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3 Votes

Tenshi'N's guide to Drow-nage

March 20, 2013 by TenshiN
Comments: 8    |    Views: 15572    |   


Build 1
Build 2
Build 3

Standard Drow

DotA2 Hero: Drow Ranger




Hero Skills

Frost Arrows

2 3 5 7

Gust

8 9 10 12

Multishot

4 13 14 15

Marksmanship

6 11 16

Talents

1 17 18


Tenshi'N's guide to Drow-nage

TenshiN
March 20, 2013


Introduction

Hello, dear readers, and welcome to my second guide, which will be about the one of the most played heroes nowadays, which is Traxex, the Drow Ranger! And she is not this popupar for nothing! Her ability to carry almost any game with just a medium amount farm is amazing, with how well her skills work together.
And so, this guide is yet another insight on how she could be played effectively.
Now, with the introductions being done, let us move to the guide itself!

General info

Drow Ranger, as the name implies, is a ranged hero, who fits into the role of a hard-carry. Her basic movespeed is 300, which is decent, and her stat growth is average, as we can see.
Drow is a carry, which is nothing without her skills, so we can say she is lacking early-game, while greatly compensating it by her ability to grow ridiculously strong if the early trials were surpassed.

Pros / Cons:

-Pros:
1. Fairly easy to play
2. Damage and attack speed increse exponentially
3. A wide-area Silence
4. A massive slowing effect as an attack modifier
5. Unstoppable late-game
6. Looks hot despite her icy attitude :3


-Cons:
1. Pretty useless at start
2. Easy to kill early on, means would get ganked alot
3. Not a great stat growth
4. Her attack animation could be tricky at first

Skillset:

1. Frost Arrows
Drow's almighty slow. This is what will prevent so many people from running away and getting pinned down by your arrows. Has a 60% movement speed slow at level 4, which makes it an awesome Unique Attack Modifier (Means it won't stack with other Attack Modifiers).
2. Silence
An area Silence effect, which prevent the affected units to cast any spells (But not to use any items, so it won't prevent your victim to Shadowblade away. Prevents some channeled spells, like Sand King's Sandstorm. Also reveals Riki's Permanent Invisibility, and last fricking 6 seconds on level 4, which leaves you more than enough time to kill your poor victim.
3. Trueshot Aura
A passive ability that gives all your allies some bonus damage to their ranged attacks as a percentage from your agility. In conjunction with her ultimate and her stats from items, this skill is a beast late-game, giving 26% of your agility as a bonus ranged damage at level 4.
4. Marksmanship
Your amazing ultimate, as simple as at can get. Get a raw bonus to your agility, which is doubled if there are no enemy heroes near you. Even at level 1, it's only 5 points less of being a free Eaglesong, while giving the whooping 40 agility bonus at level 3.

Early game:

Oh, the early game, point where so many Drow Ranger players fall off... First of all, the starting items, which are fairly standard. 2x Slippers of Agility for some more early damage to help with lasthitting, a Circlet, adding a bit to our survivability and damage, and a set of Tangos to heal up if we get hurt. We also take a point to stats at level 1, which will do us the same amount of good, as another Circlet. "Why not a point to Trueshot if we need the damage?" - you may ask, but the point in taking stats is that it also gives you some more HP, which has proven more useful to me, then gettin an early aura.
So, you had bought your equipment and choosing a line to go at. Actually, Drow can be good on any lane, except the solo hardlane. It is preferrable to go middle lane though, as you surely do need the early experience and gold. You are the hard carry, after all. A thing to note when going mid, is that you should do your best at delaying your creeps, as making the enemy creeps visit your half of the river makes farming a lot easier for ya, and harder for your opponent, as you just can harass the hell out of him from up there. You should concentrate on last-hitting creeps and denying the opponent's last hits though. The first items you will buy would be a Wraith Band and Boots of Speed for obvious reasons. You will be running alot and you need that bit of stats. After that, i highly propose that you should rush your Shadow Blade, even before completing your Power Treads. Why, you ask? Its because a Drow can just do so much good with it. It will get you kills that would be impossible without it, as you can just escape when you're done. And the damage and extra attack speed it provides is just what a Drow Ranger needs. After the Blade, you go and complete your Power Treads, as Drow can always use more attack speed and a switchable stat bonus. Also, you should not aim for the early kills, unless they are just giving it away, and do not towerdive unless you are absolutely sure you would get a kill. After level 6, you can coordinate some ganks with your teammates. Just don't sit in the bushes for too long hoping that they will come closer, they might as well have that area warded, and the time could be used better to farm. And if you are playing a sidelane, and noone warded your half of the map..... Well, do it yourself, don't be greedy, as it will save your life (Your time and your money) when someone will come to gank you.

Mid Game

After you got your Shadow Blade, you can afford yourself being more agressive and looking for heroes to kill, as you can always escape if things will go sour. You come, throw in a Silence, and shoot away, with your Frost Arrows on autocast every time you decide to do it. You also should participate in teamfights with your team, where, outside of dishing out the pain, your role will be to Silence the most you can, preferrably nukers and supports. You can also get a silence on characters as Anti Mage or Queen of Pain, so they won't blink away while you kill them. Don't be afraid of killstealing, as you're the hard carry and you need them. When it comes to items, i prefer to go for Yasha next, as the movespeed and the extra agility is always useful. However, instead of completing it into the much popular Manta Style, i prefer to get a Crystalis next, as it gives you more killing potential, and you already have an escape mechanism. After that, i tend to go for a Helm of Dominator for the lifesteal and the extra damage it provides. You could also use its active to control an Alpga Wolf (The large one) from neutral creep camps to increase your damage even more, while also buffing your allies. After you get all of your core items, it is usually the late game already.
Other scenario is that you failed miserably at start. Even in that case you have your use. Level your Silence ASAP if you still didn't, and stay behind in teamfights while concentrating on throwin in your silences when you can. Also, do grab an easy kill if the opportunity arises, but don't overexert yourself, as your main purpose would be keeping the most dangerous enemies silenced.

Late game

At this point, you will most likely be so strong, that you can afford to even 1v2 sometimes. You approach under your Shadow Blade's active, silence, fire. Double kill. Not much to say about this point of the game. There's also a few variations to what items you can get at this point. First, you can complete your Crystalis into a Daedalus for even more damage and harder crits. You can complete your Manta Style for better survivability and illusion goodness. Note, that as your own damage is so so high, your illusions will also dish out quite the pain. You can get a Black King Bar, if you feel that you can use less of those stuns and nukes. Butterfly is pretty obvious, as it will give you everything you will ever need. Damage, attack speed, even evasion. Assault Cuirass can be gotten for the sake of attack speed and the aura effect it provides. Not the best choice though. Or you may, just may, go trolling and get a Satanic as you would get an insane amount of lifesteal while under it's active. Black King Bar + Satanic = Overkill. Just note, that you should turn your Frost Arrows off, if you want to get any lifesteal out of it, as well as your previous Helm of the Dominator

Build No2: Early DPS

This build is best when going solo mid, and will provide insane DPS early on, allowing for sucessful kills. Your Silence will be delayed by a fair amount, and this build is mostly a gamble, which will or will not pay off. If it does though, you will grow so damn powerful quickly, and would need some real "luck" to lose it. After the early items i described, the rest is the same as build 1.

Afterwords

So, that's it, now you can go and fill some sorry ***es full of arrows!
Thanks for reading, i hope that you liked the guide and will tell your friends about it :)

P.S: This is a "Work in Progress" and will be expanded with more content, based on feedback and my own thoughts.

P.P.S: Also, check my Guide to Viper for more autoattack goodness :D

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