This guide was written by a 17-year old Filipino whose native language is not English. If you notice, it's the first time I use the Hero name instead of the title (Kaldr, instead of Ancient Apparition). The title was too long for PlayDotA Guides.
Kaldr, the Ancient Apparition is a Hero I found to be highly entertaining. Before his rebalances, he was quite the all-around Hero. Now he's limited to a more balanced number of roles, which is better for DotA in the long run.
Kaldr, to me, is like a combination of Mirana, Pudge, and Rattletrap, and all because of his signature skill, Ice Blast. It has that gamebreaking effect, it has that required marksman accuracy about him, and it has the area of effect. Quite a weird comparison, but my comparison nonetheless. Let's begin!
History: At 6.55, Kaldr was introduced to DotA as a new "Intelligence" Hero. Oddly, those words appealed to me a lot. We'll talk about this in the Introduction section.
At 6.66, they noticed things weren't right. Cold Feet's manacost was too low. It was increased to from 90 to 90/100/110/120. Ice Blast was a bit too powerful, so the skill no longer goes through Dazzle's Shallow Grave. It is also purgeable, and the impact delay is a little "slower" now. Visit the 6.66 changelog for the exact words.
At 6.67, they saw that Cold Feet was still too powerful. Apparently, they further increased the manacost to 150! This made a good change to Kaldr's playstyle, making it a little harder because he has four Active skills.
At 6.68, Kaldr's Ice Blast was the next one to be hit by IceFrog's nerf hammer. Ice Blast's cooldown went from 44/32/20 to 45. This changes Kaldr's gameplay significantly. On a minor point, Kaldr's Armor was also reduced by 1. This was also the point where I paused on playing Kaldr for a while.
But now, I'm back to this ice-ghost thingy! Woohoo!
Author: Aside from my copy-pasta introduction at every Foreword in italics, hey, this is me, a 17-year old Filipino studying at the University of Santo Tomas at Manila.
Enjoy reading this guide to Kaldr! This is aimed at both beginning and experienced players!
I think of him as not only an Intelligence Hero, but as a Hero that requires intelligence itself. Kaldr has many, many prerequisites before being used effectively. You do your team a huge favor if you hit that crucial Ice Blast or kill the fleeing Hero.
To me, Kaldr is an exceptional Hero that is all about timing. All of his skills might scream SPAM, but there should be an art to casting them, so much so that I separate a small section on how to approach any situation needed with his skills.
Here are Kaldr's major points:
Map Awareness:Kaldr has a global skill and a scouting skill. With Ice Vortex, you can effectively screw up enemy ganks by just placing one on a choke point or other major entryways. Using Ice Blast, you can tip the scale in favor of your team by launching a pre-determined Ice Blast from across the map and hampering the regenerative abilities of your enemies. How cool is that?
Attributes: Kaldr's gains are average. It peaks with his INT gains, lessens with his AGI gains, and dwindles with his STR gain. His attack range is 600, which is great for a solo mid, and his movement speed is average (295). Some would consider this below average, though, but 295 is close to 300. His Armor is above average (slightly at 3.8) as well as his base damage.
Keep in mind, I'm not trying to be redundant with the word average, it just is the word I use to gauge strength. Others are: poor, below average, above average, excellent.
Items:Kaldr is not item dependent. What I feel and experience about Kaldr is that he's OK with Boots and other minor items for half of the game. But the other half? He's fairly easy to dispatch without items like any INT spellcaster. Which reminds me, these other minor items are very optional anyway.
Gold and EXP:Kaldr relies more on his attack damage when farming. Before, when he had lower cooldowns for his Ultimate, you could basically SPAM it like any AoE spell. But now you can't, and it cannot be used for farming in most cases. I'll discuss this soon.
Skills: His Cold Feet is termed unreliable because it is situational. But the wrong thing here is that it's not really meant to be an initiating stun, but a follow-up disable. His Ice Vortex is a renowned scouting skill, and one of the few skills in the game that reduce magic resistance. Chilling Touch is regarded as one of the best buff skills in the game, giving everyone a free Sacred Relic for a short duration. Last, but definitely not least, Ice Blast is one of the most feared Ultimates in the right hands. By itself it can clear waves, finish off Heroes, and turn tables.
