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Art of Support
A theoretical Approach on Dota Support Game-Play
Table of Contents
Chapter I : Introduction 1
Twitter: @Ler_GG | Twitch: twitch.tv/gg_nore |©2014 Timo Waszek - All rights reserved
Table of Contents
Twitter: @Ler_GG | Twitch: twitch.tv/gg_nore |©2014 Timo Waszek - All rights reserved
Table of Contents
Twitter: @Ler_GG | Twitch: twitch.tv/gg_nore |©2014 Timo Waszek - All rights reserved
Table of Contents
Image Contents 37
Twitter: @Ler_GG | Twitch: twitch.tv/gg_nore |©2014 Timo Waszek - All rights reserved
1 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.
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.
Twitter: @Ler_GG | Twitch: twitch.tv/gg_nore |©2014 Timo Waszek - All rights reserved
2 Chapter II: Basic Concepts
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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3 Chapter II: Basic Concepts
Examples:
Enigma - Farm and level dependent.
Rhasta - Level dependent.
Sandking - Farm and level dependent.
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.
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4 Chapter II: Basic Concepts
Examples:
Shadow Demon - Banish to save or banish blinked in targets.
Dazzle - Grave focus targets.
Treant - Living armor focus targets.
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.
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5 Chapter II: Basic Concepts
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-Protect-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.
Support Early-Game-
Tactical Concept Draft Lanes
Decisions Impact
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.
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6 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
2.7.3 Dual-Lanes
Dual lanes can be on any lane. Safe-Lane dual lanes share the some objectives as the defensive Tri-
Lane and Off-Lane dual lanes share the same objectives as the aggressive Tri-Lane.
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.
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7 Chapter II: Basic Concepts
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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8 Chapter III: Support Concepts
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, Defensive,
Aggresive Aggressive
Aggresive, Greedy
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9 Chapter III: Support Concepts
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.
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.
A huge benefit is also the possibility to run an aggressive Tri-Lane if you want to.
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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10 Chapter III: Support Concepts
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.
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.
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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11 Chapter III: Support Concepts
3.4.1 Tasks
The hard support has certain tasks, which seem kind of easy, but are often forgotten or ignored:
• Wards/Sentries/Smokes/Chicken/Dusts.
General • Carries early Teleport Scroll.
• Zones opponents.
Laneing • 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.
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12 Chapter III: Support Concepts
3.5.1 Tasks
Semi supports follows the principles of greed.
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.
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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13 Chapter IV: Supports on the Battlefield
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.
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.
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.
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14 Chapter IV: Supports on the Battlefield
Move to
Secure Lane
Place Rune
Wards
Deny
neutral
Scout block
your
wood
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.
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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15 Chapter IV: Supports on the Battlefield
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.
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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16 Chapter IV: Supports on the Battlefield
Move to
Secure Rune Lane
Place Wards
Move to
neutral
creep
Move as camp
3 to your
Tower
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.
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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17 Chapter IV: Supports on the Battlefield
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.
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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18 Chapter IV: Supports on the Battlefield
Deny
Try
Scout your wood Neutral Place Wards Secure Rune
Firstblood
Block
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.
Scout and
Scout your Deny Move to
Place Wards contest
Ancients Warding your Lane
Rune
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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19 Chapter IV: Supports on the Battlefield
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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20 Chapter V: The Mind of a Support
The same applies to your opponents and creeps. Keep track of their movements, wait them to
overstep their boundaries to make clean swipes. Do take risks, but calculated ones.
If your actions are not thought well, the clock will work against you. Movement takes time and failed
actions will result in experience and farm loss. The worst case is that someone of your own team is
killed because of your impatience, so keep it slow, but steady.
Effects •Opponents can pull creeps from your pull to their tower.
•Enlargement of the Zone-Corridor can be used against
you.
As you can see, pulling has a lot of side effects. Let see how we can take advantage of these.
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21 Chapter V: The Mind of a Support
I hope it is clear now that you should not pull for the sake of a little experience and gold advantage
but to achieve certain objectives.
