Newbie, Support hero help.

I am pretty new to dota 2, loving the game and after playing around with a fair few heroes and watching ti3 really amped to try my first real match (been botting too try heroes and get a feel for the game).

After messing around with a few heroes I find I really love Vengeful Spirit, my main goal is after I have improved my game to the point where I am contributing in pubs to a good/high standard and have a solid understanding of the game is look for a team environment as I currently play by myself, and from what I read playing support in pubs is rough (getting flamed), but also want to join one to continue to improve in a team environment.

I love the role of support and if I joined a team I would preferable like to fill that role, with this in mind I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for Heroes too add too Veng for my hero pool.

And a little bit left of field but is support considered a easy role? I love it too bits but at the same time I love to be challenged and will most likely lose interest if it's "easy", just wondering as most players say go support when your new, I have tried the other roles but I love support and just hoping there is a high skill ceiling so I also have things to improve i know it depends on heroes but talking support in general.

totally new so just looking for some guidance to become a good support player.

Lich, NagaSupport, Bane, Lion.
Also, I consider support to be, not so much the most difficult role but the one that requires the most thinking.

Every role from 1 to 5 have their hard and easy aspects. For a support, the hard part is not feeding and making tangible contributions, while the easy part is you don't have to focus on last hitting 400 creeps. Because your usefulness falls off as the game goes on (unless you have a useful BKB-piercing skill), you have to try very hard for the first 15 minutes.

Focus on winning your lane, securing farm for your carry, and preventing him from dying. Learn to stack and pull, but not overdoing it. Learn where to ward and counter-ward. Know when the carry doesn't need you anymore, and know where to rotate. Know when to rotate mid or to babysit a rune. Carry TPs in case you need to react.

If you're really hardcore, try buying consumables for your mid/offlane.

thanks for the tips guys

Lich and Lion are good Supports to learn, they're easy to play and don't have to worry about Mana as much as other heroes early on.

Rubick and Dazzle are fun to play as well, but you'll have to learn to manage their Mana.

There are loads more, but be careful of Heroes like Bane and Vengeful Spirit as they have skills that can potentially harm your Team, e.g. Nightmare on a enemy, then someone on your Team goes and right-clicks them (I get this problem a lot when the other Team picks Abaddon and he uses his Ult -_-), or using Nether Swap on a Hero with a good Initiation Skill like Ravage.


Since you're a Support, you should make sure to buy the Animal Courier (unless someone else does). It's also a good idea to pick up Observer Wards and place 1 on the River to see the Rune Spawn and one in Jungle to watch out for the Mid Laner coming to Gank you. After that, I would buy a set of Tangoes and a Healing Salve, Tangoes are useful when you learn to Pull the Neutral Creep Camps and Healing Salves can be used on your Carry if they get low on HP. You might want to buy a Clarity as well, for Mana Regen, but I usually don't, especially playing a hero who already has a way to restore their own Mana. After you've got all that, just buy Iron Branches.





Once you've done all that look at your lane, are there 2 heroes, with at least one of them being Ranged? You're probably going to have to Harass them as hard as you can to make sure your Carry gets their Farm. If you think your Carry is going to do just fine by themself though, consider Ganking another Lane, or Stacking and Pulling Creeps (see guides below)

Stacking and Pulling - Radiant Side
Pulling - Dire Side

As the game goes on and you get some pocket money to spend on items, consider getting Boots of Speed and a Magic Wand. A truly good Support can survive on these alone. Most Supports will want to upgrade to Arcane Boots though if they get the Gold.


It's not that easy, you have to help your team to victory while getting minimal Farm and Exp and using your minimal Farm to buy Observer Wards, Sentry Wards, Smoke of Deceit and Town Portal Scrolls, not to mention the extra Regen items you may need to get for struggling Teammates.

Don't get me wrong though, it is my favourite role, because right from the start you have so much more to do than just Right-Click Creeps for 20 minutes.

Carries may Carry the Team, but Supports Carry the Carries who Carry the Team!

wow thanks for the info!

