Pestilence miniguide

[Kietharr]

Skillbuild:
Impale
Flight
Impale
Gore
Impale
Ult
Impale
Gore
Gore
Gore
Ult
Flight
Flight
Flight
Stats
Ult
Stats...

Items: Go for x2 bracers, steamboots, and helm of the black legion early-mid in whatever order you can farm them. Then go for Whispering Helm, if you're having problems keeping a lot of gold on you go for Insanatarius after Helm. If you are farming great and not dieing frequently save up for a Symbol of Rage.

After that if you still have money go for a Daemonic Breastplate if you have a lot of money, if you're poor try to at least get a warpcleft

How to play:

Pesti is almost completely identical to Slardar from DotA and plays in the same manner. Flight lets you run extremely fast which lets you move between lanes to gank a lot. Once you get marchers start abusing flight to gank CONSTANTLY. Find the squishiest enemy and kill him whenever possible, communicate with people in lanes you are ganking to make them more effective. Put your bugs on any invis hero as they reveal them until they wear off, also put them on anyone you're ganking as the -armor lets your team deal more auto attack damage to them. With flight and steamboots you should outspeed most other heroes especially early-midgame and your stun is one of the best in the game, just chase, stun, auto attack.

When you get to late midgame you should start farming jungle a lot to finish up a symbol of rage or insanatarius for lategame damage. with a symbol, helm, 2 bracers and your steamboots you have over 3,000HP in high levels and do a ton of damage, with a daemonic breastplate you also have upwards of 60% melee damage reduction from armor, it also has a -armor to enemy aura which makes him even stronger.

If by some miricle of god they survive after you have your symbol and BP sell one of your bracers and make a shieldbreaker.

Good heroes to team up with:
Demented Shaman: His ult and your ult combined absolutely destroy enemy armor. His slow lets you catch up to enemies for more gore hits and impales and his arcane hide lets you towerdive very easily, of course the heal is nice too.

[BotD]

not a bad guide.
I get a few more levels of flight, say level 2-3 to give me an edge to get that kill when laning.

I'd comment on the item build but I only know the DotA names so I'm lost in that department.

Seems ok for a mini guide.
cheers.

[DustyScythe]

If Pesti wants to DPS at all, Armlet is requirement on him. Provides damage, armor, attack speed.

[Kietharr]

To help on DotA names, I basically suggest the following:

Rich Man's build:
x2 bracer
vanguard
treads
satanic
assault cuirass (luxury)

Poor Man's build:
x2 bracer
vanguard
treads
HotD (optional but recommended, especially if you are new to managing armlet's degen)
armlet
hyperstone

More often than not you'll end up doing the poor man's build if you're not the primary carry.

As far as flight goes, yes I know a lot of people who do stomp/sprint first with one level of bash for 'luck' bashes but I find that 1 level of sprint is usually enough to come out of the forest for a kill with. Using it in the low levels can be extremely dangerous especially for newer players, who'd I'd expect to be the ones who would benefit from this guide considering how long Slardar has been around.

[A`nub`is]

1,2,3) bracers
4) steam boots
(most of the time the game will be over before you can buy 5 AND 6, therefore add a fourth bracer there instead or if the money allows a whispering helm is fine too.)
5) insanatarius
6) shrunken head (which is not needed in a pub where the enemy has picked scout, madman, night hound, etc.)

helm of black legion is a poor item imho for strength heroes except legionnaire and devourer (while one helm is enough for those too.)

[DustyScythe]

To help on DotA names, I basically suggest the

Use This Build:
x2 bracer
treads
HotD
armlet
hyperstone


More often than not you'll end up doing the poor man's build if you're not the primary carry.

As far as flight goes, yes I know a lot of people who do stomp/sprint first with one level of bash for 'luck' bashes but I find that 1 level of sprint is usually enough to come out of the forest for a kill with. Using it in the low levels can be extremely dangerous especially for newer players, who'd I'd expect to be the ones who would benefit from this guide considering how long Slardar has been around.

I fixed the build. You should NEVER NEVER NEVER skip Armlet on DPS heroes like Slardar, NEVER NEVER NEVER. It provides the BEST DPS, GREAT HP, all for a MEASLY, MEASLY 2,850 gold.
NEVER EVER PASS ARMLET UP. EVER.

[Galvor]

what item is armlet?