Here are a few reasons why to pick Drow Ranger for your games:
Great Timing:When you can time your spells well instead of going rambo, you become more of an asset than a liability. All your skills require precision and effort, and if you don't have any of these, you won't be helping your team very well.
EXP Hoarder:Kaldr gains most of his strength from levels. You need to be concerned on whether or not you're soaking up EXP like everybody else. Kaldr is not much of a roamer, but he can help even if stays in his lane. If you keep moving around, you won't be able to use Ice Blast when it's in its most threatening state.
Gamebreaking:Kaldr makes a difference, that's it. Chilling Touch is one of the best buffer skills, and Ice Vortex scouts like a madman. Cold Feet induces that psychological effect on the target and Ice Blast, well, Ice Blast tends to make or break the clash.
Ganker: Okay, while Kaldr does not roam, he can gank effectively. He has two semi-disables. The key is not to initiate but to follow-up. In the right hands, he is a very successful ganker. He needs to gain levels while doing so. That's important.
Supporter: While all of his skills scream gank, they tend to also shout for support as well. Kaldr is great at defending (even from afar) and scouting (as I've been saying). If I have to mention his buff skill, then sure. It all depends on the items he's going for. In all honesty, I think Kaldr works best as a support Hero, but often it's not how I play him.
Background Story: Traxex was a skilled archer in her oppressive underground homeland, the Underdark, until she grew sick of her kin's evil ways and fled to the surface world. As a part of her resolution, she joined the Sentinel, bringing her excellent marksmanship to the fray. Some of her abilities include stripping magical beings of their voices, and enchanting her arrows with an icy cold. While such powers are valuable, her true origin will never cease to linger around in the judging eyes of others.
Custom Story: You feel nothing when you are hit. A cold so chilling embraces each arrow of the Drow Ranger, numbing your senses to a sheer halt. Magic is frozen as the voice from your throat dwindles to nothing. Help is but a scream away, but none will hear you. You are merely a target of this ranger's unparalleled marksmanship; each arrow shoots true and as bitter as the freezing cold. You feel nothing when you die.
Induces a freezing effect to the Hero's attacks. Each attack slows the enemy's movement and attack rates. Does not affect magic immune units.
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Mana
Cooldown
C. Range
AoE
Duration
Effects
1
12
0
625
N/A
1.5/7
Slows attack speed by 5% and movement speed by 10%.
2
12
0
625
N/A
1.5/7
Slows attack speed by 10% and movement speed by 20%.
3
12
0
625
N/A
1.5/7
Slows attack speed by 15% and movement speed by 30%.
4
12
0
625
N/A
1.5/7
Slows attack speed by 20% and movement speed by 40%.
Notes:
This skill does not stack, but is prolonged on successive casts.
The first duration is on Heroes, and the second is on creeps.
This skill is an Orb Effect as well as a Buff Placer.
This skill does not work on magic immune units.
Silence - (Active, Area, Enemies)
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Stops all enemies in a target area from casting spells. Casting range of 900, AoE of 275, and cooldown of 15 seconds.
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Mana
Cooldown
C. Range
AoE
Duration
Effects
1
90
15
900
275
3
Enemies affected cannot cast spells.
2
90
15
900
275
4
Enemies affected cannot cast spells.
3
90
15
900
275
5
Enemies affected cannot cast spells.
4
90
15
900
275
6
Enemies affected cannot cast spells.
Notes:
This skill does not include items and their active abilities.
This skill disables Permanent Invisibility.
The skill does not work on magic immune units.
Trueshot Aura - (Passive, Allied Ranged Units)
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An aura that gives friendly nearby units bonus damage to their ranged attacks. Increases base ranged damage by a percentage. Does not stack with auras of the same base.
