Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 0:20 What Slark Does - In a Nutshell 04:05 Checklist for Success With Slark 04:44 Core Concepts 05:45 Abilities - An Overview 05:59 Dark Pact 07:00 Hero Match-ups 12:35 Dark Pact (cont'd) 14:52 Pounce 17:26 How to Use Dark Pact & Pounce Effectively 18:25 Essence Shift - My Favorite Ability in All of Dota 23:13 Shadow Dance (Ultimate) 24:48 Hero Match-ups (cont'd) 25:24 Shadow Dance (cont'd) 25:57 How to Control the Map as Slark 27:43 Dewarding with Slark and Why It's So Important 29:34 Superior Night Vision 31:02 How To Never Be Ganged - Keep An Eye on your Status/Buff bar 33:12 How to Control the Map as Slark (in Summary) 33:44 Skill Build 37:17 Hero Match-ups (cont'd) 40:26 Scaling into the Late Game vs. Ultra Carries 40:58 Slark's Role in Your Team & His Supporting Cast 43:35 Talents 44:32 Itemization 51:39 Did I Mention You're Supposed To Hit Them on Slark? 51:54 Aghanim's Scepter 52:10 Bonus Mechanic Tidbits 55:20 Conclusion
1. directional move to use pounce. D move to a point and then click pounce. 2. dont go silver edge first item. echo sabre or get diffusal to slow them down before pounce. diffusal slark is inferior to illusion heroes with diffusal. get many WB if you have to trade a lot in laning stage. 3. slark has 1800 night vision, use this like a moving ward and to deward. deward when you see that your buff of ulti is missing. 4. slark has low stat gain, so does not scale well, end early if facing someone like antimage. 5. slark is very vulnerable to mana burn, beware of AM and illusion heroes. 6. use dark pact when you see projectiles, gives 2.5 second window where you can purge. you can dark pact sometimes as soon as you see your ulti buff disappearing. 7. do not take fights where your enemy has vision, engaging and disengaging is critical with slark. 8. slark can 1v1 many heroes including ursa, troll. 9. practice tread switching with slark. before you use any spell change to int and then change back to agility. 10. dont pounce unless absolutely required for lockdown, save it for escape. 11. carry sentries to your fights and deward. deward common ward spots while farming.
My favorite part is when BSJ keeps explaining, emphasizing his point while slowly fading away from the camera. The dream is that one day he sits up from his chair, exists his room, keeps talking through the hallway, after which he leaves the house, as we faintly hear BSJ angry rant screaming from the top of his lungs.
yes best fun hero guide is here. I really enjoyed the morphling guide since i never knew how the hero worked and was looking forward to this slark video
This is very VERY well made bsj. Thank you, I don’t know any other guides that have this kuch depth as well as maintaining this crucial structure as not to overwhelm the player. Thanks brother!
Really appreciate you doing these guides for free, BSJ. Slark is a hero i hate playing AGAINST, and i usually dont pick heroes i think are mega cancer, but the few times I've played Slark it has beena pretty fun hero actually, ENORMOUS skill ceiling. Keep up the good work, you are very much appreciated in this community :)
man im such a bad slark, but after i saw this video i had such a slark vibe so i jumped in a turbo to try it, the result was 10-0-10 mvp edit: 10-2-15 in ranked, i'll call you sensei
Getting good dark pact off in a crucial time is so satisfying I remember playing vs pudge and bane the amount of times I got to dispel their ults and they got tilted so bad
I`m a slark player and i really didn`t know that naga ult reveals you, i actually tried now in a lobby and it really does, but since you are untargetable and cannot be attacked the only thing that affects u is that you no longer regen....and i think that was the whole idea behind it.
lvl 3 on esence is good vs heroes that wanna stay in lane and its all about wining - matchup such as timbersaw can be example of that, with use of many salves. => so if they cant put hero vs you and you need to be stronger then him for eficiency to not need to use more salve => (like you woudltn be able to kil jungle camp anyways so you rather take the lane farm and in case he contests which he should, you can sitl farm junglecamps with esence shifts you gained.). And if its all about last fight, you can go 1s for ult.
