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Slark
Hero
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Slark, the Nightcrawler, is a melee agility hero that utilizes 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▶️ "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:
Abilities[edit]
Dark Pact
Cast Animation: 0+0
Damage Radius: 325
Effect Delay: 1.5
Total Damage: 75/150/225/300 (
225/300/375/450)
225/300/375/450)Self Damage Percentage: 50%
9/
60
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 ( 22.5/30/37.5/45) damage within a 325 radius in 0.1 second intervals, starting 1.5 seconds after cast for a total of 10 instances.
- Slark takes 3.75/7.5/11.25/15 ( 11.25/15/18.75/22.5) damage in the same intervals, resulting in 37.5/75/112.5/150 ( 112.5/150/187.5/225) total damage.
- Applies a strong dispel on Slark in the same intervals, before 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 is leashed, 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: 400
Leash Duration: 2.5/2.75/3/3.25 ( 3.5/3.75/4/4.25)
3.5/3.75/4/4.25) 20/ 75
Leash persists if debuff was placed before spell immunity and when not dispelled. Leash can be dispelled by spell immunity only.
Getting rooted during the leap does not cancel the leap.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.
- Always jumps for the full distance, unless an enemy hero gets within 95 radius of Slark during the jump.
- Leashes the hit enemy hero, preventing them from casting certain mobility spells.
- 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.
- If cast before getting leashed, the following spells are not able to break the leash: Skewer, Leap, Pounce, Tree Dance, Primal Spring, Toggle Movement, and Hurricane Pike when targeting an enemy.
- Every other position changing effect, including spells like Primal Roar and Blinding Light, can break the leash.
- Force Staff and a self-targeted Hurricane Pike instantly break the leash when cast, while other sources of forced movement only break it when stretched beyond the max radius.
- 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 (Strength), Charge of Darkness, Greater Bash, Timber Chain, Walrus PUNCH!, Force Staff and Hurricane Pike.
- 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. If Slark kills an affected enemy hero, he permanently steals 1 Agility.
Permanent Steal Radius: 300
Permanent Agility Steal: 1
All Attributes Lost per Attack: 1
Agility Gained per Attack: 3
Duration: 15/30/60/100 ( 95/110/140/180)
95/110/140/180) Prevents gaining new stacks. Already existing stacks still provide bonus agility.Does not prevent permanently stealing agility.
Modifiers
Essence Shift Debuff: Undispellable. Essence Shift Counter: Undispellable. Essence Shift Buff: Undispellable. Essence Shift Permanent Buff: Undispellable. Essence Shift Permanent Debuff: 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.
- Effective stats loss per stack of essence shift: 1 attack damage, 20 health, 0.1 health regen, 0.08% magic resistance, 0.16 armor, 0.05% move speed, 1 attack speed, 12 mana, 0.05 mana regen, 0.07% spell damage.
- Effectively grants Slark 0.48 armor, 0.15% move speed, 3 attack speed, and 3 attack damage per stack.
- Essence Shift cannot reduce any attribute below 0. However, Slark continues to gain agility, both temporarily and permenantly, even when the attacked hero has no more attributes left to steal.
- When Slark dies, he loses all temporarily stolen attributes, but the affected enemies do not get theirs back, and vice versa.
- Cannot steal attributes from illusions, but can steal from hero clones.
- Cannot steal permanent attributes from Tempest Doubles, but can steal from Meepo clones.
- Can steal attributes from allies.
- To permanently steal agility, an enemy hero has to die within 300 range of Slark while having the Essence Shift debuff.
- Alternatively, Slark also steals agility when he kills a debuffed enemy hero from any distance.
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
Aura Radius: 0 (
425)
425)Fade Time: 0
Move Speed Bonus: 20%/35%/50%
Max Health as Regen per Second: 5%/6%/7%
Passive Activation Delay: 0.5
Neutral Creep Damage Deactivate Duration: 2
Aura Linger Duration: 0.5
Active Duration: 4/4.25/4.5 ( 5/5.25/5.5)
5/5.25/5.5) 80/ 30) 120
Reduces cooldown and causes Shadow Dance active to be an area of effect ability, hiding nearby allied heroes underneath it. Allies do not gain bonus movement speed or health regeneration. Regeneration and movement speed bonus are disabled, active invisibility is not. Illusions get the buff, but it does not grant them the health regen and movement speed.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 4.5/4.75/5 ( 5.5/5.75/6) 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 if Slark turns invulnerable during it, he gets revealed.
- Can regenerate up to 20%/25.5%/31.5% ( 25%/31.5%/38.5%) ( 22.5%/28.5%/35%, 27.5%/34.5%/42%) of Slark's max health over its full duration.
- Can regenerate up to 300%/360%/420% of Slark's max health in one minute.
- Can fully regenerate Slark's health within 20/16.67/14.29 seconds.
- Shadow Dance does not allow Slark to walk through units.
Talents[edit]
| Hero Talents | ||
|---|---|---|
| +80s Essence Shift Duration | 25 | +1s Shadow Dance Duration |
| +1s Pounce Leash | 20 | +150 Dark Pact Damage |
| 20% Lifesteal | 15 | +30 Attack Speed |
| +6 Agility | 10 | +10 Strength |
Notes:
- The agility talent effectively grants Slark 0.96 armor, 6 attack speed, 0.3% movement speed and 6 attack damage.
- The strength talent effectively grants Slark 200 health, 1 health regen and 0.8% magic resistance.
- The lifesteal talent stacks additively with other sources of lifesteal.
Recommended items[edit]
Starting items:
- Stout Shield allows Slark to sustain more harassment from enemies and stay longer in lane.
- 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.
Early game:
- Magic Stick gives burst mana and health restoration.
- 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.
- 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.
- Butterfly offers bonus attack speed, armor, damage, and agility; its evasion gives him more survivability against attacks. Its active provides a movement speed boost that makes chasing or escaping easier.
- Silver Edge, upgraded from Shadow Blade, improves Slark's ganking capability even further with bonus attributes and break to disable heroes with strong passive abilities such as Phantom Assassin, Enchantress, or Bristleback.
- 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.
- 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.
Gameplay[edit]
| Roles: | Carry Escape Disabler Nuker |
|---|---|
| Complexity: | ★☆☆ |
| Playstyle: | The only prisoner ever to escape from Dark Reef, Slark's abilities and ruthlessness are without equal. The Nightcrawler Pounces on his foes, leaping over obstacles and pinning them to the ground. With every swing of his barnacle encrusted blade, Slark steals his target's essences, converting them to render himself more agile. He forges a Dark Pact, sacrificing his own lifeblood to dissipate negative energies that damage foes, and frees him from magical constraints. Concealing himself with Shadow Dance, the Nightcrawler presents no visible target to would-be attackers. Hidden in this black haze, Slark escapes the inescapable, and returns to gut his enemies with little risk of retribution. |
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 ▶️ "Met you once, cut you twice." is a reference to the carpentry phrase "measure twice, cut once".
- Slark's respawn line ▶️ "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
Slark cartoon art
Drow Ranger, Pudge and Slark in a cartoon scene
Ability icon progress
Hero icon progress
