I've never understood how to play slark

[pharaoh]

The hero that actually has made my life hard when Im slark is Omniknight, even if u find it strange. His degen aura in teamfights is rly annoying cuz it cripples your movements/attacks, slowing your stat stealing, and you have to get diffusal and maybe orchid to counter him. Pair omni with a zeus or akasha that can nuke you even when u use ur ulti, and you find yourself in deep shit because escaping is harder with these slows. Everytime I face a good omni with slark, game goes on for like 50 mins and i end up with something like 18-10 when my usual score with slark is 20-2 or whatever lol.

[Dhamma]

Yea drow is soft, but she farms really well, one of the fastest farmers in the game.

Sniper can be OK too. I've rarely lost mid with him vs slark. Though once he gets his ult it can be tough, in team fights slark will usually go from behind and take him out first, and team is busy napping to do anything. At least drow can push him away.

The thing about BS isn't what he personally can do to slark, but that slark can't take advantage of his ult's passive once he's low, no matter who he's fighting, unless he uses ult. That allows his team to catch slark.

[nitromon]

slark is a glitched hero.

I play support heroes and tried slark for the first time. stumbled around reading the skills and reading item choices and end up 15-1 with a dagon!

It is a glitched hero that should be banned. You don't need skills. You don't need items. Anything will work. As many have said, it is one of the heroes that is uncounterable. If you fail with slark, I would probably suggest it is your playing style with slark... knowing when to attack, when to run, when to ult.

One of my favorite things to do? When a 3-0 win and 15-2 kdr smurf joins the game. I check his previous games. All slarks. Game starts, I pick slark and repick him. Just ruined his perfect score. haha.

The hero that actually has made my life hard when Im slark is Omniknight, even if u find it strange. His degen aura in teamfights is rly annoying cuz it cripples your movements/attacks, slowing your stat stealing,

Try diffusal. I use that on spec against omni. Remove his repeal too.

[EdgeOfChaos]

I don't believe there are any known glitches with Slark, so that would be a bit surprising if you found one.

Slark is not un-counterable at all. And slark is highly item dependent.

[Zeratul]

Winter wyvern + slark =D If winter uses his cold embrace, and slark pacts right before it, slark keeps all the embrace effects (no dmg from physical, hp reg), and is able to move XD

[nitromon]

Winter wyvern + slark =D If winter uses his cold embrace, and slark pacts right before it, slark keeps all the embrace effects (no dmg from physical, hp reg), and is able to move XD

I've actually done that before playing WW supporting a slark.

So many things wrong with slark. He's pretty invincible by himself already, now give him a healer support like treant, oracle, omni... ug...

[Letbell]

Winter wyvern + slark =D If winter uses his cold embrace, and slark pacts right before it, slark keeps all the embrace effects (no dmg from physical, hp reg), and is able to move XD

I've actually done that before playing WW supporting a slark.

So many things wrong with slark. He's pretty invincible by himself already, now give him a healer support like treant, oracle, omni... ug...

Very interesting...
I wonder if I could abuse this to raise my elo lol

[nitromon]

So I brought this up in a ban request forum on slark.

Since Bat's oil affects urns, they say this is a glitch and bannable. Why? Because it was an unexpected benefit of an ability that affected the ability of an item, which was not the original intent of the ability.

Then I propose lothars be banned on slark. Why? Because slark's ult gives him invisibility, which is then coded with HP increase and movement increase. These benefits should NOT be transferrable to an item, such as lothar. It only benefits slark and slark itself. Ergo, this is a glitch and should be bannable if we are to stay consistent to what is and is not a glitch.

Any thoughts?

[Zeratul]

So I brought this up in a ban request forum on slark.

Since Bat's oil affects urns, they say this is a glitch and bannable. Why? Because it was an unexpected benefit of an ability that affected the ability of an item, which was not the original intent of the ability.

Then I propose lothars be banned on slark. Why? Because slark's ult gives him invisibility, which is then coded with HP increase and movement increase. These benefits should NOT be transferrable to an item, such as lothar. It only benefits slark and slark itself. Ergo, this is a glitch and should be bannable if we are to stay consistent to what is and is not a glitch.

Any thoughts?

Let's just ban dota - No more dota = no glitches whatsoever, so easy fix, problem solved and no more complaints about it!

