For more advanced players: The part which you also might benefit from starts with Section 2

I stared writing this guide about a year ago and steadily increased the size of it. Some of the information might be outdated. I had to remove several heroes from the support pool and add new ones since the meta constantly changes. If you spot any incorrect information, feel free to comment and I will fix it. If you have any questions or suggestions of what I can or should add, I am grateful for feedback.

To everyone with a little experience, this section is self-explanatory, yet I still state the brutal facts:
In most games, it is indeed the support heroes deciding the game outcome and not the carries.

The reason for this is simple: With a lack in support, no carry will be able to farm the required items nor get the necessary experience for those nice rampages. (This of course assumes a similar skill level of the teams facing each other, if your team is pretty strong and the enemies are total newbies, the importance of supporting somehow fades).

As you can see in most professional teams, the captains doing the draft are most often the ones playing the supporter/ganker role and hardly ever play the hard carries. It is also the supports who most often call the moment for teamfights/pushes/roshan etc.

Mastering the art of supporting is in many ways as hard or even harder than playing a carry, since you will be making a lot more decisions throughout the game than your safe lane carry who more or less afk farms for most of the game. And decision-making offers room for mistakes. Therefore, as for all roles, the most important thing for supporting is experience and the willingness to learn from your mistakes (aka bad decisions).

The fun aspect of being a supporter is that even if you know your role by just a little, you will be helpful for your team. Even if you fail in some situations, if you do your job correctly, you had a positive impact. Whereas we all know that a failing carry/ganker has no impact whatsoever. It is important to differ between a "hard support" and a somewhat assisting supporter role, who is buying wards from time to time but who should try to focus on getting some items. When I talk about "support" in this game, I am talking about hardcore supporting only!

Note that being a support means you are underfarmed and underleveld most of the time. Yet, in public, a lot of people see this as a justification of feeding. Even a good support can have a whole lot of deaths, sure. But it is not mandatory to die a lot to play a successful support. If you die 20 times but each time kill the enemy carry, it is fine. If you die 5 times ganking mid, scoring only 1 kill, you feed. To quote Juggernaut: There is a fine line between bravery and stupidity, and playing support is all about this fine line.

Originally, I wrote this guide for players with a certain amount of experience in playing the game. But since it is supposed to be a guide for all skill levels, I figured it might be helpful to explain some basic terminology that this guide will use. For most of this I will link to the most useful dota2 gamepedia.

Creep control techniques[dota2.gamepedia.com]

Aggro[dota2.gamepedia.com]

Outzone: The act of pushing an enemy hero out of experience range so he doesn't receive any experience from dying creeps.

Experience range: Is 1300.

Harrassment: Describes the act of hitting the enemy hero, dealing damage to him either with the use of spells or a simple right click.

Pushing[dota2.gamepedia.com]

Creep pulling: The act of using your own creepwave to farm neutral creeps. More on the art of pulling in section 2e.

Stacking: Every full minute of the game, the neutral camps spawn (if the camp in unblocked. That means, if there is no unit standing in the spawn range of the creep camp). Stacking means that you attack the creep camp shortly before the full minute (on pullcamps, it is usually at .53 or .54) and walk away to have the creeps follow you. This means, that at the full minute, there will be no creeps in the camp (because they followed you) and a new camp will spawn. Therefore, once the creeps you baited into following you return, there are 2 camps of creeps. This process can be used to farm up neutral camps (and ancients) more efficiently. This not only maximizes the gold and experience gain, but also can be used to kill your own creepwaves, thus denying the complete experience from enemy heroes. (More on that in section 2e).

To start with, I repeat the quote which I first heard from Na'Vi Puppey:

Support is a role - not a hero!

Yet, obviously some heroes are more suited to fill out this specific role.

Obviously, there is a wide range of support heroes. Summarizing, you can say that a support hero is a hero with either one or several disables or one or several strong nukes. The typical supporter doesn’t need items too much and experience is also not as important as it usually is for carries.

Most support heroes are ranged, allowing them to effectively harass enemies without taking too much damage. Note that a lot of heroes can be played as support, yet with some heroes it makes more sense than with others.

As everyone knows, a dota team usually consists of 5 different heroes, therefore there are 5 roles in a team.

#1 is usually the hard carry. This role normally takes claims the safe lane and focusses on farming a lot throughout the game to be able to accumulate a lot of items quickly and deal the major portion of your teams damage in the later stages of the match. In other words: To carry your team hard.

#2 is usually the solo mid. This role focusses on the 1on1 battle in the middle lane. It is usually a hero that benefits hugely from an early ultimate & runes and is able to gank and amass kills on cruical enemy heroes fairly early on in the game.

