General Discussion GUIDE How To Play Suport DOTABUFF
Hello everyone. In this guide, i will present you many tips and tricks i gather during playing wc3 for a long year and dota 2 ( for 1 month, sigh. . . ). So lets get started 🙂
It is my first officialy guide on Dotabuff ( not first one, i wrote few on Playdota , back in the days ), and i am sorry if you find some gramatical errors ( English isn’t my native language, even do i know it very well, i suck with grammar )
The reason behind writing this guide is usually this role in the games are vanished ( pub games specially ) , but in the high end games, suporting role is widely recognized as one of most important ( throught the whole game )
TABLE OF CONTENST
* Picking a suport hero
* Courier
* Warding
* The Big Brother
* Sacrificing for the greater good
* Items
* How to play and what kind of play style you need
* Choosing a lane
* Special mentions and secret techniques :wink
1: Picking a suport hero
So what is supporting hero? According to dota2 wiki – “Supports are heroes whose purpose is to keep their allies alive and give them opportunities to earn more gold and experience. Supports are not dependent on items”
As you can see, supporting role is to maintain his carry life high, while at the same time harrasing enemy carry in lanes.
Supporting heroes can be divided into few categories :
a. Healers.
Supporting heroes that have skills which can heal their teammates and protect them from deaths. They can be :
– Omninight [Img]-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/a/ab/Omniknight.png[/img]
– Chen [Img]-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/8/80/Chen.png[/img]
– Dazzle [Img]/images/hero/icon/dazzle.png[/img]
– Undying [Img]/apps/dota2/images/heroes/undying_full.png[/img] and many more, but you get the point
b. Disablers.
Supporting heroes that have some sort of disable, which can stun, slow ( disable ) enemy heroes
– Lion [Img]/images/hero/icon/lion.png[/img]
– Shadow shaman [Img]-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/1/11/Shadow_Shaman.png[/img]
– CM [Img]-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/1/10/Crystal_Maiden.png[/img]
– VS [Img]-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/7/78/Vengeful_Spirit.png[/img]
c. Pushers and junglers
Heroes that can convert neutral creep or summon creeps to be able to push enemy towers
– Furion [Img]-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/a/aa/Nature%27s_Prophet.png[/img]
– Enchantress [Img]-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/9/99/Enchantress.png[/img]
– Chen [Img]-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/8/80/Chen.png[/img]
– Enigma [Img]-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/8/8b/Enigma.png[/img]
– Ezalor [Img]-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/5/5c/Keeper_of_the_Light.png[/img]
– Veno [Img]-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/f/f0/Venomancer.png[/img]
– Visage [Img]-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/c/c2/Visage.png[/img]
– Pugna [Img]/apps/dota2/images/heroes/pugna_hphover.png[/img]
d. Slowers
Hero that can slow enemy heroes ( reducing their movemant speed )
– Dazzle [Img]-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/7/74/Dazzle.png[/img]
– Treant [Img]-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/1/18/Treant_Protector.png[/img]
– WL [Img]-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/5/51/Warlock.png[/img]
– CM [Img]-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/1/10/Crystal_Maiden.png[/img]
Note 1 : These heroes are usually supports and there are some other healers like juggernut or disablers like sven which don’t belong to supporting heroes
Note 2 : This isn’t list all of supporting heroes
2: Courier/chicken/the thing that transfer you items
[u]Chicken[/u] is most important thing which you first buy with supporting hero Without of chicken, your carry or mid hero need to go back to base, to take his items, while losing exp and gold.
[Img]-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/1/1c/Animal_Courier_%28Radiant%29_icon.png[/img]
NEVER forget to upgrade crow with your first gold at 3 min mark. I can’t tell you how stresfull can be when you need you’r boots, bottle or drums and you need to wait for 2 minutes, while chicken comes to you.
3: Wards
Observer ward. It costs 200 gold, and you get 2 stacks with one purchase. The shop will start off with 2 in stock, and that is the max. If the shop has less than 2, it will take 6 minutes for it to gain another stock.
Why do you get wards? So you can spent starting money, obviously. No really , why we got wards? range vision around it to see IMPORTANT areas
– To block neutral camps from spawning
So where you put wards, you may ask? The next picture will answer your question.
