One point in your W is fine for early game, maxing Nova gives you the most damage and the AS/MS slow is quite noticeable. Getting one level of aura at level 2/3 is usually standard, but a second level at level 4 can be in the works if your team has a bunch of Earthshaker/Wraith King types so that they can skip early mana items and be stronger in the midgame.
I think Blink Dagger and Ghost Scepter are items you'll want to have in most games. Force Staff is near-core. Glimmer Cape I'm not sure on even though I've seen a lot of CMs get it. I think those are the same players that got Shadow Blade on CM/WD in the past. But Glimmer Cape can be used on an ally, so I don't hate it as much because it does provide some utility.
The rest is just knowing when you can go aggressive, when you can't, when you should be trying to set up kills, when you can't do that and can instead jungle with Frostbite... stuff like that just comes naturally with experience.
At sub 3k level crystal maiden needs to be active. It won't work to just jungle and give mana because players at this level are not good enough to do much with the extra mana. It's not that you can't jungle, it's that you must come out and attack mid and safelane early and often.
First, make it a priority to win the early game vision. Get sentries right away and get your obs up before they do so you can see where they place wards. Then just wait until they go to lanes and kill their wards. Place your wards so your Mid Player gets uphill vision - this gives them a major advantage in lane control. Then make it a priority to kill the opposing mid player early. Learn exactly where to stand to be close to them on their side of the river and not seen, get smoke if you have too to make it easier. Wait for the lane to be just about to push back so you have some creeps, wait for them too be slightly to far forward. Then attack. Before you attack tell your mid player to get ready, often they are too focused on cs and don't even realize you are ganking. A sub 3k mid player will likely panic and retreat when you gank mid without announcing it because they won't immediately realize you are an ally.
Do the same thing ganking your safelane. First control vision. Then announce your attack and wait for the right time. This is how cm wins in sub 3k early.
Mid game, push ward vision forward so you can see behind enemy towers and uphill into their jungle. Get smoke and go with just the other heroes with disables... do not wait for 5 people. Smoke only 2 or 3 heroes and go when you see a target to attack. Do not smoke into the enemy territory blind.
Get appropriate positioning items. For sub 3k crystal maiden glimmer cape is by far the best. Truesight is not used very well in sub 3k games, that is why invis heroes seem so strong. But fstaff and blink are good too. Remember to use your glimmer cape to save your carry as they retreat. This will ensure they have items and didn't have to buy back. If cm dies in a fight, no one cares. Keep the carry alive, even if its some moron who doesn't realize you saved him and says you are a feeder. You want to win the game.
Encourage your team to hit towers. CM can't kill towers. If other players don't do it, you will lose the game.
If the game goes late, you screwed up... but its still possible to win. Get ghost scepter so carries cannot solo kill you. Wait the first 4 sec of a fight in ghost so you won't die. Then glimmer and cast freezing field as the bkbs end. Get an Ultra kill.
pretty sure you should play her actively at all mmrs, seems like a waste of her abilities if you ever jungle her past lvl 2
Her ulti is very powerful and sub 3k won't deal with it properly, especially if you have glimmer cape. You can also farm easily by using frostbite on strong neutrals when there's nothing to do at lane.
If you can get the gold for it blink + aghs + glimmer cape will wipe enemy teams. You blink it, pop ult, pop glimmer, fade to invis before enemy team knows what's happening and they will all die. Even just blink + regular ult is quite strong if enemy team has little disables, they'll have to burst you hard to stop you.
Lol no point, im in game as CM, i got wards gave vision and told our storm im coming mid once razor pushes out, he waits for me to come from behind and after i frostbite he fuckign tp's to base , he had full health and 80% mana
no point
what can a lvl 4 cm do against a lvl 8 razor, this storm has been tping from lane to lane coz he wants to farm all 3
yo lemmy whats up man, man supports are tough in sub 3k, youd just better carry your team or pick aggressive multi dimensional sups.
True, thats why ogre was one of the few supports I always felt good on, even when i just started dota
Communicate with your team, actively ward, setup kills, deward if needed, buy your team tps, buy courier, upgrade courier, get smokes if your team wants to rosh or gank.
As for items, tranquils are the boots I get basically every time. If I have great farm I'll get an early urn into blink. If not, go force staff first and maybe skip urn. Glimmer cape, euls, bkb are situational depending on what the other team has and what is killing you/your team. I almost never get aghs, because it provides far less than most utility items.
For skill choices I am all over the place. However, I tend to take my ulti at lvl 6 because it can turn a fight if used properly. I am always sad when I see a lvl 6-8 cm without ulti and an opportunity for a multi-kill arises.
cur 2 wards tangoe salve 2 clarity.
w-e-e-q-q-q-q-r-e-e-r-w-w-w-s-r-ssssssssstats.
not always though... if you got a bristle in your team or a pugna or something that can do more with the mana than you can, sometimes 1141 by 7 is legit. Though the 5 second slow from nova at lvl 4 is shit hot.
the irony of CM is that she has stupid mana issues... so an early urn is actually reasonable... Euls can be good for the mobility and mana regen... Force is core in like 90% of games though.
CM doesn't roam as effectively as she used to, but you still wanna go between safe and mid while just biting a creep as you pass by (kills almost everything, I think you gotta punch the hellbear twice and move on)... an early smoke with 1-1-1 to gank a snowball mid like storm/sf is a must... really depends how you wanna play too... you can't be overly passive in the jungle this patch so I'd suggest that over the 0-1-2 jungle build up... cm is stupidly strong between level 3 and 9... so you wanna actually get out and do shit, especially in this patch.
Just accept you are the bitch and she is op...
Go blink not force staff. Cheaper and more useful - blink into ulti/freeze will secure a lot of kills - buy wards with the money you saved.
Is crazy to skip glimmer Cape in most situations - save yourself, save your carry, get off a full ulti, poor man initiation for the rest of your team.
tldr: bad carry+bitch>bad carry. Buy tranq>blink>glimmer.
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I want to get back to playing supports , coz im getting too worked up when playing carry, overanalysing and stuff.
whats the optimal item and skill build to play her effectively