A BOWIE GUIDE

AND ALSO A MANGUS GUIDE

How to suck less as a support

and get MMR along the way

Author
Gustavo Mattos @D2BOWIE
Sateanu Andrei-Vlad @mangusupma

January 4, 2021
0

1
Contents

1 Introduction 1

2 Camps 2
2.1 Resetting a wave(stacked small camp pull) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2.2 Poor man’s wave reset (single small pull) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.3 Half Pull . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.4 Some neutrals are better than others . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.5 Cut the trees! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

3 Trades 9
3.1 What is trading in the first place? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3.2 Play in the lane or away from it ? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3.3 The "right side" of the lane and splitting combos . . . . . . . . . . 12
3.4 Monkeys together strong . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.5 Pushing the lane is underated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.5.1 Level 2 Powerspike . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.5.2 Choking the enemy 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

4 Types of lanes 17
4.1 Offlane types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
4.1.1 The push lane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
4.1.2 The Harass lane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
4.1.3 The kill lane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
4.1.4 The trade lane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
4.2 Safe lane types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
4.2.1 The kill lane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
4.2.2 The pull lane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
4.2.3 The push lane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

5 Movements 23
5.1 When should position 5 leave the lane? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
5.2 When should position 4 leave the lane? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
5.3 When should position 4 drag the wave? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
5.4 Maximize the chance of taking your offlane tower . . . . . . . . . . . 24
5.5 Keep tabs on how many runes your mid is securing . . . . . . . . . . . 24

6 Wards 25
6.1 When should I block camps with wards ? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

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 6.1.1 Against heroes that can either control creeps or kill them easily . . 25
6.1.2 Against lanes that can push wave too fast and you can’t contest
their pull . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
6.1.3 Against lanes that are weak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
6.1.4 Against pos5 that is stronger than you . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
6.2 Stop using sentries on cliffs unless you REALLY need to . . . . . . 26
6.3 Use your courier for high ground vision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
6.4 Help your mid with the level 1 ward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
6.5 Ward and deward based on what your team is doing . . . . . . . . . . . 29

7 Stacking+Jungling 31
7.1 When should I leave lane to stack then? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
7.2 When should I jungle? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

8 Mid Game 33
8.1 Sit behind your most aggresive core . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
8.2 Follow your core that plays off the map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
8.3 Calls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
8.4 Smokes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

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Chapter 1

Introduction

Playing support in the past was a haunting experience for me. It always felt so open
ended that very few moves I made in a game felt like "the best thing" I could be doing at
any given time. That feeling existed because there were a lot of things support tutorials
and guides skipped over which I will do my best to try and cover.
This book is supposed to be a bunch of information that is condensed enough so that
lower MMR players can benefit from it, but at the same time approach harder topics(this
is a really hard thing to do ok).
I have never written a guide like this and neither is English my first language so bear with
me in case some parts are a little over the place or I skip over some concepts.
Hopefully at least, this guide will inspire you to change habits and think more about what
you’re doing. Supporting is divided in position 4 and 5 and the easiest way to differentiate
them at the start of the game is that one follows the offlaner at the begining (4) and the
(5) joins the carry in the safe lane but there is much more to it that we wil cover later
on.
I really like the way n0tail explains the role of Jerax as a "dog chasing a ball but sometimes
you don’t see the ball". Position 4 at least in comparison to 5 gets more resources, initiates
more and has much more freedom in how they shape the game by making decisions.
Support 5 on the other hand very often is a safety net for whatever core is the most
exposed. He usually has a save or counter initiation spell and should almost always be
hidden behind a core while trying to deal with wards around these strong heroes so that
they can protect each other.
Just in case you don’t know who the authors of this book are I(Bowie) am a 6.6k MMR
Youtuber/caster and Mangus is a 7.7k Player. We are really passionate about teaching
and distilling Dota knowledge that seems hard to explain/tackle and hopefully you’ll
benefit from this guide!

1
Chapter 2

Camps

Camps are probably the strongest tool available in lane for any support (4 or 5). They
can be used when your carry is struggling to fix equilibrium but they can also be a way
to deny experience when you have superior pushing power. In this chapter we will talk
about pulling camps by their functions but in the following chapters you will understand
when each function is best used. This guide also assumes you understand all types of
pulls and their timings (shouldn’t be hard to find them online).

2.1 Resetting a wave(stacked small camp pull)

Provided you stack a small camp and you pull when your creeps are close to the enemy
tower, you will surely deny a wave and this is probably one of the best things a support
can do in lane.
Even if you kill one hero, the other one can still benefit from the farm and experience in
lane most of the time since you will be out of resources to zone him. When you deny a
wave pulling there’s no “counter” to it and you gain a great advantage whilst still fixing
the equilibrium.

Figure 2.1: Stacked small camp pull

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2.2 Poor man’s wave reset (single small pull)
This is not a wave reset per se because it inevitably pushes the lane (lane creeps don’t die
and enemy creeps die under your tower). That said, if you haven’t been able to stack a
small camp yet and your carry is struggling really hard, this gives them a free wave under
tower instantly and since the wave pushes back it might buy time for a large camp pull
or a stack so that you can eventually fix the lane again.

Figure 2.2: Single small camp pull. Lane creeps outlast camp

Figure 2.3: No allied lane creeps means enemy creeps under tower

2.3 Half Pull

While the single small pull pushes the wave eventually, this pull does not. The trade-off is
that you deny more wave experience at the expense of not giving your carry creeps under
tower immediately. In very broad terms, I would say this pull is better than the single
pull unless your carry is getting destroyed since the wave does push back to you (albeit
slowly), and the struggle during the time it depushes might not be worth it.
That said, whenever you can pull a stacked small camp, do it. Denying a full wave of
creeps is super valuable and in this day and age carries know how to last hit under tower.
Even if your carry misses a couple of them, you have to remember the enemy is probably
losing much more, and on top of that they are away from your carry, so he is not taking
any damage which almost always even things out.

