General DiscussionSlardar as a carry?

The amount of Damage a properly 6slotted Slardar can put out is ridiculous. Although his farming speed is slow, and he has a nice peak in the early midgame when you obtain a Blink Dagger and just run around murdering people.

If you were playing offlane I would assume a normal build would be somewhere around:

Stout Shield -> Tango x8
Brownboots -> OoV
Possible Power treads, or rush Blink. Depends on situation and farm
This into BKB -> AC -> something something.

I'm sure if you're playing Offlane Slardar something like Blink - > Crimson - > Forcestaff could work too. Just provide your ultimate everywhere, blink in stun, forcestaff out, come in again. Although I'm not sure if it would be worth playing like this, instead of just picking something like Centaur, which probably provides less damage amp for the team, but way higher utility. Sand King/Earthshaker can also fulfill the role better than Slardar.

You probably have to put something around Slardar. Like Windrunner or Void. Some hard hitting rightclicker that will get a lot out of your ulti, or to shut down hard tanky heroes like Bristleback

hes bestcase semicarry still falls off heavily lategame

That does not mean you can't win lategame with Slardar though. The main reason Slardar falls off so hard lategame is cause he doesn't keep up in farm

You can actually play him as a carry with the right team combo and items. You can get a dagger into armlet or deso into ac and you will melt down people fast. Though you have to be aggresive and finding kills all over the place. If you farm 30 minutes and try to out carry people you will most of the time lose.

^ yes he's a legit carry if he has farm but he only gets farmed off of snowballing since he farms creeps so slow.

Id say its a good pick up in the safelane in some games where you need a fast blink, just like safelane huskar, you secure armlet and have a farmer mid like sf and once you get armlet and morbid you can finish the game, if you fail, you got your mid sf/tinker that can catch up in farm. Slardar just needs tread and blink imo. If you dont snowball with that, pick a farming carry.

Once you get blink you are pretty much done with farming, just 5-man-doto and try to win asap. Following blink I would say armlet/vanguard->bkb->ac, deso is also ok when more carry oriented. For more utility, go medallion/halberd (force not that good imho)

Also, when going offlane, never forget your mango :)

no even with farm slardar is still super inferior to real carries

u need another real core when u have slardar as core to compensate for what he miss if u enter 6 sloted game stage

Slardar is a 1v1 god with bash and that armor reduction, but it's a lot like wraith king or lifestealer late, they just get kited to shit. Think sven with zero aoe, how bad would that hero be as a real carry? Plus his sprint makes him take a ton of dmg, so his anti kite ability makes him squishy. I don't really think farm is the issue, I think that once people can out live you and you can kill them in a bash duration you get heavily disabled and can't do anything.

I remember LodA from Alliance playin a decent slardar a while ago. pos 1 though. I suggest u check out his replays w slardar. http://www.dotabuff.com/players/101495620/matches?date=&hero=slardar&skill_bracket=&lobby_type=&game_mode=&region=&faction=&duration=&timezone=Europe%2FBerlin

Slardar is only good in dual or tricore lineups or his ulti will just be a waste.

First of all he is good in dual or solo. and despite ppl telling to go blink, go sb into demon edge, dude he will transform into carry much easier and with sb you can gank even more efficient. like i always like to get sb then rush mid or enemy jungle, secure a kill and then tp out.

@vaga PLITZ
Dude, slardar carry really depends on the situation, you said he will fall off late game but i dont agree. late game slardar is like ursa late game, you just have to reach the enemy. first of all with right item combination which is usually deso +ac+ulti which work even with linken since ulti is 4 sec on cd, you do massive amount of physical damage. in some games i even went mask of madness +armlet +sb for him. pure gank potential for him. you can kill almost all heros in 1 stun. solo rosh. i don't agree that he falls really hard. he can out carry most of the current carries.

