Cloud 9's Visage + Drow Ranger Strategy July 19th, 2014 19:25 GMT Text by Sunfish Graphics by Nixer LIQUIDDOTA COVERAGE Introduction

The Draft

Ability Builds

Item Builds

Execution

Conclusion As an unrepentant Drow-picker, Cloud9’s Drow Ranger + Visage combo has been my favorite pocket strategy of TI4. Drow Ranger is typically considered to be a weak hero in competitive play, an observation underlined by her mediocre win rate (48% in 6.81) and near total absence from drafts (she has only been picked three times -- all Cloud9 -- in The International 4). Visage, too, has fallen from favor in recent times. Like Drow Ranger, Visage has been drafted infrequently at The International 4, being picked only six times in 138 games.



Yet Cloud9 boasts a 100% win rate when picking both Drow Ranger and Visage, calling into question the supposed lack of utility for both heroes.

Jacky “EternalEnVy” Mao, in fact, boasts a nearly 80% win rate with Drow Ranger, almost double that of the hero’s win rate in general. It’s also worth noting that C9’s victories with Drow + Visage (played by the stalwart Curtis “Aui_2000” Ling) were executed against the typically unflappable (hah) Team Empire, Vici Gaming, and Evil Geniuses. Though the strategy has been the subject of some discussion on /r/dota2, Liquid Dota, and NA DotA, it has not yet received an extensive analysis. This article explores what, exactly, makes the combination so potent, focusing on when C9’s drafts Drow + Visage, skill builds, item builds, and execution.



The essence of this strategy is the synergy between Visage’s potential for right click damage through its Familiars’ absurdly low base attack time (BAT) and Drow Ranger’s Precision Aura, which boosts allies’ attack damage by a percentage of Drow’s agility. Under the effect of Precision Aura, Visage’s Familiars, which are usually prized for their stun long before their right click damage comes into effect, become extremely potent in their own right, dealing out at least as much damage as a traditional right-click carry. It is optimized in each element of Cloud9’s execution. The Draft Potent though it is, Drow Ranger + Visage is not always an appropriate choice. Consider the commonality between each of the games in which Cloud9 drafted Drow + Visage. In all cases, Cloud9:



1) Has the Dire-side advantage

2) Ensures that Lycan, Faceless Void, and Doom are banned before drafting

3) Uses their fifth ban to ban a distance-closing hero

4) Drafts Visage and Drow Ranger as the third and fourth picks, respectively

5) Drafts a ranged core for either BOne7, SingSing, or both players

6) Drafts a hero with some form of ranged summoned units



It’s also worth noting that in each of the games Cloud9 has opted to use Drow + Visage, the enemy team had run Razor as their mid. However, I don’t see Drow + Visage as a conscious counter to the newly popular Razor given that, in two out of three cases, the Razor pickup came after Visage was drafted. Drow + Visages’ apparent efficacy at dismantling Razor, I think, is somewhat incidental, though certainly worth considering.



With respect to the first point, Cloud9 has, as of now, drafted the Drow + Visage combo only when the team has the Dire-side Roshan advantage. As will be discussed later, though virtually all strategies can benefit from the extra gold, experience, and Aegis of the Immortal an early Roshan can offer, these benefits are especially useful in the context of the Drow + Visage strategy.



Points two and three are, as you might imagine, related. The Drow + Visage strategy is vulnerable to any enemy heroes who excel at closing the distance between them and Drow Ranger, thereby deactivating the Marksmanship agility bonus, and with it, much of the extra damage from precision aura. Thus, it is essential to ban melee heroes with high mobility, such as Faceless Void and Lycan. Granted, banning Lycan is typical in 6.81, regardless of what strategy a team is running, but given the hero’s 522 move speed when shapeshifted, banning him is doubly beneficial for Cloud9’s Drow + Visage combo. Banning Doom is also important, as a Blink-Doom onto Drow would shut down this strategy entirely. Likewise, Cloud9 always uses their final ban to deny a hero with some kind of melee initiation, such as, based on our sample, Phantom Assassin (Phantom Strike), Axe (Blink + Berserker's Call), and Clockwerk (Hookshot + Power Cogs).