#3 is usually the offlane or hard lane. This role often finds himself in a 1v2 or 1v3 scenario. It focusses on getting whatever experience possible out of a difficult scenario and ideally on preventing the enemy hard carry as much from farming as possible. In a perfect world, the #3 role is so annoying that the enemy support players are not able to leave their carry on his own, therefore allowing your solo mid player and your safe lane to be rather "secure".

#4 is usually the semi-support. This role helps out with the general "support" of the team, but at the same time tries to get some farm and items. Often this role is filled by heroes that can either farm woods quickly or have great ganking abilities (and therefore get their "farm" from assist gold and kills).

#5 is usually the hard support. This role focusses on purchasing all the necessary wards for your team and on providing safe farm to your team's hard carry. Also this role should try to deny as much XP and gold as possible from the enemy hard-lane hero.

Note that this guide focusses on the #5 role. The main reason for this is, that in public games you will more often than not end up being the only support for 4 core heroes. When I am talking about "support" in this game, I mean the classical #5 hard support role.

The dota map consists of three lanes, which are usually referred to as top, middle and bottom lane, in consistency with their location on the map.

In this guide, you will also hear the terms of "safe lane" and "hardlane/offlane". With the recent patches, this terminoligy isn't exactly accurate anymore, but it stuck around, so here is a short explanation.

The safelane is the bottom lane for Radiant and the top lane for Dire. The reason it is called safelane is that the creepwaves used to meet way closer to the own tower, thus enabling your hard carry to farm fairly safe and in case of emergency offering a quick retreat under the relative safety of the tower. Since the movement speed of the creeps got changed in a recent patch, the creepwaves usually meet quite in the middle (without blocking, about which this guide will talk later) of the lane, so the distance between both towers is pretty much the same for your hero and the enemy.
It is still called the "safelane" for the reason that it allows access to your own jungle and enables your supports to pull the creep waves into the jungle and farm neutral camps this way (more about pulling in the later sections). Usually the safelane is the place to be as a hard support.

The offlane/hardlane is the top lane for Radiant and the bottom lane for Dire. Usually the enemy only sends one hero to this lane who is having a hard time to survive, farm and get experience, therefore the name. In the early stages of the game, this offlane hero is your primary target and objective as a hard support.

The middle lane is the place where the pure 1v1 skill battle takes place. (Obviously, there are also 2v2 scenarios, but they are more common in pro games than in pub games, so I won't talk about this for the sake of brevity. Despite the fact that your main objective as a hard support is protecting your carry, you also have a big responsibilty towards your middle lane hero. You should always provide him with sight of the cruical rune spots and if necessary, help him score an early kill on his opponent. The higher the skill level of the players involved, the more cruical middle ganks can be. I have seen entire games been decided by one or two early ganks on a middle hero. The advantage in gold, experience and time that your middle heroes gains from a successful gank cannot be overstated.

This section will feature a list of more or less common support heroes. I will try to provide as much information as possible about each of the heroes unique capabilities. Since the guide is quite long as it is already, I will try to be brief. If anyone wishes specific information about either a specific hero and the situations in which he would be good or about certain counters, just put it in the comments and I will try to add it.


Abaddon is, as weird as it may sound, either a really defensive or a really aggressive support. His abilities enable him to either protect his carry from certain death or allow the carry to go crazy wild and chase the enemy like a predator. Abaddon is a situational pick. Since he is a mêlée hero, you should avoid picking him with a fairly "passive" carry that is also mêlée. By "passive" I mean heroes that do not have too many chances to actually kill their enemy on the lane on the early levels.

Alchemist has had his peak in the past and isn't seen too often as a support hero (or even as a carry) anymore. Yet I think he should be mentioned. He isn't really fit to play a single hard support for 4 cores, since as a mêlée hero with low base armor he isn't able to outzone the enemy hardlane hero. Yet he has a high physical damage stun, cloud offers a decent AOE damage over time and armor reduction and he can transition into a lategame role if he gets some farming space.

Earthshaker is a great support for many reasons. He has a long range stun to either initiate or counter initiate and can therefore be of help from beyond the enemy line of sight. He also has sick ultimate that can deal a lot of damage with his passive being maxed out. And you can use fissure to block the terrain, therefore making it impossible for the enemy to either retreat or reach your heroes, depending on the circumstances. Yet, he suffers from the same sickness as the aforementioned heroes: He has no range and a hard time to outzone enemies. Also, his tiny manapool put him in a weak position, so he isn't exactly suited as the solo hard support babysitter. One of the most potent tri-lane heroes.

