Crystal Maiden Dota 2 Guide – Freeze enemies in their place in 7.33

Crystal Maiden is a support hero who is an all-rounder at defensive and offensive capabilities. However, since the introduction of Medusa Meta in Patch 7.33, Crystal Maiden is even more popular for her mana regeneration aura which benefits her team, especially Medusa’s reliance on mana for her Shield. Of course, she also has utility spells which root, slow and damage enemies and a very powerful ultimate ability.

Her ultimate, Freezing Field, can be difficult to use but can be impactful in team-fights when well-positioned. Well, her movement speed is slow while channelling her ultimate, which makes positioning irritating, especially since her ultimate requires her to be quite near enemies. Hence, mobility and defensive items are a necessity for her.

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Complete Crystal Maiden Spell guide

Crystal Nova

Crystal Maiden blasts the ground in an AOE, damaging enemies and slowing their movement and attack speed. This spell is only levelled once at level 2 as an early harassment skill for laning, but if your team doesn’t require mana regen, consider maxing it for bigger slow and more damage. Crystal Nova also provides flying vision on the cliff, letting her deward without placing a sentry on the cliff. Additionally, it’s a great vision skill to scout high-ground siege, where you typically don’t have observer ward. This spell has quite a long range which means you can use it from quite a safe distance.

Frostbite

Crystal Maiden freezes the target, dealing damage, rooting, disarming and preventing spell casting. The spell effectively acts as a stun as it interrupts spell casting as well, however enemies can use items which dispel negative debuffs to purge its effects. This spell is a priority skill to max because of its effectiveness against jungle creeps. Skilling this spell is very valuable as it gains an increased duration and reduced cooldown.

Frostbite lasts for 10 seconds on creeps, dealing 1000 magic damage. This makes it a great spell for farming neutral creeps, except the Ancient creeps, in the early to mid-game. In general, prioritize this spell on enemy cores, as the disarm can be very helpful in fights.

Arcane Aura

Crystal Maiden provides all allies with increased mana regeneration while gaining double rate on herself. This spell is usually maxed alongside Frostbite as priority skills as it helps your allies to use their spells more often, thereby giving them a greater chance to win their lanes. However, Arcane Aura might not be the most valuable skill to max first if your team doesn’t stay close for fights frequently as the aura only retains its effects within 1200 radius of CM.

Therefore, if you need more disables in the early game, it may be better to instead skill both Frostbite and Crystal Nova first. It provides a massive amount of mana regeneration for yourself when maxed, allowing you to use your spells constantly. This, in addition to Frostbite dealing 1000 damage to creeps makes Crystal Maiden a very powerful jungler in the early and mid game in Dota 2 esports. Use this to help you farm for some support items such as Drums of Endurance and Glimmer Cape.

Freezing Field

Crystal Maiden creates several icy explosions in the area around her over a channelled duration of 10 seconds. Each explosion deals damage and slows attack and movement speed. Aghanim’s Scepter applies Frostbite to any enemy stood in the area of effect for over 2.5 seconds. Freezing Field costs tremendous mana, especially at levels two and three. It is also very unreliable, as the explosions are random and the spell can be easily interrupted by area of effect disables.

Nonetheless, it can be used for survival as Crystal Maiden gains 20 bonus armor while channelling Freezing Field. Considering how squishy she is by default, it just might deter enemies from attacking her. Try to use trees or high-ground for cover, as enemies won’t be able to directly see you, giving you an advantage as enemies won’t be able to attack you or use targeted spells on you.

It is good to use even on a single enemy during a gank, as it can potentially deal a massive amount of damage while providing another slow debuff. Glimmer Cape and Black King Bar are great items that synergizes with her channelling flaw as they allow her to use the spell in the midst of the battle with reduced chances of being interrupted. Freezing Field can also be used to zone enemies very effectively, as they risk potentially taking a massive amount of damage.

Best Crystal Maiden Talents

Level 10: +125 Crystal Nova AOE or +250 Health

In general, the extra cast range is usually preferred here, as it allows you to use Frostbite and Crystal Nova from a safer distance in team-fights. This is especially valuable since Crystal Maiden’s movement speed is very low and she is very squishy. The extra cast range is also very strong against heroes who are hard to lockdown, as you will be able to use Frostbite from a farther distance. However, if you’re taking lots of unavoidable damage in team-fights, then the extra health may be justifiable.

