Agility · Melee
Slips in and out of skirmishes
Win rate
49.8%
B across all ranks
Pick rate
14.2%
of public matches
Public picks
480.7K
in the sample
Pro scene
19
40 bans · 58% win rate
Bars start at 50%. Sample sizes: Herald 7.6K · Guardian 28.1K · Crusader 58.8K · Archon 104.3K · Legend 134K · Ancient 84.5K · Divine+ 63.4K.
Last 6 days
50.0%
Bought before the horn
Iron Branch
Circlet
Tango
Faerie Fire
Quelling Blade
Magic Stick
The first minutes
Boots of Speed
Power Treads
Blade of Alacrity
Soul Ring
Bracer
Core items
Diffusal Blade
Aghanim's Scepter
Consecrated Wraps
Blink Dagger
The full build
Black King Bar
Eye of Skadi
Disperser
Aghanim's Scepter
Demon Edge
Skull Basher
Most-bought items for Slark in OpenDota’s sample of parsed public matches (1,751 purchases counted). Bars compare each item with the most-bought one in its phase. The percentage is the win rate in games where Slark bought the item by minute 30 (green or red when it is clearly above or below Slark’s average). Teams that are ahead buy items sooner, so a high number shows the item goes with winning games, not that it causes the win. Items with fewer than 100 games show no percentage. Cheap components are hidden from the mid and late game.
Diffusal Blade
514 games
Perseverance
87 games
Power Treads
1,637 games
Perseverance
95 games
Diffusal Blade
607 games
Aghanim's Scepter
251 games
Blink Dagger
87 games
Shadow Blade
106 games
Eye of Skadi
61 games
Ultimate Orb
257 games
Disperser
90 games
Final items compared within the same purchase window (at least 60 games each), so they are not simply ranked by how late or expensive they are. Still a correlation: a team that is far ahead can buy anything sooner.
55
Use: Plant Tree: Targets the ground to plant a happy little tree that lasts for 20 seconds.
155
90
Use: Devour: Consumes a target tree to gain 7 health regeneration for 16 seconds. Consuming an Ironwood Tree doubles the heal duration. Comes with 3 charges.
65
Use: Imbue: Instantly restores 85 health.
5s
Use: Imbue. Instantly restores 85 health.
100
Active: Chop Tree: Destroy a target tree.
4s
Active: Chop Tree. Destroy a target tree.
Passive: Quell. Increases attack damage against non-hero units by 8 for melee heroes, and 4 for ranged.
200
Active: Energy Charge: Instantly restores 15 health and mana per charge stored. Max 10 charges. Gains a charge whenever a visible enemy within 1200 range uses an ability.
17s
Active: Energy Charge. Instantly restores 15 health and mana per charge stored. Max 10 charges. Gains a charge whenever a visible enemy within 1200 range uses an ability.
500
Movement speed bonuses from multiple pairs of boots do not stack.
1,400
Active: Switch Attribute: Switches between +10 Strength, +10 Agility, or +10 Intelligence. Movement speed bonuses from multiple pairs of boots do not stack.
Win rate when bought52.6% · 1,690 games
Active: Switch Attribute. Switches between +10 Strength, +10 Agility, or +10 Intelligence. Movement speed bonuses from multiple pairs of boots do not stack.
1,000
805
Active: Sacrifice: Consume 170 health to temporarily gain 170 mana. Lasts 10 seconds.
30s
Active: Sacrifice. Consume 170 health to temporarily gain 170 mana. Lasts 10 seconds. If the mana gained cannot fit in your mana pool, it creates a buffer of mana that will be used before your mana pool.
505
2,500
Active: Inhibit: Targets an enemy, slowing it for 4 seconds.
Win rate when bought53.5% · 1,485 games
15s25
Active: Inhibit. Targets an enemy, slowing it for 4 seconds.
Passive: Manabreak. Each attack burns 40 mana from the target, and deals 1 physical damage per burned mana. Illusions do not burn mana.
4,200
Passive: Ability Upgrade: Upgrades the ultimate, and some abilities, of all heroes.
Win rate when bought58.5% · 986 games
2,600
Passive: Hallowed: Gain a charge every 4s, up to a maximum of 3 charges. Upon gaining a charge, your movement speed is increased by 15% for 5s.
Passive: Hallowed. Gain a charge every 4s, up to a maximum of 3 charges. Upon gaining a charge, your movement speed is increased by 15% for 5s. Whenever you take damage from a player-controlled source or Roshan, consume all charges to gain an all damage barrier for 5s that absorbs 120 damage per charge (360 max).
2,250
Active: Blink: Teleport to a target point up to 1200 units away. Blink Dagger cannot be used for 3 seconds after taking damage from an enemy hero or Roshan.
Win rate when bought69.4% · 216 games
15s
Active: Blink. Teleport to a target point up to 1200 units away. Blink Dagger cannot be used for 3 seconds after taking damage from an enemy hero or Roshan.
