Poke, poke, poke! Drow's Here!

I totaly agree with Salari. The guide may not be all terrible, but it isn't that good either. There are a few choices that you can hardly justify and that shouldn't really be made.

Phase Boots aren't the boots of choice on Drow for all the reasons Salari listed. Besides, you don't want to focus on raw damage as I will explain next. Power Treads, however, are just great on her. A lot of utility and nice stats.

Orchid Malevolence is a bad choice too. Costs a lot of gold while you shouldn't need the mana regen when playing properly. The extra silence isn't really nescesary since you should be able to land your far more effective area of effect silence. Stats aren't that great either. Lots of intelligence and mana regen on a agility carry that doensn't really need that much mana? Besides as an agility hero, you don't want flat attack speed and damage, but agility instead, which I will go into next.

Maelstrom and Mjollnir may be great items for a strenght carry to upgrade his attack speed and damage. It has its use on Drow too, but there are better items to get. Since you are an agility carry, you want to boost your damage and attack speed through agility. This also gives you extra armor (survivability) and global bonus damage to all ranged teammates. Besides, at the point you get Manta Style, your illusions will benefit from those stats too, while they don't benefit from raw damage. The only raw damage item that suits Drow in my opinion is Crystalys/ Daedalus. Other than that, try to get stat items.

You choose a Shadow Blade as a means to escape and position yourself. In low skill matches, this may work, but at a higher level you will just force your enemies to buy Dust of Appearance, Sentry Wards and Gem of True Sight. Also they will probably play more compact and be less gankable most of the time. And if you have an invisibility hero on your team, you are just stimulating the enemy to counter his ability and your 3K item by 180/200 gold items. When they have this stuff and know how to use it, Dust of Appearance may even make your 3K item work against you as you have a speed reduction when discovered. For all this gold, you'd better invest in more solid survivability. Yasha gives nice stats and movement speed (helps you escape) and builds into Manta Style. Its active can save your life and deal extra damage in a team fight.

Also a Talisman of Evasion can be bought. Making the enemy miss 25% of their attacks gives you more survivability and this item builds into Butterfly which is great on Drow. If the enemy wants to counter the evasion, they'll be forced to buy an expensive Monkey King Bar. Often they don't and if someone buys it, the rest of the team will still miss attacks on you. Besides, most heroes are not planning to buy this item, so it will make them divert from their plans to buy an expensive item.

Blade Mail can save you too, but most people will just wait for its effect to wear off and kill you afterwards. It's mainly used against heroes with a high DPS like yourself and not a real item for Drow. It doesn't build into something else, so it's best to get yourself other items that give you survivability and build into something else. If you get if against Phantom Assasin you surely picked Drow in the wrong match. PA is one of those heroes you shouldn't play against, because she can close the gap and cancel your ult bonus, decreasing your survivability (80 agility at level 16 gives you 11,5 armor which just fades away in a sec) and damage output (80 dmg and attack speed as well as 22,4 bonus damage for you and ranged teammates. The best counter to Drow is closing the gap, and since this is PA's calling card, don't pick Drow against her.

The worst thing in the guide is that you're too stubborn to learn. Salari is giving you some great advice and explains himself very good, but you don't want to listen. When I wrote a Drow Ranger guide, I got a lot of feedback too, but I saw the good in it and changed my guide for the better. If you would have, I might have given you +1. Now it's a -1 for not being susceptible to the feedback you got.

If you miss your silence, you miss your silence; the AoE is big enough that you can land it on numerous enemies in teamfights, and if you have a Shadow Blade and you're ganking, it's nigh on impossible to miss with it. Spending 4125 gold on something for a contingency plan is just ridiculous and for a hero like Drow, doubly so, because that's a huge amount of gold early game which can be going towards something like a Manta Style.

And just because you get a Maelstrom doesn't mean you have to finish a Mjollnir, its utility is to work down PL illusions, you don't really need to invest more gold which will give you negligible damage return, and not offer much in the way of survivability either.

