How is Slither "good"?

[F1]

Note: I am NOT trolling
People say that slither is good, I just can't see the reason why. His wards are good and hard to kill(also good for scouting) but I feel is easily countered by PSupply. His toxicity seems...weak. The spray is good for slowing for dmg but I feel it does nothing during late game. His ult seems subpar that loses it's effectiveness quickly. Can anyone give reasons why he is "good" and the proper item/skill build to maximize his potential? thanks!

[LegoPirate]

toxicity stops 100% of hp regen. including well regen. he has a ton of slows and alot of early game DPS and ganking potential.

hes def a high teir hero atm.

[F1]

How do you skillbuild him? It seems all his 3 skills are very deadly early game.

[arcainic]

Slither is my fav hero....

Well if you go poison spray route, you'll net some early kills for your lanemate or yourself early game.

he has 3 slows, the spray, the passive, and from wards

With wards lvl 4 he can dish 3 of them out at once, and each deal around 40 damage, that's 120 damage. Now if you max wards first as slither, you probably deal less than your 3 wards together at lvl 7.

at lvl 7 it's extremely hard for enemy team to stop you from pushing down the towers if your team backs you up. (a few ranged nukes to clear out the oncoming creeps and the tower's good as gone) (though for an easier time in lane i recommend maxing out poison spray first)

I use to max wards first, but maxing poison spray seems to make me beefy faster... duno if my opponents or bad or whatnot...

here's my skillbuild

1) if i aim to get first blood at lvl 1 (ie lane with swift)

1-poison spray
2-toxicity
3-wards
4+max poison spray
6-ult
7-poison spray
8+max wards
11-ult
15+toxicity
16-ult

2) if i'm just going to harrass
1-toxicity
2-wards
3-poison spray
4- either max poison spray first or max wards

toxicity i only need lvl 1 of for the extra slow.

oh i usually have a great time laning with slither, so i build a nome and steamboots early with no problems, usually a powersupply too, then dps items.
i dont' get shroud, although i've seen some ppl use it against noobs with great effect.

[apot]

reach lv7, spam wards, free tower
repeat
win

[etspaceman]

My build for Slither is normally this:

Spray
Wards
Wards
Spray
Wards
Ult
Wards
Spray
Spray
... (Max out Toxicity and Ult).

He's pretty effective no matter how you build him though. You can build him with Spray/Toxicity early on for harassment/ganking potential as well, and still prove to be an extreme force early game (though, the same slow is applied with the spray regardless of the level, so I prefer maxing wards over the spray).

[arcainic]

i find it a lot easier to kill enemy heroes by maxing spray first then wards, if you max wards first, spray just feels like a useless skill by then dps wise

toxicity early is great for harrass, slows a bit too, i always get lvl 1 of it early, it adds like 45 damage to each of your autoattack, if you stagger your 2 lane opponents, it great harrass

[S_SienZ]

My build : Toxicity at lvl 1 and alternating between Spray and Wards, giving priority to Spray and getting ult whenever I can .

[Vodka]

If you want to gank with slither, max spray and get toxicity.

If you want to just push, go one point in spray and toxicity, and max wards.

If you wana be a hybrid, go 1/2/2 for whichever skills you want.

[arcainic]

you get a lot of kills going gank build slither, i built up nomes a lot faster than just pure ward build, if i maxed ward first i usually underfarmed, with having to buy and upgrade couriers and wards in MM games

[BarneyGumbal]

If I'm playing as a ganker, I'll max Spray first. Otherwise, I tend to max wards by 7 and sit at towers farming/pushing with the wards and a bottle+courier.

[nimarq]

Note: I am NOT trolling
People say that slither is good, I just can't see the reason why. His wards are good and hard to kill(also good for scouting) but I feel is easily countered by PSupply. His toxicity seems...weak. The spray is good for slowing for dmg but I feel it does nothing during late game. His ult seems subpar that loses it's effectiveness quickly. Can anyone give reasons why he is "good" and the proper item/skill build to maximize his potential? thanks!

Toxicity makes your harass while in lane nasty. Poison spray has nice damage and slow early game, good for getting kills. And wards are for pushing towers as much as it is for kills, so even if Power Supply counters they have their place.

[F1]

Thanks for the replies guys, should I play slither as a ward *****? (1 bracer, p.supply, ghost marcher, wards, tp stones?) or go for
assasin's shroud, sotm etc..

[nimarq]

Depends on your team setup, imo Slither can semi-carry as well but if you've got enough carries and no better ward ho's - go nuts.

[Mousie1]

i max spray and toxicity first , toxicity is his best laning spell imo a an attack every now and then ( doesent even have to be regularly) will eat the opponents hp insanely fast even on level one

after that its easy spray chase attack chase attack i use [a] to attack to i find this pretty easy [a] right click [a] he has a really nice animation makes bloodlusts and early kills a breeze

[Credge]

I like it when Slithers play the early pusher and then follow up with support DPS and anti-gank warding.

