Written by Ler

Art of Support
A theoretical Approach on Dota Support Game-Play

Table of Contents

Table of Content s
Chapter I : Introduction

1.1 Short Biography ................................................................................................................................ 1

1.2 Competitive History .......................................................................................................................... 1
1.3 Motivation behind the Guide ........................................................................................................... 1
1.4 Guide Overview ................................................................................................................................ 1
Chapter II : Basic Concepts

2.1 Position Model .................................................................................................................................. 2

2.2 Two different Support types ............................................................................................................ 2
2.3 Understanding your Position ........................................................................................................... 2
2.4 Different kind of Supports ................................................................................................................ 3
2.4.1 The "Greedy" term ................................................................................................................. 3
2.4.2 Greedy Supports ..................................................................................................................... 3
2.4.3 Aggressive Supports ............................................................................................................... 3
2.4.4 Defensive Supports................................................................................................................. 4
2.5 Tactical Concepts .............................................................................................................................. 4
2.5.1 Push ........................................................................................................................................ 4
2.5.2 Four-Protect-One ................................................................................................................... 4
2.5.3 Two Core................................................................................................................................. 4
2.5.4 Tri Core ................................................................................................................................... 5
2.5.5 Gank........................................................................................................................................ 5
2.5.6 One-Protect-Four ................................................................................................................... 5
2.6 Correlation: Tactical Concepts and Early-Game-Impact.................................................................. 5
2.6.1 Limited Decisions.................................................................................................................... 5
2.7 Lanes ................................................................................................................................................. 6
2.7.1 Defensive Tri-Lane .................................................................................................................. 6
2.7.2 Aggressive Tri-Lane................................................................................................................. 6
2.7.3 Dual-Lanes .............................................................................................................................. 6
2.8 Rotation ............................................................................................................................................ 7
2.8.1 Reason behind Rotations........................................................................................................ 7
2.8.2 Effects of Rotations ................................................................................................................ 7
2.8.3 Rotations - Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 7

Table of Contents

Chapter III : Support Concepts

3.1. Possible Support Duos ..................................................................................................................... 8

3.2 Support Duo Breakdowns................................................................................................................. 9
3.2.1 Defensive, Defensive .............................................................................................................. 9
3.2.2 Defensive, Greedy .................................................................................................................. 9
3.2.3 Defensive, Aggressive ............................................................................................................. 9
3.2.4 Aggressive, Greedy ............................................................................................................... 10
3.2.5 Aggressive, Aggressive.......................................................................................................... 10
3.2.6 Greedy, Greedy..................................................................................................................... 10
3.3 Role Determination ........................................................................................................................ 10
3.4 Position 5: Hard Support ................................................................................................................ 11
3.4.1 Tasks ..................................................................................................................................... 11
3.4.2 Items ..................................................................................................................................... 11
3.5 Position 4: Semi Support ................................................................................................................ 12
3.5.1 Tasks ..................................................................................................................................... 12
3.5.2 Items ..................................................................................................................................... 12
Chapter IV: Supports enter the Battlefield

13

4.1 General Advice ................................................................................................................................ 13

4.2 Chicken and Wards, Sentries and Smoke....................................................................................... 13
4.2.1 When to skip Sentries? ......................................................................................................... 13
4.2.2 When to Skip Smoke?........................................................................................................... 13
4.3 A new Battle begins ........................................................................................................................ 14
4.4 Defensive Tri-Lane Pattern ............................................................................................................. 14
4.4.1 Safe-Lane: Movement Paths and Zone-Corridor .................................................................. 15
4.5 Aggressive Tri-Lane Pattern............................................................................................................ 16
4.5.1 Off-Lane: Movement Paths and Zone Corridor .................................................................... 17
4.6. Dual-Lane Mid ................................................................................................................................ 18
4.7 Dual-Lane Mid Pattern ................................................................................................................... 18
4.7.1 Supports as a Duo ................................................................................................................. 18
4.7.2 Supports on their own .......................................................................................................... 18
4.7.2 Middle-Lane: Movement Paths and Zone-Corridor ............................................................. 19

Table of Contents

Chapter V: The Mind of a Support

20

5.1 Game of Patience............................................................................................................................ 20