My friend challenged me on an LOD(dota 1 map) match I picked Mirana as hero because of her stats and attk animation. I got essence shift, SB bash, drow passive(dmg based on agi) and WR ult. The most one sided game ever haha.
Slark is a fish, Naga is basically a fish. what would you do as a dominant male fish when you see a female fish singing?? you reveal your self! (sometimes you can resolve things by stupidity to maximum! DOTA is a complex game! but it is still a game!) :)
mage slayer is the current tanky follow up after diffusal. if an enemy deals magic damage their spells will deal 36.6% of full damage, instead of the normal 75%, in other words it over doubles your EHP against magic casters.
I dont quite understand the Dark Pact dispell and when it begins. Is it as soon as you press Q that the dispell is active or when it goes off after 1.5 seconds?
Regarding wards, when I deward as a carry, in the killfeed it says I get the gold, but I actually don't. I assume the support gets it instead but I am not sure
Man , that directional move trick is the most astonishing part of this video . New tip learnt . One thing I wanted to mention is that lion/ shaman hex cannot be dispelled So that makes them kinda a counter to dark pact ??
Idk i get what ur point but every bracket is different i am legend and i have 20 streak in slark idk maybe this patch hese too strong but i always built silver edge and linken for example i go at start orb then some stats stick ofc then echo then silver then it depends linken bkb skaydi satanic ( i only go sange and yasha when they have like imba stuns or magnus or beast...) but i guess if i get like 2 rank up divine or immortal i may loose all time but for this bracket slark if you played him like 20 games like practice then i think you cant loose (( sick hero
i love when i have 35 stacks and the enemy just keeps running at me one by one but hey pub. btw i end up with 70 stacks after they all died then slark hit pretty hard
Can anyone help me out with slark’s pounce. Isn’t there some setting where you can pounce properly. Like if np sprouts himself and we try to pounce it will miss and land on the side of the sprouts. Pls can someone tell me from what setting i can get a better pounce.
That ability is aimed in the same as SF razes. There is no setting that automatically makes you "pounce properly" but there is a hotkey you can bind that will help. It is called "Directional Move" under advanced hotkeys. Basically when you hold down this key it will change ur hero's motion from normal pathing to just moving in the direction of ur clicking i.e. you can make your hero run into a walls, cliffs, trees etc. It will essentially give you free aim and will stop your hero from turning in random directions when trying to hit a target that you can't directly path to.
There are two move commands you want to bind, I have both on the mouse side buttons: Directional Move: Hold this while right clicking or move commanding and the hero will not search for a path, just look at that point and walk as far as possible. Just like the comment above. Move: Your right clicks automatically selesäct between move or attack commands. If you just want to walk at an enemy and not attck, you need this key to be bound, which substitutes the right click. This allows you to walk at heros without drawing aggro in the lane, and to follow heros without stoping to attack when playing heros like Juggernaut or Dark Seer.
You need your goddamn hero to be faced on enemy to pounce not an slark player but an sf player some of most used things for raze(atleast for me)is right clicking towards enemy and then casting bloody spell cuz then your hero is faced towards enemy which means there is noway you miss it
Dear BSJ, my rank is heral 2 and i have 230 MMR. I try to play rank all the time with my best efforts but team mates not working out. They even random pick heroes, afk and no response to a ganks even. If i win 5 games i loose 7 games. how can I come up from herald with these kind of team mates. Advise Bro! Dont say quit DOTA though 😁
my friend keeps ganking with slark after getting one item and does not farm, i have tried this but i fall back on farm and items. i normally gank farm push gank , something like this what is ur opinion
It's not the worst matchup. You can purge the silence and your ult is guaranteed to get you out of the low HP threshold. If you have a healing support or go for the BKB/SnY + Linken's setup, then it's a fairly easy matchup. Silencers like grimstroke, puck, disruptor all counter Slark more effectively. You can also buy wand and hold on to those 17 charges lol
@@mudrost4934 Bloodseeker's Thrist make Slark's ult not working since it gives vision of Slark when he's low on HP. Thus, the regen won't work unless you get healed by other means to remove the vision from the Thirst
@@MuhammadNauval I meant when you activate it, it will get you out of the threshold. Bloodseeker is like a mild inconvenience for Slark if both are equally farmed.