Get all the first towers down in the first 15-20 minutes and then switch roles. Your team should have the cash for what they need by then.

[Ernie888]

pusher, ganker/roamer, defender, free wards for vision. Great AOE ulti.

But they key with silther is positioning. Dont get caught out your quite squishy. But you wanna be in and around the danger zone to get off your skills.

[theWatery]

hi guys. im wondering how do you use the 3 wards at one go once 3 charges are up. i can only shoot the wards one by one even with max charge.

[AzaeI]

me i usually take toxicity and spray to harass but i have see in my team 1 slither at lvl 7 who maked a wall of ward to push creep and tower, he had 4x our gold ^^, i will try this.

[Q]

Sadly, it seems that no one who posted on this thread understands slither at all. First, these skill builds are all wrong.

Slither needs:

Level 1: toxicity/spray
Level 2: spray/toxicity (whichever you didn't get at level 1)
Level 3-5: Ward
Level 6: ult
Level 7: max ward
Level 8+: usually max spray, but sometimes stats.

Your role early game is to gank and take out towers. You're an incredibly powerful ganker. It's extremely hard to run from a slither who can stack a 20% slow on you (toxicity+ward) while revealing your location constantly with the ward. Not to mention that if the enemy team comes in for a counter gank you've got the wards you've been spamming during the chase for protection. After a successful gank, you can usually push a tower with wards unless the enemy team is fast with the homecoming stones.

As the game progresses, your role shifts to using your wards wisely for vision before/during team fights and landing your ultimate as early and as effectively as possible in team fights. Personally I prefer portal key on slither but shroud can also work in some situations.

Since you need to play very aggressively with slither you need to tank-up early game. My typical item build is:

1. Power supply.
2. Nome's wisdom (unless someone else gets it, in which case I get tablet of command - you need the mana pool)
3. Steamboots (I keep them on STR)
4. If I feel I need some more tank I get a bracelet or even HotBL if I got the gold for it.
5. Portal key
6. SotM (sell power supply/bracelet)

Rarely I will go for a DPS build if my team is lacking in carries.



Probably the two most important things you need to master in order to play slither well is:

1. How to chase with him. You need to move while spamming wards and attacking. Do this efficiently and no one will get away due to the 20% slow.
2. How to use wards in the mid/late game. They are not just used for pushing. The vision they provide is incredibly powerful and they can also turn the tide in team fights by slowly eating away HP and slowing enemy opponents.

I'll post a replay when I get home.

[deweylewie]

Level 1 toxicity harass adds 35 damage to attacks over 6 secs... That's over 80 damage per attack at level 1.

Toxicity 10% slow, wards 10% slow, poison spray 50% recovering slow, you can siege towers with wards, escape/chase with all your spammable slows.

I build 1 level in Toxicity, Spray then max out wards asap.

[Skull4er]

good ganker, good babysitter, good at pushing and can build very well as a supporter^^
try astrolabe/nomes on him, with wards it is quite easy to attain :)

[AAA_Boy]

Sadly, it seems that no one who posted on this thread understands slither at all. First, these skill builds are all wrong.

Slither needs:

Level 1: toxicity/spray
Level 2: spray/toxicity (whichever you didn't get at level 1)
Level 3-5: Ward
Level 6: ult
Level 7: max ward
Level 8+: usually max spray, but sometimes stats.

Your role early game is to gank and take out towers. You're an incredibly powerful ganker. It's extremely hard to run from a slither who can stack a 20% slow on you (toxicity+ward) while revealing your location constantly with the ward. Not to mention that if the enemy team comes in for a counter gank you've got the wards you've been spamming during the chase for protection. After a successful gank, you can usually push a tower with wards unless the enemy team is fast with the homecoming stones.

As the game progresses, your role shifts to using your wards wisely for vision before/during team fights and landing your ultimate as early and as effectively as possible in team fights. Personally I prefer portal key on slither but shroud can also work in some situations.

Since you need to play very aggressively with slither you need to tank-up early game. My typical item build is:

1. Power supply.
2. Nome's wisdom (unless someone else gets it, in which case I get tablet of command - you need the mana pool)
3. Steamboots (I keep them on STR)
4. If I feel I need some more tank I get a bracelet or even HotBL if I got the gold for it.
5. Portal key
6. SotM (sell power supply/bracelet)

Rarely I will go for a DPS build if my team is lacking in carries.



Probably the two most important things you need to master in order to play slither well is:

1. How to chase with him. You need to move while spamming wards and attacking. Do this efficiently and no one will get away due to the 20% slow.
2. How to use wards in the mid/late game. They are not just used for pushing. The vision they provide is incredibly powerful and they can also turn the tide in team fights by slowly eating away HP and slowing enemy opponents.

