The Undisputed Truth

Well, seems like just the other day we were all clamoring for DotA 6.60 to be released, now 6.65 is here.

Full changelog is here:

Interestingly we have 2 more new heroes : Slark the Murloc Nightcrawler and Kaldr the Ancient Apparition

A summary of Slark :

Range: 128
Movement Speed: 305
Hero Type: Agility

Agility: 21 + 2.0
Strength: 21 + 1.0
Intelligence: 16 + 1.6

Dark Pact:
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Slark calls upon deities of the swamps to seal a dark pact. Sacrificing some of his lifeblood, Slark is redeemed of all negative effects. After 2 seconds, a dark wave of destruction emits from the Nightcrawler, dealing damage to himself as well as all nearby enemies.

Damage: 75/150/225/300
AoE: 325
Manacost: 55/50/45/40
Cooldown: 10

Deals half the damage to you immediately as part of the cost.

Pounce:
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Surges directly forward and latches on to the first enemy he hits, binding it with chains of darkness. The enemy is unable to move more than 275 distance away from the point of impact for 3.5 seconds.

Pounce Range: 400/500/600/700
Pounce Damage: 50/75/100/125
Leash Range: 275
Leash Duration: 3.5

Cooldown: 16
Manacost: 75

Note: Moves forward in the direction it is looking, this is not a target position cast.

Essence Shift:
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Passive.

Reciting ancient Nightcrawler incantations, Slark enchants his blade to steal the power and courage from his enemies. Every time Slark hits an enemy hero, he steals 1 point from all attributes and 1 additional from the main attribute of that enemy hero while Slark gains 4 points of Agility.

Duration: 15/30/45/60

Shadow Dance:
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Has an active and a passive portion.

Covers himself with a dark smoke, he becomes invisible and does not reveal himself while attacking or casting spells for 5.5 seconds.

Passively increases Nightcrawler’s movement speed and regeneration when he is out of sight of hostile units. Has a 0.7 delay when activated or deactivated.

Movement Speed: 30/35/40%
Health Regeneration: 2/3/4%

Active duration: 5.5 seconds
Cooldown: 25
Manacost: 120

From my understanding Slark is a Ursa/Naix type hero. He comes in, kills you within 5 seconds, and runs.

Dark Pact shakes off negative buffs at the cost of 150hp when maxed out, and also gives you AOE dmg when casted.

Pounce is your disable, once you pull this off on a hero….its LOL. Its Storm’s, Akasha’s and Magina’s worst nightmare because they can’t just cheaply blink away, they are constrained to a small area close to you forcing them to either fight or be killed.

Essence Shift is the most damaging skill. Its a MAIN ATTRIBUTE STEAL. Each hit drains the main attribute of the hero and gives you +1 AGI. Therefore its probably one of the best ANTI-TANK/STR skill in DotA. Each hit won’t just reduce HP, but STR as well, which is itself HP…so…it just fucks shit up basically.

Shadow Dance - IMBA bullshit.

Passive portion : Once you’re out of sight of enemies your HP regen is increased by this crazy amount, and you move much faster, even at just level 1. Perfect for running away.

Active portion : You turn “invisible” (there’s a huge black trail of smoke so they can see that you’re coming, just can’t hit you without Dust/Ward/Gem) and you can cast spells, attack or whatever.

Skill build for Slark :

Max out Pounce ASAP. Then Essence Shift, one level of Dark Pact, one level of Shadow Dance, then just go stats from there.

I don’t see the need for keeping the essence shift bonus for over 15 seconds unless you’re gonna go up against the whole team, and in that case stats will help you more in that area

Dark Pact is cool for the added burst damage after you pull off Pounce, so you can get that instead of stats if you prefer

Pounce - no explanation necessary

Shadow Dance - level one is enough, really, don’t be a bastard and max it out early.

Item build :

STR Treads

Mask of Madness

Yasha/Manta

BKB

Butterfly

or

STR Treads

Sange and Yasha

Vladimir’s Offering

BKB

Butterfly
STR Treads because your HP is sucky

Mask of Madness is essential. Attack speed is more important than AGI for Slark, because you’re gonna get that with each attack, lifesteal is also nice.

Yasha for even more MS when you’re running away, Manta for Essence Shift on the images (not too sure if it works, but its better than just a Yasha)

BKB if you’re going up against casters/disablers.

Butterfly for the evasion and AGI/AS boost.Sange and Yasha is great for the MS/AS/Maim

Vlad’s so you can get the lifesteal without orb-cancelling

All in all, Slark is cool, I don’t know if he’ll be picked competitively, but he’s definitely a welcome addition to the pub scene.