Fourth, the fact that Visage and Drow Ranger are drafted third and fourth, respectively, indicates that the heroes should be understood as a deliberately chosen pair. By waiting until the third and fourth pick, Cloud9 is, on the one hand, able to ensure that the duo will match favorably against the enemy lineup, and, on the other, secure both heroes, as there is no ban between the third and fourth picks and both Drow and Visage are such situational picks that it’s very unlikely that the opposing team will draft either hero.



Finally, because Precision Aura only affects ranged units and heroes, Cloud9 maximizes the effect of the aura by picking at least one, if not two, ranged cores for Bone7 and SingSing. Mirana, Viper, Nature’s Prophet, and Windrunner have all accompanied this strategy. The strategy also benefits from heroes with AoE control, like Invoker and Enigma, both of whom have summoned units, Forge Spirits and Eidolons, which receive bonus damage from Precision Aura. The Ability Builds Drow Ranger For Drow Ranger, the ability build is all about maximizing the damage boost from Precision Aura. This mean, one, putting points into Precision Aura early, and, two, boosting agility as quickly as possible. In every game in which Cloud9 has drafted Drow Ranger + Visage, EternalEnVy has built Drow with an extremely similar skill progression: Skill Build frost arrows 2 3 5 7 Frost Arrows 12 Ability: Target Unit Affects: Enemy Units 12 Adds a freezing effect to Drow's attacks, slowing enemy movement. Frost Arrows is a Unique Attack Modifier, and does not stack with other Unique Attack Modifiers. Movement Slow: 11%/24%/37%/60% Duration: 1.5 (7 on creeps) gust 4 12 13 14 Gust 90 13 Ability: Target Point Affects: Enemy Units 9013 Releases a wave that silences and knocks back enemy units. Knockback distance is relative to how close they are to you. Duration: 3/4/5/6 Knockback Duration: 0.6/0.7/0.8/0.9 Knockback Distance: 350 (at 0 range) 0 (at 900 range) Distance: 900 Radius: 250 precision aura 1 8 9 10 Precision Aura 120 Ability: No Target/Aura Affects: Allied Ranged Units 120 Passively gives you and all allied heroes a portion of Drow's agility as bonus damage. When cast, the bonus is also applied to allied creeps. Ranged Damage Bonus 18%/24%/30%/36% Duration 30 markmanship 6 11 16 Markmanship Ability: Passive Affects: Self Passively provides bonus agility. If there are nearby enemy heroes, the bonus agility is lost. Bonus Agility 40/60/80 Deactivation Radius 400 attribute bonus 15 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

In contrast to 70% of Drow skill builds that max Precision Aura at level 14, EternalEnVy’s Drow falls into the 18% who max the aura by level ten. In all cases, EternalEnVy opens at level one with Precision Aura. From levels two to six, EternalEnVy levels Frost Arrows, in addition to putting a single value point into Gust. Frost Arrows’ potential for harassment and ganking is too good to pass up, and the positioning offered by Gust, even more so than the silence, is very useful at all points of the game.



