Dota 2 Heroes – An introduction to Rylai the Crystal Maiden

By: Jason McCarthy

  |   December 19th, 2012   |  

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Behind every successful man, there is a woman. Rylai the Crystal Maiden is well-suited to live up to this rather arguable notion in Defense of the Ancients (Dota) 2 by possessing abilities that make her support prowess unquestionable.

Crystal Maiden is not just a hot chick, but also contributes to her team by bring a very strong support that can help them out in a multitude of ways.

Her first spell Crystal Nova is a 400 Area of Effect (AoE) ability that will deal 250 damage on contact as well as slow enemy’s movement speed by 30 percent and attack speed by 20 percent for a 5-second duration. This is a very useful ability throughout the game, with the 30 percent reduction pretty effective early to mid game, while the 20 percent reduced attack of enemies quite useful late game.

Her second spell Frostbite is a single-target ability that will immobilise an enemy and deal 70 damage per second for a 3-second period. Being immobilised means that you cannot move or attack, but can use spells. It is a great counter to heroes with escape mechanisms. One side-note on the spell is that if it is used on a creep, it will immobilise them for a 10-second period and thus deal damage accordingly.

Her third ability Arcane Aura is passive. At Level 4, you will globally give all allied units 2 mana regeneration. Just to give you an idea, Ring of Basilius gives you a 0.65 mana regeneration and it completely stackable with the Arcane Aura itself. Depending on her skill build during the initial stages of the game, Arcane Aura can potentially give her allies an opportunity to spam their spells with little to no mana regeneration of their own.

Crystal Maiden’s ultimate Freezing Field is a challenging 685 AoE ability that will surround her with random ice shards falling from the sky. The channel time is 4 seconds and each shard will deal 250 damage in a 190 AoE. Possessing a few features of the first spell, anyone caught in the genera AoE will have their movement and attack speed reduced by 30 percent and 20 percent respectively. Furthermore, if she somehow manages to farm Aghanim’s Scepter, it will increase improve her ultimate by increasing the damage dealt by each ice shard from 250 to 310.

With a pretty pathetic attack speed of her own, Crystal Maiden will have a tough time farming gold for items. Fortunately, she is not really that dependent on items and a pair of shoes and maybe a couple of bracers will prove to be more than sufficient to ensure her survival and enable her to play an effective role in team battles. Her ultimate is a channelling ability and thus requires a great deal of judgement before it can be unleashed. Crystal Maiden is definitely a team player and loaded with a number of abilities that help her in fulfilling her role quite effectively.

Disclaimer: The research used in this article is accredited to Dota Cinema and SUNSfan. No copyright infringement is intended.