When you trade right click hits you have to make sure that you can outlast your opponents. When
this is not guaranteed you have to make use of your mana to push your opponents out of the lane.
When there are multiple targets you should always have a priority which target you want to hit first,
second, .... to maximize your damage. At the same time you have to avoid getting hit by targets that
deal a lot of damage to you.
Harassment follows also an objective: Gain full control of your lane. When you cannot control the
lane with the damage or your presence in general, go and do something else since you have no
effect.
5.2.4 Skill-Builds
Many heroes can be skilled in different ways. These choices have benefits and downsides.
General advice:
Do not skill before you actually enter your lane. Sometimes opportunities will be missed if
you select a certain skill to early.
Next step:
Do not skill something which can have huge drawbacks if you are not 100% sure that it will
do what you have planned.
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22 Chapter V: The Mind of a Support
Cases:
You are able to get a crucial level.
o Example: Level 6 to gain access to your ultimate.
You can finish a core item with the farm you take.
o Example: You lack 2 last hits to finish Mana-Boots.
Your core is already high level and does not benefit as much as you of the experience gain.
o Example: Your carry is farming a big ancient stack and you take off some experience.
That should give you a good feeling when you are allowed to leech and when you are not.
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23 Chapter V: The Mind of a Support
Pushing Scenarios:
Pushing close to towers creates pressure and forces rotation. Usually 5 man pushes force
engagements out of your opponents.
Pushing out all lanes before you take Roshan is crucial so you have time to take him down
without losing towers.
Pushing to take down a tower should be thought through to make sure the tower will not be
defended or denied.
Pushing lanes or towers to create space for other lanes.
Pushing into towers to set up ganks that come from behind.
Pushing out lanes in general to remove pressure from your base in late game.
Example: The support duo has to kill the Off-Laner in order to secure the tower destruction
afterwards. The carry starts pushing the lane so both supports can smoke and move behind
his tower. With the tower attacking the creeps, they are able to take down the Off-Laner
without much trouble and secure the tower destruction.
But do not forget about the negative sides when you decide to push a lane. Doing it wrong might
harm more than you think.
Do not teleport to lanes if it is not necessary. Walk as much as possible to have your teleport ready
when it is really needed. I cannot point out how important this is.
Example:
You just spawned in your Base after you got killed. You teleport to your Off-Lane to set up a
gank there. You kill the target. That seems good. But your opponents realized how fast you
got there right after your respawn and set up a counter gank on your carry immediately.
There is nothing you can do about it.
Now imagine you thought about this before you teleported. If you just walked there which
approximately would have taken 30 seconds longer. Next time you better walk to do whatever you
have to do. This will open up the ability to support other lanes in real time. when it is really necessary
As I said before, sometimes you cannot control your lane via damage or your presence in general.
When this happens, you have to move somewhere else, not for fun but with a purpose. But there are
also other reasons which should make you rotate to other lanes. The next page will analyze which
forms of rotations exist and when they should be considered.
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24 Chapter V: The Mind of a Support
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 Scenarios:
Your carry has free farm and is already farmed enough to control the opponents Off-Lane
solo.
Your Off-Lane got zoned badly but still has potential to set up a successful gank which can
bring him back into the game.
Your Mid-Lane has a rough time in his 1on1 and a gank can turn the favor.
Your Opponents overcommitted and you are sure that rotating there can guarantees you
kills.
If you are going to leave your lane for a gank, you should make sure that the gank will give you a lead
or bring you back from behind. Else you are in danger that the gank will rather decrease your lead.
Pressure Scenarios:
Your carry is less farm depended than your opponents carry or you got a second farming
core. Happens often against Four-Protect-One lineups.
You want to force rotations to create space on other lanes to split-push.
You want to force rotations to sneak a Roshan. Often used if you are on the Dire side.
You want to force fights in general because you have the stronger team fight lineup.
It should be clear now which goals can be achieved using the Pressure Rotation.
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25 Chapter V: The Mind of a Support
Defensive Scenarios:
Opponents push a lane to siege your tower.
Opponents push out lanes to split push.
Opponents push out lanes to attempt Roshan.
