Support by the Clock

I am a huge Fan of your guides!

Aha! Finally! I don't have to give you the default internet comment voice anymore, Sando! You now have a real person's voice.

Oh and.. the guide is nice too? There's that. That's important.

when i try to support i get a carry like this: http://www.dotabuff.com/matches/1020847307

:c

A nice take on something many players don't think about enough - the clock.

+1

I've been playing carry for a long time and have received nice supports.
When I tried to support other carries in pubs, it was a total nightmare.

Thank you for this guide. +1

Thanks for the comments guys :). I'd agree on a lot of your points here Xyrus, you've expanded quite nicely on things that I wanted to mention but didn't enough. I think it depends a lot here on how organised your team is, whether you have 1 or 2 supports etc. On an organised team with 2 supports you'd expect to have sentries and smoke, allowing you to go after vision control and use those additional ganking windows you mention (e.g. whenever you can "legitimately" be expected to be out of lane to pull), and those ganks are generally much more likely to work with 2 supports.

In a pub game, you may end up solo support (every team needs an AFK jungler, apparently) and those options are often closed to you.

As expected of a Sando guide 8{3

-0:60 - give an Observer Ward to your Solo Offlaner (tip: Remember to hold CTRL! you don't need vision of your fountain 8{3 ) Agree on your course of action for 0:00 with the rest of your Team. If you're planning to place Wards in a certain area, you'll probably want to Rush there in order to prevent the other Team from Warding there first and spotting + dewarding your Rune, the game doesn't start at 0:00, it starts when you spawn!

0:00 Choose between Ganking Mid/Roaming Top to Ward their Jungle/Gank their Safe Lane Carry + Supports/Gank their Offlaner(s)/Secure Rune(s), Harrass, Pull, Jungle. I'd also add abit about Warding and Dewarding, as it's important to establish where your Obersver Ward(s) need to be placed, i.e. wherever you're going to need Vision the most in the next 6 minutes. As for Dewarding, establish where you don't want the other Team to have Vision of (your Carry, your Mid, even Roshan if you have a Hero who can Solo him before 6:00 regardless of whehter you inted to or not, just to make the other Team panic ;{) etc.). It more important to make sure they don't have Vision where you don't want them to have it, after all...who cares if you don't deward that Observer watching their fountain? 8{3

0:40 This is another Ganking window and possibly even....DUM-DUM-DUUUUUM - a Courier Sniping window 8{D ...not that often though ._.

1:40-2:10 Yet ANOTHER Ganking window you haven't talked about. Tsk Tsk Tsk 8{3 You can have a Mini-Teamfight over Runes if you feel you have the upper hand, lure them in and get your Mid/Offlaner to join in, don't just take Runes, take their Blood as well whenever teh opportunity arises. 8{3

2:40-3:10, Basically, every minute of the game where the other Team is not 5-manning is a Ganking opportunity for seasoned Supports. If the other Mid ran out of Bottle charges, never got a Rune and urgently needed it refilling after 2:00, then you have yourself a Sniping opportunity here, sir! 8{3

I will read it all later, because I am in a bit of a hurry, but for what I've read now it sounds very precise. I love it.

This guide has been kicking around in my drafts folder for ages now, so decided to finally publish it. Afraid it's a bit rough in places on formatting/completion, but I hope it's still useful..?