[Img]-dignitas.net/uploads/tinymce/images/dotawardguide_0.jpg[/img]
Legend : Red – Rune wards
Yellow – Cliffs
Pink – Lane/aggressive/defensive/ wards
Green – Jungle wards
Blue – Push wards ( so you can safely push lanes )
White – Very situational
Purple lines – Blocks the pointed neutral camp from spawning
4: The big brother
It is not a role for supports, everyone should look at enemies’ inventories but you need to pay attention far more then anyone else. If they have ward you should notice it, and track the hero (in minimap) to see where he use wards then you go and destroy it. If they got gem, dust any other important items mention it in the chat! ( like bkb, manta, hex , refresher, DAGER!!!, anything that can make or break team fight )
5: Sacrificing for the greater good
By suicide I don’t mean Pudge or Abbadon. That is just plain retarded, to let root kill you when you forget to turn it off. On the other hand we have sacrifice, it means that put yourself in danger to: get 2 or more kill, you help ally escape . The only exception is first blood, if you know that you will die but you or your ally will get first blood, Then do it! It worth it! Specially if your ally is your team carry. He will really enjoys near 500 gold. Special mention to VS. Swaping and then stunning and duying isn’t noobish act. It is simply, using you’r hero to it’s full potentional.
6 : Items
First thing you need to know. NO one can tell you what items you can make on heroes. CM with buttterfly will suck, but you can make it, no matter if cm is supporting hero. But it will destroy your team and probably make you lose. With supporting heroes you should stick to getting items that will rather help your team to win games. Wards ( sentry and observer ), smoke ( special mention to best item in dota 2 ), dust ( please, get dust before you gank that gondar, riki, clinkz, weaver ). Truying to farm with supporting hero will just be plain stupid and will most likely lose you game. Drums, pipe, mekansam , urn, medalion ( for the love of God, make this item mandatory in every game ).
7: How to play and what kind of play style you need
NEVER, EVER go solo. You do not need xp as much as your carries. Always buy wards,dust,gem,heals,mana or TP if necessary. Buy and upgrade chicken to courier. Buy ward again and if you have money and wards are ready buy them again. This is your most important role in game. Don’t go alone in woods in 54 minute mark, if you don’t see enemy heroes on minimap. Don’t , just don’t.
Usually you are not the initiator, so wait others to start the fight, but as soon as fight starts be there. You should be second hero enter the fight. Protect your initiator by casting your spells, heal or disable what ever you have.
Pay attention to your hero. As soon as you enter a fight in 90% of occasions they will focus on you so be ready to cast spells and use items as fast as you can. When casting all the spells pull back a bit, not run away. wait for your spells be ready, when they have 2-3 more seconds to be ready return to fight.
This is the most important part in playing support hero, you should master it and know when to pull back when and cast spells on who, and when to block enemy path to save ally ( in risk of your life! ).
Here is priority for disables:
1-disablers
2-healers
3-carries
4-tanks
8 : Choosing a lane
Go mid only if you want dual mid else let some else have mid. If you are range always be with melee ( carry preferably ). You do not need much money as your partner specially if he is carry, so instead focus your fire on denies and harassing enemy heroes. BUT hit few creeps at least 1 per wave. Tell him that on chat, explain him that you need to get few gold for crow, ward, tp, smoke ( to be able to gank mid )
Special mentions and secret techniques
GANK – go around and kill. You leave your lane, let that guy solo and go gank other lanes ( including mid ). Buy smoke, smoke far from runes ( they might have wards, so they will see you when you smoke up ). Wait till enemy hero ( on mid ) goes under ramp and gank him them. Tell in chat, that you will go to gank mid, so mid player gets ready for it.
Best heroes to gank :
Mirana ( my favorite, arrow with 3+ seconds stun is sure kill. Preferably wait night so they don’t see arrow until it is really close )
CM, VS, Alchemist ( remember , you can start stuning with smoke buff on you, so you can easily supprise enemy hero ), SD, Viper, Venomancer, Gyro, Chen ( taking troll from jungle is 90% kill ) ES ( altought haven’t played with him, so i can’t say with 100 % certainty.
Conclusion : Thanks to you all who read guide to this point
P.S.
Do and dont’s
DO : Buy Courier
2 -Buy wards(both sentry and observer)
3 -Dust or gem if any can hold
4 -Deny as much as you can
5 -Harass enemy heroes as much as you can but do not chase unless you want to kill them
6 -Watch the minimap
7 -Buy wards again!
8-Always have TP
DONT’s Last hit too often, your carry needs money not you.
2 -Do not go for big items first, save your money for TP,Wards,Dust
3 -Do not initiate. ( except few heroes )
4 -Do not Kill steal, NEVER. even if you are going to kill somebody and carry is around let him do that
5 -Never think this guide will teach you how to be a good support!
Big thanks to PD, NS ( player ) and Jimaras for teaching while watching their games and oll of you. I will soon make the big warding guide, so stay tuned.
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