I'll post a replay when I get home.


Sigh... Slither is one of the most diverse heroes in the game. I would nerdrage like mad if I was playing a carry (swift, sw, chronos, madman magebane etc) and slither on my lane skilled wards early effectively pushing the lane to fight close to their towers while keeping the opponents on full hps with their powersupplies.

Slither builds are siuational. If you're playing a lineup with defiler pollywog/ophelia wards are indeed very good. If you arn't playing on a pushing team NEVER EVER skill wards before maxing out toxicity and poison spray. Toxicity is probably the strongest harassing tool in the game effectively keeping any melee hero away from the creeps at early game.

I usually prefer laning with a carry and completely destroying my lane and then i skill toxocity at lvl 1, poison spray at lvl 2 and lvl2 toxicity at lvl 3. At lvl 3 you will notice that one auto attack from you does roughly 20 % of the opponents hps in one shot (if it's an agi or int hero).

As for build i prefer the carry slither, enhanced marchers, 2 str bracers and geometers bane together with lifesteal and some crit. Some people who love theory crafting will tell you to go sotm but I strogly advise against this as I hate playing one trick ponies. Slither is versataile and since he's an agi hero he carries very well. I'd 10x rather see a slither with geometers bane than with sotm on my team.

It's easiest to play him as a babysitter and this is probably his strongest role even though he can play good as support and he is a very nice ganker.

[Q]

I would nerdrage like mad if I was playing a carry (swift, sw, chronos, madman magebane etc) and slither on my lane skilled wards early effectively pushing the lane to fight close to their towers while keeping the opponents on full hps with their powersupplies.


Skilling wards early != spamming wards senselessly and pushing the lane. Never did I suggest or condone spamming wards aimlessly.

Even if playing a babysitter, I would still max wards early. Level 1 toxicity is still a lot of harass and by having max wards you can more easily protect your carry from ganks, TP to defend towers and if the opportunity arises push a tower.

Slither's wards, when maxed, are hands down his most powerful skill and should be maxed asap under any circumstances.

[AAA_Boy]

Skilling wards early != spamming wards senselessly and pushing the lane. Never did I suggest or condone spamming wards aimlessly.


Even if playing a babysitter, I would still max wards early. Level 1 toxicity is still a lot of harass and by having max wards you can more easily protect your carry from ganks, TP to defend towers and if the opportunity arises push a tower.

Slither's wards, when maxed, are hands down his most powerful skill and should be maxed asap under any circumstances.

Sigh... I'm not trying to be a smart ass or anything and I respect your opinion so bear with me.

What is your purpose with slither when babysitting/ganking? If you skill wards you're "wasting" 4 skillpoints on a skill you will hardly use because if you do decide to use it you will push the lane. Heck, evenif u only spam wards close to your own tower it's still pushing the lane. Now toxicity allows you to dish out enourmous damage at will. Wards do not. If you start spamming wards it will be a very sad game where your opponents run into your wards and repeatedly die. What will happen is that you will push the lane, your carry will get fewer last hits in, your opponents will play very defensively and buy a powersupply.

Each to his own I guess but atleast try the toxicity build once and see how much damage you are doing to the enemy heroes.

Try laning chronos/swift + slither with toxicity and laugh at your opponents=)

[Vahn]

you shouldnt get spray over lv1 till lv12 as its slow doesnt change at all only the damage

[Puchi]

Slither can shut down a team in mid game both in turtle and pushing. Wards are so strong in the midgame if you have time you can make them stronger then polly's ulti they have almost the same dmg in midgame.

[Afasia]

I just had to log in to comment on this. Slither can kill a tower at level 7 unless the enemy team deals with it. perioid. vs level 3 slither a small mistake can escalate very easily into several abilities needed to use to not die. Also wards make you immune to any ganks along with being annoying as hell if you are familiar with the gadget ai.

So basically you have a sick babysitter and a hero that can kill a tower alone around 13 minutes.
With nomes being as broken as it you up your pushes and team that much.

With nomes and post haste you will be VERY hard to kill and on top of that your chase is phenomenal.

Toxicity gives you nothing but autoattack damage.

It really makes me quite sad to see so many people play/build slither plain wrong.

runes, courier/mana pots. crown minor totems. spray for rune gank.
level 2 get the toxicity for slow, assess if you need a power suppy before scarab.
3 This is where you should capitalize, you have a very deadly slow. Blow your mana now. You wont be using too much for a while.
4 wards+RotT/warding the forest
5 wards build towards nomes, major totem is a sick item.
6 ult, I personally suck using the ult. consult someone else.
7 start being really aggressive and on their face if you weren't already. Kill/Kill a tower, tell your carry not to die. Go kill mid. Go kill the other sidelane. Finish nomes/boots, pushing everywhere for a while nets you an easy 2,7k gold especially when you are pushing with at least two other friendly chaps.
Max spray, Teamfight and watch them drop. Be ****ing annoying with wards and chase everything to a point of it being ridiculous.

