More importantly, Drow Ranger gives a team its win condition and its purpose. In pubs, the damage buff makes up for the ability of the average player to last hit. In competitive play, Trueshot’s global damage buff allows pros to leverage every minor advantage in the laning stage. The knockback from Gust and Hurricane Pike have both mitigated any negative tradeoffs from picking her. She can be picked early, with little fear of counter picks. She was a top pick throughout TI6, and she is one of the most successful heroes in 3-5k and 5k+ MMR brackets.
If Drow Ranger were to be nerfed, there would be arguments for her strength in both pub and professional play.
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. Necrophos was punished for his ancient jungling. But there have also been tweaks to heroes that had little impact on professional meta. They also nerfed 8 out of the top 9 most contested heroes of the same event.
Professionalĭoes 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. But it’s the active on Hurricane Pike that has given her protection against her usual, gap closing counters. The cheap, buildup of Dragon Lance benefits her early tower pressure, while also giving her some cheap stats for survivability. What finally put Drow Ranger into the meta was the introduction of Hurricane Pike. Wings.Shadow’s build from the main event of TI6
Marksmanship has largely remained the same, but it has benefitted from an Aghanim’s Scepter upgrade that is strong enough not to be situational. 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. 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. Gust was a skill for Drow introduced in 6.80. Those numbers have been buffed slightly, over three patches, with the recent patch 6.88 changing the movement slow to 16%/32%/48%/64%. The skill was buffed in patches 6.78, 6.79, and 6.85.įrost Arrows used to only slow movement speed by 11%/24%/37%/50% in patch 6.72d. In patch 6.76, increased ranged attack damage from 14%/18%/22%/26% of Drow’s Agility. 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. Some heroes are in a perpetual state of nerfs and rubberbanding tweaks. Ditya surviving with literally 1hp because of Hurricane Pike, an item addition that has greatly benefitted Drow Ranger