Cold Comfort - Crystal Maiden (6.81b)

I disagree with Mek on CM. Usually she is one of the first heroes to die in the fight, meaning that it is likely that you will have to use Mek premeptively(to save yourself). I will get force staff instead(the reposition will maybe help your team or you to make sure you avoid the focus fire and survive long enough without being in the center of things - that will help you to maybe cast 2 FB/2 CN) but I may be a bit biased as I believe that mekansm should be gotten by position 2/3/4, not position 5 which is the usual role for the CM. Anyway, the guide is decent

I would never build Aghanim's Scepter on CM, Veil of Discord suits her really good, is cheaper and has easier buildup (which is really important for hard support) and benefit go to rest of the team as well.
Dagon also feels a bit weird, you usually get enough money way too late to get use of it.

On the other hand there is a nice item you forgot - Shadow Blade. It's pretty situational - mostly for pub games and if enemy team don't have too much AoE stuns and your don't have any invisible heroes. You can pop it during your ultimate for some protection -so you can get it instead of Black King Bar. It can also helps during ganks.

+1 for "harrasing your lane" paragraph - I forgot that disable inflicts almost as much damage while not pushing your lane. Pretty handy tip.

I play entirely too many heroes, really... I didn't call her flexible, I called her skill build VERY flexible. As in you can do almost no wrong at low skill level games with her. This is a guide for those levels, to help people who just don't 'get' her enough to realize she is not a 'right-click = win' hero like Sniper and Drow; There is a reason so few supports are played in low-level pub games, and played so poorly when they are chosen.



Desolator being useless is an interesting thought, and definitely an opinion I don't share - With CMs laughable DPS output she can cause her team's DPS output versus a target to sky-rocket; It is situational, as if your team is lacking overall in right-click it doesn't help much but definitely not useless. Crysalis, as stated before, was a purely fun add, and actually at low levels of play even fairly effective since people don't like the big scary RED hits on them.

To get to more constructive criticisms these items have been removed.



I actually agree with you on this one, my issue being that as a hard support I often find it difficult to reach the gold levels needed for this, and often find I am better utilized without using my Freezing Field which requires approximately 8,000 gold investment (BKB + Aghs's) to be truly effective in late game, on top of the thousands spent on wards, dust and other support items such as Mekansm, Drum of Endurance, Pipe of Insight, Force Staff; Oh, and those Black King Bars and Pipe of Insights and other items and skills on the other team blunt that effectiveness as well if you want to talk about playing at that level. EDIT FOR CLARITY: Hard Support CM is NOT a damage machine at that level of play except in very exceptional circumstances, with a skilled team helping her reach that potential.

Pub games are also often finished by this point, or so close to done that I can't even get the courier to me in time for it if we are winning, and if we are losing I don't generally survive long enough to stack up big gold anymore.

BKB was added to the build, along with some comments about it.

Thank you for your criticism, I only ask that in future you consider the target audience of the guide as well. I am human, I make mistakes, and I definitely don't play the Crystal Maiden the way you feel she ought to be played; I play this game for fun, I don't necessarily min/max my builds, and in general I enjoy a positive win/loss ratio.

If you are not an expert and not a serious player then why are you making a guide? Do you think that with only decent, general knowledge about the game you can make guides? What is the point?

Well, I am glad that I could see through you and take a note that you are arrogant.

To let you know - I didn't vote for your guide yet. Waiting for your improvements.

Cheers!

I'm sorry - in low level play you see games loaded with BKBs? This guide explicitly states several times that it is for low to mid skill pub games, and a couple times mentions unranked; I have rarely seen more than one BKB in a game at those levels, and often that one BKB is used improperly and to very little effect.

Purely fun items are added to many builds, on this site and every other that I look at guides on. This is a game, and purely fun is going to happen. If you are a serious player who wants to go pro congratulations and you should not be looking at guides with a disclaimer at the top saying that I'm no expert nor even a serious player of the hero in question. Maybe in a later revision I will make a "Purely Fun" section to include these items in, rather than labelling them "Luxury" or "Situational".

As it stands I have removed some of the "offensive" items from the guide so I can receive more constructive criticism rather than continued bashing on a "for-fun" point.

I am learning from the comments posted here, thank you all for your contributions. I am making changes based on feedback, and will continue to do so. I don't think this guide is going away; I especially liked the "Arrogant and incompetent" comment, as I am in fact rather arrogant in my day-to-day life! I didn't think it came through on the guide, but apparently was mistaken.

Putting such items like Crystalys on that hero is a laugh into everyone else's face. Does it matter if this is 1st guide? We can actually have a discussion about guide makers.

Since you are editor you might want to keep everything nice and clean, but is there a point in defending someone who is not taking thing (a guide) seriously?

And again, why Soul Booster is only better not much than Crystalys? It is way, way better and I also stated, that Soul Booster is not item that should be considered on her, but still it's better than Crystalys or Desolator.
Crystalys and Desolator gives her damage, which is useless. Around 3k gold spent on damage items for Crystal Maiden is almost equal to Soul Booster in your opinion? I simply cannot understand that.

