Slark

Hero

 

Strategy

 

Equipment

 

Gear

 

Talents

 

Relics

 

Responses

 

Sounds

 

Animations

 

Lore

 

Old Abilities

 

Changelogs

 

Known Bugs

 

Slark #94 20 + 2.1 21 + 1.5 16 + 1.9
Level 0 1 15 25 30 Health 20 460 1098 1824 2088 +1.75 +3.75 +6.69 +9.99 +11.24 Mana 80 272 584 956 1100 +0 +0.8 +2.13 +3.68 +4.26 Armor 0 3.5 7 11.5 13.08 Magic Resist 25% 26.6% 29.26% 32.36% 33.51% Damage Block 16 (50%) Damage 34 40 55 61 76 82 103 109 112 118 Attack Rate 0.71/s 0.83/s 0.95/s 1.11/s 1.17/s Attack Range 150 (400) Attack Speed ▶️ 120 (1.7s BAT) Attack Animation 0.5 + 0.3 Projectile Speed 0 Move Speed ▶️ 300 ( 330) Turn Rate 0.7 Collision Size 27 Bound Radius 24 Vision Range (G) 1800 Gib Type Default Internal npc_dota_hero_slark

Slips in and out of skirmishes.
The only prisoner ever to escape from Dark Reef, Slark's abilities and ruthlessness are without equal. Pouncing into danger then slipping back out is what Slark does best. With every swing of his barnacle encrusted dagger, Slark steals his target's Essence, converting them to render himself more agile, striking harder and faster. He forges a Dark Pact, sacrificing his own lifeblood to dissipate negative energies that damage foes, and frees him from magical constraints. Concealing himself as he Dances through the Shadows, the Nightcrawler presents no visible target to would-be attackers. Hidden and Shrouded in this black haze, Slark escapes the inescapable and is always ready to to gut his enemies with little risk of retribution.
Roles:	Carry Escape Disabler Nuker
Complexity:
Adjectives:	Aquatic, Nose Legs ( 2 )

Bio

Slark, the Nightcrawler

▶️ "If I'd known I'd end up here, I'd have stayed in Dark Reef Prison."

Lore:

Little known to the inhabitants of the dry world, Dark Reef is a sunken prison where the worst of the sea-breed are sent for crimes against their fellows. It is a razor barbed warren full of murderous slithereen, treacherous Deep Ones, and 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.

Voice:

Tom Chantler (Responses)

Abilities

Dark Pact

▶️▶️QC

Ability
No Target

Affects
Enemies / Self

Damage
Magical

After a short delay, Slark sacrifices some of his life blood, purging most negative debuffs and dealing damage to enemy units around him and to himself. Slark only takes 0.3 of the damage.

Cast Animation:  0+0

Damage Radius: 325

Effect Delay: 1.5

Total Damage: 75/150/225/300 ( 145/220/295/370)

Self Damage Multiplier: 0.3

Pulses Duration: 1

 9/8/7/6 ( 8.5/7.5/6.5/5.5)

 65

Modifiers [?]

modifier_slark_dark_pact

Death

modifier_slark_dark_pact_pulses

Death

Slithereen are capable of quickly regrowing appendages, in case of critical injury, to save their own lives.

• Interrupts Slark's channeling abilities upon cast.

• Deals 7.5/15/22.5/30 ( 14.5/22/29.5/37) damage within a 325 radius in 0.1-second intervals, starting 1.5 seconds after cast for a total of 10 instances.

• Slark takes 2.25/4.5/6.75/9 ( 4.35/6.6/8.85/11.1) damage in the same intervals, resulting in 22.5/45/67.5/90 ( 43.5/66/88.5/111) total damage.
  • Applies a strong dispel on Slark in the same intervals, before each of its damage instances.
  • The self-damage is never lethal and it can be reduced or amplified.

• Dark Pact's visual and sound effects during the 1.5 seconds delay are only visible and audible to allies.
  • For enemies, they instantly see and hear the ability effects after the effect delay.

