Dota 2 Winter Wyvern Guide

Freeze your allies in a healing embrace or shatter foes with your icy fury by following the coolest Dota 2 Winter Wyvern Guide 

Where dragons breathe fire, Winter Wyvern breathes ice capable of healing friends and burning foes. She flies above the trees with her watchful reptilian eyes, looking for the right moment to curse an unsuspecting enemy, burying them forever in an icy tomb.

Winter Wyvern is a ranged Universal Hero with an impressive HP of 560 and 387 Mana. Furthermore, although her damage of 41.5 and movement speed of 285 is below average, her armor of 2.7 is quite good.  

Winter Wyvern (WW) is relatively easy to play, as most of her abilities are simple clicks and casts with good range. She is also a powerful nuker thanks to her abilities which also bring utility to the battlefield, perfect for her usual support gameplay. She does not need much gold to function, so proper positioning and helping her carry farm is enough for an ensured win. 

Abilities

Let’s take time to chill out and learn about the heavy utility-based cool abilities of our Icy Wyvern. 

• Arctic Burn – Winter Wyvern flies with unobstructed movement for 10 seconds and is capable of dealing quick and chilling attacks with up to 500 bonus attack range. Each attack does basic attack damage in addition to a debuff of up to 10% of their current health as damage per second, lasting for 5 seconds (7 with level 15 talent). Furthermore, enemies are slowed by 40% (52% with level 20 talent) throughout the debuff duration. This ability can be upgraded with Aghanim’s Scepter. 
  • Aghanim’s Scepter Upgrade – Turns Arctic burn into a toggle ability and drains Mana by 20 per second. WW also gains an additional movement speed bonus of 25% whenever active.
    
• Splinter Blast – WW launches a ball of ice that shatters on impact, showering enemies in a 500 radius (900 with level 15 talent) with splinters that damage for up to 340 (440 with level 20 talent) and slow movement speed by 30% for 4 seconds. Upgrading the level 25 talent also causes the splinters to stun for 1.5 seconds.
  
• Cold Embrace – Winter Wyvern cocoons an ally in healing ice, disabling them for 4 seconds and healing them for up to 45 HP (70 with level 10 talent) and 4% of their max health per second. This ability can be upgraded by Aghanim’s Shard. 
  • Aghanim’s Shard Upgrade – At the end of Cold Embrace, a Splinter Blast is cast on the target, hitting enemies within an increased radius of 1200. It also reduces its cooldown from the lowest of 15 to 11 seconds.
    
• Winter’s Curse – WW freezes a targeted enemy in place, causing enemies around it in a 525 radius to attack their ally. Both all enemies (target and attackers) inflicted cannot be damaged from any outside source except for Winter Wyvern and her units. The curse also grants 65 bonus attack speed, lasting up to 5.25 seconds (6.5 with level 25 talent).

Talents

• Level 10 – +35 Damage or +25HP/s Cold Embrace Heal
• Level 15 – +400 Splinter Blast Shatter Radius or +2s Arctic Burn Debuff Duration
• Level 20 – +100 Splinter Blast Damage or +12% Arctic Burn Slow
• Level 25 – Splinter Blast 1.5s Stun or 1.25s Winter’s Curse Duration

Dota 2 Winter Wyvern Guide – Tips  

Winter Wyvern excels at playing lane support with her immense harassment and nuking potential, thanks to her Arctic Burn and Splinter Blast abilities. Spamming them in lane makes her a difficult opponent to lane against. When paired with a core, she can easily ensure their safety thanks to her ability to slow incoming attackers and greatly heal her allies with her Cold Embrace. Unlike most supports, WW never truly becomes irrelevant. No matter how farmed her enemies might be, she can quickly turn the tide of battle with a well-placed Winter’s Curse, forcing her enemies to attack their comrades. With proper levels, she can easily have an impact no matter the stage of the game. 

Winter Wyvern is usually played as a lane support and a pleasant sight for allies suffering a problematic lane. Her ability kit allows her to easily slow and harass opponents, and keep her core alive in critical situations. Furthermore, unlike most other supports, she has a respectable Strength growth, making her quite durable. Due to her lack of movement speed, maintaining good positioning is crucial to her survival. Staying out of vision, keeping her core alive and pulling creeps to camps is all she needs to do in the early-game. 