[Tensei]

I found that even when babysitting something like a Swiftblade with Slither, getting one level of spray/toxicity each and then maxing wards is the way to go.

Contrary to what you might think, your effectiveness in ganking is just as high as a spray/toxicity build and even your Swiftblade lanemate will benefit from you being able to block enemy heroes and having three seperate sources of slow. In addition, if you go ganking other lanes, you're more or less guaranteed to get an early towerkill after a succesful gank because of the massive pushing strength level 4 wards offer early on.

[Chicolei]

Check this out, I play as Vindi while a friend plays Slither. This might clear things up a bit. I'm on an alt account btw.

Match ID: 38284582

[darklcd]

I like going tox/spray early because wards are strong all game, whereas toxicity and spray are incredibly strong early and diminish as the game goes on. Throwing him in a lane with someone like :swif: is ridiculous early game, it's pretty much guaranteed first blood and after that you can completely dominate the lane.

The only time I go early wards is I'll pick them up level one if I'm up against :vind:, or I'll grab them at 4 if I'm worried about getting ganked from the forest. Early game wards for anything other than vision are a detriment because they're going to push the lane, and any half decent player will pick up :ManaBattery: if they see you constantly using wards. On top of that you don't have the mana to constantly be using them.

Unless you're specifically going for a push strat I think focusing on wards early is a waste.

[ImANinja09]

He hurts throughout the whole game..

His slow and his toxicity passive shreds incredible amounts of hp, making him a very quick damage dealer to someone in a gank..

His ulti is a dangerous move as it deals loads of damage to everyone caught in it..

Plague Wards, aside from what they commonly do, are free mini wards! Use them to anti juke, watch on certain areas and points...

He's agi, so yeah, thanks to his passive, he can hit pretty hard when he has decent items.

SotM + his ulti and proper coordination in a clash = Team rape..

Basically put, he can shut down and shut up many heroes in HoN..

[ZVZD]

I prefer to play slither as babysit. Maxxing toxicity while lvling 1 lvl of both spray and wards.

After maxxing toxicity go for maxxing wards, slow from spray is constant and dmg is negligable compared to other skills.

Toxicity is by far the best harassment and babysit skill ingame. No nuker/babysit/anything can outharass you.

[jay`t]

Unless you're specifically going for a push strat I think focusing on wards early is a waste.

agreed, i like roaming/ganking slither

[MABManZ]

1- Spray
2- Toxicity
3- Toxicity (early harass is insane)
4- Ward (for scouting/anti-gank)
5- Spray
6 - Ult
7 - Spray
8- Spray
9- Ward
10- Ward
11- Ult
12- Ward
13- Toxicity + stats


Toxicity is the only skill he has that has scaling damage (yes, no regen can be considered damage) so i max it late but i like to get it early too as it's harass ability is crazy good. I usually have wards maxed (or lvl 3) when the team pushing starts around lvl 10 or so.

Spray's is most effective early and has the worst scalability of all his skills so I max it first.


He is "good" because his lane control is so strong and is a very strong ganker. If he has a very good early game, he can also semi-carry if needed.

[Quickfix]

Slither doesn't scale well late into the game but he definitely has the best potential to get farmed up through kills. His wards are best at scouting and in a gank build, it's very nice to have a least a point in it to track movement and what not. I tend to prefer the gank build as it gives Slither the best potential, but pushing as Slither with wards is really effective.

[AAA_Boy]

Toxicity gives you nothing but autoattack damage.

It really makes me quite sad to see so many people play/build slither plain wrong.


Err yeah... Having high autoattack damage sux right? I can't tell you how many games I've played vs a slither who maxes out wards when I play against him (I play the carry). He spams wards like mad keeping the lane pushed at my tower. I basically freefarm the creeps (and wards aswell) while staying at full hps and mana due to powersupply (I played scout last time although I've played chronos, swift, magebane against im aswell). The carry he was "babysitting" was basically in a "gank me" position (close to our tower top lane) during the whole laning phase while trying to compete with slithers wards (and slither himself) for last hits effectively reducing his farm. The wards also yield between 10-15 gold increasing my gold per minute quite abit when he decided to put wards close to the tower.

It's fun to see all the "pro ward" posters telling us that they are sad to se so many people skill slither the wrong way. It's not like he autokills a tower with wards solo if there are people defending the tower, if that was the case we would see 100 % slither wins and we don't. Wards are very good don't get me wrong. They are good for pushing. Do you want to push a lane when babysitting? Unless you're playing a pushing tactic... No sir, you do not...

[Kietharr]

Spray is a strong AoE dot/slow, toxicity is a strong dot/slow that negates regen, ulti is a huge DoT (land toxicity hits on them to prevent regen from hampering its damage) and wards are amazing for pushing.