• The visual effects of the damaging pulses are visible even when Slark is invisible, but not in the Fog of War.

• Dark Pact ends 2.5 seconds after cast, but ends instantly upon Slark's death.

• Successive casts during the effect delay cancel the previous cast and starts a new cast.

Pounce

▶️▶️WE

Ability
No Target

Affects
Enemy Heroes / Self

Slark leaps forward, grabbing the first hero he connects with and applying Essence Shift Stacks. That unit is leashed, and can only move a limited distance away from Slark's landing position.

Cast Animation: 0+0.53

Leap Distance: 700 ( 1000)

Latch Radius: 120

Leash Radius: 400

Essence Shift Stacks: 0/1/2/3

Leash Duration: 2.5/2.75/3/3.25 ( 3/3.25/3.5/3.75)

   12

N

   2

 24/20/16/12 ( 0)

 75

Aghanim's Scepter Upgrade:

Provides charges and increases range.

Debuff Immunity Notes:

Does not leash or slow debuff immune units. Pounce has no max stretch distance, so the unit can move any distance without breaking the leash. If the unit loses the debuff immunity, they can still move freely, but are leashed again, unable to use mobility spells.

Root Notes:

Getting rooted while already leaping does not cancel the leap.

Modifiers [?]

modifier_slark_pounce

Death

modifier_slark_pounce_leash

Death

Ability Draft Notes:

Essence Shift must be drafted as well for it to get applied.

Time in the Dark Reef made Slark a dangerous assassin; aggressive and fearless.

• Leaps at a speed of 933.33 ( 1333.33) for up to 0.75 seconds.
  • Does not disjoint projectiles upon cast.

• Pounce has the following leap mechanics:
  • Always leaps toward the direction Slark is facing. Does not lock Slark's facing angle during the leap.
  • Always leaps the full distance, unless an enemy hero gets within 120 radius of Slark during the leap.
  • Moves Slark upwards over other units and over impassable terrain.

• Slark can turn and cast abilities and items during Pounce, but cannot attack.

• With the maximum distance and latch radius, Pounce can latch on enemy heroes up to 820 ( 1120) range away.
  • Can only latch on heroes and clones. Does not latch on illusions and creep-heroes.
  • Can latch on invisible units, but not on invulnerable or hidden units.
  • When latching on a unit, Slark is automatically ordered to attack the target.
  • Pounce first applies the leash debuff, then apply 0/1/2/3 Essence Shift stacks based on its current level.
  • Essence Shift notes fully apply. If it is not learned, no stacks are applied.

• Stops the enemy by slowing their movement speed.
  • The slow gets exponentially stronger towards the edges of the 120 leash radius.
  • This effectively causes the target to come to a halt if the leash is stretched too much.
  • The slow is only present when facing away from the center. The target is not slowed when facing toward the center.
  • Since the slow is fluctuating a lot, it is not displayed in the HUD.

• The leashed enemy hero is prevented from casting certain mobility abilities.
  • If cast before getting leashed, the following abilities are not able to break the leash: Skewer, Leap, Pounce, Tree Dance, Primal Spring, Toggle Movement, and an enemy-targeted Hurricane Pike.
  • Every other position changing effect, can break the leash when stretching it beyond the maximum radius.
  • Force Staff, Hurricane Pike, Force Boots, and Psychic Headband do not dispel the Pounce debuff on the target, regardless of the maximum radius.

• When the leash expires while a position-changing effect (e.g. knockback) is ongoing, it instantly cancels the position-changing effect.
  • This goes for the following abilities: Flamebreak, Primal Roar, Power Cogs, Hookshot, Vacuum, Gust, Boulder Smash, Rolling Boulder, Geomagnetic Grip, Deafening Blast, Tether, Blinding Light, Adaptive Strike (Strength), Blast Off!, Charge of Darkness, Greater Bash, Timber Chain, Walrus PUNCH!, Force Staff and Hurricane Pike.

