General DiscussionIf I end up getting stuck mid with slark.

You can skip bottle and get aquila.

its a must imo

just build Bottle, Brown boots, Ring of Aquilla and Poor man's shield, forget about magic wand, that's what i do anyways, then go gank. (get treads after) You'll have those by 8/9 mins at least. Bottle slark mid is just too good, but if you're safe lane, you can get those treads or stat item (ring of aquilla + poor mans shield) nice and early instead of the bottle. I used to never get magic wand, then after 6.84 came out, i saw just much better magic wand is now, but still choose not put it in my Slark build ever since i discovered the wonder of ring of aquilla, an item that i never used to even consider building on him. It's definitely a solid item on him, i just don't like it with Slark, doesn't go well with my Slark style i guess. The fact that magic wand now cost 35 gold less (465) gives +4 stats instead of just plus 3, and cost less ingredients to make does sound tempting though, wouldn't question a person who actually decides to build it on him. If it helps, maybe you're getting a little too aggressive with slark, too early. You're mid, so most likely you're laning against a ranged hero, so chill out for a bit dude until you get some levels or items. A good time to start trying to get agressive for your last hits is when you have bottle charges obviously, so i like to get in there for my list hits or harassing them when the timer is at 1:30, 3:30, 5:30 cause i know the rune will spawn to refill my bottle, i think that's a good tip for any mid player. If you have lots of bottle charges, you should be harassing them just before the rune.

don't get aquila, get a wand.
Bottle suck (unless mid), aquila cost too much

you must get both aquila and bottle

think you wont have slots since mid slark needs pms for sure
pms bottle treads sblade or somethign

aquila is only 1010, and it gives you 4 armor (1 from the ring of aquilla, 2 from the aura armor, and 1 cause of the agility stats) not to mention the nice other stats and mana regen, cough* aura armor/mana regen that benefits your team early and mid game by the way. I feel like it's too good not to get on Slark, but people are welcomed to think otherwise, tons of ways you can build him. Instead of Wand, i get Ring of Aquilla now, unless i feel like doing something like Drums + Wand, i dunno, have fun.

if mid slark, then bottle yeah

matrice what do you think about getting third item moonshard on slark?

^ oh, i get it, cause i'm normal skill, gotcha, but look at my KD though bitch.

and @ matrice, that Slark K/D, i like your style :L Slark brother.

stuck mid? Solo xp, gold and a 1v1 matchup. Oh you poor soul

Slark suck at mid, so yeah poor soul, moonshard so early is bad on slark, cause you will not tank shit, so you cann't benefit from the as.

As, especially on mele, is pretty hard to benefit from. And it's especially hard on mele, cause you need to stay a prolonged period of time to make it worth, so you'll need to tank.

^
Slark is awesome vs any melee mid matchup, but suck hard vs popular range heroes such as sf or qop.

Moonshard is IMO only good in very late game as 6th/7th item.

Also matrice I have no idea how can you play slark without a shadowblade/SE, I tried going early s&y like u but I really suck with that build :(

Depends on situation, you should be flexible and purchase what you feel you need in htis particular game. It may depend not only on the enemy´s mid hero, but also on how he plays (how agressive he is, how good he is in LH/denies, etc.) You have to make a decision yourself for any given circumstances. In order to do it correctly, you just need practice with different itembuilds - it will let you "feel" what certain stuff gives you.

Glimmer cape is much better than shadow blade, given that, there's even less reason than before to go shadow blade...

Not sure you could sustain it early though, it was defnitely OP before it had 130 manacost, now I doubt it's better than sb, though that 16 sec cd seems quite good.

that's why you buy a fucking wand. And not that useless aquila that cann't even cover the mana needed by shadow blade

When I was a, lets say a 3k trash, back in the days of no ranked games in dota, I used to mid slark always, max Pact and go gank on lvl 6 or 7.

I'd not get bottle. Worked well back then, just saying. (not saying its good)

I rekt a lot of Pudges and SFs and Invokers... :D

It's not cause a bunch of people (who don't have a single clue about slark) are buying aquila on slark that it is core on slark...
this shit just remind me how "not taking flak canon on gyrocopter was "core" "

The sole purpose of getting aquila, is to have the mana reg on top of a solide item, since basilus alone suck, but guess what, you don't need mana reg at all, unless playing sb/glimmer, and even for those item, aquila is sooo far from doing the job...

Moreover, here he is middle, so he HAS to get a bottle due to that double rune. so he doesn't even need other mana reg.