Really wish they made sprint a toggleable ability on slardar, with some balancing ofc, seems like it'd make him a top tier pick

I think a mom pickup on him is quite good, faster farm can melt heroes pretty fast, just make sure not to activate sprint while in mom active. A mid game item would be blink, mom, treads ,crit and bkb

Lots of interesting suggestions here guys, thanks for the input

"Dude, slardar carry really depends on the situation, you said he will fall off late game but i dont agree. late game slardar is like ursa late game, you just have to reach the enemy. first of all with right item combination which is usually deso +ac+ulti which work even with linken since ulti is 4 sec on cd, you do massive amount of physical damage. in some games i even went mask of madness +armlet +sb for him. pure gank potential for him. you can kill almost all heros in 1 stun. solo rosh. i don't agree that he falls really hard. he can out carry most of the current carries."

And that's the issue, late game you won't reach those targets, bkb will be down to 5 seconds, enemies will have ghost secpters and scythes. You're right he's exactly like ursa in that situation, except that early game ursa needs even less farm and can rosh a lot sooner.

slardar is a really good carry but the problem is slardar needs another farmer carry in his team like sf gyro or something
i really like to play slardar mid with his great stun heros like sf qop cant really harras you at mid and once you get level 6 u can easly solo kill them

but if you pick slardar while your mid is invoker puck pudge zeus vs sf or other farmer carries your gonna lose the game at late game its simple enemy team has 2 carry and slardar is not hard enogh to win against 2 carry once sf get skadi your gonna be in a big trouble so i think slardar should play mid if there is another safe lane carry or he should play safe lane if there is farmer mid carry like sf or gyro or viper

Slardar mid... yeah no.

slardar is good in minus armor strats, else he just lacks carry potential imo

Slardar as position 4 might be a good idea, get stun and sprint proceed to smoke mid and redo step 1

slardar is a pos 3 or pos 4, totally garbadge as #1, and not even decent in #2.

Not even to mention, that he is outclassed by every stunner that can go solarcrest...

4 likes to play slardar.

@matrice

watch the replay of this game in ti5 group stage: http://www.dotabuff.com/matches/1665990348
Reasons why slardar's team lost are utter misplays (while having the advantage - typical navi style) and comeback mechanics.
Anyways, the game shows that slardar can be very decent as core. esp. as a physical counter to current hybrid meta heros, which will go bkb. Best in combination w a 2nd physical dmg dealer like sf.

slardar is ofc somewhat situational and not fotm or op, but still gets his work done.
but whatever mate, u dont care about my opinion and i dont care about urs, cheers.

Slardar is always picked with another carry anyways and he works great as a combo with a physical dps carry . I am sure hed fall off as a solo hard carry but I think most people understand that he isn't a solo hard carry even in pubs . Someone said he coud only be in 4 or 3 role but I think he could safelane if your mid can farm well as mentioned above , if not he could be a strong late game offlaner

Yes. PT-Vanguard-Desolator-Daedalus-Tarascue-And 6 item as situation

In my experience, Madness + Armlet + Amplify damage really helps in cleaning up in teamfights. It rapes those supports too. The farm is slow but when you can position yourself properly in teamfights he makes a really darn good midgame carry. From that point you could either transition into more specific roles. Well, that is my opinion after playing with him for a while.

madness plus sprint will make you die in 3 hits.

@hushhush, you know that you putted one of the worst lineup ever possible versus a slardar, combined to one of the best lineup possible with a slardar ?

4 garbadge heroes against a slardar. only viper is somehow decent against slardar in that pick, but has mostlikely better to use ulty on sf, otherwise sf will 3 hit gyro under slardar's ult.
If at least puck had agahnims, we could have say slardar's life would have been a bit difficult.

Put any single carry in that easy position, he'll win straight.

Ps: an heroes that need an other carry to fonctionnate, isn't a carry, it's at most a core or a semi carry. Also, a carry, that have hard time in laning phase, can recover, slardar cann't. Even ck, with his snail farming speed (slardar is a least turtle speed) can recover, thx to insane steroid.