Drow, The New Thor [6.86e]

Introduction

This build is supposed to be a little joke among my friends, but somehow I find that this build is quite legit at destroying enemies, and the sheer farming speed is overly crazy. So I decided to share.

Reason why I give this build is in 6.86 patch, Drow Ranger's aghanim's upgrade gives her to splash attacks that bring Unique Attack Modifier along with them, with the cost of the splash attacks merely deals 50% of the damage.

At least, if it comes from the same source.

Lightning Chains however, is a different source, and does not get reduced. And for the extra kicker? Each splash has independent chance to trigger Lightning Chains. So with Aghanim's Scepter alone, the procs is basically tripled from 25% to 75% just from one attack animation from Drow. And the independent chance meant Lightning Chains can strike twice (or thrice if you are so ******* lucky) in one attack. Also, what if you have two source of Lightning chains?

Yeah, the math is hard, but basically every ******* attack from you is lightning balls.

Drow Ranger is often depicted as single target killing hero, but in this build, she can kill teams like they are made of paper. Provided, they don't go Black King Bar on whole team.

Reasons to use / avoid this build

Reasons to use:

• You need heroes that can dish crazy damage to multiple heroes in teamfights.
  
• Enemies are squishy against magic damage nukes.
  
• Enemies like to stack armors on their heroes.
  
• You are not dependant on Marksmanship active effect, meaning positioning means little for you in teamfights.
  
• VERY EFFECTIVE in killing illusions.
  
• High right-click damage from Marksmanship by default, thus if you are not near any enemy heroes, you will hit like a truck despite the lack of right-click damage items.
  
• A combination of Magic Damage and Physical Damage in one attack animation, what's not to love?
  

Reasons to avoid:

• Enemies have natural defense against magic damage.
  
• Enemy carry is a natural Black King Bar carrier, and can destroy your team when he gets it.
  

Skill Builds

Naturally, when in this build, you want to farm more passively rather than farm from ganks. Reason is because you need money that badly until you get Aghanim's Scepter and cannot afford to die until you get it. Second, you will almost always be the main target in teamfights, without escaping or positioning items, you are dead. And in this build, there is no positioning item until you get aghanim at least.

Semi-Ganker Build

This build put on emphasize on ganks, but does not distrupt you from farming jungle passively. I call this build semi gank because you need teammates to set up for you to kill, but not overly dedicated to gank that your farming speed is dampened.

3 points at Frost Arrows are usually enough to prevent anyone from escape from you as long as you don't go killing enemies alone.

This build is preferable when your teammates need ganking partners and you can benefit from ganks.

---

Passive Farming Build

Passive Farming, as it name states, meaning you don't go into team fights and ganks, instead, you will farm jungle and split pushing. Later this build transition into teamfight when you go maxing Gust.

2 points in Frost Arrows are enough to take advantage of in killing opportunities in lane when they are available.

Itemization

Starting Items

Total cost: 625 gold

Pretty standard build for ranged agility carry. This starting item makes last hitting easy, and the regen item means you can trade blows with enemy support.

If you go tri-lane, better go with Wraith Band and Tango, since you will not trade any blows, and also easier transition to Ring of Aquila.

Early Game

Total cost: 1385 gold


Ring of Aquila gives everything you want. A whopping +18 damage (+9 directly, +9 from agi stats), extra mana regen to spam your Frost Arrows (and thus Orb Walking, and the rest is for survival, All at the cost of mere 985 gold.

Sequence of getting Ring of Aquila or Boots of Speed first is depending on your lane. If your enemy is duo laning, and has dangerous kill potential (stuns, slows), better buy boots first, but if the enemy is rather passive or has no kill potential, you may buy Aquila first.

By level 6

Total cost: 1800 gold


This item is the one that makes you jungle fast, because of +20 damage, lifesteal, and armor, and also literal +40 agi from level 1 Marksmanship.

Make sure to use its active effect: Dominate to Alpha Wolf (the one that gives +30% damage aura) and command it to follow you like a puppy. You will farm so fast that you will get Maelstrom in no time.

Core (in sequence)

Total Cost: 9800 Gold

Maelstrom is your first core items. No ifs or buts. You will need this to farm Aghanim's Scepter quickly and also split pushing fast.

Aghanim's Scepter is your bread and butter in this guide. Reasons why can be red in the introduction.

Upgrading to Mjollnir is much preferred rather than buying a second Maelstrom for now because it gives better attack speed and from my experience, out-DPS-es two Maelstrom by noticeable margin. It also save space in your inventory for another item you may need.

Getting second Maelstrom is better than upgrading to Mjollnir after some testing. Your GPM skyrocket so fast and deal much more AoE damage in team fights.

Extension

You will obviously need Black King Bar since even a dumb team will know just how destructive you are in team fights, and then proceed to aim at you first in every conflicts.

