Windranger

Lyralei the Windranger is a ranged intelligence hero that uses powerful abilities in conjunction with her physical attack to take down enemies. Despite being an intelligence Hero, Windranger's playstyle resembles that of an agility Hero, due in large part to her skill set. Windranger is most often played as an offlane solo due to her escape, long range harass, and farm capability; however, she is quite versatile and can be fielded as a midlaner, roamer, lane support, or even a carry, if the game calls for it. She is famous for her immense utility and versatility.

Recommended items
Starting items: Early game: Core items:
 * Consumables are essential early game due to Windranger's low health and the low cooldown of her spells. As such, one each of Tango and are basic requirements, while a  or two are very helpful in giving her mana to cast her spells.
 * Grabbing a provides Windranger with a larger mana pool and some more base damage, and can be upgraded to a Null Talisman. Filling the remainder of your inventory with es serves to give you a small amount of stats for cheap, and they can be used to build a  later as needed.
 * are essential on any hero during the laning stage. In Windranger's case, having early boots as an off-laner greatly increases survivability as it enables her to evade ganks more easily, and increases the bonus movement speed gained from as well.
 * gives Windranger useful stats for a cheap price. The intelligence gives her more base damage and a larger mana pool, while the strength gives her some survivability. The Null Talisman should be sold later on for more inventory slots, as it does not build into any useful items for Windranger.
 * gives Windranger more armor, some damage and a measure of mana regen, all of which help her survive as an off-laner. However, it should either be disassembled or sold once the laning phase ends, as Windranger can get more mana regen from the Sage's Mask alone later on due to being an intelligence hero, and Ring of Basilius does not build into any useful items.
 * are very powerful on Windranger, as she can take advantage of the extra damage more than additional attack speed due to her low base attack time and her ultimate . As well, the active greatly helps Windranger with positioning, essential for landing and.
 * is very effective and versatile for positioning a Shackleshot, allowing you to force a unit in front of a tree, force a creep/unit in front of another unit, or force yourself into position. The additional intelligence gives her more mana and base damage as well, and in emergencies it can be used to displace yourself during escapes.
 * should be carried on all heroes. Windranger's ability to disable and nuke down enemies should never be underestimated in teamfights or ganks.
 * is extremely powerful on Windranger, as it allows her to instantly re-position for her spells, especially Shackleshot. It is a powerful item to buy for initiating for your disables, or for being more evasive. May not give the extra stats provided by Force Staff but allows for faster, further, and Windrun can be activated to avoid physical damage, thus providing more opportunities to blink away from unfavorable situations.
 * gives Windranger stats across the board, and greatly improves Windranger's damage output using Focus Fire. As well, the cooldown reduction allows her to cast Focus Fire at will, vastly increasing her damage output and target flexibility.