Level 15: -3s Crystal Nova Cooldown or +125 Frostbite Cast Range

If you expect the game to go very late then the extra gold per minute can be very helpful in securing you late game items such as Black King Bar. However, Crystal Maiden doesn’t really rely on many late game items to be effective, which makes the gold a bit less useful. In contrast, the manacost/manaloss aura allows your allies to use more spells throughout the game as well as lose less mana to manaloss sources. If you’re facing enemies who have Mana Break, or Diffusal Blades, for example, it can be a very strong choice. However, it’s of course less effective if you have allies who cast relatively few spells in team-fights, or if you aren’t facing any manaloss. In these cases, the GPM may be a more impactful option.

Level 20: +50 Freezing Field Damage or +225 Attack Speed

In general, the Freezing Field damage is a more reliable talent choice and should be gotten in most situations. This is because it allows you to deal much more damage with your ultimate. If you are struggling to at all use your ultimate effectively, and the game looks like it will last for a lot longer, then the attack speed can potentially be helpful. It gives her the potential to get an item like Eye of Skadi or Mjollnir to contribute even more in control or damage in team-fights. However, these items are very expensive and not always the best options for late game purchases.

Level 25: +240 Crystal Nova Damage or +1.25s Frostbite Duration

The extra Crystal Nova damage brings it up to a 550 damage nuke on a 9 second cooldown. This can be very powerful if you are playing against illusions or heroes who summon creeps. It can also be good if you are able to consistently damage multiple heroes with it. The extra damage may also prove very helpful against mega creeps. If you’re managing to stay alive throughout the team-fights, then this is another factor to consider, as you’ll be able to deal a lot more damage over several casts of the spell.

The extra Frostbite duration allows you to potentially disable an enemy for 4.5 seconds. With a 6 second cooldown, it can be very easy to use this spell twice on an enemy if an ally can keep the target chain stunned for more than the 1.5s downtime of the spell. This is incredibly strong against heroes who have blink or other mobility spells. It can also be great if you need to control an enemy carry in team-fights more. However, It can be dispelled with any dispel, such as Manta Style or Black King Bar, which may make it less effective against heroes who have these items.

What Items to build on Crystal Maiden

Starting Items

Wind Lace
Tango
Healing Salve
Clarity
Enchanted Mango
Observer Wards
Sentry Wards

As a hard support, Crystal Maiden cannot afford anything except consumables for mana and health regeneration to spend on her laning carry. However, her base movement speed is atrociously low which can make it very hard to use her spells effectively and makes her very vulnerable in the early game. This makes Wind Lace a cheap pickup before the 3-minute mark. It is also used to build into Tranquil Boots which should be gotten in almost every game.

Early Game Items

Magic Wand can be a strong laning item if the enemy heroes has low-cooldown spamming spells. It’s also cheap and effective regenerative item for Crystal Maiden.
Tranquil Boots are the boots of choice for Crystal Maiden in every game because it can be built into Boots of Bearing. She already has enough mana regeneration from Arcane Aura to make Arcane Boots unnecessary and the health regen from Tranquil Boots make her very self-sustaining. With high health and mana regeneration, the hero has phenomenal map presence throughout the game. She can spend time jungling on high health and mana while being near allies to help in ganks or fights. The higher movement speed also makes up for Crystal Maiden’s naturally low movement speed, making it easier for her to use her spells effectively in fights while maintaining good positioning.
Drum of Endurance is a good early-to-mid game item on Crystal Maiden because it provides her with a lot of good stats and helps her to fight. The extra strength and movement speed are very valuable since she is very squishy and has low movement speed. It’s an absolute item to buy ever since Boots of Bearing is introduced in Dota Patch 7.33