Which brings to the second point:

You have no escape, you have no mobility, you have no positioning item, but you know what? screw them. Enemies coming face to face at you? nick them with your arrow to the face. Yes, your Marksmanship agi gain is lost when enemy go face to face at you, but you don't need that agi that much like other builds.

YOU HAVE YOUR STUPID BROKEN LIGHTNING CHAINS WITH RIDICULOUS PROCS, THIS IS YOUR SOURCE OF DAMAGE. DON'T RUN LIKE A *****, KILL THEM LIKE A MAN!!!

Unfortunately, to do that smoothly, you will most definitely need Black King Bar to keep right clicking your opponent and buzzing them to death.

By this point, you will also notice this build is commit to the death when entering battle (or getting jumped on), only with the odd chance of you winning out is big. So yeah, do play like that.

You may skip this item and go for Dragon Lance instead if your team can CC your enemies well or very good at taking attention away from you.

Luxury

Pretty standard late game items, but usually the first item i buy is Boots of Travel for split pushing and more farming, and also finally upgrading the brown boots.

Daedalus when facing high health opponents like Pudge, Axe, etc. Or perhaps when your enemy think buying Black King Bar will solve their problem with Drow Ranger.

Monkey King Bar when facing evasion heroes that has bought Black King Bar, and unfortunately at the position only you can kill him or her with right clicks.

Butterfly is my go to item if I don't know which item I should buy. More attack speed, evasion for survival, huge agi gain.

Naturally, you also want to upgrade your Maelstrom to Mjollnir for both. The extra attack speed means you can forego your Marksmanship's requirement for positioning since the attack speed is enough to melt enemies down without right click damage from the ability.

Also usually at this point, you want to sell Helm of the Dominator for items listed above. Satanic is a no-no because with lightning proc chance so high, your attack just doesn't proc lifesteal which makes the item useless. You better off buy Eye of Skadi if you need health that badly.

Situational

Blink Dagger is more of an escape rather than positioning. This item also gives you the ability to split push into more dangerous area and proceed to TP away from the trees if they gone after you. With your farming rate, this item is quite viable to buy. Make sure to buy this after getting second Maelstrom at the quickest, because you will need that farm boost first.



Drow Ranger can get away with brown boots because of her ultimate, Marksmanship that give 40 agi just for level 1.

Buy Power Treads if you need the 'oomph' to dish damage and survival. If you want to gank a bit more active, give this item a go, because this will definitely help you. otherwise keep your brown boots and rush Maelstrom.



Dragon Lance is good if your team has strong iniator like Axe or Magnus that can keep enemies attention for a while, or somehow you find yourself not being the main target. Extra attack range means you can deal more damage from farther behind, thus less exposure to enemy nukes. This item is a good transition to Black King Bar and you plan to buy Butterfly later after your core items.

Allies

Allies for Drow Ranger in this build are the ones that can take attention away from her in team fights. Even a support that sacrifices himself as bait is already an ally for you since you can dish damage to enemies.

Although some heroes needs to be mentioned specifically:

Axe has Berserker's Call to force enemies to fight with your team and force them to group up, in which your lightning chains will kill them from a distance.

Engima has Black Hole, one of ultimate team fight spells. Nevertheless, you don't need to force him to hit 5 people with it, just 2 heroes are enough for you to kill them quickly with Lightning Chains and force the fight in your favor.

Faceless Void is your absolute best friend. Chronosphere is easier to land than Black Hole and lower cooldown as well. His skill repertoires makes him easy to land it, and also lower cooldown to boot. Just get 2 heroes under Chrono and you can kill them fast to bring fights to your team's favor. Even more, Lightning Chains range can procs to enemies outside Chronosphere.

Magnus definitely has syngergy with you, but he is a rather hard hero to land his ult with comparing to Enigma or Faceless Void. If Magnus player is good however, he can bring more satisfactory winning than the other two will, because Skewer will bring dinner to your plate. if Magnus get Aghanim's Scepter things get ridiculous because Empower turns your attack into splash of splashes.

Alchemist is specially mentioned despite the not so noticable synergy. Because his aghanim's upgrade is upgrading someone else's ultimate, or in this case, you let Alchemist farm Aghanim's Scepter for you. Giving you the chance to skip aghs and having another item slot for other items. Although its probably rare for him to do this because your team cannot have 2 passive farming carries in team unless your teammates able to defend your towers (or pressure enemy teams) just by three of them.

Outro

Yeah, it's a pretty straight forward build, but Drow Ranger is played pretty forward anyway, with little leeway for another build to shine through.

I don't know what farm priority Drow will get if you go this build, but definitely in Priority 1 or 2.

So, yeah... Happy buzzing, people!!

Version History

February 14, 2016

• Changes to item build.

February 7, 2016

• Changes to the build after some more testing.
• Added some more infos.
• Some fixes.

February 5, 2016

• Added Dragon Lance as situational item.
• Some fixes.

February 4, 2016

• Added Allies.
• Some fixes.

February 3, 2016

• Published this guide
• Some fixes to wording