DotA 2 Guide by sheldon_

Understanding and executing your role: Support

Table of content
1. Introduction

2. Thoughts on the role of the support
2.1 Definition of a support
2.2 List of possible support heroes
2.3 Justification of the list
2.4 Conclusion

3. Playing the support
3.1 Drafting the support
3.2 Earlygame as the support
3.2.1 How to creeppull
3.3 Midgame as the support
3.4 Lategame as the support
3.5 Fighting as the support
3.6 Items for the support
3.7 Conclusion

4. Replay

5. Final words

1. Introduction
The role of the support seems to be a very bad and unthankful role to many new
players because supports never get the shiny items, good scores or the fame at the
end of the game.
But think about it for a while, not all of your wins were with you having a great score
and good items, right?
Kills and items dont mean anything, they are just means to an end. And if you now
hopefully found out that you can also win if you dont have the biggest score and the
best items out of your team, you might find it interesting to see how to play this style
as a hero role.
This hero role is of course the role of the support, who technically doesnt need
anything but Boots to win the game with his team. It requires a bit of skill to play with
only Boots and your heros abilities, but if your team is not completely retarded you
will be able to win the lane, make big plays and win the game in your own way.
In this guide I am going to explain the thought process behind what your job is, how
you do your job and what benefits your team has from having good supports.

2. Thoughts on the role of the support
The name says everything, you support your team. This means your job is to make
sure they can do their job.
How do I make sure my team does their job if I cant contribute in fights because I
dont have any items? Remember, youre job is to make sure your team can do their
job, not do take a part of their job and do it yourself! You are not there to deal the
damage or to push towers, but to make sure your team can do so.
A noticeable difference between the supports and other hero roles is obviously the
heros inventory. A support will always have fewer items than anyone else.
If you reflect this observation onto a game, you will find that supports are most
effective in the early stages of the game.
Why is this you might ask? Well, almost every hero, be it a carry, ganker or pusher,
needs some items to really be able to do his job. This is why a hard carry cant carry
from minute zero, but needs to farm, or why a pusher cant select a lane and just
push it down right in the beginning.
You as the support dont need any items, but can start supporting your team from the
start of the game.
The enemy wont have any items on their carries, gankers and pushers in the early
stages of the game, so you are pretty even compared to them in this phase. This is
why you are most effective earlygame, but fall off later.
This strength in the earlygame is what makes your play a deciding factor of the entire
game. The later stages of the game depend on the earlier stages of the game, and if
your team finishes earlygame with an advantage your play brought them, they will
start into midgame with this advantage!
If your team however has no supports and starts midgame with a disadvantage, you
will probably lose as the enemy will increase the lead further and further, all based on
the disadvantage from earlygame, where your team didnt have a support.

2.1 Definition of a support
As worked out in the previous section, the support is a hero who focuses not on
fulfilling a special task, like pushing or ganking, but makes sure his teammates can
fulfill their tasks, which would also include pushing and ganking.
Your work will mostly not be recognized, because you work in a passive way to make
your team win!
Through all the stages of the game, your team comes first, you come second. Many
players pick support heroes in pubs, but try to farm for example a Bloodstone on a
Shadow Shaman, and hurt their team more than they are helping.
As the support hero is not getting a lot of items, he has to have a skillset which allows
him to still contribute to a game even without items. Disables for example are great
supportive skills, because you can have one from minute zero, whereas for example
a Natures Prophet has to farm at least 20 minutes to finish a Scythe of Vise and get
a disable himself (not to mention how useful disables are to get a kill or save a
teammate).
Damage spells are also great, because you can contribute a lot to an earlygame kill
with for example 250 instant damage, where your carry only has his autoattack
damage.
Any healing spells are awesome, because your team will directly profit from them,
same goes for auras.
Ideally, a supporter doesnt become completely useless in the mid- and lategame as
far as fights are concerned, so good teamfight ultimates or pushing abilities are an
aspect of a supports skillset as well.
Conclusion: Any hero who does not require farm, but can still help his team with his
skills will be a good support hero. This hero will always have the team as the first
priority, and put his own hero into the background.