5.2 Lane Decisions................................................................................................................................. 20
5.2.1 Neutral Pull Effects ............................................................................................................... 20
5.2.2 Objectives of Neutral Pulls ................................................................................................... 21
5.2.3 Efficient Harassment ............................................................................................................ 21
5.2.4 Skill-Builds............................................................................................................................. 21
5.2.4 Experience and Farm leech .................................................................................................. 22
5.2.5 Effects of Pushing ................................................................................................................. 22
5.2.6 Objectives of Pushing ........................................................................................................... 23
5.3 Different Forms of Rotations.......................................................................................................... 23
5.3.1 Gank Rotation ....................................................................................................................... 24
5.3.2 Pressure Rotation ................................................................................................................. 24
5.3.3 Defensive Rotation ............................................................................................................... 25
5.3.4 Trade Rotation ...................................................................................................................... 25
5.3.5 Rotations conclusion ............................................................................................................ 25
5.4 Rune Control ................................................................................................................................... 26
5.4.1 Impactful Runes .................................................................................................................... 26
5.4.2 Who should control the Rune?............................................................................................. 26
5.4.3 The Rune Trap ...................................................................................................................... 26
5.5 Stacking Neutrals ............................................................................................................................ 27
5.5.1 Priority of Stacking Neutrals ................................................................................................. 27
5.5.2 Farming Neutrals .................................................................................................................. 27
5.5.3 Neutral Pull Timings ............................................................................................................. 27
5.6 General Fight Behavior ................................................................................................................... 28
5.6.1 Safe Positioning .................................................................................................................... 28
5.6.2 Skill Priorities ........................................................................................................................ 28
5.6.3 Skill and movement Pattern ................................................................................................. 28

Table of Contents

Chapter VI: Warding Concepts

29

6.1 Idea of efficient Warding ................................................................................................................ 29

6.1.1 Efficient Wards ..................................................................................................................... 29
6.1.2 Good and Bad Wards............................................................................................................ 29
6.1.2 Deward Prevention............................................................................................................... 29
6.2 Warding Objectives ........................................................................................................................ 30
6.2.1 Defensive Warding ............................................................................................................... 30
6.2.2 Aggressive Warding .............................................................................................................. 31
6.2.3 Push related Warding ........................................................................................................... 32
6.2.4 Rosh-Pit Warding .................................................................................................................. 33
6.2.5 Neutral Warding ................................................................................................................... 34
6.4 Rune Ward ...................................................................................................................................... 35
6.4.1 Why Rune Wards should be avoided ................................................................................... 35
6.5.2 Rune Ward Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 35
Chapter VII: Epilogue

36

Image Contents

37

Chapter I: Introduction

Chapter I : Intr oduction

Everything has to start somewhere. Let us quickly take a look who I am and the motivation behind
this guide.

1.1 Shor t Bi ogr aphy

My name is Timo, also known as "Ler". I am from Stuttgart - Germany and was born 1990.For now, I
studied 2 Semester Chemistry, 5 Semester Software-Engineering and 3 Semesters Economics paired
with Informatics. My first competitive Dota experience came with .37b. The journey started in
Battle.net to G-Arena over to Dota-League. After that, I quickly found a stable team and got vouched
into IHCS2. Since the first day, I played the Support role. In my opinion, supports decisions can impact
a game as much as any other core hero.

1.2 Competi ti ve Histor y

After several months in in-house leagues and through connections build over time it all began in
Team Visualize with ZoN(Later SK Gaming) and Alan. After that I teamed up with people like
Black^(Later LGD.int/Mouz), Black-Lotus, Azen(Later Dignitas) . But somehow I lost interest in Dota
since the competition back then was not like it was today so a switch to World of Warcraft seemed
like the better call. If I just knew that Dota would develop like it is today I would probably never left
the game. I was kind of late to the Dota 2 party since keys have been expensive on Ebay and I was
not lucky enough to get early access to the Beta.
Tournaments I competed in:
Yard Orange Festival
Razer Qualifier #3
EMS ONE Qualifier
GG-Tournament
MSI Beat-It

1.3 Moti vati on behi nd the Gui de

Over the last couple of months I met a lot of people, be it in Public Games or as a stand-in who
played support and believed they have a clue what they actually do and as far as I can tell it was a
disaster. After TI4 it seemed even clearer that good supports can decide games on their own and that
a functional support duo is a very rare thing.
My hope is that many people will read this document and step up their support abilities to make
right calls in publics and or competitive play.