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Mana
Cooldown
C. Range
AoE
Duration
Effects
1
N/A
N/A
N/A
900
N/A
Increases base ranged damage by 7%.
2
N/A
N/A
N/A
900
N/A
Increases base ranged damage by 14%.
3
N/A
N/A
N/A
900
N/A
Increases base ranged damage by 21%.
4
N/A
N/A
N/A
900
N/A
Increases base ranged damage by 28%.
Notes:
Aura bonuses consider only unit base damage + primary attribute increases (not raw damage items).
This skill does not stack with Lunar Blessing, but does stack with Command Aura.
Marksmanship - (Passive, Self)
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The Drow Ranger's accuracy has increased. The skill adds 15 Agility directly to the Drow Ranger per level.
Justification (Standard):Silence is the skill that will keep drow rapists at bay during those annoyingly expected tri-lane first blood attempts. I always take it as my first skill, but only because a 10% movement speed slow for one person is not going to make any difference. It's like Venomancer's Poison Attack. Ahh, so now you remember how shitbrix the slow is by itself.
What happens next is we completely forget about it until we reach Level 8, where we can prolong the duration of the silence during those vital team fights. Nifty.
Frost Arrows is taken second but maxed out first. This is one helluva slow considering not all people feel the need to buy a Boots of Speed when everybody's Level 7 but you do, and well, a 40% movement slow (not implying that we are ignoring the 20% attack speed slow) and chasing becomes much more efficient. Not only are you going to force them to at least consider buying BoS when they can't escape from you and your supposed lane partner, but... okay, that's pretty much all you're doing.
I'll discuss Orb Walking with this skill later on in General Strategy. Just remember that Frost Arrows overrides every other orb you give Drow Ranger. Which means that you do not slow when you add Lifesteal. I'll be talking about this also on General Strategy.
Trueshot Aura is taken at Level 12 when you can actually feel the difference between an aura-infused drow-arrow and an arrow. This is because you just leveled Marksmanship twice and it bordering on late game now, where percentage-based damage buffers begin to make their presence known.
Marksmanship gives you the biggest boost in AGI in the game from just one skill. It makes no sense not to take it. You'll particularly feel it the most during Level 6, when you have piss-poor AGI at the beginning.
Keep in mind, 1 point of AGI gives Drow Ranger: +1 attack speed, +1 damage, and 0.14 Armor. 7 points of AGI gives her a full 1 point of Armor.
Stats is taken at Level 4. OMGWTFBBQ? Let's see, you might underestimate the power of a level of Stats. Consider which skills you might want to take at the time. Level 2 Silence, for four seconds? The basic core of Silence is working at Level 1, no thanks. Level 1 Trueshot Aura? Nope, this skill's going to be leveled too far off. Level 3 Frost Arrows? You can't level this skill at Level 4! Stats it is!
Justification (Aura Drow): The main difference is the presence of Trueshot Aura early over Silence, to the point that we substitute Stats for it at Level 4.
You will only follow this build, and its variations, when there is not much threat coming from spellcasters, and you are the only carry they are relying on. This is highly unlikely in an organized game. Why? The enemy will always prioritize early gamers over late carries. Also, the skill build relies on your farming skills so bad, that you must have some tier item by the end of Level 11 just to make use of this build.
Justification:Power Treads is the main item for Drow Ranger over all the Boots (more on this later). The biggest reason is the additional STR and the attack speed early on. She can also switch to AGI when farming, and if lacking a little mana, to INT to cast that vital Silence. No other Boots would provide this benefits in one go. As usual, other Boots are discussed in the "Which Boots?" tab.
Lothar's Edge is your main escape mechanism and ganking mechanism. Yes, it is easily countered by True Sight, which I assume organized games would have. However, you have no innate escape mechanisms in you and there are no other items that would give what she wants in one buying: additional damage and escape mechanism. Yes, the raw damage from this item is not manipulated by Trueshot Aura, but the item still holds as one of her core items.
