Guide To Victory(6.82)

Introduction

Hi guys. Firstly, to start off, this is my first guide that i am writing. I am no means a pro player nor am i the best at playing drow ranger(only 40 games) but i feel that i should share with you guys how i play crow. If you do watch competitive gaming, you realise that drow is rarely picked and is those unconventional picks but recently she is being picked more often then before. Next, drow is a "glass cannon" which in case you do not know what that is, it is a hero which is able to dish out a huge amount of damage but is very easy to kill of also. In drow's case, she deals physical damage which means that the only way to stop her from attacking you is either by getting a ghost sceptre/ethereal blade or a heaven's halbred. Also, drow is renowned for being able to burst down her enemies very quickly due to her ulti and precision aura unless her enemies get close to her, but they will mostly be running away from her because when they realise she is there, they are already half dead, and good luck trying to run away from her.

Lore

Drow Ranger's given name is Traxexa 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.

Pros / Cons

Pros
-Drow can deal tremendous amounts of damage with little items.
-Her silence can change the tide of team fights
-Her frost arrows can ensure that none of her enemies run away from her
-Precision aura enables ranged creeps to deal 36 percent of drow's agility which means with items, they deal more damage then mega creeps. Note that the necronomicon archer and visage familiars also gain the aura which makes them tower killers.
-Able to snowball if given the time to farm
-Decent stat growth for an agility hero

Cons
-Glass cannon
-If enemies get close to her, she is pretty much useless in the early-mid game because she can't deal that massive damage
-If she is constantly ganked and shut down, she would not be influential towards the mid and late game as you expect her to be.
-Without magic immunity, she is pretty much susceptible to nukes due to her low health pool in the early game.

Stats
Strength: 17+1.9
Agility: 26+1.9
Intelligence: 15+1.4
Movement speed: 300 Sight Range: 1800/800
Attack range: 625 Base Attack Time: 1.7
Armor: 0.74

Skills

Frost Arrows(Q)
Adds a freezing effect to Drow's attacks, slowing enemy movement. Lasts 1.5 seconds on Heroes, and 7 seconds on creeps.
Range: 625
Move Speed Slow: 15%/30%/45%/60%
Hero Slow Duration: 1.5
Creep Slow Duration: 7
Mana: 12

Notes:
Frost Arrows can be disjointed.
The slow from successive casts don't stack, only the duration gets refreshed.
Can be cast on siege creeps.

Gust(W)
Releases a wave that silences and knocks back enemy units. Knockback distance is relative to how close they are to you.
Range: 900
Radius: 250
Duration: 3/4/5/6
Knockback duration: 0.6/0.7/0.8/0.9
Cooldown: 13 Mana: 90

Notes:
applies a Silence.
The wave travels at a speed of 2000.
Reaches up to 1150 range away (900 travel distance + 250 radius).
The knockback distance is inversely proportional to the target's distance, 350 at closest, 0 at 900.
Units are not disabled during the knockback. They can still turn, attack and use items. Channeling items are not interrupted.

Precision Aura(E)
Adds bonus damage to the physical attack of allied, ranged Hero units on the map based on a percentage of Drow's agility. Affects creeps for 30 seconds when cast.
Radius: Global
Range Damage Bonus: 18%/24%/30%/36%
Duration: 30

Notes:
Has an instant cast time, but interrupts channeling.
Only affects ranged units.
Checks Drow Ranger's agility periodically and adapts the bonus damage instantly.
Activating Precision Aura icon.png Precision Aura does not place a buff on lane creeps and summons, it instead makes the aura affect them aswell.
This means that creeps summoned or spawned after the activation will 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 she dies and reincarnates with Aegis of the Immortal, or uses Buyback, the bonus will be applied again 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.
Visage's Familliars and Storm from Primal Split passively benifit from the aura when they are within 900 range of Drow Ranger. They globally benifit from it when activated.

