Slark's Counterpicks in Dota 2

Slark is a member of the Nightcrawler tribe. 'Stalking in the darkness', he is a dangerous criminal who manages to do the impossible and escape from the underwater prison 'Dark Reef'. To appear out of nowhere, suddenly attack and disappear again into a black cloud of shadows - this is the proven way for Slark to annihilate enemies and survive.

Slark is a versatile Dota 2 hero with a priority melee attack type, ranked in the top-10 in popularity among game fans. The character's main advantage is agility. The most effective style is searching for a suitable target and a one-on-one fight.

Primary abilities of Slark:

• Dark Pact
• Pounce
• Essence Shift
• Depth Shroud
• Shadow Dance

The abilities and characteristics of the hero allow to use "Creeping in the Dark" effectively as a ganker - a player whose main task is to move quickly around the map and eliminate enemies.

Dark Pact

When using Dark Pact, Slark sprays his blood to remove imposed restrictions and damages enemies with a non-targeted radius of damage of 325 units.

The delay of the technique is 1.5 seconds, and the number of stroke repetitions is 10 times with an interval of 0.1 seconds. The consequence for the hero is taking 30% of the damage from the enemy.

The effect of using Dark Pact is visible even when Slark is invisible.

Launching Dark Pact cancels the previous wave of blows or the spoken incantation.

Pounce

Pounce allows the hero to tether the nearest visible or invisible enemy in place with a long leap up to 820 units away, depriving the enemy of the ability to move freely and use movement spells.

The standard movement speed is 933.33; the jump duration is 0.75 seconds.

All trees within a radius of 100 units from the hero's landing point will be destroyed.

Pounce does not work on illusions or invulnerable and hidden creatures, the ability cannot be launched during a jump.

Slark can bypass obstacles, use items, cast spells, and move, but not attack in a jump.

Essence Shift

When attacking with Essence Shift, Slark drains life force and abilities from his opponents and increases his agility by 3 units. The longer the battle goes on, the stronger Slark becomes.

Accumulating Essence Shift costs Slark a certain amount of resources, with the health level dropping the most.

If an enemy dies after the effect is applied within a radius of 300 units, Slark gets a permanent bonus to the agility of "+1".

With Essence Shift, you can steal attributes from allies and clones, not illusions. Slark's death results in the loss of the stolen but does not compensate for the damage to the enemy.

Depth Shroud

Depth Shroud is a targeted ability that allows to hide allies within a radius of 250 in a black disguising cloud for 3 seconds. Enemies see the cloud but cannot discern or detect spellbound heroes except invulnerable ones.

The Depth Shroud effect does not allow using the ability of through-movement through other characters, but it restores health level.

Shadow Dance

Shadow Dance is a transition to a state of invisibility that the enemy cannot remove by attack, spell, use of items or abilities. Instead of the character, the enemy sees a cloud of shadows.

Shadow Dance accelerates health restoration and movement when Slark is out of enemy sight. The launch of the effect interrupts spell casting and does not allow through-movement.

Gaining invulnerability stops the action of Shadow Dance.

In Dota 2, characters' functions depend on their position. The priority can be eliminating enemies or providing the team with what they need for successful gameplay.

In Dota 2, there are 5 team roles:

• Carry – the main combat potential of the team, dealing damage to the enemy on the front line and gaining the maximum amount of resources and experience;
• Mider – killing enemies and providing disruption against enemy resource gathering; Carry insurance at the beginning of the game;
• Offline, Hardlaner – active resistance to the enemy while accumulating gold and items, quick movement to 'hot' zones on the map to assist allies;
• Semi-support – buying wards – items for tracking and spotting the enemy, supporting team members, collecting resources, assisting the offlaner;
• Full-support – support and supply function: assisting allies, primarily the team's Carry, setting wards, buying necessary items and couriers, and protecting the rear.

Slark is most successful in the Carry or Mider positions due to his high mobility, survivability, and ability to deal great damage.

You can pick a counter-pick for any character in the game – a hero whose characteristics and strengths allow maximum efficiency against a chosen esports persona. Slark's counter-pick has abilities which suppress the 'Nightcrawler's abilities.

You should reconsider choosing the Night Stalker to participate in the game if you know that the opposing team consists of characters – counters to the hero.

In the mid

Mid – the central, or middle, line between enemy towers on the game map, through which character progression takes place. The mid is the generally accepted main route for the carry.

One of the counter-pick's tasks is to prevent Slark from developing his potential and accumulating necessary resources. Targets are characters with high skill and illusion creation:

• Anti-Mage – isn't afraid of the Pounce effect and quickly reduces the amount of magical power – mana;
• Phantom Lancer – creates illusions that, when destroyed, don't increase Slark's personal stats but deal damage;
• Bloodseeker – can see and pursue the Night Stalker with low health anywhere on the map, slowing movement and attacking invisibility in the Shadow Dance;
• Naga Siren – creates illusions that Slark cannot kill;
• Luna – capable of quickly inflicting significant damage and controlling the invisible enemy's actions in Shadow Dance;
• Meepo – inflicts significant magic damage in melee and outperforms Slark in initial strength stats.

Heroes who possess immunity to the effect of Slark's abilities successfully withstand him. For example, Dark Pact does not reduce the characteristics of Grim Stroke, Faceless Void, Enigma, or Legion Commander.

In the lane

Lane – any of the 2 sidelines on the map leading to the enemy's tower. Slark may lose on the lane from participants with high health levels, abundant artefacts and strong starting armour, for example, Leshrac and Tiny – characters who are immune to Shadow Dance and control the invisible enemy, capable of inflicting significant damage with a large radius of impact.

Another option is coordinated team interaction. Players often use the '2-1-2' scheme: the carry chooses the main mid-route, while other team members hold positions on the top and bottom map lanes in pairs.

The combined actions of 2 characters can lead to Slark's elimination.

The best counter-picks for Slark are heroes who possess area-of-effect abilities, do not lose control of the enemy's actions when using Dark Pact and can attack an invisible enemy in Shadow Dance:

• Sven - has a vast health reserve and can armour up the whole team;
• Invoker - a versatile counter-pick with a variety of control abilities, single-target and area damage;
• Lion - has immunity to Shadow Dance, effectively controls and decreases enemies' health indicators even as a support role;
• Queen of Pain - escapes from the effect of Pounce using teleportation, can quickly kill Slark in the early game due to high area damage rates;
• Legion Commander - uses Duel, which does not allow the use of items and other effects; rejection of the duel is impossible; for Slark, a battle in most cases is the last one;
• Spectre - quickly finds the hero anywhere on the map, almost elusive in the environment of illusions created;
• Disruptor - uses Glimpse and Static Storm for instant relocation and prohibition of applying damaging effects in a large territory; can control and attack invisible characters.

The characters that fall into Slark's target list:

• Bristleback;
• Abaddon;
• Dragon Knight;
• Arc Warden;
• Warlock;
• Tidehunter;
• Treant Protector;
• Sniper;
• Templar Assassin;
• Wraith King.

Dota 2 enthusiasts are attracted to Slark for his mobility, ability to camouflage, and ability to restore health levels without using additional items.

To enhance the game's effectiveness, it is worth carefully studying the characteristics of the character and watching recordings of Dota 2 professionals' games. Watching videos will help determine an adequate order of action at the start and understand how to increase the usefulness of the hero for the team at any position.