Drow Ranger

Drow Ranger

The Radiant

17 + 1.9 26 + 1.9 15 + 1.4

Level 1 16 25 Hit Points 473 1043 1708 Mana 195 494 884 Damage 44-55 74-85 109-120 Armor 0.64 4.84 9.74 Attacks / Second 0.74 0.91 1.12

Movement Speed 300 Turn Rate 0.6 Sight Range 1800/1700 Attack Range 625 Missile Speed 1250 Attack Duration 0.7+0.3 Cast Duration 0.4+0.5 Base Attack Time 1.7

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 with survivability even in the early game and is a worthwhile contribution through her damage alone. The Drow Ranger can be extremely powerful at any given point in the game.

As an agility hero, Traxex's damage is based largely off her auto 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 Silence and her Frost Arrows, respectively. Frost Arrows infuses her attacks with ice cold, 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. Silence is a great counter to enemy spellcasters 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.

Bio

Traxex, the Drow Ranger Play "The mist that chills you keeps me warm." Role: Carry Lore: Drow Ranger's given name is Traxex—a 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. Voice: Gin Hammond (Responses)

Abilities

Frost Arrows Q R Ability Affects Auto-Cast Enemies Adds a freezing effect to Drow's attacks, slowing enemy movement. Lasts 1.5 seconds on Heroes, and 7 seconds on creeps. Range: 625 Duration: 1.5 (7 on creeps) Movement Speed Slow: 11%/24%/37%/60% 0 12 Ice-encased arrows pierce the silence, chilling their victims to the core.

Notes: The slow will not be increased by successive casts, only refreshed. The slow is a unique attack modifier and conflicts with lifesteal, both when used automatically and when used manually.

Silence W E Ability Affects Target Point Enemy Units Stops all enemy units in a target area from casting spells. Range: 900 Radius: 300 Duration: 3/4/5/6 13 90 Traxex is rather fond of the tranquility of physical combat, calling on her Drow heritage to end the incantations of opposing magi.

Notes: Does not stop opponents from using items. As with all silence, will NOT stop Skeleton King's Reincarnation. Disables Permanent Invisibility.

Precision Aura E T Ability Affects Aura Allies Adds bonus damage to the physical attack of allied Hero units on the map based on a percentage of Drow's agility. Affects creeps as well, but only in a short radius. Radius: Global (Heroes)/900 (Creeps) Agility to Damage Bonus: 14%/18%/22%/26% Illusions can carry the aura, but can't make use of the bonus damage. Traxex' time spent alone in the forests of her Drow home has allowed her to teach other archers how to improve their bow skills.

Notes: Only has an effect on ranged units.

Marksmanship R M Ability Affects Passive Self Passively provides bonus agility. If there are nearby enemy heroes, the bonus agility is removed. Agility Bonus: 40/60/80 Bonus Radius: 375 The Drow Ranger is the epitome of archery prowess.

Notes: Effectively gives Drow Ranger 40/60/80 attack speed, 40/60/80 attack damage and 5.6/8.4/11.2 armor, as well as an additional 10.4/15.6/20.8 damage from level 4 Precision Aura. There is a visual particle effect that indicates when this ability is active - it looks similar to dry ice emitting from her body. If the visual effect is no longer visible, you are in the ineffective range of this skill, and therefore the bonus is not granted.

Recommended items

Explanation: Early-game: The Wraith Band is a starter item for Drow, giving her cost-efficent DPS especially when combined with Precision Aura. Core: Manta Style synergizes very well with Drow's kit and should be a standard pick-up. Situational: Although counterable, a Shadow Blade is usually a good first major item as it grants Drow a much-needed escape mechanism, allowing her to farm with safety and provides good attack damage and attack speed. If needed, a Black King Bar will help Drow against crowd control and nukes. A Satanic grants great survivability and damage, although it only works on attacks that do not use frost arrows. Daedalus goes well with Drow's naturally high attack speed and damage. Lastly, a Butterfly can be an effective choice for boosting DPS and fighting other carries, increasing her Agility, which is needed to give the bonus from her Precision Aura, helping not only her, but her allies as well.

Tips

• Manually casting Frost Arrows (known as orbwalking) will prevent you from drawing creep/tower aggro. This is also needed to kite and escape opponents in a bad situation.
• An early level of Silence is crucial to defend against spellcasters, although it will still be maxed last.
• It is not advisable to max Precision Aura early. As Drow Ranger has low natural agility growth, and the damage from Precision Aura is drawn from this, getting one level before having one level of marksmanship will give so little damage that it isn't noticeable (4.7 with first level aura at level 5.). This combined with the fact that Aura scales slowly, only increasing by 4% for each level after first, means that leveling up Precision Aura pre level 7 is hardly ever worthwhile, let alone maxing it.
• With the new Marksmanship, maintaining a distance is important for Traxex now, as this will help her deal great damage to enemies thanks to the additional Agility provided. Make sure you are more than 375 units away from your enemy and kite them to keep your distance so you will enjoy the full bonus effect of Marksmanship, as the extra Agility is negated when being close to your enemy heroes.
  • As mentioned above in the Abilities section, there is now a visual particle effect that indicates when the Marksmanship bonus is active. The particle effect looks not unlike that of dry ice, and it emanates from Traxex's body. If this particle effect disappears, you are too close to an enemy, and the bonus will deactivate. This visual effect also disappears when invisible heroes are within the 375 range, so use it as an indicator for a possible gank.
• If during a team fight the enemy heroes get close to each other, using Silence in many or even all of them can simply turn the battle aside, making Drow Ranger not just a great carry, but also one of the best disablers/initiators of the game too, if given the chance.
• When in possession of Shadow Blade, she can effectively gank by taking a shot to break the invisibility and immediately using her silence, leaving the target slowed, damaged (due to her natural high damage added to the 150 damage bonus) and silenced, being completely unable to react (apart from using items).