1.4 Gui de Over vi ew

There are multiple scenarios and tactics, drafts and lanes. I will try to go as deep as possible in every
single aspect of support game play to give you a deeper understanding of certain decisions and
concepts. This is not the usual guide which tells you a direct order of actions based on the current in
game time or how a certain hero has to be played. This guide aims for your mind to support your
own decision making. Supporting is more than just buying wards and protecting your carry, but
maintaining a tactical advantage for your team.

Chapter II: Basic Concepts

Chapter II : Basi c Concepts

This chapter is all about Dota basics which are needed to understand Support Decisions better.

2.1 Positi on Model

Someone developed a Model to describe how the farm is divided onto the played heroes in a game.
Since there are 5 heroes per team the following 5 positions came up:

Image 1: Position Model

As the tiers progress, the more farm and levels they get. This shows that the two supports have the
lowest farming and level priority.

2.2 Two di ffer ent Suppor t t ypes

The position model showed us that there are two different kind of supports. The position 5 leaves
most of the farm to the rest of his team and the position 4 takes all of the farm that is not taken by
the other three remaining positions. The experience which you get by creeps/neutrals is often
forgotten but also a very important part. The position 5 also leaves all the experience to his team and
position 4 takes all the experience which is not taken by the rest of the team. Later we will talk more
about the two individual positions.

2.3 Under standing your Posi tion

Before the game starts you should figure out which kind of support you are because this will lead
your actions in the early stages of the game.
Position based questions:
Do I take as much experience and farm as possible?
Do I in general buy Wards/Dusts/Sentries/Smokes?

Chapter II: Basic Concepts

2.4 Differ ent ki nd of Suppor ts

An order how different support types beat each other.

Image 2: Support Order

2.4.1 The "Gr eedy" ter m

The term "Greedy" is being used for a while now and I believe it needs an explanation. If you call a
Hero "greedy" it means that the hero is level and or farm depended which makes him vulnerable
during the early stages of a game.
2.4.2 Gr eedy Suppor ts
Why is this important for support heroes? Well, support heroes lead a team through the early and
mid game and while doing that dictating the speed of the game. The conclusion is that having one or
even two "greedy" support heroes will automatically cause a very slow game speed because the
supports are busy getting levels and farm. These kind of supports make the team vulnerable to
aggressive support duos who can usually impact the game without getting much levels and or farm.
Examples:
Enigma - Farm and level dependent.
Rhasta - Level dependent.
Sandking - Farm and level dependent.
2.4.3 Aggr essive Suppor ts
Aggressive support duos are usually not level and farm depended and come along with a huge kill
potential which allows them to set up ganks very early without leeching lane or pull experience.
Playing with such supports allows you to play a very "fast" action oriented game.
Examples:
Bane - Sleep opens up many combos.
PotM - Arrow.
Enchantress - Creeps to control early game
These supports seem kind of strong and the way to go, but they can be easy countered by the next
support type, defensive supports.

Chapter II: Basic Concepts

2.4.4 Defensive Suppor ts

Not long ago, people developed a play style which relied heavily on defensive supports. These
defensive supports are usually used to safe people when they are engaged to allow a reengage. The
upside is that these supports usually are kind of weak in the laneing phase or fall of during late game.
Examples:
Shadow Demon - Banish to save or banish blinked in targets.
Dazzle - Grave focus targets.
Treant - Living armor focus targets.

2.5 Tactical Concepts

When a lineup is drafted, different tactical concepts are used. The idea behind a certain draft must
be clear to everyone in the team so everyone can fulfill his or her purpose according to the overall
game plan.

Image 3: Tactical Concepts

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 -Pr otect-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 Cor e
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.

Chapter II: Basic Concepts

2.5.4 Tr i Cor e
The idea behind this concept is to spread your opponent. It is nearly impossible to shut down 3
people farming the map so there will be always one player that comes out farmed after the midgame
to prolong the game. That gives the other cores time to catch up. In this lineup any support type fits
in.
2.5.5 Gank
Gank lineups are usually used to counter greedy play in general. The goal is to achieve early kills.
These kills should force rotations from other lanes and or push the tower as a result. These lineups
can often fall off when early ganks fail. These lineups are usually played with aggressive supports.
2.5.6 One-Pr otect-Four
This is the most greedy tactical concept. You rely heavily on one support to fill the support role, while
the second support on position four moves to a core position due his jungle farming. Another option
is that the position four is on a roaming mission so he snowballs out of the kills taken or has to play
catch up when it fails which leaves the position five alone on his support job most of the time.
Greedy supports in general benefit from that tactical concept if you leave them time to farm.

