DOTA 2 - Windranger

Introduction

"Ooh, now I get to shoot stuff!"

Lyralei the Windranger (known as Windrunner before the Nov 2013 patch) is a highly adaptable ranged intelligence hero. Although typically played in the offlane role, Windranger is capable of fitting into almost any line-up and can be played effectively as a support/utility hero, or even a semi-carry mid-laner.

Windranger is very mobile, has good ranged damage, an escape mechanism and a potentially incredible lockdown skill, she is something of a 'jack of all trades, master of none'; a good all-rounder but not a top tier pick.

You can find Windranger's complete character profile here.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Versatile hero that can fit into many different roles
• Potentially amazing lockdown potential
• Has an escape mechanism and is a good solo offlaner
• High range, high damage nuke
• Decent pusher
• Decent attack animation

Cons

• Nuke and lockdown skills are both skillshots
• Lockdown capability is weak if you can't latch your Shackles
• Jack of all trades, master of none
• Doesn't scale well
• Arguably one of the worst ultimates in the game

Item Build

Since Windranger is such a versatile hero, capable of fitting into a number of different roles, your core item pick ups are quite varied. Typically if you're Windranger you'll be playing her as a solo offlaner or a support/utility hero. This build guide works on the assumption that you're a solo offlaner but I'll also list some situational item recommendations that are excellent if you're also performing a support role for your team. Even if you're offlaning you may still need to provide support/utility for your team, so keep your options open.

Starting Items

You'll need a set of Tangos, a Healing Salve and three Branches. If someone else bought you wards then pick up a Ring of Protection. If they didn't consider buying a set of Observer Wards yourself instead. You can use one to block the enemy safelane pull camp, which means you'll get more experience, and if you want you can ward the rune spot, which will benefit both your mid lane and will give you some added vision from which to spot potential enemy rotations.

You can also swap out one of the Branches for a couple of Clarities if you're so inclined.

Core Items

You want Boots of Speed as quickly as possible as a solo offlaner so that you can stay in experience range without being heavily out of position. With Boots of Speed and well-timed Windrun you should be relatively safe from ganks so long as you're not too far out of position.

A Magic Wand and Ring of Basilius round out your early game core. Between them you get some good stats, regen, and utility.

From here on in is where the item build begins to diverge depending on your role in the team. Most of the time Phase Boots are advised as your boot upgrade but if you're playing a primarily support/utility role then you may want to go for Arcane Boots instead.

Similarly, Force Staff is considered the first core item pick-up in most situations for Windranger, but again, if you're playing a support role then you may need to rush Mekanism first instead.

Force Staff is always a good pick up on WR. It gives you great mobility and positioning, which will allow you to get off Shackleshots more easily. Meanwhile, if you're in a support role it's a great defensive item that allows you to save teammates using the active or potentially force enemies out of position.

Luxury

Once you have you core items you can start thinking about what you need for a luxury or situational pick up next. I'll discuss some of the optimal luxury item choices for Windranger below:

Aghanim's Scepter - Successive buffs to focus fire, which was traditionally considered a very weak (if not THE weakest) ultimate in Dota 2 has made Aghanim's Scepter a go-to luxury item purchase on Windranger nowadays.

Aghanim's reduces the ability's cooldown from 60 seconds to 15 seconds, and reduces the damage reduction from a whopping 50%/40%/30% to just 30%/15%/0%. Suddenly, Focus Fire becomes a very good ability and Windranger a very dangerous DPS'er. Start building damage items or attack modifiers (such as Maelstrom) after the Aghanim's and you can become a potent carry.

Maelstrom - If you go the Aghanim's Scepter DPS route then Maelstrom is a good next item. Not for the increased attack speed, which you won't need thanks to Focus Fire anyway (and so upgrading into Mjollnir becomes a very low priority), but for the lightning procs, which will deal huge amounts of AoE magic damage during Focus Fire.