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's Ultimate, Marksmanship, was originally a chance to one-hit kill creeps; however, it was changed in later updates to the passive agility buff she now has.
• Traxex was briefly featured in the Dota 2 comic "Are We Heroes Yet?".
• In DotA, Precision Aura is called Trueshot Aura.
• The term "Drow", another name for "Dark Elf", originates from the RPG pioneer Dungeons and Dragons.
• She, like Enchantress, Slark, Meepo, Lycanthrope (with Shapeshift), and Luna (with Lunar Blessing), is one of the few heroes to have a very wide sight range at both day and night. At night, she is only 100 units short from the max sight range of 1800.

Update history

April 19, 2013 Patch

• Enabled Drow Ranger and Tusk to Captain's Mode (Tournament Version next week).

March 21, 2013 Patch

• Added an effect when Marksmanship is active.

January 24, 2013 Patch

• Fixed Drow Illusions carrying the double bonus from Marksmanship.

January 10, 2013 Patch

• [Undocumented] Minor texture changes for Drow Ranger.

December 06, 2012 Patch

• Updated the textures for Death Prophet, Silencer, Drow Ranger, and Wisp.

October 25, 2012 Patch

• [Undocumented] Drow Ranger and Silencer are no longer available in Captain's Mode.

September 13, 2012 Patch

• [Undocumented] Updated textures for Drow Ranger, Death Prophet and Enchantress.

August 15, 2012 Patch

• Added new dialogue for Kunkka, Bloodseeker, Drow Ranger and Enigma.

June 11, 2012 Patch

• Fixed Frost Arrows not working on mechanical units.

May 17, 2012 Patch

• Fixed Trueshot Aura not affecting siege units.

January 12, 2012 Patch

• [Undocumented] Updated the hero portraits of Huskar, Drow Ranger, Earthshaker, Phantom Lancer.

September 16, 2011 Patch

• You can now target-cast cast-attacks while disarmed (e.g. Frost Arrows while under Frost Bite).

September 15, 2011 Patch

• You can now target-cast cast-attacks while disarmed (e.g. Frost Arrows while under Frost Bite).

August 06, 2011 Patch

• Changed legacy keys for the following heroes: Drow Ult from P to M, Puck secondary 1 from D to E, Dazzles Ult from E to W, Enchantress ability1 from P to N.

July 01, 2011 Patch

• Drow Ranger - Silence will no longer apply to creeps.
• Disabled silence overhead effect showing up on lane creeps.

June 17, 2011 Patch

• Updated Drow animations.

June 10, 2011 Patch

• Completed Drow model, textures and icons.

May 20, 2011 Patch

• Added new in-progress models for Lina, Drow, Windrunner.

April 30, 2011 Patch

• Fixed Drow’s agility gain per level. Was 1.0, now correctly 1.9

March 03, 2011 Patch

• Added more info to tooltips of Drow's Silence, Death Prophet's Silence, and Kunkka's Ghostship.
• Fixed general silence sound not playing when gaining the silence state.

Balance changelog

6.77c

• Marksmanship bonus agility is removed when there are nearby enemy heroes (instead of just being halved).
• Marksmanship enemy detection aoe reduced from 400 to 375.

6.77

• Trueshot Aura now only affects non-hero units within 900 range of Drow

6.76c

• Base armor decreased by 2.
• Marksmanship focus AoE increased from 375 to 400.

6.76

• Precision Aura mechanics reworked:

Global Aura. Gives you and all allied ranged units a portion of your agility as bonus damage.

Bonus Damage: 14/18/22/26% of your agility as damage

Note: Can be toggled on and off to affect creeps or not

• Changed how Marksmanship bonus agility is granted:

Passively provides bonus agility. If there are no nearby enemy heroes, your focus improves and the bonus agility is doubled.

Bonus Agility: 20/30/40 Agility

AOE: 375 (for double bonus)

6.75

• Frost Arrow's slow increased from 50% to 60% at level 4.
• Silence cooldown decreased from 15 to 13.
• Precision Aura damage bonus increased from 7/14/21/28% to 8/16/24/32%.
• Marksmanship level 3 agility bonus increased from 45 to 60.

6.74

• Silence AoE increased from 275 to 300.

6.73

• Base Agility increased from 22 to 26.

6.72d

• Frost Arrows
  • No longer reduce attack speed.
  • Movement speed reduction increased from 10/20/30/40% to 11/24/37/50%.

6.72

• Increased night sight range from 800 to 1700.

Replaced Abilities

Precision Aura (Old) E T Ability Affects Aura Allies Adds bonus damage to the physical attack of allied ranged units in the area. Radius: 900 Damage Bonus: 8%/16%/24%/32% Traxex' time spent alone in the forests of her Drow home has allowed her to teach other archers how to improve their bow skills.

Notes: Aura bonuses consider only unit base damage + primary attribute increases (not raw damage items).

Marksmanship (Old) R M Ability Affects Passive Self Drow's experiences in battle improve her accuracy and effectiveness in combat, providing a passive bonus to Agility. Agility Bonus: 15/30/60 The Drow Ranger is the epitome of archery prowess.

Gallery

• 

  Drow Ranger's original artwork

See also

• Drow Ranger responses