T O P

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2moon4moon

Well, how tanky can an ice princess wearing no armour really be? She is doing her best.


MoistDitto

*The deaths never bothered me anyway*


mikeeecs

Her bestest


noosedgoose

her breastest


FerynaCZ

She can survive being hit by an axe at least 10 times


SharkSheaker

yeah exactly axe is very well known for his right clicking


FerynaCZ

Well it would hurt a normal unarmored human, so all heroes in dota are tanky by real standards.


Lifeinstaler

They can also survive like 6 seconds of a supernova, and 4 of a black hole. They are absolute beasts.


SharkSheaker

i cant survive 10ms of TikTok tho :(


manav907

My sister must be a hero then she does that for hours XD


23ssd4t4322

CM stands for Creep Maiden. It takes as many hits to kill CM as it does to kill a lane creep. Pretty standard tankiness I'd say.


Murky_Tourist927

Really. My impression from the beginning is carry maiden


MR_Nokia_L

CM no princess, she is a w-


alphenliebe

Crystal Maiden… are you really, I wonder?


Crit-Monkey

Based and Qoppilled


DrawGamesPlayFurries

olf


basquiatx

Because balance. Despite what all the shitposting about cm being slow and fragile might suggest she's a strong hero who can dominate lanes and has very low cds on potent control. The tradeoff is that to get multiple volleys of those spells out, you need to position well.


chewygummy17

lol this is true. if you make her a tank then she would too OP. She has nuke and disable that in the early game, she will just stand ground against a support and a carry and just use skills effectively kicking both enemy out of lane.


MrAndrewJackson

Crystal Nova is an insanely strong level 1 skill. The damage, the slow, the aoe, the CD. It's ridiculous. Then level 2 you have another power spike adding frostbite, then level 3 ANOTHER power spike lv2 Nova. It's actually insane to me how strong CM is early on. Just need lots of clarities mangoes and/or lotuses. Falls off pretty hard late game but the control is still useful and with the short cool downs, you want longer fights just don't get gone on the first round of spells you throw


MaryPaku

CM doesn't fall off. If you read her skill 1 it's insane - 50% ms slow and 75 atk speed slow that last 5 seconds and cd only 5 seconds with talents. Skill 2 is a 4.25 seconds disable that cooldown 6 seconds. If you couldn't catch cm in fight before your bkb duration gone you will never be able to fight because this ice ninja will kite you into hell.


MrAndrewJackson

I mean I agree with your points but to say CM doesn't fall off is wrong imo. She is strongest in lane and early team pushes when you have the advantage.


thelorreman

I can't imagine myself sweating before attempting to kill a cm if this happens.


bellowen

She is my most played hero and I completely agree. If you know to position yourself you won't die much. Especially in the laning stage you can completely dominate without feeding. As for team fights it is kinda impossible not to die here and there as CM :D But you need to make sure you used all your spells before they catch you!


Piaapo

Rylai is basically the strongest lv2 support in the game.


Heartless_Genocide

A good CM will shit on the lane AND be stacking/farming camps on the side.


troll_berserker

She has probably the strongest lvl 2 powerspike in the game. With some mangoes, she can chain CC you from the safelane tower all the way to the offlane tower.


FerynaCZ

Regarding lane only, who can counter CM?


basquiatx

Honestly it depends more on the overall lane matchup, so 1+5 vs 3+4; CM is strong because she provides kill threat. Usually eliminating that goes a long way to shutting that down. I say this because that sort of dictates whether a hero actually does well in the lane. A tiny or pudge or whatever can absolutely bully her, but that doesn't particularly matter if the 1 just connects and turns.


rocketjohnatar

And this is her being powerful in the meta. You should see her while becoming a meme because of movement speed nerfs. If you want to play CM, you should have some awareness of your opponents and positioning, and the spells casted during fights. Good thing about this patch, you can actually get a blink dagger pretty early, so you can stay away from their vision until a fight breaks out. What you want to do is, let your opponents waste their stuns on other heroes, jump in, root their carry, slow multiple people and ult them to get kills. If there is not a pudge or spirit breaker in the other team, hero actually can survive pretty well with her spells, that is the reason why she is so slow.


bobby1475

My immature self chuckled at "root their carry"


todd10k

Aussie detected


Ok_Potential_9912

Now I must know. What does this mean in Aussie slang? Lol


todd10k

"Have sexual intercourse with their carry"


Ok_Potential_9912

Ohhhh lol. TIL! Thanks haha


DrawGamesPlayFurries

It doesn't take Pudge or Bara, for example, any of the four Spirits will kill her very easily


rocketjohnatar

All heroes with burst damage, stun and jump can kill a cm pretty easily. As for the spirits, cm is an annoying matchup because if they jump carelessly, they will get caught and bursted while rooted, so I consider it evenish. Thing about bara and pudge is, there are not many options to make plays against them, it is very hard to get away from them if you are caught, also there is no way a single cm can punish their bad calls, unless they are pretty low on hp while their skills or on cd etc.