Pretty much 2 stuns, a manaburn that can be really annoying for some heroes and a ulti that deals a lot of damage to a single target. Sounds like a great support hero? Well, nyx is, but again, another mêlée hero with the same problems as all of them.

He can either pull your carry away from dangerous situations or put enemies into those. Stun, silence, damage over time. He is a great support hero, also having trouble in the outzoning department


Lots of burst damage, yet early on a small mana pool. His high base armor and HP allow him to trade hits with an offlaner a bit better, though.



Omni's skillset pretty much makes him THE support. He is all about keeping allies alive. Therefore he is a quite "passive" support hero. His low mana pool and lacking range put him in the same position as the aforementioned heroes.


Good target stun with a slow and damage over time, yet unfortunately also mêlée and low mana pool.


Now here is a funny fellow. The highest base damage in the game combined with one of the best protective spells makes a great supporter. Unfortunately, he is pretty slow, mêlée and Living Armor is essentially weak in tri-lanes. Picking him gives you a high chance to win the 1v1 lanes, but only if you pay constant attention to what is happening there. Note that he has THE highest base damage on lvl 1. If you happen to find a haste rune with him, just go skill leech seed and kill the enemy mid hero. There is no escape from a hasted treant on lvl 1!


He can block the way, stun, dodge spells and hits with his snowball, and slow down the enemy. A really decent support hero, but also not too good in the outzoning department.


In my personal opinion, for any kind of public game level, he still is probably THE best tri-lane hero in dota. The reason for this is that decay and tombstone are insanely strong early game spells. If there are several heroes around, they get better. Therefore, he is basically MADE to be on a tri-lane. I guess the reason he is not played that much in professional games is the fact that he is somewhat of a “passive” laner and doesn’t scale all too well into the later stages of the game. Tombstone sucks balls if you use it offensively, since the enemies can simply walk away from it. But if you are facing an aggressive tri-lane and you already have a ranged support, undying might be the best pick for the lane.


We all know the reasons why he is top pick and top ban material even since he was introduced. Just two short things on that famous ball of lightning:
1) He isn’t the best tri-laner! And 2) Level 3 is his time to shine, trying to be aggressive before you reach that most often results in failure (unless you have the perfect setup combo like e.g. an Ursa and a target stun against a limited disable lane.

Alongside Venomancer, she is probably the very best lvl 1-3 supporter in dota. A stun nuke and an aoe slow nuke and she is ranged. Need I say more? Well, probably that if you do not make stuff happen during the early levels, you basically become a walking aura. CM has such a low movement speed and hit points that she dies like no one else in dota once the game reaches a certain stage. For aggressive plays she is amazing, but I would not recommend to pick her if the enemy completely abandons the tri-lane or sends only one hero to it.

Nuke, nuke stun, ranged. Apart from the fact that the stun might be difficult to hit without a set up stun, she is just a great support hero. Even without items she will always be able to make things happen, simply because once she reaches level 6, her nuke power is really strong. Hardly ever a bad choice.

His name shouldn’t be Shadow Shaman but rather “Disabler”. No other hero (except Mirana) offers such a long disable at level 1. He is always nasty to lane against if you do not have a lot of nuke and/or disable yourself. His downside is that he is REALLY slow and fragile. And shackle basically also disables himself, giving the enemy time to kill you. If you need a last supporter for a push oriented lineup, he is a good choice.

Jungle only hero. Quite weak on a lane. Be aware of the fact that if you pick a jungler, you automatically expose your lanes, since even if you are able to help out on the lane, you are not there permanently, which might result in a 3vs2 lane against your safe lane carry.
With Enchantress, you can do really good ganks from lvl 1 on if you find a good creep (preferably the Troll Warlord, since his net is a really good lockdown). If you play her, you should always instantly buy a smoke and either gank the middle lane or any other lane that can result in a kill. Genereally, junglers are most often the #4 role and not the hard support, since they can farm up good items pretty fast. The higher I climbed in MMR, the more deciding Ench got. I hardly ever saw a page 1 game in which Ench didn’t destroy all lanes equally and had a huge impact in winning. If you are looking for a semi-support jungle hero to master, she should be your choice!

This dude is all about LONG RANGE. Except for fissure, he has the longest range AOE disable in the game. He has relatively low cool downs and mana cost and has 2 nukes of which one is a stun and the other a slow and damage over time spell. Also, he is one of the tankiest Intelligence heroes. Jakiro is basically never a really bad choice as a support. If I had to vote for one hero you can pick in most scenarios on average level pub games, it would be him together with Rubick and Skywrath Mage.

