Crystal Maiden

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 strongest and most well-known support Heroes.

Crystal Maiden's focus on being a support makes her one of the more difficult Heroes to master. Her slow attack speed, mediocre health pool, slow movement speed and squishiness is an unattractive sight for beginners. She is recommended for intermediate to advanced players.

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 should be prioritized as it benefits the whole team greatly, especially one with a strong caster/ganker line-up.
 * 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.
 * Items like Black King Bar and Lothar's Edge 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.
 * If you have a few coins to spare - always buy items that boost your survivability, or get yourself an escape mechanism like Blink Dagger or Force Staff.

Trivia

 * Crystal Maiden's mana regen aura used to be called Brilliance Aura.
 * In early versions of DotA Allstars, Crystal Maiden and Lich used to share the same Frost Nova ability. However, in later updates Crystal's nova was changed to Crystal Nova and turned into a free-cast area of effect ability, while Lich's remained as a target area of effect ability.