Crystal Maiden, the scourge of Icewrack

Swift as the wolves of Icewrack

Crystal Maiden is my most played hero and also one of the first heroes I learned to play when I started playing dota. According to dotabuff, Crystal Maiden is the 20th most played hero and has one of the better winrates: 54.89% (6/02/'16). This is incredible high for a support hero that has no heals. Her winrate is 57% in the sub 2k mmr bracket so it seems she is a real pub owning hero. Crystal Maiden isn't just a feeding ward buying ***** she is one of the best supports in the game because of here versatillity. She may not be too popular in the pro scene, she is somewhere at the middle of the pack, that doesn't make her a less interesting hero.

Also the "Scourge of Icewrack" is probably the hero who gets most played by the women gamers.

And she has a ****ing dog, with the arcana equipped ofcourse.

Crystal Maiden's hero lore

Born in a temperate realm, raised with her fiery older sister Lina, Rylai the Crystal Maiden soon found that her innate elemental affinity to ice created trouble for all those around her. Wellsprings and mountain rivers froze in moments if she stopped to rest nearby; ripening crops were bitten by frost, and fruiting orchards turned to mazes of ice and came crashing down, spoiled.

When their exasperated parents packed Lina off to the equator, Rylai found herself banished to the cold northern realm of Icewrack, where she was taken in by an Ice Wizard who had carved himself a hermitage at the crown of the Blueheart Glacier. After long study, the wizard pronounced her ready for solitary practice and left her to take his place, descending into the glacier to hibernate for a thousand years. Her mastery of the Frozen Arts has only deepened since that time, and now her skills are unmatched.


Crystal Maiden is the younger sister of Lina and is an old friend of Tusk

Pros and cons of Crystal Maiden

Pros
- global mana regen aura
- 2 disables and 2 nukes (not many heroes do have that)
- Big aoe teamfight ult with incredible damage output and slow
- decent jungler
- good in defending
- skillset allows solo killing
- really strong diabler especially against carries
- scales decent into the lategame( actually every support does scale good late in this patch)

Cons
- squishy
- small mana pool
- ultimate is a channeling spell
- Frostbite is not a real stun
- really bad movementspeed
- bad attack animation and damage
- not that much castrange

skill explantion

Crystal Nova
The air temperature around Rylai drops rapidly, chilling all around her to the core.

The first spell of crystal maiden is an incredible aoe slow. It slows 50% for 4.5 seconds on max level. For hence we max this skill first. This allows your team to close in on an opponent and to turn teamfights. This abillity also gives vision so it can be usefull the find wards and stuff. This spell is often incredible strong but alot of people don't see it but if yoou look closer you woll see it slows incredibly good. Don't just use this to killsteal, use this to slow and turn a teamfight around. This ability is able to turn a chase from the enemy team to a total owange from yours.

People often get one skillpoint in this spell but just look at it. 1 Level is only 20% slow. I mean that is ****, you need to max it so you get an insane 50% slow for 4.5 seconds. Getting 1 level in nova is an outdated build from some patches ago.

Cast Time: 0.3+0.6
Cast Range: 700
Effect Radius: 400
Damage: 100/150/200/250
Move Speed Slow: 20%/30%/40%/50%
Attack Speed Slow: 20/30/40/50
Slow Duration: 4.5
Cooldown 12 Mana 100/120/140/160

Frostbite
Rylai channels winds from the Blueheart Glacier, imprisoning attackers in thick blocks of ice.


This spell is maxed second or sometimes maxed first if we play against high rightclick heroes which can be kited like Ursa. This spell is really spamable and does decent damage. At maxed level it is a 3 second root what deals 300 damage with only 6 seconds cooldown. This abillity allows us to jungle at level one to get a boost start in gold and exp before we start doing stuff on the map.

Cast Time: 0.3+0.6
Cast Range: 500
Damage per Second: 100
Hero Duration: 1.5/2/2.5/3
Creep Duration: 10
Cooldown 9/8/7/6 Mana 115/125/140/150



Arcane Aura
Cold temperatures promote the essence of magic, causing Rylai's presence to allow spell usage in abundance.