Orchid Malevolence - An amazing item on Windranger. It gives you a great boost of damage, attack speed, and mana. The added mana and mana regen allow you to use your abilities more liberally and the active 'Soul Burn' will allow you to silence an enemy hero and deal significantly more damage for its duration. The other great thing about Orchid is that it's really easy to build into.

Drums of Endurance - The downside to Orchid is that it leaves you pretty squishy With Phase Boots, Magic Wand, Ring of Basilius, Force Staff, and Orchid you'll gain a grand total of 3 bonus strength and no other additional health. You have plenty of escape mechanisms between those items, but you have no room for mistake; if you're caught you're dead. This is one of the benefits of Drums of Endurance. You gain 9 to all attributes, making you a bit tankier, increased move and attack speed, an item that is great for your team, highly cost-efficient and easy to build into.

Drums is a great situational fall-back item if you're fairly poor and also a good luxury item pick up.

Scythe of Vyse - If you have an amazing early and mid game you can rush a Scythe. If you only have an OK time then it should probably be your goal to get one for the end game. You're a good Scythe carrier. It gives you even more lockdown and will make you a much more intimidating presence at a point in time where you would typically begin to fall off in impact. It is very expensive and difficult to build into though, so usually an Orchid is the better option.

Black King Bar - Always a great option. Chances are the enemy team will have some form of disable and burst/magic damage. BKB will allow you to stay alive during teamfights where you might otherwise be burst down. Between BKB's Spell Immunity and Windrun's 6 seconds of effective Physical Immunity you have a heck of a lot of sustainability, and that's before consider any other defensive abilities you have access to by this point (such as Force Staff or Orchid).

The stats are decent too; you gain some much-needed health and a bit of added damage. Always consider a BKB once you have your core.

Daedalus/Monkey King Bar - The two damage-heavy options. If you're becoming a semi-carry then you need the added damage from one of these. MKB is good against agility carries and anyone with evasion (be it built-in, such as on Phantom Assassin, or through items like Butterfly or Heaven's Halberd), it also gives you some attack speed and allows you to always hit uphill which is great for base sieges. Daedalus meanwhile offers similar damage output against non-evasion enemies but with the bonus critical damage chance.

Both also combine well with Focus Fire.

Shiva's Guard/Assault Cuirass - At the other, defensive end of the scale are the big armour items: Shiva's and AC. Assault Cuirass is unarguably better for your team as a whole as they gain bonus armour and attack speed auras. AC's negative armour buff meanwhile works against both enemy heroes and enemy buildings.

That said, it's more expensive and you're not a traditional AC purchaser; it's likely that at this stage of the game someone else will be working towards one, in which case you should definitely not build into it. If that is the case and you want a big-ticket defensive item go for Shiva's. You get armour, a nice chunk of damage and mana, a creep-clearing active and also a 40% attack speed slow which is great against enemy carries and thus gives provides utility for your team.

Situational

As discussed earlier, in some line-ups you'll be carrying out a supporting role, in which case Arcane Boots and Mekanism are better item pick-ups than Phase Boots and Force Staff.

If, however, you're playing a support/utility role but someone else on your team is going for a Mekanism then you can build a Pipe of Insight instead.

Medallion of Courage is also a great support item early on. It's also extremely cheap, will give you a nice armour and mana regen bonus, and allows your team to take on Roshan very early on.

I've listed Blink Dagger as situational. Blink is often picked over Force Staff by pro players, because the positioning capabilities it gives you are superior, allowing WR to land those Shackleshots much more easily. Unless you're an experienced player or you're filthy rich coming out of the early stages then I would recommend Force Staff instead because it gives you more defensive utility than a Blink, but either item is a good pick up.

Necronomicon is also worth considering in the current meta-game. It's essentially core if your line-up is pushing focussed and/or lacks a true hard carry. Most of the time that will not be the case however, and so Necro is a situational pick-up.

