Dota 2 Drow Guide

Dota 2 Drow Guide by Romp

Drow is actually a deeper hero then most give her credit for. Ok, she`s no Invoker but that doesn`t mean she can`t be played skillfully. This guide borrows from -DMX Drow Ranger- and -How to Outdrow the Drows- which i find to be the best 2 drow guides imo. I`m just adding my own stuff and mixing theirs. I like to go indepth with my stuff so THIS ISNT AN ALT TAB GUIDE, its for people who really want to master the hero. Ok thats it for intro, also drow best butt, just saying.

You can solo any lane (yes even hard lane, just ward-block their pull and keep the lane pushed and you are fine) or go with a support on either sidelane.

IF Mid Lane: Have one rune spot warded for rune control. Wait until lvl 6 before ganking since you need the damage. By then you should have your early game items and should be ready to gank with a smoke and bottled rune. Check which lane is pushed and then coordinate over mic or chat and smoke into position, bypassing the enemy wards. Activate whichever rune you have while still in smoke (DD, haste, invis) and silence the hero(s) you are ganking and right click them down along with your allies. No reason the gank should fail if you did all this

Once you are successful, go for a shadow blade to really snowball

Item Strategies: 

-Shadow Blade: The combo with SB is one shot to break the invis and proc the bonus 150 dmg then SILENCE then finish them off in proper positioning. Be wary however, after a few times the enemy will carry dust or detection.
Constantly check their inventories to see if its a safe gank, and check the minimap for their allies. Keep in mind Manta purges dust so they work well together. Be wary of Slardar and Bounty ults, manta purges both these abiltiies too!

-Manta Style- Practice dodging abilties with the small window of activation! Open a lobby and practice dodging sniper assasinate or Spirit Breaker charges until you can dodge consistently. It helps immensely in fights and time manta for use after they try to slow you or stun.

-BKB- Dont use it too early or else you are simply wasting it, use it when it looks like the enemy is going to really commit to a teamfight. Use it to dodge abilities, the more abilities you get to bait on you and(then bkb activate while said ability is in midflight) thats one less spell your team has to deal with. Also handy for escape with a tp scroll

-Helm of The Dominator- Arrow Toggling is essentially learning when you should be spamming frost arrows and when its not needed (because lifesteal doesn’t work when Frost Arrows are on). If for example, Bristleback is stunned, there’s no point in slowing so i save the mana and heal myself up a bit by attacking normally until he isn’t stunned. Not HUGE on its own, but just like last hitting creeps this cumulatively adds up and you can end up lasting a LONG time if you do this right.

Late game, where you get pretty tanky due to high armor, you can rush towers by dominating a creep and taking off backdoor protection, melting tower with your insane dmg. Stack the ancients 2-4 times at :53 with a high lvl jungle creep for a great gold gain. You want to be sure you can take the stack when its done so ward around the ancients and watch the minimap, You don’t want the enemy carry taking this. You can do it manually every min or you can shift queue the stack

Heres a video on this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnjcylomVUU

Dealing with Counterpicks:

-Spirit Breaker- Ward his common charge paths, Learn to manta dodge his charge (practice it in a lobby) and then immediately silence him and right click him down. Bkb will prevent any damage from his spells but the stuns will go through. You can also dodge his ult with manta as well, BUT IT REQUIRES STRICT TIMING. Seriously sit down and practice dodging both his abilties, it will help you so MUCH. Yet another option is to dominate a troll and keep near you when farming or doing anything. Have it ensnare the Breaker mid charge and then silence and kill him, set up key bindings to do this accordingly. He’s hard to beat but not impossible.

-Clockwerk- Again ward around so you can see where he will try to hook from, if he can’t hook you hes useless imo. IF he does, pop manta and attack a cog until it breaks to escape while his ministun focuses on your ilusions (or you might get lucky and the manta might place you outside his cogs, you will take mana drain but will escape). Bkb is EXCELLENT, build it if hes giving you trouble, it negates almost all his dmg except for right click. So if he hooks you can bkb+teleport or bkb and attack the cogs to leave and then kill him. Blademail doesnt go through bkb either so hes screwed.

-Pudge- WARDS, it seriously shuts him down HARD. If mid against him, ward across the river so you can see where he will try to hook. He can’t outlane you since he is melee, harass him out with your orb. He should lose the lane, just creep hug and call missing when he eventually leaves. Exercise good rune control against him (again, ward a rune spot) and hes completely shut down imo. Be wary when going for a rune however, this is the only chance pudge has to try to comeback, but if you’ve warded appropriately you should be fine.

-Slark- Its all about landing the silence on him and dust. Be wary of Dark Pact, it can purge your silence and dust. It does have a notable animation however and if you catch him by surprise you can mow him down because he is squishy.So basically land your silence and if he didnt have dark pact prepped, hes as good as dead. Dust makes his ult a joke and if you do get pounced, you can bkb or just teleport out. It honestly goes either way depending on your silence.

These are the heros that I’ve learned to deal with and give me a bit of trouble, but if you do as above mentioned you should beat them. Spirit Breaker will be the BIGGEST pain, if you put in the practice and troll trap him with helm you can beat him.

K im done spewing out info for now tell me if i should add anything, i think this covers like 100 percent of drow honestly. No I didn’t forget ghost scepter, its just not as good as rushing manta imo, orbwalking out of ghost is fun but not you are playing to win. If you wanna have fun go blink and eblade drow for the hell of it lol.