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Art of Support
Art of Support
Art of Support
A theoretical Approach on Dota Support Game-Play
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Chapter I : Introduction
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Table of Contents
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Table of Contents
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Table of Contents
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Image Contents
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Chapter I: Introduction
Chapter I : Introduction
Everything has to start somewhere. Let us quickly take a look who I am and the motivation behind
this guide.
As the tiers progress, the more farm and levels they get. This shows that the two supports have the
lowest farming and level priority.
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There are probably more but I think this should be enough to make my points later on.
2.5.1 Push
A lineup that relies heavily on pushing towers early to close the game out with the gained tower gold
advantage. These lineups are often used to counter four protect one lineups. Greedy supports
benefit a lot from pushing lineups.
2.5.2 Four-Protect-One
In this scenario you rely on one carry to become really fat to close out the game in the later stages of
the game. The goal is to out carry the opponent team. To make sure this happens 4 players try to
secure the carries farm. This lineup is often played with two defensive supports.
2.5.3 Two Core
A more dynamic approach is to have two heroes farming instead of one. You can basically say that
one core makes up for the other one and vice versa. Alone they are weak, together they are strong.
This lineup can have any form of supports in.
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Draft
Lanes
Support
Decisions
Early-GameImpact
2.7 Lanes
There are three different kind of lanes. In this section I will talk about the possible lanes, why they
are chosen and what supports do on these lanes.
Image 5: Lanes
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2.8 Rotation
The term "Rotation" is used when you leave your initial lane to make something happen on the map.
This can bring several benefits but also comes along with certain problems. This section will show you
which things happen when you decide to rotate.
2.8.1 Reason behind Rotations
Dota is not a static game. Lanes are not set in stone and several things can happen in a game which
make people leave their lanes to rotate somewhere else.
Common reasons:
Opponents off-lane left to rotate somewhere.
Aggressive tri-lane did not go well and has to be abandoned.
Opponents supports rotated.
Mid-lane rotates to gank.
Try to avoid random rotations with no reason. Do not walk around the map with no plan and keep
the effects of your rotations in mind.
2.8.2 Effects of Rotations
When people rotate on the map, usually space opens up in one or the other way. This space can be
used to your benefit but will also be used by your opponents.
Positive effects:
Experience and or farm distributed to other players.
Kill potential on other lanes.
Deny of ganks / possibility to counter gank.
Force rotations out of your opponent.
Negative effects:
Leaves the lane you left vulnerable to ganks / push.
Deny of experience and farm while rotating.
Opens farm and experience for your opponents.
2.8.3 Rotations - Conclusion
Rotations do often fail because certain circumstances have been ignored before the rotation started.
When this happens, you are pretty much behind. You lost experience and or farm and you give space
to your opponent. On gank heavy lineups, this can snowball out of control and result in a quick loss.
On the other hand, playing a greedy lineup and avoiding rotations gives you a huge advantage due to
the fact that you did not waste time and got what you want, experience and gold.
What does this mean to support players:
Think about the rotations you do. Are they necessary? Can they achieve a given objective? What is
the backup plan if it fails(if there is any)?Is it worth sacrificing my lane to rotate to win another?
In the following chapters you will get the information you need to solve these question on your own.
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Defensive,Greedy
Greedy, Greedy
Aggressive,
Aggresive
Defensive,
Aggressive
Aggresive, Greedy
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General
Laneing
Rotation
Wards/Sentries/Smokes/Chicken/Dusts.
Carries early Teleport Scroll.
Zones opponents.
Does not leech experience or farm.
Your job is to get all the support items needed. Also an early teleport scroll is nice to have since you
can leave a lane without losing much. Another important fact you need to understand is the
experience trade:
The Position 5 player basically always trades himself for the opponents Off-Laner. The reason for that
lies in the Position Model. An Off-Laner wants farm and experience since he is on the 3 position. A
position 5 priority is to get his support items going and that's it. That means that a position 5 player
can deny enemies experience and farm without a drawback.
A Safe-Lane Tri-Lane is won when the Off-Laner has the same or lower level then your Position
3.4.2 Items
Usually you are poor compared to all other positions. That means cheap but efficient items are they
way to go. You should not build in example Mekansm or other important core items. The reason lies
within the timing. In a normal scenario, you will be off certain timings for early pushes/early fights.
That is the reason why other position go for core items like Mekansm.
But there are two cheap and highly efficient items which you should aim for when you have an
average early game:
Urn of Shadow
Medallion of Courage
The timing of these two items does not matter. They are always good. If no one of your team has one
of these try to get at least one of these as early as possible. Sometimes they open up pushes or
Roshan. But there are exceptions. Some heroes highly benefit from Aghanim's Scepter. These can
slowly but steady build into it.