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 Figure 2.4: Half pull (done on large camp)

Figure 2.5: Half pull (done on small camp)

2.4 Some neutrals are better than others

These two camps are much stronger than the other 3 camps available (healer dude, kobolds
and harpies). Because of that, if you want to pretend you’re playing for OG when you
half pull you can actually try and drag 3 melee creeps instead of 1 ranged and 1 melee.
This denies more gold and experience than normal and it’s a small but real improvement
you can add to your gameplay.

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 Figure 2.6: Half (fancy) pull

Denying 3 melee creeps creeps actually has big implications because the experience differ-
ence between ranged/melee is really small so you’re denying a ton doing this. For some
reason its much harder to pull this off with the "normal pull" so check the fancy pull in
Section 2.5 to understand how to pull this off.

2.5 Cut the trees!

A lot of players know about some trees that have to be cut for supports to have a better
time. In this section I will present a (somewhat) ideal tree cutting scheme for each side
and explain to you why that is.

Figure 2.7: Brown trees should be cut(radiant)

Imagine there’s 3 groups of trees in this image - the left, center and right ones. The left
ones allow you to pull in what I call "the fancy way". This pull is faster and also harder

5
to contest because it keeps the creeps in a much deeper position. The enemy heroes will
have a harder time contesting you and all it costs is a couple of trees cut.

Figure 2.8: fancy pull (dire side)

The middle ones are efficiency trees. When they are cut, you can see whether the small
camp was blocked much sooner, which might allow you time to get a sentry at min1 an
deward the camp before min2. It’s also great to spot pos4’s that usually want to hide
there and jump you. You can also attack and draw aggro from the small camp neutrals
much better, saving you time.

Figure 2.9: Before cutting trees

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 Figure 2.10: After cutting trees

The right trees are useful for maneuvering around the lane without being harassed/noticed
and for the large camp pull

Figure 2.11: Brown trees should be cut (dire)

Dire follows the same concept from the last image. The trees on the right side give you
the chance to go for the fancy pull; the trees close to the large camp and the one above it
give you unobstructed vision on whether the large camp is blocked/stacked/pulled from
a super safe position, as well as protect you from a common hiding spot pos4 players like
to use and finally allows for the large camp pull; the last tree on the left side is great for
trading and going in and out of the lane.

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 Figure 2.12: After cutting trees (dire)

If you enjoyed this content and you want more of it created consider supporting us on patreon at
patreon.com/d2bowie so that we can get more talented people to help us make more books about other
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8
Chapter 3

Trades

Playing support without understanding this concept is really really hard. If you don’t
try to constantly think about trades in lane you will be forever guessing what to do next,
and since this is the moment when supports are stronger in comparison to other heroes,
you might just throw advantages away or lose lanes you didn’t have to. As the game
develops, you will always get less farm and experience whilst probably dying more than
cores. Supports are usually the most impactful in lane, so you should be confident in your
moves there.

3.1 What is trading in the first place?

Imagine Ursa and CM at lvl 1 hit each other indefinitely. It doesn’t matter which spells
either hero learns; Ursa will always kill CM(bad trade for CM). This though is a very
simplistic way to look at trading, since in normal games people won’t hit each other like
bots (hopefully).

Figure 3.1: Ursa vs CM lvl1

Let’s look at a different example then: What about CM vs Earth spirit? Usually ES will
start the game with orb of venom and provided he hits the roll on CM, she will be run
down and take a LOT of damage, despite the spell she learns. If she stands her ground
and hits, she dies because ES has damage block, higher armor and hp. If she runs away,
she is not doing damage and will take damage until she reaches a safer position (tower,
allied hero). Regardless of the enemy offlaner or the allied safelane, CM in this case wants

9
to be either close to tower or playing close to her carry if she wants to trade effectively in
lane.
What if you’re playing Clock 5 against that same earth spirit? If he rolls on clock, he
can turn battery assault on and since roll is on cd, Earth Spirit will always take more
damage in comparison (unless Clock is in the wave). Also because of the way battery
assault works (damage is lower around a lot of units) Clock doesn’t really want to play
close to his ally in this case (close to the lane) and wants to be away to trade better.

Figure 3.2: Clock vs ES lvl1

Trading then is how a particular matchup 1x1, 1x2 2x2 will unfold in the specific context
of the lane and time of the game. Early lxl trading is very important to how a lane will
unfold especially pos5x4 trading. CM trades terribly vs ES in a vacuum, but if she is well
positioned close to the lane, allied hero and tower, not only can she hit ES without any
punishment when he is close, but if he rolls, then the 2x1 trade that arises is probably
not great for the enemy unless the enemy has a stun to chainlock with roll. ES doesn’t
trade well against Clock in a vacuum, but if he rolls on him close to lane creeps (ideally
when enemy creeps are almost dead and ally creeps are alive)and his ally is close, then the
trade can be good. When you understand these matchups and their nuance, you can then
understand what your positioning and goals should look like in each lane you play.

3.2 Play in the lane or away from it ?

This decision has everything to do with how your hero trades with the enemy 4. You
HAVE to think about this as soon as you know what your lane is ind order to maximize
your damage and minimize damage taken. Let’s get back to the CM vs ES example. In
this case, you can’t or at least should be afraid of playing without your carry, because
pulling, contesting pulls or any task done away from the lane becomes a poor bet for
you.
In cases like this one, it’s very important that you block the large camp with either your
body or a ward. CM definitely doesn’t want to block camp with body against clock or
earth spirit unless she is sure they are not nearby (damage taken from the engagement
isn’t worth the savings of a sentry) but against a rubick or shaker she isn’t that afraid,
and using body can be fine.

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Let’s take this n0tail game I watched on his stream. He is playing Phoenix with troll
against Io+Legion.