This is Crystal Maiden's most praised spell. It is a global mana regening aura which is amazing for your team because nobody in pubs knows something about mana management so Crystal Maiden fixes that problem. With one level it already regens more mana than a Ring of Basilius and with 2 levels it regens Crystal Maiden as much as it would regen her allies at level 4. This is why I take 2 levels in it and than get the other spells because with 2 levels it is 3 mana regen for you and 1.5 for your allies( which is the double of a ring of basi) I don't see any benefits from getting more points in it until later.

Radius: Global
Allies Mana Regen Bonus: 1/1.5/2/3
Self Mana Regen Bonus: 2/3/4/6

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Freezing Field
Once the place of her exile, Icewrack has become an anchor for Rylai's frigid onslaught.


This is Crystal Maiden's ultimate and this deals amazing aoe damage and slow. Every icedrop is the same damage as a max level Crystal Nova drop. This ultimate allows Crystal Maiden to be a powerfull force in a teamfight. You can use this to solo kill other heroes assist your team in fights and to farm big stacks of neutrals. The downside of this ultimate is it's HUGE mana cost and that it is a channeld spell.

Cast Time: 0.3+0
Max Channel Time: 10
Slow Radius: 835
Explosion Spawn Radius: 195-785
Explosion Damage Radius: 300
Damage: 105/170/250 (Can be Improved by Aghanim's Scepter. 170/250/310)
Move Speed Slow: 30% (Can be Improved by Aghanim's Scepter. 50%)
Attack Speed Slow: 30 (Can be Improved by Aghanim's Scepter. 50)
Slow Duration: 1
Cooldown 90 Mana 200/400/600

---

When do we take stats before ultimate?

This is a really important question because sometimes not skilling your ultimate or just delaying it can have gigantic impact. Sometimes your ultimate just isn't usefull at level 6. This is because not every team can fight early. If you have a team that can't fight early than you should probably not skilling your ultimate before level 9.

Sometimes you take one level in Freezing Field and than you leave it untill way later in the game. This is because of the incredible high manacost from the ultimate. Often a Crystal Maiden is only able to do 1 Crystal Nova, 1 Frostbite and than a Freezing Field. But Crystal Maiden has such powerfull skills that you want to do them more than just once. Not getting more than 1 level is often good when Frostbite is the playmaker of your skills. If you want to use Frostbite often you can't permit to have a 400 or 600 mana costing ultimate that isn't reliable and which is half your mana pool.

If the enemy team has alot of stuns Freezing Field is often a useless spell and than you shouldn't be skilling it. If you got a Mekansm you won't have any mana to do mek and ult so than you should also only get 1 level in your ultimate.

When to max Frostbite first?

Frostbite is maxed first when we play against heavy rightclick heroes or against really mobile heroes who can't escape Frostbite (see interaction with other heroes). Good examples of heroes where maxing Frostbite is considerable is when you play against one of the heroes below:



However even than is maxing Crystal Nova often better because nova gives you more crowd-control. Crystal Nova is also good to kite heroes and is an aoe.

You may think that maxing Frostbite is good against heroes with channeling spells but I don't think that the cooldown reduction is going to help too much in these scenarios.

When do we max Arcane Aura first?

The answer is simply:


NEVER!!!

Because when you max the aura first than just stay afk in base and do nothing. Maxing the aura takes away all the good capabilities Crystal Maiden has.

• the early game dominance
• ganking becomes pretty sloppy
• Nor you will do damage nor you will do good disable
• You will be super easy to kill because of your bad disables and the time you are death your team doesn't even recieve the aura
• It isn't even that good to give your team 3 extra mana regen 1.5 is MORE than enough!

There are people that say you can max Arcane Aura if you want to push with your team so they can do their spells more but the extra 2 levels aren't going to make to big of a difference while 2 levels in Crystal Nova or Frostbite do make big difference.

item explanation

For starting items I like to buy the general support starting items what is double tango, courier/ wards, 1/2 clarities and some stats. I do this to give 2 tangoes to the mid. Which item you get for stats is dependant on the game, your personal preference and how much money you have left. Gauntlet of strenght is good if you get Urn of Shadows double Iron Branch is mostly better if you get Magic Wand and a Circlet often when you want a Bracer.

Crystal Maiden her item build is really adaptable and almost any item that gives utility is good on her. However some things are more common than other items.

In the early game we mostly try to get Boots of Speed and a Magic Wand. Later we uograde our boots in mostly Tranquil Boots however sometimes other boots are beter which will be described next.


