A cunning Hero, adept at manipulating opponents. Forcibly raised from the dead, the former Rangers of Quel'Thalas enjoy nothing more than sowing dissension and hatred within the enemy ranks. Attacks land and air units.

Cost: 425 135 5 Attack Type: Hero Weapon Type: Missile Armor Type: Hero Cooldown: 2.42 Range: 60

Primary Attribute: Agility Strength Bonus per Level: 1.9 Agility Bonus per Level: 1.5 Intelligence Bonus per Level: 2.6 Health Regeneration: Always Mana Regeneration: .01

Day Sight: 180 Night Sight: 80 Speed: Fast (320) Build Time: 55 Transport Space Usage: 1 Production Hot Key: R

Level Attack (Ground/Air) Armor Strength Agility Intelligence Hit Points Mana 1 23-33 [28 avg] 4 18 21 15 550 225 2 24-34 [29 avg] 4 19 22 17 575 255 3 26-36 [31 avg] 5 21 24 20 625 300 4 27-37 [32 avg] 5 23 25 22 675 330 5 29-39 [34 avg] 6 25 27 25 725 375 6 30-40 [35 avg] 6 27 28 28 775 420 7 32-42 [37 avg] 6 29 30 30 825 450 8 33-43 [38 avg] 7 31 31 33 875 495 9 35-45 [40 avg] 7 33 33 35 925 525 10 36-46 [41 avg] 8 35 34 38 975 570

Hero Names: Nara Pathstrider, Anya Eversong, Anthis Sunbow, Clea Deathstrider, Cyndia Hawkspear, Mira Shadewither, Amora Eagleye, Siren Ghostsong, Somand Wayfinder

The Dark Ranger is a very cool ranged Hero. She has an interesting variety of support skills that allow her to serve a number of different purposes in your army. Her Silence skill makes her an effective anti-caster, a role that many races would like early on. Her Black Arrow allows her to creep and rush early on by summoning extra skeletons to boost your numbers. Her Life Drain skill allows her to survive attacks that most ranged Heroes are forced to flee from. Finally, her Charm Ultimate gives you access to enemy spell casters or help you turn the tide against heavy melee or heavy air.

It is important to remember that Dark Ranger is a ranged hero when choosing her skills. Her Life Drain skill is only worthwhile if you expect her to take a large amount of damage. Knowing this, you can accurately prepare your skills. If you get her early on, you can use her to summon Skeletons with Black Arrow and wipe out tier 1 melee with Life Drain. If you get her later on, you can use her to deal damage with Black Arrow and Silence to bolster your anti-caster powers. Remember that the enemy needs to be killed by Black Arrow to get a skeleton; you should pick good targets for the Dark Ranger to ensure that you are getting lots of finishing blows in. If you are unsure in which skills you want, remember that both Life Drain and Silence are both quite good at low level, it is not uncommon for Dark Ranger to take 3 levels of Black Arrow and one of each Life Drain and Silence. Her Ultimate is a must-take, applying it to your strategy is also important. Once she is high enough level, you should save some of your mana to be able to cast Charm. Charm is a spell that is familiar to Undead players, as it is a lot like Possess but without the drawback.

In large team games (3 vs. 3 and 4 vs. 4) you might find it useful to focus on Silence and either Life Drain or Black Arrow. It's common in large team games to see a lot of spellcasters in which case the Dark Ranger's Silence ability can be VERY effective and help win the game. Depending on the enemy Heroes you are facing it is not always useful to put your first point in Silence. The second point, rather, should be placed in Silence. However, if the Dark Ranger is a second Hero then the first point should be put into Silence since this is later on in the game.

Silence Stops all enemies in a target area from casting spells. The area of effect and duration increase with level.