Figure 3.3: Notice n0tail is away from the lane (dire)

It’s no secret phoenix trades well against IO since usually IO will get tether and then
his E and the only damage he can output is physical which gets slowed by fire spirits.
That said when IO plays in the lane he can share his E with his lane partner making
whoever is trading against legion pretty sad. Phoenix can still land W on heroes but she
doesn’t want to be "in the lane" specially for denying ranged creeps because it increases
the overwhelming odds damage and when her spells are on cd she only trades decently if
she’s positioned like figure 3.5. (it’s not only about where phoenix is but the fact that
only IO can hit her and not IO+lane partner)

Figure 3.4: Example of possible bad trade

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There’s only two scenarios this positioning (fig 3.4)is fine (when enemy is lvl 1 and can’t
dispel Fire spirits) and when you have multiple fire spirits available. That said when your
W is on cd you want to be playing away from the lane (like fig 3.5) or pulling constantly so
that IO contests you making the lane easier for your carry since IO is aeons more useless
when he is alone.

Figure 3.5: Good positioning

This is another replay from n0tail this time playing Silencer vs Clock. This matchup is
quite similar to the CM vs Clock we talked about. Silencer has a shit slow and move
speed just like CM and doesn’t even want to learn the slow at lvl 1 most times so notice
how he is playing in lane but also separated from the WK to avoid tanking the Snapfire
"Q". This is specially important when ally ranged creep is low since Snapfire is the only
hero at lvl 1 in this lane that can secure it.

Figure 3.6: Great positioning

3.3 The "right side" of the lane and splitting combos

Imagine you’re playing Lion+Spectre against Centaur+Lina. Lina has insane attack
range, so she can be in either side of the lane attacking without drawing aggro and being

12
a huge nuisance, but the bigger problem is pairing Lina with another stun. Playing away
from the lane in this scenario and separating these two is your TOP PRIORITY.
Any double stun lane, especially when one is ranged, can cause huge issues not only for
you but for your carry. The best way to separate the support from the core is constant
pulls (specially stacked pulls) and until Lina leaves, you have to tell your carry to draw
aggro away from the side Lina is in and to keep doing it even if she changes sides. This
move stops her right clicks from being a problem and also makes the double stun combo
less likely, since LSA from fog is much easier to land than Centaur walking up to your
carry.
What if you’re Witch Doctor with the same Spectre against Mars+Clockwerk? How do
you think you should play this lane?
Pretty obvious that Clock destroys WD 1x1 and we have also agreed that Clock deals less
damage "in the wave". This means that this lane is one you want to block camps with
wards and maximize the time you’re in lane and close to spec. If they cog+spear someone
can break cogs during stun duration and you can share the battery assault damage when
trading. Cask is also awful 1x1, meaning this is surely a lane in which you want to stick
with your core.

Figure 3.7: Great positioning

This is another n0tail game this time he is Warlock+Terrorblade against Techies+MK.

While Techies has way less damage than a Lina he also has incredible attack range and
a huge AOE and cast range spell so watch the distance he keeps from the techies on the
right.
While this is not a double stun lane as we talked in this section with the Lina + Centaur
lane there’s a combo you want to break here which is a boundless strike into sure hit
Blastoff! which is something very scary for TB since he is a low HP hero. To deal with
that n0tail blocks the large camp and then single pulls the small camp which means
that TB is safe for now since its much harder to dive him when the creeps are under
tower.

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 Figure 3.8: Pull splits lane

While single pull isn’t ideal the scary combo is up from lvl 1 in this lane. If he buys
time there’s a chance the carry gets some extra items and lvl2 minimizing the chance of
death.

3.4 Monkeys together strong

One thing you have to understand about DOTA is how context is important. Take Crystal
Nova as an example (CM spell). It deals 130 damage and if you cast it at max range
without means to attack, that’s about it. If you cast it from close range in a place the
enemy is afraid of, he will probably just run, giving you about 3-4 hits until he is out of
range and the slow wears off, so that becomes 330 damage before reductions.
What if you have a Sven in lane with you?
Then, he can stun first, giving both of you 3 hits during stun and then 4 hits as you
chase the enemy slowed. Result: 110(stun)+130(slow)+7 sven hits(60)+7 cm hits(50) =
1010. Basically, one hero was able to dish 330 damage, but if you add a second hero into
the mix the damage doesn’t scale linearly with the number of heroes, especially if they
have disables or slows. Knowing when to cast your spells so that your lane partner is in
position and both of you can be attacking and layering disables makes a huge difference
in how your lane will pan out.

3.5 Pushing the lane is underated

Supports are often times afraid to push the wave because they think their carry will lose
their shit. You shouldn’t be afraid of it (especially early on) for a lot of reasons

3.5.1 Level 2 Powerspike

If you know what you’re doing and secure the first 2 ranged creeps, this will give you lvl 2
before the enemy without a doubt. After all, your creeps are mostly alive whilst theirs are
dead. In a lot of lanes, this can be deadly (CM gets 2 disables, WD gets cask+maledict,
Undying gets q+w).

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 Figure 3.9: kotl is popular to push wave as he harasses

This allows you to use that powerspike to either harass or kill people alongside your
superior wave of creeps and since the wave is pushing, enemies took more damage since
you’re lvl 2 (they got forced to use their lvl 1 spells to stop your aggression) and all creeps
are dead, you don’t need to babysit your carry anymore, meaning you can pull at 1.13
or stack small camp+block large camp (1.53) with the same movement, and later pull to
deny the experience.

Figure 3.10: You can pull this off on radiant and dire

You striked first, so the enemy will now be lower hp, and even if they get their lvl 2, you
will have your cooldowns again to fight, and your carry will be chilling with creeps under
his tower (if you single pull) without any chance of the enemy pulling themselves because
large camp got blocked.
Note though that you don’t have to literally hit creeps and forget about the enemy. Try to
hit creeps slightly more than you usually do and it should pretty much happen naturally
provided you have good heroes to secure the ranged creeps and the enemy doesn’t push
the wave much faster than you.