2.6 Cor r elation: Tactical Concepts and Ear ly-Game-Impact

Before the draft is started ,a tactic is chosen. This leads to a certain draft. The draft has to be laned in
a certain way. The laneing opens up certain decisions for the support players. These decisions lead to
the early game impact.
Tactical Concept

Draft

Lanes

Support
Decisions

Early-GameImpact

Image 4: Tactical Concepts and early game impact

2.6.1 Limited Decisions

As you can see in graphic 4, decision making heavily relies on the steps taken before. That includes
laneing, draft and the overall tactical concept.
What does this mean for a support player:
Understand your Tactical Concept and Draft.
Analyze your lanes and opponents lanes.
Make your decision on the points above.
This should show you that many decisions are not random nor game dynamic but can be planned to
maximize the early game impact. On the other hand you can also see that the tactical concept and
the out coming draft forces supports to decide in a certain way.
Example:
Your Captain decided to go for a Four-Protect-One lineup and picked two defensive supports.
Your opponents run an aggressive Tri-Lane. This will limit your movement to a minimum if you
planned a safe lane Tri-Lane since your carry need to farm and you have to ensure this
happens.
Your decision making is now limited by your draft, your laneing and by your opponents
laneing.

Chapter II: Basic Concepts

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

2.7.1 Defensive Tr i -Lane

A defensive tri-lane will always be played on your Safe Lane.
The Following objective shall be achieved:
Secure carries experience and farm.
Deny off-lanes experience and farm.
Secure supports experience and farm.
Stack your own wood.
Control safe-lane rune.
2.7.2 Aggr essive Tr i-Lane
An aggressive Tri-Lane will always be played on your Off-Lane.
The Following objectives shall be achieved:
Deny opponents carries farm.
Deny supports experience and farm.
Limit opponents support movement.
2.7.3 Dual-Lanes
Dual lanes can be on any lane. Safe-Lane dual lanes share the some objectives as the defensive TriLane and Off-Lane dual lanes share the same objectives as the aggressive Tri-Lane.
Another possibility is a dual lane mid. This scenario is kind of rare.
Dual-Mid Objectives:
Deny mid-lanes farm.
Secure your mid-lanes farm.
Control of both rune spots.
Stack your own wood/ancients.
You should keep in mind that a Dual-Lane is limited compared to a Tri-Lane when it comes to secure
the given objectives.

Chapter II: Basic Concepts

2.8 Rotati on
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.

Chapter III: Support Concepts

Chapter III : Suppor t Concepts

The previous chapter gave you an overview which types of supports exist, the objective behind
certain lanes, tactical concepts and what can happen when people start to rotate. Now we take a
close look how certain supports function with each other, point out strengths and weaknesses and go
deep into actual support scenarios.

3.1. Possible Suppor t Duos

In a standard draft, two heroes are committed to the support role. One will play the semi support
(Position 4), and the other one will play the hard support (Position 5). In rare cases, there will be only
one Support hero at all (Talking about competitive Dota, this obviously does not apply to public
games).
There are several forms of support duos. Chapter II told you that there are basically three different
kind of support heroes. Let us take a look at possible combinations and their benefits as well as their
weaknesses. Let us take a look at all the possible combinations:
Three different types: Defensive, Aggressive and Greedy.
Two Support slots.
Possible Combinations:
Defensive,
Defensive