Level Duration (Hero) Cooldown Mana Cost Range Area of Effect Allowed Targets Effect Hero Level Req 1 16 (8) sec. 15 sec. 75 90 20 Air, Ground, Enemy, Organic, Neutral Prevents Spell Casting 1 2 20 (10) sec. 15 sec. 75 90 27.5 Air, Ground, Enemy, Organic, Neutral Prevents Spell Casting 3 3 24 (12) sec. 15 sec. 75 90 35 Air, Ground, Enemy, Organic, Neutral Prevents Spell Casting 5

Silence Information
Silence is an awesome anti-magic spell. It's great on enemy Heroes to prevent them from using their special abilities. However, be reminded that the Silence ability will last a shorter duration on enemy Heroes than their units due to Hero Resistance. If you see a large pack of spellcasters use Silence on them rather than an enemy Hero. If you can get both, that is even better!

Black Arrow (Autocast) Adds extra damage to attacks. Units killed while under the effect of Black Arrow will turn into Dark Minions.

Black Arrow Information
This can allow you to create a skeleton army!

Remember that in order to get the Minion, you need to be attacking the target as it dies. Attacking every enemy on the field and then waiting for them to die will not work.

Black Arrow allows you to get better Skeletons than Undead players with Necromancers! =)

Black Arrow is very good for Creeping. What you do is attack a Creep Camp to build up some Skeletons. Then use those Skeletons to attack the next Creep Camp. Then continue on with Creep Camps until you have a large army of Skeletons!

Black Arrow works very well with ranged units. If you can quickly pick off a bunch of enemy units while under the Black Arrow effect you can build up a large group of Skeletons.

Life Drain Absorbs the life essence of a target enemy unit by taking hit points from it every second and giving them to the Dark Ranger.

Life Drain Information
This is useful for healing your Dark Ranger.

The ability will keep draining hit points until the target is at a distance of 80.

If your Dark Ranger is at full health when you use this skill, you aren’t getting good use out of it. Let the Dark Ranger take some damage while creeping and then heal her with Life Drain. That extra tanking could help your other units survive the crucial early battles.

Life Drain is good for killing enemy Heroes!

Life Drain Counters
This spell is a "leash" spell must be maintained to get the full effect. If the enemy passes out of range, the spell will end prematurely.

You can interrupt this spell with spells such as:

Humans: Sorceress - Polymorph (uncastable on heroes)
Humans: Dragonhawk Rider - Aerial Shackles (uncastable on ground units)
Humans: Mountain King - Storm Bolt
Humans: Mountain King - Bash (uncastable on air units)
Orcs: Raider - Ensnare
Orcs: Tauren Chieftain - War Stomp (uncastable on air units)
Orcs: Witch Doctor - Stasis Trap (uncastable on air units)
Orcs: Shadow Hunter - Hex
Night Elves: Druid of the Talon - Cyclone (uncastable on air units)
Night Elves: Keeper of the Grove - Entangling Roots (uncastable on air units)
Undead: Crypt Fiend - Web (uncastable on ground units)
Undead: Dread Lord - Sleep
Undead: Dread Lord - Inferno (uncastable on air units)
Undead: Crypt Lord - Impale (uncastable on air units)
Neutral: Dark Ranger - Silence
Neutral: Dark Ranger - Charm (uncastable on heroes)
Neutral: Goblin Tinker - Cluster Rockets
Neutral: Pit Lord - Doom (uncastable on heroes)
Neutral: Fire Lord - Soul Burn
Neutral: Fire Lord - Volcano

Charm (Ultimate) Takes control of a target enemy unit. Charm cannot be used on Heroes, or creeps above level 5.

Charm Information

There are two very good kinds of targets for Charm. One is an enemy spell-caster or other specialized unit with a power that you’re lacking. Shamans, Sorceresses, Priests, and Witch Doctors are good examples. The other kind is heavy, expensive units. If the enemy walks up with four Tauren, stealing one for your own will cut the effectiveness of his investment in half!

As for Banshee's possession, Charm will let you get abilities or spells researched for free. You can also Charm units over the 100 limit but you might not be able to revive a dead Hero if you are over the limit.

The main limitation of Charm is Mana rather than the Cooldown. Have secondary Heroes or units with the backpack upgrade continue to bring Mana Potions to the Dark Ranger so that she can Charm more units.

You can charm Undead Frost Wyrms that are level 6.