Another jungle only hero. Unlike ench who is rumored to have been spotted laning once or twice in the history of dota, this guy just lives in the woods. You need a decent micro management to be able to control your creeps in an effective way, so don’t use him if you can’t micro well. He is pretty much the “ultimate” support, since he can slow down, amplify damage, nuke for pure damage, heal, send back allies and also disable (if he has the right creeps) AND provide auras (again, if he has the right creeps). A really great hero, yet also a jungler, so therefore a bit dangerous if the enemy have really strong lanes. Also, probably the support that needs the most skill to be mastered.

Personally, I really like Silencer a lot. His ultimate is just game breaking in certain matchups. The problem is that he isn’t the best trilaner. He has no “real” disable, both his spells are damage over time spells that can be triggered/removed instantly and he is slow and fragile. I would only pick him if you can predict that the opponents send only one hero to your safe lane. With his glaives of wisdowm it is fairly easy to outzone most heroes and if he can stack and pull the camps and get some XP, Silencer is a really strong hero.

Here we got for my second choice of “the best all-around support in most scenarios”. Even though telekinesis doesn’t deal damage, it is screwing up the positioning of one or several heroes. Fade bolt early one is a great tool of pushing/depushing the lanes and minimizing damage from enemy right clicks. Rubick is both a good initiator and counter-initiator. And his ultimate can just make him game-changing. If you are in doubt, pick this guy! Tri-lane or not, it matters not to him. Be aware that he needs a good positioning even more than most other supports. He can do so much if he survives!

My beloved Ruptor has finally gotten the attention he deserves with the introduction of Aga on him. In my opinion, his skill set is one of the very best in dota. He has an AOE lockdown, a decent nuke with a small AOE and the sickest repositioning ability in the entire game: Glimpse. His ultimate does not only deal decent damage, but also silences enemies. Anything else you could need?
He is not the best tri-laner, as he needs the right setup. Kinetic field is not a stun but a lockdown, which means the enemies can still cast spells and right click. So you should always pair him up with a real disable hero or some massive nukers. Or a good early game right click hero like Ursa or Razor e.g. Also, I have used the tri-lane combination of Undying and Disruptor to a great effect. Despite not having a stun, from level 3 on the combination of Kinetic field and tombstone is just really strong. He is fragile though and if you choose to use his nuke, his mana pool is kind of small.

Near unlimited mana for other heroes to spam their spells, a high range high damage AOE nuke with a low cool down. There is a reason why he has been around the professional scene for a long time. He is a good supporter. He can even be on tri-lanes, despite not having any disable at all. With smart play and positioning, well-timed illuminates can wreak havoc upon the enemy. Yet, he also needs some expierence to be mastered. I have seen a lot of Kotls trying to “harass” the enemy with Illuminate who ended up ruining the farm for the carry and constantly pushed the lane. Try NOT to hit the creeps with it, but only the heroes!!

He shouldn’t need any explanation at all. His entire skill set aims at killing a single target. He has become my favorite support hero in the last weeks. The reason for this is that he is amazing at outzoning (bolt deals decent damage lvl 1 at relatively "ok" mana cost and doesnt draw aggro), is awesome against offlaners with escape mechanism because he has a great silencer AND is an amazing ganker even on early levels, but more so once he reaches level 6. He can pretty much blow up every other hero 1on1 once he is 6, which is just amazing, especially to feed on other supports. I'd always pick him if you are in doubt!

Alongside Crystal Maiden, he is the very best lvl 1-3 support. Gale has an insanely long duration, slows and deals damage over time. If you happen to catch an enemy to far from his own tower, he is likely to die. His problem is is tiny manapool and the low range. He is also by nature pretty squishy. Still, he is a decent hero in a lot of scenarios. But you shouldn’t pick him against heavy disable or nuke lanes. He will cast gale and then just die. If you get overwhelmed, there is no chasing!

She used to be the main support for a long time and then fell out of favor. A decent nuke, an Aura that never loses it effectiveness and a low damage low cool down spell that removes armor, thus increasing the right click damage make her a viable pick. Her ultimate screws up the enemy positioning and can be used to safe allies. In most scenarios a decent pick. Doesn’t matter if it is a tri-lane or not.