Defensive,Greedy

Greedy, Greedy

Aggressive,
Aggresive

Defensive,
Aggressive

Aggresive, Greedy

Image 6: Support Duos

Chapter III: Support Concepts

3.2 Suppor t Duo Br eakdowns

Earlier I talked about possible laneing scenarios. Now since we got all the possible Support-Duo
combinations we take a look in which laneing scenarios they are strong and what makes them weak
when they are laned wrong. I will also point out general benefits and weakness regarding the overall
tactical concepts.
3.2.1 Defensive, Defensive
This is by far the most safe way to play a safe lane and a good approach when you face gank heavy
lineups. You are also able to handle aggressive Tri-Lanes very well . This combination is often chosen
for a four-protect-one lineup. One of the two can always camp behind the farming hero to make
sure he does not die.
Example: Dazzle / Treant.
On the other hand this setup is usually bad when you want to play an aggressive Tri-Lane or want to
play aggressive in general. But you should keep in mind that there are several aggressive Tri-Lanes
which work wonders with two defensive supports.
Example: Shadow Demon / Dazzle / Centaur
3.2.2 Defensive, Gr eedy
Against a single player on the Off-Lane, this scenario works pretty well. The defensive support zones,
the greedy support gets his farm and or his experience. A big problem will be aggressive Tri-lanes
since they will contest the greedy support. The gank potential in the early stages is also very limited
because the greedy supports usually gets his farm.
Example: Rhasta / Treant
If you want to run an aggressive Tri-lane yourself with these supports, this is the wrong approach.
This combination is often run in Push heavy and two-Core lineups. The Greedy supports benefit from
the tower gold and the defensive support makes pushing saver.
3.2.3 Defensive, Aggr essive
A very solid combination. You can handle aggressive Tri-Lanes very well, zone any Off-Laner and
huge gank potential because you are not bound to get levels and farm.
Example: Shadow Demon / Enchantress
A huge benefit is also the possibility to run an aggressive Tri-Lane if you want to.
Example: Razor / Rubick / Ancient Apparition
This combination is often run in Two-Core/Tri-Core lineups. The aggressive support makes often kills
possible with certain core heroes and the defensive support makes sure that cores have an easier
time.

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Chapter III: Support Concepts

3.2.4 Aggr essive, Gr eedy

This combination works wonders on your safe lane against a single Off-Laner. The aggressive support
can zone and the Greedy one can farm and get his levels. Gank potential is also huge when they roam
together.
Example: Skywrath / Lion
However, aggressive Tri-Lanes are still dangerous since they can shut down the greedy support and
playing an aggressive Tri-lane with this setup is also the wrong approach since the greedy support
will not get his levels and farm.
Greedy and Aggressive supports in combination can be used in any tactical concept.
3.2.5 Aggr essive, Aggr essive
The badass combo. Your safe-lane cannot be contested in any way, not by a Tri-Lane and not by any
Off-Laner. Huge gank potential during the early game. You will find a combination of these type in a
gank lineup. The problem is that they can fall of pretty easy if crucial kills are not made during the
early game. Another problem is the late game where they can also fall off due to their missing late
game scaling.
Example: Enchantress / Venge
Aggressive Tri-Lanes can also be run efficient with this setup.
Example: Venge / Ancient Apparition / Drow
3.2.6 Gr eedy, Gr eedy
Many times people asked me how to counter greed. My answer: Be more greedy! This is the ultimate
farming combo with the highest late game potential of all the support combos. The downside is
obvious: Push heavy 5 man, hyper aggressive and Tri-Core lineups will counter this and can lead to a
quick game.
Examples: Enigma / Rhasta
Aggressive Tri-Lanes with this combination should be avoided at any cost. No farm, no experience
will result in no fun and a quick game.

3.3 Role Deter mination

Sometimes it can be hard to say who is the hard and who is the semi support. Greedy supports
automatically move to position four. When there are two Greedy supports in one game, you need to
communicate who takes most of the farm and experience.
When there is no greedy support, you need to take a look at your lineup and determine who can use
the farm and experience to have the highest possible game impact.
Example: Two aggressive supports are in the same team. The one who literally gets more
kills/ assists in the early stages will transition into position 4. The other one will be position 5.

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Chapter III: Support Concepts

3.4 Positi on 5: Har d Suppor t

Also known as the ward bitch.
3.4.1 Tasks
The hard support has certain tasks, which seem kind of easy, but are often forgotten or ignored:

General
Laneing
Rotation
Image 7: Pos 5 Tasks

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

12

Chapter III: Support Concepts

3.5 Positi on 4: Semi Suppor t

The farming Support.
3.5.1 Tasks
Semi supports follows the principles of greed.

General
Laneing
Rotation
Image 8: Pos 4 Tasks

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.

13

Chapter IV: Supports on the Battlefield

Chapter IV: Suppor ts enter the

Battlefi eld
Now we move to the actual game. This chapter is all about the game start, possible movements and
lanes in general.