Drow also shouldn't be constantly ganking at level 7 or 8, she can get early kills but she's definitely a hero that needs farm, if you go around trying to pick off kills that early, chances are you'll die. She is squishy as hell early game, and she's not like a mid-hero that excels at ganking.

If you get surrounded by creeps when you're going for a kill, then you're definitely not playing Drow correctly; she can orb-walk, which means she doesn't draw aggro from creeps if you manually cast frost arrows. You don't need Phase Boots, the raw damage is okay, but the utility you get from Power Treads is far more useful, AS, DMG, mana, and more importantly, extra strength should you need it. Drow has no problem chasing whatsoever, and putting money into boots to run through units and a little big extra raw damage is not worth it.

Once again, if you're finding yourself getting targeted quickly in teamfights as a Drow, you're playing her wrong; you wait outside the fight and wait for the moment to strike, and even then you keep your distance, kiting around taking shots. And if you pick a Drow against a PA, that's just bad picking. Even so, it's far more substantial to build towards something like an Assault Curi*** or a Butterfly for the evasion, even a Heaven's Halberd if you're desperate and want survivability. Having an "I'm gonna die so she's gonna die too" mentality when going against a carry is just bad play, and costs matches.

Seriously, these justifications are weak, and it all seems like very low level play trying to needlessly vary things up, without any real justification. Like you mention that you can just leave your frost arrows on indefinitely if you get Orchid, that in itself is very telling, you only ever need to use frost arrows in engagements, you don't need them on all the time, that's just lazy.

There's a reason Drow has a relatively cookie cutter build, it's because it just works. Damage and survivability is all she needs, she's a no frills hero, this is a redundant build, and you're not even hearing out the very valid criticism of others.

Why don't you just say what is wrong that being insistent you're right. This build have been tested in a DotA 1 tournament and Dota 2 competitive matches. It work well, I don't understand why some people are so shallow-minded.What, just because I use Maelstrom and Orchid and not Satanic, you decided to call this a troll? If you have a hell lot of post, I would compromise. But, for someone with not even a two-decimal number for the number of posts, you barely have any right to call it a troll. Why don't you write one and we'll see about it.

Good guide vs bots or low skilled games.
Completely **** if u reach once the médium + section. Salari is completely right. Moreover there is so much wrong in this guide, that i honestly wonder why u public Guides with absolutely no knowledge aboutthis game. I would strongly recommend u to read other Guides Frost! If i start correcting u, i can write a guide on my own about drow. Sorry for these hard words, but its better to hear the truth that u can start improving ... Learned it on my own, so dont feel gettin trolled! GreetZ Lixed

I don't get what you're talking about. I need to explain about orb-walking? I know what is orb-walking, where you fire a shot, walk up and fire another using Q. Repeat the process so the guy can't run from you.



I pick Orchid Malevolence because of the easy compartments of Oblivion Staff, I think I have said it somewhere in this guide or comments. Yes, she does have an AoE Silence but what happen if you miss? Or another person walks right up to you, furthermore, if you're facing blinkers and/or fast-sprinters like Lycan, the Soul Burn can kill them after you deal your damage. WHen it triggers and they can't get to their fountain fast enough, they die.

I've tested with Ring of Aquila, the mana regeneration is just too little. 0.65 per second when you're draining 12 per shot? It's just too little. Anyway, I don't auto-attack with Frost Arrows. If you're constantly ganking once you're level 7 or 8, chances that you'll run out of mana very fast when you use Silence. With the Oblivion Staff, you can cover most of those problems.

To me, Phase Boots are good because they give you Phase and the +raw damage. What happen if you get blocked by creeps and the dude gets out of range? Phase is a good ability to catch up and chances of you getting surrounded are also lower.

Maelstrom is good with the burst-lightning damage and the attack speed. IF you don't think Mjollnir is important at that point, don't get it. But whats the point of leaving something half-upgraded? Anyway, the additional attack speed will confirm someone will not be able to escape you and increase the chances of your critical. The active ability will also be good when you're pinned down by Sniper or other heroes.