2.2 List of possible support heroes


2.3 Justification of the list
Ill shortly explain why these heroes can play focus less on items and support their
team with their skillset. Note that I left out the junglers Chen, Enchantress and
Enigma, because they normally focus on farming and not on supporting a hero in the
sense this word is commonly used.
Earthshaker: Fissure saves lives in lane, and his teamfight capability is based on his
Echo Slam, not on items.
Sven: can be played as a support, although very popular carry today. Storm Hammer
and Warcry are great supportive skills.
Omniknight: a heal, a magic immunity, a physical immunity, and a slow aura? Come
on, what more would a hard carry want to just jump into a fight and not give a fuck
about damage and stuns?
Treant Protector: weird hero with a weird skillset, is best played as a support after his
rework. Has got two good heals, a decent teamfight ultimate, and an invisibility for
one of his teammates.
Wisp: requires a teammate to make Tether, Overcharge and Relocate really worth
using, all of these are great supportive skills.
Sandking: a good stun, and a really good teamfight ultimate for mid- and lategame.
Tidehunter: tanky by nature, has got a slow, a damage reduce for opponents, and a
big teamfight ultimate. This guy needs nothing but level 6 to rule a teamfight.
Undying: although very level-dependant, he is one of the strongest and most popular
supporters in Patch 6.76. Can steal strength to make himself more tanky, has a heal
or nuke depending on his needs, and two beastly teamfight abilities to make him
almost overpowered.
Magnus: can be played as a support, although its not commonly done. Has a nuke,
can Skewer himself in or enemies out of position from level one, and only requires
level 6 for his ultimate. The damage increase for the carry also works wonders.
Venomancer: his 50% slow makes him one of the most powerful heroes on level 1,
fits very well into lategame with pushing power and a big teamfight damage ultimate.
Vengeful Spirit: a stun, an armor reduction and a percentage based (!) attack
damage aura make her a born support. The swap is a great addition and can save
lives or create big openings for your team.




Nyx Assassin: commonly played as a ganker in pubs, utilized as a support by
professional teams. Has a stun and mana burn early on, can still gank quite well at
level 6 even without farm.
Crystal Maiden: one of the best heroes on Level 2, has got a nuke with a slow, an
Ensnare and a Mana Regeneration aura to support her team. The big teamfight
ultimate supplements a great supportive skillset.
Windrunner: although very level-dependant, she can be played as a support, where a
possible two-man disable and a long range nuke as well as general survivability
prove useful.
Lina: a stun and two big damage spells make her a great support, who brings a bit
less to earlygame than other supports, but is still pretty useful lategame.
Shadow Shaman: a nuke, two disables and a big pushing ultimate work wonders if
he fits into your team composition.
Jakiro: four great spells to nuke, disable, attack-slow and damage over time
(possibly) multiple people make him one of the most played supports in Patch 6.76.
Ogre Magi: a stun, a slow, an attack- and movespeed-bonus for the carry makes him
a good supporter, although he is a bit tricky in lane because he is melee.
Rubick: has got a disable, a nuke, a magic resistance aura (!) to support the carry,
can steal awesome spells from the enemy team.
Disruptor: big harassment potential, can Glimpse fleeing enemies close to your carry
to secure a kill. He has also got insane teamfight capabilities, which make him a
fearsome supporter in the hands of a skilled player.
Keeper of the Light: a big nuke for damage and pushing, free mana for anyone on
your team, a mana drain and possible stun on the enemy, a miss-spell on enemies
and a recall for one of your teammates? Nuff said.
Bane: two single target disables, an attack damage reduce and a nuke and heal in
one spell make him a good support, although he is quite useless in big teamfights.
Lich: Sacrifice is the most overpowered spell in the entire game, period. One quarter
of your laning-opponents income in gold and experience is gone! Add a nuke, free
armor for everyone and a big teamfight ultimate to create a great support hero.
Lion: two stuns, technically infinite Mana through Mana Drain, and a big damage
nuke as his ultimate make him a good support hero who can help bringing down
even the tankiest heroes.


Witch Doctor: a multiple-target stun, one of the best damage-amplification spells in
the game and a heal make him a good support, his ultimate is a nice bonus on top of
that.
Warlock: a heal and a big (!) slow for the laning phase and insane teamfight spells for
the later stages of the game make him a truly underrated supporter.
Pugna: has an AoE-nuke that also damages towers, Decrepifiy saves lives or
secures kills, Nether Ward works wonders in teamfight and Life Drain gives some
additional damage and health re-gain.
Dazzle: a slow with a possible stun, a multi-target heal and a temporary invincibility
are all great spells, but Weave is completely underrated as it creates a gap of up to
48 (!!!) armor between your teams and the enemy teams heroes.
Leshrac: a stun and a nuke for good fighting capabilities, Diabolic Edict adds a lot to
towerpushing and 1v1-fights, Pulse Nova for insane damage output in teamfights.
Ancient Apparition: a possible stun combined with a damage-over-time effect, an
attack- and movespeed-slow in an area, bonus damage for your entire team, and a
global ultimate with deadly force make him a great support if coupled with the right
heroes.
Shadow Demon: uses Disruption to set up kills or save allies, Soul Catcher to amplify
damage, Shadow Poison for a bit of damage and vision, and Demonic Purge as the
ultimate who makes him a fearsome offensive support.
Visage: a slow, a big nuke and general tankiness make him a good support, but if he
uses the Familiars to maximum potential he becomes an unbelievably good teamfight
controller.
Please keep in mind that a lot of these heroes can be build and played to fit other
roles as well. This list does not mean they are ultimately and only support heroes.