Getting an Urn of Shadows is often a really nice item to get.

When we are coming into the midgame we want to have a Force Staff or a Blink Dagger however other items are also good and this is all situational on the game itself.

The items you get after that are mostly situational but are all really good. I will explain below most of them in their situation.

Most items are things you need to see in the game itself like when to get a Scythe of Vyse. This is just all dependant on how you are doing, how your team does and if it is needed. If there is any question about a certain item just ask me.

Which boots do I have to go?

• Boots of Speed, this boot is good to start but mostly cm her boots should be upgraded. However if you are getting a Hand of Midas it is maybe considerable to not upgrade your boots until way later in the game.
  
• Tranquil Boots, this boot is the most common boot and should be purchased in almost any situation with the exception of some situation.
  
• Arcane Boots, This boot is good if you are getting an early Aether Lens or when you are getting a Mekansm. Also if you really think your team needs the extra mana you can opt getting these but I think it is mostly not worth it in that case.
  
• Phase Boots, This boot can be good if you had alot of succesful ganks and you are getting ahead.
• Power Treads, this boot can be good if you need extra stats. It is good if your int is getting stolen by an outworld devourer or a Silencer but it is also good if you need the extr hp it gives when they are on strenght.
  
• Boots of Travel, only get this in the lategame. the price isn't worth it at all, getting a Blink is always better than tp boots.

Mobility items

There are several mobility items and they are all great on crystal maiden. Why, because crystal maiden benefits so much from getting out of danger or getting inp place for her ult or to do a frost bite. Blink Dagger is amazing when your team is winning. It allows your team to get even more kills because of your Frostbite initiation. And it allows good Freezing Field's.
Force Staff is good if you need the extra intellegence and if you need to escape out of danger. It isn't that precize as a Blink Dagger and it is less agressvie but it is way better to keep yourself or others alive. If you are defending or besieging highround you may be able to force staff someone from the enemy team into your team if they come to close to the cliff.
Glimmer Cape this isn't a real mobility item but it allows you to go to places unseen. So it still allows you to escape or to initiate. This item is really strong when combined with a Blink Dagger or a Force Staff because you can activate the Glimmer Cape, blink or slide somewhere and do an ultimate or just escape somewhere the enemy doesn't know you are. The upgrade from Force Staff, the Hurricane Pike is surely viable as a lategame item but I don't think you should try to get the upgrade above another utility item as Glimmer Cape etc.

When do we get Aether Lens?

We buy Aether Lens on Crystal Maiden when we need Frostbite alot. This is against heroes with channeling abillities like Enigma, blink abillities like Queen of Pain or hard rightclicking heroes like Sven.

If we get Aether Lens and we want it early than buy Arcane Boots then, when you have the Ring of Health and the recipe, disassamble your arcane's and finish the Aether Lens. After that you can sometimes keep your boots unupgraded.

Do I get Black King Bar?

BKB isn't always too good on crystal maiden because when you activate it you mostly still get rightclicked down. However this item is amazing when you are a bit ahead and the enemy team has alot of stuns. Mostly don't get Black King Bar because there are just better supportive items like Glimmer Cape, Force Staff, etc. But when you are rich you can opt to get it.

Do I get an Aghanim's Scepter?

I often see Crystal Maiden's getting an agh but mostly this is a waist. Because often you won't even be able to channel your ultimate properly. This item is a luxuray and should almost never be prioritezed over any other utillity/supportive item.

When is it a Mekansm match?

Mekansm is mostly not that good on Crystal Maiden because of the mana issues that come with it. However if you want a mek get Arcane Boots and don't skill your ultimate untill level 9 and than don't skill it again until you think you need more levels in it. Mekansm is good to buy when you can jungle freely, there is nobody in your team getting it and your team is really midgame focused. Also the upgrade Guardian Greaves is just amazing and is probably the best item in the game.

When do we get a Pipe of Insight

Well I think this will explain:



When you see alot of those magic bombers than a pipe can be considered. If you know already at the start of the game that you want to purchase a pipe, you can just skip upgrading your boots into Tranquil Boots and just get the Ring of Health for the pipe already. There is no reason to have Tranquil Boots and a Pipe of Insight togheter since having so much health regen is just overkill.

