How Ready is Slark?
Slark was once the bane of pubs and a potential menace in competitive play. As the meta has shifted away from his playstyle, along with changes to Hex and the removal of Poor Man’s Shield, Slark has fallen into obscurity. With stats getting a rework in 7.13, Slark may be right on the cusp of reappearing in the meta.
What Happened
Starting in patch 7.07, Hex could no longer be dispelled. Slark was one of the heroes who suffered the most from this change. While he already had a few counters, they were mostly dependent on AoE disables, map awareness, and having the right lane matchup for Slark. It often wasn’t enough to counter a Slark, especially if he had a breakaway game. Quick reflexes with Dark Pact made Slark elusive at all stages in the game. An early Shadow Blade or Blink made it tough for squishy Intelligence heroes to stay on the map. Heroes like Shadow Shaman and Lion had no recourse if they got jumped. With the changes to Hex, the dynamic shifted.
Shadow Shaman and Lion can now chain stun a Slark by opening with Hex. They can counter initiate without fear of being nullified by a preloaded Dark Pact. A large part of Slark’s teamfight potential was his ability to dip in and out of the battle, finesse his skill rotations between Dark Pact and Pounce cooldowns, and extend a fight until the enemy broke down. Now, without Dark Pact against Hex, he has to depend on his BKB timer and Shadow Dance. First world carry issues.
Slark’s win rate in the past 30 days. Patch 7.12 gave him a small boost, with a buff to turn rate and base regen
On The Cusp
Slark is a hero that’s tough to balance—there’s a thin line between relevancy in competition and overpowered in pubs, which was the case before. The difficulty is that the Hex change seemed at the time both excessive and necessary. Slark was still strong as he saw Pounce’s damage reduced from 280 to 160 over a series of patches. Remember that during this time, in addition to Dark Pact negating nearly everything, Pounce could disjoint projectiles as well as able to be used under root. Slark’s opponents desperately needed a more accessible counter, but it essentially nullified what made the hero unique.
Even with a buff, it may still be the wrong time for Slark in today’s meta. He didn’t fare well in the peak of Necros and Venomancers, and now he’s still facing a similar push meta. So if he can eke out a decent early game, it’s still an uphill battle the rest of the way.
Slark’s weakness in lane has somewhat been mitigated in patch 7.12, which significantly buffed his regeneration from 1.5 to 2.75. His win rate also saw a small boost—one blip of optimism since his series of nerfs. At the same time, Valve has slowly been tweaking his early game resiliency. He received a Strength gain buff in 7.06 and a level 10 Strength bonus talent, which was buffed again in 7.10, from 8 to 10.
With patch 7.13, Slark may have also inadvertently benefitted from the way Stats and it’s perks have been reworked. Primary attributes are weighted more this time around, and heroes who can augment their stats stand to gain from the change. OD is rising as one of the top beneficiaries of the stat change, and who is to say Slark can’t as well. He’s getting more armor and 25% more attack speed per point of agility and stealing more HP against Strength heroes.
While Slark still has his laning issues, it’s been clear that Valve has been attempting to nudge Slark forward. It may not be the right moment for him yet, and while the community might dread his return to the nuisance he was, it seems like this time around there could be the right balance.
The MMR grind hero...
Please, don't let Slark become what we nerfed him for in the first place. It was all too much.
YEAY 3rd
Balancing DotA around pubs is just stupid. If Slark needs buffs to be competitively viable, then buff him. If they can buff him in ways that make him better in pro matches without making him too good in pubs, then even better. If they can't, then he can just be OP in pubs, big deal.
Slark used to be my biggest nightmare and a first phase ban for me (Just annoying). He hasn't been relevant for almost a year now and even with these buffs he still feels super weak.
Navi just won 2 games against vp with slark :))
what is this brain damaged bdsm guy on about. how many of the dota 2 player population are pros? this game sustains itself from the money that regular average joes spend on it and if the regular joes dont play this game any more boom even your thick skull can figure out what happens then
competitive play is fine but pubs is how this game makes money...it has to be first and foremost a game that the non pro player can enjoy pretty much any game out there has to be...too much bdsm might be retarding your cognitive abilities
Hahaha.. his Def annoying but ain't op..
The fuck is this?
@I <3 BDSM
Makes sense to balance the game around the twenty people watching eSports rather than the 10 million people playing the game!
He's a balanced hero. I don't know what people in the commend expects, a 70% winrate to say slark is balanced and playable. I think he could use a couple more buffs, but nothing too greedy
Star will be back when he counters the meta of the week heroes. Just like everybody else.
Yeah don't worry valve I like dying every single minute and spending all my gold on detections, buff him up some more. thank you
Oh and force staff could use another nerf too btw
Slark was never a problem in my games, just in need of a few counter-picks. Really in 2k there aren't too many slark players, just slark spammers that thought they were good. With nerfs to battlefury I'm interested to see if midas will become the go-to. Combined with nerfs to tower bounty, fighting is even more attractive for carries, making slark even more viable. I think Slark needs a bit more than these buffs to be seen in pro games, but it's most certainly a step in the right direction.
In other news,
Currently the Enchanted Mango has a 32.57% win rate. This is unacceptable. It is our duty as fellow gamers of the DotA 2 community to put this item in the position of power it deserves. It has been there for us when we needed mana for reincarnation, when we had that clutch nyx stun saving our teammate's life, and when we accidentally used it in fountain before the runes even spawned. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.
Slark is a hero!
@greentoa123 what? magno 32% wr ? just let u know , db calculated items wr IN THHE END OF MATCH
Guys slark is so op right now in 7.14 go get aquila and you can spam your dark pact try it yourself
@EternaLEnVy fangay I'm well aware. That's why you buy them at the end of the match to make a statement - to give the item the regards it's due. Thank you for your concern!
Suck Flark
I feel like this post was made before 7.14. Feel like the meta has shifted. Talking about OD on the up and up when u look at his winrate over the past week its the opposite. Just look at epicentre slark is a hot pick right now with crystallize picking it and VP following suit. I guess this the issue with writing articles like this. The information changes almost daily. Good write up either way.
agree with verified vex comment. OD has fallen off since his peak earlier in April. Still great in pubs though.
Es realmente increible como a pesar del nerf en referencia al hex y falta de mejoras en esto heroe se esta encmaninando a estar en la meta
wonldn't you get tired about the mango win rate stuff =.=
удолите его из доты
ezlark
fck this broken sht
next patch -> nerf regen and welcome back to trench
This broken hero is ripping pubs again every time a see him picked i want to throw up
Simple: before picking just all chat: if you dare to Pick either IO or Slark. I am going for Techies and make your life miserable ez.
counter it with void basic
смотря как играть им, мой друг 12к ммр на нем апнул и забыл про него...
I liked the one that said dota shouldn't balance itself around the pub meta. That one was cute