Crystal Maiden

Crystal Maiden

The Radiant

16 + 1.7 16 + 1.6 21 + 2.9

Level 1 16 25 Hit Points 454 967 1594 Mana 273 858 1430 Damage 38-44 83-89 127-133 Armor 1.24 4.88 9.36 Attacks / Second 0.68 0.83 1.02

Movement Speed 280 Turn Rate 0.5 Sight Range 1800/800 Attack Range 600 Missile Speed 900 Attack Duration 0.55+0 Cast Duration 0.3+2.4 Base Attack Time 1.7

Rylai the Crystal Maiden is a ranged intelligence Hero mostly used as a support and disabler known best for her powerful global mana regeneration aura. This aura allows mana dependent allies to excel during the early or laning phase. She can also go out on an offensive, investing on Crystal Nova and Frostbite abilities earlier in the game to create a more devastating presence. Her powerful area nuke and slow coupled with her moderately long disable even at its first level makes her a tremendous roamer in the early game while still having a dominant power, although of less quality in the later stages. The Arcane Aura combined with her slow and disable abilities make her one of the more common support Heroes. Her low base movement speed has led to her decline in the current gank heavy metagame.

Bio

Rylai, the Crystal Maiden Play "When Hell freezes over, I'll start calling it Heaven." Role: Support / Disabler / Nuker / Lane Support Lore: Born in a temperate realm, raised with her fiery older sister Lina, Rylai the Crystal Maiden soon found that her innate elemental affinity to ice created trouble for all those around her. Wellsprings and mountain rivers froze in moments if she stopped to rest nearby; ripening crops were bitten by frost, and fruiting orchards turned to mazes of ice and came crashing down, spoiled. When their exasperated parents packed Lina off to the equator, Rylai found herself banished to the cold northern realm of Icewrack, where she was taken in by an Ice Wizard who had carved himself a hermitage at the crown of the Blueheart Glacier. After long study, the wizard pronounced her ready for solitary practice and left her to take his place, descending into the glacier to hibernate for a thousand years. Her mastery of the Frozen Arts has only deepened since that time, and now her skills are unmatched. Voice: Gin Hammond (Responses)

Abilities

Crystal Nova Q V Ability Affects Damage Target Point Enemies Magical A burst of damaging frost slows enemy movement and attack rate in the targeted area. Range: 700 Radius: 400 Duration: 3.5/4/4.5/5 Damage: 100/150/200/250 Movement Speed Slow: 30% Attack Speed Slow: 20% 15 100/120/140/160 The air temperature around Rylai drops rapidly, chilling all around her to the core.

Frostbite W E Ability Affects Damage Target Unit Enemies Magical Encases an enemy unit in ice, prohibiting movement and attack, while dealing damage per second. Range: 500 Duration: 1.5/2/2.5/3 Damage Per Second: 70 10 115/125/140/150 Rylai channels winds from the Blueheart Glacier, imprisoning attackers in thick blocks of ice.

Notes: Frostbite does not affect Phantom Strike. Frostbite disables blinking and metamorphosising. Unique Attack Modifier abilities can still be manually cast to auto-attack while Frostbite is active. Units that turn invisible while Frostbite is active are still revealed for Frostbite's duration. Lasts 10 seconds on all creeps of lvl 5 or less.

Arcane Aura E R Ability Affects Aura Allies Gives additional mana regeneration to all friendly units on the map. Radius: Global Mana Regeneration: 0.5/1/1.5/2 Cold temperatures promote the essence of magic, causing Rylai's presence to allow spell usage in abundance.

Notes: Stacks with the Arcane Aura given by Ring of Basilius. The bonus mana regeneration is not considered for percentage mana regeneration increases. This bonus is doubled on Crystal Maiden

Freezing Field R F Ability Affects Damage No Target Enemies Magical CHANNELED - Surrounds Crystal Maiden with random icy explosions that slow enemies and deal massive damage. Lasts 7 seconds. Radius: 685** / 215*** Duration: 7 Damage: 105/170/250 (170/250/310*) Movement Speed Slow: 30% Attack Speed Slow: 20% 150/120/90 200/400/600 Increases damage. Once the place of her exile, Icewrack has become an anchor for Rylai's frigid onslaught.

