Is this how #5 works?

I think MMY or pieliedie are also great examples of a 5. Also for a team, there shouldn't be much complaining/flaming, it makes an unhealthy atmosphere and makes everyone play bad.

Also, smoke gank mid or other lanes, its a nice source of gold early on.

Problem is with carry, not support then. Hard supports generally aren't very useful late game, as most enemies carries will have BKB and you can't even stun them. There are exceptions such as:

Witch Doctor, Warlock, Bane, Dazzle, Omniknight, Vengeful Spirit and Ogre Magi who have at least some scaling or buffs which help their team late on, but supports are picked primarily to be effective early game. If you're doing it right, the most you tend to do late game is throw in useful stuns and buffs while staying out of the main fight. Nukes drop off late game as enemy HP increases, and without equipment or a suitable hero you're not going to have much late game DPS as a support. That's kind of the point, all that money should be concentrated on the heroes who do...hence carries.

On the subject of equipment and mek timings...there are no hard and fast rules "before 20 minutes". Supports are VERY dependent on kill assists and tower kills for gold, so it all depends on how the rest of your team are performing how much gold you get. Some games you'll be rolling it in, others you'll be hard pressed just to get the essentials like Wards and Dust. I call them essentials because that's what they are - never scrimp on them in order to get other items faster.

As noted above, the #5 doesn't generally get a Mek in organised games - they don't have the money for it, it's usually a mid/offlaner or semi-support who does. In lower level games and pubs it does happen sometimes, but again, never scrimp on essentials no matter what.

P.S - Lich can do great DPS...erm when his ulty's off cooldown :). Strangely I was looking at the stats for a game I played yesterday - most hero damage in the game...as support Venomancer! :)

TL:DR - bad carries blame their supports. Good carries always seem to get enough farm somehow.

It's a tough situation. I play as mainly support/ initiator w/ friends and I think that communication is key. The previous comments are already quite informative so I'll end it with that. I just hope that you guys leave the game "on the field" and that it doesn't negatively flow on irl - Lates.

Noob question here. How does one pull off a smoke gank against mid? They always seem to get out even with a good stun (or two). Mostly because they don't ever seem to get past midway into the river.

push creep wave so they think they are safe under there tower, you have creeps there they have creeps there then come in with your stun from behind the tower through the tree's and you mid comes down the lane and if you have 3 then you third hero from the back in case they still get away ...

or

push them past the tower so they are between tier 1 and 2 and get them there ... gyro homing missile seems to do the trick get them 50% hp then homing on them they usually run past tier one thats when you jump them.

Supports smoke and go the the enemy side and wait. When the mid comes up beyond the hill, supports go in and chain stun the mid. You need some communication to pull it off.

Read some of the other detailed replies, just thought I should mention that haste and invis rune make this VERY easy. With invis yiu can line up to body block,with haste you can charge in before he can react.

Thank you for all the response :)

I always thought I was doing bad because when my solo mid or carry die they started raging at me for not being a better support.

When they tell me to pick cm in pubs even when the enemy has a pudge and nyx and a load of stuns and I don't pick her they rage aswell -_-

Because my friend wanted to get loads of kills in lane 1 game I went rubick because the enemies had very nice steals, after my carry failed to secure first blood after I lifted, damaged , body blocked he raged and said " you aren't ever playing rubick in this team again"

In casual pub games I can't pick what I want!!! When I pick before anyone in my team and I want to semi carry pusher beastmaster, the rest of my party(excluding support #4) picked their normal roles and started raging at me. I singlehandedly took all 3 enemy rax's while my team got wiped in fights.

We won by creeps. My solo mid said "if it wasn't for "carryname" we wouldn't have won this game..."

Just some examples, I feel so bad when playing dota with them. I don't feel like improving :(

Also my carry likes going meepo carry.
Then he complains at me for not leveling at all

leave then ... usually the simplest option is the best one