3.5.2 Choking the enemy 4

When the wave pushes and you go stack, the enemy 4 has to choose if he is going to get
experience (which can be very important in roaming heroes) or contest/block your stack.
This also fixes the problem of some matchups that we talked about earlier on (CM vs
Clock, for instance). If you try and stack your small camp when the creepwave is close to
your tower, it is very easy for him to chase you and stop it, since the camp is close to your

15
tower and creeps are dying much slower in comparison to tower hitting them. In case he
gives up on the creeps to stop your stack, the lane will get easier over time, because you
are getting more experience than him.

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16
Chapter 4

Types of lanes

What you’re about to read is something that I’ve never seen written anywhere. You
hear people talking about parts of the concepts here but the idea was to try and create
a general idea about "lane stuff" that is often too empirical to be taught. This is far
from being a perfect science but hopefully you can get a better hang of what you should
be focusing on in your games. Note that in your games some lanes might be a mix of
the concepts presented here, so don’t feel forced to strictly place your lane into a box
but rather understand how each set of heroes and abilities allows you to abuse different
mechanics of the game.

4.1 Offlane types

4.1.1 The push lane
This is the pair that wants to win the lane by constantly pushing the wave, forcing the
carry to farm and tank creeps under the tower, then pulling the big camp as much as
possible. Examples for this lane are Viper + any support, DS + strong melee support,
Underlord + strong ranged support, BS + strong ranged support, SK + strong ranged
support. You have a couple of objectives in a lane like this:
1. Push the lane by using your very cost-effective spells and auto attacks, whenever creeps
meet outside of tower range. Make sure you don’t give away a deny on the enemy ranged
creep while doing so.
2. Make sure you have creeps in the big camp and stack it as much as possible. It
is very important for the support to always have a sentry ready. Place the sentry 10
to 15 seconds before the min 1 mark, to make sure the enemy will not just place their
afterwards, destroy yours and block the camp. Depending on the support matchup, you
might not be able to zone out the enemy support. It is the core’s job to come and help
in those cases, making body blocking impossible for the enemy support, especially since
the wave is probably already dead.
3. Pull the big camp every chance you get. This is mostly the support’s job, but it should
be in your habit to do it as a core as well, in case your support is helping with a rune,
denying a stack, or dead. Same logic applies in terms of zoning: sometimes the core’s help
is required for the pull not to be denied. You will use the pull to deny creeps from the

17
enemy; in case they try to contest, you can use your pushing spells on the camp, zoning
the enemy and increasing your farm. A good trick is to drag the enemy wave into the pull
and your pushing spell on both, making sure that the enemy wave doesn’t run by itself
into the tower because of the pull (if enemy wave goes under your tower you’re forced to
choose camp or wave).
4. Rotate the pos 3 to the enemy small camp and farm both the wave and the neutrals
with your spell, the support should make a pull with the big camp in this case so that
the enemy carry doesn’t get too much farm under tower. This is why blocking the small
camp isn’t an objective.
5. Kill the enemy (if possible depending on the matchup, lvls, items, hp) when they try
to contest a camp pull, or by diving together with your creep wave when they don’t have
one. Beware of tp ganks from enemy 4 or 2.

4.1.2 The Harass lane

This is the pair that wants to win their lane by harassing the enemy, forcing them to use
a lot of resources and zoning them away from the creeps.
Examples for this lane are Veno + any support, NP + any support, pos 4 Sky + any
offlaner, pos 4 Rubick + ranged offlaner, pos 4 Kotl + any offlaner, etc.
Objectives
1. Harass enemy with spells and auto attacks. This will push the lane, since their creeps
will be attacking you and your creeps will be attacking the enemy’s ones.
2. Make sure your big camp is available, same as objective 2 in the push lane.
3. Pull the big camp while the enemy is farming under tower. The difference is the fact
that now you can’t always zone them by using a spell and you can’t clear and farm the
camps, so you will try to stack the big camp much more and use it mostly to deny creeps
from your enemy, fight them only if they don’t use regen and contest while low hp.
4. Don’t allow the enemy support to make pulls and stack the small camp if you can’t
clear camps anymore. Depending on the way your lane harasses the enemy, spells or auto
attacks carry might be able to farm under tower, since attacks draw aggro and you don’t
have such a big creepwave as in the last example due to not pushing the wave as hard. In
this case, you might want to even block the small camp if possible, but it should be only
the support’s job this time.
5. Kill the enemy if they engage you while low hp and away from the tower. Diving to
get kills might work, but naturally the lane will push towards you more after you push
it, so it might not be needed a lot. Killing is important in this lane, because you want to
punish them for not spending resources.

4.1.3 The kill lane

This is the pair that wants to win the lane by killing the opponent. It uses combos that fit
very well together and cares a lot about the lvl power spikes that the heroes have.

18
Examples for this lane are Lina + SK, SK + Lesrack, CM + BS, Rubick + Centaur, Tusk
+ Slardar.
Objectives
1. Block the enemy small camp. The best way to do it is by using a sentry ward, since
you do not want to spend time that’s away from your offlaner because the enemy is not in
danger of dying then. It is ok to body block the camp only if the support matchup allows
it and the enemy carry is under tower, therefore you cannot use your combo on them
and you are not losing any xp. If your sentry gets dewarded, have another one ready and
place it just before the minute mark, so that the enemy cannot deward it again and have
a camp. Pulling the small camp even once will allow the carry to farm under tower, and
since your lane isn’t particularly good at shoving and then pulling, you don’t have any
other way of getting an advantage besides killing.
2. Keep the wave next to the big camp. This is the perfect place, since it is not too close
to the enemy tower for the enemy to be safe, and it is not too far away from the small
camp. If the wave gets too close to your tower, the enemy support can force the pos 4 to
move away from the creepwave, losing very precious xp and delaying kill opportunities.
It might also allow the enemy support to get a sneaky pull in that time or a kill on your
isolated support.
3. Do not let the enemy double wave you. They can use the creep advantage to deny
your kill opportunity, or even use the bonus experience from pushing the wave to kill you
with a lvl advantage, so use your combos on them and auto attack the enemy creepwave
in that case. Even if they do not kill you, a double wave under your tower means a lot
of time for the enemy to pull and force your support away from two waves of xp. As we
have already discussed, that’s not great for a kill lane.
4. Do not worry about the big camp, but try to keep it spawning if it’s easy. You can use
it to pull and deny creeps if you’ve pushed the lane from a kill attempt (make sure you
catch the next enemy wave and don’t let it get under tower, pull it on top of the camp)
and the enemy can use it to give their carry some free farm under tower with a pull, if
the lane is too close to your tower, so a little bit better for you to have it up. 5. Kill the
enemy by using on combo as much as your mana allows you, so buy a decent amount of
mangoes. Focus mostly on the carry, but don‘t let the support leave if they come close
to both of your heroes. You should use combos to get the enemy low and use combos to
kill. The best way to kill is by first using your combo once, pushing the lane and then
jumping them again, while you have more creeps and lane is still next to the big camp.
This way you will be able to deny a lot of the farm from the carry, since the wave will
push under their tower while they’re dead.