• Destroys trees within 100 radius around Slark upon landing.

• Pounce cannot be cast during Pounce. During the leap, Pounce is on a non-refreshable cooldown which is bound to the leap buff.

• Deals 0 damage to the affected unit.
  • Fully procs on damage effects, such as Corrosive Skin, except for abilities which have a minimum damage threshold (e.g. Gravekeeper's Cloak).

• Aghanim's Scepter Upgrade:
  • Always has a base charge replenish time of 12 regardless of Pounce's current level.

Essence Shift

EN

Ability
Passive

Affects
Enemy Heroes / Self

Slark steals the life essence of enemy heroes with his attacks, draining each of their attributes and converting them to bonus Agility. If Slark kills an affected enemy hero, he permanently steals 1 Agility.

Permanent Steal Radius: 300

Permanent Agility Steal: 1

Enemy Other Attributes Lost per Attack: 1

Enemy Agility Lost per Attack: 1 ( 2)

Self Agility Gained per Attack: 3 ( 4)

Duration: 20/40/60/80 ( 60/80/100/120)

Break Notes:

Prevents gaining new stacks.

Existing stacks still provide bonus agility.

Does not prevent permanently stealing agility.

Illusion Notes:

Does not work for illusions.

Illusions always spawn with 0 stacks.

Illusions cannot gain stacks.

Temporary attribute changes are not copied by illusions.

Modifiers [?]

modifier_slark_essence_shift

Undispellable

modifier_slark_essence_shift_buff

Death

modifier_slark_essence_shift_debuff_counter

Death

modifier_slark_essence_shift_debuff

Death

modifier_slark_essence_shift_permanent_buff

Undispellable

modifier_slark_essence_shift_permanent_debuff

Undispellable

With each strike at his adversaries, Slark's knowledge of their weaknesses improves.

• Essence Shift steals 1 of all attributes (1 strength, 1 ( 2) agility and 1 intelligence) before the attack damage is applied.
  • Effective stats loss per stack:
    • From : 22 health, 0.1 health regeneration
    • From : 0.17 ( 0.33) main armor, 1 ( 2) attack speed
    • From : 0.1% magic resistance, 12 mana and 0.05 mana regeneration.
    • Agility and universal heroes lose 1 ( 2) and 2.7 ( 3.4) main attack damage respectively.

• Effectively grants Slark 0.5 ( 0.67) main armor, 3 ( 4) attack speed and 3 ( 4) main attack damage bonus per stack.

• Essence Shift cannot reduce any attribute below 0. However, Slark continues to gain agility, even when the attacked hero has no more attributes left to steal.
  • This applies to the temporary steal, as well as the permanent steal.

• Each stack places a new buff on Slark and a new debuff on the affected enemy. This means their durations are independent from each other.
  • The number of stacks and the duration of the last stack can be seen on the status buff icon.

• Upon death, the dying hero's attributes restore back to their normal values, while Slark keeps the bonus agility values for the remaining duration.

• When Slark dies, he loses all temporarily stolen attributes, but the affected enemies do not get theirs back, and vice versa.

• Can temporarily steal attributes from allies and clones, but not from illusions.

• Permanently stolen agility is removed from the enemy's bonus agility and added to Slark's bonus agility.

• Grants a stack in the following conditions as long as the Essence Shift debuff has not expired:
  • The enemy hero has to die within the 300 steal radius while having the Essence Shift debuff, including denied enemy heroes.
  • To permanently steal agility outside the steal radius, Slark has to be credited for the kill. Other player-controlled units do not count.
  • Can steal independently from each Meepo Clones as long as it fulfill the conditions above.
  • Can steal agility even when Slark is dead as the kill happens.

• Does not permanently grant a stack in the following conditions:
  • When killing an ally hero with the debuff.
  • If the enemy hero has Reincarnation.
  • From enemy illusions, the Spirit Bear or the Tempest Double.

