Slark
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Slark
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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 dispel 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.
Contents
Bio[edit]
 Slark, the Nightcrawler
| |
| Play "If I'd known I'd end up here, I'd have stayed in Dark Reef Prison." | |
| Role: |  Carry /  Escape /  Disabler /  Nuker
|
| 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[edit]
Dark Pact
Cast Animation: 0+0
Damage Radius: 325
Effect Delay: 1.5
Total Damage: 75/150/225/300
Self Damage Percentage: 50%
9/
8.1/7.2/6.3/5.4)
55/Modifiers
Dark Pact: Undispellable. Dark Pact Pulses: Undispellable.Slithereen are capable of quickly regrowing appendages, in case of critical injury, to save their own lives.
Notes:
- Dark Pact Interrupts Slark's channeling spells upon cast.
- Deals 7.5/15/22.5/30 damage within a 325 radius in 0.1 second intervals, starting 1.5 seconds after cast for a total of 10 instances.
- Slark himself takes 3.75/7.5/11.25/15 damage from Dark Pact in the same intervals.
- Applies a strong dispel on Slark in the same intervals, right after each of its damage instances.
- The self-inflicted damage can be reduced or amplified, but can never kill Slark.
- The visual effects and sounds during the 1.5 seconds delay is only visible and audible to allies.
- The visual effect of the damaging pulses are visible even when Slark is invisible.
- Dark Pact ends 2.5 seconds after cast, but ends instantly when Slark dies.
- Re-casting Dark Pact during the effect delay cancels the previous cast and starts a new one instead.
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.
Cast Animation: 0+0.53
Leap Distance: 700
Latch Radius: 95
Leash Radius: 325
Damage: 40/80/120/160
Leash Duration: 3.5 ( 6.5)
6.5) 20/ 18/14.4/10.8/7.2) 75
Leash persists if debuff was placed before spell immunity and when not dispelled. Leash can be dispelled by spell immunity only.Modifiers
Pounce: Undispellable.
Pounce Leash: Undispellable.Time in the Dark Reef made Slark a dangerous assassin; aggressive and fearless.
Notes:
- Slark leaps forward at a speed of 933.33 for up to 0.75 seconds.
- Cannot be cast while rooted. However, getting rooted during the leap does not cancel the leap.
- Always jumps for the full distance, unless an enemy hero gets within 95 radius of Slark during the jump.
- Can latch on enemy heroes up to 795 range away (max distance + latch radius).
- Slark can turn, cast spells and use items during Pounce, but cannot attack.
- Pounce can latch on invisible units, but not on invulnerable/hidden units, or on illusions.
- When latching on a unit, Slark is automatically ordered to attack the target.
- The more the leash gets stretched, the slower the affected unit can walk away from the center, eventually coming to a full stop. It directly affects the target's movement speed.
- The following spells are not able to break the leash:
Skewer, 
Leap, 
Pounce, 
Tree Dance, 
Primal Spring, 
Toggle Movement, 
Force Staff and 
Hurricane Pike.
- Every other position changing effect, including spells like
Primal Roar and 
Blinding Light, can break the leash.
- When the leash expires while a position changing effect is ongoing, it instantly cancels the position changing effect.
- This goes for the following spells:
Flamebreak, Primal Roar, 
Power Cogs, 
Hookshot, 
Vacuum, 
Gust, 
Boulder Smash, 
Rolling Boulder, 
Geomagnetic Grip, 
Deafening Blast, 
Tether, Blinding Light, 
Adaptive Strike, 
Charge of Darkness, 
Greater Bash, 
Timber Chain, 
Walrus PUNCH!, Force Staff and Hurricane Pike.
- This goes for the following spells:
- Pounce destroys trees within 100 radius around Slark upon landing.
Essence Shift
E
N
Ability
Passive
Passive
Affects
Enemy Heroes / Self
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.
