who should buy wards/courier?

Obviously in an ideal game, your supports should take on this responsibility. It is not this simple in a pub game with 5 random people who all want to play drow ranger and go 40-1.

My questions stem from the much talk on the dota2 dev forums about being banned/reported for not buying wards or courier. As well as personal experience with annoying people who spam about wards the whole game, despite an indefinite loss.

My questions:

1.Is it fair for drow ranger to spam/harass the person he feels is support to buy wards the whole game?
2.Is it fair to report someone for not buying wards?


I would appreciate any insight you guys have on these questions. I will post my personal (newbie) take on this below.

I often will buy a courier regardless if I am a support. I've played games where I have forgotten and we never have a courier, or a chance of winning (mutually exclusive of course).

Regarding wards. It really bothers me when drow ranger is spamming chat the whole game, "support buy wards," or "report support for not buying wards." Even if this spam is not directed at myself, it still bothers me. Sometimes I will buy wards in hopes this person shuts up, but they continue to harass regardless of my efforts. I will often tell drow ranger to buy his own wards if he wants them. The typical response is "no, support buy wards, report support for no wards."

I don't feel the absence of purchasing wards is a reason to report someone. I think constantly harassing someone you feel should be buying wards is a legitimate reason to report someone.

I don't think you should report for not doing it, but any support worth their salt should be getting them throughout the game as their top priority (after courier).

It's really silly when people say report for this, report for that. There are only 3 things you can report for.

Of course Sando is right, but I think there's a couple of things that aren't usually said. Like if as the support you are constantly being targeted. I would say in that instance you're better off buying items for survivability ahead of wards. Better not to feed in team fights than have a well warded map (imo). Second is that (again imo) there are certain times when non-supports should ward. As Broodmother I regularly carry a couple of sentry wards with me to counter enemy wards, same for any invisible hero. If you're an obsessive jungler like Nature's Prophet or Lifestealer and you're constantly going into the enemy jungle to farm, then it might not be a bad idea to take the responsibility of warding those areas that you are using and which could be dangerous for your support.

I guess what i'm saying is wards are great and win matches but not worth feeding over. Sorry to the experienced players for this vile heresy :p

map awareness is a crucial advantage and is a main factor in increasing the winning chance of your team. so generally there should ALWAYS be someone to buy wards. When i play support, i always buy courier AND a set of wards at the beginning of the game and then head to the "hard lane" (top for radiant / bottom for dire) so i can prevent the enemy from pulling neutrals (which is a HUGE advantage in terms of lane control btw!) and give my mid lane sight of the first 4 runes in the game (if places at like 00:05).

Anyway i agree that in pubgames its sometimes hard to determine hows job it is to ward. IF your team doesn't consist of 5 HARDCARRIES however, the heroes with the least farm-dependency should at least ward.

lets make an example:

your team (the somewhat typical pub-team)- Drow Ranger; Phantom Assassin; Riki; Lina; Zeus

you got 1 Hardcarry: PA - he must not ward at all as he needs his gold to built up his (expensive) core-items, in order be of ANY use at all!

you got 2 normal Carries: Drow and Riki - those 2 should not buy wards, but after they have their less expensive core items and your team really doesnt have ANY kind of less farm dependent heroes they should be able to spare at least those laughable 300 gold (4 wards) every 6 minutes.

and two early game heroes: Zeus and Lina - since they fall off later into the game anyway and therefor dont need ****loads of gold anyway, they are the ones who should be able to support.

as you can see, it is all about farm dependence of the heroes.

...And lets be serious: 225 + 150 gold to buy and upgrade the courier + 300 golds every 6 minutes in order keep the map warded is something every single one should be willing to pay for the huge advantage wards provide. its even easier if you have 2 guys warding. Blaming a loss on not having wards is a total failure in itself (even as a carry), cause lets face it, a set of wards is what....4 lasthits?!

It depends on the player. No you shouldn't be reporting for a support not buying wards. However, if that same support goes right ahead and spends their 600 without buying either courier or wards, something is wrong. I play a lot of support in pub games as well as team games. I know the importance of warding but I also know how hard it is.