Can slark counter LD I thought LD really good against slark u can hide ur hero and hit with bear slark will not get anything even if he hit bear he can't hit others because of root continues
You are partially right. Neither of them can't kill the other that easily. Like you mentioned it's hard for slark to jump on Lone druid himself and he can't gain agi from the bear. On the other hand that doesn't mean LD counters slark. LD relies on his fear for escape and entangling claws for offense, both of which can be dispelled by slark's dark pact.
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
0:20 What Slark Does - In a Nutshell
04:05 Checklist for Success With Slark
04:44 Core Concepts
05:45 Abilities - An Overview
05:59 Dark Pact
07:00 Hero Match-ups
12:35 Dark Pact (cont'd)
14:52 Pounce
17:26 How to Use Dark Pact & Pounce Effectively
18:25 Essence Shift - My Favorite Ability in All of Dota
23:13 Shadow Dance (Ultimate)
24:48 Hero Match-ups (cont'd)
25:24 Shadow Dance (cont'd)
25:57 How to Control the Map as Slark
27:43 Dewarding with Slark and Why It's So Important
29:34 Superior Night Vision
31:02 How To Never Be Ganged - Keep An Eye on your Status/Buff bar
33:12 How to Control the Map as Slark (in Summary)
33:44 Skill Build
37:17 Hero Match-ups (cont'd)
40:26 Scaling into the Late Game vs. Ultra Carries
40:58 Slark's Role in Your Team & His Supporting Cast
43:35 Talents
44:32 Itemization
51:39 Did I Mention You're Supposed To Hit Them on Slark?
51:54 Aghanim's Scepter
52:10 Bonus Mechanic Tidbits
55:20 Conclusion
I love slark, especially in the first DOTA
Hey BSJ Bro, Thankyou, I really knew something very new in this video
When are you gona cover up supports?
Dark pact doesnt dispel spirit breaker charge of darkness and also revels you stopping your passive..... I was so confused in my game.
30:10 BSJ start to yell when the tips says "Remain calm. Remember, it's only a game". That is some nice timing !
i was going to say that nvm now
1. directional move to use pounce. D move to a point and then click pounce.
2. dont go silver edge first item. echo sabre or get diffusal to slow them down before pounce. diffusal slark is inferior to illusion heroes with diffusal. get many WB if you have to trade a lot in laning stage.
3. slark has 1800 night vision, use this like a moving ward and to deward. deward when you see that your buff of ulti is missing.
4. slark has low stat gain, so does not scale well, end early if facing someone like antimage.
5. slark is very vulnerable to mana burn, beware of AM and illusion heroes.
6. use dark pact when you see projectiles, gives 2.5 second window where you can purge. you can dark pact sometimes as soon as you see your ulti buff disappearing.
7. do not take fights where your enemy has vision, engaging and disengaging is critical with slark.
8. slark can 1v1 many heroes including ursa, troll.
9. practice tread switching with slark. before you use any spell change to int and then change back to agility.
10. dont pounce unless absolutely required for lockdown, save it for escape.
11. carry sentries to your fights and deward. deward common ward spots while farming.
I would say that full slotted Slark with Refresher win literally anything 1 vs 1
My favorite part is when BSJ keeps explaining, emphasizing his point while slowly fading away from the camera. The dream is that one day he sits up from his chair, exists his room, keeps talking through the hallway, after which he leaves the house, as we faintly hear BSJ angry rant screaming from the top of his lungs.
Lmfao
yes best fun hero guide is here. I really enjoyed the morphling guide since i never knew how the hero worked and was looking forward to this slark video
How to Play Slark:
1. Hit enemy heroes till they die
2. Press R to not die
3. Mash the Q button during clashes
4. Pounce???
5.???
6. Profit
7. Teammates - Feed
I love BSJ's How to play X hero, video, good format, keep it up you're the best.
