slardar is better because his stun has lower cast time, less manacost, 8s cd versus 13, and a larger aoe. amp damage provides vision and access to roshan which outclasses stampede in 9/10 games
Centaur has his own perks, like having an amazing aghs for lategame. He is also way harder to take down than slardar and better at shitting on out of position supports. However slardar is better at initiating and like jd said is better at ganking.
I found cent to be really good pub stomper (no pun intended) back when I was 3k, I would just double edge the safelane carry, wait like 3 seconds, then stomp > attack > double edge again and be able to kill the safelane carry alone during the laning stage. Double edge is such a good nuke, 400 damage with no mana cost on 5 seconds of cooldown, I think people still underestimate the damage and low cooldown of it. His stun is harder to land, but his harass is so strong. I just generally prefer centaur because of how fast and easily he can farm and nuke waves and jungle.
Slardar is really too dependent on his teammates to get gold and exp after the initial laning stage. I would only really pick slardar over cent if your team has a lot of physical damage carries or supports who do a lot of physical damage (e.g. witch doctor, dazzle etc.) Even though I find Slardar's ult and passive to be better abilities than centaur's.
The roshan with amp dmg is probably the biggest difference and reason to pick slardar over centaur.
Centaur passive is the most retarded shit i have seen. This big boi can send illusions and deal shit loads of damage to the tower.
I wouldn't really say slardar is a better initiator, but he is 100 times better at chasing, even with cent ult.
cent stun has 315 radius, takes .50s to cast
slardar's has 350 radius, takes .35s to cast
the cumulative effect of the smaller radius and the slower cast is that you get way shittier stuns
Cent may have the shittier stun, but it's easier to position your whole team with your ult, and cent can immediately follow-up his stun with 400 aoe damage. The main reason I prefer centaur is that he can just charge ahead of a creep wave, chip away at them with return, then nuke them all at once with double edge, which is especially good when you can't last hit for shit like I do. There's a reason why centaur has on average a 4% higher winrate across all skill brackets.
I agree that cent is safer in the fact that if slar gets shut down by say tp support saves with shallow grave or some shit, then slar doesnt really have a comeback mechanic. Cent can also frontline much better and has a more reliable way of farming with return and double edge.
Interesting points made never took into account the cool down difference. I still think blink is super necessary on centaur. Slardar is better for rosh which I did account for. Seems torn like 50/50 between everyone.
Centaur passive is the most retarded shit i have seen. This big boi can send illusions and deal shit loads of damage to the tower.
Is it fair to say Slardar is better in higher mmr games? He requires a team that can actually coordinate fights around him.
Centaur can have a big impact even with retarded team mates like I have at 2k.
First, Centaur illusions no longer get return, read patch notes guys.
Stun:
Slardar has a better stun in basically every way as people have said.
Mobility:
Slardar's sprint lets him initate without blink on a regular basis whereas Centaur has to wait for lvl 6 and then has to play around his ult cooldown to initate without blink. This also means that Centaur is a more static laner whereas slardar can go gank pre-6 if he needs to and is more useful if an ally comes to gank his lane. Centaurs Ult does however let his team engage teamfights better and is an excellent disengage from bad fights.
Passives:
Centaurs passive is only really useful for farming and for counter-harass in lane. Slardars bash gives him better lockdown and is just generally more useful.
Damage:
Double edge is a better damaging skill than anything slardar has but it also does hurt centaur so he cant spam it too much early on. Amplify damage is far more versatile, letting slardar provide vision, enabling rosh and boosting his carry's damage. Utility is generally better than a magic damage nuke.
Comparing similar abilities, Slardar has the advantage in most cases. The only thing Centaur really offers, is the ability to move his team in and out of fights quickly, a bit of extra damage and an amazing Aghs upgrade. However you cant draft centaur relying on getting aghs since he desperately needs blink and probably Hood of Defiance first and in a bad game he will never get to aghs.
I personally like Centaur a lot but in professional games Slardar just seems to be the superior choice.
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2 blink initiators who have somewhat similar mechanics. Who do you think is better and why? Slardar seems more popular but tbh I favor centaur. double edge nuke and his ultimate for assisting him and or his team to escape certain death seems more useful than slardar kill potential. Do inform me why he is the less popular choice or feel free to just say who your favorite is.