Hello Doobs! Welcome to "Weekly Hero Review". Here I hope to briefly cover a hero, their skills, potential builds and strategies to employ while playing that hero. While this won't cover every possible build with this hero - it should provide a starting point for you to be able to play this hero somewhat competently. Hopefully the discussion on this thread will fill in whatever I've left out!

So I hope this new series is a welcome addition to the forums (at least until we build guides). I've very curious to hear any thoughts you might have on this series as well as anything I can do to improve this format. So either please PM or feel free to start another thread with your comments (i'd prefer to keep this thread with nothing but Drow Ranger discussion ).



Traxex, The Drow Ranger.

Drow Ranger was one of the first Dota 2 heroes to see release. She is an Agility hero that scales well into the late game, gaining ever increasing damage as she levels, and even more damage as she gears up. With her Precision Aura, she also provides utility to her team with increased damage. While she is squishy and can find her early game difficult, mid and late game are no problem for a skilled Drow.

Because of her status as a carry - she has a level and farm dependency. Solo mid is the ideal lane for Drow. If however, you are forced to side lane, you should do so with a support in the safe lane and be given all of the farm for that lane. The hard lane is generally too dangerous for Drow - even if it is a solo lane.

Skill Priorities

R > E > Q > W

For your first 3 levels, put a point into your frost arrows, silence, and Precision aura. You will use all 3 of these skills while laning and they are worthwhile. Precision aura is maxed first as it's the one skill that gives a direct damage improvement to Drow.

Maxing silence or frost arrows can be situational. I find that for most games frost arrows provide more utility for chasing and securing kills. At level 1, the movement reduction is only 11% which is barely noticeable. Once maxed however, frost arrows provide a movement reduction of 50%. That is huge and you'll find other heroes completely unable to run away once hit with this debuff.

A couple notes about frost arrows: It is auto cast, so you can right-click the skill icon and it will "toggle on"; allowing your every shot to apply the frost effect. Though it's unwise to toggle frost arrows on initially, as Drow does not have the mana to sustain it. Last - use frost arrows will also be your primary harrass tool. Simply by hitting someone you're laning against, they will generally back off a bit. Slow is a scary thing .

I've read a few guides that say to put a point of stats into Drow early - at levels 2 and 4. The reason for this is that it helps with Drow's relatively weak base stats. I've experimented with this a bit, and I can see why it would be good for competitive play. For someone just starting with Drow Ranger, or Dota 2 - I advise against this. The time your build is set back by doing this doesn't offset the negligible advantage you receive from higher stats. It's more important to play safe during your early levels, and not get hit in the first place.

Itemization

Starting build: Salve, Tango > Agil slippers > Gauntlets.

Mid game build: Fast bottle > x2 Wraith Band > Shoes (into power treads)

Goals: Crystalys > Manta Style > Black King Bar > Butterfly

Monkey King Bar, and Shadow Blade can also work well on Drow Ranger.

Early game

Early game - sit back and farm, you don't want to play too risky due to your low health. Last hit where you can. By level 2, you should have both frost arrows and aura. This will allow you to peak out from your tower a bit and harass with some effect.
Otherwise - your goals should be to harass with the occasional frost arrow, and last hit until 6. If you are solo mid, objectives like rune control will obviously come into play. Also, if you are solo mid, first priority will be to rush to a fast bottle.

Mid/Late Game
You will want to spend as much time in your lane farming as possible. If however the opportunity to gank presents itself - it generally becomes safe post level 6. Prime opportunities include when you have an invisibility rune, and the lane you're going to gank has some form of hard CC.

But again - you will want to spend as much time in your lane as possible. You're objective is to out farm your lane.
Once you've left your lane, roam with the rest of your team for teamfights and ganks. For teamfights, stay behind your initiators, as Drow is still relatively squishy and should be fighting from as much range as possible. Your first priority is always to silence casters, and the pick off anyone trying to run with frost arrows. If you're properly farmed, they won't get much of a chance to run at all.

Otherwise it becomes right-click to win.

Final Words
Drow Ranger was one of the first Heroes I played when I got my beta invite. I feel she's a very easy to learn hero with some simple mechanics. Her greatest liability is her low health which becomes an issue most of the game. This brings me to the most important part about playing Drow Ranger successfully: Positioning.

If you can position well, you'll be able to out farm and win your lane. Also, you will need to make sure you don't over-extend in your lane too much, and in teamfights, you'll need to make sure to stay behind your initiators and focus down squishy targets. Finally, don't go out wandering by yourself too much in the late game: You have no escape mechanism.

But this also makes Drow Ranger a great hero to learn with, as positioning is one of the more important aspects of Dota 2.

Ranged carries where always my weak-point, I'd rather play just about anything else. I have played a few games as Drow and I certainly see how awesome she is, She is a beast in the night late game.

I tend to rush Shadow Blade because the active helps with my terrible positioning lol.

heh. I hear yah.

If you've ever played a lot of AD Carries in LOL - the idea is similar. Let your tanks, tank and right-click from afar. For me - I was never completely terrible in the role, and so I was able to adapt kinda quickly. I picked up Drow and went "Oh, I'm playing Ashe with a different skin".

By the way this is awesome and very well done!

great job all around but i have to question the items for mid game i like to rush a ring of aquila because it gives the benifet of one wraith band and a ring of basi which helps with armour and mana regen which is great for drow since you want to spam frost arrows but arnt giong to build mana regen/inteligence. also i would say that you want to go for a helm of the dominator after compleating you treads since it gives you life steal for right click sustain, health regen, Armour, and damage. then you can either go for a bkb or manta depending on your ability to stay safe and not get focused. i would not recomend shadow blade because the wind walk can be a safe feeling that is unreliable because as i have notice from the inhouse we have been playing better and getting dust/sentry wards when their are people who abuse stealth on the enemy team.

^ Agree with Archoass this is how I build drow
Helm of the Dominator is too good to pass up for the price(1850 gold). Note since frost arrow and lifesteal are orbs lifesteal applies when frost arrow is single cast and frost arrow applies when set to autocast. Shadow blade is fine when using it offensively like one would with an invis rune. But dont use it as a crutch for escape when your positioning is off since most players will use some form of detection to find you. I never build shadow blade because i feel there are better items to spend the money and space on.

Also I dont know when would it be appropriate to build shadow blade since you need surviablity and AGI to keep up with other agi carries. Drow has the lowest AGI gain of any AGI hero (with the exception of Ember spirit and Slark who are not yet in dota 2) because of the fact she gains Bonus AGI from Marksmanship. so she falls behind between levels of her ulti,pulls ahead when she levels marksmanship and then slowly her loses lead until next level of marksmanship.
Great guide

Awesome points about Shadow Blade, I guess its something one should really not learn to rely on because it's never going to really be best practice, especially as we all get better. Ugh I gotta stop reading the board at work, it just makes me want to go play Dota lol.

That's all I want to do these days. It's kind of getting bad ;-)