2.4 Conclusion
Support heroes are heroes who always work for the team, and only focus on
themselves if they did everything they could for the team and still have resources to
spend.
Their job is to create an environment where the rest of the team can do their job, this
is achieved for example by warding, denying and harassing the enemy laner and
disabling important targets in fights.
Supports are most effective in the earlygame because they dont need any items to
do their job, which is why they are so important. If a team without supports plays
against a team with supports (assuming they have the same player skill), the team
with supports will always win because they get a better earlygame and can take this
advantage to the later stages of the game.
Support heroes define themselves through their skillset, which allows them to work
effectively from the beginning on, and usually includes nukes, disables, slows, heals
or utility based spells.





3. Playing the support
This part will focus on how to play a support. I will stick to the philosophy that your job
is make sure your team can do its job, and explain every decision to make and action
to take according to this.
This section is split into every phase of the game, from draft to lategame, and also
includes a section on how to creeppull and some more advanced tips on fighting and
items you can build.


3.1 Drafting the support
Every team should consist of three farming heroes, and two heroes who dont farm,
but support the farming heroes. One of these supports can be a jungler, but you
always end up with one guy to be purely supporting the team.
There is no clear rule when to pick your supports. Professional teams have no
favorite pick order for this, they mostly pick the heroes both teams are fighting to get,
and fill up their team with what is missing.
In pub games however, picking your supports first is a good idea, because many
players will not recognize them as a big threat but wait for the carries to come up, all
with the aim of counterpicking your team. If the game version you are currently
playing in has a couple of really strong supports, like Jakiro and Undying in Patch
6.76, you should consider picking for example these two heroes before anything else.
There is a little trick you can apply: If you are not sure what to pick first, get a hero
who can play a farming role as well as a supporting role! This will reveal almost
nothing and the enemy cant cross your plans so easily.
Dont be afraid to pick a support! Nobody can always play hard carry!
Conclusion: You always want to have three farming and two supporting heroes, of
which one can be a jungler. There is no clear rule when to pick your supports, but
dont be afraid to go ahead and pick one right in the beginning.

3.2 Earlygame as the support
This is the phase where you shine and where your team needs you the most!
Your team will be farming, and your job is to make sure they can do so (I mentioned
this earlier, did I?).
Your priorities are the following, to be executed in the exact same order:
1. Support your team to the best and make sure they can farm!
2. Dont die!
3. Assist in ganks on your lane or set up kills yourself if you see an opportunity and
dont disrupt your carrys farm or steal kills.
4. Do creeppulling to deny the enemy experience and gold and to get some on your
own.

Lets assume you are supporting a hard carry on the easy lane.
His three priorities are:
1. Dont die and dont get forced out of lane!
2. Get every lasthit possible!
3. Steal the kill if your allies gank your lane.

How do you make sure your carry doesnt die?
Your carry can die from three things:
1. Bad play
2. Your laning opponents
3. Ganks
You cant help it if your carry is stupid and dies of bad play, for example if he just runs
into your laning opponents or tanks up the creepwave. Its his own fault, and in my
opinions people deserve to die if they get into such a situation by bad play.
When coming into your lane you should do some calculation:
1. How long can my enemy disable my carry?
2. How much nuke damage has he got?
3. How many autoattacks can he get in while my carry is disabled?
4. Could he towerdive my carry?
Calculate these things and try to estimate if your enemy could kill your carry if they
turned onto him. Take into account the increase of these things when your enemy
levels up to not die at minute 5 because you didnt calculate properly!


Adjust your play according to your calculation: If the enemy can kill your carry, always
stay with him and disable, attack and/or nuke the enemy heroes if they try to get a
kill.
If the result of your calculation shows no direct threat by your laning opponents, you
can technically leave the lane and do creeppulling, go ganking or do something else.

