Winter Wyvern
Winter Wyvern | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Auroth, the Winter Wyvern, is a ranged intelligence hero whose arsenal of spells gives her powerful nuking capabilities. Usually played as a lane support, Winter Wyvern's spells allow her to fulfill a myriad of roles depending on what her team needs. Arctic Burn grants her temporarily flying movement, increased attack range as well as night vision while causing her attacks to slow enemies and burn their health over time, allowing her to gank and harass with ease. Splinter Blast is a low-cooldown nuke that, while leaving its target unaffected, slows and deals tremendous damage to all other nearby enemies. Cold Embrace allows Winter Wyvern to encase a target ally within a protective layer of ice, disabling them for the duration of the spell but also rendering them immune to physical damage while healing them for a percentage of their maximum health. Her ultimate, Winter's Curse, turns the enemies' own weapons against them by stunning the target enemy while forcing all of their nearby allies to attack them. A fearsome ganker and powerful nuker, Winter Wyvern can chill her foes to the bone and wreak havoc on their ranks.
Contents
Bio[edit]
Abilities[edit]


Notes:
- Arctic Burn interrupts Winter Wyvern's channeling spells upon cast.
- Temporarily turns Winter Wyvern into a flying unit, allowing her to fly over impassable terrain, trees, units and buildings.
- However, it does not grant Winter Wyvern flying vision.
- Increases attack range to 775/850/925/1000, projectile speed to 1200, night vision range to 1200 and reduces attack point to 0.1.
- Each enemy can only receive the debuff once per cast. Successive attacks on the same target neither stack, nor refresh the duration.
- The attacks first apply the debuff, then their own damage.
- Deals damage in 1 second intervals, starting 1 second after the debuff is placed, resulting in 5 instances.
- Can deal up to 27%/30%/34%/38% of the target's current health as damage (before reductions), assuming nothing else affects the target's health.
- Since the damage per second is based on a percentage of the target's current health, it can never kill an enemy by itself.
- During Arctic Burn, Winter Wyvern can neither trigger nor take damage from Proximity Mines.
- Destroys trees within a 250 radius at the end of the duration.
- Aghanim's Scepter turns this spell into a toggle ability.
- As such, it no longer interrupts Winter Wyvern's channeling spells upon cast.
- Scepter also removes the 1 attack per target limit, allowing her to refresh the debuff with consecutive attacks on the same target.
- Drains mana in 1 second intervals, starting 1 second after toggling. Still uses the initial cast cost upon toggling on.


Notes:
- The initial projectile travels at a speed between 650 and 4000. It adapts so that it reaches the target in 1 second.
- This means when the target gets more than 4000 range away on cast, it takes more than 1 second to reach it.
- Vice versa, if the target gets closer than 650 range on cast, it takes less than 1 second to reach it.
- The secondary projectiles travel at a static speed of 600.
- Fully affects invisible units and units in the Fog of War.
- The stun of the level 25 talent only affects the secondary taragets, like the damage and slow.
- The stun does not replace the slow. The slow is still applied, effectively slowing hit units for 2 seconds.
- The splinters first apply the damage, then the debuff.
Target Unit
Allies
Notes:
- Stuns the target and turns it immune to physical damage. The target can still be attacked and affected by magical and pure damage.
- Can regenerate up to 56/72/88/104 + 12%/16%/20%/24% of a unit's max health over its full duration.
- Cannot be cast on allies who have disabled help from Winter Wyvern.
Target Unit
Enemies

Notes:
- Enemies that enter the radius after cast also get taunted for its remaining duration.
- The taunt is based on an aura, with an infinite linger duration. The debuff gets cleared as soon as the primary target loses the debuff or dies.
- This means the taunt sticks on the affected units, and getting moved outside the area does not free the unit from the taunt.
- The taunt area is centered around the primary target, meaning it is moved with the target when it gets forcibly moved.
- The taunt has the same priority as Berserker's Call, but lower priority than Duel.
- Same priority means that affected units attack the first taunt source, and switch to the other source once the first one expires.
- Taunts generally have a higher priority than Fear, however, Fear prevents the unit from attacking while taunted.