[j00sh]

I personally can't hold out that long on leveling up flight. He's a great initiator and flight is sooo good for it. You can seriously run circles around teams while they blow cooldowns trying to get you, and then land the perfect stun for your soulstealer to blink in and ruin them.

[Himura1]

starting items i prefer getting 3x bracers, treads then armlet on him.

skill build maxing stun, getting flight at 2,4,8,9.

with 500+ ms and a few stuns, he's scary.

Vanguard is not recommended on him

[Tr1cKSt3R]

You need more than 1 lvl of flight for it to be effective.
(cookie cutter) item build should be:
Armlet/insanitarius
Deso/shieldbreaker
vlads/abyssal skull.
bkb/shrunken head.

[Tryptophan]

Vanguard is a no-no there Kietharr. You never want to pass up Strength carry items for a Vanguard. The only heroes that would ever possibly need a Vanguard/Helm of the Black Legion in this game would be Legionnaire or Electrician, not Pestilence.

Flight increases your damage in-take which means that you've got to kill them faster and by doing that you increase your damage output by getting DPS items and not tank items in order to last longer. With Impale and Gore I doubt you'll need to tank anything while you keep at least one enemy stunned every team battle.

If you need to last longer and tank more damage then get a Shrunken Head. MUCH more efficient.

[Darkstrand]

Don't max Gore before Flight.. Gore is a passive skill and you will hardly EVER have it do what you want it to in early-midgame, Flight allows you to get up on someone to finish off with your VERY low cooldown Impale, plus there really isn't much of a counter for his Flight currently, all you really need is a Shrunken Head and you're gold.

[Rengan]

Even 1 level of gore is useless compared to flight. At max you'll land 1 gore per fight with a low AS, and whether it will be useful is another question entirely. The bonus damage is also too low to be useful, and with the short cd on impale it's just straight up bad until late game.

Also, I'd like to point out that Shieldbreaker is an amazing item on him. I posted a long explanation in another pestilance guide, but in short it combos very well with his ult and is enough sheer damage that you can force enemies into running quickly, and as one of (if not the) best chasers in the game that means sure death for them. Pest doesn't need many items to be good, even 2 bracers and str steamboots give him enough health and damage to last for quite awhile. If you feel lazy, you can just get a warpcleft after shieldbreaker and right-click to victory.

[S8_Eclipse]

On Slardar you want: Treads, armlet, vlads, deso or bkb depending if you need it.

[Tallyn]

HoNglish please, it's not that hard. =(

[Darkshine1]

This is what I typically do:

Skill Build:

1. Impale
2. Flight
3. Impale
4. Flight
5. Impale
6. Swarm
7. Impale
8. Flight
9. Flight
10. Gore
11. Swarm
12. Gore
13. Gore
14. Gore
15. Stats
16. Swarm
17-25. Stats

Item Build:

1. Pretender's Crown x2, Runes of the Blight x2, Mana Potion
2. Fortified Bracelet x2, Marchers
3. Fortified Bracelet, Helm of the Victim
4. Steam Boots
5. Insanitarius
6. Behemoth's Heart
7. Flayer
8. Symbol of Rage

Typically, games don't last long enough for me to get past Heart. If a concession occurs, it's typically before I'm able to get Heart. Note that Heart in conjunction with Pestilence's natural regen will allow you to keep Insanitarius activated permanently without losing health. Also, always have Homecoming Stones starting with your first trip back to the shop.

Note that this is for pubs. I'll get to listing what I do for serious matches, eventually. Just know that 1 through 5 are basically mandatory for every item build.

[Lethe]

I fixed the build. You should NEVER NEVER NEVER skip Armlet on DPS heroes like Slardar, NEVER NEVER NEVER. It provides the BEST DPS, GREAT HP, all for a MEASLY, MEASLY 2,850 gold.
NEVER EVER PASS ARMLET UP. EVER.

Tell that to Loda and Ly0n. Both are avid Slardar users and take bkb over armlet.

[FiNGERS]

Items: 3 bracelets, enhanced marchers (phase boots), then if you need more survivability get Hack n Slash, otherwise get Desolator. Game should be over by now.

Impale and Flight maxed first, taking ult whenever possible. Gore is a 'lucky' ability at best, and having mobility (maxed flight + enhanced marchers = haste with 0 collision) is your #1 game.

[Darkshine1]

Tell that to Loda and Ly0n. Both are avid Slardar users and take bkb over armlet.

BKB is better for Slardar if you're up against a team with a lot of disablers. Otherwise, Armlet.