4.1.4 The trade lane

This is the pair that wants to win the lane by out trading the opponent. You form this
type of lane by picking a support that wants to lane and a core that doesn’t synergize
in a way that allows you to kill the enemy, or harass them very well, but have efficient
abilities that allow you to secure last hits and denies without dying. Examples for this
lane consist in combinations of supports that can disrupt the enemy’s ability to last hit,
like Rubick, Phoenix, SD and Pugna, and offlaners that can secure last hits with ease,
such as Centaur, Brewmaster, Pango, Enigma and Necro. Objectives 1. Focus on the

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ranged creeps, they hold a lot of the gold and xp bounty of the wave. Use your abilities
to secure last hits and team up with your lane partner to deny your creeps. Often it is
worth to use your disables so that the enemy cannot secure the last hit on your ranged
creep. A really good trick is taking aggro by clicking the enemy heroes; this will force 3
melee creeps on top of both ranged creeps, giving you the best opportunity to use your
low cost abilities on the enemy ranged creep and go for the double deny on yours. 2.
Do not let the enemy stack the small camp. It is good for you to block it, but only if
the support matchup allows it, since you don’t want to spend much time away from the
creep wave, otherwise, blocking it with a sentry around the min 1 mark is a good idea.
You are trying to win by out trading, therefore a pull into a stacked camp is something
you want to avoid, since it will deny many creeps and give the enemy carry farm under
tower. 3. Keep the creep wave next to the big camp, same as the kill lane example, that
is the place where the creeps can be controlled in the easiest way, that’s what this lane
is all about. 4. Do not let the enemy double wave you, since this will destabilise the lane
and give them an opportunity to gain a power spike and kill you. Best way to do that is
to instantly use your spells on the enemy ranged creep and kill it. This plus a few auto
attacks on the rest of the creep wave should stop the push. 5. Try to have one set of
creeps in the big camp. You will use this camp to restabilise the creep equilibrium, in
case the enemy executes a pull, or the creeps get under the enemy tower. If you see that
the camp is blocked with a sentry, you should deward it before the next minute mark, so
it’s good to check it at min 1 and buy a sentry instantly. If they are body blocking it and
the support cannot be zoned alone, it is the offlaner’s job to help as well. 6. Kill only if
they overextend and you have clear opportunities.

4.2 Safe lane types

4.2.1 The kill lane
This is the pair that wants to win the lane by killing the opponent. It is formed by pairs
of 2 heroes with really good killing abilities, that gain power spikes every time they lvl
up.
Examples for this lane are combinations of carries like slark, mk, ursa, jugg, gyro, etc and
supports like grim, cm, jakiro, wd, undying, etc.
Objectives
1. Push the lane whenever you re close to lvling up and commit with each of your
powerspikes. This means that you will have a lvl advantage over your enemies and you
will have more creeps than them to use as a buffer and help you with dmg.
2. Do not harass by yourself, your mana is best used together with the carry (refer to sec-
tion 3.4). Combine your spells, it is good to use your combos just to harass them. Commit
only with power spikes from lvling up, or when they are low or out of position.
3. Pull only to fix the creep equilibrium after engagements, so use mostly the big camp.
It is a good idea to have a sentry ready around min 2 and make sure that you play mostly
in lane, because lvling up on the support, almost as much as the carry, is very important
in this lane.
4. Buy mangoes for yourself and the carry, maybe even a few salves. The most important

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thing is that you are always ready to team up and jump the enemy.
5. Play around the enemy cooldowns. Many heroes might have escape abilities. You need
to force them and abuse their cooldowns.

4.2.2 The pull lane

This is the lane that wants to win by constantly pulling and denying xp and gold from
the opponent. It depends mostly on the heroes that are on the enemy team. They need
to have a support that is not strong enough to contest the pos 5 around the jungle camps
and a core that is too strong to be killed.
Examples are lich + tb vs tiny + timber, snapfire + am vs rubick + lc, ogre + spectre
vs shaker + brewmaster, etc.
Objectives
1. Make sure you deward your small camp, so start with a sentry and buy one later on,
around min 3.
2. Push the wave all the time. This will force the enemy to play next to their tower, giving
you plenty of time to unblock, stack and pull your camp. You can do it by harassing the
enemy support, since you are strong enough to zone them. This will mean the enemy
creeps attack you and your creeps attack the enemy creeps, pushing the wave. The carry
can help by harassing from behind or killing the enemy ranged creep and auto attacking
the wave. Remember not to worry about the creep equilibrium, the pull will fix that.
3. Go into the jungle at the minute marks and zone the enemy support away from blocking
your camp.
4. Secure vision in the camp area by buying an observer at min 1 and placing it away
from the range of possible sentries blocking camps, but close enough to see the creep
spawns.
5. Try to stack the small camp at every chance, do not worry about stacking it more
then once, but don t skip on pulls to do so. If zoning the enemy support and pulling is
imposible, it is the carries job to help and he s not losing any creeps if you re doing it
while the wave is pushed.
6. Pull the small camp only once it is stacked and only use the big camp if there s no
other option for the moment. Do not worry about pulling multible times in a row, your
carry should be happy farming under tower and denying so much xp and gold is really
good, but be careful if you think the enemy can dive him, it s ok to leave the camp, let
the creeps do their job and help the carry, you can even buy him a few salves.