Mr. Disable! Nightmare just works really well with certain heroes. Yet it has the disadvantage that it can be removed by the opponent’s allies, which might result in your allies wasting their spells, hitting nothing.
Enfeeble makes it incredibly hard for enemies to last hit creeps and can’t be dispelled anymore, so it is a decent spell even in late game.
Brain Sap is pure damage and heals yourself up, which is awesome. Especially against typically low HP heroes like most carries and supports, it is super strong once you reach level 5. Since his ultimate goes through BKB and can disable any hero for quite a long time, he is also most often not a bad choice. Yet, he is not the best tri-laner

Auto deny creeps equals less XP for the enemy equals a lane constantly pushed towards your own tower. Equals a great support hero. A low cool down AOE nuke with a slow effect makes him even more viable. The lack of disable puts him at a disadvantage at tri-lanes. But I have seen Liches just hanging around the mid lane for the first two minutes of the game to ensure their middle hero has a huge advantage and then go their ways. Since he has one of the highest AOE damage ultimates in the game, he can be quite useful.

Lion used to be the first hero on my „until I reach level 3 I am useless“ list. Even if his Hex lvl 1 got significantly buffed, I'd still argue that on a 2v2 or 3v3 lane he is just paper and doesn’t offer enough. If you manage to get the levels without dying too much, he is a great support with 2 nice disables and a sick ultimate. But I highly discourage anyone from playing him on a tri-lane.

Another one of the heroes that are fairly underused in professional games. He probably has the highest damage ultimate of all heroes in the game (maybe apart from doom with aga) if it channels through and if you get your scepter up (5456 dmg per hero!!!). Yet, he is in one line with lion in the “until I am level 3 I am useless” department. His stun is unreliable and takes a lot of practice to master. Maledict is just weak in the early game since you lack the follow up damage for it to kick in really well. The heal on lvl 1 is decent, but doesn’t do too much against strong lanes. Don’t pick him on tri-lanes unless you have the proper setup!

Even though he is typically used in jungle, he can be played as a hard lane hero as well. His Eidolons just allow him to auto-deny and farm pretty well. Blackhole is still one of the sickest ultimates in the game and he has a stun and an AOE damage over time spell. Overall he is a good choice. Be careful when you play against a Rubick since there is no way but catching him in the Blackhole to keep him from instantly stealing it. He has the same trouble as all junglers, exposing the lanes early on.

Number three in the „until I am level 3 I am useless“ department. He might be the worst tri-laner of all supporters since there is not enough damage of fatal bonds to deal enough damage and since his heal early on is so weak, it won’t do too much if three heroes focus and nuke the target. Apart from his laning weakness on tri-lanes, he might be one of the best lategame supports. IF you ever manage to get an Aga and a Refresher Orb, it will be really hard to lose the game. Fatal bonds is one of the very best lategame spells (unless the enemy is a massive BKB team) and the Golem stun and damage is also REALLY through all stages of the game.

Dazzle is overall just a great support hero. All his spells are amazing in saving allies and damaging enemies. He is also a decent pick in most scenarios. Pair him up with Shadow Demon for some healbomb fun!

Shadow Demon works really well on all lanes, IF there is a stun to follow up disruption. He can generally be considered one of the supports that can basically always be picked

Another one of the sickest tri-laners in dota. Cold feet works really well with a setup stun and chilling touch offers so much extra damage for all your allies. Also, unlike the other “tri-lane rapers” Earthshaker and Undying, he is a ranged hero and therefore most often the best choice if you lack a #5 role for your trilane.

The most picked hero of The International 3 is a support hero. Need to say more? Well, one should add that he is a sick tri-laner and that he needs some micro for his ultimate, so hardly a hero a unexperienced player should pick.

Another one of these heroes that work fine in almost every scenario. Great nukes, an AOE disable (that works best with a setup stun) and a great pushing potential. Most often a good pick.

- You should buy a chicken at the beginning of the game



- You should upgrade it to a flying courier ASAP



- You should buy observer wards basically any time they are off cool down



- You should buy sentry wards to de-ward the opponents’ observer wards



- You should buy sentry wards, dust or even a gem against invisible heroes



The higher the level you are playing on, the more important this item becomes. More about using smoke in Section 3b.

- You should go for supportive items (for a list of them see Section 1e)
- You should NOT farm
- You should NOT take hero kills on purpose
- You should NOT take tower kills on purpose

Arguably, there are situations in which it is totally “OK” for the support to take a last hit on a tower or a hero. That is e.g. if you lack a certain amount for your key item and a team fight is incoming soon. Or if your Alchemist with maxed out greed and a midas is free farming anyways, so the gold he doesn’t get on that kill does not really hurt him too much but greatly helps you. If you are in doubt, rather let the carry have the gold. Experience will tell you, when it is ok to last hit things and when it isn’t.


- You should ALWAYS carry a TP and help allies when they are dived or their lane is pushed too hard.


