Drow Ranger

Drow Ranger
	17 + 1.9 29 + 2.8 15 + 1.4
Movement speed	285
Turn rate	0.7
Vision range	1800/800
Attack range	625
Projectile speed	1250
Attack animation	0.65+0.3
Base attack time	1.7
Collision size	24
Legs	2
Gib type	Default

For the race in Dota 2 lore, see Drow.

Hero

Strategy

Traxex, the Drow Ranger, is a ranged agility hero whose greatest assets are her incredible damage and ability to keep threats at bay. Traxex is a carry who, though lacking survivability, provides a worthwhile contribution through her damage alone. The Drow Ranger can be extremely powerful at any point in the game.

As an agility hero, Traxex's damage is based largely on her basic attacks and is among the greatest largely due to the massive amounts of bonus proc damage she gains from her passive ultimate, Marksmanship. The Drow Ranger also adds ranged attack speed to teammates with her global Precision Aura. Despite her lack of escape spells, Drow Ranger can keep herself relatively safe from enemy spellcasters and melee heroes using her Gust and her Frost Arrows, respectively. Frost Arrows infuses her attacks with ice, greatly slowing down her enemies. Since it can be manually cast, Frost Arrows can be used to harass her foes in the early game without drawing the creeps' attention. Gust is a great counter to enemy spellcasters as well as melee heroes as Gust pushes heroes away from Drow and prevents them from casting spells, who might threaten her life in battles. Position is of utmost importance as Traxex is quite vulnerable in close combat and the proc damage bonus from Marksmanship is removed when enemies come near her. This means she struggles against melee heroes with high mobility.

Bio[edit]

Traxex, the Drow Ranger

Play "I walk alone, but the shadows are company enough."

Lore:

Drow Ranger's given name is Traxex--a name well suited to the short, trollish, rather repulsive Drow people. But Traxex herself is not a Drow. Her parents were travelers in a caravan set upon by bandits, whose noisy slaughter of innocents roused the ire of the quiet Drow people. After the battle settled, the Drow discovered a small girl-child hiding in the ruined wagons, and agreed she could not be abandoned. Even as child, Traxex showed herself naturally adept at the arts they prized: Stealth, silence, subtlety. In spirit, if not in physique, she might have been a Drow changeling, returned to her proper home. But as she grew, she towered above her family and came to think of herself as ugly. After all, her features were smooth and symmetrical, entirely devoid of warts and coarse whiskers. Estranged from her adopted tribe, she withdrew to live alone in the woods. Lost travelers who find their way from the forest sometimes speak of an impossibly beautiful Ranger who peered at them from deep among the trees, then vanished like a dream before they could approach. Lithe and stealthy, icy hot, she moves like mist in silence. That whispering you hear is her frozen arrows finding an enemy's heart.

Voice:

Gin Hammond (Responses)

Abilities[edit]

Frost Arrows

Play

Ability
Target Unit / Autocast

Affects
Enemies

Adds a freezing effect to Drow's attacks, slowing enemy movement. Lasts 1.5 seconds on Heroes, and 7 seconds on creeps.

Cast Range: 625

Move Speed Slow: 16%/32%/48%/64%

Hero Slow Duration: 1.5

Non-Hero Slow Duration: 7

0

12

Slow persists if debuff was placed before spell immunity and when not dispelled.

Modifiers

Frost Arrows Slow: Dispellable with any dispel.

Ice-encased arrows pierce the silence, chilling their victims to the core.

Notes:

The slow from successive casts does not stack, only the duration gets refreshed.

The attacks first apply the debuff, then their own damage.

Treats creep-heroes as creeps.

Gust

Play

Ability
Target Point

Affects
Enemies

Releases a wave that silences and knocks back enemy units. Knockback distance is relative to how close they are to you.

Cast Animation: +

Cast Range: 900 (

1450)

Travel Distance: 900 (

1450)

Effect Radius: 250

Max Knockback Distance: 350 (

900)

Knockback Duration: 0.6/0.7/0.8/0.9

Silence Duration: 3/4/5/6 (

6/7/8/9)

16/15/14/13 (

8/7.5/7/6.5)

90

Knockback and silence persist if debuff was placed before spell immunity and when not dispelled.

Modifiers

Wave Of Silence Knockback: Dispellable with any dispel.

Silence: Dispellable with any dispel.

Traxex is rather fond of the tranquility of physical combat, calling on her Drow heritage to end the incantations of opposing magi.

Notes:

The wave travels at a speed of 2000, reaching max distance in 0.45 ( 0.725) seconds.

Reaches up to 1150 ( 1700) range away (travel distance + effect radius).

The knockback distance is based on the distance between Drow Ranger and the hit enemy. The closer they are, the further they get knocked back.
- The knockback is strongest when the distance between Drow Ranger and the enemy is 1 range, pushing the enemy 350 ( 900) range away.
- Each additional range of distance between them affects the knockback's distance, reducing it by 0.39 ( 0.62).
- However, the knockback values are truncated, so that the knockback distance decreases by 1 for every 2–3 ( 1–2) range between Drow and the enemy.
- Due to this, the minimum knockback distance is 1 range.
- When standing at the exact same location as Drow Ranger, no knockback occurs, since the formula then multiplies by 0, which results in 0 knockback.