Examples: Ancient Apparition / Visage
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General
Laneing
Rotation
The main goal on Position 4 is to get core items up in time to achieve certain objectives like pushing.
5-maning or roshing. That means you usual do not zone Off-Laners or rotate to other lanes to
support them. Maximizing farm is the key but never forget that your main position is still support.
That means no experience or farm leech of the other three remaining positions. Do not forget to
communicate with your position 5 player for ganks and to make sure he is capable of buying all the
mandatory support items like wards/sentries/dusts.
3.5.2 Items
It is really hard to say which items you should buy on this position because it will differ heavily from
hero to hero. In general you will buy whatever is needed to make your hero work. If you do not need
anything to play your hero at full potential, then you usually aim for items like an early Mekansm or
Mana Boots if none of your other cores gets one of these.
Usual Position 4 Items:
Mana-Boots (One pair per team at least)
Blink Dagger (If you rely on initiation)
Hand of Midas (To Secure late game on greedy supports)
Force Staff (Very good versus certain heroes)
Mekansm (If cores will not get it)
Examples: Enchantress farms an early Force-Staff to counter a Clock-Work. Enigma gets a
Mekansm because his cores are not aiming for it.
Choose your items wisely. They can make a huge difference. Do not always stick to the same item
over and over again because you are used to it.
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Deny
neutral
Scout block
your
wood
Place
Wards
Secure
Rune
Move to
Lane
The image above applies for the Support- Duo. After you made sure your neutral creeps are not
blocked, one support moves to the rune, the other one stays to make sure the neutral spawns are
still not blocked.
While the supports do their job, your carry has to make sure the spawning creep wave is blocked
properly. This is needed to make sure the distance between where the creeps actual meet and the
opponents tower is a big a possible.
Why is this so important?
Space to zone opponents.
Space to chase opponents.
When this is not done properly and the lane pushes for any reason, the Off-Laner basicly won his
lane already. He will get experience and or farm and might be able to deny farm of your carry.
There will be heroes that have the ability to control your creep waves movement like Sylla-Bear or
Natures Prophet. When they pull your creep wave and take a walk, you have to do the same with
your opponents creep wave until another wave of yours arrives. This will make sure your creep wave
stays where it belongs.
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Timing is the key. Do not be late on your way out because this can throw everything off. You will
need about 30 seconds for the first blue path and another 10-15 seconds for the second path.
Being late can cause several problems:
Possibly get killed if multiple enemies moved into your forest.
Off-Laner / Aggressive Tri-Lanes places their desired wards.
Losing the rune to your enemies.
When you have a flexible draft that is capable of laneing in several ways, it is often smart to hide
your laneing intentions until the last second. In this scenario you will stay at your T2 tower hidden so
you will not get scouted. This will save you from lane swaps before the game started.
What each support does during the laning phase can be found in Chapter III.
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Secure Rune
Move to
Lane
Place Wards
Move as
3 to your
Tower
Move to
neutral
creep
camp
Let us have a look at the aggressive Tri-Lane. This time the whole Tri-Lane moves together to be safer
while approaching they enemy jungle. At your tower you make a quick stop to make sure the support
player with a disable moves in first. This will be crucial if you try to kill opponents which moved to
aggressive into their own jungle. At their neutral camp you usually stop. Stay there for a while,
someone might show up. Then place the wards you desire. The Support-Duo now moves to the rune
to contest it while the carry walks back to your base to get an optimal creep block off.
If you do not want to commit the duo to the rune because it is too dangerous, one scouts the rune
spawn, the other one also moves back with the carry helping to get a better block off.
Why is blocking as an aggressive Tri-Lane important? This will lower your space and makes your
opponents space bigger.
The following effects will occur:
Lesser way to your tower, longer way to opponents tower.
More room to take engage enemies.
Less room for opponents to take engagements.
After a successful deward supports have a longer way to support their carry after/while
pulling neutrals.
While you face their Tri-Lane, try to contest as many last hits as possible and their pulls. That means
that you take at least some of their pull experience. Take opportunities while they pull.
Keep in mind that an aggressive Tri-Lane is not always decided by kills. If you win the farm and
experience war you basically won your lane.
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The Safe-Lane rules also apply to the Off-Lane. You will need around 30 seconds for the first path and
another 15-20 seconds to the rune so watch the clock.
Do not be late or some of these things can happen:
Safe-Lane ward is placed without your knowledge.
Enemies are in position to deny your warding
Enemies are in position to engage you.
Rune gets picked before you scouted which rune actually spawned.