Marksmanship(R)
Passively provides bonus agility. If there are nearby enemy heroes, the bonus agility is removed.
Deactivation Radius: 400
Agility Bonus: 40/60/80

Notes:
An icy particle effect is visible on Drow Ranger while Marksmanship is active.
Checks for enemy heroes in range in 0.1 second intervals and adapts the bonus accordingly.
Invulnerable and hidden heroes also deactivate the bonus when they are in range. Illusions do not deactivate it.
Effectively gives Drow Ranger 40/60/80 attack speed, 40/60/80 damage and 5.6/8.4/11.2 armor.
This is how much damage Precision Aura grants in conjunction with Marksmanship's agility bonus:
Marksmanship icon.png Marksmanship Level 1: 7.2 / 9.6 / 12.0 / 14.4
Marksmanship icon.png Marksmanship Level 2: 10.8 / 14.4 / 18.0 / 21.6
Marksmanship icon.png Marksmanship Level 3: 14.4 / 19.2 / 24.0 / 28.8

What can we learn from drow's skills

-Drow's frost arrows can really slow people down
-Drow plays a huge part in team fights by dealing large amounts of damage provided she has good positioning.
-She can stop silence initiators like magnus, enigma, dark seer or axe and stop team fight heroes such as void, kunkka and many more.
-Drow can be a pretty efficient rat with ranged creeps, she doesn't even have to be there to rat.
-With survivability items such as heart of tarrasque or satanic, she is pretty much unkillable.
-However, with blink dagger or blinking spells such as QOP and anti mage's blink or void's time walk, her ulti will be disabled and she will not deal the damage you want her to deal.
-Her ranged allies with the bonus damage from her aura, can also deal significant amounts of damage.

Why do we level drow this way

In this section, i will be going through why i level drow this way. Firstly, from her skills, her skills transition into the mid-late game rather well, but in the early game, it would only be of little use since your job would be to farm. Also, as frost arrows do not provide any additional effects other than the slow, it is more of a mid-late game spell than in the early game. So, you would want to max the precision aura because it is one of her sources of damage. Get this at level 1. Next a silence would be very useful to you and your team, a 6 second silence can usually change the course of team fights, and stop the enemy from initiating on your team, so you must always be on the watch for heroes like magnus or enigma blinking in to ulti. Furthermore, the silence would knock back enemies, which works well with your ulti. When there are enemies near you, don't be afraid to gust them to push them back, allowing your ulti to work. I opt for a 1-2-2-1 build on drow till level 6 because i feel that she is more balanced with this skill build and an extra second in silence can stop the enemy from casting a nuke or stun at you.

Items

Starting

This is how i mostly start drow ranger
-1 wraith band gives enough stats to let drow last hit and survive in the lane.

-1 set of tangoes will let drow survive in the lane, since she is able to last hit from afar, she will not get harassed from last hits quite easily but beware nukes that the enemy can throw at you.

Laning

-If you are up against a trilane, you should get a magic stick which can be turned into a magic wand, the charges accumulated can help you to live through any ganks, which can then turn the tide in a battle.

-A ring of aquila can give you additional armour and extra stats. With the ring turned on, your lane creeps will gain the aura also which will enable them to be tankier and lets them push out the lane.

-Power treads are always a must have on drow because of the stats which it provide and the extra attack speed. Coupled with drow's high damage, her dps will be high.

-Helm of the dominator is another item that lets drow survive the landing stage, because of the extra armour it provides, the damage and the life steal. The active ability allows her to control a creep which can be used to help her stack the neutrals or the ancients which will let her farm more in the mid game, when her damage output is much higher.

Core Items

-A blink dagger would be quite good on drow because she can position herself to set up the silence, or chase down escaping enemies or escape from sticky situations.

-BKB is always needed on a carry because it gives magic immunity. The magic immunity will allow drow to just fire her arrows from range without the fear of being stunned or nuked. However you should be aware that most ultimates go through bkb such as chronosphere or black hole or reverse polarity so a bkb might not be needed in rare cases.

-A yasha is a pretty cost efficient item, since it gives drow 16 agility, 15 attack speed and 10 percent movement speed, this will let drow deal more damage due to the increased attack speed and increased agility because she is an agility hero.

Late Game

-In the late game, upgrade the yasha into a manta style, a manta style is a rather good item because it gives all rounded stats and the active allows her to dodge projectiles, dispel debuffs and create 2 illusions of herself which lasts 20 seconds which she can control to deal even more damage.

-A butterfly is another good item to help drow ranger excel in the late game. It provides 30 damage, 30 attack speed, 30 agility and 35 percent evasion. All this means she gains 60 damage, 60 attack speed, around 4 armour and evasion.

-Daedalus is another item which lets drow increase her damage output, with the additional 81 damage, and the crit which increase her damage by 2.4 times before armour reduction, she can rekt enemies.