- You should sacrifice your own life to save your allies if the situation allows it.
- You should anticipate the game and lead your team in ganks/pushes/roshan
- You should always look out for the possibility of smoking up with allies and go for a kill on enemy key heroes
- You should try not to feed


So, apparently I am telling you to play a support hero via supporting your team. Yet what exactly does it mean?

Generally speaking, you want your own carry (with whom you'll be laning on the safe lane most of the time) to get as much farm as possible. If you succeed in granting free farm to your carry (or if you are so insanely out-laned that your presence does not play a role) you should take a look at the other lanes and search for targets for ganks. Typically this will be the enemy solo mid hero OR the enemy hard carry (who most likely will be harder to gank than the mid hero because he is on his own safe lane and probably guarded by his own support heroes). See Section 2 on laning and ganking for further information.

Apparently, you are not supposed to last hit creeps, heroes or towers. So your main source of income will be the gold for assisting in kills and the regular gold income per second. This means, you will never get filthy rich or if you do, the game is most likely already won.

In early game you should invest all your money in wards, upgrading the courier, town portals and eventually in boots, which you will turn into either Arcanes or Tranquils. You will also try to become a little bit more durable, so most often you should get a magic stick and one or two bracers.



Apparently, most of these items are situational. It will always depend on the hero you are playing, on the heroes on your team and on the enemy you are facing. I did not include mekansm in this list for a reason: In the current meta game it is common for either the hardlane or middle hero to get this item. The purpose is to have it available as soon as possible and to have it on a hero that is by definition of his role higher leveld and more tanky than you as a hard support. However, in some scenarios, if you score some early kills and can have it quite fast, it is of course a viable option even on your weak hard support.

After many requests, I added Mekansm to the item list. These days, it seems common for certain offlane/mid/jungle heroes to get it, since they will usually have it a lot faster than a hard support ever could. But normally, the team just NEEDS one, so if noone else builds it OR if you are having a great start and can have it fairly fast, it is a great choice of course!



Again, these luxury items are situational. In a lot of your games as hard support, you won't be able to get any of them. If you ever have a lot of money and are unsure, which item to get, buy Hex. It is quite frankly THE best item in dota.

Note that blocking camps with Observer Wards like it is shown in some of the screenshot is situational. In a lot of games, these wards are too important to provide you with actual vision, so you shouldn't always use them to block camps. Sentries do not last as long, are more expensive, but also get the job done AND are never on cooldown. So if you want to block several camps, rather use sentries to do it. Exception: You can block camps while at the same time providing vision, e.g. the Radiant jungle ward.

As stated above, your first main job at which you should never fail when you play a supporter is warding.
Sight means map control. Map control means free farming for your carry heroes. It also provides the chance for ganks and enables you to set up team fights the way you want them to happen. So sight is absolutely crucial. So is ruining the opponent’s sight.

In the following section I will take a look at the best warding spots in the game. Note that the higher the level you play on, the worse spots you might be forced to use to ward, because a skilled opponent will always try to de-ward and the good spots are also the most obvious ones. You rather have a little less sight and make the enemy waste 200 gold for sentry wards than have no sight at all, right?

The typical warding spots include the runes as well as the enemy forest. As you should know, if you put a ward within a certain area of a neutral camp, it will prevent this camp from spawning, thus preventing the enemies to pull that camp.

This ward for the Dire not only prevents the creeps from spawning, but also gives you sight for incoming ganks from that direction.

Imho, it is one of the best possible warding spots for the Dire, since most people put the Observer ward directly on the neutral camp (or right above the treeline there which is safer to reach for the offlane her), which is where the Radiant will look for it trying to de-ward with Observers. (Note that for the point I am trying to make it is irrelevant whether I used sentry wards or observer wards, it is just about the spots to place them)


So let’s stay on this lane for a second, the next typical warding spot would be a ward, which gives you even more sight of the jungle as well as of the rune to spot incoming ganks from the mid hero. Typically, this ward is placed here. Sometimes you might even want to use a tango to remove the tree and place the ward even closer to the rune spot.

The next picture shows the most typical and “obvious” direct rune wards. Note that the ward on top of the stairs will also block the big camp from spawning whereas the observer ward on the left side of the picture will most likely not be seen if the enemy uses a sentry ward inside of the river. The wards on top of both cliffs are probably THE most obvious rune spots.

On this picture you can see another rune ward for this side of the river which gives decent sight and avoids the typical detection spots. Another spot that is not quite detectable on the screenshot is the one uphill the Dire stairs that lead to the river.

The following picture shows some of the countless possibilities to block the Dire camp from spawning. Unfortunately, for this side I am not aware of a blocking spot which gives as much sight as the according ward in the Radiant jungle does. If anyone knows of such a spot, feel free to enlighten me.

