After reviewing Silencer last week, we are moving to the Drow Ranger.
As of December 8, 2024, she maintains a significant presence in the Dota 2 meta. According to Dotabuff, she ranks 13th in popularity with a win rate of 51.05%, reflecting her steady effectiveness across different skill brackets.
Pick Rate 10.32%
Win Rate 51.56%
KDA (Kill/Death/Assist) 2.30 (Avg.)
Average Matches Played 1.2 million+
Tier Placement Ancient (high pick rate in pubs)
Role Carry, Ranged Agility
Primary Attribute Agility
Base Health 200 (at level 1)
Base Mana 75 (at level 1)
Base Attack Damage 30-40
Base Armor 1.5
Movement Speed 300
Attack Range 625
Health Regen (Per Sec) 0.75
Mana Regen (Per Sec) 0.75
Base Str/ Agi/ Int 18/22/16
Strength Gain (Per Level) 1.8
Agility Gain (Per Level) 2.8
Intelligence Gain (Per Level) 1.2
Talents (Level 10) +20% Evasion/+10 Agility
Talents (Level 15) +15% Attack Speed/+10 Strength
Talents (Level 20) +25 Damage/+15% Attack Speed
Talents (Level 25) +35% Multishot Damage/+25% Agility
Marksmanship Damage Bonus 40/60/80% (+100% Agi) at max level
Frost Arrows Slow 30% (level 1), 50% (level 4)
Description
Drow Ranger, a ranged agility carry, thrives on consistent physical damage and long-range harassment. Her core strength lies in her ability to deal sustained, high-damage attacks from a distance, which scales incredibly well as the game progresses. However, she also highly depends on positioning and itemization to maximize her potential.
Early Game
In the laning phase, Drow Ranger excels at harassing enemies with Frost Arrows, which can be manually cast to slow opponents and deal bonus damage without drawing creep aggro. This allows her to control the lane and zone melee opponents effectively. Despite her potential dominance, her low base HP and lack of escape tools make her vulnerable to early ganks or aggressive lane matchups. Prioritize survivability with items like Wraith Band for stats and Tangoes for regeneration.
Mid-Game
As the game transitions, Drow Ranger focuses on farming efficiently to hit her power spikes. A core item is Dragon Lance, which increases her attack range and provides essential agility. This synergizes with her ultimate Marksmanship, which amplifies her damage by ignoring base armor. The mid-game is when her Multishot ability shines for farming and dealing damage in team fights. Key items like Manta Style or Hurricane Pike address her lack of mobility and give her the utility to reposition or dispel silences.
Late Game
In the late game, Drow Ranger becomes a powerhouse carry capable of shredding through enemy heroes and structures. Critical items include Satanic, which offsets her fragility by providing lifesteal and survivability, and Butterfly, which increases evasion and damage. To maximize her damage output, items like Silver Edge offer mobility and the ability to disable passives, while Daedalus adds critical strike potential.
Late-game builds should focus on countering the enemy team. Against high-armor foes, items like Monkey King Bar ensure her attacks penetrate evasion. Her job in the late game revolves around positioning perfectly to maintain Marksmanship uptime while dishing out massive DPS.
Builds and Itemization
Core Build:
- Power Treads
- Dragon Lance
- Hurricane Pike
- Manta Style
- Butterfly
- Satanic
Situational Items:
- Black King Bar (BKB): For spell immunity against crowd control-heavy enemies.
- Monkey King Bar (MKB): To counter evasion-based heroes like Phantom Assassin.
- Skadi: Enhances her kiting ability and provides HP and mana to address her squishiness.
- Silver Edge: For extra escape potential and breaking key passives.
- Aghanim's Shard: Grants a self-buff aura to her allied ranged units, increasing their attack speed.
Drow's effectiveness hinges on her ability to farm efficiently, hit item timings, and choose engagements carefully. Her playstyle is punishing yet rewarding for players who master positioning and decision-making.
Lore
Traxex was adopted and raised by the Drow people after bandits killed her parents. Despite not being a Drow by birth, she mastered their arts of stealth and silence. Feeling estranged due to her different appearance, she chose a solitary life in the woods, becoming a mysterious and deadly ranger whose presence is felt through the chill of her Frost Arrows.
Latest Updates
Drow Ranger has undergone several updates to enhance her abilities and overall gameplay:
- Patch 7.37 (September 27, 2023): Introduced the 'Sidestep' facet, allowing Drow Ranger to move and use items while channeling Multishot, with a reduced movement speed penalty from 40% to 25%. Additionally, Frost Arrows' bonus damage was increased across all levels.
