Bad against...[]
- Ice Blast stops Shadow Dance's passive health regeneration, even when Slark is not in vision.
- Phantom's Embrace cannot be dispelled by Slark's Dark Pact, and will cause him to suffer damage if he doesn't kill Phantom fast enough.
- Soulbind also cannot be dispelled by Slark's Dark Pact, and will cause Slark to suffer from a single-targeted ability used on his ally that is also affected by it.
- Berserker's Call forces Slark to attack him, even during Shadow Dance.
- Counter Helix will hit Slark in Shadow Dance. It will also trigger frequently against Slark's high attack speed provided by Essence Shift stacks.
- Culling Blade finishes off Slark before he gets a chance to slip away and regenerate his health, preventing him from playing his typical hit-and-run style.
- Thirst stops Shadow Dance's passive health regeneration if Slark's current health is below the Thirst's visibility threshold.
- Rupture effectively diminishes Slark's mobility in battle, leaving him susceptible to AoE stuns or forcing to teleport out of the fight.
- Phantasms have enough health to survive Dark Pact, and Slark has no other source of AoE damage to deal with them.
- Static Storm and Kinetic Field locks down Slark, as he cannot use Dark Pact to dispel any disables, or Pounce out while silenced.
- Glimpse puts an end to any attempts at ganking Disruptor or his allies, and also negates Slark's mobility by bringing him back into the fight if he tries to escape with Pounce.
- Earthshaker's many AoE stuns help lock down Slark and will often waste the duration of Shadow Dance.
- As a frequent Force Staff buyer, he can later on escape or save teammates from Pounce.
- Earthbind and Poof will still hit Slark in Shadow Dance.
- Dark Pact can only remove one Earthbind.
- Ransack will still affect Slark, even if he has a Black King Bar.
- Slark's dependence on Pounce and close range makes him very easy to hit with Purification and Hammer of Purity.
- Slark's damage, even with a high count of Essence Shift stacks, is easily negated by Omniknight's heals and Guardian Angel.
- Arcane Orb deals pure damage, which ignores the armor granted from permanent agility stacks.
- Astral Imprisonment can disrupt any Pounce attempt by banishing the leashed ally.
- Slark's low mana pool makes him more susceptible to Sanity's Eclipse.
- Slark has no sustained AoE damage to deal with a lot of Phantom Lancer's illusions.
- Doppelganger lets Phantom Lancer dodge Dark Pact and Pounce and partially wastes the duration of Shadow Dance.
- Spirit Lance can give vision of Slark via spawning an illusion, making it harder for him to juke and gain the passive bonus from Shadow Dance.
- Phantom Rush helps Phantom Lancer chase down Slark when he jumps away with Pounce.
- Illusory Orb and Phase Shift allows Puck to avoid most ganking attempts.
- Waning Rift and Dream Coil makes it very hard for Slark to escape bad situations.
- Puck's abilities used together also deals significant magical nuke damage, none of which are targeted and thus cannot be avoided by Shadow Dance.
- Nether Blast will still hit Slark even if he is hidden during Shadow Dance.
- Even though Pugna can rarely target Slark directly with Decrepify, he can still use it defensively on an ally to prevent Slark from getting stacks.
- Despite being somewhat easy to break with Pounce, Pugna can damage Slark and provide vision over him with Life Drain.
- Toss and Avalanche deals heavy damage to Slark in the early game, making Tiny a very dangerous target to gank.
- Tiny has 0 agility, which means Slark's Essence Shift permanent agility steal does not do much against him.
Others[]
- Heroes with Break abilities will prevent Slark from regenerating and gaining Essence Shift stacks: Viper, Shadow Demon, etc.
- Heroes with AoE abilities will hit Slark in Shadow Dance: Lina, Jakiro, Underlord, Leshrac, Dark Seer, Earthshaker, Timbersaw, Crystal Maiden.
- Heroes with heavy magical nukes will take advantage of Slark's poor HP or force him to use Shadow Dance early: Lina, Lion, Zeus
- Heroes that can deny Slark early kills will prevent him from snowballing: Dazzle, Abaddon.
- Heroes with silencing abilities can be particularly deadly when Slark is trying to escape: Silencer, Death Prophet, Puck, Doom.
- Slardar's level 25 talent makes Corrosive Haze undispellable, thus providing his allies vision of Slark.
Items[]
- Force Staff, Hurricane Pike, and Force Boots allow users to break Pounce's leash.