Since the knockback distances are the same on each level, and the knockback duration increases per level, the knockback speed gets lower on each level.
- Therefore, the maximum knockback speed is 583.33/500/437.5/388.89 ( 1500/1285.71/1125/1000), while the minimum speed is 1.67/1.43/1.25/1.11.

Can push units over impassable terrain. Any tree a knocked back unit collides with gets destroyed.

Units are not disabled during the knockback. They can still turn, attack and use items. Channeling items are not interrupted.

Does not affect Roshan.

Precision Aura

Ability
No Target / Aura

Affects
Allies

Adds bonus attack speed to allied, ranged Hero units based on a percentage of Drow's agility. Affects creeps for 30 seconds when cast.

Cast Animation: +

Radius: Global

Agility as Ranged Attack Speed Bonus: 20%/40%/60%/80% (

45%/65%/85%/105%)

Aura Linger Duration: 0.5

Active Duration: 30

100 (

50)

Still disabled when the active component is used.

Modifiers

Trueshot Aura: Undispellable.

Trueshot Global: Undispellable.

Traxex' time spent alone in the forests of her Drow home has allowed her to teach other archers how to improve their bow skills.

Notes:

Interrupts Drow Ranger's channeling spells upon cast.

Only affects ranged units. Does not affect wards and buildings.

Checks Drow Ranger's agility periodically and adapts the bonus attack speed instantly.

Activating Precision Aura does not place a buff on lane creeps and summons, it instead makes the aura affect them as well.

This means that creeps summoned or spawned after the activation still get the bonus for the remaining duration.

Active aura persist through Drow Ranger's death, however, it does not provide the bonus during her death.
- This means when reincarnating with Aegis of the Immortal, or buying back, the aura is bestowed for its remaining duration.

The buff lingers for 0.5 seconds. This goes for both, the passive aura for heroes and the active aura for creeps.

Treats creep-heroes as creeps, so they are only affected when activating the aura.

Marksmanship

Play

Ability
Passive

Affects
Self / Enemies

Damage
Physical

Drow's experiences in battle grant her a chance to launch arrows with incredible accuracy and effectiveness. Pierces through the enemy's defenses, ignoring their armor entirely. Instantly kills creeps and deals bonus proc physical damage to heroes. This ability is disabled if there is an enemy hero within 400 range.

Enemy Hero Search Radius: 400

Proc Chance: 20%/30%/40%

Proc Hero Damage: 120

Splinter Search Radius: 0 (

375)

Max Splinter Targets: 0 (

2)

Splinter Damage Reduction: 0 (

50%)

Causes Drow Ranger's attacks to splinter on the target, hitting nearby units with normal attacks that deal reduced damage.

Particle effects still react on enemy proximity. Splintering arrows are not disabled and fully work.

The particle effects still appear on illusions, reacting on nearby enemies.

Modifiers

Marksmanship: Undispellable.

Marksmanship Reduction: Undispellable.

The Drow Ranger is the epitome of archery prowess.

Notes:

An icy particle effect is visible on Drow Ranger while Marksmanship is active.

Checks for nearby enemy heroes (including invulnerable or hidden ones) in 0.1 second intervals and adapts the bonus accordingly.

Does not react on the presence of illusions and creep-heroes.

When proccing on heroes (including illusions and clones), creep-heroes, or Roshan, the attack deals damage as if the target had 0 armor.
- This means if the target's armor is negative, it will still be ignored, causing the attack to deal less damage.
- The attack also deals extra physical damage. The damage is dealt in a separate instance, but counts as attack damage.

When proccing against other units, it gets instantly killed instead. This includes ancient creeps. Cannot proc against wards or buildings.

Visually alters Drow Ranger's attack projectile when proccing. Does not have priority over Desolator's or Eye of Skadi's effects.

Proccing attacks have True Strike.

The Aghanim's Scepter upgrade requires Marksmanship to be learned and causes Drow Ranger to perform instant attacks on 2 random enemies around the primary target.
- This means the splinters are regular attacks, using Drow Ranger's 1250 projectile speed and being disjointable.
- It also means that they can proc any attack modifier or any on-hit effect like a regular attack.
- The splinters are only released if the primary attack successfully hits a target. This means missed or disjointed attacks do not release any splinters.
- If Drow Ranger is blinded, the splinters can miss, unless she has True Strike. They can also miss to evasion.
- The splinters originate from the primary target's location, not Drow Ranger's location.
- Since the splinters are independent attacks, their damage does not depend on how much damage the primary target took.
- The damage penalty only applies to the attack damage and any bonuses. Damage dealt in separate instances is unaffected (e.g. Maelstrom procs).
- The splinter arrows do not target couriers, buildings and wards as splinter targets, but can splinter off of them to nearby valid targets.
- They also completely ignore invisible, invulnerable and hidden units, as well as units in the Fog of War.

