Ancient Apparition’s Ice Blast is one of the most unique and punishing ultimates in Dota 2, capable of denying healing, setting up kill thresholds, and turning entire team fights on its own. Yet despite its impact, many players misunderstand its mechanics. This guide breaks down the lesser-known, nuanced aspects of Ice Blast, so you can use it more effectively—or defend against it like a pro.

Ice Blast Basics: A Global Threat

Ice Blast is a global ultimate with a 40-second cooldown at level 3, allowing for frequent use. Once cast, it sends out a tracer projectile that travels at 1500 speed. This tracer is not the actual Ice Blast—it simply marks the path.

To detonate Ice Blast, you must manually activate the sub-ability “Release”. This sends the blast to explode wherever the tracer currently is. Notably, you can use “Release” even while silenced, a relatively recent and powerful quality-of-life change.

• Minimum explosion radius: 275
• Maximum explosion radius: 1000 (reached after 15 seconds in flight)
• Explosion radius grows by 50 units per second of tracer travel

If you die while the tracer is flying, the Ice Blast will automatically release. You can also intentionally let it fly out of the map if you want to cancel it without revealing its path, which might be helpful if it’s clearly going to miss and you don’t want the enemy to exploit its cooldown.

Vision Utility: Scout Like a Pro

The tracer provides 500 radius of non-lingering vision as it flies. After the Ice Blast is released, the path it took lingers for 3 seconds with vision. This makes Ice Blast excellent for scouting critical locations such as Roshan’s pit, jungle choke points, and tower paths.

This scouting ability is often overlooked, but can be used to set up team fights, check enemy positioning, or spot warding movements.

How Frostbitten Works: Damage and Kill Threshold

Any enemy hit by the explosion or touched by the tracer gains the Frostbitten debuff:

• Applies damage over time (DoT)
• Blocks all healing for the duration
• Adds a shatter threshold: if a target falls below a % of max HP, they instantly die

Shatter Threshold:

• Base: 14% of max HP
• With level 25 talent: 18%

This mechanic is visible to both teams via a marker on the health bar. If the Frostbitten unit drops below this threshold, they shatter. However, the kill is credited to whoever last-hit the threshold, not to AA unless they tick down from the DoT alone.

The Frostbitten duration is 12 seconds at level 3, but can be extended to 17 seconds with a level 20 talent.

Great Against High-HP and Healing-Based Heroes

Ice Blast is naturally oppressive against heroes who:

• Heavily rely on healing or regen (Io, Oracle, Necrophos)
• Use Armlet toggles (Huskar, Wraith King)
• Have high HP pools (Centaur, Dragon Knight)
• Constantly manipulate HP (Morphling)

A perfect example is Armlet toggling. When a hero toggles Armlet on, they gain HP via bonus strength. Under Ice Blast, however, only max HP increases—current HP stays the same. This immediately places them closer to the shatter line. When they toggle off, max HP drops and they may shatter instantly.

Similarly, Ice Blast completely shuts down Necrophos or Oracle ultimates. No regen, no saves.

Piercing BKB and Utility

A lesser-known but critical feature: Frostbitten goes through BKB and cannot be dispelled.

• The DoT damage is reduced against magic-immune units
• But they still cannot heal, and the shatter threshold still applies

This makes Ice Blast one of the few effective tools against magic-immune, high-regen heroes. Even if you can’t burst them, you’ve cut off any lifesteal, regen, or healing assistance.

Interactions and Dodge Mechanics

Certain spells can dodge or delay Ice Blast’s effects:

• Invulnerability abilities like Puck’s Phase Shift, Tusk’s Snowball, and Shadow Demon’s Disruption prevent the debuff if timed correctly
• Eul’s Scepter lets Ice Blast apply the debuff mid-air, but no damage is taken until landing

Also remember: Invulnerable units do not take DoT, even if debuffed.

Farming and Map Pressure

Ice Blast isn’t just a team fight spell—it’s also a farming and pushing tool. It deals up to 400 magic damage at level 3. Use it to:

• Secure kills globally
• Push out side lanes
• Deter enemy aggression by pressuring a lane from afar

Just remember: if the enemy sees you waste it, they might force a fight knowing it’s down.

Aganim’s Shard Upgrade

With the Aghanim’s Shard, Ice Blast adds a Cold Feet effect to any enemies hit by the explosion. While this stun duration is shorter than the real Cold Feet, it still adds a layer of control, and can combo nicely if you Cold Feet someone just before the Ice Blast hits.

Summary: Mastering Ice Blast

To use Ice Blast like a high-level player:

• Time the tracer for max radius (don’t rush “Release” unless necessary)
• Use vision tactically: scout Roshan, ganks, or objectives
• Predict healing: throw it before Morphling waveform, Huskar life drain, or Necro ult
• Use it against BKB: it still cuts regen and adds kill threshold
• Chain with stuns or slows: make it easier to land
• Don’t telegraph your miss: cancel with off-map travel if it whiffs

Whether you’re nuking tanky frontliners or disabling healing cores, Ice Blast is a devastating global threat that rewards strategic timing and map awareness.

Good luck out there—and don’t forget to call out your ults!