While there's been some nice teams recently (who y'know, actually say thanks, even commend), but the last few games have been an absolute nightmare. Our team has actually won pretty comfortably, they've had wards all games, utility items, free salves and all the usual stuff.
Think the main problem in all these cases has been that I've been the only support on the team - hence you're still expected (and try) to do everything, but obviously some things take longer. Unless you're getting neutral stacks, assists or early towers then you end up having to make some tough decisions - which do you need first from
Observer Ward, 
Flying Courier, 
Sentry Ward, 
Town Portal Scroll...and that's before you even get to the 
Bracer, 
Boots of Speed or 
Mekansm that you really need.All of these things are managable in the end, especially if your team does a few things that bring you a bit of gold in. The biggest issue is people's attitude at times - they've picked their heroes with little regard for the team, but still expect everything to be put on a silver platter for them.
Playing
Keeper of the Light at times feels like nannying a couple of spoilt children - "I need mana, why did you give him mana"..."Mana"..."MANA"..."WHY NO MANA"...it has a 17 second cooldown peeps, I'll get to you when I can, and yes I can see that blue bar next to your name, and that's why I keep giving you mana when it's low without you asking. A little credit for all the other times you've got it wouldn't hurt.The absolute worst one is when you've spent the whole game serving your team, you're sitting on a couple of utility items and a grand total of 110 gold. Your wards are about to run out, so you jungle a couple of creeps to get it...the team's semi-carry wanders past and nonchantly takes the last hits off you...and then immediately moans the wards are about to run out...
I will keep playing support, even in pub matches, as I enjoy it, and the nice teams that work together balance out the arrogant, selfish ones...and because it bothers me so much when the support stuff doesn't get done right :)
Just remember peeps, Supports are there to help you, they're doing a tricky job under difficult circumstances and sacrificing their power and possibly their life to make you stronger. Treat them with respect, not like some kind of slave who you wipe your feet on. If they've been letting you farm all game without any problems, if they're grabbing a few hits somewhere they obviously need them. It's just bad manners to take it off them.
An occasional thank you doesn't go amiss! :)
Well I for one plan on playing support roles for a little while now to really try and make a difference, and learn this role - it was very satisfying. It is also very satisfying when you sacrifice youself to take out or severly hurt their carry for the team after to finish the job and go on to cripple the opposing team - I found
Try ancient apparition as like a 4 slot support, so you can still get some farm but still provide wards on occasions when your 5 cant, and you can ferry a mek, that way you can just fire off global ulti's for plenty of entertainment.
In the end support players are better players, we do more with less items, and in pubs when a carry can free farm for 30min its not because hes awesome, its because you supported his lazy ***.
The funny times are when you random something like gyro, and everyone else picks a carry after you randomed and got gyro first, then they expect you to buy wards and courier, so oyu get courier go mid and proceed to steamroll while they lose both lanes...those times are fun
Some players get mad because they think support means you do everything for them - what it's really about is making the right decisions for the team, not any specific player. And yes, it can be very liberating to not have to worry about constantly getting farm, surviving every fight, etc.
I had a fun
The main skill with good support play is always to be "ahead" of the game, reading what's going on, figuring out what's happening next and doing something about it - without doubt it makes your whole game much stronger (as ganker, carry etc). Like you mention, good warding - figuring out you should be dropping wards before a big push, having some
I had 4 games last night, wining 3 and losing 1, I played
Do you know what I found out - my wards enabled co-ordinated ganks, safe pushing, counter pushing, disabling invis heros, early detection of attempted ganks and in general prevented the opposing teams to be co-ordinated. Hell, I got so cocky I started..... wait for it..... counter warding.
As a new DOTA2 gamer (190 hours, W89, L79, A2) I have been working out what roles / heros work for me and whilst I can pull a strong
I bet the Sven was blaming someone else for not 'stunning' or something stupid too..
that said, if there's 2-3 of you, pub dota let's you do stupid ****.. like roaming slardar , venge, level 1 smoke ganks and all that **** you can't get away with in CM.. haha
It's not all the time by any means, but quite often my choice of hero is determined by "how can I best fill the massive, glaring holes in our line up?". Aside from support, stuns, team fight and a solo off-laner we're basically sorted...it is bloody hilarious being the solo offlaner and also being the only thing vaguely resembling a support on the team...
The thing is, it's annoying when players fail to adapt their builds to fit the needs of the team (e.g. I might pick Windrunner, but will end up with a
Thing with Pubs is that quite often horribly balanced teams win through overwhelming late game, simply because the other team doesn't get it's act together quickly enough, or their (lesser) carry decides he's just going AFK farm.
For example, I played one the other day where we had a pretty good early-mid game line up, including a pushing jungler and
Anyway, before this gets too negative, most of my games are actually fun! Just those stupid loses are frustratingly memorable :)
yet in pubs I'm reduced to supporting.. WHICH I don't mind.. but does my head in after 15 minutes, and all this guy has is a midas.. FML..
yesterday was epic.. 3 games, all 3 games 1 support, no 1 else.. just me, 1 game had 3 hard carries and an abbadon (viper, void, naix).. somehow we bloody won too.. bane of my life on pub.. I was CM w/ void VS slardar and POTM.. simple lane ward and potm does nothing.. luckily the slardar wasn't too smart either..
It is better as you move up, and by doing a decent support job you are massively increasing the odds of your team winning (much as it might not seem like it at times), hell even letting one player take the farm for it instantly makes your team more competitive. If your team keeps winning, you'll keep moving up - hopefully further and further away from the those who'd call you for being "behind" on levels as a support.
Generally carries should be allowed to take priority on farming, and you should let them - but yeah it is irritating when people just come and take it off you when you're clearing a jungle camp for that vital bit of gold - just bad manners really.
The other big annoyance is when there are other, perhaps "harder" supports on your team who just don't pull their weight. For example you might be much more suitable for the 3 or 4 role but end up delaying your
Every time I play, no one from my team picks, until it's late, so I assume they are professionals who are waiting for enemies to pick first so they can counter them, so I pick a carry because I think my team know what they are doing, and they might pick some supports, to get shocked when they all end up picking carries.
Whenever this happens, I think: WHY DID YOU WAIT ALL THIS LONG, IF YOU ARE GOING TO PICK CLINKZ-AM-VOID-FURION ANYWAY?!
Yesterday I had a few public games and everytime first thing I suffer is if I can get a good carry to support or not... most cases not.
It's not the lag of money but the complete misunderstanding some people have... flaming me why I'm 4 levels behind them in endgame... the same people running back from enemy after I shielded and healed them. Or even better the example you brought up... jungling a few neutrals and then a damn carry comes and kills them all...
In MMOs I'm always playing the healer in PvP Battles... there is nothing more I hate than the players retreating from the enemy... especially after I used my ultimate... and best then flaming why I don't kill the enemy... lol
I'm still a morone on dota I must admit but after having tried several of hours different sc, hc, ls and pure s I just fell in love with Omni. I will stay with that one and train hard to master it.
I always play the support in a team with 4 carries, who either farm the whole time and do nothing at all for the first 195639593275032598 hours of the match, or get themselves in danger to get a last-hit, so I sacrifice myself to protect them, and then get flamed and reported for feeding.