Venomancer, The Ultimate Support

Introduction

This is my first guide... So, feel free to criticize it and let me know if I've missed anything

Venomancer is a great support. His (Or Its?) main ability is his damage over time. It really defines veno, and changes the way you play him considerably.

He is pretty versatile, and can be played in lane to babysit the carry, gank in otherlanes whenver possible (Max out Venomous Gale early if you wanna do this), take over as a carry when the team's own carry gets outlaned (Not ideal, but great if you have no other choice) and even stack ancients when all the lanes are doing fairly well. I even once solo-ed Roshan with Veno when I was bored :P

The most important ting you wanna do with veno, is HARASS... Poison sting and Plauge wards were made for that very reason.

Harass

Veno is best played on the safe lane (Bot for Radiant, Top for Dire). He can however play the off-lane too, though it's considerably harder and requires constant warding of the enemy jungle because of the threat of incoming ganks.

If you are playing in safe lane, I would generally start off by warding the rune spot or the jungle to prevent ganks and surprise attacks). (If you play Radiant, there's a great spot in the Jungle that let's you get sight of both with just 1 ward).

Next up, get your lane partner to block the creeps.. or try doing it yourself if u can get back in time. This is ESSENTIAL to successful harassing.

Next up, HARASS. Go behind the enemies through the jungle... right click a few times and run back. Keep doing that. eventually they'll try coming into the jungle... but, that's why we put the ward up in the first place :D

Whenever the enemy hero gets close enough farm (Melee), Gale them, and harass them as much as possible now. It'll show them who's BOSS.

Try not to spam Gale too much early game, due to its high mana cost which u need to harass them with wards and such. Obviously, when you decide to initiate on the enemy with your lane partner and get a kill, do use Gale on them... It generally makes the diff between successful kill, and near miss.

Now to using Plague wads. Wait, this deserves its own chapter...

Plague Wards

Key Bindings

Most important thing first, make sure you know the keys to select your Hero and your "Other Units". This is gonna be essential during team fights and push attempts. I can't stress this enough.

HARASSING.. AGAIN

Don't spam the plague wards way too much considering it gives the enemys farm, and pushes the lane forward... two things you don't wanna do early game. It's a great ability that should be use to push towers when you have to. You can use them to harass a bit as well, but only when you know that you can probably deny them.

A great tactic (When you have successfully harassed and got the enemy heroes to play passively) would be to place creeps a bit behind the creep army and click on them and make them attack the enemy hero. This would make them come closer to you and take down the ward (Otherwise they'd be outside XP range). In the meanwhile, your carry would wait in the jungle, and take them down by walking behind them. Use Gale for this combo as well if you can. (This works really well when played with Veno-Ursa or Veno-PA combos.. try some other combos too and lemme know how they wok out :) )

PUSHING

Use wards every time you want to push. Spam them around the tower, Select them all (those key bindings come in handy now), and right click on the tower... Use veno to attack the tower too. And if the enemy's come close, select all your units, and attack them. Meanwhile, decide if you are gonna stay and fight.. or run away while tour wards do as much damage as possible to the hero.

DAMAGE OVER TIME

Poison sting + Plague wards = BEST COMBO EVER
Enemy running away while extremely low on health? Switch to wards, attack!
Team fight going on? Select ALL units, attack!
Enemy using Clarity, Bottle or Salve? Switch to wards, attack!
Wanna support carry while going for Roshan? Place wards, attack!
Enemy hero gonna grab rune, switch to wards, DENY rune!

Yes, some of those moves don't need Poison Sting, but it's doesn't hurt now does it?

Stealing Kills

Yes, when playing with wards and damage over time.. your'e gonna end up with a decent amount of kills to your name.

Yes, your Teammates are gonna hate you for this.

And yes, you are gonna say "Sorry", but still be proud of yourself regardless :)

One thing you should appreciate however, is that by keeping wards behind the team-fight, every time and enemy escaped with hardly and HP, and is so proud of himself.... he's gonna feel like **** when your wards end up getting that kill.

Just one thing to remember though, try having more assists than kills... it's better for everyone.

Your Other Skills

Venemous Gale

This is easy, try getting the gale hit enemy heroes. Yes, as simple as that. Every time you want to initiate, use gale. Also, when you try to escape, it might be a good idea to turn around, use gale, and continue to run. It can often save you.

Using Gale is pretty straight forward and I'm gonna leave ut to you to decide when and how to use it.

