Ganking Drow Ranger - They won't escape you!

Introduction

Hello guys! My very first guide i've decided to dedicate to the hero i started to play and learn DotA back in years. I've always loved Drow Ranger, as a hero, as a carry and just as cool badass archer:) Unfortunately, Drow was nerfed a few times and now she is rather fragile and situational glass cannon, however, she still possess some potential to shine early-to-mid game and kick ***es. In this guide i'll try to show you the other side of a Drow - a side which not everyone even knows exist - a Drow as a Ganker.

Why Drow Ranger is a good ganker

The reasons why Drow Ranger is a good ganker and a better ganker than carry is sheer her skillset. Drow is OK carry, but she wont stand a chance against hard-carries even with the same level and net worth, especially against melee ones. But, in contrast to those hard-carries, Drow gets her best time much earlier - tbh, at level 6. Her ultimate, Marksmanship, gives her insane damage and attack speed early on. Thus, she doesn't struggle as much for damage items like other carries. And don't forget about Precision Aura - even more free damage.

Drow's Q - Frost Arrows - and W - Gust - gives her some good control against heroes without BKB, but later - in mid-to-end game - could be easily countered with items - Black King Bar, Eul's Scepter of Divinity, Manta Style, Lotus Orb etc.

Also, with time it will be easier for Drow's enemies to get closer to her, lock down and kill her. And her only semi-escape Gust won't help that much. Even so much pub-loved Shadow Blade won't always save you - at least, if you don't play against passive bots.

So it's obvious, that Drow's main goal is to start making chaos and havoc as early as possible, skipping farming expensive items - because time against her - and start shine with minimum amount of core items and proper use of her skills.

When and when not

As always, before picking Drow Ranger, ask yourself, when you should (or shouldn't) pick her and when to use this build.

With this guide Drow will be pretty good against almost any enemy heroes, except those who is, let's say, are "Drow's natural foes". Drow's biggest drawback (what a pun) is her fragility and absence of a good escape mechanism. Thus heroes, who could gank her, trace her or get intimate with her in the blink of an eye should be concerned as a good reason not to pick Drow at all, especially not with this build. Some of the Drow's most fearsome enemies are Pudge, Bounty Hunter, Riki, Slark, Nyx Assassin, Slardar etc. Avoid to pick Drow against them unless you are absolutely sure what you are doing.

Which lane to go

As a general rule, go whatever lane you are comfortabale enough. Early on your main goal is to farm your core as quickly as possible. So safe lane sounds like a plan. But remember, making accent on ganking means you are likely not your team's main carry, so consider going mid lane or even offlane. As always, coordinate lanes at pick phase not after.

Skill Build

For ganking, you will need a high level Frost Arrows. The 60% slow is a ******* huge and the level increase is big too - 15% per level. With such a slow your enemies literally will stand still while you're beating them to death. So, by level 7 you should max it as your main ganking skill.

At level 4 or 5 pick one point into Gust - 3 seconds of silence will be enough early on. Max it last after your other abilities. However, if you play against casters or heroes who rely heavy on their skills to escape (like Queen of Pain, Bounty Hunter or Storm Spirit) consider to put another one or two points in this skill before others.

If one level of Gust suffice you, max Precision Aura second. Take it at level one - to help you last hit. Remember, while your Frost Arrows are nice to harras enemies and orb-walk, you have to farm as many creeps as you can and as fast as you can to start gank. So, pick your Precision Aura once at level one and max it after Frost Arrows. Level one bonus should be OK just to easy last hit.

As always, take your ultimate at levels 6, 11, 16. Its bonuses are just too good to skip it. Besides, Marksmanship will be your main source of damage for almost all game.

Item Build

While Drow Ranger skill build could be considered as pretty usual and standard, items you will buy is not so.

For start items consider to buy some combination of regen and stats items. If you confident that you won't get much of harras, buy a single Healing Salve or Tango or even Faerie Fire and rest of your starting gold spend on stats items - branches, circlet etc. Stats items give you nice early boost - both with damage and some tankines.

Your first big item should be boots - and for boots you should go for Phase Boots. While Power Treads are very good on squishy Drow and helps her a lot with her miserable health pool, Phase Boots gives you much more DPS and ability to chase fleeing enemies. You should get it around your level 6. At this point you will have enormous right-click damage in contrast to any other hero so it's time to switch for mobility and attack speed items.