Notes: (**) Total radius of the spell. (***) radius of each explosion. The slow is applied on all enemy units within an radius of 685, even if they aren't hit by any explosion (lasts 1 second). Every 0.1 seconds one explosion is made, for a total of 70 explosions.

Recommended items

Explanation: Starting Items: Gauntlets of Strength as it improves Crystal Maiden's mediocre health pool As a support Hero, buying the Animal Courier is expected of the Hero as the Hero is less item dependant than other Heroes. Early Game: Bracer to upgrade Gauntlets of Strength to provide greater amount of Strength Core Items: Tranquil Boots gives Crystal Maiden survivability and the slightly-higher movement speed compared to other boots is also useful. Blink Dagger augments Rylai's mobility, something she needs badly. Much like the Animal Courier, Observer Wards are expected to be purchased and placed by support heroes. Luxury Items: Eul's Scepter of Divinity gives Crystal Maiden a second disable and a much-needed increase in movement speed. Ghost Scepter allows the Hero to avoid receiving damage from most carries. Scythe of Vyse gives a huge mana regeneration boost and a more reliable disable (Hex). Aghanim's Scepter to cause Freezing Field's damage to increase (see tips) Shiva's Guard gives Crystal Maiden a strong area slow which synergises with Freezing Field. It also makes her much more resistant to physical damage. Shadow Blade allows Crystal Maiden to escape dangerous situations and position her ult as she pleases. Black King Bar prevents interruptions to your ultimate channeling, and makes you tankier.

Tips

• Crystal Nova is a large area of effect nuke that also slows your enemies. You can hit enemies from 1100 units away with it (700 casting range + 400 radius).
• Frostbite is a great disable which prevents the target from moving or attacking. It also interrupts channelling spells and teleports. Unfortunately, it does not prevent enemy heroes from casting spells.
• Arcane Aura used to be prioritized as it benefits the whole team greatly, especially one with a strong caster/ganker line-up. But the introduction of Arcane Boots has made this skill somewhat less useful.
  • Since 6.76 this bonus is doubled on Rylai herself, granting a whopping +4 bonus mana/s.
• Freezing Field is an incredibly strong spell. However, it can be unpredictable and usually gets interrupted by your enemies very quickly. Freezing Field consumes a lot of mana, so use it sparingly.
  • Many players choose not to skill Freezing Field until quite late in the game, as it is a situational spell that is most effective in large clashes; and its use consumes a huge amount of mana. However, its slow and gigantic (if unpredictable) damage can be very useful in early game, especially against enemies that lack the means to interrupt it. Let your decision be informed by enemy lineup as well as laning composition.
• Items like Black King Bar and Shadow Blade are viable options to prevent your opponents from cancelling your ultimate, but Crystal Maiden usually won't have that much gold to spend.
• Crystal Maiden can either babysit her team's carry on dual/triple lanes, or roam between the lanes to gank enemies.
• Always ward the woods. Wards should be bought over and over again to provide map control through the whole game.
• There is a temptation to use Crystal Nova to push lanes, but owing to its mana cost and long cooldown this isn't a good idea.
• If you have a few coins to spare - always buy items that boost your survivability, or get yourself an escape/positioning mechanism like Blink Dagger or Force Staff.
• Freezing Field must be used at the right time to avoid interruption and being focused. Generally speaking, in an encounter it is best used after the initial nuking phase; when the enemy's stuns are on cooldown (building a Black King Bar will provide immunity to stuns; but Crystal Maiden does not typically get much gold and this can be very difficult to build in a game where your team is not getting a lot of kills). If your team has an initiator with the capability to disable a group of enemies, such as Tidehunter or Enigma, Freezing Field should be used in synchronisation with their mass disable. Using Freezing Field very often results in Rylai's death, and she rarely is able to channel it for its full duration, but if she can maintain it even for a few seconds it will be useful for her team.
  • Although Freezing Field's damage can be upgraded with Aghanim's Scepter, its primary use is its slow rather than its damage and considering Rylai's low gold income, building Scepter is typically not a good idea; her ult would be more useful if instead she built Black King Bar and/or Blink Dagger and typically of a support hero she normally must choose only a couple of luxury items.