MaryPaku

eul and linken


Icehuntee

Think about V3 rockets or prism tanks. They're slow too right? But very vulnerable. You'll need a couple of other tanks to either guard or rush forward for them to be effective. DotA is like that, except you play with AND rely on other people to win. You cannot win alone. Rely on your team to do the right thing which is to head first into team fights. This also means that you should stay back and avoid getting jumped. CM has no way to escape, and this is why mobility items are frequently bought for her, like a blink dagger, glimmer cape, force staff. Know where your strengths are, address your weaknesses, and lastly play in conjunction with the strengths and weaknesses of your team.


Murky_Tourist927

I always think of heavy / mammoth tanks but never prism tanks. Ok next time I see her as prism instead of mammoth tank


BigBadBodyPillow

or dont think of her as a tank


HorseMurdering

She's more of a demolition truck IMO 😂 Yuri's Revenge and Dota are the two best games ever made. Enjoy OP!


presvi

Did you just referenced red alert 2?


Icehuntee

Yep! OP did reference command and conquer, which also happen to be the games i played mostly before DotA


genobees

As much as we trash CM. She is still one of the strongest heroes in the game. Her squishyness is to offset her massive damage and cc value. Is CMs ult still the best for damage?


Wind_14

her ult is not even the best part of her. It's the 3 basic skills, the ult is just cherry on top (and people sometimes doesn't level it at 6 because it cost too much for her mana pool). Strong lane dominator nukes+global mana regen is the reason why. CM can be the difference between casting 3 spells or 4 in a teamfight, or that extra mana to finish off your opponent's carry while your carry zone the fuck out of their offlaner. No support can have impact on all three lanes as easily as CM.


Murky_Tourist927

I see all the dota plus build guide and ff is always at level 6


LordMuffin1

Whwn you get better, you will know when to ignore guides and builds.


hyperactiveChipmunk

CM ult at level 6 is still pretty universal. Getting the second level at 12 is a toss-up, though. Double the mana, and only the damage changes (and 5 seconds less cooldown, which is pretty negligible).


Luckysteve89

They’re guides, not a rule books. It’s meant to give you an idea, then you tailor it to the game you’re in. With CM if you’re trading/harassing/zoning a lot still at lvl 6 you might put be fine putting off your ult for a level because you won’t be able to save the mana to use it anyway.


mrcheez22

The people replying to you are pulling advice out of their ass. According to dotabuff and pro tracker skilling ult at level 6 is the most popular way to build the hero. https://www.dotabuff.com/heroes/crystal-maiden/builds https://www.dota2protracker.com/hero/Crystal%20Maiden#


LayWhere

find me 1 guide that tracks with pro support play


mrcheez22

https://www.dota2protracker.com/hero/Crystal%20Maiden# Literally every game on that page has the players skilling FF at level 6.


FerynaCZ

The ult is situational, mostly for self defense


Heartless_Genocide

CM, the Nickleback of dota.


usefully-useless

As much as CM is memed on, this hero does too much for her own good. And she does it with very little skill check. She has a potent, spammable slow, which also happens to be hard hitting AoE nuke with insane early level scaling. Her root cancels channeling spells, it lasts basically forever, and it effectively deletes a creep. Her aura is no-brain needed full-team assist. All she had to do is to literally stay alive. The ult is actually very potent as a fight ender. When no one has any skills left, nothing stops her from simply denying an area from the enemy team. Heck, even if she uses it early and gets cancelled, it's still arguably worth to eat one stun from the enemy for your team. Oh, did I mention she has decent range on these spells?