Nice to hear you enjoy them, be sure to share with your buddies, if we can hit 50k subs (so close!) we get another :D
Ok
This is very VERY well made bsj. Thank you, I don’t know any other guides that have this kuch depth as well as maintaining this crucial structure as not to overwhelm the player. Thanks brother!
Yeah thats cuz slark is his most played by a long way
Thanks for the timestamps, and thanks for the video. Crazy too cause I've been wanting to better up my slark gameplay, video came clutch.
Really appreciate you doing these guides for free, BSJ. Slark is a hero i hate playing AGAINST, and i usually dont pick heroes i think are mega cancer, but the few times I've played Slark it has beena pretty fun hero actually, ENORMOUS skill ceiling. Keep up the good work, you are very much appreciated in this community :)
Nice video, thanks BSJ. Slark is one of my favourite heroes too, I appreciate you taking the time to lay all this out for us!
man im such a bad slark, but after i saw this video i had such a slark vibe so i jumped in a turbo to try it, the result was 10-0-10 mvp
edit: 10-2-15 in ranked, i'll call you sensei
Omg THE DIRECTIONAL MOVE GUIDE REALLY REALLY HELPS!!! ITS THE MOST IMPORTANT HOTKEY ON SLARK!! VERY USEFUL! THANK YOU BSJ YOURE MY IDOL
Getting good dark pact off in a crucial time is so satisfying I remember playing vs pudge and bane the amount of times I got to dispel their ults and they got tilted so bad
We need more guides like this BSJ! 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
Very comprehensive. Thank you VERY much for this BSJ!!!
You blow my mind with The directional move thing, ty man.
i guess I'll see slark in my pubs a lot the next week or so. 🙂
Thank you bro just won 4 slark rank games in a row your guide has enchanced my play
what rank are u? lmao
A very nice vid, bro. Respect.
TY for the guide BSJ your very good explaining things!
I have been waiting for this one Thanks Coach B
First video I’ve seen and I just love the way you break shit down 12/10
I've just started playing slark and lo BSJ comes with a slark guide. BSJ you're the saviour 😄.
I`m a slark player and i really didn`t know that naga ult reveals you, i actually tried now in a lobby and it really does, but since you are untargetable and cannot be attacked the only thing that affects u is that you no longer regen....and i think that was the whole idea behind it.
This qas the best hero specific guid i've ever seen in my life
TNX
very very nice
Thank you so much ❤
I'm going to consider this my birthday gift. Thanks BSJ! I wanted this.
First! Thank you for this slark guide!!
I maimed Slark mid/off lane solo between 2015-2017 and he’s still my favorite hero by far
thanks bsj i have like 400 games on slark but still i learned a lot about him.
The Best Guide on the UA-cam
I remember in dota 1 days when slark used to steal 1of every attribute per hit instead of converting it to 3 agility.
49:34 literally changed a week later
Thx, learn a lot, specially the night vision range.
lvl 3 on esence is good vs heroes that wanna stay in lane and its all about wining - matchup such as timbersaw can be example of that, with use of many salves. => so if they cant put hero vs you and you need to be stronger then him for eficiency to not need to use more salve => (like you woudltn be able to kil jungle camp anyways so you rather take the lane farm and in case he contests which he should, you can sitl farm junglecamps with esence shifts you gained.). And if its all about last fight, you can go 1s for ult.
Will you be making any updated carry guide with slark? I love this hero, but since I have been playing him, i have drastically lost games.
Thank you Coach B
Nicest guide for slark ever
My friend challenged me on an LOD(dota 1 map) match I picked Mirana as hero because of her stats and attk animation. I got essence shift, SB bash, drow passive(dmg based on agi) and WR ult. The most one sided game ever haha.
Slark is a fish, Naga is basically a fish. what would you do as a dominant male fish when you see a female fish singing?? you reveal your self! (sometimes you can resolve things by stupidity to maximum! DOTA is a complex game! but it is still a game!) :)
That subtle reference to far cry 3 insanity quote. "Did I mention to you about hitting on slark". 👍 51:49
Played Slark vs both AA and Void one game. Think I ended the match with 5k hero damage... and a few reports. Unplayable
Yeah, I like essence shift on heroes like Medusa, Troll, Drow, Gyro. One skill is enough to win the game. I mean ability draft obviously.
so would you consider going skady + abysal or always only one of them ?