Sometimes you want to hide your aggressive Tri-Lane to avoid a lane swap since you want to face a
certain lane. In that case you just scout the top rune without being seen by your opponents.
This will open up the possibility to get first blood in the mid lane. After that you move to your lane.
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Deny
Neutral
Block
Place Wards
Secure Rune
Try
Firstblood
This approach makes a lot of sense when you have a duo with kill potential on level 1. In this scenario
you have the possibility to get an early lead and keep that lead by winning two out of three lanes due
to early support rotations.
Example: Lich and Sky-Wrath have a huge kill potential early on. After Lich got a quick level
two in his mid lane he can rotate efficient together with Sky-Wrath.
4.7.2 Supports on their own
Scout your
Ancients
Deny
Warding
Place Wards
Scout and
contest
Rune
Move to
your Lane
Supports should interact on their own when there is no kill potential on level 1. This means just go to
your lanes and stay there. No fancy rotations.
Example: Whisp wants to get as much experience as possible to reach his level six. He will
stay at his lane and avoids movement as much as possible.
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The Bottom blue path shows the movement as a Duo, the top blue path shows the solo movement.
As in the previous movement examples timings are crucial. Everything that was said before also
applies for this example. The timings are kind of the same.
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Positive
effects
Negative
Effects
As you can see, pulling has a lot of side effects. Let see how we can take advantage of these.
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Positive
effects
Negative
Effects
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When your lanes run smooth and do not need extra help, rotating is often a bad idea. But smooth
lanes implicit that you are at least even with your opponents farm and level wise so rotating might
give you the lead you need to snowball. Also consider that when you have a lead increasing that lead
can give you the edge which you need to close out the game.
Forms of Rotation:
Gank
Pressure
Defensive
Trade
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Move into
position
Wait for
cooldowns
Use Skills /
Items
Move Back
Image 20: Skill and movement pattern
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Defensive
Agrressive
Push
Roshan
Neutral
There are three entry points. Two entry points get covered by wards, the middle entry point is
covered when your T1 tower is alive else this will be the weak spot. This example can be used to
protect the Radiant jungle.
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The two wards provide vision in areas that are highly frequented by the Dire at a given game state. In
this scenarios we assume that the T1 towers near the wards are already gone. Opponents who try to
farm in their forest or at their ancients will be seen. This allows you to set up ganks.
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The two wards are placed from the Radiant point of view. Both wards are placed in areas which the
radiant side want to push into. The mid wards is used to make the T1 mid tower push safe. The ward
on the top lane implies that T1 and T2 towers are already destroyed. Its purpose is to make split push
attempts safer.
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This time both wards are placed from the Dire point of view. They cover the bottom entry point and
also the middle entry point. The only not covered entry point is the middle which is also the weak
spot of this ward placement. In this scenario we assume that the t1 middle and bottom tower are
already destroyed.
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This ward placement is from the Dire point of view. The bottom ward blocks the hard and the small
camp. On the top ward, the ancient spawn is prevented.
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Image Contents
Image Contents
Image 1: Position Model ......................................................................................................................... 2
Image 2: Support Order .......................................................................................................................... 3
Image 3: Tactical Concepts ..................................................................................................................... 4
Image 4: Tactical Concepts and early game impact............................................................................... 5
Image 5: Lanes ........................................................................................................................................ 6
Image 6: Support Duos ........................................................................................................................... 8
Image 7: Pos 5 Tasks ............................................................................................................................. 11
Image 8: Pos 4 Tasks ............................................................................................................................. 12
Image 9: Defensive Tri-Lane behavior.................................................................................................. 14
Image 10: Tri-Lane Movement and Zone-Corridor .............................................................................. 15
Image 11: Aggressive Tri-Lane behavior .............................................................................................. 16
Image 12: Aggressive Tri-Lane Movement and Zone Corridor ............................................................ 17
Image 13: Dual Mid Pattern Duo .......................................................................................................... 18
Image: 14: Dual Mid Pattern Solo ........................................................................................................ 18
Image 15: Dual Mid Movement and Zone-Corridor ............................................................................ 19
Image 16: Neutral Pull Effects .............................................................................................................. 20
Image 17: Effects of Pushing ................................................................................................................ 22
Image 18: Forms of Rotation ................................................................................................................ 24
Image 19: Neutral pull timings ............................................................................................................. 27
Image 20: Skill and movement pattern................................................................................................ 28
Image 21: Warding Types ..................................................................................................................... 30
Image 22: Defensive Warding Example ............................................................................................... 30
Image 23: Aggressive Warding Example .............................................................................................. 31
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Image Contents
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