How do I prevent my carry from being forced out of lane?
Your carry has to leave the lane if he is harassed into an amount of health points
where the enemy could kill him, and doesnt have any regeneration anymore to heal
back up.
If your enemy is harassing your carry, you should stay in lane and harass your
enemy back! You have to communicate with your carry, and both give back the hits
you took from the enemy, as he doesnt want to trade one hit on your carry for two
hits on him. If he trades a lot of hits with you, you can consider killing him if he dares
too much and gets out of position.
This technique can also be used if your enemy is denying a lot of creeps from your
carry. Whenever he is going in for a deny, hit him once and back off to not get hit by
the creeps. This will result in a lot of health lost for your enemy who eventually has to
stop denying because he cant afford to take damage anymore. If your carry however
loses lasthits because he cant hit them, you cant do anything but hope the rest of
your team will be enough to win the game 4v5.
If your carry runs out of regeneration, give him your tangos and/or salve!
Your carry has to stay in lane at all costs, but you can afford to run back to base if
you took too much damage and need to heal. This doesnt mean you have to buy
extra regeneration for you AND your carry in the beginning, though. Just give him a
salve and/or tangos if he needs one badly and he will be fine and love you for the
rest of the game.

How do I avoid my carry dies to ganks?
Simply put, know when your enemy is ganking, and play defensive
during this time. The solution is of course Observer Wards! You
can see any enemy moving towards your lane, and back off in time
or intercept and kill them.


These wards are useful to your entire team, and should be part of your starting items!
If you see your enemy counterwarding, place new wards and counterward the enemy
wards yourself!
You need vision, and cant afford having enemy vision. Check the
minimap about every three seconds and check the enemy heros
inventory every minute for new items and Wards. If you see an
enemy hero moving for example through the rune location, check
his inventory and memorize the position he could have placed an
Observer Ward to counter him with one of your own Sentry Wards.

In high level games it is not uncommon to see Observer Wards as well as Sentry
Wards bought from minute one! Step up your game by doing so as well!
If you see an enemy support warding or counterwarding, it is pretty easy to kill him.
You can see if he has any backup, and intercept him with two or three heroes if he
has none. This gives you a free kill, and an immediate counterward on the enemy,
who got 75 gold and six minutes of vision wasted.
I will not explain good warding here because the topic is too big to cover in a
subcategory. Check one of the many good warding guides on the internet.

As you now made sure your carry doesnt die, you can make sure you dont die
yourself and feed gold to the enemy team. If you need to stay in lane, calculate if
your enemy can kill you and if your carry could prevent this from happening. Adjust
your play according to this.
If you are not in lane but doing creeppulls, ganking or warding, check for missing
heroes and play carefully. A ganking enemy will always run into you first if you are
not in lane, so be prepared and always check the minimap!
Keep an eye on your lane as well! It is not uncommon for an enemy to leave the lane
to intercept your creeppull or kill you when you are placing wards in an area where
they have vision.
In most cases, cautious play and good mapawareness will keep you alive.


How can I kill my laning opponents without wasting my carrys time?
If you go in on a kill, you need to be successful on the first try, because you will waste
your carrys time if you arent! Calculate the duration of your disables, your nuke
damage, and the autoattack damage you can deal while he is disabled, but take into
account a possible turn-around by the enemy. If you come to the conclusion you can
kill the enemy, communicate with your carry and initiate if you find a good opening. If
your allies gank your lane, assist with your disables and nukes. In both cases there is
one simple rule:
Dont steal the kill if you can avoid it!
An avoidable killsteal would be an enemy which is disabled for one more second with
200hp, with your carry attacking him. Let your carry attack him 3-4 times, and dont
waste your nuke to steal the kill.
An unavoidable killsteal would be if the enemy hero is running away from your melee
carry, and you havent got any disables left, but only a ranged nuke. Get the kill with
it, because a kill on the support is better than an enemy escaping with 50 health
points.

Every team needs a courier!
I didnt put this on the list of priorities because everyone should
know this. A courier is absolutely mandatory to any earlygame
victory! It is a huge difference between having to leave a lane and
get the items in your base or having them delivered by a courier!
As there are ideally two supports in a team, one of you should buy the courier and
one of you the wards in the beginning. Communicate with your support and tell him to
buy either of one (just as a side note, I often report people who pick supports but
dont buy either courier or wards and steal their carrys lasthits, because this is
equally bad as intentional feeding).
The upgraded courier is the first thing a support should buy from
the gold he gets. Usually the support who reaches the 220 gold first
upgrades the courier, and the other support buys the next set of
wards.
Always have a courier from the beginning on, and upgrade it as soon as possible!

