Is Slark ready to return to the Dota 2 arena?

Slark used to be one of the fierce gods of pubs and destructive in the professional arena. But then the meta was no longer sacred to the gameplay for Slark, with the changes of Hex and Poor Man’s Shield being removed from the game, Slark gradually drifted into oblivion. But with the stats reworked in 7.13, it might be time for Slark to reappear in the meta. Let’s analyze Slark.

What happened?

Starting with patch 7.07, Hex cannot be dispelled. Slark is one of the heroes that took the most damage from this change. While this hero has a few quirks, most of them have to do with the AoE disable, the ability to spot enemies on the map, and pick the right hero to lane with Slark. Often this is not enough to stop Slark, especially when he makes a breakthrough. With quick reflexes, Slark can almost get out of most situations with a Dark Pact. Going to Shadow Blade or Blink makes it difficult for blood intelligence heroes to live long in the game. Heroes like Shadow Shaman and Lion are sure to die if slark jumps in. Thanks to the changed Hex, things are different now.

Shadow Shaman and Lion can stun Slark with Hex first. They are no longer afraid that Slark will turn on the Dark Pact first. Another part is the ability to jump in and out of teamfight easily, if you know how to combine cooldown between Dark Pact and Pounce, prolong the combat phase until the opponent falls. Now that Dark Pact can’t fight Hex, Slark has to time BKB and Shadow Dance properly.

Looking for balance

Slark is still quite strong despite Pounce’s damage reduced from 280 to 160 in many previous updates. Note that during that time, in addition to Dark Pact being immune to almost anything, Pounce also dodges projectile and jumps despite being rooted. The opposing team needs more flexible heroes, but with this ‘champion’ skill set, Slark becomes very difficult to catch.

Going back to the present, despite being buffed, Slark probably still can’t appear in the meta. Slark can’t match Necros and Venomancer due to the raging push meta. So, if Slark can farm well in the early game, everything in the later stages will still work on his team’s high ground.

Slark’s weakness was somewhat reduced in patch 7.12, thanks to a significant increase in healing from 1.5 to 2.75. Slark’s win rate also increased a bit – this is an optimistic sign for Slark. At the same time, Valve offered a few minor upgrades to the hero early in the game. Slark gains Strength at 7.06 and at level 10 Strength bonus talent, buffs again at 7.10, from 8 to 10.

With patch 7.13, Slark is the hero that inadvertently benefited from the reworked stats. With the Primary attribute now having more weight, heroes who can change their stats will benefit from this change. OD is one of the heroes that benefits the most and so is Slark. Slark gains armor and 25% attack speed for each agility point, as well as steals more HP from Strength heroes.

While Slark is still having issues in the laning phase, Valve is clearly trying to get Slark back. Maybe people are still not ready to embrace Slark but with the latest patch, Slark may have found his balance.

Source: Dotabuff