Drow Ranger

Traxex the Drow Ranger is a ranged agility hero whose greatest assets are her incredible damage and ability to keep threats at bay. Traxex is a carry who, though lacking survivability, provides a worthwhile contribution through her damage alone. The Drow Ranger can be extremely powerful at any point in the game.

As an agility hero, Traxex's damage is based largely off her basic attacks and is among the greatest largely due to the massive amounts of agility she gains from her passive ultimate, Marksmanship. The Drow Ranger also adds ranged damage to teammates with her global Precision Aura. Despite her lack of escape spells, Drow Ranger can keep herself relatively safe from enemy spellcasters and melee heroes using her Gust and her Frost Arrows, respectively. Frost Arrows infuses her attacks with ice, greatly slowing down her enemies. Since it can be manually cast, Frost Arrows can be used to harass her foes in the early game without drawing the creeps' attention. Gust is a great counter to enemy spellcasters as well as melee heroes as Gust pushes heroes away from Drow and prevents them from casting spells, who might threaten her life in battles. Position is of utmost importance as Traxex is quite vulnerable in close combat and the agility bonus from Marksmanship is removed when enemies come near her. This means she struggles against melee heroes with high mobility, such as Anti-Mage and Faceless Void.

Tips

 * Manually casting Frost Arrows (known as orbwalking) will prevent Traxex from drawing creep/tower aggro. Traxex can also use this to kite and escape from enemies when caught out.
 * An early level of Gust can be crucial to defend against spellcasters.
 * Due to the mechanics of Marksmanship, positioning is the key for Traxex. Traxex needs to be at least 400 units away from enemies to enable Marksmanship, or else it won't be active and won't give Traxex the ever needed bonus agility.
 * Marksmanship will have a noticeable particle effect that emanates from Traxex's body. If Traxex is too close to an enemy hero, the particle effect will disappear, meaning Traxex will not receive the bonus Agility. This also occurs when invisible units are nearby.
 * If during a team fight the enemy heroes get close to each other, using Gust in many or even all of them can simply turn the battle aside. This can make Traxex not just a great carry, but also a powerful disabler/initiator too.
 * When in possession of Shadow Blade, Traxex can effectively gank by taking a shot to break the invisibility and immediately using Gust, leaving the target: slowed, damaged, silenced, and being completely unable to react (apart from using items).
 * Because of the removal of the bonus agility when there is an enemy hero near Traxex, it is advised to avoid picking her when the enemy carries are especially mobile (Antimage, Faceless Void) or otherwise employ powerful slows that can match Frost Arrow (Viper, Phantom Assassin).
 * Though it may seem redundant, an Eye of Skadi is a very good purchase for her - Apart from giving her excellent stats on all aspects, making her hit harder and last longer, its slow pierces spell-immunity which her regular Frost Arrow does not, apart from removing the necessity to spend mana on every shot. Additionally, Skadi slow stacks with Frost Arrow, but only if you alternate the orb effects.

Trivia

 * Traxex's original design was slightly different from the one now; aside from the same hood, her white hair wasn't present, and her eyes were completely white. Her outfit was also slightly more revealing.
 * Traxex was briefly featured in the Dota 2 comic Are We Heroes Yet?.
 * From her transition to Dota2, the name of her aura changed from "Trueshot Aura" to "Precision Aura".