Drow Ranger/Guide

Hero

 

Strategy

 

Equipment

 

Gear

 

Talents

 

Relics

 

Responses

 

Sounds

 

Animations

 

Lore

 

Old Abilities

 

Changelogs

 

Known Bugs

 

Gameplay

Playstyle
Drow Ranger is a deadly archer, chilling and killing her enemies with volleys of Frost Arrows. Her powerful Multishots will tear through her enemies from a safe distance, and a timely Gust can silence groups of enemies at pivotal moments. With her great Marksmanship, she can pierce the armor of her foes and deal tremendous damage. However, Drow Ranger is fairly fragile with no decent escape ability, thus she often struggles against faster and more aggressive melee heroes.
Pros	Cons
High single target damage. Good chaser. Buffs other ranged heroes. Decent at farming. Has got 2 semi-disables (powerful slow and silence)	Dependent on attributes. No escape mechanism. Fragile, slow, and easily ganked. Slow attack animation. Somewhat demands mana. Ultimate can be disabled if opponents get too close. Seriously weak and useless when played from behind and when playing other roles.

Carry

• Prioritize Multishot and Marksmanship to increase Drow Ranger's damage output.
• An early point in Frost Arrows allows Drow Ranger to harass without drawing creep aggro.
• If properly protected by supports, Drow Ranger can rush Multishot instead of Frost Arrows in order to maximize her damage potential, thus ensuring a power spike at level six.

Ability Builds

Generic Drow Ranger
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	20	25

Free Farming Drow Ranger
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	20	25

Talents

Hero Talents
+1 Multishot Waves	25	+12% Marksmanship Chance
-4s Gust Cooldown	20	+25% Multishot Damage
-6s Multishot Cooldown	15	20% Lifesteal
+15 Frost Arrow Damage	10	+15% Gust Self Movement Speed

Notes:

• Stacks additively with other lifesteal sources.

Tips & Tactics

General

• Drow Ranger is usually played in the safe lane, with a support.
• Drow Ranger is easily ganked. Make sure not to overextend if your support is not nearby.
• Drow Ranger is all about positioning, since her Marksmanship bonus is disabled if an enemy closes to within 400 range, and because she is extremely fragile.
  • Stay behind your teammates and use them as a buffer. Keep moving throughout fights to keep your tankier teammates between you and the enemy.
  • Approach fights from the edges, and rely on the slow from Frost Arrows instead of physical proximity to keep enemies in range.
  • Rely on items that help Drow Ranger keep her distance, such as Dragon Lance, Shadow Blade, Blink Dagger, and Force Staff.
  • Like other ranged heroes, stutter stepping is useful for Drow Ranger, but not as important due to the slow from Frost Arrows.
• Because of the damage bonuses from her abilities, Drow Ranger is slightly less dependent on items than other carries, but can still be shut down in the early game. Be careful not to take any needless risks.
• Drow Ranger deals more damage to buildings than other carries thanks to her building items that directly grant her stats, and should always capitalize on any opportunity to take down a tower.
• Due to her slow attack animation, Drow Ranger should focus primarily on farming until she has her first point in Marksmanship.
• If you are having trouble timing last hits, try moving closer to the creep wave.
• Animation cancelling with the Stop hotkey (S by default) can also help with timing.
• In general, Drow Ranger tends to build items that grant her stats instead of raw damage, because Multishot only uses base damage, not bonus damage, and Marksmanship grants bonus agility based on her current agility (base and bonus).
  • She desperately needs Agility and Strength for obvious reasons, but she also needs Intelligence as her abilities and items are extremely mana-cost intensive. A simple Silver Edge Manta BKB costs a whopping 250 mana, not to mention her 3 basic abilities have extremely high mana-costs compared to her mediocre mana pool.
• Unlike other carries who have role versality and can be played in other roles, Drow Ranger must always be played as carry. Playing Drow Ranger in any other role will render her both weak and useless.

Abilities

Frost Arrows

With level four Frost Arrows, Drow Ranger can kite most melee heroes.

• Manually casting Frost Arrows (known as orbwalking) prevents Drow Ranger from drawing creep/tower aggro. Use this tactic to harass, kite, and escape enemies when caught out.
  • Manual casts still count as attacks for Silver Edge and Shadow Blade, applying the effects of attacking from invisibility.
• Use Frost Arrows sparingly during the early game, as they can drain Drow Ranger's mana fairly quickly.
• Frost Arrows are good for harassing enemies in lane, allowing Drow Ranger to land several hits while the target slowly retreats.
• Because of the slow, Drow Ranger does not need to constantly try and catch up to her target, meaning that she should always be kept at least 400 range away to ensure Marksmanship's bonus damage is active.
• At higher levels, Drow Ranger can simultaneously kite and attack enemies with Frost Arrows.
• Frost Arrows can be used to slow and prevent an enemy from chasing down an ally.
• Always toggle autocast on Frost Arrows when you anticipate an incoming fight.
• Combined with almost any other source of slow, Frost Arrows will reduce enemies to a crawl.
  • Frost Arrows' slow fully stacks with Eye of Skadi, allowing her to slow fast heroes like Bloodseeker. It also allows Drow Ranger to slow enemies without using mana, and through spell immunity.
• Frost Arrows can be used to kite and farm jungle creeps, although this can be mana intensive.
• When chasing multiple enemies with your team, hitting each target once, or cycling through targets, may prevent any of them from getting away.
• With Aghanim's Scepter, Frost Arrows essentially becomes an area-of-effect slow.