I found this guide also

http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=377503

One question i have, and if i don't ask it will bother me quite a bit as i am strange this way.

there are sub roles within the support role, laners/anti carry/hardlaner , cc single and team based, pushers healers initiators roamers and the even the unorthodox, many heroes can fill many of the roles or only a few quite well (talking about support)so a mixture would be great for a support players hero pool so no matter the situation he can do his job support.

with that in mind why is it say TI3 we don't see a wide range of support heroes played (my newb eyes could have missed it but am looking at the most heroes used summery)... where they the strongest choices or simple the support players favorite i e they preferred one over the other. just don't want too choose a hero that is considered inferior.

Good post there - have a read of these for some longer guides from Dotafire:

http://www.dotafire.com/dota-2/guides?sort_type=score_weighted&hero_id=None

Only short step in, I'm always recommending this Guide for new players.
http://www.purgegamers.com/welcome-to-dota-you-suck

It's really a good explanation of DOTA2 in general and very funny to read.
Especially the part about Emotions is one that helped me a lot.

I'm also always picking the role of Support and it can be really frustrating if the carries you carry do not know how to carry or players start flaming you because you what you do but they have no clue.

If you just recently started and you like to play supports I suggest searching PB games with a mate that has a higher rating (after several bot games, matches in low rating, practissing warding, stacking, harrassing and last hitting/denying).
In the low ratings I still make the experience that you can already be happy if the people know how to move their heroes and that enemy the towers are not only there to make the landscape look beautiful.

So I'm usually playing with a friend who is around Level 35 now and somehow my mentor.
While I'm just level 6 the games we land in are already quaite challenging for me and not too boring for him.

If you are from Europe maybe we could even find a time and play together. :-)

I've read that guide and its great! also thanks for the information, every bit helps.

just confused with picking heroes in terms of whats strong or not as some of the heroes i thought may have been strong are where hardly picked or other (older) guides said lich is a great character and seen in the competitive scene a lot but in ti3 he was only picked once are these just trends, or are there better heroes then others its my understanding that this is one of the most balanced games there is so with that in mind if played right isn't any hero a good pick in the right hands?

what i want is too get a strong hero pool together, so i have a hero for every situation there is (or almost) but what i am afraid of if i need say (just a example) a great early laner i have learnt to play hero D when really hero B would have been better to learn for that job

I think there are other players here with more experience than me.

But I can tell you how I did it since the beginning. Same as for you it was quite clear for me that I wanted to pick a support hero as I like supporting other players to carry them to victory in a passive-aggresive way.

So I tried almost every hero in bot games. Just one by one and only for 10-20 minutes in an easy bot game. Then made a list of which I liked and which I did not. The ones I liked the most I played then again in a complete game.

So it ended up with:
Omniknight AxeSkeleton King Chaos Knight Drow Ranger Tinker Warlock and Queen of Pain

I played Omniknight like a hell but recognized then that you rarely find him in professional team fights and I did not see him in TI3. But what I saw was of course Chen as somehow the ultimate support same as Io and Enchantress often chosen.
For Chen and Enchantress you do not only need to handle your Hero but the controlled creeps as well. I still find it quite difficult without being a master in warding, denying and stacking yet. I think that's called micro-management and a high map awareness is also needed.

Currently I'm focussing on:
Crystal Maiden as support - I call her the "Warding *****" - I really love playing her. Harassing people, placing wards, freezing the enemy so that my carry can take them down and from time to time get a kill as well.
Spirit Breaker - if there is already a support and 2 or more carries. From my point of view he is especially string in mid game. Through his ganking capability my opinion is that I support my team through early ganks so that my carries can level and the enemy loses time.
Bloodseeker - rarely saw him in TI3 but I just discovered this hero to be a big fun.
Beside that three I also like playing Alchemist and maybe next hero I want to practice is Weaver.

From time to time I pick Chen in a bot game. The handling is getting better now but still needs massive practice. I think in PBs I still would be nothing more than a feeder.