Thank you BSJ 🙏
I satisfied even listening. He talks about my dreams
Learned a lot!
More of this Sir BSJ!!! Aka Coach B
Nice editing 👍
BSJ how to deal with 5 man pushing as a solo player?
other than solo killing, creep cutting and split pushing
Have you tried destroying items yet?
@@kindle1951 doesn't help winning
@@BB8enjoyer well you didn't specify winning the game, only how to deal with the problem. So grieving still an option there :D
Cut the creeps
great video!
Totally agree slark is the best hero :) I was 1,6 k mmr back in the day and 17 straight wins with slark got me out of there :)
mage slayer is the current tanky follow up after diffusal. if an enemy deals magic damage their spells will deal 36.6% of full damage, instead of the normal 75%, in other words it over doubles your EHP against magic casters.
the good thing about slark now is that he isn't selfish anymore because of agh shard
Yea
I dont quite understand the Dark Pact dispell and when it begins. Is it as soon as you press Q that the dispell is active or when it goes off after 1.5 seconds?
When it goes off after 1.5, you get a continuous dispel. Nothing happens for the first 1.5.
BSJ i love ur content.ty for helping the dota community.❤️ From india
Regarding wards, when I deward as a carry, in the killfeed it says I get the gold, but I actually don't. I assume the support gets it instead but I am not sure
You only get the gold if you bought the sentry.
Brilliant video.
After watching this guide i ve now manage to escape the Ancient trench
now im legend
Wow a living legend
nice guide dude
re watching this guide in 7.32b now that they buffed pounce with essence shift stacks and Ags giving him a second charge, and shard with the clouds
great guide, thanks.
Thank you sensei
Man , that directional move trick is the most astonishing part of this video .
New tip learnt .
One thing I wanted to mention is that lion/ shaman hex cannot be dispelled
So that makes them kinda a counter to dark pact ??
they definitely can be dispelled, oracles may not be able to dispel them though
@@weticeboy Dark Pact does dispell hex now. It was changed about last big patch ago. Go test it if you don't believe it
@@prieurduplessis8677 yea my bad it was undispellable few patches ago
every BSJ videos,
*hed gestures*
bsj should i aim the tanky dk that has a ton of disable and halbred or some zues standing super far away from front line
21:20
@@zeeddota if i dont kill the dude with 3second stun on 9 second cd and a halbred then i will keep getting disable
Can you kill him?you already sayd he has halberd and fking stun what makes you think he isnt using them to defend HIMSELF rather than defending zeus
my favorite carry hero is bad this patch, "okay" at best i guess
Idk i get what ur point but every bracket is different i am legend and i have 20 streak in slark idk maybe this patch hese too strong but i always built silver edge and linken for example i go at start orb then some stats stick ofc then echo then silver then it depends linken bkb skaydi satanic ( i only go sange and yasha when they have like imba stuns or magnus or beast...) but i guess if i get like 2 rank up divine or immortal i may loose all time but for this bracket slark if you played him like 20 games like practice then i think you cant loose (( sick hero
i love when i have 35 stacks and the enemy just keeps running at me one by one but hey pub.
btw i end up with 70 stacks after they all died then slark hit pretty hard
"TAKE A GANDER AT HIS FUCKING STAT GAINS!" *proceeds to press the stats tab instead of about* 🤣🤣🤣
love you coach.
Great guide xD l
Dude thank you. Finally now I know how to pounce like the pros. I always wondered how the fuck people did that
did not know the mechanic of the directional move
thenk bsj
Ima see a lot of slarks for now on
'shit, shit, run away' card 🤣 😂 🤣
very nice
Ok then we have something in common I guess.
We both like slark the most...
Love slark
Can anyone help me out with slark’s pounce. Isn’t there some setting where you can pounce properly. Like if np sprouts himself and we try to pounce it will miss and land on the side of the sprouts. Pls can someone tell me from what setting i can get a better pounce.