He's got insane lane presence, very high pushing power, is extremely useful in ganks and doesn't taper off too horribly in the lategame for a support hero.

[arcainic]

you don't spam slither's wards on lane, not unless your setting up a gank, you usually use it for vision during the laning phase and take down towers in team pushes.

slither's ward is like his best skill if only ppl learn to use them.

toxicity isn't that great after the laning phase because it deals something like 150 damage maxed over 5 seconds or something, since it's a dot debuff, kinda bad in a prolonged teamfight but great harrass wise

[Ardeaf]

There's only one way to build slither. All other builds are inferior and therefore worthless.

[Hairboi]

1.spray
2.passive
3.wards
4.wards
5.wards
6.passive/ult
7.wards
8.ult/passive

Ult can be delayed as it's a lot of mana. Get phase boots, nomes, puzzlebox, void talisman/bkb.

Creep pull all the time, manage this pulling combined with farming another camp with wards, and you get a decent farm aswell as your laning partner. The other team won't aggro your teammate, because they'll be scared you're coming behind with a triple slow combo.

[knowitall]

Please guys, only one spray early. The slow stays the same and the mana cost goes up. One spray and then get tox/wards in different amounts depending on the game.

[Bdm`]

Please guys, only one spray early. The slow stays the same and the mana cost goes up. One spray and then get tox/wards in different amounts depending on the game.
Agreed - the damage increase is negligible compared to other skills you could level up. Toxin Wards and Toxicity are far better and they don't put strain on Slither's small early game mana pool.

[TheTrout]

Err yeah... Having high autoattack damage sux right? I can't tell you how many games I've played vs a slither who maxes out wards when I play against him (I play the carry). He spams wards like mad keeping the lane pushed at my tower. I basically freefarm the creeps (and wards aswell) while staying at full hps and mana due to powersupply (I played scout last time although I've played chronos, swift, magebane against im aswell). The carry he was "babysitting" was basically in a "gank me" position (close to our tower top lane) during the whole laning phase while trying to compete with slithers wards (and slither himself) for last hits effectively reducing his farm. The wards also yield between 10-15 gold increasing my gold per minute quite abit when he decided to put wards close to the tower.

It's fun to see all the "pro ward" posters telling us that they are sad to se so many people skill slither the wrong way. It's not like he autokills a tower with wards solo if there are people defending the tower, if that was the case we would see 100 % slither wins and we don't. Wards are very good don't get me wrong. They are good for pushing. Do you want to push a lane when babysitting? Unless you're playing a pushing tactic... No sir, you do not...

just cause you played some idiots doesnt mean the ward skillbuild is wrong.

As some other people pointed out, wards are used to grant sight and in a gank. Map control is the name of the game and slither excels at that. Also he requires no items to be useful really, depending on who you're playing with all you need is marchers, powersupply, homecoming stone, bottle/nome's and wards.

any slither that constantly spams wards in a lane early game while not actually pushing a tower has no real clue what he's doing imo

put one ward in the forest, if you gank, throw a few wards ahead of the hero you're ganking, it'll block him and keep him slowed as the range is retarded and it gives you sight if they want to juke.

as for toxicity it's a great skill, i won't deny that, i get atleast one point in it early game as his great attack animation makes for easy harrasment, but you don't necessarily need to max it, in alot of games one lvl of spray, 1 lvl of toxicity then wards/stats will serve you well as you won't be as squishy.

[arcainic]

Agreed - the damage increase is negligible compared to other skills you could level up. Toxin Wards and Toxicity are far better and they don't put strain on Slither's small early game mana pool.

poison spray does 50/70/70/100 initial damage with 10/20/40/50 5 ticks In 15 seconds

100 damage at lvl 1
170 damage at lvl 2
270 damage at lvl 3
350 damage at lvl 4

toxicity deals 5/10/15/20 dps for 7 seconds

35 at lvl 1
70 at lvl 2
105 at lvl 3
140 at lvl 4

poison spray - 350/15 = 23.333 dps (of course with initial damage of poison spray, it's dps after the initial damage is actually 250/15 = 16.666 dps)
toxicity - 140/7 = 20 dps

Now i do realize poison spray has a cooldown & mana, but it's safe to assume they're probably back to tower/base after running for 15 seconds.


poison spray pro:
you can shoot it from farther away (leaving you safer)
it affects more than 1 hero/creep

toxicity pro:
you probably won't miss
doesn't cost mana
i tend to find last hitting a bit easier with it

in the end both skills deals almost the same amount of damage dps wise (spray deals it out every 3 seconds), but spray has a longer range and lasts twice as long as toxicity.

HOW this matters in ganking phase?