- The taunt does not affect buildings, wards, and invulnerable or hidden units.
- Only affects units allied to the target. This means when cast on an enemy, neutral creeps are not taunted, and vice versa.
- All affected units gain 100% damage reduction, they do not gain damage negation. HP Removal is not reduced.
- Winter Wyvern herself and all controlled units of hers ignore this damage reduction.
- If the target gets killed by its allies or enemies during the curse, Winter Wyvern gets credit for the kill, except under the following circumstances:
- If the target is affected by Reaper's Scythe upon dying, Necrophos gets the kill credit, no matter who made the killing blow.
- Does not disable any abilities. However, most passive abilities do not affect allied units.
- When the primary target dies, the taunt effect ends immediately.
Talents[edit]
Hero Talents | ||
---|---|---|
Splinter Blast 2s Stun | 25 | +1.5s Winter's Curse Duration |
-5s Cold Embrace Cooldown | 20 | +15% Arctic Burn Slow |
+500 Night Vision | 15 | +350 Health |
+60 Damage | 10 | +90 Gold/Min |
- This attack damage talent is added as raw attack damage, so it does not benefit illusions, and is not affected by most percentage-based damage increasing or reducing effects.
- Gold granted from the talent is unreliable gold.
- The night vision talent does not counter any vision reducing effect.
- The health talent increases maximum health capacity, and keeps the current health percentage.
Recent Changes[edit]
- Winter's Curse no longer reduces damage on the targets from the Winter Wyvern player's hero or units.
- Reduced Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Arctic Burn mana cost per second from 40 to 30.
- Increased intelligence gain from 3.1 to 3.6.
- Cold Embrace
- Increased base health regeneration bonus from 15 on each level to 14/18/22/26.
- Rescaled mana cost from 75 on each level to 50/60/70/80.
Recommended items[edit]
Starting items:
- Tango sustains health in the laning stage to deal with harassment.
- Clarity replenishes mana early, important since Winter Wyvern's abilities are expensive in the early game.
- Iron Branch is cheap and gives a small amount of attributes, can build into a Magic Wand or Mekansm, and use with Tango for more healing.
- Animal Courier ferries items to friendly heroes.
Early game:
- Magic Stick gives Winter Wyvern burst health and mana, which can allow her to survive just long enough to cast one more important spell in a teamfight.
- Boots of Speed will help improve Winter Wyvern's lackluster movement speed, particularly useful in order to get in position or chase/escape with Arctic Burn.
- Wind Lace also provides cheap movement speed, great for poor and slow supports.
- Urn of Shadows gives Winter Wyvern additional attributes, armor, and mana regeneration. The active can be used alongside Cold Embrace to heal teammates, or adds yet more damage to her arsenal of nukes.
Mid game:
- Magic Wand gives Winter Wyvern additional attributes and increased charge storage for a cheap price, which can sometimes be the breaking point that allows her to get her ultimate off against the enemy.
- Arcane Boots improves Winter Wyvern's movement speed while giving her a bigger mana pool and a way to replenish both her mana and that of her allies.
- Glimmer Cape is a cheap but powerful utility support item in Winter Wyvern's hands. It can be cast on herself to allow her to invisibly approach the enemy during initiations, or can be targeted on an ally under the effects of Cold Embrace to fortify their magic resistance on top of nullifying physical damage.
- Spirit Vessel is natural upgrade of Urn of Shadows and gives her additional single-target damage.
Late game:
- Mekansm gives Winter Wyvern more attributes and armor, and the active gives her another method with which to heal teammates on top of Cold Embrace.
- Guardian Greaves restores massive amount of health and mana to Winter Wyvern and her allies. Mend also removes negative debuffs that may hinder her from using abilities.
- Force Staff is a cheap multipurpose item that greatly increases Winter Wyvern's utility. The intelligence and health regeneration give her more mana and better roaming capability, and the active can help her to position herself more easily for casting spells, particularly to get Winter's Curse off on an important target. It can also move allies to safer place during Cold Embrace.
Situational items:
- Aether Lens gives mana and mana regeneration, as well as increased cast range to allow usage of abilities further away from dangerous enemies.
- Meteor Hammer provides area stun and damage to follow Winter's Curse, and supplements Winter Wyvern's pushing power with some building damage.