The build really begins to kick in, however, after Drow hits level six, when the hero secures the +40 agility boost from Marksmanship. At this point, EternalEnVy invariably maxes Precision Aura (levels eight, nine, and ten), and, by level eleven (when he takes his second point in Marksmanship), Drow Ranger provides a +56 damage bonus to allied heroes passively and all allied units (including creeps and summoned units) when Aura is activated. This produces a potent timing window for Cloud9 at which their damage output is quite high compared to the enemy heroes’ health pools. Not coincidentally, when Drow Ranger hits level eleven, Cloud9 goes on the offensive with devastating results. Visage Skill Build chilling touch 1 12 13 14 Grave Chill 100 16/14/12/10 Ability: Target Unit Affects: Enemy Units 10016/14/12/10 Visage drains the movement and attack speed of the targeted unit, gaining it for itself. Movement Speed Drain: 32% Attack Speed Drain: 64 Duration: 3/4/5/6 Cast Range: 600 soul assumption 2 3 5 7 Soul Assumption 170/160/150/140 4 Ability: Target Point Affects: Enemy Units Damage: Magical 170/160/150/140 Visage damages the targeted unit based on the number of soul charges. Visage gains a soul charge when damage taken by all heroes around him reaches the damage threshold. Base Damage: 20 Soul Damage: 65 Damage Threshold: 110 Max Souls 3/4/5/6 Soul Duration: 6 Assumption Radius: 1375 Cast Range: 900 gravekeeper's cloak 4 8 9 10 Gravekeeper's Cloak Ability: Passive Affects: Self Visage generates a layered barrier that protects him from physical and magical attacks. If he receives damage from a player, one layer is removed, and takes time to recover. Armor Per Layer: 1/2/4/5 Magic Resistance Per Layer: 3%/6%/12%/16% Layer Recovery Time: 12/10/8/6 Max Layers: 4 Familiars 6 11 16 Familiars 150 180/160/140 Ability: No Target 150180/160/140 Conjures two blind Familiars to fight for Visage. Familiars have are magic immune and have high attack power, but each attack drains a charge of damage that recharges slowly over time. Familiars possess the Stone Form ability, that allows them to turn into stone, stunning enemies upon landing. While in Stone Form, Familiars are invulnerable, and rapidly regenerate their health and damage. Familiars grant high bounty when killed. Upgradable by Aghanim's Scepter. Familiar HP: 300/450/600 Familiar Armor: 0/1/2 Familiar Speed: 380/390/400 Familiar Max Charges 7 Damage Per Charge 8/14/22 Familiars Summoned 2/3(Scepter) attribute bonus 15 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Compared to EternalEnVy's revolutionary approach to building Drow Ranger, Visage’s skill build is, comparatively, quite standard. It goes without saying that Visage’s most important contribution to the strategy is the hero’s two (three with Aghanim's Scepter) Familiars. Though players have long recognized the favorable late game scaling of the Familiars, conventional wisdom has ascribed this scaling to armor reduction; as a semi-carry, Visage comes “online” with the purchase of Assault Cuirass, the armor reduction debuff of which makes the Familiars’ auto attacks exponentially more effective.



Aided by Precision Aura, however, Visage’s Familiars become extremely potent far earlier in the game, while still retaining their scaling into the late game. Assuming that Visage still has level one Summon Familiars when Drow Ranger hits level eleven (as has been the case), each Familiar has only 10 base damage. But, when Precision Aura is active, over three seconds (i.e. seven attacks), each Familiar deals 462 + 56 x 7 damage (that’s base Familiar damage over seven attacks plus Precision Aura bonus for seven attacks), which adds up to an absolutely absurd 854 damage -- before armor reduction from an early Medallion of Courage! Even without any charges, Familiars can still deal hefty damage. Assuming the Familiar described above continues to attack the same target, the second set of seven attacks will deal a formidable 462 damage.