- Black King Bar nullifies Slark's nuke damage from Dark Pact and destroys the leash from Pounce.
- Abyssal Blade locks down Slark so he cannot escape to regenerate his health.
- Heaven's Halberd's disarm cannot be dispelled by Dark Pact, while the evasion may force Slark to build Monkey King Bar.
- Shiva's Guard gives the holder much more physical survivability and a useful active ability which will halt Slark during Shadow Dance.
- Ghost Scepter prevents Slark from attacking the holder, wasting his Pounce.
- Silver Edge's break disables Essence Shift and cannot be removed with Dark Pact.
- Scythe of Vyse's hex fully disables Slark, but the hex can be dispelled with Dark Pact.
Good against...[]
- Flux is dispelled by Dark Pact.
- Pounce allows Slark to avoid Spark Wraiths.
- Tempest Double allows Slark to build up Essence Shift stacks, especially when it is being used for split pushing.
- Shadow Dance's passive can inform Slark when he's under enemy vision, meaning it'll be very hard to catch Slark off-guard with Flaming Lasso.
- Flaming Lasso is dispelled by Dark Pact. Its casting can be prevented with Shadow Dance or Depth Shroud (it requires Aghanim's Shard).
- Pounce and items like Shadow Blade makes it very difficult for Drow Ranger to keep her distance from Slark, thereby losing her Marksmanship bonus.
- Gust is rarely enough to keep Slark at bay, as Drow Ranger has no movement abilities and will simply be chased down afterwards.
- Drow Ranger's heavy dependence on agility also makes her significantly weaker after being drained by Essence Shift.
- Blade Fury does not offer any protections against Essence Shift, as it can go through spell immunity and reduces attribute.
- Slark can pounce away from Juggernaut and he cannot prevent or chase slark.
- Shadow Dance prevent Juggernaut from using Omnislash altogether, while regen himself at a higher rate. Slark can freely hit juggernaut without any fears of retaliation.
- Luna's lack of mobility and escape abilities makes her easily to gank for Slark.
- Shadow Dance helps avoid all the damage from Eclipse.
- For the same reasons, Slark makes a very powerful ally for Luna when they are in the same team.
- Medusa cannot chase Slark in any way and has no disable beyond her ultimate, making her unable to stop him getting away and regenerating before coming back to finish her off.
- Essence Shift particularly removes 1 intelligence point per hit, thus lowering Medusa's mana pool's cap and leaving her much more vulnerable in prolonged fights.
- Slark's Pounce allows him to close the gap on Phantom Assassin and prevent her from escaping with Phantom Strike.
- As a hero who typically builds Silver Edge, Slark can use it to disable Phantom Assassin's Blur and Coup de Grace, thus taking down her attack evasion and drastically reducing her damage output.
- Because Phantom Assassin is always reliant on critical strikes, Slark will have plenty of time to escape with Pounce, Shadow Dance and Silver Edge (provided that he purchased it already).
- Depth Shroud from Aghanim's Shard will allow Slark to save both, himself and his allies from Phantom Assassin with Shadow Dance, and to freely fightback against her without removing invisibility upon attacking.
- Essence Shift is much more harmful for Phantom Assassin than for other heroes, as losing the agility means that her physical damage will be also reduced, which can also weaken Coup de Grace if Slark manages to steal lots of agility from her.
- Overall, any attempt for Phantom Assassin to take down Slark will hurt her more than Slark.
- Sniper hugely lacks mobility and escape abilities so that he is an easy target for ganks from Slark.
- Essence Shift deals 20 extra damage by draining one strength per hit, which cannot be reduced or spread by Dispersion.
- Pounce prevents Spectre from escaping with Spectral Dagger.
- Haunt illusions usually don't deal a lot of damage to Slark as he tends to buy a Shadow Blade, preventing Desolate's and Diffusal Blade's damage and activating Shadow Dance's regeneration to make up for any damage caused by Radiance.
- Slark is a natural carrier of Silver Edge, which helps break both Desolate and Dispersion.
- Pounce's leash prevents Storm Spirit from using Ball Lightning, making it hard for Storm Spirit to escape a gank from Slark.
- Dark Pact can dispel Orchid Malevolence's Soul Burn.
- Dark Pact rips through Refraction charges and still steals attributes during Refraction.
- Pounce and Dark Pact will still hit Templar Assassin while she is Melded. Since she cannot move, both abilities will be easy for Slark to land.