3.2.1 How to creeppull
Creeppulling is your fourth priority, and should be done if your carry is safe on lane,
doesnt get harassed, isnt denied too many creeps and your wards are up and not
counterwarded.
All the things listed above serve mainly your team, and creeppulling serves you and
your team equally. This is why it is your lowest priority and shouldnt be done when
your carry could die while you are occupied.
Creeppulling basically means pulling the neutral pullcamp into your lane when your
creeps are passing, and thus draw your creeps off their regular path and into the
jungle, where they fight with the neutrals.
The timing for this is every time the clock hits 16 or 46 seconds!
Attack the creeps once and run towards your lane. Your creeps will now follow the
neutrals into the jungle and fight. They will do the dirty work for you, serving you free
lasthits on the neutrals.
What effect does this have on the lane, provided your entire creepwave dies?
1. Your enemy misses out an entire creepwave of experience and gold, putting them
in a big disadvantage if done repeatedly.
2. As your creepwave is fighting the neutrals and not the enemy creepwave, the
enemy creeps will push forward until your next creepwave arrives. This results in the
creepline being closer to your tower. Usually, one single creeppull is enough to pull
the creepline from under the enemy tower right in front of your own tower.
2.1 Your carry will be less gankable in this position compared to being really far out.
3. You get free lasthits on the neutrals and thus a bit of farm as the support
How do I get my entire creepwave to die?
The easiest way to make this happen is by doing nothing to the fight between creeps
and neutrals. I see a lot of people pulling the neutrals, but attacking them afterwards
and thus helping their creeps to win. This results in about half the creepwave
surviving and returning to lane with a delay. You will now have one and a half
creepwaves fighting one enemy creepwave.
The result: You push!
Dont attack the neutrals, but rather start denying your own creeps from 50% health
points on. Only get the lasthits on the neutrals!



This is still not enough to make the neutrals win the fight, and the magic thing you
need to do is stack the creepcamp!
This technique essentially doubles the creepcamp. If you pull a stacked creepcamp
into your lane, you will have one creepwave fighting two neutralcamps, which makes
the neutrals win for sure, provided you dont deal additional damage to them.
To understand stacking you need to understand how creepcamps work:
There are five creepcamps per jungle, one small-camp, two middle-camps and one
large-camp (also referred to as easy, medium and hard camps). Each creepcamp
spawns every minute on the minute, meaning whenever the clock hits the zero-
second-mark.
The creepcamp wont spawn if there are any units in the area of the creepcamp!
Every neutralcamp has got a defined area, referred to as the spawn area. This area
is different for every creepcamp, and you have to learn them by trying out. If there is
any unit in the spawn area of a certain camp at the zero-second-mark, the
creepcamp wont spawn. This includes heroes, creeps, wards (who are often used to
block a certain camp) and last but not least the neutral creeps themselves.
If you want to spawn a second creepcamp and thus stack it, you need to remove the
neutrals from their spawn area at X:00!
This is done by attacking the neutrals at around X:54 and running away from the
creepcamp. When leaving their camp, neutral creeps follow you for six seconds until
they turn around and return to their camp. If you attack at X:54 and run away, the
creeps will follow you until X:00 and thus have the biggest distance to their
creepcamp at this point.
If you did this correctly, you will find a stacked creepcamp you can pull into your lane
and get an entire creepwave killed.
Conclusion: Always stack before you pull, never attack the neutrals apart from getting
the lasthits on them. Only do creeppulling if there is nothing more you can do for your
carry and your wards are up.

3.3 Midgame as the support
If you did everything correctly in the earlygame, your team will be in a good position
for the midgame. Your hard carry will be farming the jungle, and your team will group
up to gank, push or teamfight, depending on what the lineup is built for.
Your priorities for midgame are the following:
1. Allow your carry free farming!
2. Help your team accomplish the goals for midgame, be it ganking, pushing or
teamfighting!
3. Dont die if you can avoid it!
How can I make sure my carry is freefarming?
First of all, your carry must desire to farm, if he decides to join you and fight without
items there is nothing more you can do but scream at him to go to the jungle and
farm (only if he needs more items of course).
If he is farming the jungle and the adjacent lanes, there are two things which can
disrupt his farm:
1. The enemy team
2. Your team
Your enemy team will try to disrupt your carries farm, and in process gank your jungle
repeatedly. Always have wards up to be warned of this, and countergank them. If a
teamfight in inevitable, gather your team and defend your territory.
Always have wards up to provide freefarm to your carry, and intercept the enemy
team if they try to gank your carry!
The second thing that can disrupt a carrys farm is his team! There is nothing more
annoying for a hard carry to find empty creepcamps on his route through the jungle,
which have been cleaned out by his own team! If you desperately need some farm
on all your heroes and cant find it anywhere else, communicate with your carry if he
is willing to split his farm. If he is a nice guy and thinking logically he will do so, and
you should clean out one entire jungle as 5 and let your carry farm alone again the
next minute.