What is that with buying Drum of Endurance

Well, a friend of me once said, " Drum of Endurance make the creeps more usefull than Crystal Maiden".

Ofcourse he refers to the bad Crystal Maiden rightclicks and that the creeps will do more damage than her with a drum. And well that is why we buy it. It is amazing to fight early and often carries are to greedy to buy the item. Drums give you, your allies and the creeps movementspeed and attackspeed. This make towers meld. Also the stats are really good because it gives something like a 171 hp and 117 mana. Movementspeed on cm doesn't sounds to bad either.

Almost any team needs a drum and because most people don't see the item as usefull you can buy it on Crystal Maiden. Ofcourse don't get it if someone else is building it.

*Drum gives when activated 51 attackspeed in total!

(9 from agillity, 20 from aura and 25 from active, so 45 for your allies, when active. This is also 45 for the creeps so it is actually Inner Beast from Beastmaster.)

The forgotten item Eul's Scepter of Divinity

This item isn't that popular on Crystal Maiden and it is mostly pretty situational but when you need it it is pretty good. Euls is good against heroes with a silence like Global Silence, cripling fear etc. Also it is good if you play against some gankers because you can delay your death and let your team close in. Also it allows you to do Frostbite euls waiting 0.5 seconds and another Frostbite.
This is actuall almost 9 seconds of disable my friends.
Isn't Crystal Maiden awesome?

The Blade Mail, new for 6.87

Blade mail is since 6.87 a perfect pickup for a Crystal Maiden. While it used to be totally not-done it is now pretty legit since it pierces spell immunity. This item allows you to reflect damage before you die instead of trying to safe you from dying. Also it can safe you since people will be to scared to attack you. I have made a blog about Blade Mail so you can always check that out to. tottaly no commercial :)
It fits in every build since the item helps with teamfighting, protect you from gankers or atleast give the possibility to reflect damage and since most gankers are squishy, Queen of Pain, Puck, Tinker,etc. the item can really be beneficial. Also it gives extra int and armor.

how to jungle

Knowing how to jungle with Crystal Maiden is CRUCIAl for playing her properly.
The jungle works with pulling out the big creep of the hard camp and to attack it several times while frostbiting it. When the timer reaches 0:53 it is time to stack it and to kill the other big creep in the just stacked camp. Than we hit level 2 and is it time toconsider what we will do. Are we going to gank, pull or jungle further? This depends on the game itself. If you are going to jungle, skill Arcane Aura when you go gank skill Crystal Nova if you are going to pull you are free but I think Arcane Aura is than mostly the best option because you will hit level 3 right after that pull (if you do a good pull trough) and than you can have 1-1-1. The reason I like to take Arcane Aura than at level 2 is because the time you are pulling you will already be regening mana.


Frostbite does a total of 1000 magic damage on creeps. The jungle creeps have no magic resistance except when there is a centaur or a hellbear near because than they will be covered with the cloack aura. With one stack of cloack aura it gives 20% magic resistance so your Frostbite will only do 800 damage!

Most creeps have 1000 hp or less but just check it while you Frostbite it, when it has more (1100 or 1200) than just rightclick it a bit.

So if we start jungling we should always go to the hardcamp. I started behind the camp but it easier to start in front of the camp, I'm just doing fancy.


It is just pulling out the creeps frostbiting the big one and than rightclicking a bit, nothing more.

The Freezing Field jungle

During the jungling you may be able to stack the hard camp or the medium camp several time. If you leave tis for someone else to farm it than stay next to it for the experience, it's still you who spend time in it to stack it so you atleast earn the bloody exp. However if you want to farm it yourself than here is how you can do that pretty easily.

Step one: buy a smoke of deceit and use it on you

step two: stand in the middle of the camp and channel your Freezing Field

step three: hear the money sound

This is pretty legit because your ultimate has only 90 seconds of cooldown and is mostly not that useful in early fights. The problem these days is that dame cloack aura that is stackable. If you have to much cloack aura stack than it is going to be much more difficult to take the stack :'-(

I gained 600exp and 400 gold from a simple triplestack, really worth it!