Situational items:
 * gives Windranger additional damage output, as well as an armor reduction debuff that can be applied to buildings as well as heroes. As Windranger is a ranged hero, she can simply "tag" multiple enemies with the debuff prior to focusing on a single target, though it is recommended to purchase Aghanim's Scepter as well in order to maximize your physical DPS.
 * can be very powerful on a support Windranger, as it gives her stats and armor, increasing her survivability and allowing her to heal her team during teamfights.
 * is very powerful on Windranger, no matter how she is played. The extra intelligence and mana regen greatly increase her base damage and ability to cast spells, and the additional strength and agility shore up her HP and armor, granting her much more survivability. The hex can be used to instantly hard-disable the enemy's carry in a fight, and serves as a potent complement to Shackleshot.
 * can greatly increase Windranger's physical damage output, as she will get both more mana and base damage from the extra intelligence, and the attack speed greatly complements her low base attack time. The silence adds yet another disable to Windranger's repertoire, allowing her to lock down enemies who rely on escape spells to survive. Later can be upgraded to a.
 * greatly increases Windranger's survivability as well as her damage output and mana pool. While the slow is not a hard disable, it has a very long cast range and can hold a target down so that Shackleshot may be cast from an angle of Windranger's choosing.
 * greatly augments Windranger's survivability against physical damage, and gives her more damage output and mana as well. The active blast can be used when chasing down an enemy with Windrun, slowing them down long enough for teammates to catch up and for Windranger to stun them with Shackleshot.
 * gives Windranger stats across the board and powerful mana regen. Its spellblock helps to make Windranger much more slippery when evading enemy ganks, or gives her a larger window of opportunity to cast her disables in a teamfight without being disabled herself.
 * is a good cheap utility item if the aim is not to build raw damage items to fuel Focus Fire. The increased base movement speed greatly augments Windranger's mobility in combination with Phase Boots or Windrun, and the extra intelligence and mana regen give her much more utility with her spells. The active can be used to stop an enemy in their tracks and position yourself for landing a full-duration Shackleshot, or for generally disabling enemies or giving yourself temporary invulnerability (while removing debuffs from yourself) during fights.
 * greatly increases Windranger's damage output, and synergizes well with Focus Fire. The Mini-Bash can proc multiple times during the course of her ultimate, and the True Strike allows her to ignore any evasion or blind that the enemy may have.
 * If playing as a support, be sure to buy the standard support items. This means upgrading to the, as well as regularly purchasing s and s.
 * As a mid or off-laner, a is generally recommended. A mid Windranger can take advantage of the regen and runes when rotating to the side lanes for kills, while an off-laning Windranger can use the runes as a source of regen to lend her more survivability.
 * can be a good alternative to purchase over Null Talisman, depending on the requirements. While Null Talisman provides more intelligence and thus damage, a Bracer can shore up Windranger's low base strength, giving her survivability in the early game. It also builds into a, which gives her stats across the board as well as additional mobility and attack speed, both of which are important on Windranger.
 * can be a useful utility item to augment Focus Fire's effectiveness even if you are not building a physical DPS Windranger. The armor gives you more survivability while the mana helps with casting your spells, and the active allows you to deal large amounts of damage to enemies even without a lot of damage items. As well, the active can be used on allies to give them armor, and can be used to make Roshan easier to kill.
 * is a good attack modifier item to build on Windranger, as it increases her damage and attack speed alongside the Chain Lightning modifier. It allows Windranger to clear creep waves and jungle camps quickly when combined with Powershot, and can be combined with Focus Fire to inflict large amounts of magic damage to the enemy team. Upgrading it to can give you a more powerful Chain Lightning, additional attack speed that gives you DPS without the need for your ultimate, and an active shield that can discourage enemies from attacking you or a chosen ally for fear of taking even more magic damage.
 * is a good defensive item to build on a DPS Windranger, as you can be sure that the enemy will attempt to disable and focus you down to prevent you from dishing out too much damage in a teamfight. Preventing yourself from being disabled will allow you to take full advantage of Focus Fire during a teamfight, especially as it can be combined with Windrun to give yourself immunity to disables as well as physical attacks.
 * can be a useful utility item to build both as a disable-heavy and physical DPS Windranger, particularly as it is not a Unique Attack Modifier. The mana burn can add a measure of damage to Windranger's attacks, especially combined with Focus Fire, and can be useful for depleting the mana from heroes with small mana pools such as, , and so on, so that they do not have the mana to cast their spells. Additionally, the active purge is powerful in any situation in removing debuffs from yourself and allies or buffs from enemies, and slows enemy targets down long enough to position yourself for a full-duration Shackleshot.
 * is very powerful in the hands of a farmed DPS Windranger, as combined with Focus Fire and enough damage it can eviscerate most enemy heroes in seconds.

Trivia

 * In DotA, Windranger was known as Alleria, the Windrunner. Alleria Windrunner is a character from the Warcraft universe. In the November 21, 2013 update, her name was changed to "Windranger", likely to avoid copyright issues with Blizzard.
 * Windranger's current name, Lyralei, is a partial anagram of Alleria (one of the A's was replaced with the Y).

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