Opponents supports rotate to your lane to set up a gank.
Opponents supports or cores rotate in to pressure your core.
Many times I have seen supports teleporting in to defend towers which resulted in a dead support
and a taken tower because they underestimated the situation. Another case: Supports rotate to
defend towers without any mana which results in a destroyed tower and a lot of wasted time.
Trade Scenarios:
Opponents attempt Roshan and you will not be there in time to contest it.
Your are low on mana and low on hp to make a proper defense.
Your teams ultimate's are down so you cannot take a fight.
Your team misses core items to take a fight under proper conditions.
Your team can not make it in time due to teleport cool downs.
If you have to give up certain things, never do it without taking anything back.
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26 Chapter V: The Mind of a Support
Rune Benefits:
Runes open up the possibility to gank, take fights or push.
Runes can be used to refill bottles which can heavily change the outcome of Mid-Lane and
Off-Lane.
Runes taken by your team can not be used by your opponents in any way.
Runes in general can change the outcome of fights at any stage of the game.
This shows us that rune control is a very important thing and should not be forgotten.
If you cannot handle the rune control on your own, make sure your team will be there to back you up
or do not go for the rune at all. You will either waste your time or get killed. When you are around
the rune area and you cannot contest it on your own try at least to scout it without dying so you
know what is coming.
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27 Chapter V: The Mind of a Support
Often your opponents will recognize the absence of your cores and assume they are farming certain
camps. Be ready for that.
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28 Chapter V: The Mind of a Support
Question List:
Most important kill target?
Most important ally to keep alive?
Who can kill you easily?
Who can you kill easily?
This should show you that walking into a clash unprepared is not a good idea. Spells will be wasted,
wrong targets controlled and allies die.
Move into
position
Move Back
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29 Chapter VI: Warding Concepts
Check List:
Your wards are not being dewarded.
Your wards give vision at areas that are important at the current game state.
Your wards support certain objectives.
Rules:
Do not get spotted while placing wards.
Avoid standard ward spots.
Avoid obvious moves that expose the ward position.
Also notice that smoke and or special heroes can be used to place wards on tricky positions without
being seen.
Example:
You know that the area you want to enter is warded. You will use a smoke to get in unseen
and place your wards. Another scenario would be that an invisible hero takes the wards and
places them at the desired position.
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30 Chapter VI: Warding Concepts
Image 22 gives an example how defensive warding is applied on the actual map.
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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31 Chapter VI: Warding Concepts
Image 23 gives an example how aggressive warding can be applied on the actual map.
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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32 Chapter VI: Warding Concepts
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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33 Chapter VI: Warding Concepts
Image 25 shall give you an idea how Rosh-Pit warding is used on the actual map.
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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34 Chapter VI: Warding Concepts
Neutral warding should be considered if you want to shut down wood heroes like Enigma and Chen.
Another possibility are heroes that can clear any stack easy like Tinker and Luna. Blocking their
neutral creep spawns can throw of their game completely.
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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35 Chapter VI: Warding Concepts
The second thing that comes to my mind is the fact that there are several heroes that con provide
vision on the rune when its necessary. There are long range spells or summons which can scout the
rune.
Example:
Position four plays enigma in the forest. Every time the rune spawns he sends a low hit point
Idolon to the rune near him. When it spawns, scout is provided and also the possibility to deny
it.
Twitter: @Ler_GG | Twitch: twitch.tv/gg_nore |©2014 Timo Waszek - All rights reserved
36 Chapter VII: Epilogue
It is obvious that this document reflects my point of view on certain things and that there are other
people out there who have other opinions on these things. These people should understand that this
book is a contribution to the discussion. A more intensive discussion about support game play in
general is a good thing.
If you have something in mind after reading all of this, feel free to send me a pm on twitter or join
me on my stream.
Shout outs to liquiddota.com and their amazing staff. Special tanks to Heyoka for his amazing editing
and Nixer for the nice graphic editing!
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37 Image Contents
Image Contents
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38 Image Contents
Twitter: @Ler_GG | Twitch: twitch.tv/gg_nore |©2014 Timo Waszek - All rights reserved