- Upheaval does not interrupt Slark too much, as he can just Pounce out of the area.
- Fatal Bonds and Shadow Word can be dispelled by Dark Pact.
- Pounce helps put Windranger in place, even when she uses Windrun to escape.
- Shadow Dance avoids Windranger's attacks from Focus Fire altogether, and he can regenerate his health and fight back after Windranger uses up all her abilities.
- The stun from Shackleshot and the slow from Powershot can be both dispelled by Dark Pact, provided Slark casts it at the right moment.
Others[]
- Lycan cannot escape from a Pounce even if he uses Shapeshift, and has no disabling abilities to stop Slark.
- Dark Pact rips through Gravekeeper's Cloak and Refraction charges.
- Heroes with low mobility and no escape mechanisms are easy targets for Slark.
- Heroes with blink or movement abilities, which are disabled by Pounce's leash: Anti-Mage, Earth Spirit, Faceless Void, Magnus, Mirana, Monkey King, Morphling, Pangolier, Phantom Assassin, Phoenix, Puck, Queen of Pain, Riki, Sand King, Spirit Breaker, Timbersaw, Tusk.
- Pounce also stops Nature's Prophet's Teleportation.
- Disables such as stuns can be easily dispelled by Slark's Dark Pact if he has activated it before the disables are inflicted.
Works well with...[]
- Bane's numerous disables help Slark position and take out his targets.
- Pounce and Dark Pact will break Nightmare without transferring the disable to Slark.
- Earthshaker's many stuns help lock down Slark's targets.
- Slark can easily jump over Fissure if he gets caught on the wrong side.
- Chakra Magic allows Slark to significantly increase his farming speed, as without mana issues, Dark Pact can deal lots of AoE damage very quickly to neutral camps.
- Pounce helps Keeper of the Light charge up a full Illuminate. Along with early points into Dark Pact, the two can deal massive damage in the laning phase and bully the enemy out of the lane.
- Solar Bind is a good follow-up to Pounce to keep enemies from escaping ganks.
- Lunar Blessing can provids Slark bonus damage and night vision for teamfights and ganks.
- Eclipse triggers night, allowing Slark to take advantage of his superior night vision and the enemy's reduced vision to initiate or escape.
- Despite its short duration, Lucent Beam's stun is useful to help Slark leash escaping enemy heroes with Pounce.
- Reverse Polarity is a perfect setup for Dark Pact, and usually allows Slark to pick off one target before the long stun ends.
- Empower helps Slark farm significantly faster as well as gank more efficiently.
- Pounce gives Kunkka plenty of time to land all of his abilities.
- Ghostship's buff makes it very difficult for enemies to kill Slark, as he takes reduced damage during team fights, then quickly regenerates his lost health while the delayed damage is applied.
- Pounce keeps the enemy close for an easy Purification.
- Heavenly Grace provides a strong dispel and status resistance. Combined with Dark Pact and Shadow Dance, this makes it very difficult for enemies to keep Slark locked down.
- With Slark always having his HP at 100% with Shadow Dance, Pugna can cast Life Drain to restore his mana.
- Pounce keeps enemy in place so that Pugna can cast Life Drain on them.
- A defensive Decrepify can save Slark if he gets into trouble, buying him time to use his abilities.
- Concussive Shot helps Slark chase down slowed enemies.
- Pounce locks enemies in place for Skywrath Mage to nuke them with Mystic Flare.
- Pit of Malice helps Slark land his Pounce and Dark Pact.
- Pounce helps Underlord land his Firestorm.
- Essence Shift's attribute steal combined with Atrophy Aura significantly reduces their enemies' base damage.
- Pounce prevents an enemy from moving away when Witch Doctor uses his Death Ward, ensuring at least one kill in most circumstances.
- Essence Shift's attribute steal causes enemies to take proportionately more damage from later ticks of Maledict.
- Slark's ability to detect and pinpoint enemy vision allows Zeus to deward very easily with Lightning Bolt.
- Pounce keeps enemies under Zeus' Nimbus for longer.
Others[]
- Heroes with long stuns and slows will help Slark beat down the enemy: Crystal Maiden, Venomancer, Pudge, Lich, Chaos Knight
- Pounce locks down enemies and helps heroes with abilities that are otherwise hard to land: Kunkka, Leshrac, Skywrath Mage
Items[]
- Sentry Ward and Gem of True Sight let Slark's team deward as Shadow Dance gives clues to where the enemy has vision.