Always be with your team and help them ganking, pushing, fighting, whatever!
Your team needs your contribution to win the game, so always be with them and
actively search for whatever helps you win. Usually a team is built for a certain
purpose, and your team will play this style to win the game.
How do I play in a ganking lineup?
To play gank, you need to find targets to gank. Offensive wards are
the best tools for this, especially if placed for example in the enemy
jungle. Counterward the enemy so they cant see your ganks
coming, and buy Smoke of Deceit for your team if you are not able
to counterward the enemy and your ganks dont result in kills.
In fights, use your spells in the most effective way to get kills for your team and to
save your teammates from death. Chain-disable the gank target, use a nuke if you
feel the damage is required, but never steal the kill.
If your ganking target will die for sure, and you see enemy backup coming in, use
your disable(s) to stop their movement before they can attack you or turn around to
flee from you. This will most likely net your team more kills, which they wouldnt have
gotten if you didnt pay attention and used your disable efficiently.
Continue ganking with your team until your carry joins you. Ideally you should have
taken a further advantage from every kill you got during the midgame, so you can
now start to end the game. This will be further explained in part 3.5.

How do I play in a pushing lineup?
Your team will mainly be pushing towers during midgame, and the enemy will be
forced to react to this at some point. This will result in teamfights around towers, but
your team doesnt want to take the teamfight, as they are not built for it.
You want to kill the tower and get out, so use your spells to scare away the enemy
team! Use any good pushing ability you have on the tower, and scare away anyone
coming to defend with your other spells. If you see an enemy moving way out of
position, use a disable and signal your team to kill him. These will most likely result in
an uncontested tower, as the enemy team will be even more scared now, and will
most likely not want to fight 4v5.
Repeat this process with all outer towers and wait for your carry to farm up. If you
dont have a hard carry but only a semicarry, you need to apply this strategy to a
base tower, but be careful as you will be in a chokepoint and can easily be killed!


How do I play in a teamfight lineup?
Your lineup is built for big teamfights, but if you cant find these fights, you are in a
pretty bad spot. To force a teamfight you act similar to a pushing lineup, and start to
push a tower in order to force a reaction.
No matter if there is any reaction, you are in a good spot, because you can just take
a free tower if there is none. If there is a reaction however, you have got your
teamfight. If the enemy assembles their heroes behind the tower to defend it, you
dive the tower and initiate the teamfight. Use your disables and nukes on appropriate
targets, and help your team win the fight. Take the tower as a bonus, and repeat
these steps somewhere else.
You still need to keep wards up to let your carry freefarm, and to see enemy
movement. Another good strategy is to stay in the enemy jungle and farm it, forcing a
reaction. Assist your team in these big fights, which is often done by just throwing in
one or two spells.

Ideally you want to have an advantage in all aspects at the end of midgame: a
farmed carry, all enemy outer towers killed, more gold and experience than the
opponent. This is when your hard carry joins you and you proceed to end the game.

3.4 Lategame as the support
At this stage your hard carry will join you, and you should proceed to end the game.
Your activities dont change much from midgame and you can still apply the same
strategies as in midgame, but you need to be very cautious when you push the base
towers and barracks.
Always have wards up and adjust them according to the game situation!
If you are not able to take barracks because the enemy is defending too well, just
place wards around their base watching all the paths they could take to leave the
base (this requires 4 wards at a time!). Use these wards to punish them if they want
to leave their base.
The rest of the time you farm every source of income on the map with your team,
which basically puts the nail in the coffin, as you will have an entire map to farm,
whereas the enemy has to split three lanes and gets ways less income than you do.
Whenever you killed two or more heroes in lategame, you should attempt a push.
The enemy will most likely not be able to defend and cant hold the barracks.
Remember: Never try to force a push on the ancient after you have only taken one
set of barracks! If you fail and the enemy team kills you, they can push down a lane
and take a set of barracks on their own, and you wont have done enough permanent
damage.
Never try to go anywhere alone, because you are an easy target at this stage of the
game, and your weakness is what the enemy can feast on to get back into the game
if they kill you repeatedly.