Gust

• Gust is Drow Ranger's only means of defense, and should not be used lightly.
• Use Gust defensively to push enemies who get too close, keeping them beyond the 400 Marksmanship bonus range.
• Use Gust offensively to interrupt enemies who try to react to your attacks with a disable or an escape ability.
• With Blink Dagger, Drow Ranger can use Gust to initiate on and gank single targets.
• If an enemy is already hit by a long disable (such as Cyclone or Disruption), Drow Ranger can move to the opposite side of her target, and push them backwards with Gust right after the first disable ends.
• In a teamfight, try to catch as many enemies with Gust as possible, preferably as a follow up to your team's initiator. This will shut down the enemy for several seconds, during which Drow Ranger can pick off one or two targets.
• Use Gust on an enemy team in the Roshan Pit to push them further inside, and render them unable to respond.
• With good timing, it is possible to push enemies onto different elevations like cliffs.
• With a Shadow Blade, Drow Ranger can gank by taking a shot (with the effect of Frost Arrows) to break the invisibility, then immediately using Gust.
  • This leaves the target slowed, and silenced, and therefore unable to react (apart from using items).

Multishot

• Multishot can be used to great extent when flash farming, having a support stack the small camp in the early game then using Multishot can help Drow possibly acquire a neutral drop, which could accelerate her game.
• Multishot can be used during team fights from a safe distance, potentially hitting multiple heroes up to 3 times with high damage frost arrows.
• Multishot can be used to hit multiple camps at the same time.
• Multishot is excellent when defending towers, as you hit creeps and heroes from a safe distance.
• Multishot can be useful to finish off enemies that get out of range or into the fog of war with low health; as it has two times Drow's normal attack range and can hit enemies in the fog of war.
• Tips needed.

Marksmanship

Marksmanship's particle effect disappears when enemies are nearby.

• Even a single point in Marksmanship will make Drow Ranger farm creeps much more quickly.
  • Because of this, levels 6, 12, and 18 are especially important milestones for Drow Ranger.
  • Stacked creep camps and Tome of Knowledge can be used to reach these critical levels before a showdown.
• Attacks proccing Marksmanship deal bonus damage, have True Strike, and pierce base armor.
• Marksmanship's particle effect around Drow Ranger's body disappears when enemies are within 400 range.
  • Keep an eye on Drow Ranger to know when an enemy is too close.
  • The effect will also disappear if an invisible enemy is within 400 range, meaning that it can be used as an approximate means of detection.
• Enemies with teleport like Anti-Mage or Phantom Assassin can instantly close the gap with Drow Ranger, thus disabling Marksmanship.
• With Aghanim's Scepter, additional interactions occur:
  • Silver Edge's and Shadow Blade's modifiers (bonus damage / damage reduction and Break) only work on the primary target, not targets hit by the splinters.
  • Mjollnir and Maelstrom have 3 opportunities to proc for each of Drow Ranger's attacks (assuming two additional targets are in search range), thus giving the following proc chances:
    • 57.8% chance of at least one proc
    • 42.2% chance of 1 proc
    • 14.1% chance of 2 procs
    • 1.56% chance of 3 procs
  • Blade Mail will reflect damage done by splinters. Attacking into a group of several heroes with Blade Mail active can quickly be lethal, unless Satanic is used to restore health through lifesteal.

Items

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.

• Manta Style provides Drow Ranger with mobility, stats, and the ability to dispel debuffs and create illusions of herself. Since the illusions spawn with it benefit from Marksmanship agility bonus, the item considerably increases Drow Ranger's damage output, especially when sieging buildings.

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.

• Silver Edge builds naturally from Shadow Blade, providing valuable stats and break.

Situational items:

• 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. In late game, it can be disassembled to build Satanic and/or Butterfly.

• 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.

• Consider an Eye of Skadi late game if you are fighting fast and or tanky heroes. It provides valuable attributes, useful health and mana to sustain Frost Arrows for longer, and the slow stacks with Frost Arrows, reducing most opponents to minimum movement speed. It also has the utility of reducing health regen, making it very valuable against tanks.

• Monkey King Bar provides a considerable damage boost. However, it provides no defensive bonuses, thus making Drow Ranger into even more of a glass cannon. Besides, Drow Ranger does not need to rely on it as a counter against evasion heroes, since she generally benefits accuracy from Marksmanship.

• 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.