This, unsurprisingly, is absolutely devastating for enemy heroes and towers, and it only gets worse from there, as Precision Aura will provide more and more bonus damage, while the Familiars themselves will gain base damage. As if there’s any doubt as to who is dealing the real damage in Cloud9’s Visage + Drow Ranger strat, in Cloud9’s game against Vici, Visage dealt an absolutely absurd 16.2k hero damage to Vici (compared to Drow Rangers’ 5.5k) in addition to 5.2k tower damage. And while that particular game is a bit of an outlier, Visage has matched or outmatched the damage output of Cloud9’s traditional right click carries in every game the team has run Visage + Drow. The Item Builds Drow Ranger Like his ability build, EternalEnVy’s item build for Drow is based on getting the hero’s agility as high as possible. To do so, EternalEnVy prioritizes items that boost agility, as well as getting a Hand of Midas to secure faster levels. Through the early and mid game, EternalEnVy secures a fixed set of items: Power Treads, Hand of Midas, Yasha, Black King Bar, Butterfly. Power Treads 5 Minutes While an aggressive, ganking Drow Ranger may wish to secure Phase Boots as a means of directly boosting right click and providing a modest increase in mobility, Drow’s role in the Drow + Visage combo benefits far more from the stats provided by Power Treads. Hand of Midas 10 Minutes There’s been a lot of discussion lately about Hand of Midas lately, and I’m increasingly coming to think that its utility lies not in boosting GPM but XPM. In the case of Drow Ranger + Visage, high XPM on Drow benefits the team exponentially because of the massive boost to agility and, in turn, damage a well-leveled Drow can provide. Drow Ranger likewise hits timing windows at levels eleven and sixteen, at which points her (and her teammates’) damage is high relative to enemy health pools. Thus, securing those levels as quickly as possible greatly increases the efficacy of the Drow + Visage combo, making Hand of Midas an attractive choice for this build. Note that the rapid increase in agility will also benefit Drow Ranger through the additional armor she gains from the stat. Yasha 15 Minutes A natural choice after Hand of Midas, Yasha gives Drow Ranger exactly what she needs when played in combination with Visage: slightly more mobility (to ensure that her Marksmanship bonus remains active), and more agility. Realistically, Drow will hit level eleven roughly when she secures Yasha, meaning that Yasha also tends to be the point at which Drow comes “online” in this build. Black King Bar 20-25 Minutes Though what one can only assume is some kind of team-mandated psychological intervention, EternalEnVy finally seems to have overcome his pathological fear of Black King Bar. Though it provides no agility, it is an important piece of this build for the same reason it is a core item on most carries: its significant boost to survivability. Simply put, Drow + Visage doesn’t work while Drow is dead. Black King Bar goes a long way towards preventing that from happening. Butterfly 30-35 Minutes For all intents and purposes, once Butterfly is online, there’s no stopping Drow + Visage. By thirty minutes, Drow typically has level three Marksmanship, very high base agility, and a huge boost in agility from items, giving her teammates a massive amount of bonus damage. It’s worth noting that EternalEnVy always purchases the Eaglesong first, as it is, for the purposes of this build, the most important piece of Butterfly. Though the evasion and attack speed from Butterfly are, of course, nice to have, an enemy’s acquisition of a Monkey King Bar doesn’t actually ruin the item’s value, as its main purpose in the context of Drow + Visage is to boost agility. The survivability it provides is secondary. Late Game While pub Drow Ranger players often focus on items that boost their single target damage (Daedelus, especially), EternalEnVy focuses on items that provide stats, which, in turn, benefit the entire team. Though EE’s item development is identical through Butterfly, late game items choices are more situational. Upgrading the Yasha into either Manta Style or Sange & Yasha is a natural choice -- Manta provides more stats, while Sange & Yasha allows Drow to be slightly more active -- as is Eye of Skadi, given its large increase to stats. A six slotted Drow Ranger can easily boast around 250 agility, giving her teammates a disgusting 90 bonus damage globally. Visage Like Drow Ranger, Visage has a fairly set item progression focused on securing a third familiar and providing armor reduction. In all three games in which Cloud9 ran Drow + Visage, Aui_2000 built the same core items: Medallion of Courage, Aghanim’s Scepter, and Assault Cuirass. Tranquil Boots Curiously, Aui_2000 only builds boots in one of the three games sampled. Though Visage’s horrendous base speed can be ameliorated somewhat via Grave Chill, I’m genuinely curious as to why Aui_2000 usually skips boots and I would welcome an explanation in the comments. My instinct is simply that securing an early Medallion of Courage has a larger effect on the game than purchasing boots. Medallion of Courage 10-15 Minutes In addition to generating charges for Soul Assumption more quickly, the negative armor from Medallion of Courage gives Cloud9 the potential to defeat Roshan. Given the considerable synergy between Visage’s Familiars’ low BAT, armor reduction effects, and Precision Aura, Visage’s acquisition of Medallion is Cloud9’s trigger to head to the Roshan pit. Aghanim's Scepter 15-25 Minutes Simply put, the one core item on Visage. Takes everything that makes the Drow Ranger + Visage combo great and makes it even better. The addition of a third Familiar boosts Visage’s already formidable damage output to the levels of a typical right-click carry. Assault Cuirass 30-40 Minutes Negative armor aura synergizes with Visages’ high base attack speed. In typical lineups, the acquisition of Assault Cuirass marks Visage’s transition from a support to a semi carry. When paired with Drow, it makes Visage the scariest hero on the map. Three birds hitting for upwards of 150 The Execution Laning Drow Ranger In every case, EternalEnVy takes Drow Ranger to the mid lane. This, of course, is a natural choice, since getting levels on Drow as quickly as possible is essential to this strategy’s success. Early in the game, Drow’s focus should be on securing farm over ganking. Ideally, Drow Ranger will have Power Treads and Midas by around ten minutes. Once Drow has Yasha and level two Marksmanship (typically around 15 minutes), EternalEnVy groups with his teammates and Cloud9 begins to push towers as five.