The next step is to look at this side of river, covering the upper side rune spot. Again, there are countless options to use.

These spots seem to be fairly underused in public, since they do not give sufficient side for the mid hero. Therefore people will more often use the following spots.

There are two other important ward spots, especially when you are on your own safe lane and your goal is to maximize your carries protection. The reason for these spots is obvious: It gives you sight of the lane close to the enemy tower, so if an enemy decides to port to gank your carry, you can see it in time and your carry can either retreat or you can call teammates in time to back him up.


Obviously, there are many other spots, e.g. uphill next to the big camps right at the beginning of the base (mid lane for Radiant, top lane for Dire) but those are used either very offensive or when you turtle. I mention them just for completion. Use them mainly if you are either playing really offensive or turtling like crazy, since these are maybe THE most obvious spots and they will be de-warded very likely.


Note that there are limitless options about warding, just be creative. If you are forced to decide, always go for the spots around the runes for maximum map awareness and for the wards protecting your carry.
A last hint about warding: If your mid hero is facing the nasty fat and ugly hero named pudge, he will thank you if you put additional wards like the following, because being able to see that big hooker when he is about to catch you is a huge advantage. These wards are even more important during night time because of the limited sight at that time of the day.


Try to always have your observer wards on cool down, even if you just carry them around with you. 150 gold less will not delay your “key items”, especially since wards are your key items!!!

Also, for more detailed information, there are several good warding guides out there:

Team Dignitas - Warding Guide[www.team-dignitas.net]

Lycan's warding guide on Playdota[www.playdota.com]

Here I will show some of the typical “De-Warding” spots that are used most often. Note that, while the Radiant has a better way of pulling and jungling due to the way the map is set up, the Dire have the advantage of being able to counter wards which block the pull a lot easier.

On this screenshot, the typical “block-wards” are the observer wards. Sometimes people will also just put a ward right into the spot in which the camp spawns. Since this ward gives no sight at all except for the camp, the bottom observer ward is a lot more common. If the ward is inside the camp OR like on this picture at the bottom side of it, the sentry ward on the left side will be able to detect both WITHOUT blocking the camp. There is only a little space between the two trees to place the sentry ward, but it is the perfect de-warding spot.

If the enemy uses the spot on the right side of the camp, just place a sentry ward above it at a little distance of the camp (as can be seen on the screenshot). I won’t include pictures of the big camp pullspot, since there are simply too many ways to ward and de-ward it and most often people in public games do not bother to block that one.

On the Radiant side, the observer ward seen in this picture seems to be at the most common blocking spot, since it does not only block the pullspot but also blocks the big spot close to the river. The sentry ward you can see on this screenshot will remove it while at the same time not blocking your own spawns.

Now for the tricky part. If the enemy didn’t use the first spot to block your camp, there is a sheer endless number of possibilities where the ward might be. There is even a spot in the trees (right above the hero in this screenshot) where a ward can be placed. If you do not cut down the trees, you will never find it. Fortunately, in public games, most players either place the ward directly into the camp (like on this screenshot) or (as you can see in the warding section of this guide) on my favorite spot, a little outside the camp to the right side. The spot inside the camp (as well as the spot inside the trees) are detected by the top sentry ward. From what I know, there is no way of using a sentry there without blocking the camp closest to the rune. But at least the ward shown here doesn’t block your spot, so you can stack and double-pull easily. If the enemy uses my favorite ward spot, the second sentry ward on this picture below the hero on the right side will remove it without blocking the camp.

Some general hints about warding and dewarding:

- NEVER place the Observer Ward first if you also have a sentry and plan to deward that area. The reason is, the enemy might still have their own observer ward up, they might watch you in that exact same moment and will then have an easy time to counter your Observer Ward directly afterwards. So always place the sentry first if you think the enemy has vision over an area.
- If you get dewarded constantly, use other spots. There is virtually no limit as to where to put the wards. Be creative. As I said, a little vision is better than no vision at all.
- A save way to ward is while you are under the effects of a smoke. Smokes are generally too valuable to use them exclusively for warding, but if you are ganking anyways, you can place the wards safely without the enemy seeing it.
- It is possible to remove wards with a Quelling Blade. But since a support otherwise doesn't really benefit from this item, I wouldn't recommend buying it just for the purpose of dewarding.
- Whenever you see the enemy "supports" (if they even have some), check their inventory. You might see them placing a ward just in that moment, providing you with an easy deward.
- In a lot of public games in the lower levels of RMM, people aren't using wards too much. If you play against a team that obviously has noone bothering to support, you can save the money for sentries and dewarding and use it otherwise.

