Items
- Town Portal Scroll will often save you from a ganking Slark in the early game, since he has no way to stop the teleport.
- Black King Bar Item Changelogs Black King BarB A powerful staff imbued with the strength of giants. Cost3975 (1375) Bought FromArmor Active Avatar Bonus +10 Strength+24 Attack damage Disassemble? No Alert allies? No Recipe
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.
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Ancient Apparition "AA" redirects here. For the professional player, see ARS-ART. Hero Strategy Counters Equipment Gear Responses Sounds Lore Old Abilities Changelogs Known Bugs
- Ice Blast stops Shadow Dance`s passive health regeneration, even when Slark is not in vision.
- Mana Break indirectly locks down Slark, denying him his mobility by draining the mana he needs to use them.
- Spell Shield`s high magical damage resistance makes Slark`s nukes deal minimal damage, which he relies on to gank and snowball into the lategame.
- Blink makes it nearly impossible for Slark to gank Anti-Mage, preventing him from stealing attributes through Essence Shift.
- Slark sometimes builds items like Eye of Skadi Item Changelogs Eye of Skadi Extremely rare artifact, guarded by the azure dragons. Cost5775 Bought FromArtifacts Passive Cold Attack Bonus +25 Strength+25 Agility+25 Intelligence+225 Health+250 Mana Disassemble? No Alert allies? No and Silver Edge Item Old Abilities Changelogs Silver Edge Once used to slay an unjust king, only to have the kingdom erupt into civil war in the aftermath. Cost5550 (700) Bought FromWeapons Active , which gives him a large mana pool. This makes him more vulnerable than most carries against Anti-Mage`s Mana Void.
- Berserker`s Call forces Slark to attack him, even during Shadow Dance.
- Counter Helix will hit Slark in Shadow Dance, with pure damage. It also triggers frequently against Slark`s high attack speed after having stolen agility with Essence Shift.
- Culling Blade finishes off Slark before he gets a chance to slip away and regenerate his health, preventing him from playing the hit-and-run style often associated with Slark.
- Thirst makes Slark visible while at low health, canceling out Shadow Dance`s passive. For this reason, Bloodseeker is usually considered the hardest counter to Slark.
- Rupture cannot be purged by Dark Pact, and using Pounce while affected by it will cause Slark to take damage.
- Both Hoof Stomp and Double Edge can hit Slark during Shadow Dance, the latter requiring a unit nearby for the ability to be cast on.
- Slark has very low health in the early game, making him susceptible to the burst from Double Edge.
- Dark Pact is not a very good ability for attempting to dispatch Phantasms. Slark doesn`t have good innate AOE and will seldom build Mjollnir Item Changelogs Mjollnir Thor s magical hammer, made for him by the dwarves Brok and Eitri. Cost5700 (900) Bought FromArtifacts Active Static Charge Passive Chain Lightning Bonus +80 Attack speed+24 Attack damage nor Battle Fury For the cosmetic item equipped by Faceless Void, see Battlefury (Equipment). Item Changelogs Battle FuryB The bearer of this mighty axe gains the ability to cut down swaths of enemies at .
- Pounce can be completely counteracted by Reality Rift and Chaos Knight can kill Slark in a matter of a second if Slark gets surrounded by illusions. Furthermore, Reality Rift can be used to escape the Pounce leash.
- Static Storm and Kinetic Field locks down Slark, as he cannot use Dark Pact to purge 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.
- Earthbind and Poof will still hit Slark in Shadow Dance.
- Dark Pact can only remove one Earthbind.
- Geostrike will still affect Slark, even if he has a Black King Bar Item Changelogs Black King BarB A powerful staff imbued with the strength of giants. Cost3975 (1375) Bought FromArmor Active Avatar Bonus +10 Strength+24 Attack damage Disassemble? No Alert allies? No Recipe .
- Slark`s dependence on Pounce and close range makes him very easy to hit with Purification.
- Slark`s damage, even with a high count of Essence Shift, is easily negated by Omniknight`s heals and Guardian Angel.
- Slark has no sustained AOE to fight off Juxtapose illusions as they continually spawn. Furthermore, he rarely ever builds Mjollnir Item Changelogs Mjollnir Thor s magical hammer, made for him by the dwarves Brok and Eitri. Cost5700 (900) Bought FromArtifacts Active Static Charge Passive Chain Lightning Bonus +80 Attack speed+24 Attack damage nor Battle Fury For the cosmetic item equipped by Faceless Void, see Battlefury (Equipment). Item Changelogs Battle FuryB The bearer of this mighty axe gains the ability to cut down swaths of enemies at . Also, Essence Shift cannot steal attributes from illusions.
- Phantom Lancer has two ways to dodge Slark`s spells: Doppelganger and Manta Style, although the leash from Pounce cannot be dispelled.
- 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.
- If Slark tries to use Pounce to get away from Phantom Lancer, he can easily catch up to Slark with Phantom Rush.
- 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.
- Queen of Pain easily Blinks out of Pounce`s leash, and allows her to chase Slark when he tries to retreat out of vision.
- Sonic Wave hits Slark even in Shadow Dance, and its wide radius is hard to Pounce away from.
- Ball Lightning breaks Pounce`s leash, and makes Storm Spirit very hard to gank.
- Storm Spirit`s high mobility also allows him to gank Slark, and his Orchid Malevolence prevents Slark from Pouncing away or using Dark Pact.
- A Toss plus Avalanche combination deals heavy damage to Slark in the early game, making Tiny a very dangerous target to gank.
- In the late game, Tiny`s Craggy Exterior will stun Slark repeatedly when attacked, especially if he has a high attack speed from the extra agility stolen through Essence Shift.
Others
- Heroes with AoE abilities will hit Slark in Shadow Dance: Lina, Jakiro, Underlord, Leshrac, Dark Seer, Earthshaker Hero Strategy Counters Equipment Gear Responses Sounds Lore Old Abilities Changelogs Known Bugs Earthshaker 22 + 3.2 12 + 1.4 16 + , Timbersaw
- Heroes with heavy magical nukes will end Slark 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
- Rubick`s instant cast Telekinesis can disable Slark in mid-Pounce.