4.2.3 The push lane

This is the lane that wants to give the carry a good game while not being able to completely
win. It happens when the enemy has a harass lane or a kill lane and they are too strong
for you to kill them, or zone them away from the camps.
Examples are lich + am vs clock + dp, lion + pa vs tusk + slardar, aa + troll vs cm +
bs, etc.

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Objectives
1. Block the big camp by using your first sentry on it, remember, you don t have the
luxury of being greedy. You want your carry to get some farm under tower, that means
easy pulls for the enemy, using the big camp. Those pulls will deny farm and force your
carry in a place where he has a very high chance of dying. Don t be shy about instantly
blocking it back if it gets dewarded.
2. Make sure you deward your small camp, so buy 2 sentries after the min 1 mark.
3. Push the lane. Both heroes should try to draw the aggro of the creeps, forcing 3 melee
creeps to be on top of each ranged creep. Use all of your spells, first to secure the ranged
creep and then just to push the lane. There s not need for spells used in any other way,
since your objective is to avoid confrontation. Just the fact that you are in the safe lane
should help you manage to push a few waves without being in danger. Sometimes you
can even pull the enemy creeps into tower range. Try to push the wave the most in the
early minutes while they are lvl 1 or 2.
4. Do lots of single pulls, every chance you get. Do not worry about stacking, all you
want is to get your carry farm under tower and then make the lane push towards the
enemy, using your tower and the bonus creeps that survived from the pull. The fact that
the lane is pushed and the enemy will have to play far away from your tower for a bit,
means that you have some space to secure the spawn of the next small camp and pull it
afterwards. Once again the carry is not busy and can help zoning the enemy support and
securing the pull with you. Don t be afraid to leave the pull alone and help your carry
under the tower, if they need it.
5. Buy lots of salves for the carry to survive the harass and farming under tower. Some-
times you might need to buy some mangoes, if you re mana dependent when it comes to
pushing waves of sustaining will spells.

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Chapter 5

Movements

Position 4 is a hero that can rotate early (no wonder roaming is the name of his role often
times). Position 5, on the other hand, isn’t really a hero that wants to or should leave the
lane at all until around 8-9 mins (going for bounty doesn’t count as leaving lane).

5.1 When should position 5 leave the lane?

Are you owning your lane? On top of that, can your core own the lane without you?
Then it is ok to leave the lane in case you can join a fight either mid or offlane, or go
for ancient stacks. Ursa vs Legion+Shaker is an example of a lane that Ursa can deal
pretty well in, provided he is playing from ahead, so it’s ok to leave this lane after the
first bounty to group up for a catapult siege for example. AM vs Slardar+Rubick, on the
other hand, is an example of a super hard lane and you should NOT abandon it.
There are tons of reasons for that. When you leave the lane you are pretty much signing
your carry’s death sentence or forcing him to jungle at an early time (both terrible) and
your team is only acquiring resources from 2 lanes against 3 of the enemy. Dota is all about
resources. Do you really want to try and win a game having 1/3 less resources?

5.2 When should position 4 leave the lane?

Contesting power runes and ganks are the most common scenarios for a pos4 to rotate.
You want to either secure rune for your mid that cares for them or deny it from the enemy.
That said, you should always reflect on things. Position 4 heroes sometimes over rotate
and forget that they can win their own lanes enabling their offlaner that is already there.
Even if you can’t kill by just staying there to constantly pull and fight for the pull, you
might be doing more than rotating, since there’s always a risk involved when you leave
(not hitting spells, ward revealing you, offlaner dying, etc).

5.3 When should position 4 drag the wave?

This is a pretty common move, but some players overdo it because they don’t fully
understand what it achieves. Let’s say you’re Tiny 4 against a Lich 5. The only thing
Tiny can do in order to trade well is to get a good toss into creepwave or allied hero.

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That said, Lich has way too much slow to kite Tiny (even with boots), meaning you will
rarely get a good toss against a decent Lich whilst taking damage. This means that in
order to play your lane you need lvl 2. Thus, pulling the creeps even if you take some
damage for it can be beneficial, since up to lvl 2 your hero is a creep watching your offlaner
take damage from 2 heroes. When you drag creeps, you also separate the enemy lane,
usually giving your offlaner a better time than in a 2x2 lane. You can also drag the wave
against hero combinations that have too much kill potential (Ursa+CMm), (Jugger+slow
or stun). Level 1 lanes are usually strong because two specific heroes are together. When
you separate them, the 1x1 matchups are usually much easier to handle, and if you can
then accelerate your lvl 2, it means you will have more stats, more spells to deal with
their early powerspike.

5.4 Maximize the chance of taking your offlane tower

Very often at around 5.30/6 mins your offlaner can be close to his lvl 6, which opens up
the chance to use the catapult wave that just arrived in the lane to take the enemy tower
or to do a lot of damage to it. Once you pick up bounty runes, look at your offlaner’s
mana, lvls and think whether you can get a kill in the enemy carry. There is no other
tower that accelerates your pos 1 or 2 farm as much as that one, because it makes the
triangle farming pattern incredibly safe and efficient. In case you haven’t gotten a kill or
the tower hasn’t fallen, remember that at 10 mins you can do the same thing again.

5.5 Keep tabs on how many runes your mid is securing

Because of the way runes work, even if your position 4 rotates in order to try and secure
it, there’s a chance it spawns on the other side and the enemy pos4 secures it. This can
be very costly to your mid hero, because giving the enemy mid a power rune and 3 bottle
charges is a big advantage at a critical time (close to lvl 6). When you die as 4 or even if
you die as 5 but know the enemy 4 is not in the lane and your carry is not in immediate
danger, you can tp mid to fill his bottle and compensate for the lack of power rune. But
make sure to run bottom. If possible, don’t even show.