All Attributes Lost per Attack: 1
Agility Gained per Attack: 3
Duration: 15/30/60/120
Prevents gaining new stacks. Already existing stacks still provide bonus agility.Modifiers
Essence Shift Buff: Undispellable. Essence Shift Debuff: Undispellable. Essence Shift Counter: Undispellable.With each strike at his adversaries, Slark's knowledge of their weaknesses improves.
Notes:
- Essence Shift steals attributes before attack damage is applied.
- Successive attacks do not refresh the duration of all stolen/lost attributes. Each stack has its own duration.
- The status buff and debuff icon show the number of current stacks and show the duration of the last stack.
- On each attack, the attacked hero loses 20 maximum health, 0.06 health regen, 0.14 armor, 1 attack speed, 11 maximum mana, 0.04 mana regen, 0.07% spell damage and 1 attack damage.
- The current health and mana percentages stay equal. Does not directly reduce current health and mana.
- On each attack, Slark gains 0.43 armor and 3 attack speed as well as attack damage.
- 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.
- When Slark dies, he loses all stolen attributes, but the affected enemies do not get theirs back, and vice versa.
- Cannot steal attributes from illusions, but can from hero clones.
- Can steal attributes from allies.
Shadow Dance
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.
Cast Animation: 0+0
Fade Time: 0
Move Speed Bonus: 30%/35%/40%
Max Health as Regen per Second: 3%/5%/7%
Active Duration: 4
Aura Radius: 0 (
325)
325) 60 ( 54) ( 30, 27) 120
Reduces cooldown and causes Shadow Dance active to be an area of effect ability, hiding nearby allied heroes underneath it.
Regeneration and movement speed bonus are disabled, active invisibility is not.Modifiers
Shadow Dance Passive Regen: Undispellable. Shadow Dance Aura: Undispellable. Shadow Dance: Undispellable.The hidden Thirteenth is a slippery foe.
Notes:
- Shadow Dance interrupts Slark's channeling spells upon cast.
- Slark gains or loses the health regen 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 regen and movement speed bonus are lost for 2 seconds.
- When casting Shadow Dance, he turns invisible and cannot be revealed by anything. However, the black cloud created is visible to enemies.
- The invisibility is granted by an aura, its buff lingers for 0.5 seconds.
- When not upgraded, the buff immediately disappears as soon as Shadow Dance expires. When upgraded, it lingers out when expiring.
- This means Shadow Dance effectively lasts 4.5 seconds when upgraded, even for Slark.
- When not upgraded, the aura affects the caster only. When upgraded, it affects allied heroes, illusions and creep-heroes as well.
- The aura only provides the invisibility. Therefore, allies do not receive the passive health regeneration and movement speed buff.
- The aura does not affect invulnerable units, so even if Slark turns invulnerable during it, he gets revealed.
- Regenerates a total of 12%/20%/28% ( 13.5%/22.5%/31.5%) of Slark's maximum health while active, considering the regeneration is not prevented.
- Restores health in the form of health regeneration, so it regenerates 0.3%/0.5%/0.7% of max health in 0.1 second intervals.
- Can possibly restore 100% of Slark's health on its own within 34/20/15 seconds.
- Shadow Dance does not allow Slark to walk through units.
Talents[edit]
| Hero Talents | ||
|---|---|---|
| +3s Pounce Leash
|
25 | +12 All Stats |
| +25 Attack Speed | 20 | 10% Cooldown Reduction |
+15  Strength
|
15 | +15  Agility
|
| +15 Damage | 10 | 10% Lifesteal |
Notes:
- The lifesteal is not a unique attack modifier and fully stacks with other sources of lifesteal.
- The attack damage is added as bonus attack damage, and therefore does not benefit illusions.
- Cooldown reduction affects abilities and items. Stacks multiplicatively with
Octarine Core and additively with 
Arcane Rune.
- Upgrading health increases maximum health capacity and keeps the current health percentage.
