A Full Support Guide - Beginner to Intermediate

Made an account here just to +1 this guide!! and I can pretty much tell you all, its WORTH IT!!!
Thanks dude! :)

Or, you know, read the first line:

Welcome to the guide, we'll be looking at how to play a support role from beginner up to an intermediate level.

Again, great guide. I am a support player and i read this back when i started. It has helped me a lot!

Thanks for taking the time to post...and you might wanna look at this :)

+1 Very helpful guide...I like the way it covers the basic necessities of being a support. Might you consider making an offlane guide. I find the role just as under-appreciated as the support role.
Good job on the guide.

Read the title like this:

A full support guide.

This means that this guide is about supports

From beginner to intermediate

This means that the level of support play is not pro-level, only beginner support play to intermediate support play.

sabet, you misunderstood, this guide was made for begginers, isn't saying that support is an easy role.

What tha hell
i cant agree that support is for begginers. I mean its not a begginer(noob)role
I think supporting is one of the most difficult roles in the game and surly its more difficult than carry
as everyone know carries are mostly right click players.i mean most of their damage is on their auto attacks. Playing with passive abilities and passive items and just right click on the enemy hero
but supports not,they have active abilties(mostly all their four abilities are active and sometimes more than 4 spells)
Using active items too and as u see they mostly dont even use their rightclick.
i dont know why some people think support is ****. I saw many times that when a team loose a match its beacause of the bad support but if the team wins is because of the good carry!
support is for begginers?
Playing with pa(carry) is easier or playing with rubick(support)
Playing jugg(carry) is easier or playing chen(support)
...........
I think the answer is clear

for me as the beginner is really helpfull bro....thanks a lot :D +1 For this awesome guide

Good advice - yes, there absolutely are exceptions to these rules, BUT for the purposes of this guide (i.e. for new and developing players) it's much better to send a straight forward message about to play. Don't take farm, don't steal kills. Explaining when it's sometimes ok to do these things requires a lot more explanation and muddies the water substantially.

People are best off learning to play by the rules first, and will gradually develop their own style/exceptions as they get more experienced and learn when the rules should be bent and broken. Same with managing your lane, there are situations where you want to push it out rather than draw it back, but they're relatively rare. Generally, auto-attacking = bad.

I know 99% of carries would rather have a relatively new/intermediate support who follows these rules religiously than one who acts unpredictably or gets in the way. Ward throughout, make sure you have detection, don't take farm off other players. This should always form the basis of your support play.

Generally in lane once you have a good understanding with your carry they're much more accepting when you want to grab a hit or two, or if you secure a kill you're pretty sure they can't get. There should be a good reason though - I need one hit for a TP to secure/prevent a kill in another lane, I got ganked and don't have money for wards and we need them now. Not, I want some boots a bit sooner.

One of my pet hates is support heroes hoovering up farm from around the carries, even in the late game. If you're say 200g from finishing a sheepstick, just say "200g for sheepstick pls" and most sensible team mates will let you take it. BUT, that doesn't mean you should be routinely taking farm. Number of games I've seen lost because greedy players haven't left their carry with enough farming opportunities...

Supports should ward the most... But if the support is bot and you're top, and you're yelling at the support to "ward, noob"... You're doing it wrong.

Support -can- be about following one person around and getting them fed so they can solo the team... That's a legit and popular strategy.

Support CAN also be about being disruptive to the enemy team. Maybe you take some farm from the "carry" and slow him down by a minute... As long as doing so makes you significantly more disruptive to the enemy than your allies, doing so is a win.

If you're veno and you're constantly pushing the enemy out of lane... But in doing so you get a couple creep kills.... Your carry shouldn't whine. He should say thank you.

A shadow shaman taking a wave or two to finish a sheep stick may slow down your carry a small amount.... But it can mean the difference between shutting down the enemy carry for 8 seconds to shutting down their carry for 15 seconds (forever). Sometimes support items are more valuable than carry items. Not usually. But sometimes.

This is definitely good general advice... But keep in mind, there are always exceptions. A support with plenty of mana regen can support better, so don't be afraid to nab any kills your carry can't safely get anyway. Don't KS a carry, but don't be afraid to take some farm. (I've been yelled at and called a noob for taking creeps while my lane partner was in another lane ganking.)

Also, auto attacking CAN put you at a disadvantage... But don't assume that your partner is a noob for auto attacking. Yes, generally, keeping the fight close to your tower is an advantage... But pushing the lane a bit in order to get them to overcompensate can throw your enemies out of position. Even if your team isn't trying to finish a tower off, if you're playing leshrac, a few seconds alone with an enemy tower can take out a huge chunk. After a few small pulls, you may be dropping their tower by level 4 for a big gold advantage.

Or, if the enemy is trying to push to take out a tower before you're out of laning phase, it can be well worth it to push back some pressure and keep the fight away from your tower.

While the meta is a good guideline, seeing it bent a bit doesn't give you an excuse to rage on the noob.

A very nice guide, +1