On a serious note, yeah, seems like people get owned by 1 strategy and instantly want to report it (First started with the napalm urn, now its the pick a hero, kill someone and repick), so sure, i bet icefrog dind't "intend" for slark to use lothars in the way its used so ban it as well xD

Also ban sand king for impaling on certain edges, and walking further than he should (and on that note, lets also ban mirana who can leap and do the same!)

OH and:

Winter wyvern + slark =D If winter uses his cold embrace, and slark pacts right before it, slark keeps all the embrace effects (no dmg from physical, hp reg), and is able to move XD

Very interesting...
I wonder if I could abuse this to raise my elo lol

Also bannable (clearly)! xD

[nitromon]

On a serious note, yeah, seems like people get owned by 1 strategy and instantly want to report it (First started with the napalm urn, now its the pick a hero, kill someone and repick), so sure, i bet icefrog dind't "intend" for slark to use lothars in the way its used so ban it as well xD

I agree. Personally I don't use urn bat for various reasons, I don't think it is particularly effective against experienced players. But I don't think it is a glitch either. Either way it is a slippery slope if we start banning such things. One of the things I just discovered is how bloodstone is very effective in aoe healing your teammates when you die especially if you are high in charges. Now use it on a blink techie, you can instantly activate it with suicide to cause aoe damage to your opponents and heal your teammates in a team fight. I'm sure that wasn't the intent of the usage of bloodstone since not every hero can sacrifice themselves instantly, so could also be considered a glitch.

[pharaoh]

What did i just read? Icefrog didnt intent lothars to give slark regen? Plz read how shadow dance works, ty.
Shadow dance - Passively, when not visible to the enemy team, Slark gains bonus movement speed and health regeneration.
Now read what lothars do. Lmfao
Seriously, ent forum will never stop leaving me amazed.

Also, telling me to get diffusal on slark to counter omni. Thank u captain obvious, I wrote it myself in my first post but proly too hard to read. Now answer to that - how can a slark fight a 6 slotted hard carry supported by an omniknight when 3 of his items are lothars, diffusal, orchid?

[Letbell]

So I brought this up in a ban request forum on slark.

Since Bat's oil affects urns, they say this is a glitch and bannable. Why? Because it was an unexpected benefit of an ability that affected the ability of an item, which was not the original intent of the ability.

Then I propose lothars be banned on slark. Why? Because slark's ult gives him invisibility, which is then coded with HP increase and movement increase. These benefits should NOT be transferrable to an item, such as lothar. It only benefits slark and slark itself. Ergo, this is a glitch and should be bannable if we are to stay consistent to what is and is not a glitch.

Any thoughts?

Well an urn cost ~875 gold and able to do almost 400-700 damage alone in combination with the oil. That's pretty insane for a level 3 batrider, and that doesn't even count his level 1 firefly.

So a level 3 batrider can do...
1) 400-700 damage with sticky napalm level 2 + urn (at least 3-5 stacks)
2) 10 x 18 = 180 firely damage + 15 x 18 = 270
3) Total of 270 + 180 = 450 damages alone without urn (sticky napalm (1st stack only) + firefly stack)
4) Now combine with the urn + sticky napalm + firefly = 950 damages to 1150 damages from a level 3 batrider in the first 2 minutes of the matches.
5) This is just an ideal case scenario if he's manage to actually get all the duration, but assuming in real case scenario; you'll be able to do 65% of those firefly + sticky napalm damage = 175.5 damage.
6) Therefore...in real case scenario 575.5 damages to 875.5 damages (That's really insane, and you can snowball as hard as you want for the first 10 minutes)

Meanwhile a very well farm slark get his lothar in 8-10 minutes (assuming including kills), and lothar cost about 2800 golds. Meaning, slark can snowball hard and pick off easy target by 8 or 10 minutes. However, by that time slark get his lothar, either batrider got his heart at 10 minutes (by not buying dagger or forcestaff of course, and continue to snowball harder than a slark with lothar), and afterward he can rush gem and makes slark's passive with lothar utterly useless.

People can also buy sentry and dust to counter slark's passive and negate his regeneration too, so therefore it's counterable throughout the whole game. However, cases like batrider with an urn that deal massive damage so early on and late game as well. It is very hard to counter it, because you need both bkb and linken to negate most of his abilities and his fire lasso as well.