Wraith Bands gives Drow Ranger an early boost on AGI and damage. The most you should get in one game is two. Never go beyond that amount. Why? It would delay your build, and you would not have enough space in your inventory for a life-saving Scroll of Town Portal.
Magic Wand, although sometimes it would delay, should be your survival item throughout the game. You even build it first (see Build Progression). While you'll be unlikely to be participating in many team clashes, you're not likely to use the charges either because of your low manacost spells (12 for Frost Arrows; 90 for Silence). The idea is to store the charges until you reach the maximum and keep them with you in the event that you're ganked to save your life if necessary.
Scroll of Town Portal should be with you at all times. Remember to visit the side shops when you can if you didn't have enough money to buy it from your base.
Build Progression
(Magic Wand recipe, not a Scroll of Town Portal)
TO
TO
TO
TO
Which Boots?
VS
Here we see how I justify Power Treads over the other types.
Boots of Travel is only gotten on very long games (60 minutes upwards). You don't have a wave-clearing skill to make use of this to farm efficiently (unlike other Heroes such as Tinker, Morphling, Shadow Fiend, etc.). You only get it on long game to get around the map once your attack speed is high enough and the only thing you need then is map control.
Phase Boots is not meant for Drow Ranger. Why? She has Frost Arrows, which would disable Phase if manually-casted. It would be perfect if she had a disabling skill that could be activated before using Phase (if I had to cite just examples, Battery Assault, Rot, or other slow skills). She doesn't; she has Frost Arrows. Keep in mind, though, that auto-casting Frost Arrows does not cancel Phase.
Arcane Boots would solve Drow Ranger's non-existent mana issues. Okay, so you would run out of mana every now and then by using Silence too much, but that doesn't justify forking over 1000 gold to buy an Energy Booster for this item. First, you can't use it for other items when you disassemble it. Second, well, Drow Ranger isn't that big on mana anyway.
Rival Builds
Here I talk about builds that try to rival mine, but prove them inefficient. Beneath is a reply to one member's points on Helm of the Dominator. Keep in mind that I named this tab Rival Builds for a reason, for while I discourage this build, it's not forbidden. It's not named Rejected Builds in the first place.
Arguments will always go on about this, but my stand is only to make my build at a higher notch of maximizing her potential. There is no really right or wrong build.
(and other forms of Lifesteal)
Justification:Helm of the Dominator gives you 20 damage, 15% Lifesteal, 5 Armor, and the ability to Dominate creeps. It is also an Orb effect.
Points in white are minor points. Points in orange are major points.
There are two ways to build this: 1.) diss Frost Arrows; 2.) get Frost Arrows and diss it later. Obviously, both are going to the wrong path. This is the overkill path, in which the players opt for maxing out one aspect without caring for the others.
Actually, Drow Ranger uses Lifesteal very badly, compared to Troll Warlord, Phantom Assassin, Broodmother, and more sparingly, Morphling. And in other unique cases, Moon Rider. Why?
Orb Effects: What do you see when you compare those Heroes to Drow Ranger? That's right, they don't have Orb effects. Broodmother is an exception, because her Lifesteal is her Ultimate (Insatiable Hunger), and she is also Melee and can get Vladimir's Offering. Drow Ranger cannot.
STR: Next, some of those Heroes are usually less fragile compared to Drow Ranger, notably Troll Warlord (higher STR gain at 2.2; same starting STR though), Broodmother (significantly higher STR gain at 2.5; still same starting STR) and Morphling (higher STR gain at 2.0 and starting STR at 19; plus the ability Morph). They can make use of Lifesteal because of their bulkier HP, and they last longer with it. This is, however, a minor point, but a point evident nonetheless.
EHP: Recently brought up, EHP does not give much of an issue when compared to STR. EHP (Effective Hit Points) could have been viable with raw Armor, but not from the little Armor coming from only Drow's AGI.
Moon Rider: Moon Rider gets Lifesteal because she doesn't have orbs, and she cannot get other orbs. She also needs it earlier because she attacks faster and deals more damage in general (combined with items) than Drow Ranger during those times, because of a higher AGI gain at 2.8.