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Chapter 6

Wards

People still think that pos5 players are the ones that ward the whole game, mainly because
when they used to cost gold pos5 actually meant ward slut. While pos5 is still (mainly)
the hero warding in the mid game up to min 12, it is actually pos4 that should ward the
map, so as a 5, you have to be careful not to buy 3 wards at min 6 because it might
severely impact your game in a negative way. If you don’t ward, then it’s harder for your
4 to hunt that Alchemist or Tinker in the jungle, and it’s also harder for your mid to
rotate to the offlane, since a ward behind the tower is not going to be there. If a ward
is there and you as 5 have actually rotated there, then you have probably griefed your
safe lane because of the aspects we discussed in Section 5.1. Position 4 naturally moves
around the map and thus they are in a much better position to dictate vision until the
laning stage breaks completely.

6.1 When should I block camps with wards ?

A mistake that a lot of pos5 players make is thinking that when they have to block large
camp a ward is always needed. In cases you are not playing against a bad matchup (or
he is not nearby), as discussed in Chapter3, you can always stack while you walk towards
and sit in the large camp, allowing you to be super impactful in one single movement.
This is a bonus section about blocking camps alongside the lane Chapter

6.1.1 Against heroes that can either control creeps or kill them
easily
Against heroes that can either control creeps or kill them easily like Mirana, Doom, Ench
(block large camp with ward or body) or Chen (block small camp).

6.1.2 Against lanes that can push wave too fast and you can’t
contest their pull
Viper+pos4 is a good example. Since your carry will be under tower farming creeps
after Viper’s W pushed the wave, most pos5 heroes can’t do anything about the constant
large camp pulls that will follow, especially against two heroes (block large camp with
ward).

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6.1.3 Against lanes that are weak
Imagine you’re a Rubick 4 against Spectre+Magnus. Magnus sucks at trading against
ranged heroes, so if he can’t stack and pull, his contribution to the lane will be minimal
(block small camp with ward or body).

6.1.4 Against pos5 that is stronger than you

This is not super common but it does happen. Rubick 4 vs Clock 5, Lion 4 vs Lich 5
(block small camp with ward or body; if 5 is way too strong use ward if not body)

6.2 Stop using sentries on cliffs unless you REALLY

need to
On the topic of sentries: ALWAYS sentry before you ward. It prevents you from warding
where the enemy had vision in the first place. But you should also stop using sentries in
high grounds, because it makes your effective sentry range much lower. A lot of position
5 players complain that they are broke buying sentries, and it usually just means that
they are not great at covering the most important parts of the map with them, because
placing sentries in cliffs is not efficient area-wise. This is just a couple of examples where
sentry placed on cliff either misses key areas or covers useless areas.

Figure 6.1: Several wards get ignored with this cliff sentry

Most of the sentry range in this example covers a camp,a dense area of trees where no ward
is useeful and also low ground. Look how superior this other sentry is in comparison

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 Figure 6.2: One sentry covers most of the best areas to ward this region

The only benefit of warding cliffs with sentries is that you get vision of that high ground
area instantly (so do that when you’re in a hurry). If you have to sentry before warding,
you might be thinking, how should you acquire vision without placing it in the cliff?
Heroes like Phoenix, CM, Clock and Tusk do have low cd spells that allows them to get
vision and deward, but there’s another option that works with every hero in the game -
explained in the next section.

6.3 Use your courier for high ground vision

Ever since each player got a courier for themselves, dewarding got a lot easier. For
instance, instead of using 150 gold to check for both of these cliffs on the radiant side, you
can buy one sentry that covers the whole area and check them with courier. It might feel
awkward at first, but as you grow accustomed to it, you will save a LOT of money. Saving
money as a support has the highest impact compared to saving money as any other role
in the game because your gold is so limited.

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 Figure 6.3: Good sentry usage

6.4 Help your mid with the level 1 ward

Most mid players are actually human minds wired to a computer repeating the same
movements over and over again. They ward mid the same every game, but they don’t
have to. Let’s say you have a Storm - a hero that can easily be ganked up to level 6 -
against ES, Shaker or Clock. You should try to tell him (kindly) that what he should do
is ward the cliff that faces the offlane instead of warding the ground, because that’s where
the ganks will come from. Note that the dire cliff has no vision of the rune, but it can be
fixed if the mid hero goes for quelling blade or has a tree breaking spell (or you ask your
carry to do it).

Figure 6.4: Spot rotations and rune with this ward

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6.5 Ward and deward based on what your team is doing
A lot of support players die warding and dewarding way more than they should. Do
you know why? It’s because they don’t do those things based on where their allies are.
Obviously, sometimes your buddies will be in pretty dumb locations, and it is your job
to try and move your sheep towards a better spot, but if you just decide to go ward the
area you think is “more important” by yourself, not only do you risk dying, since you are
alone, but that ward will mean very little, since none of your friends will be using that
vision in the first place.
When you ward around where your allies are playing, even if you get jumped your allies
can now fight there with vision, which more often than not will result in good trades.
Let’s take this ward GH places even though all t2 towers are up still. Usually placing this
ward has not a lot of benefits and a lot of risks since its pretty hard to get there alone as
a position 5 hero.