We all know ppl tend to run when they're on low health, but know that poison spray deals damage for longer, so if they run too late, max poison spray would have an easier time finishing them off compared to max toxicity. However toxicity stops natural regen...

i'm kind of surprised by the revelation, i suggest max poison spray against especially aggro lanes, and maxing toxicity first against cakewalks.

So what's better to max out first toxicity or poison spray? (you should get a lvl of both skills before lvl 4)

[knowitall]

poison spray does 50/70/70/100 initial damage with 10/20/40/50 5 ticks In 15 seconds

100 damage at lvl 1
170 damage at lvl 2
270 damage at lvl 3
350 damage at lvl 4

toxicity deals 5/10/15/20 dps for 7 seconds

35 at lvl 1
70 at lvl 2
105 at lvl 3
140 at lvl 4

poison spray - 350/15 = 23.333 dps (of course with initial damage of poison spray, it's dps after the initial damage is actually 250/15 = 16.666 dps)
toxicity - 140/7 = 20 dps

Now i do realize poison spray has a cooldown & mana, but it's safe to assume they're probably back to tower/base after running for 15 seconds.


poison spray pro:
you can shoot it from farther away (leaving you safer)
it affects more than 1 hero/creep

toxicity pro:
you probably won't miss
doesn't cost mana
i tend to find last hitting a bit easier with it

in the end both skills deals almost the same amount of damage dps wise (spray deals it out every 3 seconds), but spray has a longer range and lasts twice as long as toxicity.

HOW this matters in ganking phase?

We all know ppl tend to run when they're on low health, but know that poison spray deals damage for longer, so if they run too late, max poison spray would have an easier time finishing them off compared to max toxicity. However toxicity stops natural regen...

i'm kind of surprised by the revelation, i suggest max poison spray against especially aggro lanes, and maxing toxicity first against cakewalks.

So what's better to max out first toxicity or poison spray? (you should get a lvl of both skills before lvl 4)

You can't count them both on their own. It'd be level 1 poison spray+tox. Also, Tox is infinitely better for harassing in lane.

[LightRain]

i used to go spray/tox/tox/wards max at 7/ult at 8
but i'm bad. so now i'm trying spray/tox/wards/ult at six, max wards at 7
but it's a lot of mana at 6! so i think i will go back to the other build

also there keeps being a soul reaper on my team who wants to build nome's so i can't, what's with that, that's gay. well i often build it anyway because it's so efficient.
really slither's build strategy is to have enough mana to do anything he wants. sometimes this means bottle+psupply+i dunno, rush sheepstick with a manatube. but most of the time this means nome's.

[gjoeyjoe]

1-spray
2-tox
3-wards
(all skills can be useful at 1 level each)
4-tox
5-spray
6-ult
7-spray
8-wards
9-wards
10-wards
11-ult
12-spray
13-tox
14-tox
15-stats
16-ult

The reason i get spray with tox early, is because your goal after you ult is to spray. Wards are useless early after 1 level. Like I said, one level in each skill is good to have the wanted effect. Each level after that is that skill with some added damage/benefit.
Items: I haven't really gotten to this point, but I'd suggest going courier/wards (in that priority), rune, mana pot, 3 or 4 totems can't remember.
Bottle->Marchers->Power Supply-> Ghost marchers or steamboots if you need survivability->WARDS WARDS WARDS ALL THE TIME (unless you have glacius :P)
To me, thats the "core". After that, get nome's, or if farm is going well, totem, to add to your slows. Plus the mana regen is INSANE. Mana is #2 priority (after wards). Survivability is priority #3 (Wards are #1). Other support items are priority #4 (wards=#1). DPS is IMO priority #5. To me, the only reason to go dps is if you don't have any carries.
Protip: If you are facing magmus/behemoth/tempest, who blink in to initiate, wards should be a constant upkeep all around your team. The wards prevent them from blinking and can ruin their chances of winning that fight, especially if you can initiate first.

[BDMlol]

i used to go spray/tox/tox/wards max at 7/ult at 8
but i'm bad. so now i'm trying spray/tox/wards/ult at six, max wards at 7
but it's a lot of mana at 6! so i think i will go back to the other build

also there keeps being a soul reaper on my team who wants to build nome's so i can't, what's with that, that's gay. well i often build it anyway because it's so efficient.
really slither's build strategy is to have enough mana to do anything he wants. sometimes this means bottle+psupply+i dunno, rush sheepstick with a manatube. but most of the time this means nome's.
yea last time i played slither i ended having a chipper go nome's, but i ended up having to get a nullfire blade because our only carry was swiftblade and i was the most viable candidate. i suppose stormspirit would be a viable alternative if you are looking for some quick mana regen and a decent utility.

[Magnets1]

He is extremely powerful early game (but also very squishy), his power tails off mid-late game.
People don't always counter with power supply, especially in <1700 games. I think he is the only hero that has significant early game presence, but has the tradeoff.