That ability is aimed in the same as SF razes. There is no setting that automatically makes you "pounce properly" but there is a hotkey you can bind that will help. It is called "Directional Move" under advanced hotkeys. Basically when you hold down this key it will change ur hero's motion from normal pathing to just moving in the direction of ur clicking i.e. you can make your hero run into a walls, cliffs, trees etc. It will essentially give you free aim and will stop your hero from turning in random directions when trying to hit a target that you can't directly path to.
Thank you so much
There are two move commands you want to bind, I have both on the mouse side buttons:
Directional Move: Hold this while right clicking or move commanding and the hero will not search for a path, just look at that point and walk as far as possible. Just like the comment above.
Move: Your right clicks automatically selesäct between move or attack commands. If you just want to walk at an enemy and not attck, you need this key to be bound, which substitutes the right click. This allows you to walk at heros without drawing aggro in the lane, and to follow heros without stoping to attack when playing heros like Juggernaut or Dark Seer.
You need your goddamn hero to be faced on enemy to pounce not an slark player but an sf player some of most used things for raze(atleast for me)is right clicking towards enemy and then casting bloody spell cuz then your hero is faced towards enemy which means there is noway you miss it
Does moon shard increases slark night vision or 1800 is the max night vision?
Dear BSJ, my rank is heral 2 and i have 230 MMR. I try to play rank all the time with my best efforts but team mates not working out. They even random pick heroes, afk and no response to a ganks even. If i win 5 games i loose 7 games. how can I come up from herald with these kind of team mates. Advise Bro! Dont say quit DOTA though 😁
Hye bananabananaslamjamma, can you share or explain when to buy diffusal blade when in game ?
Finally
Bruh, Slark is not the only hero with 1800 night vision... you forgot about my boi Nightstalker???
u are the best
saw an offlane undying rekking the hell out of an rank 50 slark yesterday.
Slark has awful stats early on, lanes such as undying lina can make his life hell
my friend keeps ganking with slark after getting one item and does not farm, i have tried this but i fall back on farm and items. i normally gank farm push gank , something like this what is ur opinion
farm the camps on your way to your ganks would be most efficient
You didn't mention Bloodseeker is the worst matchup for Slark since Thirst will literally disable Slark's passive when low HP
It's not the worst matchup. You can purge the silence and your ult is guaranteed to get you out of the low HP threshold. If you have a healing support or go for the BKB/SnY + Linken's setup, then it's a fairly easy matchup. Silencers like grimstroke, puck, disruptor all counter Slark more effectively. You can also buy wand and hold on to those 17 charges lol
@@mudrost4934 Bloodseeker's Thrist make Slark's ult not working since it gives vision of Slark when he's low on HP. Thus, the regen won't work unless you get healed by other means to remove the vision from the Thirst
@@MuhammadNauval I meant when you activate it, it will get you out of the threshold. Bloodseeker is like a mild inconvenience for Slark if both are equally farmed.
True, when it's activated Slark is immune to any detection.
2 days ago but late gameplay? Silveredge still ult orb?
Vision is in a circle, you squared the vision. It should be 10173600 for 1800 Vs 2009600 total units. Pretty significant. Almost 5 times.
It doesn’t change the relative difference though
yea but circle has an area propotional to radius square
Hope you do support heroes too
U missed out night stalker in the hero pool that have full night vision at night
"one of the few heroes in the game that has 1800 vision at night time" good try smart ass
Can u make a PL guide pls 😁
Can slark counter LD I thought LD really good against slark u can hide ur hero and hit with bear slark will not get anything even if he hit bear he can't hit others because of root continues
You are partially right. Neither of them can't kill the other that easily. Like you mentioned it's hard for slark to jump on Lone druid himself and he can't gain agi from the bear. On the other hand that doesn't mean LD counters slark. LD relies on his fear for escape and entangling claws for offense, both of which can be dispelled by slark's dark pact.
Finally!!!
Viper strike
thankyou
NOW TIME TO GRIND SLARK BOISZ
bsj pls update this with the new itemization