Traxexing you down: A Drow Ranger guide

I stopped reading this guide after looking at the items in general... Getting Wraith Bands up ASAP is a relatively POOR decision. Look at it this way, you spend 150 gold for 1 str, 1 agi, 1 int, and +3 dmg; this translates to 19 hp, 0.03 hp/sec, 0.14 armor, +4 (total when including the 1 agi) dmg, +13 mana, and 0.04 mana/sec for 150 gold... it's a waste of your farm.

The whole point behind the recipes for the Wraith Band, Null Talisman, and Bracer is to save inventory space. Essentially you grab the base items (e.g., Slippers of Agility and Circlet) for cheap and cost effective stats for early laning potential and then as your inventory fills up with relevant items ( Power Treads, Yasha, consumables, etc..) you convert 2 used inventory slots into 1 with added benefits. The only exception should be a Bracer as it prides more bang for the buck in survivability and is more beneficial for str heroes.

The only reason a Drow Ranger, Sniper, etc... should be rushing a Wraith Band is if they need/want a quick Ring of Aquila which is acceptable because that item provides significant benefits to you and your allies around you. So an acceptable starting item set is as xCO2 stated: Wraith Band (Recipe) 150, Ring of Protection 175 (325), Circlet 185 (510), and a set of Tangos 125 (635) however this would require that you wait roughly 15-20 seconds after creep spawns to buy the last item and courier it out to you as you are walking/blocking to lane.

On another note, the guide does not mention Blink Dagger at all which is much more effective and utilitarian than Shadow Blade

I agree with Centaur, though. You can't kill him. Period. Especially if he's got Blade Mail. One Dagger blink and you're toast.

Rikimaru? Drow owns Riki at 1 v 1 combat.

Before Riki reaches lv. 6 you've got to harass him so Drow will outlevel him. Remember he is melee, and you're range. At early level Riki is useless, without invisible and squishy health. This is where Drow owns Riki. Drow easily owns the creep. Having big gap at early time matters the outcome of the mid-battle. At level 6 when he's got Invisibility, a Gem is what it takes to counter him. And if you played it right, Drow would have at least level 7 and outrich him because of the harass. Buy the gem and Riki needs a teammate to work on you. I would suggest buying Lothar 1st though, and go with the eye-ward to counter Riki's invis since you're got no escape mechanism and prone to gank, then buy gem.

Buy Lothar and you're Riki with higher damage. With the gem Riki is really squishy, really.

hey, nice guide, though i disagree on the poor man's shield. It only gives you 10 dammage block since drow is ranged not melee, so its better to get the wraith band.

You can't dodge Storm Hammer.

A nice starting item set would be: Wraith Band (Recipe), Ring of Protection, Circlet, and a set of Tangos. This way you, all you have to purchase is Slippers of Agility and a Sobi Mask, which if she's on a side lane she can pick up from the side shop and have a Ring of Aquila at a minute in the game. With random gold I just pick up a salve with it and leave the other 250 gold for the Sobi Mask or a courier if no one buys it, or even sentries if you need to lane against a suicide lane Weaver / Bounty Hunter.

Cobra! Thank you for the critical input man! Truly appreciate it, I love getting some good feedback! (Also really big thanks for spotting some errors in the guide!)

I try to max out arrows level 9-12 depending on the game situation. There are games when I have Arrows maxed out by lvl 9 and some games when I max out the silence by around 10-12. For me it is dependent on in game situaiton and the rational for choosing one ability over the other is very inbred in what is going on in that game. I totally get the increase in effectiveness, you cant really argue with a 62% increase..., and I will bump it up a spot on the skill rankings just so its not 3 silences in a row.

True Shot for me is definitely beneficial to upgrade to level 2 in the first 3 levels. Its 18% overall increase not 4% (I get that you mean only a 4% increase from lvl 1 which is 14%). The ability is based on Drow's agility, and she should always have a lot of that in my build starting from item 1!. To start with the 2 slippers and 1 circlet + the lvl 1 trueshot Drow's damage goes from 49 base to 61. By lvl 3 with the acquisition of 2 Wraith bands and lvl 2 trueshot its already at 79... Not bad for a lvl 3 hero I'd say. I would not recommend getting more than 2 lvls of trueshot until later in the game but getting those 2 early in the game allows all the agility you build up to stack up to further increase your damage output as well as allowing you easier farming. I think that farming is arguably the hardest skill for new players to master in dota and to make it easier on them by putting to points into the trueshot I think is beneficial to all new drow players.

Really appreciate the input and hope my rational clears some things up. I'll definitely make some changes to the guide based on your input though. Been meaning to for a little while, I just get so caught up in actually PLAYING dota that I forget to work on the guide.


Thanks

A nice guide :) FINALLY a traxex guide that understands the importance of a 3 second aoe silence! as it is a game changer when it comes to taking down heroes with escapes or disables. My main criticism is that you wait so long to get the 4th level of Frost Arrows it hugely improves it's effectiveness (an increase of 62%)whereas going from a 3 second silence to a 4 second silence is only a 33% boost (going from a 5 sec silence to a 6 sec silence is even less). The 4th level of slow is especially important if you are getting an orb as it lets you orb walk a hero and put in 2 or 3 hits without the slow whilst still being able to keep up whereas at 37% you have to be skilled at orb walking to be able to get 1 or 2 normal hits off between frost arrows, this difference is huge if you are trying to kill 1 hero whilst taking damage from another.

I know you say you max this by 9 but most players will only really check your skill and item build so I suggest you reflect this sentiment there rather than mentioning it in the middle of a paragraph.

Getting a second level of Trueshot Aura at level 3 gives you and you team mates a 4% damage boost which essentially gives you only 1 or 2 extra damage whereas getting a second level of slow increases its potency by over 100% this is far more beneficial to your team when harassing and going for early kills than the 1 or 2 extra damage. Alternatively you could get stats and get the same +2 damage as well as all the other bonuses to help you out in lane.

Also you contradict your skill build a bit in your explanations (saying you grab level 2 slow at level 3). If you made changes you should show this as many will not read much of what you say which is why my comments are directed more at the skill build than the guide.

Also you need to update to show the changes to her passive as it isn't global on creeps any more. Also a video on orb walking would be nice as well as some more friends and foes and a special mention on stuff to do with helm like picking up a wolf or getting a creep to ancient stack but I guess those might be for a guide aimed at higher level play.

All in all still a good guide and please don't take these comments as me being harsh it just that many players only look at skill and item builds and traxex is commonly picked by inexperienced players for whom it is critical that guides are as helpful as possible.

A great guide, just a little 'Whoa-A-Wall-Of-Text' in the middle. ;)

The guide allows to build for different situations and I was not able to spot items you can possibly go wrong with, although my own playstyle differs a little.

Traxex is a DPS'ler and as such I would abandon the wraith bands and the circlet and go straight for the Power Treads which are a powerful tool in the early game when combined with the Precision Aura.

Anyway, good work and +1!

Glad you like it man! Happy I could help
I have been meaning to update it for some time now, just been so bogged down with life haha. So tune in to the updated model in about 2 weeks time.

As cheap as drow is, its hard not to love her haha. Such a great carry.
Happy Dotaing

Thanks for this guide. I was struggling to find a hero I really enjoyed paying or felt comfortable with.

I saw this guide and gave Trax a go and whaddaya know, perfect!

Thanks again.

Topic: Lifesteal vs Frost arrow

You only need frost arrows if the enemy is running away.
If they are running away, why would you use lifesteal then?
its very simple.