When using Frost Arrows manually, then the resulting splinters apply the slow as well.
- However, when using autocast, the splinters only apply it when having it on autocast as the splinters hit their target.
- Either way (be it manually used, or via autocast), it drains mana upon hitting the target, and not upon splintering.
- Therefore, it only drains mana upon successfully hitting the splinter targets. Missed attacks do not drain mana.

Talents[edit]

Hero Talents
50% Cooldown Reduction	25	+25% Precision Aura Attack Speed
+3s Gust Silence Duration	20	25% Evasion
+550 Gust Distance/Knockback	15	+10 Agility
+5 All Stats	10	+20 Movement Speed

Notes:

The all stats talent effectively grants Drow Ranger 100 health, 0.5 health regen, 0.4% magic resistance, 0.8 armor, 5 attack speed, 0.25% movement speed, 60 mana, 0.25 mana regen, 0.35% spell damage and 5 attack damage.

The agility talent effectively grants Drow Ranger 1.6 armor, 10 attack speed, 0.5% movement speed and 10 attack damage.

The evasion talent stacks multiplicatively with other sources of evasion.

The cooldown reduction talent stacks multiplicatively with Octarine Core and additively other sources of cooldown reduction.

Recommended items[edit]

Starting items:

Healing Salve gives Drow Ranger a massive boost of health regeneration in one go.
Tango provides Drow Ranger health regeneration in the early game.
Iron Branch provides a cheap a boost to Drow Ranger's attributes, and builds into Magic Wand.

Early game:

Boots of Speed give Drow Ranger a speed boost which can be helpful for getting around.
Magic Wand can be a good idea to pick up if the enemy is using a lot of spells, as the burst heal can help her survive or win early fights.

Mid game:

Power Treads provide Drow Ranger with attack speed and additional attributes.
Dragon Lance provides useful stats for a highly cost effective price, and the increased range allows Drow Ranger to easily achieve good positioning. It also allows her to out-range towers and destroy them without much risk. Upgrades later into Hurricane Pike.
Shadow Blade provides mobility and stealth for Drow Ranger, allowing her to approach an ideal position for team-fights. It also provides some useful attack speed and damage.
Mask of Madness is a good source of lifesteal, and is useful for farming. It also provides a nice boost to Drow Ranger's attack and movement speed, but it comes at the cost of being unable to use her Frost Arrows.

Late game:

Butterfly provides ever-useful agility for Drow Ranger. It is usually picked up to help Drow Ranger defend against efficient backline attackers.
Black King Bar is important if Drow Ranger is facing a team with many disables, giving her enough time to deal at least some damage.

Situational items:

Silver Edge builds naturally from Shadow Blade, providing valuable stats and break. It can be disassembled to build another item with the Ultimate Orb.
Diffusal Blade allows Drow Ranger to ambush an enemy hero with Gust, then quickly burn away their mana during the silence period.
Aghanim's Scepter causes Drow Ranger's attacks to splinter, hitting two random units near the primary target. Alone, it can be a weak upgrade, but combined with several attack modifier items, it can allow Drow to heavily damage a grouped up enemy team.
Mjollnir is typically picked up if planning to build Aghanim's, as it speeds up her early farming ability, and the secondary splinter shots will be able to proc Chain Lightning.
Satanic provides Drow Ranger with a huge amount of lifesteal for a short period of time, allowing Drow Ranger to stand her ground and regain practically all of her health with just a few shots.
Manta Style provides Drow Ranger with mobility, stats, and the ability to dispel debuffs and create illusions of herself.
Eye of Skadi gives a decent stats boost, and stacks with Frost Arrows, making it possible to reduce most enemy heroes to minimum move speed.
Monkey King Bar provides an excellent damage boost, as well as a counter against evasion heroes. However, it has no defensive bonuses, and makes Drow Ranger into even more of a glass cannon.
Daedalus provides Drow Ranger with a critical strike chance, which synergizes well with the attack speed and damage she gets from her abilities, maximizing her damage output.

Gameplay[edit]


Roles:	Carry Disabler Pusher
Complexity:	★☆☆
Playstyle:	Dwelling deep within the forest, few have ever caught glimpse of the solitary and impossibly beautiful Drow Ranger. Her presence was known only from the chill of Frost Arrows, driving deep into her enemies' hearts. Named and raised by the sympathetic Drow, Traxex draws on her heritage to send forth a powerful Gust, silencing and repulsing assailants who venture too close. Her expertise influences her allies, greatly increasing their ranged attacks with Precision Aura. None would ever match the Drow Ranger herself, however. For with each passing skirmish, her supreme Marksmanship grows ever more peerless.

Strategy & Tips

Counters &
Matchups

Audio[edit]

Responses

Sounds

History[edit]

Lore

Old Abilities

Changelogs

Equipment[edit]

Trivia[edit]

Traxex's original design was slightly different from the one now; aside from the same hood, her white hair was not present, and her eyes were completely white. Her outfit was also slightly more revealing.
From her transition to Dota 2, the name of her aura changed from "Trueshot Aura" to "Precision Aura".
Drow Ranger's response "I quiver with anticipation." references a line in The Rocky Horror Picture Show "I see you shiver with anticipation."