I've honestly never played Slark. He makes me think he's like Riki where his only role is to annoy new players so I'm curious as to why you think he's one of the best designed heroes.
Well, he's a ganking semi carry that's also kinda a full carry in the right circumstances, and matches up well late game against even some of the best heroes despite being best known for snowballing. His entire skillset is oriented around the idea of no down time. You should be getting treads, either a basi/aquila or bottle, maybe one fighting item then start roaming around getting shit done. I mentioned his large amount of builds, and it's true. You can go shadowblade first, and wreck with it. You can go blink first, and wreck with it. You can go drums, and wreck with it. You can go bkb first if you have to, and wreck with it. You can go Yasha first, and wreck with it. You can go Midas first, and wreck with it. Any of these would be common first items depending on the player. Other heroes can get more than 1 build, but they are often situational. Whereas if you wanted to get into that with Slark, you can add Skadi first, orchid first and even vlads first. And from there it just gets better. You could build different combinations of the mentioned items for your overall build, but also strongly consider abyssal, butterfly, Daedalus, Manta, S&Y, Hex, Halberd, Diffusal, whatever. He has incredible utility due to the fact that he can be built to be relevant at any stage of the game and provide either damage or lockdown.
As for his playstyle, it's about always being active. His ult means that you can dive with impunity, and the passive means you can enter a fight, keep going till you get low, sneak off, regen up, then go back in, the ultimate regoose hero. Pounce is a medium skill cap ability that makes you feel pro without actually being super hard to hit, dark pact has a very high skill cap once you start predicting the enemies reactions, when they will stun etc. You are a dewarding machine, able to find out wherever the enemy has vision, so people who enjoy the more tactical side of the game will like him. And finally, the way his stat steal works encourages a constant search for ganks. You use the stats from the last kill to look for a new one. In long protracted team fights you can steal enough stats to hit like an absolute monster.
And did I mention he can go 1v5, kill 2 people, and get out safely when he's farmed? And that dark pact is actually a pretty good aoe farming tool so he can farm fast even when behind? And he works offlane, mid or safelane? And his
voice work is amazing?
What a fucking hero.