• The number of stolen agility gained can be seen on the status buff icon.

Depth Shroud

DF

Ability
Target Area

Affects
Allies

Creates a cloud at the target location. All allies inside the radius are hidden and affected by Shadow Dance.

Cast Animation: 0.1+0.8

Cast Range: 600

Aura Radius: 250

Effect Delay: 0.7

Move Speed Bonus: 24%/36%/48%

Health Regen Bonus: 60/90/120 ( 110/140/170)

Duration: 3

Aura Linger Duration: 0.01

 Attack Speed Bonus: 80

 75

 75

Break Notes:

Unlike Shadow Dance, the movement speed and health regeneration bonuses from Depth Shroud are not passive, so they are not disabled.

Illusion Notes:

Invisibility works for illusions.

Movement speed and health regeneration bonuses do not work for illusions.

Modifiers [?]

modifier_slark_depth_shroud_thinker

Undispellable

modifier_slark_shadow_dance_visual

Undispellable

modifier_slark_depth_shroud

Undispellable

Ability Draft Notes:

Requires drafting Shadow Dance to be unlocked.

• Requires Aghanim's Shard to be unlocked.

• Applies the Depth Shroud modifier based on the current level of Shadow Dance on allies within the area.
  • Shadow Dance notes fully apply. If it is not learned, nothing happens upon cast, wasting mana and cooldown.

• 0.7 seconds after cast, the modifier provides the same invisibility, movement speed, health regeneration and attack speed bonus as Shadow Dance does.
  • The modifier fully stacks with those of Shadow Dance.
  • This means during Shadow Dance, Slark gains a total of 48%/72%/96% movement speed and 120/180/240 ( 220/280/340) health regeneration bonus while affected by Depth Shroud.
  • TALENT
    The attack speed bonus is only granted while Shadow Dance or Depth Shroud is active.
    • However, the attack speed bonus is not doubled when both abilities are active.

• The Depth Shroud buff is provided by an aura and its lingers for 0.01 seconds.
  • However, the Shadow Dance buff lingers for 0.7 seconds after the Depth Shroud buff ends.
  • Although Depth Shroud aura linger duration is set to 0.01 seconds, it lasts 0.05 seconds due to the server tick rate limit.

• Affects every ally units, including Couriers, except buildings and wards.
  • Does not affect invulnerable or hidden units.

• Can regenerate up to 222/333/444 ( 407/518/629) health over its full duration.

Shadow Dance

▶️RD

Ability
No Target / Passive

Affects
Self

When used, Slark hides himself in a cloud of shadows, becoming immune to detection. Attacking, casting spells, and using items will not reveal Slark. Passively, when not visible to the enemy team, Slark gains bonus movement speed and health regeneration.

Passive Component

Aura Radius: 0

Fade Time: 0

Move Speed Bonus: 24%/36%/48%

Health Regen Bonus: 60/90/120 ( 110/140/170)

Aura Activation Delay: 0.5

Neutral Creep Damage Downtime: 2

Cast Animation:  0+0

Active Duration: 4/4.25/4.5 ( 5/5.25/5.5)

 Attack Speed Bonus: 80

 75/60/45

 120

Aghanim's Shard Upgrade:

New Ability

Grants the Depth Shroud ability.

Break Notes:

Disables the passive movement speed and health regeneration.

Illusion Notes:

Illusions gain the passive buff, but it does not work for them.

Modifiers [?]

modifier_slark_shadow_dance_passive

Undispellable

modifier_slark_shadow_dance_passive_regen

Death

modifier_slark_shadow_dance

Death

modifier_slark_shadow_dance_aura

Death

modifier_slark_shadow_dance_visual

Death

The hidden Thirteenth is a slippery foe.

• Interrupts Slark's channeling abilities upon cast.

• Slark gains or loses the health regeneration and movement speed bonus 0.5 seconds after getting in or out of enemy vision, or casting Shadow Dance.