You need to take advantage of you early game power, gank, push towers as fast as possible, you'll be surprised how easy it is for you to kill people.
If you do well enough the other team will just concede, when realistically they have a very good chance of winning since pushing the inner towers is a pain in the ass and late game you don't really contribute anything significant unless you have farmed well enough, especially if you focused on utility/mid tier items (nome's, shroud, wards, bottle, plenty of porting around).

[arcainic]

yeah slither is not a late game hero, but he counters farm type teams like knife through butter.

i think slither is the best push type hero (better than polly, engi, defiler) in terms that his wards can both give visibility and rape towers. (visibility to allow you to plan a strategic withdraw, ie teammate to die, in order for you to safely evac)

[Tabesh]

Toxicity gets ~1 + opponent.itemregen dps at level 4, so the dps against spray is even closer.

The benefits of spray are: range (doesn't scale), AE potential (doesn't scale), slow (doesn't scale). The damage per point spent is nearly completely replaced by other options, and far, far surpassed by wards considering you will benefit from using them against everything in the game and not just heroes.

[Jayrod]

two words explains why he is so popular: lane control.

Slither is the absolute king of lane control. He has an ability that severely limits your ability to even use runes of blight. Alot of heros choose runes of blight over health potions because it allows you to stay in for last hits while the regen is ticking on you. This is very good for melee carries. Slither's 2nd ability makes that carry sit back to get the regen off or risk dying/staying low.

His first ability has great gank potential. 50% slow is from just one point in it... this makes him a strong first blood hero in a lot of combinations.

He has a superior attack animation allowing you to easily harass without much creep aggro if you are doing it properly.

His 3rd ability is great for tower pushing. Yes it will fill up people's power supplies... no doubt about it, but towers drop with a ton of wards around. Additional utility is solid map control, he definitely controls the side of the map he is on. throwing a ward or two for vision over tree lines can save you life and even cancel an initiators blink. Its very good for lane control as well just from the vision alone.

lane control is extremely important in this game and he's just the best at it. Where he gets weak is the mid-late game because he generally will have very few items. I have switched my build over to puzzlebox since it is affordable for a hero like this, who needs to be around the action alot and should not really be farming. The relatively easy to get components makes it viable on him and the damage and utility of minions is unparalleled. I normally have boots/bottle/couple bracers or rings/puzzlebox then work towards a more solid item with regen. I just kind of deal with the lack of regen through bottle ferrying/rune whoring all game. Puzzlebox also helps with the mana pool and gives some nice strength.

Basically you should expect to die on slither. If you don't die you are very lucky because you shouldn't be burdening your team by sitting there farming... its a waste. Your job is to get all your spells off and then focus down your dps targets. SHroud is a waste and if he's your form of initiation you've got big problems. Slither is not a carry either though I've seen him do decent as a mid-game carry. Unparalleled lane control usually leads to a good mid-game and decent late game. If you lose your lane on slither you're going to have a hard time becoming any use to your team.

[arcainic]

slither cannot own alone, he needs his team support

[Lots_Of_Sex]

Toxicity negates hp regeneration aka you cannot heal while being hit by slither, and no not even by runes of blight or tree's armor or that lubricant red tube.

[SoloMidOr`qq]

Slither is 'good' for one reason, his wards.

A good player will abuse that sh1t like no tomorrow. It's basically a free escape mechanism.

Take away his wards and his spray/toxicity/ult is MEH. He will be average if not below

[Leix]

Slither was already pretty much ridiculous before the changes.

Then S2 made him godmode

[darklcd]

Toxicity negates hp regeneration aka you cannot heal while being hit by slither, and no not even by runes of blight or tree's armor or that lubricant red tube.

I thought tox works on everything but runes. Thought I saw that somewhere.

[ChaLkDust]

Slither is my fav hero....

With wards lvl 4 he can dish 3 of them out at once, and each deal around 40 damage, that's 120 damage. Now if you max wards first as slither, you probably deal less than your 3 wards together at lvl 7.



that's assuming the hero has zero armor. wards don't move, and they push the tower too far early game. wards are countered with power supply, unreliable little wards IMO.

[arcainic]

toxicity no longer affects runes

[WarKirby]

slither cannot own alone, he needs his team support

I disagree. He's very good at owning alone. FAR better than most people actually.

When I play slither, I spam wards in the jungles along the path, as well as spamming them around towers and creep waves. It gets you plenty of last hits, takes down towers fairly easily, and having wards in the jungle gives you unparalleled awareness. You're basically un-gankable because you can see the enemy coming a mile away, allowing you to push solo very deep into an enemy lane.

When I see incoming enemies, I spam wards around me while backpedalling. The 10% slow tips the balance nicely and makes getting away from most situations quite feasible. The spray attack is similarly good for slowing. If I'm not completely outmatched, I'll also turn and take a potshot at the enemy now and then, giving them DoT and stopping their regen. And if they manage to catch up, I use the ult. That's about the time they start to realise that their gank is turning into a suicide mission and turn around.