Figure 6.5

That said let’s try to understand how we got here. This is how the game looked like 1
min prior to this

Figure 6.6

A fight is about to break in the mid lane and GH places a ward and a sentry to get a
better chance of winning it since its night time. They win the fight partly because of the
vision and true sight but once the mid t1 tower falls he still has a ward in his inventory
and this is how the map looks like

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 Figure 6.7: Map after the fight is won

One thing that less experienced supports do very often is not use their victories to their
advantage when it comes to vision. For instance no one would ever say that having vision
in your triangle is a bad thing but since radiant got a team wipe in the mid lane there’s
no reason for GH to use his last ward defensively because you don’t get situations like
this that often.
So not only you should try to ward aggressively to literally "conquer" areas you won
fights around since there’s no enemies to see where you ward and your allies are there but
think about it, why ward the triangle where there’s absolutely no chance something bad
happens in the next 1-2 minutes? GH already has a ward that spots movements towards
his triangle unless the enemy smokes which you might also spot with a deep ward like the
one they have but what about an even deeper one?
As a general rule:
1. Prioritize grouping with your team over warding where you think its best
2. Ward to fight in good terms
3. If you win use that chance to go deeper into enemy lines and get vision
4. If you lose wait for the enemy to leave the area they invaded to deward (unless you
need to group somewhere)

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Chapter 7

Stacking+Jungling

Some support players overrate stacking way too much, to a degree that it actually jeop-
ardizes their games, especially after the deceiving buffs to it. Think about it this way:
the increased chance of your carry dying (or farming very little while being harassed)
when you leave lane early is almost never worth the increased farming speed stacks can
bring.
Remember what we talked about in Chapter 4 regarding pos5 leaving the lane? Stacking
usually means leaving the lane for a decent amount of time. You can obviously stack the
large or small camp close to the lane, but that’s an obvious stack that often times the
enemy offlane can use to deny waves, farm it or bring someone to farm it. Even if you
have a Sven he will not be able to farm a 3-4 large camp stack if the enemy is Sand King
+ Lina so be mindful of stacks like that.

7.1 When should I leave lane to stack then?

First of all EARLY STACKING IS NOT AN OBJECTIVE UNLESS YOU’RE MAGNUS
5.
If you are any other 5 and your carry doesn’t OWN his lane alone don’t leave for stacks
up to min 8-9 and even then making stacks an objective is a lot of times only worth it if
you’re playing dire. You can easily double stack the large and medium camp close to the
mid lane but on the radiant side there are no double stackable camps besides the large
camp + ancients (they are good) but they are really far away so in the early game you
usually lose more in terms of kill potential or helping your cores if you focus too much
on stacking but as a position 4 that rotates a lot you should keep tabs on the clock when
you go base or back to lane and stack things as you go.
Rather than thinking of stacking as an objective think of it like a really cool thing you can
do when the stars align. There are obviously exception heroes like alch that can benefit
a lot from stacks but I feel like up to 5k MMR players are so inefficient with their time
that stacking becomes more of a burden to them team than a benefit since they feel like
it’s a superior move than just laning.

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7.2 When should I jungle?
In general, don’t do it until the lanes break, and even then, be mindful of it.
Some position 4 heroes can farm the enemy small camp for a little bit of extra gold earlier
on: Shaker, SD, Lina, Kotl. Some can also farm large camps, like Mirana, but that should
never a goal; it should be more like the happy accident ofbeing close to a camp you can
quickly farm while nothing else is going on.
Once the laning stage breaks, fights become a function of cooldowns and then some
opportunities arise during which you can jungle without making your team sad. Let’s say
you get a 5x5 fight. All big cooldowns are used, 3 people die on each side. Thankfully,
you survived and there’s no objective to turn your attention to (carry is low hp, you can’t
rosh etc). As you walk back base to regen, it’s ok to use your remaining mana to jungle 1
or 2 camps, since the ults and abilities your team uses to fight will be on cooldown. But
never take more than 20-30s doing it.

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Chapter 8

Mid Game

Usually there will be 2 types of core heroes in your games and whether you will play with
each one has more to do with your hero than to whether you are playing 4 or 5.

8.1 Sit behind your most aggresive core

If you have a save (sd, oracle, phoenix, venge) then you want to help your core that is
holding a tower,high ground or dealing with a particular lane by being behind them.
It doesn’t matter if you’re 500 gold away from a force staff or aether lens. As a support
your power spikes matter much less and come much slower. If your core is positioning
aggressively to do stuff use his power spike. You don’t even need to die with him just
protect/help him with whatever he wants and in case things go south run or tp away.
I played many 6 and 7k games where everyone was poorly positioned or fighting at odd
times and almost every victory ends up in the hands of who played together early(excluding
the heroes that want to hit creeps). It is very tilting for a core that gets a good lane and
wants to use his powerspike (axe blink, black hole, mek underlord( to have the supports
not playing with him. As a general rule a support power spike up to big items like
aghs disruptor should never be higher priority than a core wanting to fight or control an
area.

8.2 Follow your core that plays off the map

If you’re playing shaker, tusk, clock you can obviously sit behind your aggressive core
and protect him but you can also actively move around the map with your ganking
core following your wards with or without smoke to get pick offs. The opposite though
(ganking with your save support) is not a great idea usually specially if a core is showing
unprotected in a lane.

8.3 Calls
As the game develops (in a perfect world) your cores should be the ones giving calls
because they will reach power spikes more often than you will. That said if they are not

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giving calls to use their power spikes you should be giving them. Let’s say your qop gets a
12 min orchid and she keeps playing the game passively. You should call your team or part
of them to play with qop (maybe even smoke to either get vision or to play around an area
you have vision). Another very important type of call anyone can give (including you) is
to group,rosh or fight when the enemy is missing a key item or ult powerspike.
One of the many reasons heroes like void, enigma seem so good in low mmr games is that
people are awful at abusing the cooldowns of these heroes. It’s ok if your team doesn’t
listen to your call but you have to say them whilst also expecting that if they don’t follow
you there will be other times in the game you can be the difference maker.

8.4 Smokes
For the love of god. If you don’t have at least 2 smokes at min 15, you are doing something
terribly wrong. In fact, regardless of being pos4 or 5, buy early smokes and don’t waste
them, so that you can actually debut your meaningful power spikes when it matters
(blinks, orchids,bkb,talents).
The best way to smoke is to combine two things: vision of an enemy area with a power
spike. Having vision greatly reduces the chances of you either wasting time or going up a
high ground where the whole team awaits you. In case vision is non-existent but you still
really want to use your powerspike, you can use it to regain territory. Whether you have
lost your triangle or big jungle or even an enemy part of the map by going there with a
couple of heroes, you have enough power to deward and occupy the area.

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