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Observer Ward
Clarity
Tango
Healing Salve
Ring of Protection
Tranquil Boots
Shadow Blade
Drum of Endurance
Eul's Scepter of Divinity
Black King Bar
Shiva's Guard
Blink Dagger
Boots of Travel
Town Portal Scroll
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5 | 8 |  |
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1 | 4 | 7 | 11 |  |
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2 | 3 | 6 | 10 |  |
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9 | 12 | 18 |  |
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13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 |
This is my guide to one of the more interesting and under estimated harasser/ganker support hero's in dota.
I'm writing this guide more for the people I generally play with as they seem to love it when I roll out heavy with her.
Far too many players I have seen play Crystie have played in a purely passive support manner, completely wasting her ability to dominate any lane she is in, with her insane mana regen, disabling setups and slow potential.
Most people only cite her slowness and squishiness in theory battles that make it seem as if you walk into melee range to attack and tank creep waves on top of that.
Completely ignore those fixable and compensable faults you have slows that make you able to escape, a snare that stops and damages, freakishly fast mana regen and an ult that slows and demolishes people that stay and fight.
And most of all, your own ability to position yourself correctly, work with any hero in the game and even snowball carry if you preform well.
As this is my first guide, feel free to criticise as you see fit, although you suck uninstall dota noob wont really explain your point unfortunately.
Her pro's and con's are glaringly apparent when you 1st play with her, yet she is my 3rd most effective hero next to my invoker and meepo.
Cons
- Her speed is very slow, one of the slowest in the game.
- Squishy, low armour, low health pool and gain.
- Very high threat, you WILL get focused if your not careful.
- Lacks an instant escape, combined with her low speed, you can be killed if your caught out quite easily.
Now that depressing con list is out of the way.
Pro's
+ Insane global mana regen, and it doubles on yourself!, and can allow spells to be semi spammed because of that.
+ Every spell has a "slow" effect or roots.
+ One of the best lane partners or set up ganker.
+ If uninterrupted her ultimate turns you into death, nothing without a bkb lives.
This is my common item load out if I do my job well as a harass and gank hero, basic regen start out, your tango's, salve, and a clarity to start, wards for safety and a ring to limit the counter damage you WILL attract, someone else can get the mule or you can if the wards were purchased 1st.
Your core is based around speed and escape, as all you need is your skills for ambush and surprise, your not conan so don't ever think you can attack 3-5 people alone and win unless your core and timing is spot on.
Core:
Tranquils for regen, armour and speed, a shadowblade for escape, initiate and slight added burst, drums for more speed and durability, euls for a dodge and yet MORE speed.
You may think I am over playing her speed, but really her speed is horrible, and more speed is the best survival mechanic to me.
Mid to Late game:
Your core gives you most of the survival you need at this point, but as the game drags on a bkb becomes a must, as it is the vital part of your ability to kill and survive in a fight, drop your ult before your bkb pops and watch as you instantly get stunlocked and munched.
Your preference may differ though if you get a blink you can initiate easy and even rampage if they clump, added on with a shiva's gives you monstrous burst and slow downs, bkb, blink, shiva/nova and drop your ult, you have slowed your hit targets by a huge margin while slowing attacks at you from shiva's and your ulti, reduced damage taken and magic immune, you have become death no one can run, and only bkb can save you.
You may think this is all gear you collect while you steal farm from you carry and kill steal, now this is where you are very wrong.
It may seem strange that I don't max my 1st skill until my last levels.
In all truth an added 50 damage and .5 slow time per level is far outweighed by added durability and mana I am even hesitant adding a second level in most games.
Skill usage
1: Nova
All in all this skill is not highly useful in the lane phase, the phase you should absolutely destroy your current lane, the slow doesn't last long, does minor damage and has a long cooldown 15 sec.
It IS effective at level 1-2 because of the health pool you fight rarely goes past 800 in the lane and even mid game for some supports, remember to eat the supports they will be your farmable creep.
The only use I have from this skill is slow for my carry to finish off the kill, or to push/farm a un used creep wave.
2: Frostbyte
This is the power that will make you a beacon for every single nuke and rage quit you get, the ability to lock a target in place for upto 3 seconds while still damaging it, you can't blink, stealth or run until it has completed, it is cheap, has a decent cooldown and can still cause creep aggro, freeze a target who charges you though a creep wave will more often than not die to creeps.
3: Arcane Aura
This is why crystal is considered a awesome support, its a global sage mask, ring of basilias, aquilia, then hyperstone, for mana )this is more of a scale idea than the actual item ofcorse, you free up a slot for your crew and enhance your teams ability to gank and survive, max this first.