Recommended items[edit]
Starting items:
-
Stout Shield allows Slark to sustain more harassment from enemies and stay longer in lane. It can later be built into a 
Poor Man's Shield. -
Tango help Slark regenerate his health without the need of returning to base. -
Healing Salve can save Slark at the last moment. -
Iron Branches provide good stats and can be built into a 
Magic Wand.
Early-game
-
Magic Stick can be crucial in many situations, giving a burst of mana and health when needed. -
Boots of Speed allow Slark to catch up to enemies and immobilize them with Pounce. -
Poor Man's Shield gives Slark agility points, therefore increasing his last-hitting and denying in lane. It also saves Slark from harassment in lane. -
Orb of Venom is a cheap but powerful item to slow enemies and inflict damage overtime, giving an advantage to Slark's early ganks. It can later be built into an 
Eye of Skadi.
Core items
-
Power Treads gives Slark attack speed and a boost to attributes that can be switched to survive teamfights or give him enough mana to use one of his abilities. -
Magic Wand is an upgrade to 
Magic Stick. Giving him more stats and opens up item slots. -
Shadow Blade provides a good source of attack speed and additional invisibility to improve your ability to gank and escape. It also synergizes very well with the passive part of Shadow Dance giving him the hp-regeneration and movement speed buffs when he is not revealed by detection. -
Echo Sabre grants two stacks of Essence Shift right away, and its burst damage is very useful for ganking. -
Town Portal Scroll can allow Slark to arrive at teamfights faster, or help him escape in a pinch. Consider holding onto one for most of the game.
Situational items
-
Drum of Endurance provides Slark with attributes to improve his lackluster stat-growth while giving him extra movement speed and attack speed to help close the distance on foes. It can give him the early game advantage he needs to snowball. -
Sange and Yasha works great in conjunction with Slark's skill set allowing him to easily chase and attack enemy heroes due to the passive maim. In addition to the slow, Sange and Yasha also provides additional move speed, attack speed, and a strength and agility boost to his attributes. -
Black King Bar's spell immunity offers protection from magic damage in team fights.It can make him almost invulnerable while under the effect of Shadow Dance. -
Butterfly offers bonus attack speed, armor, damage, and agility, and its evasion gives him more survivability against right-click damage. It can be activated to provide a movement speed boost that makes chasing or escaping easier. -
Vladmir's Offering can be built for some stats and an aura that provides buffs such as lifesteal, mana regeneration and more to you and your teammates. -
Eye of Skadi grants Slark both incredible survivability and killing power. Its wealth of attributes provide Slark with HP, mana, armor, damage, and attack speed - all superb boosts to Slark's lackluster base attributes. Not to mention, it slows enemies on-hit and greatly helps Slark to stick to his targets. -
Skull Basher helps lock down enemies if they break free of Pounce's leash. -
Silver Edge is a natural extension of 
Shadow Blade and can improve Slark's ganking capability even further with its Break and damage reduction. Use it on heroes with defensive or strong passive abilities, such as 
Phantom Assassin, 
Enchantress, and 
Bristleback. -
Abyssal Blade is an extremely useful item on Slark that combines very well with Slark's high agility and attack speed, which can constantly proc bashes. It also provides him with extra attack damage and a strong active ability. -
Orchid Malevolence is sometimes picked up to help Slark gank, and regenerate mana for more frequent uses of Pounce and Dark Pact. -
Moon Shard hugely increases Slark's attack speed, allowing him to steal large amounts of attributes in a short amount of time. As the game progresses, it can be consumed to free an item slot and provide a permanent attack speed bonus.
Gameplay[edit]
Audio[edit]
History[edit]
Equipment[edit]
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Trivia[edit]
- Slark is named after a rare murloc in World of Warcraft.
- Slark's 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.
- Slark's response, Play "Met you once, cut you twice." is a reference to the carpentry phrase, "Measure twice, cut once."
- Slark's respawn line, Play "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[edit]
Splash artwork
Concept art
Ability icon progress
Hero icon progress
References[edit]