Poison Nova

1. Use this on Roshan when you go for him...It's GREAT
2. When theres a team fight that just started, go close by, use it, and run the F*** out. It'll do crazy amounts of damage to all of them, and them off (Remember, it keeps them at 1HP, and can't kill them completely)
(If you've got wards behind them, that 1HP won't save them anymore :P)

3. Use it just before you die. There's nothing more a support dreams about than sacrificing himself and letting his team mates get 3 - 4 kills in return ^_^

The Suicide Gasser

A lot of times, I run right into them from behind, use poison nova, and force staff myself out.... chances are they'll kill me, but during the chase, the lose health, and come closer to our team mates... the perfect set-up for an ambush.

Items

Starting Items

Get either Wards or the Courier (Plan this with another support). If you have no other supports (Them Pub Matches), go ahead and get both. Once, you have your items, you'll be a bit short to buy the Ring of Protection... But as soon as you get enough gold for it, buy that next.

Early Game

Update: After reading comments, and trying them out myself, Tranquil Boots is probably not the best choice. Go for a Ring of Basilius instead. Upgrading this to a Ring of Aquila would consume valuable farm, so just rush Arcane Boots instead.

Get a Magic Wand for Survivability, and Tranquil Boots to stay in lane more.
Get the Tranquils only if another support can get Arcane Boots. If you are getting the Arcane boots yourself, then go get a ring of Aquila.

Make sure you get at-least one of these items before you go for a Flying Courier. These will help u harass more, and let your carry farm more too.

Core Items

Since this is a pure support build, you won't need much more than this. Just Arcane Boots and a Force Staff. Get the Arcane Boots First. The force staff is helpful in sticky situations and to perform the "Suicide Gasser". Besides, it's a lot of fun having a force staff :P

Too much Farm?

Rush a Mek first if you have a lot of farm. If your wards are are stealing all those last hits for you from your carry, put that gold to good use and get a Mek. I'm sure he'll forgive you for it.
Next up, get a Schyte of Vyse if you lack disables, a Pipe if your enemy team has a lot of magic damage or disables. Finally, if you are a REALLY BAD support, with WAY TOO MUCH FARM, with all your teammates calling you a NOOB. Go ahead and get Boots of Travel, just to annoy them even more. Oh, and don't forget to use that force staff to annoy your teammates :P
Seriously however, only get that boots of travel if you are split pushing or something. I've never really gotten enough gold t reach up to this phase. So, it's up to you.

WARDS

KEEP.GETTING.WARDS. Ward the rune spots, ward the safe lane. Ward the enemy jungle, ward the ganking routes. Ward your fountain because you are out of spots to ward. Yes, JUST KEEP WARDING. This is a guide by itself, and here's a link to a great one:
http://www.team-dignitas.net/articles/blogs/dota/1092/dota-2-ultimate-guide-to-warding/

It's got a ton of common ward spots. You don't need to know them all. Hell, I know hardly any of them. Though remember, if the enemy has a jungler, it's your job to shut him down. If they have a ganker like Pudge, its your job to ward the jungle and protect your carry. If they've got an Invisibility Hero, go ahead and get sentries and/or dust, and shut him down too.

Other Support Items

I haven't mentioned this earlier, but, make sure you get Dust and smoke as you see fit. Smoke can often turn games around completely and Dust can end those annoying Riki Killstreaks.

Gameplay

Early Game

HARASS (Discussed in chapter 2)

Mid Game

Initiate team fights with Gale if you have no other initiators. Use ultis during team fights. Ward gank spots and help whenever a friendly hero comes in for a gank. Again, use gale and wards.

Make sure your presence is felt during team fights. Gale, Ultis and wards.... The most annoying things in the game. You'll know you're doing a good job when the enemy team say, "Stupid Veno!". TRy not to steal the kills, but make sure u get themwith wards coupled with poison sting when the enemy tries to escape.

Other than that, stay in lane as much as possible. However, if the lane is safe, go buy a TP scroll, and switch over to another lane, or go stack ancients. that way, when your "safe" lane has another threat, you can TP back to lane when your carry needs the help.

Late Game

Be a part of every team fight. Veno is crazy in team fights and can change the outcome entirely. Push towers and lanes as fast as possible with wards. Use wards to give u sight before an immediate team fight. Use you mek and arcane boots generously. By this time, if you did everything right, and so did your carry, you should already be winning this game, and the fights should be centered around their tier 3 towers.

If you are REALLY bored, go solo Roshan. Trust me, It's fun :)

Summary

Well, that's about it. You are now a pro veno player. Take these skills you have learnt and stomp those pubs. Maybe even annoy those opponents in a team fight :)

If you've got suggestions to anything in this build, please let me know. I really hope this guide helps you out though :)