Dota 2: Age of Drow Ranger in 7.21d

Over the past two weeks, the pick rate for Drow Ranger in pubs has increased by 7%. Given what’s going on at the Disneyland Major, this number is sure to grow even more. Drow Ranger is currently the hero in the first pick/ban – that was evident during the Minor tournament, especially when both finalists EHOME and NiP used Drow.

In pub, the hero has a 57% win rate at Legend and Ancient ranks (54% from Divine and above). Drow Ranger is the opposite of the two most successful heroes in the current pub, Necrophos and Viper. As for professional players, Drow Ranger helps the team achieve their goal of victory. This is a hero with explosive power in the early and mid game, and Drow has the talent and potential skill set for the late game later. In addition, professional players also do not have to face one of Drow’s enemies in pubs, Mars.

With a well-coordinated formation, Drow can clear ancient stacks from level 6. A common strategy is to TP straight out of the lane, into the farming triangle until he has his ultimate.

NERF HISTORY

Drow Ranger undergoes many direct and indirect nerfs. The two most prominent changes are the bonuses applied to the hero’s main stats and the Wraith Band.

Wraith Band not only adds less Agility, but Drow no longer receives an additional 25% bonus from this item. With the Agility exploiting skill set, this change really held Drow down at first. Drow Ranger is an item-dependent hero: strength relies on stacks of Wraith Bands and mid-game items. Not to mention Power Treads at that time had their stats reduced from 14 to 10.

Drow used to be a hero who could finish a match before the 30-minute mark with a long-range formation and know how to hit teamfight. But when the Markmanship changed (the 120 bonus chance and the ability to instantly kill the creeps) and the Precision Aura were also made, they now give the Drow Ranger more flexibility in the game.

BEAUTIFUL BUFFs

Precision Aura now adds attack speed, making the drow’s +25 attack speed talent pretty redundant. With the level 15 talent changed to +10 Agility, it increased the win rate of the drow when choosing this talent by 13%. The Gust/Knockback talent is useful in certain situations, but it often pushes heroes out of Drow’s range.

Then at 7.21d, Drow’s base damage and Agility were adjusted: the hero’s base damage stayed the same but now adds 6 Agility, and adds 0.3 Agility per level. These are really the tweaks Drow needed.

While Drow’s counter-heroes, like Slark, Phantom Assassin, and Centaur are no longer popular in the meta, this is an opportunity for Drow to rise to power. Pro players draft Drow lineups: pick heroes that make the opponent’s intentions unpredictable and then pick Drow later to unleash the full potential of the draft. Recently, Virtus.pro opened with a draft Drow+Brewmaster in their opening pick against Liquid. Currently, Drow is almost picked or banned in most games at the MDL Disneyland Major.

The current strength of Drow Ranger has been around for a while, about 6 weeks since patch 7.21d came out, but the hero has only been present at the Minor and the Disneyland Major. That forced Valve to watch Drow Ranger more closely in the meta, when a new patch was about to be released. For Drow fans, this is probably the best time to play before the hero leaves the meta again.

According to Dotabuff