Dota 2 Slardar Guide

Dota 2 Slardar Guide by Samwell93

I was very excited to read the Shifting Snows update and lo and behold I spotted a huge Slardar buff. The cooldown for Amplify Damage was halved to 5 seconds. Slardar has carried me to where I am today, I think the hero is very powerful and often played sub-optimally. As I write this I am in the top 10 of Slardars Credentials: http://www.dotabuff.com/players/55244753

Typical item builds:

Wtf are you making? Shadow Blade? Reported. Why do you almost always go Shadow Blade?

Slardar has multiple synergies with Shadow Blade. I am not at all saying Blink Dagger is a bad item on Slardar (or anyone), in fact you can very practically go both blink and Shadow Blade on Slardar. Reasoning:

• When built offensively, Slardar’s solo killing potential is tremendous
• The SB crit can be used outside of initiating in conjunction with Amp Damage for a massive hit
• The affordable attack speed synergizes well with Bash.
• Slardar runs at 522 with level 3 Sprint and Shadow Blade active, the cooldown for SB and Sprint are identical (soon not to be though)
• Shadow Blade is now only 2800 gold in 6.83

One of the things that confuses me most about how people typically itemize Slardar is their undervaluing of attack speed on the hero. It’s considered a complete no-brainer to build MoM and Mjollnir on Faceless Void. Yet, when I build SB and Mjollnir on Slardar I often get flamed. I know that Slardar is a strength hero, but he doesn’t need to be built completely tanky. Slardar is an extremely strong late game carry.

Why is Slardar a good carry?

• A bash skill that pierces BKB and does great damage.
• Fantastic movespeed with Sprint [always take at least 3 points in Sprint before taking any in Bash] that allows you to utilize all your attack speed without being kited too hard (at least after BKB).
• Undeniably one of the best stat-gains in the game
• Amp damage goes through BKB
• Amazing vs typically terrifying tanks like Death Prophet, Bristleback, Viper, Huskar, and Centaur.
• Will destroy most other melee carries in a man-fight. [I have some great clips of killing Lifestealer and Spectre and such while at 15% HP to their 100%, these were close games as well].
• Offers amazing Roshan potential. You can solo it with Vlads as soon as you have ult.

I posted this earlier today and am now reposting it to fix formatting, but in the brief minutes it was up I got the following comment more than once and I figured I would add a small bit addressing it.

This hero is shit. He can’t farm.

You will notice in many of my carry Slardar games I go for a Midas. In several of those games it was sold before the end. I fully recognize Slardar has below average farming capabilities but there are numerous ways to ameliorate this that also compliment the hero.

• Play Slardar as support. He doesn’t need farm, so who cares if he has a hard time farming anyway.
• Buy a Midas and/or Maelstorm/Vlads. I go for at least one of these items in about 99% of my Slardar games. I also get QB in 99% of my carry Slardar games (and not just because I cannot last hit without it)
• Farm hereos by building agressive early items like Shadow blade, Treads, and Wand. Oh, this is something I do. Look at that.

I think those of you who feel Slardar cannot farm, have not played him outside of the typical (and in my opinion generally suboptimal) Blink>Vanguard>BKB>AC build. If you go this build, you will have difficulty keeping up in farm and cannot find easy solo kills. I believe that is this build that started the myth that Slardar falls off in the late-game. When I pick this hero as our carry in CM, I sometimes get complaints or comments that we cannot go late due to our carry Slardar, but Slardar is a monstrous manfighter who, with Amp Damage, enables the rest of your team to also provide meaningful right-click.

I will give more specific examples in the video, but that’s enough for now. Lets go over support Slardar.

Why would I play Slardar as support?

• A cheap solution vs annoying invis hereos
• Stun has been buffed to be good at lower levels
• Amp damage CD reduced to only 5 seconds
• Movespeed is outrageously valuable on a support in the early game especially.
• Ogre was nerfed so you don’t have to feel like Slardar is completely outclassed by him
• You have to be prioritized unless the enemy team all wants to be Amp Damaged. Being a tanky, low-farm fish, you are not really a priority target, forcing the enemy team to inefficiently use their skills/DPS.

I hope you all will try playing the Slithereen Slardude soon. If you thought getting permabashed by Faceless Void was enjoyable, then you’ll love getting permabashed by Slardar too.