Farm is not essential to WW, but levels are. Therefore, you are expected to stack and pull small camps, creating space for your carry and levels for yourself. She has quite Mana-expensive spells, so securing Mana regeneration items with whatever Gold you earn is essential. As mid to late-game arrives, focus on staying out of vision, as you will probably be the focus in teamfights. If you stay alive and cast your spells correctly, enemies will always be in fear of your icy fury.  

Dota 2 Winter Wyvern – Pros and Cons

Here are some of Winter Wyvern’s strengths and weaknesses that you need to know to have a chill game. 

Pros:

• Scales well against physical attack enemies 
• Has great attribute gain
• Does not need items to make an impact
• Decent at clearing waves
• Good nuking potential with great range
• Winter’s Curse pierces spell immunity

Cons:

• Scales poorly against magic damage enemies
• Abilities need proper timing to execute most effectively
• Slow movement speed and turn rate
• Poor at escaping and chasing
• Poor solo-kill potential
• Winter’s Curse does not taunt spell-immune enemies

How to play Winter Wyvern

Let’s soar through every game with a chilling impact and learn to play the frosty dragon queen with this short guide. 

Starting Items

Start your lane with Tango and Iron Branch for healing and some cheap attributes. Thanks to your Cold Embrace, you can skip getting Healing Salves and go for a few Clarities instead.

In case you are heading into a lane with spell-spamming enemies, carrying an early Magic Stick will let you regenerate your HP and Mana for emergencies.

Early Game

Your job is to help your core farm, keep them alive and pull creep waves into your jungle camps to deny XP and gain some yourself. With enough time, you can easily pick up a Wind Lace or a direct Boots of Speed to help you with much-needed movement speed.

If you have had the opportunity to secure some kills or assists, you can even get an Urn of Shadows or Magic Wand, both of which will give you additional attributes and the first of which will let you heal or damage a target. 

Mid Game

Once mid-game starts, it’s essential to understand that you are vulnerable to spell damage and to steer clear of enemies. Stay in the backlines during teamfights, and nuke your enemies and heal your allies from a safe distance. If you do not die a lot, you will surely have enough Gold to pick up a few items, including Arcane Boots, to help spam your skills more. 

Upgrading your Urn of Shadows to Spirit Vessel is also a good idea if you need another single-target damage. If you are having difficulty staying alive and you get focused down a lot, get yourself a Glimmer Cape to disengage from fights more easily. It can also be synergized with your Cold Embrace to give your targeted ally magic resistance and invisibility on top of physical damage nullification.

Late Game 

You regain your impact in the late-game, where physical damage dictates most teamfights. You can position yourself for the perfect Winter’s Curse with a few items like Glimmer Cape, Force Staff, or even a Blink Dagger. You can also build towards a Holy Locket or Guardian Greaves, which will take your healing game to the next level. 

If you have Gold to spare, you can get a Meteor Hammer to damage buildings or combo with your Winter’s Curse. Furthermore, a Lotus Orb’s dispel and reflection, and an Aether Lens’ increased cast range will help you stay safe longer in teamfights. If you have plentiful Mana, you can go for an Aghanim’s Scepter, or if all else fails, a Scythe of Vyse for another disable. 

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Dota 2 Winter Wyvern Counters

Here is a list of enemy Heroes who counter Winter Wyvern heavily and will always tend to leave you feeling blue.  

• Ancient Apparition – His Cold Feet can easily lock allies as they come out of your Cold Embrace, and his Ice Blast disables your Cold Embrace’s healing factor and turns your allies into a sitting duck.
  
• Invoker – His nukes, such as Chaos Meteor, EMP and Sun Strike, can be devastatingly unleashed on an ally under Cold Embrace, as they will not be immune to non-physical damage.
  
• Pugna – His Decrepify can quickly banish and save any enemy you cast Winter’s Curse on, and his Nether Ward will punish you for your high Mana-cost abilities. Finally, his Life Drain can be easily used on a Cold Embraced ally.
  
• Skywrath Mage – His Ancient Seal and Mystic Flare can quickly annihilate any ally encased in your Cold Embrace. 

Conclusion

We regularly upload guides for your favorite Heroes, so watch for more to come.