This is just ideal case scenario where urn has move advantages where batrider can simply abuse the damage so early on and late game as well.
Some may say..."well just play smart against him, and do tell your team to gank him early, and avoid going alone" This is true, because a very well coordinated team can simply ruin batrider's early game, but there's also late game..." Say what?"

"Now we're going to off-topic a little bit about batrider's late game"
Yes, a late game batrider only need heart, shiva, radiance and mijonir can delivery crazy damage with only a few stacks of sticky napalm, and this doesn't even includes urn. Since mijonir and radiance is acceptable, because those items has interval and doesn't affect much until late game.

"Then how did batrider got those items if he's fall behind after all of those ganks?"
He can simply stack up creep in jungle, buy a soul ring, and spam firefly throughout the jungle while pushing lane very easily. This is how most experienced batrider get at least 500-800 GPM if he knows he's fall behind and his urn abuse tactic failed.

[Sylvanas]

tl;dr

urn napaln is a glitch and loth shadow dance isn't, end of the story

[nitromon]

Well an urn cost ~875 gold and able to do almost 400-700 damage alone in combination with the oil. That's pretty insane for a level 3 batrider, and that doesn't even count his level 1 firefly.

So a level 3 batrider can do...

It looks good on paper, but in actual gameplay it won't work well against seasoned players. A few things people overlooked.

- urn doesn't work unless it has charges. So even if at lvl 3, if there are no kills, bat can't use the urn.
- an experienced player is not going to stand there and let you napalm them.
- early kill requires gank and most likely tower dive. Experienced player playing against a bat plays cautiously, keep their distance from being napalmed and watching for ganks.
- bat is extremely vulnerable. a core item experienced bat players get is VG and you want to rush it. Early urn cuts into that cost.
- bat is also slow, which is why he needs napalm. core items such as BoT, blink, or forcestaff needs to be rushed to be effective.
- even in ganks, players can survive an urn bat easily by having sufficient speed to evade napalm and appropriate hp reg such as ROH. Napalm is only good if you can stack them. A single napalm is survivable.

So against noobs, bat is extremely effective without the urn. I've played several games where enemies allow me to napalm them at level 1 up to 7-8 times. Once I hit level 2, I go flame and instantly attack and tower dive. If they have no stuns or slows, it is instant double FB by level 2. All these gold should go towards that VG or you're just another weak int hero for the agil and int opponents.

Experienced players are very difficult to get napalmed. They know the napalm distance and they keep away, tower hug. Even when they're napalmed, they know to back away to prevent being stacked by napalm.

Urn is also a single target item with a cool down. It lets you take out 1 guy and in a gank, you really don't need to focus so much on 1 weak target. Bat is an AOE hero, a preferable cheap early item if you want to skip VG is actually the veil since it gives you armor.

----

Bat is a typical int hero, full caster and nuke. Like most int hero it is effective offensively early game but is vulnerable and weak. Unlike Lesh or DP, Bat cannot use euls or lothar to enhance his abilities b/c he needs to constantly cast napalm. This means he needs to tank. So urn is not particularly a good item for him b/c it doesn't help him tank, can only be used on 1 hero during a gank as it cools down, and takes money from his core items which are required for him to continue being effective.

Everyone has their own preferred build, but I prefer:

- VG first
- Blink
- BoT
- Radiance
- Shiva
- veil/mjolnir
- trade VG for heart late game

So a combination of movement with blink/Bot, with tank items of heart, mjolnir, shiva, and aoe with radiance/shiva/veil.

[kunkka]

It looks good on paper, but in actual gameplay it won't work well against seasoned players.

a core item experienced bat players get is VG and you want to rush it. Early urn cuts into that cost.

Unlike Lesh or DP, Bat cannot use euls or lothar to enhance his abilities b/c he needs to constantly cast napalm.

Everyone has their own preferred build, but I prefer:

- VG first
- Blink
- BoT
- Radiance
- Shiva
- veil/mjolnir
- trade VG for heart late game

We know what kinda level of player you are from these comments.

1. You prefer vanguard over urn? You said yourself bat is slow and enemy always runs away so you can't stack nalpalm. How does vanguard solve that problem?

2. You get lothar on DP and Lesh. So nalpalm is 3 sec cd and carrion and lesh lightning are both 4 sec cd AOE damage skills. And you get lothar on them to remain 800 hp.

3. Your item list doesn't even have forcestaff.

Although this is not the first non-sense from you on this forum, I have to say that your comments don't even look good on paper hahaha