How Ancient Apparition and Slark perform as teammates in Dota 2 7.41e, from ranked matches.
In Dota 2 7.41e, Ancient Apparition and Slark win 51.92% of ranked matches when playing on the same team, over 10,059 matches.
Focusing only on Ice Blast's killing power misses how Slark actually plays. He wants to drag fights out, wear enemies down, and regenerate with Shadow Dance, while Ice Blast is best for a single, decisive teamfight. The real, albeit minor, synergy comes from Ancient Apparition's other spells. Cold Feet can set up an easy Pounce, and Ice Vortex provides a slow and vision to help Slark stick to a target. Ice Blast is a decent follow-up to stop key saves on someone Slark has weakened, but their core fight timings don't always align.
This pairing relies on mid-game pickoffs. After a potentially difficult laning stage, Slark can start hunting enemies, and a global Ice Blast from Ancient Apparition can confirm the kill by preventing any healing or escape. The problem is that AA offers almost no protection. If Slark gets initiated on or locked down, there's no defensive spell coming to help him survive. The enemy's goal becomes forcing full teamfights where they can burst Slark down, nullifying his hit-and-run style and leaving Ancient Apparition exposed in the back.
How this pairing performs across skill brackets — the duo's team win rate in recent ranked matches, split by average match rank. Ranks with too few recent matches are omitted. These rows use the last 30 days of quality-filtered ranked matches, all patches in that span combined — a wider window than the patch-scoped count above, so the per-rank match totals can exceed it.
| Rank | Team win rate | Matches |
|---|---|---|
| Herald & Guardian | 50.81% | 496 |
| Crusader & Archon | 50.99% | 1,610 |
| Legend & Ancient | 48.18% | 1,239 |
| Divine & Immortal | 53.69% | 298 |
This duo's team win rate in each recent balance patch — whether the pairing is trending up or down. Patches without enough matches are omitted.
| Patch | Team win rate | Change | Matches |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7.41e | 51.92% | ▲ +1.2pp | 10,059 |
| 7.41d | 50.76% | ▲ +0.8pp | 107,068 |
| 7.41c | 50.00% | ▲ +0.0pp | 52,117 |
| 7.41b | 49.97% | — | 63,995 |
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Data updated Aug 17, 2026.