- Soul Ring is a cheap purchase that increases Winter Wyvern's ability to cast her spells. It provides health and mana regeneration, allowing her to roam more independently. The burst mana allows Winter Wyvern to cast her spells more readily, and the health cost can be recouped through Cold Embrace.
- Solar Crest gives Winter Wyvern may powerful bonuses for a comparatively cheap price. The armor and attributes make her much tankier, while the mana regeneration helps keep her mana pool topped up. The active can be cast on a Winter's Curse target, weakening their armor and increasing the odds of killing them.
- Eul's Scepter of Divinity gives Winter Wyvern all the mana she needs, improves her mobility, and grants both a disable and another defensive ability on top of Cold Embrace.
- Blink Dagger is a great way to increase Winter Wyvern's mobility and allows her to more easily initiate with Winter's Curse.
- Lotus Orb applies basic dispel on target to remove some debuffs and gives them a shield to reflect single target spells, which may deter enemies from using abilities on the target.
- Aghanim's Scepter allows toggling of Arctic Burn and refreshing the debuff with following attacks, a great item to control enemy heroes from long distance; however, the massive mana drain means it should never be purchased early.
- Scythe of Vyse greatly improves Winter Wyvern's intelligence and provides all-around attributes as well as plenty of mana regeneration to fuel her costly spells. The hex is a powerful hard-disable that greatly increases her ability to contribute to ganks and teamfights.
Gameplay[edit]
Roles: | Support Disabler Nuker |
---|---|
Complexity: | ★★☆ |
Playstyle: | Frustrated with writer's block, Auroth, the Eldwurm scholar takes flight from her lair to forge a new, heroic narrative—with herself as protagonist. Where most dragons originate fire, the Winter Wyvern stores unfathomable cold. Soaring over the treeline, she breathes a blistering chill, causing painful Arctic Burns. Frozen crystals form inside her gullet, shattering upon impact to Splinter Blast hordes of closely packed foes. Gentle with her companions, she holds them in a Cold Embrace, wrapping them in healing ice. Auroth has no time for would-be dragonslayers. Compelling her attackers to turn against one another, her Winter's Curse resolves the problem before any intruder ever sets foot in her lair. |
Audio[edit]
History[edit]
Equipment[edit]
|
Trivia[edit]
- Winter Wyvern made her first official Dota 2 appearance in the New Bloom trailer "The Coming of the Year Beast" which was showcased the first time after the finals of the Dota 2 Asia Championship 2015 on the 9th of February 2015. The trailer video was later posted on the official Dota 2 blog as part 1 of the New Bloom event.
- Her next official appearance was in the comic "The new neighbors", which was posted on the 10th of February 2015 on the official Dota 2 blog. In the comic, she is depicted as an "artistic" dragon with interests in books who does not follow the traditional behavior of dragons razing cities to the ground.
- Much like Legion Commander, who is also voiced by Merle Dandridge, the gender of Winter Wyvern was changed from male to female with the transition from DotA to Dota 2.[1]
- In DotA, Winter Wyvern makes use the model of the Warcraft 3 version of a frost wyrm, a well known undead dragon type from the Warcraft universe.[2]
- Winter Wyvern's response when meeting Axe as an ally, ▶️ "In this world, nothing is certain but ice and axes" is a nod to a quote by Benjamin Franklin, which states: "In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes."[3]
- Winter Wyvern's response, ▶️ "Winter is coming. Winter Wyvern that is." is a reference to Game of Thrones, specifically the motto of the House of Stark: "Winter is coming."[4]
- Winter Wyvern's rivalry line towards Dragon Knight ▶️"I knew Slyrak, Dragon Knight. You're no Slyrak." is a reference to Lloyd Bentsen's political quip "... I knew Jack Kennedy... Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy".[5]
- When the hero's abilities were showcased in The International 2016, Winter's Curse was cast on a Naga Siren, which caused her team mates, Gyrocopter, Ancient Apparition, Earthshaker and Storm Spirit, to kill her. This is in reference to how Aui_2000, who played Naga during Game 4 in the finals of the previous International against CDEC, was subsequently kicked out of the team.