Just a picture with the end of the stats from my lobby. I only jungled and pulled in this game and do you see my level and gold. Also I didn't even jungle and pull great because I had to make decent pictures.

how to pull

This chapter is more a general pulling explanation than specific for Crystal Maiden however I added this because it is really important to do your pulls right in a game. Pulls win games. It gives you gold and exp it allows your carry to get safely gold and exp and it avoid letting your opponents getting gold and exp. If you get a level and gold advantage killing them is way easier so do your pulls right.

First the simple stackpull.

At the .53 second mark you pull out the creeps and walk to your lane. Normally the camp should be stacked than. Now at .13 second mark you pull the stacked camp again into the lane and the creeps will go to it. Now try to get as much as possible lasthits and be sure that every lane creep dies.

The stacked pull gives less exp and gold than the pull trough but is safer to do when agressive dual/trilaned.


The first pull trough is on radiant and concludes the easycamp- hardcamp pull

For this pull you will have to cut a tree. When the easycamp is almost dead you need to connect the hardcamp with it so the creeps will folow the hardcamp and get killed.

The second one is the easycamp-mediumcamp pull on the radiant

Also for this one you will have to cut down a tree. Than just like with the hardcamp you will have to latch the creeps at the right time. This requires practice and isn't something I can just explain you in a written guide.

The pull trough on the dire is just the same principle.

Like you can see double tango is crucial so you can share tangoes, cut down trees to pull or to cutdown wards and also just to have enough regen. 2 pair of tangoes is almost always better than 1 pair with 1 Healing Salve

how to gank

Ganking with Crystal Maiden is hard but effective. The hard part is that you are slow, don't have to much cast range on Frostbite, that you are squishy and that you don't do to much rightclick damage for extra damage output.

However Crystal Maiden has a slow and a disable so if you can hit them you will mostly be able to kill the mid. And with a smoke getting in range is dueable.

First you engage from the appropriate angel. Than you use your Crystal Nova. This allows you and the other hero to close the gap. When the slow is over or the enemy is getting into safety use Frostbite.

how to zone

Zoning with crystal maiden often recquires level 2 or 3. This is why the jungling is so important. The zoning is simply some Frostbite spamming and some rightclicking.

Crystal Maiden isn't good to zone at level one because of her bad damage, movementspeed, squishyness, bad attack animation and not to good of a level 1 zoning spell.
However with some levels zoning becomes much easier and more effective.

how to ward

Just like the pulling chapter this is not Crystal Maiden specific but it is important to play Crystal Maiden in a proper manner.

Warding

Warding is important to grant vision on the map. This vision leads into safety and mapcontrol. Not knowing when to ward and how to ward is a catastrophe for your team.

Dewarding

Dewarding is often crucial in granting safety for your team. If you can deward an enemy obserever this will lead into, them having 1 less obs and the support losing 75 gold but also into preventing them from getting game wining kils on your farming cores.

When to deward and where to deward is something you learn with experience. Watching the enemy supports is super important to know where they warded. If they warded in an unimportant place than just leave it. But if they did place a good ward the dewarding of that is crucial but sometimes dangerous. Sometimes it is suggestable to do this in a smoke gank and use a tango or to go with another hero to it.

Instead of showing a boring map with ward spots highlighted I'm going to show you guys the wardspots on the real map.

So we start with the bottom rune spots. There are 4 common ward spots there and 2 sentry spots that spot all of the wardspots there




I bit further the dire ancients are located and the famous ancientward cliff. There are several places that are used to ward there but also just 2 sentry spots do the trick.
The sentry at the right also dewards the often warded cliff.



A bit more to the north is the secretshop, the hardcamp and also a common warded cliff. Dewarding here is delicate because of the big spawnbox from the camp. However dewarding there is really importand because the spots there give delicate info to the enemy.



The sentry at the right also dewards the cliff



2 Wards next to the dire hardcamp are really useful for the oflane.





If you want to block the easycamp there are 2 wards that are in my eyes really nice to place and they get mostly not dewarded


This ward gives vision on enemy junglers



This ward gives vision on enemy ganks and supports



This is how you deward the pullcamp on dire



This ward is really good when you want to push the tir 1. Getting a ward behing a tower is always a good idea and can be done with all the towers in dota except the tir 4s.



Here is how to deward the spots near the upper mediumcamp. Also the wards there give amazing vision.



This are also amazing wardspots and also how you can deward them



The famous direcliff in the jungle is also often warded. However never place your sentry on the cliff. There are spots that doesn't get covered with that sentry!