A Blade Mail? Seriously? You are Drow Ranger, you always get targetted, especially by Phantom Assassin. A Blade Mail is a situational item, since you can't expect your initiator to be God and soak up all the damage, if he dies then what? You die together because you have no defense mechanism?

Orchid is completely redundant on Drow, her silence is an AOE and it's amazing. If it's for the sake of offsetting her mana problems (which she doesn't have unless you've constantly got frost arrows on, which you shouldn't), then it's far cheaper to go for a Ring of Aquila.

If it's for the sake of ganking like Clinks, once again, it's not worth it, her silence basically covers the utility of the Orchid Clinks needs. If you're buying it for the sake of picking off invis heroes, you know what's better and cheaper for ganks? Dust.

Also, Phase Boots aren't needed on her, Frost arrows covers her ability to chase, the slow is so good you don't need the additional speed, and even so, if you get Manta Style you get bonus movement speed anyway, even if you just get an early Yasha.

Mjolnir is also extremely situational, the damage is negligible, and Drow really doesn't need the attack speed given how well she scales with her ulti. It should only be bought if you're up against a hero like Phantom Lancer, and even then, a Maelstrom would really suffice.

Lastly, a Blademail? Absolutely not. If you're in a situation where a Blademail would be helpful, you're not playing Drow correctly. She needs to be standing at the edge of teamfights working down enemies and kiting around, she doesn't have the tank to facilitate a Blademail.

Seriously, if you're going to go for such an unconvential and honestly wasteful build, at least try to justify your choices.

Why aren't you orb walking, though...

Well, if you have mana problems, I suppose Orchid is a good choice, I simply have never encountered that in any quantity. Overall a very nice looking guide.

R-Conqueror

Mirror has already reminded me on the early Silence, but I have forgotten about it. Thanks anyway. About the Orchid Malevolence, it will probably only surface when you're level 9 or so. The 10 damage and attack speed each Oblivion Staff provides is quite acceptable and is cost efficient. Now, I have been to many games, both in pubs and against AI, my mana runs out because of Frost Arrows and Silence, especially during the middle and late game period.

Using Bottle is good, yes, but sometimes if someone beats you to the rune, you can't just wait idle around until the next rune appears. Running back to base might not be a good idea since you can miss quite a lot of ganks. So, I would prefer getting Orchid Malevolence on Drow Ranger.

Drow doesn't have mana problems. I guess if you just always have Frost Arrows on autocast you could, but an Orchid Malevolence? I guess I just don't see the need for it. Also, not leveling up Silence until late is not smart. That is Drow's greatest utility, and a silence can mean getting the difference between life and death.

Awesome guide, and an Orchid Malevolence is an unusual item choice, although i do seem why you should buy one. Only point where i disagree is getting Precision Aura at lv1, as from my experience, Drow is a primary target for every gank happening on the map, and a bit of extra HP will be useful. You should also consider a Poor Man's Shield if you feel you would get harassed a lot.
+1

Thanks for the comment,about the Shadow Blade issue, I know it is easy to counter, so I wouldn't rely on it too much. The beauty about Drow is you can stand as far as possible behind your enemy and shoot them down. Shadow Blade is only useful in early parts of the games when supporters don't buy wards that often yet. Personally, I wouldn't get a Shadow Blade in some games.

About the skill build, I can agree with you. Depending on the situation, an early Silence will be good. Maybe I should add this in the description. I would prefer to maximize my killing potential first since I have Orchid Malevolence to deal silence, too. So, that took care of the silencing issue. It is about level 9 that people started moving together to whack others, so I would only prefer to up Silence at that point.

I think you might have been confused about the list. The first list is about her pros and cons while the second list is when to pick her. Why isn't being ranged good? I mean, you can harass people and last-hit more safely. And thanks about the range tip!