Introduction
“From the deeps, I rise.”
Slardar is a melee strength carry and initiator. His Slithereen Crush active and Bash passive gives him good lockdown, whilst his ultimate, Amplify Damage, supplies sufficient armour reduction on enemies that he is able to slice his way through all but the tankiest heroes even without an enormous amount of items.
You can find Slardar's complete character profile here.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Good AoE stun
- Great lockdown potential
- Incredible armour reduction
- Ultimate gives True Sight; makes Slardar a counter to invis heroes
- A rare case of a carry with initiation capability
- Good chasing potential
- Recent patches have given him several direct and indirect buffs
Cons
- Sprint can be a double edged sword, increasing your damage taken by 15%
- Really needs a Blink Dagger if he’s to initiate
- Item dependent
- No flash-farming capability
- Somewhat luck based
- Not the best of carries
Item Build
Starting Items
Slardar is almost always played either as the safe lane farmer or if necessary as the farming hero in a dual lane scenario
In public matchmaking you’re likely to face a certain degree of pressure on the lane (in contrast to most professional safe lanes) and so a build that errs on the safe side, like the one in the image on the right, is advisable:
- A set of Tangos, a Healing Salve, a Stout Shield, and 2x Iron Branches.
This gives you plenty of starting regen, which should see you through the initial laning phase, a Stout Shield to block harass, and Iron Branches to give you some starting stats.
Alternatively, if you’re confident that either you’ll be facing up against an easy offlane opponent or that your team can keep you well protected in the lane, you can swap the Stout Shield out for a Quelling Blade, and get an extra Iron Branch. This is a greedier starting build but will make last hitting easier.
Early Game
Grab basic Boots of Speed as quickly as possible, and then build into your Power Treads.
Then upgrade any Iron Branches you purchased at the start into a Magic Wand. Now you can start working on your core items.
Core Items
Traditionally Slardar, like a lot of melee safe lane carries, would purchase a Vanguard. As he starts with a Stout Shield, and as the Ring of Health component provides a lot of staying power in the lane, it was strongly favoured as Slardar’s first core item when Dota 2 first came out.
Nowadays Vanguard is not very popular, and build guides that recommend it (including the default in-game one) are considered outdated. Nonetheless, it’s not a bad item to purchase per se, it’s just not considered the most cost efficient item to get. I’ve listed it as situational; if you don’t like (or aren’t very good with) Armlet, but still want some early tankability, you can consider Vanguard.
Talking of Armlet, that is what has come to replace Vanguard as one of Slardar’s core items. Despite the recent nerf, which made Armlet toggling slightly less effective, it’s still very much possible to toggle and still a fantastic item on strength carries. Armlet gives Slardar a nice damage boost, additional armour and health, and health regeneration on top of the active toggle ability.
| Tip: ‘Toggling your Armlet’ is the process by which you turn off and on Armlet’s active ability in order to quickly regenerate your health when you’re low, and effectively save your life when you would otherwise die. The key is to turn Armlet off when you’re at very low health and expect a killing blow, but to do so before such a blow hits. Then straight away turn it back on, so that your health pool regenerates. If timed correctly - between instances of damage - you will regain enough health to survive most auto-attacks/abilities. |
The other core item is Blink Dagger. Slardar is quite rare in that he is a carry that can initiate. That said, his initiation is only really effective if he has a mobility item, hence Blink Dagger core. With it, you Blink on top of an enemy, cast Slithereen Crush, cast Amplify Damage and then go to town with right clicks (after toggling Armlet on, if you have one). This allows you not just to be more effective in engagements and to be an initiator, but will also make you a quick and effective ganker.
As I mentioned in the ‘pros’ section of my ‘pros & cons’ earlier, Slardar received a number of buffs in recent patches, both direct and indirect. The change to Blink Dagger so that it no longer costs mana to cast is one of those indirect buffs. As a hero with a very small mana pool he required a deceptively high level of mana management in the past. Now, however, you can use Blink Dagger at your own discretion without worrying about its impact on your mana pool.
Luxury Items
Black King Bar – BKB is one of the few luxury items you may need to prioritise ahead of an Assault Cuirass (which is your natural go-to next). If the enemy team is able to lock you down hard then consider going Black King Bar as your first luxury item in order to be able to actually get stuck into the fights by using the Spell Immunity active, and so not have your initiation cut short. It naturally makes you tankier and gives you some additional damage as well.
Assault Cuirass – Arguably the best luxury item for Slardar (it’s just that often you need to buy BKB first). Assault Cuirass’s attack speed and minus armour aura both make your carry potential go through the roof when combined with your ultimate. The extra armour will also make you that much more tanky. And the multiple auras benefit your entire team.
Crimson Guard – A good defensive/utility item. If you decide to opt for an early-ish Vanguard then later upgrading it into a Crimson Guard is a good way of buffing your inventory in the late game when Vanguard’s usefulness tapers off and inventory slots are at a premium.
So you get a nice chunk of flat health (250), +2 all stats, +5 armor and 6 health regeneration. On top of that you gain a passive Damage Block ability, which gives an 80% chance to block 20-40 damage, and an active Guard ability, which allows you to create a shield which applies to yourself and allies in a 750 unit radius that grants everyone affected by it +2 armor and a 100% chance to block 50 damage.
