Supports... Halp!

Okay, so I've been playing lots of support recently CM mostly. And every time I play I suck. I die really early on and keep dying constantly throughout the whole game. Teamates nag about how bad I'm doing yadda yadda. I could try carry or something else but I really don't think I'd be any good. Any tips on how not to die would be appreciated. Thanks.

It all comes down to positioning, the biggest problem most people make is that they commit too hard to a fight, and often even rightclick enemies during a fight.

If you have used all your spells then most of the time you wont add anything to thenfight. So just get out of there, use nova and frostbite and get out of there if you cant use freezing field.
Try to stay a little bit in range so you can use your spells again when they are off cooldown.

CM is one of the more difficults to play - slow, squishy, weak attack. As timmy said, your positioning has to be spot on or you die a lot. You might want to try a different hero while you're learning - more hp and movement makes it a bit more forgiving. What particular attracts you to playing CM? There are plenty of other, similar heroes who you could try:

- Ogre Magi, the melee CM, stun, slow, buffs, great armour and stats.
- Jakiro, hell of a lot tanker, also requires positioning skills.
- Lion, great learner support - easy mana regen, good reliable stuns and a nice nuke
- Vengeful Spirit, good stun, interesting ult and a fair bit tougher.

Personally, I always recommend Lion to new support players - he's easy to use, but there's enough depth there to master him. Minimal mana problems, minimal item needs, good stuns, big blasty ult.

Thanks. And tbh Crystal Maiden was my first ever hero to play. Also was the first hero I played on any MOBA. (as dota was my first one) I just like her, cool ult (if a little hard to position) good lockdown and nice AOE. I have however been playing some Lina since and has been going better. I would like to get better at cm however as she is my favourite :)

I haven't played much Lion at all, so maybe I should have a go. Warlock seems alright too, but I struggle to control the ult.

I was going to recommend Warlock. basically, you Fatal Bond them, hit ulti on as many people as possible, channel Upheavel, and while you're channelling, you control golem. It's not that difficult, tbh.

And yes, lion is pretty good, you don't need anything, and you can get the satisfaction of kills with Finger of Death

Try Venomancer support as well. With your all-powerful wards, you can push the lane or provide vision to scout. PROVIDE VISION MAN, is there anything more important than vision?

Oh, and he has a 50% slow at level 1 that pretty much lasts for more than 10 seconds. And a ridiculous harass with his auto-attacks. And an ultimate that does **** tons of damage to many enemies (non-fatal damage, though).

I personally like Ancient Apparition. Good shutdown, good damage, awesome ult for a support. He's also great in the sense that you don't have to get way up close to fights. I usually hide behind a tree most of the laning phase.

AA can be great, i have over 3 kda with the guy, not much of a wr though, bad teams happens to us all.

You should definitely try out Lion then - he's somewhere between Lina and Crystal Maiden in terms of abilities, and you'll learn to love Mana Drain.

My advice would be to try out some other supports for a while and come back to CM later on - the basic positioning and skillsets are the same, but you have to be very precise with her, and get good at reading what's going to happen ahead of time.

Basically you need to be close enough that you can land your stun/slow as required, but far enough away that you can retreat or avoid being killed. Her ult is basically suicide in a full on team fight unless your team has good AOE lockdown like Black Hole or Reverse Polarity - it can also get you kills in situations where enemies are committed, but don't have a stun or enough damage to break your channelling. Remember to grab extra farm/xp by using Frostbite on big jungle creeps.

She's really not an easy hero to play though - and especially in pubs people see you as an easy kill and will go out of their way just to pad their stats.