-The helm can also be upgraded to a satanic. A satanic is good in drow's case because not only does she gain strength which increases her hp pool, the passive life steal is 25 percent of her attacks which means she can regain back quite a lot of health per attack because she is already dealing a lot of damage. The active however, will make her survive any team fight because it gives 175 percent life steal, which means if drow is dealing 350 damage, she gains back 612.5 life back, which makes her unkillable.

-Sell the treads and get a boots of travel in the late game. The extra movement speed will be beneficial to drow and the fact that you can teleport to any of your creep or building in 50 seconds means you can go for a base race or join in any team fight that is going to happen soon.

Situational

-If you still feel that you need attack speed, buy a mjollnir on drow. The attack speed it provides is insane and when it procs it deals 150 magical damage to your target and nearby enemy targets. This can help her to push the lanes out quickly which will then enable her to take down towers quicker. The buff that this lightning hammer places on an ally is also very good in pushing or in team fights because when a hero with this buff is targeted, it will release a lightning chain which will deal 200 damage every time it prods, which will lower the enemies hp very quickly.

-I sometimes see a mask of madness on drow, it is a 50-50 item on her because it has its benefits and it also has its downfalls. The extra movement speed and attack speed will significantly increase her dps but then she takes in extra damage so if she is being targeted, she will die quicker than normal. So this item is a risky one on her.

-A heart of tarrasque is also optional if you feel that you need a lot of hp on her. It provides 1060 health which is a lot and the passive regeneration ensures that she can get back into a team fight quickly when she has regained some of the health back.

-Eye of skadi is also another item that gives her a good amount of stats which lets her survive pretty well. A lot of agility carries actually benefit tremendously from the stat growth from eye of skadi because it provides 25 strength, agility and intelligence which gives survivability and also the slow, which lets heroes chase.

-Sange and yasha is also another item to opt for if you did not go manta style, s&y gives decent stats which helps her in the mid and late game so if you did not go manta choose s&y.

-Monkey King Bar is an item to help drow attack those pesky evasive heroes such as phantom assassin or heroes that go for butterfly or heaven's halberd. Its true strike prevents any hero with evasion to evade the attack and with the 88 damage and 15 attack speed, drow's dps will be even higher.

-You might even opt for a shadow blade, though this is not recommended because shadow blade can be easily countered by dust, sentries or gem so this is another risky item on drow ranger.

If the game still hasn't end

If your game lasts like over an hour, just get a divine rapier or assault cuirass and beat the **** out of your enemies. Rarely will you ever encounter this long a game.

Do not ever buy

-Desolator is a good item just not on drow, yes you might benefit from the negative armour, but there are better items out there for crow.

-Ethereal blade might seem a good item due to the agility it gives and the active ability due to her high agility but this removes her ability to attack which is the main point of drow in the first place.

-You might want to get a dagon to troll, i know the burst damage is fun to play with and if you are trolling go ahead, but a dagon is not a good item on crow.

-Mekansm is a good team fight item, just not on drow. The money that you spend on it can be used on other items and let other heroes or your support buy it because you would just be wasting a slot.

-Basher or abyssal blade might seem a viable item on traxex due to the raw damage it gives and the chance to bash, but the chance is 10 percent on drow which is pretty low and hence it isn't that worth the price. Next, the active on abyssal blade is a 2 second stun that goes through magic immunity, which is great in most cases, but it must be from melee range and this means that traxex has to get close to an enemy, causing her to lose the bonus agility. So it would be better to not get basher or abyssal.

-Blademail is also an item that i see frequently in games now and it is a good item in returning the damage that they deal, however as drow tends to be at the back attacking, she will not be targeted as often so this item is a bit useless on her.

Gameplay

Early Game

As the hard carry in your game, your job is to FARM all the way so that you can get your items to help your team win the game in the late game. Usually, you would take the safe lane as drow because the tower is nearer to you and you are able to farm more safely(like the name implies:safe lane). Beware of ganks from the other supports or the mid heroes, you cannot afford to die and feed the enemy because you are the most important hero in the team, without you, your team would lose the late game. Also, pay attention to your other heroes, your mid hero might come to your lane to gank a bit to ensure they kill the enemy. In this situation, with good supports that have stuns or slows(crystal maiden, lion, visage), a kill is mostly guaranteed if the opponent over extends. Ask the support of your team to buy wards and ward the rune spots to make sure no sneaky opponents come and gank you. Good supports would comply and buy the wards to ensure you get your farm and not die. If you are farming very well, you might want to consider purchasing a hand of midas, the optimal midas time should be around 6 minutes, so if its like 10 minutes, forget the midas and buy other more useful items.

