Arcane Boots on Crystal Maiden?

Not sure about you guys, but I really like building Rod of Atos on her(same on Omniknight). Gives about as much mana as you'd get from arcanes, and the 325 HP that Crystal Maiden really NEEDS.

tbh it does not seem like the item she needs. 325 HP, extra mana and slow are nice, but that's about it, she still won't survive nmost ganks with it, same goes for teamfight were her ulti is just cancelled whenever possible, while Blink Dagger and Black King Bar offer some real impact - here and now.

In general, I feel that for position 5 and 4 stats from items are VERY secondary, as they won't have enough money to buy items for stats, but only for utility.

Mid Lina will get Skadi because of slow AND stats.
Support Lina won't even think about it because the slow is not worth 5k gold she doesn't have anyway and +25 wont help her survive at all compared to, say, Force Staff. Quite unclear, but I think you guys got my point.

I'd probably say no overall. Yes, there may be super-siutational stuff pop up where it's a good idea, but generally Tranquil Boots are just so much better on her. Cheap, easy to build, badly needed movement speed and armour, plus with a few points in your Arcane Aura you can basically sustain health and mana indefinitely (great for a hard support) for under 1000g.

Arcane Boots can be difficult for hard supports to build because you need a flat 1000g for the Mana Booster - tricky when you may die, need to buy Observer Wards, Sentries, Smoke, Dust, TPs etc. Much easier to pickup a Ring of Protection and Ring of Regen as you go. Sure, she can pickup more semi-jungle farm than most supports with Frost Bite, but you're unlikely ever to be swimming in funds.

Crystal Maiden I think is hard to build anyway - she really need a lot of extra equipment if she's going to land a good ultimate (BKB or Ghost and Blink or Force really), plus good setup from her team. Tbh I'd much rather get Tranquils then maybe a Ghost Scepter - remember it's giving you +7 to all stats as well as physical protection.

I think if you're playing her properly, you're rarely going to get the chance to get much extra equipment, so value for money is absolutely key. She really doesn't need stats - just utility and any health/mana pool increases you can get (right click damage is rubbish anyway, your Aura and Tranquils will serve all your regen needs) - they're generally cheaper too.

Any teamfight where you seriously think you're going to get off a half decent Freezing Field I'd focus entirely on doing that rather than using your other spells much. If your team doesn't have big disable, I'd probably focus on skilling Crystal Nova and leaving Freezing Field until much later on.

As with all things, it can be situational. Are you the lone support? If so then I'd definitely get Arcanes. The 135 burst can be extremely useful for your team. But if their will be a pair picked up elsewhere i'd concentrate on boosting your mana pool, that's one of the reasons to nearly always go Force Staff ahead of Blink Dagger on supports. 130 Mana extra should see you through most situations (and it gives you a little more right-click for jungling).

What about Soul Ring tho?

Free Frostbite on jungle creeps every cooldown : better than midas.

Stack jungle camps, and at level 6 clear them with Freezing Field = early blink Sand King style.

Tranquils give armor, and god knows you need survivability with cm, I'd just second the idea of hamster about soul ring. Id take tranquils soul ring > mana boots.

Good idea, hahaha
People would think you are ******ed, by using the ult on creeps. But it can work fine, I believe.

If you're level 6 and blowing your ult just to farm a stacked camp every 2.5 mins then it is not a good idea. If players want to farm jungle then do it early on by doing one stack every so often, you'll be accumulating the gold and exp over a period of time. It's much more reliable and by the time you hit level 6, you've most likely earned as much or more gold than stacking a hard game then blowing an ult. You'll also have more gold spread to use rather then having that gold only at a specific time.

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To the original topic, what's more important than getting FF off is to survive and be reliable. CM is very good at controlling the flow of battle with low cooldowns and strong roots/slows especially against team lineups that can be kited or have little crowd control. CM's aura is usually enough at level 2 and that's when CM players start stacking stats to survive better (bracer gaming anyone?). Using FF should only be used at opportune times anyway like when most or all disables are on cooldown, you have to wait for it.

With stacked stats, level 2 aura at least and good mana'gement (see the pun?) there's not much of an issue in regards to how much mana you have. Since FF is extremely situational anyways so it's a lot more reliable to level FN or FB over FF.

Nubtrain puns pls cast inhouseeeee