It’s important to understand the effects of Drow’s Precision Aura on both map control and creep equilibrium. When activated, regardless of whether the team is pushing or not, Precision Aura will shove the lanes out quite aggressively. Still, Cloud9, when it’s possible, attempts to line their tower pushes up with Precision Aura’s 120 second cooldown. Visage Visage has fallen out of the current metagame not because of a specific nerf to his abilities, but because of the dominance of roaming supports instead of an aggressive or defensive trilane. Like the similarly forgotten Crystal Maiden, Visage’s abysmal base move speed makes the hero an awful choice for roaming, meaning that Visage needs to be in lane with the carry. The most important objective for Visage is getting level six up by the time that EternalEnVy has level eleven and Yasha, the trigger for Cloud9 to begin pushing. Roshan Taking an early (12-13 minutes) Roshan is an essential element of the Drow + Visage strategy. Fortunately, the bonus damage on the Familiars paired with the minus armor from Medallion of Courage makes defeating Roshan a simple task. In addition to the gold (modestly important) and experience (very important) benefits, the Aegis of the Immortal allows Drow to stay alive and continue feeding her allies massive amounts of damage. Ideally, Cloud9 attempts to take Roshan somewhere between 10 and 15 minutes in advance of pushing enemy towers as five. Team Fight The real difference in execution between this and traditional Drow Ranger tactics exhibits itself in team fights. Though Drow’s right click damage is significant, it is far more important for her to position herself at least 400 units away from an enemy hero to ensure that allied heroes still receive the full benefit of Precision Aura. An ideal team fight would allow Drow Ranger to right click from the back of the fight, but realistically, EternalEnVy spends most of the fight positioning himself instead of right-clicking enemy heroes. Though this has a negative effect on his personal damage output (over three games, EternalEnVy’s hero damage statistic is quite modest compared to his teammates), it allows the rest of the team to do massive damage, more than making up for what he loses by focusing on positioning over attacking.



Still, even if Drow does lose her Marksmanship agility bonus or dies during the fight, allied creeps and summoned units will retain the bonus from Precision Aura, since it is a 30 second buff applied at the time of activation. Thus, regardless of what Drow is doing, allied creeps, Familiars, Forge Spirits, and Eidolons will continue to dish out tremendous amounts of damage.



Visage, by contrast, should focus on using the Familiars to target the highest priority enemy units. Though one may be tempted to use the birds’ excellent stun, the team will usually benefit more from their continuous, potent right click damage. Visage itself, as is typical, should focus on releasing as many Soul Assumption nukes as possible. Late Game Though Drow + Visage’s effects on map control and creep equilibrium are present throughout the game, they gain additional utility in the late game, especially when behind. In the mid and late game, Visage’s Familiars can act as omnipresent split-pushing cores that are at least as effective as a ratting Nature’s Prophet. Moreover, Visage familiars at level three (600 HP and magic immunity) can easily solo kill a wayward enemy support. Conclusion At this moment, Cloud9’s Drow Ranger + Visage combo is arguably one of the most potent strategies in Dota 2. When executed well, the incredible bonus damage from Drow’s Precision Aura makes the modestly threatening Visage into an utterly terrifying, tower and hero melting machine. Given the mechanical difficulty of Visage and the importance of a favorable draft to ensure the strategy’s success, it’s unlikely that this strategy will be dominating the pub scene any time soon.



Many highly mobile melee carries or carries that benefit from Blink Dagger can easily disrupt the strategy. If Drow is forced to activate Precision Aura while an enemy hero is within 400 units, much of the combo’s potential is nullified. But, as of now, teams at The International 4 have yet to counter Drow + Visage, so expect to see Cloud9 pull the this strategy out of EternalEnVy’s very deep pockets sometime this weekend, as the team attempts to claw their way through the lower bracket and into the grand finals of the largest esports event in history. Credits

Author: Sunfish

Editors: TheEmulator, Kupon3ss

Art: Nixer

Images: Valve, Kunkka retired from goodgame agency and now freelancing fucking everywhere -- come follow me at @william_partin