Swift as the Wolves of Icewrack: A guide to Crystal Maiden [Updated for 6.84]

I actually was considering how to build a Hard Carry maiden, I ended up with something like Mjollnir, Skadi, Crit etc. at the end, the idea was that you frostbite someone and that allows you to get a load of lighting procs while they are stuck, then you get skadi to infinitely slow and chase people, crits for some extra dps :P

Haven't had the luxury of trying it in a real game, since some people will never learn to see the hard carry Maiden potential ;)

23 - 1, talking about good games, way to go! :D

I completely agree with you. Crystal has now an incredible slow potential. What makes me think: in troll games, what if we could do a Skadi? xD

Congrats on the changes on your guide! It's always a pleasure to come back to it. And to talk with fellow Crystal lovers :)

Crystal Nova in my opinion, is one of the best regular abilities in the game now, an instant damage around 900 range large radius slow and nuke? It's so good. Not to mention, with the slow with ulti and nova, you can slow up 80% by using both, which is INSANE.

I struggled to figure out how to change my guide, but since it is quite old now I just decided to add a new section instead of updating older sections, just so that the information is relatively up to date.

And dayum that game! You know you're winning hard when you have close to 600 gpm on Crystal Maiden

Yeah I wouldn't probably go Octarine Core first, it's much too expensive, and you don't benefit as much from it before you have got your Aghanim's Scepter and Black King Bar to be able to deal more damage, thus lifestealing from it more. Of course though, if you're absolutely stomping a game, I see no problem in going carry maiden!

Glimmer Cape used to be stupidly good on cm early game, but after the mana cost addition you pretty much gotta get it mid or late game once you have enough mana, since you already struggle as it is.

Don't have many super exciting games to show, but here is one from awhile ago, before the patch, not sure if I can even call it a game, because it was so stupid xD

http://www.dotabuff.com/matches/1280544297

Here it is anyway, can maybe share a more recent interesting game once I have one.

Thanks for the comment!

Bunkan, on the new changes: I'm still adjusting, so I'm not yet prepared to update my guide aswell, but what do you think on Crystal Nova's 50% slow now? Sick or what?? I could slow people so much that someone like Sniper would get so much extra hits in that he didn't pratically need his ulti =O

Anyways, I agree with you on everything you say on the Glimmer Cape and Octarine Core, and your preference for the Blink Dagger (I have to find a way of changing my guide about that too).

I had a lot of fun with Octarine in a game my team crashed our opponents (they were very bad indeed, I cannot say it was all because we rock xD). Give it a look: http://www.dotabuff.com/matches/1442694545

Still, in a normal game I would never go Octarine Core without a Black King Bar first, because to be that aggresive you gotta be sure you can channel your ulti properly to get the lifesteal.

Cheers mate!

Bunkansee, as I was browing for Lina guides to perfect my game with her I noticed you also have a Crystal Maiden guide, like myself! (I've finally published it recently, give a look if you want and your opinion! http://www.dotafire.com/dota-2/guide/crystal-the-underrated-support-13653)

I liked your guide. It is pretty straightforward and it has, in my opinion, all the essentials, although I prefer other build in skill and items. If I don't max out Arcane Aura, for instance, my fellow teammates and myself always struggle for mana, so I prefer to give them that insted of the early damage on the Crystal Nova (with exceptions, of course). 1+!

Crystal's my favourite hero so I really know how to play her, but Lina's another story, I've only played her a couple times. I will now read your guide on her and try it and after give you my comments on it :)

^^ Seconded

I would pretty much never get Shadow Blade unless I was playing in lvl 1 trench tier :P

Yes, you can use Shadow Blade when channeling any spell or TP scrolls and it won't break the channel.

Still, it doesn't change the main fact, which is that Shadow Blade is an item that has one use and one use only : ganking. You should never buy a shadowblade just to use it defensively otherwise the enemy team will buy dust and you'll have wasted 3000 gold.

Besides, even if the enemy team doesn't have dust, they can just use AOE stuns or silences on you and they'll interrupt your channeling.

Seriously, just get a Black King Bar on her.

You can use Shadow Blade when you are channeling a spell. Good example is the trick with Death Ward and Shadow Blade that you see in pubs.

You can Shadow Blade while channeling? I don't think so... You would have to cast it during the fade time, I think.

I think SB is waster on CM because she is SOO squishy and the +10 Str. from BKB helps. She also doesn't need the damage from SB. Besides, what if Dust?

I think Shadow Blade is ok, but my main issue is it's so easily counterable, if someone buys Dust of Appearance it basically means your only form of protection during your ult has been removed. It's alright in some circumstances, but I would almost always get a bkb since it is so much more reliable.

Thanks for checking out my guide!

*\Bunkansee/*

A good guide overall , but i was wondering if you have considered using shadow blade to go invisible while channeling the ultimate. Has the same effect as BKB but also offers you an escape. Check it out.

Hehehe. I'm back, with more comments!

I know I'm being picky, but from 'how to lane correctly' and on, it starts becoming like a wall of text. I recommend using:

• Lists
• Bold
• and other formatting tools
  
  That's all for now!