Picking the right support items

Even today this guide is excellent - Can it get updated though :)?

Awesome guide! It would be nice if its updated because of the recent major patches, definitely +1

Nice guide. +1

I wish some people read this, not pick Lion then say "not support,me carry" hahaha.

nice guide though ;)

heh.vlads is good if playing with melee cores, but other-wise it's quite redundant.
Offtopic:HE'S THE TROLL.

+1 Very good read.
One thing I also consider when buying survivabillity items on supports like mek or Drums is that they also give you mana/int (Mek gives 5 int = 65 Mana+manareg; Drums gives 117 Mana; Ghost Sceptre...) and they increase the effectivity of mana reg%-Items like sobi mask. So when I find myself without mana a lot and being focused down fast some Survivabillity items help with both problems. This way you can reduce two problems at once.
I also want to emphasize how good vladimirs Offering is in games with melee cores (that dont buy it) +5 Armor aaand lifesteal is just so good, even for solo pushing with a creepwave.
Towers really are astonished when they see me storming them with mek+vlad creeps and you can definately see that they are afraid.
Rosh also is very afraid of vlads.

I don't think Rubick fits with Blink Dagger. You better buy Force Staff instead. Provides utility, even if its lower, and a few stats.

Overall, +1

Hi Xyrus,

Sentries and smoke are actually already mentioned in the text ;) Your points regarding starting items are valid but I feel that they are too "pro" for the purposes of this guide: The starting items section here is aimed at giving reasonably easy rules-of-thumb for people who are still wondering if they should follow Valve's starting item recommendations (which for many heroes are really odd) or do something else. The play style & starting items you are talking about sounds muich more like a "true" hard support build, which is not the aim of this guide (as mentioned in the beginning) but the aim of Sando's guide:

http://www.dotafire.com/dota-2/guide/hard-support-making-the-5-role-work-7062

I'll add something about invis hero countering as you suggested.

P.S: I don't really see who would find such a reference that offensive (save some western academics who have nothing to do with the event whatsoever)- unless I've missed something big about Russian mentality.

There are a few additional Starting Items you should add imo, namely Sentry Wards and Smoke of Deceit. Sentry Wards are needed right from the start for early De-warding and Smoke of Deceit can be used to pull of First Blood in a well organised Team.

I don't know about starting with an Iron Ring, it's never really needed on Supports who will usually be able to punish any Offlaner foolish enough to try Harrassing them with Stuns/Nukes/etc. Also most Ranged Carries will start with an Iron Ring anyway, with Agility Carries tending to build Ring of Aquilas for early Stats and Mana.

Also, I would recommend starting with Animal Courier AND Observer Wards, possibly replacing 1 with Sentry Wards. You can easily survive by spending 300=400 Gold on most Supports, and Self-Sustaining ones like Crystal Maiden, Lion, Nyx Assassin etc. can get by with just a set of Tangoes and maybe a Clarity / Iron Branch (risky but possible).

Also,you should add Dust of Appearance to your Early Game Items, it's effective against most Invisible Heroes, and who better to buy it (but not necessarily hold it) than a Support?

As for the rest of the guide, it's well formatted, informative and I agree with almost everything ( Urn of Shadows <3)

I say +1 Sir!

P.S. you may want to change that Gem of Truesight "joke" to avoid offending people 8(

Thanks for the compliment. I recently added the necrobook to the list and also linked SAndo's guide about hard supports here.

Agreed. This guide is really well written! I guess it went unread because nobody likes to play support, yet everybody likes to win.

It's a shame this seems to have gone unread +1