- Patch 7.36b (August 8, 2023): Increased the Marksmanship proc chance, enhancing her damage output.
- Patch 7.35d (March 21, 2024): Reduced the cooldown of Multishot, allowing for more frequent use in engagements.
These updates have bolstered her effectiveness, particularly in maintaining damage output during engagements and providing additional utility against elusive foes.
Benefits
- High Physical Damage: Drow Ranger's abilities and attack modifiers enable her to deal significant damage, especially to low-armor targets.
- Enemy Slow: Her Frost Arrows apply a movement speed slow, allowing her to kite enemies effectively and control engagements.
- Push Potential: With high damage output, she can quickly take down towers and other structures, applying pressure across the map.
- Flexibility in Positioning: While primarily played in the safe lane, Drow Ranger can adapt to mid-lane or even offlane roles in certain situations.
Downsides
- Fragility: With low health and armor, she is susceptible to burst damage and requires careful positioning to avoid being quickly eliminated.
- Lack of Escape Mechanisms: Without innate abilities to escape, she relies on items like Shadow Blade or Force Staff for mobility.
- Dependence on Positioning: Her ultimate ability is disabled when enemies are within 400 range, making positioning crucial to maintain her damage output.
Abilities
- Frost Arrows: Adds a freezing effect to Drow Ranger's attacks, slowing enemy movement and dealing bonus damage.
- Gust: Releases a wave that knocks back, reveals invisible enemies, and silences them, preventing ability usage.
- Multishot: Channels to fire a volley of arrows, hitting multiple enemies and applying Frost Arrows' effects.
- Marksmanship: A passive ability granting a chance to ignore the enemy's base armor, dealing increased damage. Disabled when an enemy hero is nearby.
Hints and Tips to Master
- Maintain Optimal Positioning: Always position yourself to keep enemies at a distance, ensuring Marksmanship remains active.
- Effective Use of Frost Arrows: Manually cast Frost Arrows to harass enemies without drawing creep aggro, and use the slow to kite melee opponents.
- Strategic Use of Gust: Utilize Gust to silence key enemy heroes, especially those reliant on abilities, and to reveal and disable invisible units.
- Maximize Multishot Potential: Use Multishot to clear waves and deal damage from a safe distance, taking advantage of its extended range.
Recommended Allies
Magnus
Magnus's Reverse Polarity and Empower are a dream for Drow Ranger. Reverse Polarity locks enemies down for her to unleash Multishot, while Empower boosts her physical damage and cleave, improving farming speed and AoE damage in team fights.
Vengeful Spirit
Vengeful Spirit's Wave of Terror reduces enemy armor, synergizing perfectly with Drow's physical damage. Additionally, Nether Swap can reposition Drow to safety during chaotic engagements, addressing her mobility issues.
Crystal Maiden
A classic laning ally, Crystal Maiden provides mana sustain with Arcane Aura, ensuring Drow can spam Frost Arrows. Her Frostbite and Freezing Field abilities create excellent opportunities for Drow to attack safely while enemies are immobilized.
Beastmaster
Beastmaster's Hawk grants crucial vision, enabling Drow to position effectively and anticipate ganks. His Primal Roar is a single-target disable that sets up kills, while his summons amplify her Marksmanship damage thanks to armor shredding.
Treant Protector
Treant provides durability and map control with Living Armor and Overgrowth. Living Armor mitigates damage during ganks, while Overgrowth roots enemies, preventing them from diving onto Drow. Treant's healing complements her fragile nature in the laning phase.
Counters
Phantom Assassin
Phantom Assassin excels at diving onto Drow Ranger with Blur (evasion) and high burst damage. Without Monkey King Bar, Drow struggles to land hits on PA. She also negates Drow's positioning advantage by closing gaps quickly with Phantom Strike.
Clockwerk
Clockwerk's Hookshot and Power Cogs lock Drow in place, nullifying her ability to kite. The isolation also disables Marksmanship, rendering her DPS ineffective during engagements.
Storm Spirit
Storm Spirit's high mobility and gap-closing potential make him a nightmare for Drow. With Ball Lightning, he can quickly jump onto her, silencing or bursting her down before she can react.
Tinker
Tinker's spammed nukes, such as Heat-Seeking Missile and Laser, punish Drow's low HP pool. Laser's blind component further hinders her damage output, making her struggle to contribute in fights.
Naga Siren
Naga's illusions overwhelm Drow Ranger, reducing her ability to focus targets effectively. Her Song of the Siren also disrupts Drow's positioning in team fights, leaving her vulnerable.