Is It Time To Nerf Drow Ranger?
Drow Ranger has long been a niche hero—historically paired with Visage or embedded into pushing, pocket strategies—but in this patch she has attained a wider viability. Drow Ranger has the 2nd highest win rate from the 3-5k MMR bracket, and the 4th highest in the 5k+ MMR bracket. She was a consistent first round ban throughout TI6 (the 4th most contested hero), solidifying her status as a hero that’s strong and flexible enough to be picked early in a draft, regardless of the potential of her counters.
A History Of Buffs
Ditya surviving with literally 1hp because of Hurricane Pike, an item addition that has greatly benefitted Drow Ranger
Some heroes are in a perpetual state of nerfs and rubberbanding tweaks. But for Drow Ranger, since her rework in patch 6.76 in 2012, she has received consistent, incremental upgrades to all of her skills, not to mention an Aghanim’s Scepter upgrade and Hurricane Pike.
In patch 6.76, [missing skill: drow-ranger-precision-aura-5021] increased ranged attack damage from 14%/18%/22%/26% of Drow’s Agility. Today, that is now 20%/26%/32%/38%—nearly a 50% increase. It didn’t all happen at once. The skill was buffed in patches 6.78, 6.79, and 6.85.
Frost Arrows used to only slow movement speed by 11%/24%/37%/50% in patch 6.72d. Those numbers have been buffed slightly, over three patches, with the recent patch 6.88 changing the movement slow to 16%/32%/48%/64%.
Gust was a skill for Drow introduced in 6.80. As a new skill, it’s expected for it to be continually tweaked, and it received buffs to its knockback duration and cast point in three subsequent patches. It received a cooldown nerf in 6.88c, making it Drow Ranger’s first nerf since patch 6.79, which reduced her night vision range.
Marksmanship has largely remained the same, but it has benefitted from an Aghanim’s Scepter upgrade that is strong enough not to be situational.
Wings.Shadow’s build from the main event of TI6
What finally put Drow Ranger into the meta was the introduction of Hurricane Pike. The cheap, buildup of Dragon Lance benefits her early tower pressure, while also giving her some cheap stats for survivability. But it’s the active on Hurricane Pike that has given her protection against her usual, gap closing counters.
Pubs vs. Professional
Does it matter if heroes have more of an impact in pubs or professional games, when it comes to the question of whether they need a buff or nerf? In patch 6.88, Valve buffed 24 out of the 25 heroes that went unpicked throughout the Manila Major Event. They also nerfed 8 out of the top 9 most contested heroes of the same event. But there have also been tweaks to heroes that had little impact on professional meta. Necrophos was punished for his ancient jungling. Windranger had a 31.25% winrate during the Frankfurt Major and at the time a 45.77% winrate in the 5k+ MMR bracket, and she seemed to be nerfed more for her popularity than her power.
If Drow Ranger were to be nerfed, there would be arguments for her strength in both pub and professional play. She was a top pick throughout TI6, and she is one of the most successful heroes in 3-5k and 5k+ MMR brackets. She can be picked early, with little fear of counter picks. The knockback from Gust and Hurricane Pike have both mitigated any negative tradeoffs from picking her.
In competitive play, Trueshot’s global damage buff allows pros to leverage every minor advantage in the laning stage. In pubs, the damage buff makes up for the ability of the average player to last hit. More importantly, Drow Ranger gives a team its win condition and its purpose. She can take towers early and push high ground late. She can solo Roshan, while also enabling her team to do so. Her hero concept is simple enough for pub players to intuit her purpose and the game’s objectives. She capitalizes on mistakes, which run aplenty in pub games. A fight lost at a tower also results in a lost tower.
Public Relations
Sometimes it’s not about the objective impact of a hero, but how it feels to play against that hero. It’s not how many games this hero wins, but in the way he wins. A hero’s public image can be enough momentum to line up a nerf. Sometimes there’s a legitimate reason, but sometimes it’s just indignation. Storm Spirit had below average win rates before he was nerfed, but the games he won felt incredibly broken. These are heroes that people hate to play against, despite the relative strength of that hero. Huskar is another prime suspect. He is immortal when paired with Dazzle or Oracle, and laning against him can seem impossible. Yet, this month he has a 46.93% win rate. Windranger had a paltry win rate (43.7% across 309 professional games in patch 6.85), but her Shackleshot was still nerfed. It’s no surprise that this skill was a high point of contention for complainers. Does it make sense to nerf a hero that people hate to play against, even if that hero is losing more games than he is winning?
One advantage that Drow Ranger has is that she’s a community favorite. She is the 13th most popular hero of all time, and the 7th most popular this month. The games she wins still feels like she’s operating within the rules of the game, even if she three-shots your hero. But it most likely won’t be enough to prevent an inevitable nerf.
nahhh she's good!
first LOLOLOL
nerf morphling. yea we lost
+SamuraiChampuru
your right,morf need nerfs
5st eeeeeeeeeeeee
no...dont :(
Drow is not OP, just that hurricane pike made her viable instead of being a punching bag.