The wards are also extremely useful in combination with your team. Just toss one into the jungle now and then as you go. In a few recent games I preemptively stopped ganks that way, and in one we found the entire enemy team clustered in the trees waiting to strike, and turned their ambush into a genocide.

In early/mid game, maxed wards when spammed en-masse around you actually have respectable damage. But the slow, and the visibility they give, are ultimately their best uses.

[Jjang]

^Korzon has the right idea. A Puzzlebox is your core though after Nome's Wisdom.

[Roku]

I'm not sure about high tier games but in the 1600/1700 brackets, in my experience, Slither's relatively quicker movespeed + slow from toxicity and poison spray are deadly early game. You can easily shut out the enemy if you know what you are doing.

[Jjang]

I'm not sure about high tier games but in the 1600/1700 brackets, in my experience, Slither's relatively quicker movespeed + slow from toxicity and poison spray are deadly early game. You can easily shut out the enemy if you know what you are doing.

You need level 4 wards by level 7. :P Maxing poison spray raises its mana, which you really need for wards. Ultimate is taken way later because of its mana cost and not-so-good damage early game. Spamming three wards at the enemy tower with your creeps pushing it is devastating when it takes them 3-4 shots to kill one ward.

[Roku]

Thanks Jjang`, I'll keep that in mind next time I play Slither. I rarely read skill build guides/item guides for heroes because I find that personal experience helps me build heroes suited to my style of gameplay.

Is the raised mana cost not worth the higher damage?

[Jjang]

Well, not really. Usually, in a typical gank, you can poison spray for the slow, wards in front of their escape, then just smack them level 2/3/4 toxicity, as it gives more damage than poison spray after like three hits. (don't trust me on the math...) Besides, should you miss the poison spray, you're not completely screwed. :P

Also, in team fights/pushes, you'll want to spam your wards in the fog so your team doesn't get jumped. Having one or two wards on queue doesn't really help, as three strong wards would.

[madmanz]

slither is my fave! once toxicity is maxed out u r unstopable for mid and early game
just spray and auto attck simple as pie!

i got
1st toxicity- best on last hits due to poision :) and slows the enemy and push them back for rune spots :)
2nd- spray
3rd- tox
4th- ulti
5th -then wards


once i casted ulti i attack 3-4 times since ulti is nonlethal which means it will now kill a hero even its low health so you need the toxicity to come in handy

and toxicity is a best kill stealer and a best last hits for your enemys

i dont really use wards when a hero uses mana battery or PS your just making them stronger -_-

people get spray first but its wrong toxicity gives slow and extradamage
so i dont DONT get that first :)

ITEM BUILD

i dont usually follow recomended..

in the beginning i get bottle dont ask why itsimportant for runes to roam around and get kills :)

i get ghost marchers because you rely on your auto attack skill toxicity..

then i focus on survibability first theres gonna be alot of tower diving so i focus this item first

SHaman headress
and
helm of blacklegion

next i focus for the core of slither
assasin's shroud or staff

Combo
First is spray
then auto attack ofcourse
when enbemy is getting away set ONE ward on your enemy
which gives 30% slow plus the slow of your spray and tox = another auto attack
if he kept getting away set another wards and it will give another slow.

[Roku]

Well, not really. Usually, in a typical gank, you can poison spray for the slow, wards in front of their escape, then just smack them level 2/3/4 toxicity, as it gives more damage than poison spray after like three hits. (don't trust me on the math...) Besides, should you miss the poison spray, you're not completely screwed. :P

Also, in team fights/pushes, you'll want to spam your wards in the fog so your team doesn't get jumped. Having one or two wards on queue doesn't really help, as three strong wards would.

I understand. When you play slither are you generally controlling your lane? The only reason I use poison spray is to slow them before their tower and keep on smacking them with toxicity in hopes that they die on their way to the fountain. I feel like the higher damage would be more important if they're always tower hugging, as it makes the wards a bit less effective.

Do you think this is situational or would the ward build work just as well?

[Jjang]

I understand. When you play slither are you generally controlling your lane? The only reason I use poison spray is to slow them before their tower and keep on smacking them with toxicity in hopes that they die on their way to the fountain. I feel like the higher damage would be more important if they're always tower hugging, as it makes the wards a bit less effective.

Do you think this is situational or would the ward build work just as well?

Yeah, wards is just cookie cutter unless you are fighting against a Soulstealer for some reason. Wards also are great anti-gank utilities, as they can scout the ganks, provide slow %, and deal damage if they dive you.

[Spectralite]

Best build in my opinion is tox-spray-tox-max ward.
Tox early to harass, spray to slow, wards to counter gank, push tower, etc.
Ward is Slither's best skill hands down.