This is how you have to deward the radiant pullcamp.



Also here is the radiant jungle cliff



The toprune cliff



To end with I will show you the radiant hardcamp, secretshop, cliff ward places.



See how I place the sentry right under the red pine tree.



Ofcourse there are alot more wardspots but these are some of the most important ones. Also the dota map gives secret hints where the spawnboxes from camps end. They are really useful to deward so you can place the sentry at the edge but just outside the spawnbox.

How to aggro oflane

Crystal Maiden is a decent support in an aggresive duo- or trilane. This is due to her Arcane Aura and how spammable her disables/ nukes are. However she is slow and squishy so don't get caught off guard. It's in the "Scourge of Icewrack" her nature to assist in getting kills early and with most heroes you should be able to get kills in the oflane.

A good example of a dual lane that almost always works in pubs is the Pudge- Crystal Maiden lane. When Pudge hits level 2 you can easily get kills on the enemy lane. Meat Hook+ Frostbite+ Rot kills almost any hero. And with Arcane Aura the pudge can spam his hooks way more than he would be able to with another stun/slow support.

Also remember that Crystal Maiden is one of the few heroes who has 2 disables and 2 nukes before the ultimate is skilled. Most heroes have only 1 disable and 1 nuke. Or some heroes will have 2 nukes and 1 disable. The only other hero who I can remember with 2 disables and 2 nukes is Ogre Magi. He is tankier and faster than Crystal Maiden but he isn't able to spam his spells like little maiden can do.

How to trilane

Trilaning is also a non Crystal Maiden specific skill but is an aptitude for every support player. I have seen so many games being lost just because of the supports fail to organize their trilane. Supports are the administrators of the team and are almost always responsible for a bad early game. People often say, "bad carry feed" but this mostly happen because of a lack of knowledge from how to play support. I think everyone meets those bad supports that think they are doing great because they have placed a ward and upgraded the courier at 6 minutes but in the majority they are the biggest reason of the loss. A support is the early game insurance. If they fail they shouldn't hope for a magistic core that gets godlike and solo win the game.

If you play the game right as a support your chances of winning are the same as trying to win as a carry.

The traditonal trilane exists out of a carry who farms the lane, a support that zones and a support that pulls/jungles/ ganks. Crystal Maiden should mostly be the pulling support.
For hence don't show yourself in the lane! People will forget about you and getting a gank will be much easier.



But now some general non Crystal Maiden trilane advise.

• Don't stand in the lane next to your carry
• never attack a creep except for denying or if you know the carryplayer well you can assist him but this is only when you feel with him. Also if your carry is lasthitting under the tower and he hasn't rightclicked the ranged creep already than you do it. (A ranged creep needs 3 towerhits to die and when it has taken 2 hits you mostly don't do enough damage to oneshot it yourself so that's why you need to attack it first)
• Don't die while you are zoning
• buy enough regen, that's why I always do double Tango and double Clarity on almost any support.
• Only pull when the lane is secured, so when your carry isn't dieing to their oflaner first be sure the oflaner is zoned.
• Don't misspull. If you do a pulltrough and you miss it the creeps will survive, your lane ends up with a double wave and it will push what leads into the oflaner getting farm and your carry getting out of the safe zone.
• Gank other lanes when your lane is secured.

Never do nothing!

• stack the jungle
• gank the safelane, I see often supports who do gank but forget that they can also gank the safelane
• Push the tower when nobody is defending (mostly with your carry, let him get the lasthit)
• Try to be out of side as much as possible. If you play support try to reduce the time people can see you as much as you can.

midgame and lategame

The way you play crystal maiden isn't to much different as most supports. Be carefull of the minimap at any time!! As a support you should watch the minimap carefully and warn your allies for danger. Supports are the heroes in dota which has to grant safety to their team.
Most people think supports are the heroes that "support" the cores but they are more a sort of police.

During the midgame and lategame you should be focussing more on placing good ultimates and frostbiting the enemy carry. Also be careful that you don't get picked off because you are important in a teamfight.

Crystal Nova stays relevant because of the aoe, the slow and the attackspeed slow. Use it always when you can.

Stay focused on warding and smokeganking. They are the most important thing in the lategame and often underrated.