Mid game

If you get a helm of the dominator, control your creep and stack neutrals or ancients with the creep. Be sure to attack the camp at 53 seconds and allow the creep to walk away from the camp so that the camp can be stacked and you can increase your farm. When pushing a lane, do not be afraid to activate your precision aura, because it has no mana cost and it will affect ranged creeps globally so it will help in the pushing up of lanes. If your early game is a failure, do not go around roaming and searching for kills because the enemy might have better items than you and they will just win the team fight, increasing the advantage between your team and his team, just stay in your lane and farm your items and push. Always carry a tp scroll with you all the time to escape incoming ganks to stop the lane push. If the enemy does try to stop the push, tp to another lane and push from then, keep on repeating this till you get your core items. Then you can go around roaming with your team and searching for kills. Occasionally visit the jungle to farm if you feel that your lane is too forward for you to farm safely. If you are on the dire side, try to sneak a few roshans to ensure you have that extra life for the next team fight, because drow in the mid game is still very squishy without her bkb, so having that extra life would be good for her.

Late Game

This is the time where drow shines, all the farm that you have accumulated, all the time spent pushing towers will finally pay off when you start killing your enemies. You will definitely have all of your core and your late game items by now. Remember that drow is still a glass cannon and she is susceptible to being picked off if alone so position yourself at the back of your team as you attack and always stick with your team to ensure you do not get picked off easily. With items, she can certainly achieve the beyond godlike streak. You can still technically farm for your items if the game is long enough but try to end it early because if you end it early, your chances of throwing are lesser and you can play more dota.

Friends and Foes

Friends

-Visage is firstly one of your best friends, his familiars stand to gain from your aura and towers and buildings will melt with the aura turned on. Another point why visage is good is because visage has a slow which can enable you to chase the enemy.

-Any hero with a reliable stun or slow or disable is also your friend, because they ensure you can position yourself better to get a few more hits which can secure you kills.

-Shadow shaman deserves a mention, with skills fully maxed, he can hex for 3.5 seconds and shackle for 5 seconds, which when combined means 8.5 seconds of disable. With that long of a disable, her enemies wouldn't stand a chance against her.

-Also dazzle deserves a mention, he has a slow, a shallow grave which makes you unable to die for 5 seconds no matter under how much damage, and a heal which allows you to stay in your lane longer.

Foes

-Phantom assassin is one. She has a slow, a blink and a huge crit. When she blinks onto you, your extra agility will be gone, your armour will be pretty low and if she lands those huge crits on you, you are dead.

-Anti mage is also another, not only does he burn your mana, not allowing you to cast spells, he also can blink every 6 seconds, making him very annoying when you want to escape or chase him, though if you silence him well, he can't escape or chase.

-Riki/clinkz/bounty hunter are sneaky invisible heroes that can appear from behind and take you out with ease if you are not fed. There is one way to sense whether there are invisible heroes near drow. When the bonus damage and agility is gone, you know there is a hero near you so watch out.

-Doom is a counter to every hero just because he got that long ulti. It deals damage and silences a target for 15 seconds, 16 seconds with aghs. Though your passives won't be disabled when he dooms you, you are unable to use your silence and slow if he dooms you.

-Lycan in his ulti, cannot be slowed with your arrows so he can pretty much chase you or escape from you with ease.

-The 3 spirits all have high mobility also so beware of them.

Tip: If a hero does jump on you, just silence him immediately.

Conclusion

If you manage to read until here or survive until here, congrats this is the end of my guide. English is not my best language so do pardon the choice of my words and my grammars or others. As this is my first guide, i hope it would be well received among you folks. If i do make any mistake in my guide, do comment and i will change it. Constructive criticism is always welcomed. Sorry for the lack of pictures also, i don't know how to insert pictures so i can only make it wordy to compensate for the lack of pictures. Thanks for taking the time to read my guide.

PS: My com likes to auto correct a lot so if you see the word "crow", i just mean drow.