Frost Arrows: Will net you kills because it restricts mobility by a lot. Your Lifesteal attacks won't do anything similar to that. They will just run away. No, seriously. Also, you cannot orb-walk with HotD. Manually casting Frost Arrows uses up mana and does nothing.
Detriments: You cannot use Frost Arrows freely, should you have decided not to diss it. There are extra steps to play with the mechanics of the game to allow you to cast Frost Arrows. False arguments try to point out that you can get the best of both worlds, but you don't. You are merely switching one out for the other. It's just an illusion. It's unnecessary.
Role Mix-ups: In the Counters section, and in some other parts of the guide, I stated that your role is to kite. You cannot take Heroes that are equipped to take you 1v1, which is what this build is going for. Key words are: to "outlast", to "overpower", to "keep your life high". You won't. Your job is to kite and keep your life high through survivability and not lifesteal.
No Survival: Both do nothing to get you to last longer. Once you're stunned, which you probably will be, that additional damage and Lifesteal would go to waste. It's better to kite and assist with Frost Arrows from a distance, rather than trying to outlast your opponent carry, which you won't.
Competitive: Yes, some competitive replays do present this kind of build for Drow Ranger, but I have provided my points on why it is not beneficial to her. Of course, the main difference is in the organization of those games. Sometimes, Drow Ranger herself does not have much need for Frost Arrows as she has allies capable of supporting her all the way. In that case, opting for another orb might be more suitable.
In-Depth Reply to a Post: This spoiler will show how I address this Rival Build in most cases. Much thanks to FunnyWarfare for bringing this up. To view the original post, just click the small arrow next to my name quoted.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Melderv
Hello! Let me start directly with my comments. This is going to be long, but I'm glad you brought this up.
What you did do right is try to voice out your opinion and point out my flaws. What you didn't do right is attack the wrong points.
You focused your arguments mainly on the alleged fact that I completely forbid getting HotD on her, which is not true. I said it was inefficient and not beneficial. Where exactly? Both at the beginning and at the "Competitive" nugget.
So much of your time was wasted on proving WHY HotD is beneficial to her but not attacking my points on WHY NOT. So as you can see, my argument still stands unfazed, separated into short nuggets anyone can understand.
Orb Effects. Yes, different situations call for different orb effects. And that's why for Heroes without them, there are many choices. PotM for instance, I've seen Chain Lightning, Corruption, and Feedback on her. They all work. Same with Morphling, same with Stealth Assassin, and in some rare cases, Troll Warlord (no, not really). Those are points I concede.
But for Heroes with them, why burden yourself to make a choice all the time? Let's look at Bone Fletcher. He has Searing Arrows. It's his damage source, and it's great for harassing, and ultimately, killing. While he might have Death Pact to sustain his HP needs, nobody gets lifesteal on him. Not even if he has damage without his orb. Why? Because his orb is still better in most situations given to him.
Consider Anti-Mage and Broodmother. They are Melee, and can get Vladimir's Offering. Not only that, Broodmother has Insatiable Hunger. Yes, it is a lifesteal, but unlike all the others, it's extremely high. It's excluded because of the fact that it's not a "healing-over-time" concept like 10%, 15%, 16%, 17% lifesteal. It's compared to burst heals.
But for Anti-Mage, it's a different story since he can have the best of both worlds. Consider that he cannot. Consider that Feedback is the only orb he can use, or replace it with lifesteal. It's more burdened by the fact that Mana Break is Passive. A build actually exists for this, the MoM build.
Comparably, Drow Ranger is not far from Anti-Mage when you talk about fragility. Why is Feedback a better choice? Because it's going to be useful in most of his situations. What you are implying is that, get lifesteal if the target has no mana. If the target has mana, use Feedback. How often does this occur? Well, quite often, actually. But how justified would it be? Not at all.
Your situation presented is the same. Frost Arrows when chasing, lifesteal when not. But the point is, it's not going to be used for chasing all the time. It's also going to be used in head-to-head battles. How useful would lifesteal be then?