Crimson Guard is somewhat comparable to Mekanism, but more suited to heroes with low mana pools (following Patch 6.82’s hefty increase in Mekanism’s mana cost). It performs a similar protective and +armor role (albeit granting damage block rather than direct health). If you fear being unable to sustain a mana pool for Mekanism but want to add utility/tankiness to your teamfight then a Crimson Guard is a great option.
Heart of Tarrasque - Will make you a full on tank. Your health pool will be enormous and you’ll also hit a lot harder. A good luxury item if you feel you’re falling in teamfights too quickly.
Generally I would recommend AC over Heart. AC makes you tankier as well (though not as much so as Heart), but it also helps you team, rather than just yourself.
Desolator – Even more minus armour (you will easily be taking all but the tankiest, most stacked heroes into negative armour territory by now) and a nice chunk of damage at a relatively low cost for a damage item. A great luxury option for Slardar.
Daedalus – Very high damage and a chance to Critical Strike. A good 5th or 6th slot item.
Situational Items
As mentioned above Vanguard is a situational item (or optional at any rate in the early game, instead of Armlet). Another couple of good early items to consider situationally are Drums of Endurance and Vladmir’s Offering.
They’re both really easy to build into and cost-efficient, which makes them solid item choices if you’re struggling to farm or find you’re dying a lot and thus wasting a lot on unreliable gold (since the components for both items come in very cheap, bite-sized pieces they’re especially good options if you find the game to be action packed and full of deaths on both sides as you can buy up the components with any unreliable gold you have prior to dying).
Heaven’s Halberd can also be worth considering. If you find the enemy carry to be a particular problem and is cutting through you with relative ease then Halberd is the ideal pick-up. Not only does it give you a nice chunk of strength and damage, the 25% evasion will allow you to dodge roughly 1 in 4 attacks, providing they don’t have a Monkey King Bar, and the active ‘Disarm’ will buy you 3-4.5 seconds of effective lockdown.
Skill Build
Sprint is skilled at either level 2 or level 4, and is maxed last. This ability gives you a nice boost of movement speed at the cost of taking an additional 15% damage from damage dealt to Slardar. This makes it something of a double edged sword that needs to be used judiciously.
As it no longer has a mana cost as of patch 6.79 it can now be used much more often and is especially useful during lane transitions or when chasing.
Slithereen Crush is always skilled and maxed first. This gives Slardar a 350 AoE stun that also deals 50-200 physical damage and slows units for 20% for 1.6/1.9/2.2/2.5 seconds.
Additional levels increase the ability’s damage and the duration of the stun (at the expense of an increased mana cost), making it by far the best option to max first.
Bash is Slardar’s only passive ability and is usually skilled at either level 2 or level 4, and is more often than not maxed second, after Slithereen Crush. This passive gives Slardar a 10-25% chance to Bash an enemy, dealing bonus physical damage and a 1 second stun to enemy heroes.
A great passive, albeit an unreliable one based on a percentage chance to proc, Bash makes your right clicks much more effective.
Finally, Slardar’s ultimate Amplify Damage is always skilled (levels 6, 11 and 16). When cast on an enemy hero this reduces their armour by 10/15/20 for 25 seconds and provides you and your team with True Sight of them, and as the cooldown is a mere 5 seconds this allows you to cast it on multiple enemies simultaneously.
This will make your physical damage output significantly greater than your actual damage figures would indicate; just make sure you cast it on any enemies you start right clicking on!
Gameplay Tips
Sprint should be used cautiously. Although tempting to use now that it has no mana cost just to increase your movement speed, remember that you will take 15% more damage from any attacks (both physical and magical). Thus it is best used when you do not expect to be focussed, such as when chasing an enemy who is escaping on low health or when rotating between lanes in relative safety.
| Note: The damage dealt by both Slithereen Crush and Bash is physical, meaning that Slardars entire damage output is physical-based. This makes both much stronger in the early game than they would otherwise be, when enemy heroes tend to have woeful levels of physical resistance. It also means that the damage dealt by both goes through spell immunity (although the stun from Slithereen Crush does not, its damage does). |
Amplify Damage has the additional benefit of providing True Sight of any enemies it’s cast on, making it (and Slardar) a great counter to invisibility heroes. Whenever, for example, a Bounty Hunter or Riki break their invisibility to attack make sure to cast this on them before they become invisible again; this will make you a permanent thorn in their side throughout the game.
| Tip: Amplify Damage works on Spell Immune units, but is dispelled if spell immunity is triggered after it is applied. This means it is best used on enemies that have Black King Bar after they trigger it. Remember also that it is blocked by Linken’s Sphere and can be purged (such as by Diffusal Blade). |
The minus armour from Amplify Damage stacks with other sources of armour reduction, such as Desolator and Assault Cuirass, making these two items in particular great on Slardar. With those two items as well as Amplify Damage, Slardar can achieve 31 armour reduction, which is roughly a 325.28% damage increase bonus. Do not under-estimate the impact Amplify Damage can have, make sure you always use it on enemies you’re focussing!
Last Updated - Patch 6.83.