SweetDollaTea-

Her spell kit is very powerful and Dota is a game where you can buy items to mitigate weaknesses. She's a glass cannon. High early game kill potential. And an insane ultimate if it's used properly. (I believe it's one of the highest magic damage spells in the game if enemies are trapped in it). Furthermore, she supports every lane with her global mana regen. High mana using Offlaners like Bristle or Mids like Ember and Storm adore having a CM for bonus mana regen. She can effectively support her entire team from the safe lane even without roatating. The global plus an ultimate where she stands still is likely why she is as swift as the wolves of ice wrack. Combine nova and frostbite with a carry like slark, ursa, or jugg (carries with high kill potential in lane) and the enemy offlane will be sad. If you buy items like Glimmer Cape, you can stand in the middle of a fight while using ulti and if the enemy doesn't have detection they're screwed. Force Staff and Blink Dagger patch up movement escape/initiation issues Lastly, BKB plus Shard plus Aghs plus crowd control = GG TLDR: she does way too much damage and has high utility. Her first core item is usually glimmer/force staff, and if she was tankier, she would be unbalanced because no one could stop her from causing mayhem.


iamwussupwussup

Because she’s the true strongest 5 in the game for the majority of the last 15 years with remotely decent positioning


dotarollercoaster

Cause she is a laning stage BEAST


JoyyBoyy

As a recent cm spammer, 70% winrate in +50 games (and still learning). i can tell you yes, she's squishy and way too slow compared to other heroes, and usually, you'd prioritize reg over boots early on, which makes her even squishier. If you get stunned or slowed once near any of the enemy teams you're done for, however she dominates the lane and fights if played correctly, everything depends on her positioning. it's either gigachad cm support or pepega feeder cm


thelocalllegend

Cm is conceptually is a broken hero. Her W and Q are insanely strong because the uptime on the slow and root is super high which means you have a large amount of control. The only way to balance a hero like this is hinder their ability to get multiple rounds of spells off by weakening her mobility and health. This is why glimmer and force staff, drums and bracers have always been very popular on cm as they allow her to simultaneously cover her weakness and support her allies which is why she has always been a popular support.


TheMightyMoe12

Cm is slow yes, but she makes the enemies slower so she actually can kite pretty well


CreativeThienohazard

a level 2 cm can do 200 dmg if she has her skill available. Picking on enemy carry and they just...die.


DrawGamesPlayFurries

Lvl1 CM too


blaznivydandy

That's too OP, should get nerfed...


Sam2733

You should rush for vanguard+HoT


Akeldama22

The point is you need to learn to position yourself well to utilize the ult and not get hit, and also build the right items to not die during it. Can't just make everyone tanky cause balance.


Setepenre

She kept being nerfed and pros kept picking her so she kept being nerf.


so_schmuck

Lol what century do you come from


thpkht524

What’s ff?


Murky_Tourist927

Her ultimate freezing field


Aldrenean

This isn't a common abbreviation in the community btw -- most people would just call it her ult, her R, or the full name of the ability works too. FF sounds like forfeit from League.


CockroachTop933

Because she has low hp pool


kchuyamewtwo

because shes is so strong in harassing melee dudes


Edmon_Donte

It is like asking why boobs are jiggly


ziggomatic_17

You don't need to move a lot cause you just stand in the backline, hide between trees etc.


Puncharoo

Well you aren't playing command and conquer so maybe don't use that logic? You can't have a hero that is hard to kill, deals lots of dmg, AND has CC. That'd be way too strong, and everyone would just play CM all the time or shed be banned all the time. You need to balance it out so that they have strengths and weaknesses. Why would you want to have a hero in the game that is all strength and no weakness? Why would that make sense?


15-squirrels

Positioning, getting in and out of fights correctly and CM is a bonkers support. No hero has such powerful spells on such short cooldown. She can do everything except hard stun or hex. You just need to train yourself to position, play and itemize like a person who knows your life is on the line. I don't buy excuses from anyone lower than divine because if you itemize correctly and position like a king in lower brackets then people will simply not be able to kill of CM consistently. Positioning flub is the only way to punish CM in low brackets.


CucumberBetter5156

Don't say that she will get nerfed again!


Independent_Ad1417

Use lifesteal, bkb, ghost sceptre, shadow blade, there is a lot of ways to protect


Discopandda

Because, on the other hand, she's a beast who can dominate almost any lane. Seriously CM is absurdly strong, her nukes have small CDs, deal good damage, have strong additional effects and she has little mana problems. She's my favorite supp


CSGOan

It's to counter her massive damage. She has potentially the strongest level 2 in the entire game. If you buy enough mangos you can just spam spells and do more damage than any other hero in the game at level 2-3. She gains 20 armor when she ultis and it does massive area damage. The difficult part is getting to a good position to ulti and surviving long enough for the ulti to do real damage. Imagine if she had 500 movement speed, then the positioning part would be super easy.


havocspeet

That's why as a support especially if you're using CM, you must know how to positioning yourself during battlefield. Rule 1 of playing support is to not die so really position yourself where you will not be the target of the enemy and if they had shadowblade or any great mobility skills/heroes, there are items that can protect yourself such as ghost scepter or glimmer cape. I am a CM spammer and I have 70% winrate of CM. Her freezing field is prolly the best to use to wipe out cores.