There is nothing worse then a carry telling the support (not asking) for them to buy tangos/salves etc.

When I play a carry, I ask my supports to ward up. I ask them to upgrade the courier. Please is not a hard thing to say, neither is thanks. If a drow wants wards, why aren't they playing a support? I normally pick last and go with a hero to fill out the team in pub games.

Long and short, if your playing support in a game with me, you'll be appreciated. This is how supports should be. Where you can, buy wards but priority 1 is always courier and then not feeding.

Obviously you should not report him/her for not buying wards/courier. However, the support should really watch what he or she is doing. I have been to many games where the roles of support and carry can be reversed for whatever reason where the support takes all the farm (support normally have good AoE spells) and they take nearly all of the carries kill.

Although they is nothing wrong with this in the game, technically, however, I prefer support play their role as they should. Maybe you could question their motives and get an answer.

Yeah sorry Manic_e - HERESY! Tbh I don't think a situation exists where you should ever prioritise your own equipments over Wards as a support - if it's reached the point where you're "feeding" in team fights then getting a Bracer probably ain't gonna help much. There can be rare exceptions where that extra HP just takes you past the point of an enemy's burst damage, but even then - it really helps to see them coming. At the end of the day, 75 gold per ward is a very small price to pay - if it's really dangerous to go ward, buy them and send somebody else with an escape.

All that said, if you GENUINELY can't afford wards, or have a desperate pressing need for something (e.g. you're 200 gold off a Mekansm) then your team should be willing to help you out. As MattyG said already - the relationship between Support and Carry shouldn't be "Oi ***** - get me my stuff". The Support is doing the heavy lifting here and taking the selfless role (or they bloody well should be anyway) - and that definitely means they should be treated with respect.

Good supports and carries help each other out, they work as a team. Yes, there should always be wards up, yes supports should buy them whenever possible, and yes carries should help out if necessary - these things aren't mutually exclusive.

It's much easier to ward with 2 supports. When your its just you, it becomes tough.
That said, sando is right. A bracer won't save you for long. For the same price you can get 18 minutes of protection using wards. The games where I have 0-2 deaths aren't because of my mad Skills. It's all Thanks to warding. It's really easy to survive a gank on the hard lane when you see it coming

First off, I always think about the support role as someone that does place wards at all times: why would you need a Force Staff, Ghost Scepter or - talking about someone who has literally no idea about how to play support - a Bloodstone/ Aghanim's Scepter when you can grant a lot of benefits (controlling runes, preventing ganks, ganking by your own, giving vision of junglers, blocking pull/jungle camps...) for your team with 150 gold per 6 minutes? Considering that an average support only needs Boots of Speed and Magic Wand, it would be stupid not to buy them. If you're the support and your carry asks you to ward, then do it as soon as possible unless you're feeding.

If you are a farm-dependent Hero and your team's support(s) does not ward, then they are making a mistake and you should ask them to do so (with the built-in command on the chatwheel, if you want); if they refuse, I guess you should just do it by yourself after you get your core items. That's why I usually support or play with friends, you never know how good can be a pub support.

Still, a pair of Observer Wards at the right moment is worth way more than 150 extra gold for your carry, even though it's better for your team to let the supports buy them.

The only problem you have to really face if playing the support is being the only one in your team.Now this is bad because:

• You are supposed to buy everything right off the start(courier,wards,upgrade courier);
• You will be left extremely weak while doing so,so you are going to get picked off really often in fights(better you than the carry though);
• People will ask you(nicely or not) to stop "feeding",but there is nothing you can do against it-again,if you win its not a problem.
• If you lose its probably you who is going to be blamed;

I often get to going for the tri- Bracer build because I am even giving the pull to the jungler(most recent one-right today, to a Lifestealer).You won't really afford in doing mistakes, and I couldn't even afford a better supporting item like a Mekansm(though I got Force Staff due to enemies having Storm Spirit and Spirit Breaker, however, that was like 5-10 mins before the game ended.)