Changing from LoL into Dota - Problem with Support

Hello my dear friends, I'm quite new to Dota, i played like 15 bot matches with friends without any coordination and so, because i noticed this game differs more to LoL than I thought! The no AP stuff and no GP5 items stuff is quite confusing to me so I just skip to my questiona.

1: Playing support and since you don't have any GP/5 items, what is your gold income then? Are you allowed to CS? Or is it needed to permanently kill the enemy heroes?
2: What metagame does Dota have? In LoL you normally have Top, Mid, Bot and Jungle but i heard its quite different in Dota. What are these compositions?
3: Is it common that carries buy much tanky stuff? I mean, because they get instagibbed if they don't.

Would be nice if someone has an answer for me :) Thanks!

Welcome to DotA 2 and DOTAFire, enjoy your stay! :)

1. Your gold income usually comes from assists, assists aren't like in league of legends, here you must be around the killed enemy to gain the assist, you don't have to damage him. Also, there are items like Hand of Midas that can help, sacrificing a creep and giving you some good gold and experience.

2. Well, the compositions are really different, there are

• duo lanes ( usually support + carry )
• tri lanes / easy lane ( usually two supports + carry )
• solo / suicide lane ( like in LoL )
• jungler ( like in LoL )

3. Well, it's different.. a well-farmed carry is pretty tanky in late game, having a high level and good items giving him stats.

hey, thanks! another question, how does the tower agro work in dota (2) ? because in LoL the tower atacks creeps until every creep around is dead or it atacks you if you atack the enemy champion under the tower. in dota it sort of randomly atacks me and i really get confused sometimes :(

and another important question: what hero to start as a newbie, when my personal preference is to have an easy farm access, mobility and being casterish? its just really difficult to farm with AA'S compared to LoL ;( and also i wanna know how you get sustain on lane, because in LoL I always have sort of spellvamp or lifesteal items/masteries and in dota all i've seen so far is lifereg items and not recommended lifesteal items :(

Read this for tower aggro and this for the first hero play.

if you want a spellcaster, who can farm pretty easy, I would recommend Dark Seer or Leshrac because they can kill creep waves really fast.
Another option would be Enigma or Chen cause they are jungling supports, but especially chen is not really easy to play because you need to micro many units.

for some early sustain get Healing Salve , Clarity or maybe a Bottle

but is it really cost effective? the clarity potions? an AA would make you loose the effect of the potion, what means you have to be far away from your opponent for 30 (?) seconds. the bottle is a nice idea, i really prefer buying it every time, but when i read guides and people dont show it in items or say you dont buy it i try to do so even if im bound to get it :(

Well, a Clarity is better, since it's only 50 gold, a Bottle isn't very good for a support, because the mid hero will most probably have a Bottle, and you must leave him get the runes.

Also, you can use Clarity on you or on a teammate, also, to avoid attacks, just stay a bit back, until you regenerate enough mana for your spells, you don't have to farm anyway.

Also, it's not a bad thing if you like Bottle, everyone has his own play style :)

yeah the Bottle was just a possibilty for early sustain, but multiple bottles in one team aren't that useful, because theres just one rune to pick up at a time ;)

you definetaly should pick it up, if you want to gank/roam pretty much

Also, keep in mind, a Bottle can be used by multiple teammates, as long as it has enough charges.

You can always receive the Bottle from a teammate to take a sip.

Also, if you ever search people to play with, or search a mentor, feel free to look around the forum, you could play with other beginners, or with more experienced players, it's your choice.

Also, if you're from Europe, I could help you in game with some tips. I'm saying Europe so there won't be any server problems or timezone.

okay, thanks for the awesome help guys!