Linken's Sphere - One of the best late-game support items. Its Spellblock ability can now be transferred to other players on the team, which means you can better protect your team's hard carry from targeted disables. It is incredibly expensive for support heroes though, and on a semi-carry Windranger it... well, makes you not really a semi-carry, because it's simply too defensive and gives you hardly any extra damage. A 5175 gold investment for an item that provides hardly any damage on a semi-carry that naturally scales quite poorly is a terrible investment. This is a situational support/utility item at best on WR in my opinion.

Skill Build

Windranger is typically played as a solo offlaner. As such, you should put your first skill point into Windrun. Windrun is the primary reason you're able to survive in the offlane on your own.

During this early laning phase always be sure to save enough mana for an emergency Windrun, not only so you can avoid ganks in the lane but also to increase your chances of surviving a tower dive.

At level two you should almost always invest a point in Shackleshot, although as you become more experienced with Windranger you may find that actually an early point in Powershot is better suited to your play style.

The key to using Shackleshot is to try and line up your shot so that the enemy hero is either behind or in front of another enemy unit or a tree. It's a tricky, and often unpredictable (the angles that Shackles latch at can be incredibly questionable at times) skillshot that takes a lot of practice to become used to. Even pros have a tough time Shackling without a positional item.

Why so much focus on Shackling two units together instead of one? Well, first and perhaps most obviously is the fact that it extends the duration of the stun by 0.75 seconds. Secondly, it allows you to lock down two enemy heroes instead of just one, making it one of the best stuns in the game... if you land it.

From level 3 onwards you should focus on maxing out Powershot. As your only nuke/damage skill it's best to get it maxed early so you can take advantage of that solo experience when it comes to fights and ganks. Because you won't be levelling your ultimate (more on this below) at level 6 like most heroes, it means you can skip Powershot for levels 1 and 2 and still be able to max it by level 7.

Like Shackleshot, Powershot is a skillshot ability. In order to get the most out of its damage potential you have to 'charge up' the ability for 1 second. During this time the direction of your arrow's travel will be fixed, so you must anticipate where you enemy will be 1 second later, not where they are right then. You can cancel Powershot's channeling early, but it will deal reduced damage.

Not only is Powershot a good nuke (360 damage once maxed), it can hit multiple heroes and creeps. Although it does 10% less damage with each unit hit, it's still a great teamfight nuke if you can line it up to hit multiple heroes.

Max Shackleshot second (for the increased lockdown duration), and then finally Windrun.

As noted above, Focus Fire is not skilled at level 6 like most ultimates. It's commonly regarded as the worst ultimate in the game until/unless you purchase an Aghanim's Scepter, although it does have its uses. Most builds recommend skilling it at level 10 (the 4-4-1-1 build), some people prefer it at level 13 (4-4-4-1). Either way is fine, and will typically depend on the circumstances in that particular game.

Are you pushing early? If yes, get Focus Fire earlier and use it on towers. Do you feel slow and too vulnerable? Get a few more points in Windrun first. You shouldn't be using Focus Fire in early teamfights anyway, because the damage reduction is excessive and the mana cost is far too high, so it's really only useful getting early on in pushing-centric line-ups.

One thing Focus Fire does have going for it later on is that during teamfights it forces the hero being focussed to either take you out of the picture or retreat, and during all of this you can still cast your other abilities without losing the effect of Focus Fire.

Gameplay Tips

The trees created by Nature's Prophet's Sprout ability are valid Shackle targets, making him a good allied hero for Windranger. Unfortunately an allied Treant Protector does not count as a tree for these purposes :(

Powershot is a very versatile magic damage nuke. It can be used to pick off fleeing hero, damage multiple targets during a teamfight if lined up correctly, and clear creep waves quickly, making Windranger a good defensive offlaner and a good pusher. Powershot also hits invisible heroes.

The evasion provided by Windrun is countered by Monkey King Bar, so watch out for carries/semi-carries carrying MKB later on in the game; Windrun will not stop them dealing physical damage to you.

Focus Fire is great for base pushes, despite the damage reduction penalty, as it works on buildings. It can also be used on Spell Immune targets.

Last Updated - Patch 6.83.