Granted, that Troll Warlord would probably outlast you 1v1. Why? That's his job. That's Mortred's job. That's Slark's job. Getting any available amount of lifesteal through existing items isn't going to change that. Why? Because your job is to kite your enemies like Dwarven Sniper would. Your job is to attack from a distance, not pretend you're some 1v1 Hero that can take on anyone you like. Because with equal items and equal skill, you're not going to win against these Heroes, much like Shadow Fiend, Sniper, and Moon Rider never would, simply because it's not their job.
My point is, why delay your build, especially your escape mechanism (of which Magina conveniently has one, but Drow does not) by buying HotD for "back-up" situations? It's impractical, unless you're going to, as I said, diss Frost Arrows in its entirety. Second, it's unfeasible, because it's not your role to fulfill.
TL;DR, read the two last paragraphs.
Extensions
Justification:Black King Bar eventually meets any hard carry. More stuns will be focused on you, more burst damage nukes will be aimed at you. This removes some of them. Another reason is that Drow Ranger needs to attack to be functional, and believe me, her attacks hurt. This item is pretty much self-explanatory, though.
Justification:Manta Style, while suffering a recent nerf to ranged Heroes, still increases your dps by a significant amount. If you're not worried about being focused too much, or you have a great initiator, you can opt for this item instead. It gives your increased movement speed to chase, and more stats for survivability, not to mention Mirror Image.
The Utility Items
Justification: Drow Ranger cannot buy thr Gem of True Sight, and she can only ask someone to hold it for her when killing invisible units. She's just too fragile, and carrying a "Kill me" item won't make it any better.
Justification:Observer Wards and Sentry Wards should be handled by support Heroes instead of Drow Ranger. However, a quick buy should you need one will always favor your team.
The Luxury Items
Justification:The Butterfly. What should I say? Just don't get two of them.
Justification:Monkey King Bar is preferred over The Butterfly if you're facing tanks like Pandaren Brewmaster (Drunken Haze, Drunken Brawler), and carries like Tinker (Laser) and Phantom Assassin (Blur), or other Butterfly holders. True Strike will make it easier for you to fight them.
Justification:Buriza-Do Kyanon is the item to get if your team has kept the opponent carry at bay and True Strike is not needed. The Critical Strike, even from just Crystalys, should be very beneficial considering your high attack damage.
Justification:Assault Cuirass is another item to get if you like your attack speed. However, it adds nothing to your damage, but just amplifies it. Since you're not allowed to get Stygian Desolator, this item might be of good use.
Justification: While I might not think of Drow Ranger as a good Heart of Tarrasque holder, since The Butterfly is much better, she can get if she has already bought The Butterfly. What kind of pubstomp is this?
Starting Items: You hardly need mana consumables at this time, nor ever, so you'll be getting a Healing Salve to prolong your stay in the lane instead. A quick tip when going to the side lanes is to avoid buying things that you can buy at the goblin shops. Also, this build leaves you with enough money to buy a Magic Wand recipe (not the Scroll of Town Portal) should you want to build it first. It would need only 200 gold more to finish it up.
Goals: Get Power Treads, stay alive. Unless you have a competent lane partner, just focus on last hitting. Make it your priority. Your attack animation should be quite slow for now. What you should ask for in the very beginning is a baby-sitter (a healer, supporter) that would not compete for last hitting and keep you alive during your laning phase.
Farming: Last hitting should be your top priority. Not only is it hard enough to make up for lost time due to dying or doing something else, you don't even have any skill to help you with that problem.
Pulling: If you're taking the pull lanes, pull if you're both ranged, and make it fast. Otherwise, stay to defend if your friend is melee.
Sent-Top/Scourge-Bottom: This one's harder since you cannot pull back your wave nearer to the tower, and they will likely pull them back towards theirs. Never stray too deep into the enemy territory. You won't survive an organized gank if you do. Just stay back and last hit.