4,050
Active: Avatar: Applies a basic dispel. Grants 60% magic resistance and immunity to reflected and pure damage.
Win rate when bought57.7% · 246 games
95s50
Active: Avatar. Applies a basic dispel. Grants 60% magic resistance and immunity to reflected and pure damage. For the duration of the effect, any negative effect from enemy spells has no effect. Duration: 9 / 8 / 7s Dispel Type: Basic Dispel
5,900
Passive: Cold Attack: Attacks lower enemy movement by -25% if they are melee and -50% if they are ranged.
Passive: Cold Attack. Attacks lower enemy movement by -25% if they are melee and -50% if they are ranged. Attacks also lower enemy attack speed by -25% and Health Restoration by 50%. Lasts for 3 seconds.
6,100
Active: Suppress: Dispels both the wearer and the target. Enemy targets are slowed for 4 seconds.
Win rate when bought71.6% · 102 games
15s75
Active: Suppress. Dispels both the wearer and the target. Enemy targets are slowed for 4 seconds. Allied targets gain bonus movespeed and 40% slow resistance for 4 seconds. Caster is always granted the ally benefit on cast. Both movement speed reduction and increase start at 100% and gradually decrease to 0% over the course of the buff duration. Dispel Type: Basic Dispel
Passive: Manabreak. Each attack burns 40 mana from the target, and deals 1 physical damage per burned mana. Illusions do not burn mana.
2,200
Win rate when bought62.6% · 131 games
2,875
Passive: Bash: Grants melee heroes a 25% chance on hit to stun the target for 1.2 seconds and deal 100 bonus physical damage. Bash chance for ranged heroes is 10%.
2.3s
Passive: Bash. Grants melee heroes a 25% chance on hit to stun the target for 1.2 seconds and deal 100 bonus physical damage. Bash chance for ranged heroes is 10%.
After a short delay, Slark sacrifices some of his life blood, purging most negative debuffs and dealing damage to enemy units around him and to himself. Slark only takes 30% of the damage. DISPEL TYPE: Strong Dispel
Slark leaps forward, leashing and applying Essence Shift stacks to the first hero he connects. That unit can only move a limited distance away from Slark's landing position.
Aghanim’s ScepterProvides charges and increases range.
Slark slices the target with his salty shiv, stealing a portion of the target's movement speed, Health Regen and Health Restoration. These effects stack independently.
Creates a cloud at the target location. All allies inside the radius are hidden and affected by Shadow Dance.
Slark steals the life essence of enemy heroes with his attacks, draining 1 of each of their attributes and converting them to bonus 3 Agility. If Slark kills an affected enemy hero, he permanently steals 1 Agility.
When not visible to the enemy team, Slark passively gains bonus movement speed and health regeneration. If Slark is damaged by a neutral unit, the passive movement and health regeneration bonuses are lost for 2 seconds. When activated, Slark hides himself in a cloud of shadows, becoming immune to detection. Attacking, casting spells, and using items will not reveal Slark, but enemies can see the cloud itself.
+1.5s Shadow Dance Duration
25+1 Agility gain/stolen per Essence Shift Stack
+20s Essence Shift Duration
20+100 Shadow Dance Attack Speed
+70 Dark Pact Damage
15+30 Shadow Dance Regen
-0.75s Dark Pact Cooldown
10+0.5s Pounce Leash
Strength20+2.1/lvlAgility21+1.5/lvl
Intelligence16+1.9/lvlLittle known to the inhabitants of the dry world, Dark Reef is a sunken prison where the worst of the sea-bred are sent for crimes against their fellows. It is a razor barbed warren full of murderous slithereen, treacherous Deep Ones, sociopathic meranths. In this dim labyrinth, patrolled by eels and guarded by enormous anemones, only the vicious survive. Pitched into Dark Reef for crimes unknown, Slark spent half a lifetime without kin or kindness, trusting no one, surviving through a combination of stealth and ruthlessness, keeping his thoughts and his plans to himself. When the infamous Dark Reef Dozen plotted their ill-fated breakout, they kept their plans a perfect secret, murdering anyone who could have put the pieces together--but somehow Slark discovered their scheme and made a place for himself in it. Ten of the Dozen died in the escape attempt, and two were captured, hauled back to Dark Reef, then executed for the entertainment of their fellow inmates. But Slark, the unsung thirteenth, used the commotion as cover and slipped away, never to be caught. Now a furtive resident of the carnivorous mangrove scrub that grips the southern reach of Shadeshore, Slark remains the only successful escapee from Dark Reef.
Win rates come from public Dota 2 matches (OpenDota), 3.4M matches counted, refreshed Oct 24, 2026. Tiers use the win rate in the chosen rank: S 52.5%+, A 51%+, B 49%+, C 47.5%+, D below; heroes with too few games are left unrated. Hero data and patch notes are Valve’s. Builds Forge is an unofficial fan site, not affiliated with Valve.