Trivia

• Crystal Maiden's mana regen aura used to be called Brilliance Aura.
• In early versions of DotA, Crystal Maiden and Lich used to share the same Frost Nova ability. However, in later updates, Crystal Maiden's Frost Nova was changed to Crystal Nova, turning it into a free-cast area-of-effect ability, while Lich kept the original effects.
• Her Frostbite icon is similliar to Treant's ult, Overgrowth.

Update history

January 24, 2013 Patch

• Fixed Freezing Field channeling ending if you get purged.

August 09, 2012 Patch

• [Undocumented] Added a teleport animation to Crystal Maiden.

August 02, 2012 Patch

• [Undocumented] Added new Axe and Crystal Maiden responses.

July 26, 2012 Patch

• [Undocumented] Updated Crystal Maiden's textures.

May 10, 2012 Patch

• Fixed Crystal Nova vision.
• Fixed Freezing Field ground slow aoe being slightly off.

February 16, 2012 Patch

• Crystal Maiden illusions will no longer play her custom death anim.

January 19, 2012 Patch

• [Undocumented] Modified hero selection portraits of Bloodseeker and Crystal Maiden.

September 16, 2011 Patch

• You can now target-cast cast-attacks while disarmed (e.g. Frost Arrows while under Frost Bite).

September 15, 2011 Patch

• You can now target-cast cast-attacks while disarmed (e.g. Frost Arrows while under Frost Bite).

August 05, 2011 Patch

• Fixed Freezing Field to never land a splash too close to CM.

August 04, 2011 Patch

• Removed death effect blood from CM.
• Crystal Maiden has a new death animation.

July 01, 2011 Patch

• Fixed Freezing Field to favor splash locations near her.
• Fixed Brilliance Aura not affecting regular units.

June 24, 2011 Patch

• Fixed Frostbite not doing a ministun when cast.
• Fixed Frost Nova not giving visibility.

May 26, 2011 Patch

• Fixed Frostbite not revealing invisible units.
• Fixed Frostbite damage interval.

March 12, 2011 Patch

• Fixed Crystal Nova working on towers.

March 03, 2011 Patch

• Fixed Freezing Field not slowing attack speed.

January 27, 2011 Patch

• Fixed Frostbite visual effect appearing on the target even if the spell was blocked.
• Added 10 second creep duration exception for Frostbite.

Balance changelog

6.76

• Arcane Aura has twice the effect on Crystal Maiden.

6.75

• Freezing Field duration increased from 4 to 7 seconds.

6.74

• Freezing Field AoE increased by 100 (Explosion AoE adjusted to keep damage probabilities equivalent).

6.72

• Freezing Field level 1 manacost decreased from 300 to 200.

6.69

• Crystal Nova
  • Damage increased from 80/130/180/230 to 100/150/200/250.
  • Slow duration reduced from 5 to 3.5/4/4.5/5 seconds.

6.60

• Replaced Frost Nova with a similar new ability Crystal Nova.
• Arcane Aura lowered from 0.75/1.5/2.25/3 to 0.5/1/1.5/2.

6.55

• Arcane Aura improved a bit.

6.54

• Changed Freezing Field mechanics a bit. The slow now comes from the area rather than the explosions. Changed the distribution method on Freezing Field as well.

6.49

• Arcane Aura now has a global effect.

Gallery

• 

  Concept artwork

• 

  Steam profile background art

See also

• Crystal Maiden responses
• Blueheart Spotter