Crystal Maiden

Rylai the Crystal Maiden is a ranged intelligence Hero used as a hard support and disabler. She is perhaps best known for her powerful global mana regeneration aura. This aura allows mana dependent allies to excel during the early to mid game and the laning phase, and allows her to constantly activate her own spells without needing to worry much about the mana costs. She also has a high amount of early game presence with just a few points in her Crystal Nova and Frostbite abilities. Crystal Nova is a powerful area-of-effect nuke that slows both attack and movement speeds of enemies within an area for several seconds, while Frostbite encases an enemy in a block of ice for several seconds, immobilizing it and doing moderate damage per second. Combining these two abilities together along with a laning partner's own spells often results in the quick death of an enemy hero. Although her strong early game presence is quickly lost due to her extreme frailty and poor mobility, she can still inflict a heavy amount of damage in teamfights later on if she is able to channel her deadly ultimate, Freezing Field. Her Arcane Aura, strong disabling and nuking prowess, relative ease of usage, and almost complete lack of item dependence makes her a reliable support caster that can be useful in any team.

Tips

 * 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).
 * 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 (except for True blinks).
 * benefits the whole team greatly, especially one with a strong caster/ganker line-up, as it grants them a better lane presence due to the increased number of spells they can use.
 * Generally, 3 points in Arcane Aura, with 2 levels taken early, are sufficient for most of the game. Adjust your ability build to the needs of your team.
 * This bonus is doubled on Rylai herself, granting a whopping +5 bonus mana/second at level 4.
 * 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 level 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 line-up as well as laning composition.
 * Crystal Maiden's potent spells grant her an incredible early-game roaming and ganking presence, particularly when her slow movement speed is offset with Tranquil Boots.
 * Frostbite's 10 second duration on creeps can be used to earn Crystal Maiden some spending cash in the jungle, either during roams or while her carry's lane is uncontested.
 * Observer Wards and Sentry Wards should be bought over and over again to provide map control throughout the match.
 * Later on, Crystal Nova may be used to help push a lane without contesting carries for last hits, as the damage is not quite enough to kill a wave of creeps. However, make sure to keep it off cooldown in the possibility of an upcoming teamfight.
 * In teamfights, cast Crystal Nova early to reduce incoming damage due to the attack speed slow.
 * If you have a few coins to spare, buy items that boost your survivability, or get yourself an escape/positioning mechanism such as or.
 * 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 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  or, Freezing Field should be used in synchronization 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, to do so is to gild the lily; Freezing Field at level 3 is staggeringly powerful even without a scepter and it's wiser to build items that improve her chances of channeling it.

Trivia

 * Rylai's name in Warcraft DotA was Rylai Crestfall. Her surname was removed in transition to Dota 2 for the implementation of her sibling rivalry with Lina.
 * 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.


 * League of Legends features an item called Rylai's Crystal Scepter, a homage to the Crystal Maiden from the original DotA.
 * The "Gaining a Level" response cm_levelup_03.mp3 "Is it cold in here or is it just me?" is a reference to the action movie "Demolition Man"
 * The "Respawning" response cm_respawn_03.mp3 "You only live ice..." is a reference to the 1967 James Bond film 'You Only Live Twice' based on the novel of the same name.
 * The "Beginning the Battle" response cm_battlebegins_01.mp3 "It's all fun and games until someone's frozen solid" is a reference to a novel written by Christopher Brookmyre entitled 'All Fun and Games until Somebody Loses an Eye'
 * The "Rare" response cm_rare_02.mp3 "Can you guess my... favorite poet?" is a reference to Robert Frost due to his last name.