• If Slark is damaged by a neutral creep, the health regeneration and movement speed bonus are lost for 2 seconds.

• Upon cast, all passive effects are applied on Slark immediately.
  • Slark turns invisible and cannot be revealed by anything. However, the black cloud created is visible to enemies.
  • Does not grant phased movement.
  • Neither grants the health regeneration nor movement speed bonus when being targeted by an enemy Snowball.

• The invisibility is granted by an aura, however, its buff does not linger.
  • The aura does not affect invulnerable units, so if Slark turns invulnerable during it, he gets revealed.

• Can regenerate up to 3600/5400/7200 ( 6600/8400/10200) health in one minute passively.

• While active, Shadow Dance can regenerate up to 240/382.5/540 ( 440/595/765) health.
  • With the duration increasing talent, it can regenerate up to 550/735/935 health.
  • With both talents, it can regenerate up to 550/735/935 health.

• TALENT
  The attack speed bonus is only granted while Shadow Dance or Depth Shroud is active.
  • However, the attack speed bonus is not doubled when both abilities are active.

Talents

Hero Talents
+40s Essence Shift Duration	25	+1s Shadow Dance Duration
+80 Shadow Dance Attack Speed	20	+1 Agility gain/stolen per Essence Shift Stack
+50 Shadow Dance Regen	15	+70 Dark Pact Damage
+0.5s Pounce Leash	10	-0.5s Dark Pact Cooldown

Recent Changes

Main Articles: Changelogs, Old Abilities and Hero Lore

Version

Description

7.35c

• Pounce
  • Cooldown increased from 22/18/14/10s to 24/20/16/12s.

7.35

• Increased strength gain from 1.9 to 2.1.
• Increased intelligence gain from 1.7 to 1.9.

• Talents:
• LVL 15

   

  +40 Shadow Dance health regeneration increased to +50.

7.34d

• Talents:
• LVL 25

   

  +50s Essence Shift steal duration reduced to +40s.

Recommended Items

Starting items:

• Tango helps Slark regenerate his health without the need of returning to base.
• Healing Salve can save Slark at the last moment.
• Iron Branch provides attributes and builds into Magic Wand.
• Quelling Blade offsets Slark's low starting damage and helps him get last hits.

Early game:

• Regular Stick doesn't give anything.
• Boots of Speed allow Slark to catch up to enemies and immobilize them with Pounce.
• Orb of Venom is a cheap but powerful item to slow enemies and inflict damage overtime, giving an advantage to Slark's early ganks.

Mid game:

• Power Treads gives Slark attack speed to build Essence Shift, as well as the ability to switch to appropriate attributes for survival, damage, or mana.
• Magic Wand, upgraded from Magic Stick, gives him more attributes and opens up item slots.
• Shadow Blade provides attack speed and invisibility to improve ganking and escaping. It also synergizes with the passive part of Shadow Dance, giving health regeneration and movement speed buffs when enemies lose vision of Slark.
• Echo Sabre helps Slark collect stacks of Essence Shift, useful for ganking.

Late game:

• Eye of Skadi slows enemy attack and movement speed, keeping them in range for Slark to build Essence Shift. Its large bonus attributes increases Slark's health, mana, armor, damage, and attack speed, compensating his low growth.
• Abyssal Blade lets Slark stick to enemies with its active stun and chances to bash, complementing Essence Shift's agility that increases attack speed.