For "surprise motherf@ucker" ganking your next item will be Blink Dagger. With Blink Dagger you will constantly get close (but not too close) to your unsuspecting enemies and will have some sweet time with their ***es. The BIG PLUS for Blink Dagger is the fact that you won't often see Drow blinking at you like Slardar and punching your face. Most players just won't expect Blink on Drow. For those who still thinks about Shadow Blade, a Blink Dagger:

• cheaper (much cheaper, and time is crucial for us);
• non mana dependent (and Drow has humble mana pool);
• has more than twice times lower CD - you can punch faces more often;
• allows you to shorten distance over terrain, cogs, fissure and so on.

It will be good to get your Blink at about 12 min mark. When you get it, coordinate with your teammates and gank - enemies carry (they won't expect at 12 mins blinking Drow at their T1 tower), mid laner, jungler. You should start ganking and using your advantage the same time your Blink Dagger arrives to you.

And your next main core item will be Mask of Madness - making your Drow even more squishy, it boosts her DPS to the skies. It just no other item will give you so many attack speed for such a price. And with your naturally high damage it means that you will kill almost any hero for the Gust duration. Just remember, Drow is very squishy and saying this i mean realy VERY, so position your hero right with Phase Boots and Blink Dagger and at any cost do not allow enemies focus you - or you will die even faster than your preys.

While ganking always carry with you Town Portal Scroll - at any time there may be good opportunity to gank other lane or even to tp out to your base after successful gank. With the recent buffs (TP scroll now costs only 50 gold), there is no reason not to have one in your inventory.

Also consider to buy Smoke of Deceit to bypass enemy wards, Observer Ward for yourself (especially, if your supports dont buy them... meh...) - remember, you are ganker and you need to see your victims and possible traps and counter ganks, and of course allmighty Dust of Appearance - if you ganking invisible heroes or those poor who hope to escape you with Shadow Blade/ Silver Edge/ Glimmer Cape.

Having your core and successful kills (and you should have them), it's time to think about further item progression. Your next two big items will be Moon Shard and Monkey King Bar. Moon Shard is another cost effective DPS item (and slot effective) and simply gives you highest amount of attack speed you could buy, while Monkey King Bar is great for damage, True Strike, and of course it's mini bash. Often, your enemies will try to tp-out from you, and Drow doesn't have any means to stop tp. Monkey King Bar with yours already insane attack speed gives you such mean and further boosts Drow's DPS. Having Moon Shard allows you to replace later your Mask of Madness with Helm of the Dominator and Satanic and make you much stronger in the end game. And the reason to pick Monkey King Bar over Daedalus is that for luxury items you can buy newly Bloodthorn - it is one of the best items for ganking and it also will help Drow with her small mana pool, which with such a high attack speed she has a risk to run out of.

For other luxury and situational items you should choose accordingly to particular game and enemy heroes. Black King Bar for magic resistance, Manta Style to remove nasty debufs, Linken's Sphere against powerful single target spells and so on. Pick it for your needs and always save for possible buyback - any time things can go wrong.

Playing style

As you may be already got, you are not playing carry Drow Ranger, nor you are farming neutrals for all game to just get rekt by enemy Faceless Void later. You are grabbing your basic core and start ganking as hell. And by basic i mean just boots and blink - don't even wait for Mask of Madness to start gank, start it right after your blink. Gank as much as possible, help your team to destroy enemy towers (remember, your Precision Aura has some active, huh?), all the time carry tp and don't get ganked yourself. With some map awareness and your balls (and you should have ones if you play this way) you will have constant kills and constant ownage. Your enemies will fear you like they don't fear Night Stalker at the night. In military they call it Shock and Awe - you overwhelm your enemies, their expectations and will (and ability) to fight and win with such strategy. ez mmr

Conclusion

This guide and style of playing Drow Ranger is pretty risky yet benefitial at same time. Your items and the way you gonna initiate at your enemies make your Drow even more glass cannon. At the same time you have advantage of her natural skill set - more useful to gank rather than to carry - early aggression and panic of your enemies. If you do not play against nasty heroes like Riki, Nyx Assassin or Bounty Hunter and feel confident about walking over edge - this build is for you and it will definetely give you benefits in terms of kills, wins and overall joy playing Drow Ranger.

P.S.

Guys feel free to right your comments and objections - this is my first guide and my personal view at the way you should play Drow Ranger)