"Her hero concept is simple enough for pub players to intuit her purpose and the game’s objectives."
last week i had drow ranger who thought she is anti mage and needs to splitpush and farm while her team is creating space. in my 5k average game. she got constantly picked of bec she was always alone. her concept appears ez to most of us i guess but there are always some dumb idiots who dont know shit about the game
well, drow will always be either garbage or super great. giving a teamscaling based on your carry's item advancement makes it way too strong for the team. the only way to balance that, is making the heroes self scaling bad.
But if drow's scaling is too bad, then she cann't fullfil her duty as carry, and thus be garbage. the point of balance is relatively small.
JUST nerf Drow alr,players in 4k bracket doesnt know how to use it ==
She's fine.
@strygwyr Drow is a famous ratting hero. But, if you want your ally to change their playstyle, try to COMMUNICATE with them. (Sorry caps, but this is the main point to improve poor teamwork.)
why nerf drow? nerf or remove arc warden
jk
Nerf morph and meepo
if it means seeing less of her, NERF.
nerf pa + slark.. fucking sick of them in every single game.. and pa 1st skill is the most annoying shit ever in lane
nerf meepo? srsly xD
@KeepAwakme dude 4k-5k players tend to have high egos,individualism (most of them mute chat LMAO) how we can communicate with that
hey i love you
It's not about DR problem, just nerf dragon lance or hurricane pike.
I like where Dota 2 is right now, only a couple of obnoxious heroes but even then the games still feel winnable. Drow may get a nerf but I don't feel like she has the crushing game presence in pro games or hatred in pub games (unlike heroes such as Arc Warden and Huskar for example); it's hard for me to see volvo driving Drow into the ground next patch.
I don't think she needs a nerf, but she's at a point where if you don't see it coming...you can be really effed after a draft. A lot like Husk, but usually a good pick anyway, unlike Husk.
I think you meant "nearly 40%" on the precision aura section
But she is so easy to gank...
Ye morphling is shit in the early game, but a strong late game hero; a bit too strong... Valve should nerf the hp gain from "morph strength" He's getting so tanky from that in split seconds...
No, pls don't nerf me! I am good...
Nerf Tinker! Why not to nerf Tinker, who can kill every hero of equal power using only two buttons in a second.
she is fine.Morph needs to be nerfed like seriously,and sven needs a bit nerf too
NERF EVERYONE ! NERF GABEN !
JK, just nerf the dragon lance. The stat is so broke that it literally made the current meta.
She doesn't need a huge nerf, as I think she is in a good place right now; she is strong but not OP. The way you deal with her is you destroy her early game as she falls behind very quickly and pick a hero with a gap closer or strong shut down. Against certain line ups she is absolutely brilliant as she abuse the fact they don't have a gap closer or a harder carry, but she gets destroyed by early game line ups or very mobile line ups such as Slark or a Brood.
"Ditya surviving with literally 1hp because of Hurricane Pike, an item addition that has greatly benefitted Drow Ranger"
Auras lul:
black dragon armor
gaurdian greaves +hp regen and armor
AC bonus armor
tower arua Kappa
while the hurricane pike did most work, the armor buffs really saved him
ditya ra just bait alche, until the good moment he use hurricane pike
nerf drow, storm ,
drow is okay. she can be reliable base on her item. plz nerf timbersaw im sick of his passive skill
Omniknight should get nerfed if anything. He is consistently has highest winrate in all brackets. He can make is team nearly invincible. He has very few counters and the ones that he does have are heroes that are not played often and an item that has a finite amount of charges. Buffing Euls to get rid of his Repel would be a good start.
Huskar and Storm Spirit have plenty of counters, but if your team had an all magic line up against Huskar, or no disables against Storm Spirit, they would quickly get out of control.
Drow is powerful, not so much as an individual hero, but because of her Aura where late game she can give her team over 100 damage. She has problems when facing more than one enemy.
Actually she didn't die because of Guardian Greaves's huge armor and regen aura.
Plz drow is shit i tell you. The one to be banned is riki . He influences the early game so much that late game its ez gg . I ban or pick riki every game . One game i didnt - I lost .
If there's one hero than needs a nerf, then it's PA with her Stifling Dagger. Compared to that, Drow's passive buffs are justified.
I guess valve will nerf all the ranged heroes or buff the melee heroes instead of just nerfing drow
@Killaa - your 4th most played hero, you filthy techies and pudge spammer.
nerf item, pls dont nerf Drow.!
nerf troll warlord
nerf chen, visage and io
all too op
You just dont know how to handle drow, eh?
Nerf meppo please
Ofc nerf drow and forget about tinker who can one shot any enemy hero in the late game.. nerf drow and forget about timber who can be healed istead of dmg'ed if u attack him :)))
And pa's dagger
Forget about Tinker, he's fine!
Honestly, I hate drow! NERF HER!!!
And pls nerf timbersaw as fast as possible!
nerf draw pls
one skill in tha game makes 1000 of pure dmg, 60% movement slow, 4 secs cooldown, and cosume only 15 mana hahaha drow doesnt need nerf...