Positioning

Positioning is crucial on a support and really important on Crystal Maiden. This is because she is squishy and slow. Also here spells do have pretty bad castrange. Positioning is something you learn by playing and also a bit by watching good players. I can do give you guys some tips about positioning.

Try to stay behind a strong hero and never be alone when you play against pick-off heroes. In a teamfight you stay at the back come close to do a spell and run back immediatly after you used spells. Than you wait to let your spells come back off cooldown and you use them again.

Some heroes that are amazing to practice positioning with are Io and Winter Wyvern. Ofcourse Io isn't played alot by you guys and Winter Wyvern isn't too good as a hero in pubs. But if you master positioning with these heroes you can position yourself with alomost every hero.


Freezing Field places are mostly in trees or on cliffs. A glimmer cape is always usefull to have so you can do your ult whitout them seeing you.

interaction with other heroes

Crystal maiden is in her nature really good with almost every hero just of the Arcane Aura alone. Almost any hero in dota benefits from it. Also the insane disable and the amazing teamfight ultimate makes the best utility support ever.

Crystal Maiden pairs well with

Almost any other support

• Ogre Magi
• Vengeful Spirit
• Shadow Shaman
• Ancient Apparition

mana dependent cores

• Chaos Knight
• Phantom Assassin
• Troll Warlord
• Necrophos
• Nature's Prophet
• Juggernaut
• Pudge

teamfight heroes

• Enigma
• Magnus
• Warlock
• Witch Doctor

Crystal Maiden counters

rightclick carries

• Phantom Assassin
• Chaos Knight
• Ursa
• Terrorblade
• Wraith King
• Sven
• Medusa
• Troll Warlord
• Alchemist

high mobility heroes

• Queen of Pain
• Anti-Mage
• Night Stalker
• Io

Crystal Maiden is weak against

heroes that can escape Frostbite

• Storm Spirit
• Ember Spirit
• Earth Spirit
• Spirit Breaker
• Vengeful Spirit
• Faceless Void
• Phoenix
• Nature's Prophet
• Magnus

heroes that disable Freezing Field

• Clockwerk
• Naga Siren
• Storm Spirit
• Faceless Void
• Magnus
• Silencer
• Vengeful Spirit

Examples of good Crystal Maiden teams

This are just some of the teams crystal maiden fits in what is important to look for is how strong your lane is going to be. If you wil be the only support in the lane or the second support is a roamer or a just a bad laner like Omniknight than you need to have a strong carry like Juggernaut if you have a weak carry make sure you have a second strong support. Crystal Maiden fits in most team compositions going from farm games to deathballing from push to teamfight. The only weakness she has is that she is a weak lane support, that is why I prefer starting in the jungle. Try to jungle over laning, when possible ofcourse

charming your team

If you make use of Crystal Maiden her natural charme in combination with supportive and positive text in the chat the team morale will go into an incredible team spirit. Crystal Maiden has a certain finesse that some other heroes have too but not in the same degree as Crystal Maiden does. Most players love the cuteness of Crystal Maiden and you can use it to go in some sort of roleplay with your team in the teamchat. Because you are the support it is also your job to create plans and to make sure your team is confident. If your team trusts you they will be friendlier too you and often against your other allies too. Just be a bit submissive against your allies and they will mostly start liking you because human psychology just works like that. It's actually making use of Crystal Maiden her youthfulness and her playfulness. People like kids and by playing that role as Crystal Maiden people will like you.

I just make this little chapter so you can work against the salt.

personal opinion

Crystal Maiden is my most played and most loved support caractere. She is good on every skill level because of her extreme utility. Crystal Maiden is in my eyes a good hero to learn supporting with but is also good to perfectionate your support play.

An adroit Crystal Maiden player is able to support his team into victory. She is one of the most impact full supports in pubs when played properly.

I loved playing Crystal Maiden at the first game I played here and I still does. She has an amazing skillset with alot of ultility. The big number 2 support for me is Vengeful Spirit. I play both often as a position 5 or 4 in semi competitive games and those games are often won, something like a 63% winrate.

Did I already told you she has a dog?

Good luck in your upcomming Crystal Maiden games or support in general !!!

Thank you for your attention, The Frosto

Changelog

Added Blade Mail into the chapter "item explanation"
Made some minor 6.87 gameplay changes
Added some extra explanation by the item, Pipe of Insight
Created a changelog