Drow Ranger/Guide

Carry

 * Prioritize Multishot and Marksmanship to increase Drow Ranger's damage output.
 * An early point in Frost Arrows allows Drow Ranger to harass without drawing creep aggro.
 * If properly protected by supports, Drow Ranger can rush Multishot instead of Frost Arrows in order to maximize her damage potential, thus ensuring a power spike at level six.

General

 * Drow Ranger is usually played in the safe lane, with a support.
 * Drow Ranger is easily ganked. Make sure not to overextend if your support is not nearby.
 * Drow Ranger is all about positioning, since her Marksmanship bonus is disabled if an enemy closes to within 400 range, and because she is extremely fragile.
 * Stay behind your teammates and use them as a buffer. Keep moving throughout fights to keep your tankier teammates between you and the enemy.
 * Approach fights from the edges, and rely on the slow from Frost Arrows instead of physical proximity to keep enemies in range.
 * Rely on items that help Drow Ranger keep her distance, such as, , , and.
 * Like other ranged heroes, stutter stepping is useful for Drow Ranger, but not as important due to the slow from Frost Arrows.
 * Because of the damage bonuses from her abilities, Drow Ranger is slightly less dependent on items than other carries, but can still be shut down in the early game. Be careful not to take any needless risks.
 * Drow Ranger deals more damage to buildings than other carries thanks to her building items that directly grant her stats, and should always capitalize on any opportunity to take down a tower.
 * Due to her slow attack animation, Drow Ranger should focus primarily on farming until she has her first point in Marksmanship.
 * If you are having trouble timing last hits, try moving closer to the creep wave.
 * Animation cancelling with the Stop hotkey (S by default) can also help with timing.
 * In general, Drow Ranger tends to build items that grant her stats instead of raw damage, because Multishot only uses base damage, not bonus damage, and Marksmanship grants bonus agility based on her current agility (base and bonus).
 * She desperately needs Agility and Strength for obvious reasons, but she also needs Intelligence as her abilities and items are extremely mana-cost intensive. A simple Silver Edge Manta BKB costs a whopping 250 mana, not to mention her 3 basic abilities have extremely high mana-costs compared to her mediocre mana pool.


 * Manually casting Frost Arrows (known as orbwalking) prevents Drow Ranger from drawing creep/tower aggro. Use this tactic to harass, kite, and escape enemies when caught out.
 * Manual casts still count as attacks for and, applying the effects of attacking from invisibility.
 * Use Frost Arrows sparingly during the early game, as they can drain Drow Ranger's mana fairly quickly.
 * Frost Arrows are good for harassing enemies in lane, allowing Drow Ranger to land several hits while the target slowly retreats.
 * Because of the slow, Drow Ranger does not need to constantly try and catch up to her target, meaning that she should always be kept at least 400 range away to ensure Marksmanship's bonus damage is active.
 * At higher levels, Drow Ranger can simultaneously kite and attack enemies with Frost Arrows.
 * Frost Arrows can be used to slow and prevent an enemy from chasing down an ally.
 * Always toggle autocast on Frost Arrows when you anticipate an incoming fight.
 * Combined with almost any other source of slow, Frost Arrows will reduce enemies to a crawl.
 * Frost Arrows' slow fully stacks with, allowing her to slow fast heroes like . It also allows Drow Ranger to slow enemies without using mana, and through spell immunity.
 * Frost Arrows can be used to kite and farm jungle creeps, although this can be mana intensive.
 * When chasing multiple enemies with your team, hitting each target once, or cycling through targets, may prevent any of them from getting away.
 * With, Frost Arrows essentially becomes an area-of-effect slow.


 * Gust is Drow Ranger's only means of defense, and should not be used lightly.
 * Use Gust defensively to push enemies who get too close, keeping them beyond the 400 Marksmanship bonus range.
 * Use Gust offensively to interrupt enemies who try to react to your attacks with a disable or an escape ability.
 * With, Drow Ranger can use Gust to initiate on and gank single targets.
 * If an enemy is already hit by a long disable (such as or ), Drow Ranger can move to the opposite side of her target, and push them backwards with Gust right after the first disable ends.
 * In a teamfight, try to catch as many enemies with Gust as possible, preferably as a follow up to your team's initiator. This will shut down the enemy for several seconds, during which Drow Ranger can pick off one or two targets.
 * Use Gust on an enemy team in the Roshan Pit to push them further inside, and render them unable to respond.
 * With good timing, it is possible to push enemies onto different elevations like cliffs.
 * With a, Drow Ranger can gank by taking a shot (with the effect of Frost Arrows) to break the invisibility, then immediately using Gust.
 * This leaves the target slowed, and silenced, and therefore unable to react (apart from using items).


