How Ancient Apparition and Crystal Maiden perform as teammates in Dota 2 7.41e, from ranked matches.
In Dota 2 7.41e, Ancient Apparition and Crystal Maiden win 53.47% of ranked matches when playing on the same team, over 6,649 matches.
Pairing these two supports often looks like a mistake since they're both so fragile and slow. The reality is that Crystal Maiden’s Arcane Aura solves Ancient Apparition's biggest problem: his mana pool. An AA with constant mana can spam Ice Vortex to soften targets and zone enemies, while always having enough for a Cold Feet attempt. The lockdown is also very direct. A single Frostbite from Crystal Maiden is usually enough to hold an enemy in place for the Cold Feet stun to trigger, creating reliable kill threat where you wouldn't expect it.
As the game goes on, this partnership allows for strong area control. Ancient Apparition can set up teamfights with his slows and magic resistance reduction, making it much harder for enemies to escape a well-placed Freezing Field. However, the core weakness remains. Both heroes need to be positioned perfectly and are easily killed if focused by mobile enemies. The duo relies on their other teammates to create a frontline and peel, so if the rest of the draft can't provide that space, their combined utility won't matter much.
How this pairing performs across skill brackets — the duo's team win rate in recent ranked matches, split by average match rank. Ranks with too few recent matches are omitted. These rows use the last 30 days of quality-filtered ranked matches, all patches in that span combined — a wider window than the patch-scoped count above, so the per-rank match totals can exceed it.
| Rank | Team win rate | Matches |
|---|---|---|
| Herald & Guardian | 56.42% | 413 |
| Crusader & Archon | 55.49% | 1,074 |
| Legend & Ancient | 53.46% | 651 |
| Divine & Immortal | 57.02% | 114 |
This duo's team win rate in each recent balance patch — whether the pairing is trending up or down. Patches without enough matches are omitted.
| Patch | Team win rate | Change | Matches |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7.41e | 53.47% | ▲ +0.6pp | 6,649 |
| 7.41d | 52.91% | ▲ +1.2pp | 67,685 |
| 7.41c | 51.69% | ▲ +0.8pp | 27,592 |
| 7.41b | 50.91% | — | 28,574 |
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Data updated Aug 17, 2026.