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Mid Game Items

Boots of Bearing uses Tranquil Boots and Drums as components, making it a great progression item for many support heroes. After consuming all your Drums charges, build this item, which offers a new active ability that provide attack and movement speed to nearby allies for 6 seconds. Furthermore, once triggered, the first 1.5 seconds makes your team immune to slows, serving as a defensive counter spell.
Glimmer Cape is a great item on Crystal Maiden because it allows her to go invisible during her channelled ultimate. This means that you can be in the middle of enemies in a team-fight and use Freezing Field, just watch out for any AoE disables that haven’t been used. The magic resistance is also very strong against line-ups with lots of magical damage. It’s very strong item against farmed carries which can burst you down easily as well. Overall, it should be a core item in almost every game for Crystal Maiden.
Blink Dagger allows Crystal Maiden to catch slippery heroes with Frostbite a lot more easily and position herself for Freezing Field to utilize it more effectively. It’s very strong for her as it allows her to initiate ganks and catch enemies out as well as providing her with a means to escape bad positioning. Top-tier items that many of the best Dota 2 players build first on Crystal Maiden.
Force Staff is another strong item on Crystal Maiden, as it works very similarly to Blink Dagger. The extra intelligence increases her mana-pool which helps to deal with the very high mana-cost of Freezing Field. It will help you to keep yourself and your allies alive and can be used to close the gap on fleeing enemies.

Late Game Items

Black King Bar is a strong late game item if you’re playing against lots of disables or magical damage. It can be used to get a full duration Freezing Field off if the enemies don’t have any disables which pierce magic immunity. If you can potentially utilise Freezing Field effectively and has the gold for one, a Black Kind Bar is a fight-winning item.
Aghanim’s Scepter is worthwhile if you are able to consistently use your ultimate very effectively. It can also be very strong if you need more disables on your team. It will apply Frostbite to anyone stood in the area for more than 2.5 seconds, which is particularly strong against heroes that are usually hard to lockdown, or who have mobility spells.

However, consider getting Blink Dagger and BKB before resorting for this.

Situational Items

Aghanim’s Shard is situational since it doesn’t provide much benefits except letting you move during your channelling ultimate. However, considering it’s 1,400 gold and can be gotten from Roshan’s drop, it’s not worth picking one up.
Ghost Scepter at a relatively similar price can completely deter physical damage dealers. Alternatively, against magic-damage heroes, it may be even worse.
Scythe of Vyse can is always great in late-game item and provides you with a lot more intelligence for your mana-pool. It is an absolute counter against magic immunity, and can be a great addition to stacking Frostbite skill twice to chain-stun.
Aeon Disk is a very situational item, although it can be very good. If you are getting burst down in team-fights very quickly, it will very much help to keep you alive, especially if you are getting disabled at the same time. It’s not an especially expensive item either, which means it’s quite affordable for her.
Aether Lens can be a good item if you’re playing against mobility heroes, as you’ll be able to disable them with Frostbite much more easily. It can also be good if you’re playing against heroes who are dangerous to get near. However, mobility items such as Force Staff and Blink Dagger also allow you to reach enemies more easily and are more helpful items in general.
Hand of Midas is generally not needed at all on Crystal Maiden. This is because she doesn’t rely on items to be effective, and it delays other items which can be more helpful. However, if you are in a situation where you won’t be able to get much gold or experience throughout the game, then it can help boost your scaling.

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Interesting Crystal Maiden Match-ups

Silences

Silences prevent Crystal Maiden from casting any of her spells and can interrupt Freezing Field. Targetable spells can be worked around by getting a Glimmer Cape, but AOE skills are harder to avoid. In such scenarios, it’s best not to level up Freezing Field altogether and prioritize spamming other skills.

Area of Effect Disables

AoE stuns or disables can be used to cancel Freezing Field, even if you are invisible from a Glimmer Cape. The best way to work around these kinds of spells is to keep track of which spells have been used and use Freezing Field when it is most effective.

Magic resistance

Almost all of Crystal Maiden’s damage is magical damage, which makes heroes such as Viper and Pudge, who have inherent magic resistance, very strong against her.

Mobility heroes

Heroes with strong mobility spells or Blinks are very vulnerable to Frostbite, as they root and prevent enemies from casting spells. This forces them to purchase defensive items or be very vulnerable if you are able to catch them out.

Strong early game spells

Crystal Maiden’s Arcane Aura is a very powerful early game aura which benefits her entire team. Heroes such as Skywrath Mage and Juggernaut have very powerful spells with high mana costs relative to their mana pools, however these spells can be used more often as a result from the mana regeneration.