Harassing: Orb-walking is possible with Frost Arrows. With a competent lane partner, you can gain a kill by slowing your enemies' movement speed and combining it with a stun or a burst slow is quite powerful. Remember to make harassing a low priority, and never forget your last hitting. Harass the melee Heroes to make them think twice about venturing into your range and to dominate the lane.
Wrap Up: Get your core items and start moving on to bigger creeps if you can. Farm open lanes and try to avoid ganks that involve too little allies. You risk yourself valuable time if you fail and die.
Clashes
Your main job is to kite. You cannot take dedicated 1v1 Heroes of equal strength such as Troll Warlord, Phantom Assassin, Slithereen Guard, and Murloc Nightcrawler. Unless you're significantly stronger, you will not win. Your job is to attack enemies from a distance and keep the enemy's attention off you.
Of course, this isn't going to happen in most cases. What you need to do to gain this benefit is to enter the battle fashionably late in order to determine the best positioning and to avoid deadly stuns. If the enemy has kept all their stun reserved for you, then they have already lost to your teammates.
Positioning:Drow Ranger should be placed on the farthest side of the clash. Why? You cannot place Drow in the middle, nor too near one end of the clash. She needs to distance herself from the enemy, remain unnoticed until too late. If you cannot help this, prioritize your targets.
Targets:Your targets are the most threatening targets. Doesn't matter whether he's a support or a carry, just focus your every attack on him, slowing him down and preventing him from being very motile. If BKB is an issue, just attack the unit. This is actually the same as in my Geomancer guide.
Breakdown: First, use Lothar's Edge at the dawn of the fight. Once your allies initiate, move to the farthest edge and attack the threatening targets.
If your allies are unable to initiate, stay back and keep your distance, but not too far. The key for this situation is to wait for the disables to come in. If the enemy has ventured too deeply without using their stuns, by all means, let your teammates in.
Second, break invisibility on the target. Shoot him down until he drops, and focus on your next threatening target. Kite them, that's your job.
Finally, catch any remaining survivors if you won the clash, or slow any chasers if you lost and try to stay alive.
Using Frost Arrows
Orb-walking:Orb-walking is the ability to attack your enemies and cancel your animation without drawing any form of aggro. Aggro is drawn in the moment the creeps/towers attack you because of attacking a Hero. This orb-walking ability is made available through the use of Frost Arrows, as manually casting Frost Arrows is the same as casting a spell, which in itself does not draw any aggro.
Another point is to be to able to move and attack while canceling your attack animation backswing, which I'll be discussing next. Essentially, orb-walking is canceling your backswing.
Auto-attacking:When is auto-attacking much more efficient than orb-walking? The answer is this: it depends on the human factor, and not the technical/mechanical factor.
Drow Ranger's frontswing (the amount of time required to actually attack) is 0.7 seconds. More attack speed lowers this time, allowing more attacks to be made. However, her backswing is 0.3 seconds. This is purely for cosmetics and does not involve your attacks at all. This is the time you can cancel. However, for example, getting, let's say, 100 more attack speed reduces this time to 0.15 seconds.
If you, as a human, could time it just right that you could cancel that animation still, then you can keep orb-walking. However, making many mistakes will actually result in less attacks being made, and auto-attacking is the safer option. As I said, it depends on the human factor.
Orb Stacking:Orb effects do not stack. Buff placers do not stack. That's it.
Magic Immune:Frost Arrows does not affect magic immune units.
Creep-slowing:Frost Arrows lasts 7 seconds on creeps. A way to make use of this is by manually casting Frost Arrows on a Meat Wagon/Glaive Thrower attacking your tower. They will attack significantly slower, dealing less damage overall to your structures.
Another minor use is to slow down the first creep of the enemy wave, delaying the others by a short time. But still, it's a use.
Using Silence
Notable Skills Prevented: Silence notably stops Permanent Invisibility and Last Word from working.
Base Skill: AoE silences (like this) are based on the actual Silence, whereas targeted silences are based on Soul Burn.
