Dota 2 Heroes – An Introduction to Slardar the Slithereen Guard

By: Jason McCarthy

  |   August 15th, 2012   |  

Uncategorized

Slardar the Slithereen Guard is a strength melee hero whose main advantage comes from his ability to turn tanky heroes into squishy heroes.

He can be played as both a side-carry and an initiator, with the skills at his disposal synergising extremely well with both the roles. Even though his skills are simple, they make him more than capable of striking fear in the heart of enemies. The simplicity of his kills make him an ideal choice for players who are still relatively new to Defense of the Ancients (Dota) 2.

Slardar’s first skill is named Sprint. When activated, it increases his movement speed for a set duration of time. At Level 4, Sprint buffs his move speed by 40% for 20 seconds. In many cases, this will allow you to move at maximum speed. The one catch in the skill is that when the skill is activated, you will take 15% bonus damage.

Slithereen Crush is Slardar’s second ability. It is an active ability that will stun and deal damage to enemies present within a somewhat small radius of him. At its maximum level, the skill will damage units for 200 physical damage as well as stun them for a 2.5 seconds duration. After the stun, enemy units will be additionally slowed for 20% for 2 seconds.

Slithereen Guard’s third ability is named Bash. It is a passive skill that will give his attacks a chance to stun enemies for 1 second as well as deal bonus damage. At Level 4, Bash will give Slardar a 25% chance to stun his targets and deal an extra 70 damage.  The thing to know about this skill is that the bash will go through magic immunity.

Slardar’s ultimate is named Amplify Damage. It is one of the most simple yet powerful abilities in the game. With a mere 25 mana, Slardar can reduce the armour of a single target by 16 for a 25-second duration. As if this was not enough, you will also gain True Sight on the enemy during the duration for which the skill lasts. This can turn the tankiest of foes into squishy mess. Amplify Damage will go through magic immunity and will also work on Roshan, making it much easier to take him down in a hurry.

As mentioned before, Slardar is a pretty flexible hero who can be given a variety of roles. With high mobility, powerful physical attacks and skills with low cool-down, the enemy has every reason to feel insecure and vulnerable in his presence. If given enough farm, he becomes an extremely hard hero to kill and an even tougher hero to evade once he starts chasing you. If normally takes more than just one hero to kill Slardar as his skills make him an excellent one-on-one fighter.