Situational items:

• Drum of Endurance provides Slark with attributes to improve his lackluster growth while giving him extra movement speed and attack speed to help close the distance on foes, building the early game advantage he needs to snowball.
• Diffusal Blade provides a way to slow fleeing heroes, keeping them in attack range, as well as burning mana for extra damage and suit the gain of attack speed.
• Sange and Yasha allows him to chase and attack enemy heroes due to the movement speed, attack speed, and agility boost. Its bonus strength may also beef up Slark enough to survive engagements.
• Black King Bar's spell immunity offers protection from disables, making him almost invulnerable while under the effect of Shadow Dance. It can be rushed by disassembling Echo Saber if Slark is being heavily disabled even with Dark Pact and Shadow Dance.
• Butterfly offers bonus attack speed, damage, and agility; its evasion gives him more survivability against attacks.
• Silver Edge, upgraded from Shadow Blade, improves Slark's ganking capability even further with Critical Strike and break to disable heroes with strong passive abilities.
• Orchid Malevolence helps Slark gank by silencing enemies, as well as regenerating Slark's mana for more frequent uses of Pounce and Dark Pact. This makes it useful against enemies that rely on blinks or other abilities to escape, such as Queen of Pain or Anti-Mage.
• Monkey King Bar procs Pierce that deals bonus damage and counters enemy evasion.
• Bloodthorn can be built from a disassembled Echo Saber and an Orchid Malevolence, and adds True Strike onto Soul Burn's silence to deal with evasive enemies.
• Aghanim's Scepter gives two charges for Slark's Pounce and increases range of Pounce, allowing Slark to use Pounce more often to either escape from enemy heroes or catch up with fleeing enemy heroes further.
• Aghanim's Shard gives Slark access to Depth Shroud which allows him to protect and recover himself and his allies with Shadow Dance from bad engagements.
• Moon Shard increases Slark's attack speed for Essence Shift to steal attributes quickly. As the game progresses, Slark can consume it to free an item slot and keep a permanent attack speed bonus.

Dota Plus Progress

Main Article: Hero Challenges

Relics track a hero's actions and statistics, and display in-game notifications when a milestone is reached. They are only available to Dota Plus subscribers.

Relics	Voice Lines
Kills During Pounce Long Distance Pounce High Essence Shift Stacks (30+) Kills During Shadow Dance Leashed Enemies Debuffs Purged Damage While Invisible Teleports Leading To Kills Physical Damage Damage From Invisibility Triple Kills Mega Kill Streaks Kill Assists Kills	Bronze	▶️ Heh heh heh heh heh heh heh. ▶️ I know I can trust you guys.
	Silver	▶️ Oh that's very nice. ▶️ I can't hear you.
	Gold	▶️ Well that went bad quickly. ▶️ You took the bait.
	Platinum	▶️ Oh this makes it all worthwhile.
	Master	▶️ On your belly and crawl.
	Grandmaster	▶️ Here, fishy-fishy.

Equipment

Slark Equipment (expand sets) Sets Abyssal Arms Appetites of the Lizard King Dark Reef Escape Deep Sea Scoundrel Deep Warden Haul Set Kindred of the Umizar Crawler Ocean Conqueror Shadow in the Deep Shivshell Crawler Tellurian Trespass Weapon Ancient Imbued Spinal Blade Crawblade Encore Gilded Edge Golden Hydrakan Latch Hookblade of Skadi Hydrakan Latch Pale Edge Shell Slicer Silent Ripper Slicer of the Depths Spanky the Daggerfish The Barb of Skadi The Golden Barb of Skadi Tidal Blade Head Fishy Frillhawk Sea Rake's Bridle Back Wavecutter Taunt Taunt: RazorFlip! Kinetic Gems Kinetic: Pounce of the Silent Ripper

Trivia

• Slark is named after a rare murloc in "World of Warcraft".
  • His murloc heritage was completely removed in the transition to Dota 2 to avoid copyright issues, since the murlocs are an existing race in the Warcraft universe.

• ▶️ "Met you once, cut you twice." is a reference to the carpentry phrase "measure twice, cut once.".

• ▶️ "Griefer madness..." is a reference to the propaganda film Reefer Madness.
  • As well, a griefer 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.

Gallery

• 

  Splash artwork

• 

  Concept art

• 

  Slark cartoon art

• 

  Drow Ranger, Pudge and Slark in a cartoon scene

• 

  Ability icon progress

• 

  Hero icon progress