 * Multishot can be used to great extent when flash farming, having a support stack the small camp in the early game then using Multishot can help Drow possibly acquire a neutral drop, which could accelerate her game.
 * Multishot can be used during team fights from a safe distance, potentially hitting multiple heroes up to 3 times with high damage frost arrows.
 * Multishot can be used to hit multiple camps at the same time.
 * Multishot is excellent when defending towers, as you hit creeps and heroes from a safe distance.
 * Multishot can be useful to finish off enemies that get out of range or into the fog of war with low health; as it has two times Drow's normal attack range and can hit enemies in the fog of war.
 * Tips needed.


 * Even a single point in Marksmanship will make Drow Ranger farm creeps much more quickly.
 * Because of this, levels 6, 12, and 18 are especially important milestones for Drow Ranger.
 * Stacked creep camps and can be used to reach these critical levels before a showdown.
 * Attacks proccing Marksmanship deal bonus damage, have True Strike, and pierce base armor.
 * Marksmanship's particle effect around Drow Ranger's body disappears when enemies are within 400 range.
 * Keep an eye on Drow Ranger to know when an enemy is too close.
 * The effect will also disappear if an invisible enemy is within 400 range, meaning that it can be used as an approximate means of detection.
 * Enemies with teleport like or  can instantly close the gap with Drow Ranger, thus disabling Marksmanship.
 * With, additional interactions occur:
 * 's and 's modifiers (bonus damage / damage reduction and Break) only work on the primary target, not targets hit by the splinters.
 * and have 3 opportunities to proc for each of Drow Ranger's attacks (assuming two additional targets are in search range), thus giving the following proc chances:
 * 57.8% chance of at least one proc
 * 42.2% chance of 1 proc
 * 14.1% chance of 2 procs
 * 1.56% chance of 3 procs
 * will reflect damage done by splinters. Attacking into a group of several heroes with Blade Mail active can quickly be lethal, unless is used to restore health through lifesteal.

Items
Starting items:
 * gives Drow Ranger a massive boost of health regeneration in one go.
 * provides Drow Ranger health regeneration in the early game.
 * provides a cheap a boost to Drow Ranger's attributes, and builds into.

Early game:
 * give Drow Ranger a speed boost which can be helpful for getting around.
 * can be a good idea to pick up if the enemy is using a lot of spells, as the burst heal can help her survive or win early fights.

Mid game:
 * provide Drow Ranger with attack speed and additional attributes.
 * provides useful stats for a highly cost effective price, and the increased range allows Drow Ranger to easily achieve good positioning. It also allows her to out-range towers and destroy them without much risk. Upgrades later into.
 * provides mobility and stealth for Drow Ranger, allowing her to approach an ideal position for team-fights. It also provides some useful attack speed and damage.

Late game:
 * provides ever-useful agility for Drow Ranger. It is usually picked up to help Drow Ranger defend against efficient backline attackers.
 * is important if Drow Ranger is facing a team with many disables, giving her enough time to deal at least some damage.

Situational items:
 * is a good source of lifesteal, and is useful for farming. It also provides a nice boost to Drow Ranger's attack and movement speed, but it comes at the cost of being unable to use her Frost Arrows. In late game, it can be disassembled to build and/or.
 * builds naturally from, providing valuable stats and break.
 * allows Drow Ranger to ambush an enemy hero with Gust, then quickly burn away their mana during the silence period.
 * causes Drow Ranger's attacks to splinter, hitting two random units near the primary target. Alone, it can be a weak upgrade, but combined with several attack modifier items, it can allow Drow to heavily damage a grouped up enemy team.
 * is typically picked up if planning to build Aghanim's, as it speeds up her early farming ability, and the secondary splinter shots will be able to proc Chain Lightning.
 * provides Drow Ranger with a huge amount of lifesteal for a short period of time, allowing Drow Ranger to stand her ground and regain practically all of her health with just a few shots.
 * provides Drow Ranger with mobility, stats, and the ability to dispel debuffs and create illusions of herself. Since the illusions spawn with it benefit from Marksmanship agility bonus, the item considerably increases Drow Ranger's damage output, especially when sieging buildings.
 * Consider an late game if you are fighting fast and or tanky heroes. It provides valuable attributes, useful health and mana to sustain  for longer, and the slow stacks with Frost Arrows, reducing most opponents to minimum movement speed. It also has the utility of reducing health regen, making it very valuable against tanks. Also consider picking up  to further reduce your target’s regeneration.
 * provides a considerable damage boost. However, it provides no defensive bonuses, thus making Drow Ranger into even more of a glass cannon. Besides, Drow Ranger does not need to rely on it as a counter against evasion heroes, since she generally benefits accuracy from Marksmanship.
 * provides Drow Ranger with a critical strike chance, which synergizes well with the attack speed and damage she gets from her abilities, maximizing her damage output.
 * gives Drow all the mana regen she will ever require, allowing the user to never need to turn off frost arrows. Most importantly, it provides Drow with a disable, which is useful in multiple ways such as greater teamfight control and the ability to become a proper assassin, catching fleeing or lonely foes and bursting them down with ease.

Drow Ranger/Guia Drow Ranger/Руководство 卓尔游侠/攻略