My Guide to Supports

About Me and This Guide

Hi guys my name is Felix. I have been playing Dota2 for 2.6 years (If I'm not wrong) and you can find me on Instagram or Twitter (@felix_denz).

This is my fourth guide here, so i expect my elders to give me comments and help me fix my mistakes. If there is a sameness with other's guide, it is a pure coincidental and don't sue me for it.

This is a little bit different guide from the usual, as I'm not making A GUIDE OF A SUPPORT HERO, but SUPPORT HEROES GUIDE IN GENEREAL. I've been playing support pretty often myself, especially in ranked games. Being carry without supports isn't just my style, so I decided to be support. It's pretty fun to play, even though some players mistakes "SUICIDING YOURSELF TO HELP CARRY HEROES RUN" and "FEEDING".

So here it is, a little guide for supports

WARNING: A GIANT BLOCK OF TEXT AHEAD

First

First, you have to know that you are a support. Put your soul into the game. Your job is to babysit that carry. Remember, without a good support, there will be no carry (except DK|Burning, he's just a fu**ing great carry XD).

Buy an Animal Courier. It's your job. Then buy a set of Tangoes. Always share at least 1 Tango to your carry or mid hero. 2 Tango (Shared) is already enough, and your carry can save that 125 Tango gold for more useful items. Place wards on appropriate positions to avoid ganks, and of course, to gank the enemy themselves. Consider buying Sentry Ward if you are facing Riki, Clinkz, Bounty Hunter, or invisible units, and of course, to counter that smoke ganks.

Your job in this early game is to let your carry become big. Most hard carries in the game are squishy. Look at them yourself. 2 or 3x level 4 Lightning Bolt will kill Phantom Assassin or that Faceless Void. See? Squishy right? That's why you have to provide security. Always share that Tango (Shared), heal his mana with Clarity or Arcane Boots, and harrass the enemy hero. Deny creeps, leave last hits for him, and on teamfight, if possible, leave that last kill-hit to your carry. If your carry has his at least one of his main items on < 20 min, your job is done here. But you still have to provide that wards and smokes.

Second

Stack camps. Camp stacking is pretty common for everyone. You pull a creep on x:54 min and then run away. The creeps will go out from the camp, and when they are still outside on x:00, a new camp will arise, and the old camp will come back inside. So you got 2 stacks of camp. This is for a boost of gold and exp. Sometimes, killing 3 stacks of hard camp will provide 2/3 levels and almost 1k gold.

Special mention: If you have a 3 or more stack camps, try pulling them on x:53 min. Pulling on x:55 sometimes is not enough, as too many creeps were stacked, and when rushing out, creeps will block each other, slowing them. x:53 is the best to pull 3 or more stacks.

Deny enemy camps. This is only possible with wards, own units, or body blocking. Go to your enemy's jungle. If you see an empty camp on x:55 or more, stay inside, and don't move. When the time hits x:00, the camp will not respawn. Instead, it will be empty. If it's empty, you've done your job in blokcing camps. Wards are also useful here. Putting wards too close to those camps will also deny camp respawn. Your enemy will not be able to farm jungle without those creeps. Putting your own unit inside the camp will also prevent the camp to spawn. For example : leaving your Necronomicon unit, or Hawk from Beastmaster will prevent it from spawning.

Pull Camps. Hanging around your carry means dividing the exp gain. This may not benefit your carry and yourself, since you can't get any gold. Pull camps for yourself. Every x:12 or x:42 (if I'm not mistaken) try pulling the easy camp nearest to the lane to the lane. Your creeps and the neutral will collide, and they will hit each other. This is also useful when your creeps is too close to enemy's tower. Pulling camps also means letting your enemy's creeps come closer to your tower. Pulling medium camps will be explained in the video.

Here is a video about pulling camps.
Play Video

Third

Gank. Gank gank gank and gank. Follow your mid hero to ganks. If more than 2 heroes disappear from map, the enemy have to play safer to avoid ganks. They have to hug their towers, which means getting further from exp range. Sometimes, placing wards on the enemy's lane exit is pretty wise, as you can see the enemy going in / leaving the lane. For example, in front of Dire's easy camp, which is also the lane's exit. Use this to your advantage. Communicate with your allies, and start that gank. A good coordination is enough to win ganks. But of course, don't get too close into teamfights. Most supports is also squishy. A 2x Coup de Grace from a level 11 Phantom Assassin is enough to melt that Shadow Shaman. Don't feed. Your carry may be fat from those ganks and junglings, but if you feed, the enemy team's carry will also be fat. This is especially lethal when facing super late game heroes like Anti-Mage, Spectre, or Naga Siren.

Fourth

Sometimes, right items can turn the tide of a teamfight. As a support, you are bound to buy utility items such as Eul's Scepter of Divinity, Heaven's Halberd, Force Staff, you name it. Lock your enemy's carry with that. Most teamfights depends on the team's carry. They are the one who swipe clean the battlefield. If you can lock them, even better, kill them, you might as well as win that teamfight. Supportive items are also highly marked here. A sudden burst of Mekansm or a sudden buff from Drum of Endurance is pretty scary. Imagine.

A Chronosphere combo hits 3 heroes, and Faceless Void are decimating them. Quickly activate that Mekansm to heal them, and when Chronosphere is done, focus on that Faceless Void. Most supports has locking or disabling skills, so use it on him. See what I mean. Even though winning depends on your carry, your carry depends on a good support. So be a good support. You can also try forcing Faceless Void outside his Chronosphere. It will most likely buy you 1 or at most 2 sec.

Fifth

Sacrificing yourself to let your carry escape is somtimes necesarry. But, most people mistook this as feeding. Why? Because those people doesn't understand the importance of carry! Naw, don't get mad at them. Just simply tell them, that this is justice. If your carry dies, he lost a good amount of gold and exp, and can't get fat. A bad carry is a lost game. Cover your carry. I said it before, provide security for your carry. Sometimes, this sort of suicide is needed in order to secure your carry.

For example: your Spectre is in brink of death, and Vengeful Spirit and Riki is chasing him. You are playing Witch Doctor. Go there, stun those two guys, Maledict them, and run with your carry while healing him. If they still chase you, use bodyblocks to slow their movements. You might die, but at least your carry don't die. Justice! XD

Endings

This is just a few support's role. I expect comments from my elders. Tell me what I missed. I can't really put supports into words like these. Go play them, embrace them, and finally, unite your soul with them! Only then you can know the glory of supports!!

Sorry for the wall of text.

Updates

Sat, 03 Jan 2015
(*)Added Force Staff into "Fourth" chapter

Tue, 30 Dec 2014
(*)Added "Pull Camps" into "Second" chapter

Sat, 27 Dec 2014
(*)Guide Published