Phase Boots are in no way useless. Landing a good stun can be crucial, and there's nothing worse than being blocked and unable to make that stun. Phase is amazing on heroes who require positioning or chasers who don't want to be creep blocked, both of which include Slardar.
Hood is in no way a waste of time. Its situational, but STR does not = easy tanking of nukes. No one shakes off nukes easily early-mid game. In a nuke heavy line up, with good gankers, i.e. Zeus, Tinker, or Lina, a hood can mean the difference between surviving or spending half of the laning phase waiting on respawn.
Blink is situational on a hero like Slardar, but he's a hybrid of DPS, initiation, and chasing. Landing 1 stun can mean the difference between winning a fight and pushing, or losing a fight and dropping your rax. In a game dominated by AoE, the timing of any and all AoE stuns can make or break a fight. As a hero with no AoE other than his stun, without a good initiator like Axe, Enigma, or ES, Slardar can take this role and still perform well.

Phase isn't amazing on him. He doesn't typically need the phase, he's so fast there are few who can avoid him. Treads give him HPs and IAS, which you will be sorely missing if you go with phase.

Hood is sort of a waste most of the time, as it doesn't let him preform his role as a semi-carry very well. If your carry can't farm because he's being harassed too much, your team better do something about that. I would only consider it if the other team is basically all nukers. You won't get it before the laning phase ends if you're being harassed that much, and it will put a big dent in your budget. Slardar has enough HPs to do his job, even against heavy nukers, with sprint active.

Dagger is situational. It shouldn't see much play if you're on a well coordinated team. Sometimes you really need that first stun to win team battles, and if you happen to have Slardar, then you might as well grab the good ol dagger.

This post was edited by deathbypepsi on Jul 9 2009 11:48pm

This.

2x bracer
Threads
Hyperstone
Desolator
Upgrade to assault
HoT

Slardar does not need treads. They're better than BoT, but ever since Phase was added, they are without doubt the best boots for him. I'll say it AGAIN, Phase is amazing for heroes who need positioning as well as chasing. In BOTH these situations, creep blocking can make the difference, but positioning is the main use.

Slardar doesn't need massive items to be a decent chaser/semi-initiator and then be a semi carry. 2-3 bracers and Phase is enough for him to make a big difference in team fights. The game is dominated by AoE. He'll be stunning and picking off people that the team's AoE didn't finish. As a melee in a game now moving at a faster pace with nukers being incredibly strong for the majority of a game, Hood is almost never a BAD option. It may not be the greatest, but it can be good depending on the situation.

Oh Rly? Then don't hope to bash to often then I guess.

How many bashers or bash heroes do you see in competitive play? Oh right...its such a simple concept, really. DotA is DOMINATED by AoE stuns and AoE damage. A bash proc on one hero is not reliable nor is it helpful in a team fight. Are you doing 1v1s? If so, I don't know what to tell you, because DotA is a team game. Sacrificing the immeasurable utility of landing a good stun for slightly more bashes (and I mean SLIGHTLY) is ridiculous to even consider. On such a short cooldown, the AoE stun is far more reliable and useful than some crappy bash proc.

Here's what happens with treads:
1) You take several seconds longer to get in position for your stun (this is assuming that you actually manage to get in position without being disabled or killed by AoEs from running around creeps and other heroes)
2) You don't get any bash procs because no one is stupid enough to stand still and let you just auto attack and you couldn't bash a carry or disabler because you couldn't get off that good stun to give you and your team time
3) You probably die before you manage to do anything useful

BoT is used completely differently than either treads or phase, and when the occasion arises that you'd choose bot, it is better by far than either phase or treads.

Phase seems to be more of a glorified speed boost between well trips tbh (quite a bit more than that, but you get my point). I've seen Slardars using them, and more often than not, they don't need phase for positioning. I have seen them effectively used against a lot of summons, teams with chen+ a lot of BS, but as a core item, it doesn't seem that useful. Slardars biggest fear are nukes+disables, which phase does nothing for, but treads do. He's usually not an initiator, and if he is to be used as such, he doesn't use phase to do it. I agree with you that slardar comes in and picks off heroes, but he doesn't need phase to do it. By the time a team fight has ended, there won't be much left to block his way, and all the heroes will have scattered. In less dramatic, smaller skirmishes, its not entirely common for him to go running through creeps for a kill, and he can catch all but the luckiest through creeps. His stun makes him something of an exception in the chaser category; he can get off 2-3 stuns before the enemy dies, which also slow, and he has amazing move speed. From what I've seen, phase is really useful for running away, this how I've seen it mostly used, as a speed buff before and after combat. In highly competitive play, I see why phase can be useful, but I'm not convinced that it is the best choice for him. Overall, treads seem to offer more to the average Slardar, and as a generalized build, wracking up the damage is the way to go unless you're getting slaughtered.

Hood isn't a bad option, but BKB is strictly better; it gives damage, health, and spell immunity. Hood is really more of a tankish item, not a carry or chaser, which is why I said only against extreme lineups should it be taken, most of which don't see play anymore. If you happen to be fighting Krob/puck/kotl+ more massive AoE nukes and don't have a decent team stunning initiator(anything, tide,es,anyone), hood might not be a bad option, but that's pretty specific and most competitive and pubs alike won't make that situation arise. When you defense up, it's really more because you're losing and/or need to hold off till late game, and more often than not you'll use bkb to accomplish this.

This post was edited by deathbypepsi on Jul 10 2009 02:20pm

This. In the end, ganking/landing bashes and hits are more vital to positioning in late game. Late game, STR/AGILITY heroes become more dominant than INTEL heroes. And yes DeathByPepsi made a great point how BKB>Hood. The item gives not only damage and +Str, more tank, but renders intel's nukes useless when ganked or fighting in a group against slardar.