4.1 Gener al Advice

There are several things you should keep in mind.
General Checklist:
Trade yourself only if you can get experience or a streak. Do not trade yourself for a carry if
other supports are near when you are over leveled or carry a streak.
Hide yourself as much as possible so your opponents have to anticipate where you are
located. This makes them play more passive and will give your team more space.
Do not teleport to lanes to get farm or experience. If you do that you will not be able to
defend versus pushes or dives. It will also cost 135 gold and you will be exposed to ganks.
Save as much mana as possible in the early stages to make sure you can support other lanes
after you rotate there.
Position yourself properly. Remember, you are squishy.
Watch the in game clock.
Check constantly peoples inventories.

4.2 Chick en and War ds, Sentr ies and Smoke

The support duo has to make sure these two items are bought:
Chicken and Wards.
Now there are two more items that are nice to have but not always necessary:
Sentries and Smoke.
Skipping the second ones will allow you to go for another item on one person like boots. Do not
forget that getting sentries early allows you to block two more neutral camps in your opponents
forest and allows instant dewarding.
4.2.1 When to skip Sentr ies?
You can skip Sentries when your opponents have a weak level 1 lineup and you can freely run into
your own forest to deny enemies warding.
Another possibility is running an aggressive Tri-Lane. You will only buy sentries if you need them as
invisible detection. Else feel free to buy more regeneration items.
4.2.2 When to Skip Smoke?
When you run two Greedy-Supports or you expect an aggressive Tri-Lane an early smoke will not be
effective since you will not have time to use it early due to other objectives. Feel free to skip it and
buy one when you are ready for ganks.

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Chapter IV: Supports on the Battlefield

4.3 A new Battle begins

Before the game started you already took a look at your line-up and also your opponents line-up. You
understood what kind of line-up you play and how your opponents line-up works.
Certain things should be checked before the base is left:
Strong level 1 five man might move into your forest to place wards safely.
Aggressive tri -lane might move into your forest to place wards safely.
Roshan on level 1.
Warding enemies jungle.

4.4 Defensi ve Tr i -Lane Patter n

Deny
neutral
Scout block
your
wood

Place
Wards

Secure
Rune

Move to
Lane

Image 9: Defensive Tri-Lane behavior

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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Chapter IV: Supports on the Battlefield

4.4.1 Safe-Lane: Movement Paths and Zone-Cor r idor

Image 9 reflects how the previous information looks like when executed in an actual game.

Image 10: Tri-Lane Movement and Zone-Corridor

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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Chapter IV: Supports on the Battlefield

4.5 Aggr essive Tr i -Lane Patter n

Secure Rune

Move to
Lane

Place Wards

Move as
3 to your
Tower

Move to
neutral
creep
camp

Image 11: Aggressive Tri-Lane behavior

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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Chapter IV: Supports on the Battlefield

4.5.1 Off-Lane: Movement Paths and Zone Cor r idor

Image 11 shows how the aggressive Tri-Lane pattern applies in an actual game.

Image 12: Aggressive Tri-Lane Movement and Zone Corridor

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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Chapter IV: Supports on the Battlefield

4.6. Dual-Lane Mi d
The Safe-Lane and Off-Lane patterns are also applied to Dual-Lanes. But one special part is still
missing. The Dual-Mid. In this certain case I will use the Radiant side as example. Everything can also
be applied if you are on the Dire side. There are two approaches. The support duo tries to work as a
duo as much as possible or both work on their own.

4.7 Dual-Lane Mid Patter n

When you play a dual lane in middle, your job is to make space for your farming Mid hero. It will
sometimes be wise to let your mid hero full experience until he hits level two since this might opens
up kill and or zone potential. The main objective is to shut down your opponents Middle as hard as
possible.
4.7.1 Suppor ts as a Duo

Scout your wood

Deny
Neutral
Block

Place Wards

Secure Rune

Try
Firstblood

Image 13: Dual Mid Pattern Duo

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 Suppor ts on their own

Scout your
Ancients

Deny
Warding

Place Wards

Scout and
contest
Rune

Move to
your Lane

Image: 14: Dual Mid Pattern Solo

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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Chapter IV: Supports on the Battlefield

4.7.2 Middle-Lane: Movement Paths and Zone-Cor r idor

This shows the previous information shown on an actual map.

Image 15: Dual Mid Movement and Zone-Corridor

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.