more easily, while the armor and damage make him a better fighter. The active lets Slardar use his HP offensively during ganks, and discourages enemies from targeting him in teamfights.
 * is an unorthodox utility item that can help Slardar to stay in the game if his late-game item progression is being stunted by enemy aggression. It provides Slardar with armor for survivability and mana regen for sustaining his small mana pool, while the lifesteal allows him to maintain his HP pool from any damage he incurs due to Sprint. The damage bonus also allows him and his team to hit harder, allowing them to better utilize Amplify Damage.
 * allows Slardar to fight earlier, as it has an easy buildup and provides many useful bonuses. It gives Slardar increased HP, armor, damage and attack speed, along with improved movement speed that allows him to pursue enemies without resorting to Sprint. The Greater Maim can work alongside Bash to greatly increase the lethality of Slardar's attacks, making him a force to be reckoned with.
 * can be upgraded from Shadow Blade, and greatly increases Slardar's ganking prowess. The Sange component increases Slardar's HP and damage output, and gives him a Lesser Maim to let him hit harder. The Shadow Walk backstab damage is increased, and the Break can disable enemy passives that may be preventing Slardar from easily killing certain enemies.
 * greatly increases Slardar's physical damage, and prevents him from missing attacks due to evasion or blind, which can be important against certain enemies. The Mini-Bash attack modifier also stacks alongside Slardar's own Bash to increase his damage output.
 * gives Slardar stats across the board, making him much tankier and alleviating his mana issues. The Unique Attack Modifier lets Slardar slow enemies with his attacks, further reducing their ability to escape him.
 * is a useful attack speed utility item that greatly increases Slardar's chances to proc his Bash; as well, the Chain Lightning modifier allows him to deal magic damage around him with his attacks, giving him creep wave clearing capability and augmenting his damage output if he manages to land Slithereen Crush on multiple enemy heroes. Static Charge can further increase his damage output, discouraging enemies from focusing him for fear of proccing the discharge.
 * can greatly increase Slardar's survivability through a combination of factors. It provides strength and armor, making Slardar much tankier, and bonus damage to further give him more damage output. The lifesteal allows Slardar to maintain his HP, even in the midst of battle, as he can cast Amplify Damage to increase the amount of damage dealt (and thus the amount he regenerates through lifesteal), and he can use the active to fully recover his HP in just a few attacks as well.

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".

Gameplay
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Audio
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