3.5 Fighting as the support
This is where the most mistakes happen, and why many supports end up feeding. As
the supporter, you really need to think about what you do, because everything you do
can make or break the fight for your team.
Your job in fights is to get your spells off on important targets. Take a look at the
enemys inventories and try to estimate who will deal the most damage or have the
biggest impact in the fight.
When your team initiates, you should follow the carries choice of targets and disable
this hero. Try to hit as many people as possible with AoE-abilities, and constantly
check your positioning to make sure you dont die. I wont explain good positioning
here as it is really difficult to explain, but I might create a guide on it in the future.

If you are the one to be initiated on while your team is around, you need to make a
decision:
If you think you can escape, use a disable on the hero(es) (if necessary) and RUN!
Bait the enemies into your team, where you turn around and initiate the fight. Disable
and nuke the targets your team is focusing, and do your best to win the fight.
If you are sure you will die anyways, use all the spells you can get off. Disable a
target your team can focus down quickly, throw out your nukes and maybe even use
a big teamfight ultimate if you are quick enough. If your team comes in at the right
time they can turn the fight around and get a lot of kills on their own, while only
trading for a support hero who got all his spells of anyways.
Try to always have a teammate with you while you are moving around the map, and
never go into unsafe area on your own! Even if you are sure you will die, stay calm
and use as many spells as you can and help winning the fight.

You always want to take a further advantage from any fight you win!
If you killed two enemies in a gank or won a big teamfight, you want to beat them
when theyre down by taking a tower or maybe killing Roshan! You can also use this
time to counterward with the goal of increasing your mapcontrol, push out any lanes
to occupy the enemy when they respawn or just farm their jungle to annoy them and
get more gold.
If you win a fight, always try to take a further advantage from the time the enemy is
dead!

3.6 Items for the support
The support is naturally getting way less gold than farming heroes, and he has to
make sure he spends the gold in the most efficient way. Your team still goes first in
this aspect, and I will list and explain all items you can safely buy on a support hero
without hurting your team more than helping it.
The core items for any support hero are the following:

These items are the least you want to have. Boots of Speed give you a mandatory
movespeed bonus, Magic Stick can help you survive more fights than you can think
of, and Town Portal Scroll is needed to move around the map and assist in fights.
Apart from this, you need to constantly be able to afford these items whenever they
are required:

Wards are obviously important, and it is your job to buy and place them. Smoke of
Deceit may be required if your enemy is warding really well and you need to force a
fight. Dust of Appearance is important to detect invisible heroes and should be
bought by you, as your carry needs to spend the money on damage. It is his job to
deal the damage, and your job to allow him to deal the damage.
If you get any additional gold, you can spend it on items serving two different
purposes!
1. Helping your team!
2. Making you more survivable!
Some of the items I am going to list now are working for both purposes and should
thus be the preferred choice for you. This does not mean you should buy these items
before anything else though. If you see the desperate need for an item which only
helps your team but doesnt make you more survivable, buy it!


Items you can buy to help your team are the following:
Arcane Boots are the most common support boots. They provide
you with a bigger manapool as well as the ability to restore your
allies mana. As everybody loves free mana, everybody will love
you if you provide them with it.
Ring of Basilius is a very good pushing item, as it provides a +2
armor aura to surrounding creeps and heroes if toggled on. If you
want to buy an item to help your team, chose this if you desperately
need something to push, and can use the mana regeneration.
Euls Scepter of Divinity provides you with really good intelligence,
mana regeneration and movespeed. The active tornado-ability can
be very helpful in fights, but you should only consider this item if
you are really rich and dont need physical survivability.
Orb of Venom can be bought in some cases to assist your team
with an additional slow. Only buy this on melee heroes and if you
will actually be able to apply the slow, for example in ganks, but not
if you are playing a teamfight lineup and would have to run into five
opponents to apply the slow.

Items you can buy to make yourself more survivable are the following:
Power Treads are the second choice of Boots I recommend for
supports. They provide you with good health points as the ability to
tread-switch. Buy these if you are not reliant on a lot of mana and
your team isnt either.
Bracers are cheap and cost-efficient items you can buy to make
yourself more survivable if you need to. You will often see a support
stack more than one Bracer to maximize his health for really low
costs.
Cloak is a good choice if you need to resist spell damage. This
item is great even if you dont upgrade it, and is commonly seen in
professional games. This does still not mean you can tank a
Sandking-Epicentre, but will definitely pay off on the long run.


