How Earth Spirit and Slark perform as teammates in Dota 2 7.41e, from ranked matches.
In Dota 2 7.41e, Earth Spirit and Slark win 49.35% of ranked matches when playing on the same team, over 6,330 matches.
Picking these two heroes together is a bet on coordination. Earth Spirit offers the setup Slark needs for clean pickoffs, but it's not straightforward. The classic play is for Earth Spirit to Boulder Smash an enemy hero directly to Slark, with the brief stun giving Slark an easy window to land Pounce. A follow-up slow from Rolling Boulder can then help secure the kill, letting Slark build his Essence Shift stacks early. The combo is all about Earth Spirit creating a moment of opportunity for his carry to exploit.
In practice, this is a high-execution pairing. A poorly aimed Boulder Smash can knock the target to safety, completely ruining the gank. Slark is also perfectly capable of finding his own kills without assistance, so he isn't entirely dependent on Earth Spirit’s help. While a well-timed kick into a Pounce can feel powerful and win a lane, the play can be unreliable. Because the success rests so heavily on one specific interaction going perfectly, the overall impact of the duo often feels neutral across the length of a game.
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 | 44.88% | 205 |
| Crusader & Archon | 47.00% | 834 |
| Legend & Ancient | 49.49% | 1,087 |
| Divine & Immortal | 50.56% | 532 |
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 | 49.35% | ▲ +0.4pp | 6,330 |
| 7.41d | 48.99% | ▼ -1.2pp | 55,762 |
| 7.41c | 50.17% | ▼ -0.2pp | 25,005 |
| 7.41b | 50.35% | — | 28,817 |
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Data updated Aug 17, 2026.