I will repeat again to make it clear - Soul Booster on Crystal Maiden is not my build suggestion, ok?

How not even mentioning Black King Bar on Crystal Maiden is not misleading (especially for new players)? I am just being honest. Is it mean? Well, not everyone is capable of writing a guide, right?

It's better, but not much, there are lots of great Items for CM, Soul Booster or Bloodstone is not one of them. There are better alternatives, like Drum of Endurance, a Casual Vitality Booster, etc. for HP, Tranquil Boots for HP Regen, Scythe of Vyse is a good Luxury that gives HP, mana and Mana Regen, but I'm not sure if something that expensive needs adding to a Hard Support guide.

Simple negation I guess, you were being unnecessarily cruel to a 1st time Guide maker, so you deserved it. 8{3

Constructive feedback is always welcome. This ^ kind of stuff isn't.

How Soul Booster doesnt sound any better on Crystal Maiden than Desolator or Crystalys? I know it's not a perfect choice, but still it gives you 450 raw HP, 400 mana, 4 HP regen and 100% mana regen for 3300 gold, and it can be built with 3 not so expensive items.
With this Crystal Maiden can survive a lot more, can use more spells in teamfights, HP regen with Tranquil Boots will be great and mana regen with maxed Arcane Aura will be insane.
Is this a bait or just simple negation?

Blink or force is really important on a crystal maiden
and i seriously dont know y u wud make a blademail on her since she isnt a tank or anything

There's a lot of things I have to disagree with here, most importantly of all, the Blademail, Desolator and Crystalis. Blademail only deals as much Damage as you have HP, so getting it on a Squishy Support is pointless, you aren't going to get much mileage out of it. As for Deso and Crit, you shouldn't be getting close enough to Right-Click in most fights later on, becasue again, you are Squishy and will die before doing any real Damage.

You can troll with these Items, but they shouldn't be in a serious guide, please remove them 8{(

Calm down!....and no Soul Booster doesn't sound any better 8{(


Blink Dagger is definitely one of the best Items you can get for CM, being able to instantly Blink in and Freezing Field on a Team that has already blown all their Stuns is a good way to win fights.

Force Staff is good for getting yourself or an Ally out of a sticky Situation, it can save more lives than Mek in some cases. 8{)

Black King Bar is a bit greedier. It's more of a luxury Item for when your Team already has everything it needs and you just want to go in and Freezing Field uninterupted. The only problem is, you're likely to see a Monkey King Bar, a Skull Basher/Abysal Blade or a Passive Bash Skill, or even a Magic Immunity piercing Stun in most games 8{(

I agree with this, while Tranquil Boots are probably the best in most games, sometimes you may need the Tankiness from Power Treads, or the added mobility from Phase Boots. You could even benefit from Travel Boots if the game goes late enough.

This is how you get your Mekansm or Blink Dagger, so ading a section on it would be useful, just make sure to include when the right time to Jungle is ;{)

Having said all that, the formatting is nice and you do explain all of your choices. Just a bit more work and I may be willing to +1 this guide ;{)

...although it'll have to be a -1 if Blademail, Desolator and Crystalis remain as anything other than "do not buy this unless trolling" 8{(

Edit: Almost forgot, don't bother taking more than 1 point in Arcane Aura early on, it's not needed (unless you have a Hero on your Team that burns through Mana, like Storm Spirit or Timbersaw, but even then, 2 points is enough). I Max Crystal Nova 1st usually, but I like to take a 2nd point in Frostbite at lvl4 so I have a 2 second Root. <}3

P.S. If you want to try a hero who's truly flexible in terms of Skill Build, try Leshrac, you can find yourself needing to max any of his 3 basic Skills 1st and not taking your Ult at 6 or 11 most of the time, but sometimes you will! 8{D

This guide is made by someone, who is incompetent and arrogant.

Crystal Maiden is the most flexible hero that you've played? No... no. What, did you play only Crystal Maiden and let's say... Lion? Crystal Maiden is pretty straightforward, and I can't see her being flexible.

Desolator and Crystalys? Do you even Dota?. As far as I can somehow understand getting Blade Mail, that those 2 items are completely useless, even if you are obviously going to win. Instead of Desolator I would go for... I don't know, Soul Booster sounds much better.

And where is Black King Bar? It gives you raw HP, damage is useless, though, but the active is essential if you want to deal some damage with Freezing Field. It's similar to usage of Fiend's Grip, or Black Hole. You need that magic immunity, to be effective. Black King Bar should be purchased at some point on Crystal Maiden. That item pick is so obvious, and since you didn't even consider it, I call your guide misleading. You claim yourself, that Freezing Field is easy to interrupt, and you have no solution for that. Crystal Maiden without Black King Bar will be focused ASAP when she will start channeling her ultimate. How could you forgot about that?

Few things :

Force Staff is a great pickup, helps a lot against getting picked off in teamfights, or initiating.
Blink Dagger Even better at initiating or getting away.

You might want to mention that if things are going slow, or you have a minute to farm, you can farm large neutrals in the jungle with Frostbite for some extra gold towards that Force or Euls.