Poke, poke, poke! Drow's Here!

Knock, knock. Who's there? Drow Ranger! : Introduction

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.

Look At Me! I Know You Want Me! : Pros // Cons

Oh! Oh! Pick Me! Are You Sure? : Picking Time

Twang Goes My Bow! : Skills

Frost Arrows is Drow Ranger's trademark skill. It slows enemies movement to a crawl and force them to either stay and fight or die while running. Most likely, you'll die in both situational. During the laning phase, if you attempt to First Blood, never auto-attack your target since it will attract attention from creeps and towers. Just keep pressing the Q button and shoot him or her to death. Simple as that. Normally, when you start attacking people with this, they have no chance of running since the higher their movement speed, the slower they will become. Normally, melee heroes can't even get close to you at all, unless they have Blink, Blink Strike or Phantom Striker. This is her bread-and-butter skill so it is maxed up first. Silence is a very good spell, especially for Drow Ranger. Since she can silence her enemies, making them unable to cast spells, thus unable to nuke her. Silence can also disable Riki's Permanent Invisibility so make full use of it. This skill isn't touched early game since deadly nuking spells normally appear at level 7 and so on. If your enemies are mostly spellcasters that can easily nuke you to death, I would suggest taking an early Silence at level 4, instead of Precision Aura. Thanks to R-Conqueror and Mirror for reminding me of this. Her third skill, Precision Aura is maxed out second because it increases her damage, making her deadlier than ever. Precision Aura is directly affected by her Agility so it is suggested that you raise your Agility to the highest possible level to increase your damage and attacking speed. Having this at level 1 is good since Quelling Blade is just stupid on Drow Ranger, and it will increase your chance of last-hitting. It can also aid your allies, globally. So, this has the second priority. Lastly, Marksmanship. Although it have been greatly weaken compare to the last time, it is still very effective. It still increase your +raw damage and your damage from Precision Aura along with your attacking speed, making you an insane killing machine, which most likely can't be stopped, at all. On a side note, since this skill is passive, it is better not to think to much about it, just remember it as a stat giver. Stats aren't really important to Drow Ranger in early game and having Frost Arrows and Precision Aura will definitely set this to the not-so-important section. Just get it once you maxed out everything. There's nothing to say about this actually.

I'm Hungry! Gemme Hunting Utensils! : Items

As you can see below, the Circlet and Slippers of Agility will be turned to a [{Wraith Band]] to aid Drow Ranger's survivability and last-hitting. You can choose between [{Tango]] and Healing Salve although I would chose Tango since it doesn't dispel on attack and it have three charges so three times to move you away from the death zone of the little red light saber. I think these are pretty standard starting items so I wouldn't worry about it too much.

Now, this is where I will diverge from others. I choose Oblivion Staff because it offers attack speed and most importantly, mana regeneration. At this point, your mana will be constantly low due to the Frost Arrows spamming and sometimes, just a Bottle isn't enough, especially when you're on a side lane and the runes belong to the mid-laner. I prefer Phase Boots over Power Treads because it gives damage, allowing me to shoot someone down faster and harder. If, he manage to get out of range, the Phase will allow me to catch up and get a few arrows on him or her, allowing me to catch up. Only pick up the Bottle if you're in the middle lane.

Now, we'll get our Orchid Malevolence and our Shadow Blade. Shadow Blade as everyone (well, nearly everyone) says, is a core item for Drow Ranger. Since she is squishy and known for her deadliness, she is normally targeted first. And due to her squishiness, she will definitely not survive the assault. So, you need ol' Shadow Blade to get behind them and spear them down and run away if needed. With help of the Orchid Malevolence and your Silence, killing Bounty Hunter and Riki will be a piece of cake.

Now, this is the part where you can murder everyone in sight. The critical provided by Crystlys or Daedalus will give you good damage and coupled with the attack speed of Maelstrom and Mjollnir, you can shoot fast enough and pain to annihilate anyone that is in front of you. Since you got Orchid Malevolence 150% mana regeneration, you need not bother about turning off the autocast of Frost Arrows. After getting both Maelstrom and Crystalys, you can choose to aim for whichever which suits the situation. Enemies are super tanky? Get a Daedalus Enemies can run super-fast? Get a Mjollnir You can kill people as easily without problems? Get a Butterfly In the end, Maelstrom can be swapped for whatever items you think is necessary for the game.

Look Ma, I Mastered The Bow : Gameplay

Early Game

Frost Arrows

Middle Game

Silence

Drow Ranger

Late Game

HAPPY SNOWBALLING!

I See Moi Target! : How to Kill

If you see someone all by him/herself:
1. Right-Click Frost Arrows.
2. Activate Shadow Blade.
3. Walk up to his face. (Not to close, especially if it a melee hero)
4. Start firing!
5. Enemies Down, Commander!

If you end up in a teamfight:
1. Walk away from the middle of the fight. Using Shadow Blade as needed.
2. Right-click Frost Arrows
3. Silence, please.
4. DIE, *****ES!
5. We have successfully terminate our enemies!

Where My Buddies? No!! Where Are They?! : Friends + Foes

Well, because you'll normally take the middle lane so you can't really rely on your buddies to get a First Blood, but here are a few good ones to help her.

FRIENDS

Drow Ranger's buddies are those who can support her with hit points healing. Since she is a carry, dying for her is a big no-no. So, those that can give hit points like Necrolyte, Dazzle and Undying can keep you fully charged. The second type are stunners. They are generally self-speaking which allows you to simply shoot them off with Frost Arrows while they stand there, unable to do anything. Those who can help you well are Chaos Knight and Sven. Although you have Silence already, but having a silencer around you still helps. They can keep enemies from nuking you and your silence will literally make them shut up since tanky intelligence heroes like Ogre Magi will not be able to cast even after the silencer's silence is over. Thanks to you. Initiators are also your buddies. Since your damage output is high, initiators like Tidehunter and Slardar can take the hits while you shower a rain of arrows on them. That being said, she also have a heck lot of enemies. Main one, Gem of True Sight. It will instantly expose you and allow you to be blown to pieces within seconds. So, try to kill these people first if they are alone or after your initiator initiates. Stunners are also your worst enemies since they can easily poke you to death if you're not careful. Their stun will normally drain you off most of your life and if they gang up on you, you'll pretty much dead unless someone screwed up and let you run with Shadow Blade. Special mentions are Lycanthrope since his Shapeshift isn't affected by Frost Arrows he can reach you fast enough and potentially rip you apart. So, please Silence him before anything ******ed happens. Another is Centaur Warrunner . Since you damage output is high, his Return will seriously kill you. He is extra-tanky so taking a few hits wouldn't matter. You, on the other hand, are so squishy you will kite yourself to death.

FOES Lycanthrope

The Icy Girl Says, "Thank You!" : Conclusion

Overall, Drow Ranger is a very simple, but strong hero. Her skills, if used correctly, can be excessively deadly and you'll look at yourself killing everybody. Sooner or later, you'll be standing on a heap of corpses.

Anyway, this concludes my first guide and the second hero I ever played. First being Clinkz, second being Drow Ranger.

Any comments or questions are also accepted. Please remember to vote for it, whether up or down!

-Shinko96

Of Course, You Need To Thank Someone, Too! : Credits

Special thanks to:

• Yasutsuna - Guided me through this game.
• Dr. D - His awesome formatting guide.
• Sam - For letting me repeatedly poke him with this build.
• Dotafire - For this website.

Hey, Hey! I'm Growing, Aren't I? - Changelog

28.05.13 - I'm here and growing!
28.05.13 - Changed Silence's description.