About Trueshot Aura
Aura Flicker: The Command Aura and the Trueshot Aura have a special case where their effects will appear to flicker, that is, the effect is temporarily removed and then added again.
Whenever a unit is created for your player and you have a Command/Trueshot Aura it will be temporarily removed and then reapplied, created units include all units created from summoning units to dummy units created by triggers. This means that when the aura has been removed there is a very small time frame until it is readded again where you can land an attack without gaining the benefits from the Command/Trueshot Aura.
Stacking: Trueshot Aura does not stack with Moon Rider's Lunar Blessing. I would like to state that this also came from that source above, but it is also common knowledge to me. (needs confirmation due to recent code changes)
About Marksmanship
Statistics: Drow Ranger's average final stats is 223.8 with Marksmanship Level 3 and just 178.8without it. Compare to Treant Protector's 231.8 and Murloc Nightcrawler's 168.4.
Honestly, I've already mentioned Drow Ranger's greatest enemies on the "Rival Build" tab, and on the "Clashes" tab. Instead of posting disablers and the like, let me focus on other hard carries that she cannot take. We are talking of equal strength and skill here.
Justification:Troll Warlord, ranged or not, is one of your biggest threats. He will likely also take Lothar's Edge for ganking and escaping, so you two are equal rivals. What he can do is take you on 1v1. Lifesteal is his major orb and he will outlast you if he manages to stop you from attacking with his Bash. Battle Trance will readily tip the strength to his favor, so watch out.
Justification:Faceless Void loves 1v1, to the point that he pauses both his allies and his enemies in time. He has Backtrack, a triggered heal that stacks fully with Evasion. He also has Time Lock, which is just a fancy way of saying Bash. I already mentioned Chronosphere, but it can be stopped by a good Silence. Unless you're able to kite him, there's not much you can actually do.
Justification:Murloc Nightcrawler loves stats and you have a lot of AGI. Watch as he takes them away from you using Essence Shift if you fight 1v1. Not only that, you can do anything but watch as he uses Shadow Dance, and you can't keep your distance because of Pounce. Dark Pact doubles as a buff remover, so careful not to Silence him too early.
Justification:Phantom Assasin's has refined her Hero-killing skills to a high degree. This is the description of the skill that will kill you faster than you think. Not only that, you can't use Silence against it. Finally, she has Blur to evade part of your attacks, and slow you down to a crawl with Stifling Dagger. Think twice about fighting this Hero alone.
Justification: A Slithereen Guard will first mark you with Amplify Damage, and there's not much you can do about it. You're gonna get that buff on you with or without Silence. Without that buff, you have a higher chance of winning, but he also has Bash and Slithereen Crush to, umm, crush you if you choose to fight. If you don't, he has Sprint to chase you down, obviously, and that Lothar's Edge won't work, because now you're tracked by Amplify Damage.
It's easy to get to Level 6 at middle lane, but here are his problems: No lane control and no base damage to last hit. Even Mortred has better laning prowess than Drow Ranger (at least she has Stifling Dagger). So middle lane is certainly a no-no if your enemies are rather skilled.
Just the same argument from my other guide.
No Frost Arrows
See my justification on my "Rival Build" tab. Not much more to say here, as clearly I'd be trolling if I put any more tabs.
Again, I hope you learned a new Hero. Drow Ranger, as I said, is my very first Hero. Watching others play, and improving from how I play, led me to write this guide on her to share my insights. Have fun using her to her best!
I would like to add that, while I highly discourage anyone from doing the rival builds, I don't forbid you from doing so. From the name itself, it's a rival build, not a rejected build. There are many ways to play Drow Ranger, but there are better ways of using her potential to its maximum!
Final Words: My Alt-Tab series of strategy guides are meant to display as much helpful information as possible without the unnecessary portions. They are not meant for Spotlight guides, with their fancy pictures and video tutorials. That is, in my opinion, extremely time-consuming. It deviates from my purpose, which is to have fun while writing this guide to communicate with others in the DotA community. I like to maintain clean and simple updated works which are just as rich in content as most good guides are.
