Crystal Maiden

All the memes on the poor, slow, and low-impact Crystal Maiden may have come to an end as she was the most picked hero of the month! Let’s analyze what changed in the past patches and what she brings to the team.

7.16

Increased base attack damage from 24-30 to 26-32.

Increased Arcane Aura mana regen on self from 1.3/2.2/3.1/4 to 1.6/2.4/3.2/4.

Crystal Maiden's base attack damage was 19-25 until 7.11, but it has been buffed three times in the past months, reaching 26-32 in 7.16. Now, she has a 40-46 damage at level 1 - which is still very poor - but her harassing capabilities are exceptional thanks to the excellent nukes.

7.17

Reduced Crystal Nova cooldown from 12/11/10/9 to 11/10/9/8.

With a low 8 seconds cooldown once maxed out, Crystal Nova is of big help to push the lanes past the mid game.

Level 15 left talent: Increased gold income bonus per minute from 120 to 150.

The other level 15 talent (+14% Manacost/Manaloss Reduction Aura) is amazing when the team is snowballing and with the right lineup: for example, Zeus, Skywrath, and Tinker can benefit a lot from the mana cost reduction, and it stacks additively with the Kaya.

In most games, it is almost impossible to refuse the extra gold. This is a huge buff because CM can finally afford some late game items and buy all consumables required by the team, with no help.

Most of us do not notice the usefulness of this talent because in pubs it is usually selected by greedy players who utilize the extra gold for their personal benefit. Instead, in a competitive or high rank environment, the teams can enjoy a support with “free” wards.

The gold obtained via the talent is unreliable, which means you can lose it dying. In the wrong hands, Crystal Maiden can turn into a walking Bounty Rune for the opponent team because her deaths will feed them more than the usual due to the higher net worth.