Ghost Scepter is the supports choice in lategame. If the enemy
carry chooses you as the target, you will be guaranteed to live four
seconds longer, which can be enough for your team to disable and
kill the enemy carry with you surviving.
Magic Wand is the extension of the Magic Stick, which belongs to
your core build. As you probably started with some Ironwood
Branches, it makes sense to upgrade the Magic Stick and get
yourself a bit more survivability in fights during early- and
midgame.

These items serve only the purpose they are listed for. There are many more items a
support can buy, and these all serve the purpose to help your team, all while making
you more survivable!

Mekansm is the ultimate support item! It makes you very survivable
and allows you to heal your team every 45 seconds. People love
this, because all your fights and pushes will get a lot more punch
just by having a 250hp heal and a +2 armor effect.
Although not including a heal, a Buckler alone will make you pretty
tanky with +5 armor. In a pushing lineup this is preferably bought
over Bracers or even Power Treads, because you can also give +2
armor to surrounding creeps.
Drum of Endurance is built from a Bracer, and can be considered in
almost any situation. Especially teamfight lineups profit from this,
as you can give up to 15% bonus attackspeed and movespeed to
your team with this item.
Force Staff doesnt make you more survivable in the sense of more
stats, but in the sense of mobility. With this item you can get
yourself into a good position and out of a bad position. This works
for teammates as well, making it a really good support item.
Medallion of Courage is seen very rarely, but a really good item. It
provides you with a lot of armor and the ability to make any enemy
very squishy for a short duration with an equally short cooldown.
Buy this if you are staying with a semicarry or ganker all the time.


Urn of Shadows is a good item for any lineup, but really damn
good when playing a ganking style. Every kill you get is converted
into a heal for your team, and the boost in strength and a bit of
mana regeneration make this item perfect for supports.
Veil of Discord provides good armor, regeneration and intelligence.
The ability to amplify magical damage in an area makes this item
really worth the gold in teamfight lineups. Dont be afraid to use it in
small engagements as well, the short cooldown of 30 seconds
make the Veil a really powerful item.
Necronomicon is a really powerful pushing item that provides a
good mix of stats as well as the ability to summon two necro-
warriors. These two guys are really good for pushing as well as for
teamfights, where their manaburn works wonders. Although it is
really underused, dont be afraid to pick one up!
Rod of Atos is the least used item in the entire game, despite its
really good stats. The active is the point, where other items score,
but for a support hero the stats are worth the bad active effect of
the item itself. Build this if you need the stats and can make use of
a good slow.
Pipe of Insight can work wonders in teamfights and pushes, but it
is really expensive. Only buy this if you are really rich, and
communicate with your team so nobody else builds one. It doesnt
give you any direct health increase, but the 30% (!) magic
resistance should give you an edge in fights.
Vladimirs Offering is a VERY situational item for a support, as he
has to stand close to the carry if he wants to profit from the auras.
This will not always be possible, so chose wisely if you can always
stay in the big fights or should go for a different item which makes
you safer. If you however decide for Vlads and can survive in big
fights, your carry will profit from a lot of percentage based auras.
Always decide for an item the situation requires, and never trust builds blindly! All
other items than these are rejected in a normal game, only build more expensive
items if you are really rich and can afford to not have one of the items listed here!

3.7 Conclusion
The role of the support requires disciplined and humble play to be successful. If you
manage to play a good support, the game will in most cases be a win for you, and
your team will be thankful to you.
Always stay with a teammate if possible, and try to not die too much despite your lack
in gold and experience. Your contribution to fights will be little, but sometimes game
breaking, as one little disable can turn the tides of battle.
All your actions you take and items you buy should primarily have a use for your
team, and if possible never work for you only. Provide your team with all good effects
of your items to maximize their potential.
If you played a good support and managed to give your team and especially laning
partner a good start, you can carry this advantage through until you end the game
(believe me, fighting when you are ahead is so much more relaxed).

4. Replay
I decided to include a replay in this guide to give an example of how to play a
support. I played this game together with Eureka! who is on the Tiny, while I am
playing the Jakiro. Just be warned, you will see me miss a lot of Ice Paths, but
eventually my good warding and overall teamwork pays off.



And yes, this Riki was really damn bad

5. Final words
I hope I could explain every aspect of good support play sufficiently and encourage
you to play this role more often. As you now might play support a bit better, I also
hope you have a bit more fun with playing DotA.
If you liked this guide or have got any questions, feel free to leave me some feedback
or positive criticism so I can improve my further guides!













Made by: sheldon_
I do not own any of the images in this guide, except for the screenshot on page 27. If
anyone wants to get his images removed from this guide just write me a short
message and Ill remove them.