4: Freezing Field
When you drop this prepair to get focused, your visible, squishy and you channel random aoe blasts, now you may think why would you do that then?
Simple, It has a long effect time, large slows to move and attack speed, brutal damage and a fairly large effect range, the random aoe fire very fast, get a scepter if you can afford to and you will slaughter anyone who wants to stand and fight.
Hero's that Crystal work with are quite frankly all hero's, she is useful in every single hero combo in the game.
Best hero's who love her are those that require skill shots, like pudge for hooks, miri's arrows, invoker sun strikes. you make there life easier even for a terrible pudge as he can't miss a frozen target or channeled burst attack like jugger's whirl, pugna with his drain or sky for his flare as such.
Hero's to hate are ones who can out range you, or simply ignore your spells or silence you, such as lifestealer or omni with magic immune and a slow effect, hero's who can simply place you in a bad position, such as pudge, earth spirit, dark seer, or nightstalker, drow or death prophet for silences as such.
Your most trusted ally however is your wards, without wards your contending with blind ganks when you annoy them too much.
Laning with Cristie should entirely be used to harass, deny and pull, if your taking last hits from your lane partner your failing your role.
Pulling enhances your ability to gank and gives you something to farm (until hero's become your farm that is) as you force the wave closer to your tower and creeps denying xp and gold.
Jungling with her is greatly wasteful for her, you CAN do this, but it massively decreases your actual value in lane, because of your mana regen you can near endlessly spam frostbite and an auto attack or two, you might think this doesn't really hurt, but you can do it near endlessly, and if you carry has even semi damaging skills you will feed hero's to him or her aswell.
Being able to keep pressure endlessly on your lane will either force the lane out, frustrate them to make mistakes, mistakes that feed you and your lane mate, that last hit at half health maybe the time you punish that player.
Don't rush it, tell you lane mate to be patient wait for a chance to punish, as you level your "chip" damage will turn into serious pain, and you can keep on throwing spells.
If you have Pudge or a Extort Invoker your giving them free kills, and you get I love you Pms.
This tactic can be done at level 1, hence the clarity as you will have no mana regen to start, but you will almost instantly when you level.
Freeze, auto 1-3x back off, deny/pull/stack, repeat until rage DC, for the highest global rage, time your freeze to interrupt a carries last hit... every.. single.. time.
With this basic tactic I personally have had many people rage quit within 10-15 min, I have been taunted that I don't hurt, and I'm wasting my mana, only to win that lane, killing or causing the deaths of that lane over and over and over.
Most notably against a Lich and AM who did the taunting, while laning with a terrified sand king, until he couldn't last hit without getting frostbitten then killed, and me denying his creep...
The rage that match earned still brings a smile to my face, This is your job be the most rage inspiring hateful... you get the idea.
In most cases if you continue this by level 5 or 6 your lane is won you have your tranquils, you have almost got your shadowblade, once that is up you will feel a global oh **** button has been pressed.
Once you have your shadowblade, its time to roam, this gives you your escape, and initiate tool, open with your auto attack for a little more burst, freeze and nova or even just ult.
Mid Game:
Now the fun begins you have your basic tools, now its time to kill that afk farm mid, that obviously didn't bother to help, it is time for you act like tong po and.. punish them.
Run just onto high ground, not so far that the tower spots you, just far enough that you have high ground, auto, snare, nova and let your mid have a small snack, once that is done make it very visible that your shadowblading and heading bot, that will freak out bot that they will play safe...
Meanwhile head top instead and brutalise that lane with your team... nice and sneaky.
By this point you should have the gold for a drum or euls or both even with some luck, you have begun to snowball, the other team is scared and now your harder to kill and faster.
begin to ward hot spots like their jungle, ancient camp, and be ready to jump that cookie.
continue to roam and threaten out of position hero's and generally cause terror, team fights should be common by now, you have the ability to massacre by simply waiting for the fight to start, walk in and freezing field.
BKB should be you next item, provided the game is still going that is around 25-40 min your late game starts now
The games running late, your about to fall behind, don't think that you can take a carry this late, this is both your best and worst time, you can die fast, people can now ignore you with bkb's and people have detection, wards/gems.
The positive side to this is, if you survive, you lock teams (more so with a shiva) in place, do horrendous damage and if you pick up a shiva's, become survivable, while mobile and resistant.
Don't be disappointed if you didn't go 30/1/10 sort of KDR, your more or less going to have 4-10 kills most of the time, die just as many times and get tonnes of assists, that is GOOD, that means you were in most fights, getting your team mates kills, you are not trying to get the last hit on a hero, just feed it to your team you don't "need" items past your core.
Of corse, if you think for a second that they will get away, don't hesitate to take it.
Hope you enjoyed it bro's, cheers for the read though.
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