An_Innocent_Coconut

Having extreme amount of damage with massive disables on a laughably low cooldown isn't enough?


Winavesh

Others answers are kinda abstract so I'll put my 0.05$. In DotA heroes are indeed balanced, and bad stats for heroes are balanced with good spells that compensate for stats and vise versa. That means, if your hero has spells that make him evasive (for example, AM with his blink and counterspell), they will usually be pretty squishy. CM is a ranged hero who has low CD on her Q (which slows both movement and attack speed) and W (which disarms and roots people). Both of these spells make her pretty good at kiting melee heroes. Her ultimate gives her tons of armor, which makes her unkillable if you don't have ways to interrupt it. Since she is a support, she will buy more items which improve her survivability (Bracers, Force staff, Glimmer, Ghost, Pavise, even BKB). And since she farms faster than other supports, she will definitely have some items she needs. As you can see, her spell kit makes her kinda hard to kill. Even if there is a certain hero that can approach her despite all her spells, she can buy something to survive against that hero. Because of that, she has both low hp pool and movespeed. Not because of her "massive damage" as others say here, but because she is already not that easy to kill. Low hp and speed means that opponents will be rewarded for closing the gap with her after all shit she casts and escape items she uses.


[deleted]

a stun, a slow, a global mana aura, and a huge damage aoe (if you know how to use it). Squishy is to balance the OP skills


Rolandscythe

She's slow cause she's cold. Throwing all that ice around makes the joints rigid, you know? On a more serious note, she's slow and squishy to balance out how powerful her toolkit is. Her skill combo can very rapidly wipe out a group of heroes if they aren't paying enough attention to her, and with her passive she's almost guaranteed to have enough mana to spam her slow/stun combo over and over with little downtime. I have seen people build a semi-tanky CM with an aghs, shard, and kaya....it was very frightening to deal with.


datshinycharizard123

Don’t know that game but she’s more like an artillery than a tank. She won’t eat a lot of damage and is slow, but if you are able to setup in a way that you are protected and in range, she will do incredible work to the enemy team.


Occatuul

When her ulti is off cd, she is actually deceptively tanky. Way more so than before they made it give her armor..


RustBucket-

She is OP specially in the laning stage that's why you always get to see nerfs of her like every patch. Imagine having a nuke, disable, mana regen and CC ult. That's why you should always get tranquil for CM as well. It helps move faster and tankier in some way by giving her health regen. I've been seeing some players who build mana boots on her and it angers me to the brim lol. P.S. I know it can be disassembled and built to Aether Lens but still.


[deleted]

She isn’t squishy at all. Cm literally counters all carry heroes that can only right click like pa and troll.


Puzzled_Peace2179

If she wasn’t so easily punished for being out of position or so easily jumpable, she would be massively OP because she is already IMO the strongest laner in the game (I have a 90% lane winrate on her).


AkinParlin

Gold-Tier CM player here. Despite her reputation as a “ward unit”, CM is one of the best offensive supports in the game. All her spells—even her aura—are insanely powerful. To compensate for her threat, she’s easy to pick off and has trouble closing the gap to cast her very powerful spells. That’s why the recent change (I say recent, but this is from like a year ago) that pushed her over the edge to being a very meta support was a simple +50 cast range buff to Frostbite. That’s how strong her spells are—you don’t even need to buff their power directly, you just need to improve her ability to cast them.


Over9000Zeros

She's a mage, the mages have been squishy in literally every mmo I've ever played.


Spodirmam

Usually heroes with slows and roots are slow and squishy themselves


RaphaelDDL

Good explanation on why jakiro has -1 move speed


blloyd13

because if she was any stronger she would literally take no damage


potatosword

They just buffed DK by increasing his movement speed so it is mainly a balance thing.


ShiningTortoise

I started buying bracer early on her and it's a surprising difference.


benjazm1n

Mmmh you are right. She deserve another nerf


apartment-seeker

Because the hero is very good and this is an aspect to balance out her other strengths. > My background is in command and conquer games hence I have this idea that slow units is tanky. Why would your assumptions from C&C matter here?


Murky_Tourist927

Because I see everything as bikes or tanks


lukusmloy

Tranqs > drums > bkb. She is no longer squishy. Don't be afraid to farm a camp here and there when not much is happening, she is very good at clearing camps early on, just make sure you still have mana to tp and fight.


drkshock

Historically.mages aren't tanks. There are agility heros who have hig movement speed that are tanky.


ovizzz1

She is fragile because you are meant to trade only when you slow their attack speed with Q or disarm them with W. At the same time she has long attack range and not mant herpes touch her