Normally, you will be the only hard support and you will have to enable your carry to farm safely. This is your main objective. There are several things to know:

1) The closer to your tower, the better and "safer" for your carry!

There are several ways to push your wave towards the enemy tower (which you DON#T want). Draw creep aggro while harrassing the enemy, attack the enemy creeps or do a single pull. Refrain from those things or your carry will hate you (with reason!).

Note that the most important factor for the creep equilibrium is the enemy ranged creep. If this creep gets killed early, your lane will push. That is why you will often see offlaners try to creep block in a way that the ranged creep walks in front of its mêlée buddies, to die first, which will result in your wave pushing towards his tower.

2) The less experience and gold the enemy gets, the better!

This applies even if it means that you also do not get gold and experience. If you have a scenario in which your hero is amazing at outzoning the enemy, do it. Your carry should be able to lasthit and deny freely and slowly pull the wave as close to your own tower as possible while you outzone the enemy. If you can manage that the enemy gets zero experience, do it. Do not pull creeps in such a scenario. You are a support, the enemy offlane hero is a core. If you both get nothing, your team has a significant advantage (especially if you own offlane hero does get something).

3) If you cannot outzone the enemy, go stack and pull or go gank. Do NOT just stand there and leech experience from your carry. You will just make life harder for the both of you!!!

You will encounter situations in which your hero just isn't suited to outzone the enemy hero. In such situations, you will have to make a decision. Can your carry still farm if you are not on the lane (without risking death!)? If the answer is yes, either go stack and pull or gank. If the answer is no, stay on the lane and try your best to help your carry and/or kill the enemy offlaner.

There are several encounters that are more or less likely to take place in public games. Most common will be that you and your carry will face a single offlane hero. These offlaners are typically either heroes with natural escape mechanism OR heroes that are inherently tanky. You should generally be able to "win" these 2v1 lanes, whereas "winning" has a broad definition.

a) You win by killing the enemy hero over and over. Definitely the ideal scenario.

b) You win by outzoning the enemy to a point in which your carry has free farm and the enemy gets nothing. Also a great scenario.

c) Your carry gets free farm but you are neither able to outzone nor kill the enemy. Not ideal, but in this case you can either stack and pull or go gank.

d) None of the above but your own offlaner completely destroys the enemies he is facing. In that case you might not be in too good a shape yourself, but at least the enemy carry is worse off.







On both screenshots you can see the area in which the fighting between creeps usually takes place. Normally, the enemy hero will be positioned somewhere behind his own ranged creep. If you come from the front, meaning directly from your tower, you cannot attack the enemy without taking creep agro.

Note that IF you issue the rightclick on the enemy hero from a higher range than 600, you can get of 1 hit without taking the creep agro.

If you walk from that direction just past the creeps, he will attack you a couple of times from a safe distance, resulting in you not being able to 1on1 battle him afterwards. So, you should walk in either from the side or even better from behind, meaning you enter the lane from the spot closest to the river.



Normally, the enemy hero will not walk in front of his creep wave, so there is a fair chance that if you wait on the spot in the jungle closest to the river, you can let the creep wave pass and immediately start attacking the following hero after the creeps have passed. The enemy now has to either start hitting you back or retreat. He cannot catch up with the creep wave because you are constantly attacking him. Normally, he will retreat after a couple of hits. If you have a stun or heavy nuke on lvl 1, feel free to pop it to damage and scare him as much as possible or to even score the kill. In the meantime, your carry will possibly get all the last hits, experience and denies from the entire wave. This means, the next wave will be battling at the exact same spot hence you can repeat the entire process. The downside of this is that you will not get any experience either, but it doesn’t matter as long as your carry is free farming and leveling and the opponent is denied gold and experience. After all, you do not really need items or levels as badly as the enemy off-laner does.

It is important to avoid taking too much creep agro in this process because if you do, apparently you will lose hit points, but more importantly, if you do this within the radius of creep waves, you might end up pushing the lane because while the enemy creeps attack you, they are not attacking your creeps which results in pushing the fighting space towards the enemy tower, making farming for the enemy more easy and making it more dangerous and gankable for your own carry.

If you have successfully kept the enemy out of experience range until your carry is lvl 4 or 5 – or if your hard carry faces a hero that he can easily take on 1on1 - your mission on the lane is more or less accomplished for now. You might try to score a kill with the help of your carry, who should have phase boots or treads by now or you can either go and gank or stack creeps and pull.

Something I have whitnessed times and again and that is REALLY annoying for your own hard carry is if he is forced to lasthit under the tower. Every support player should know the basics of helping out your carry to score the crucial last hits in such a scenario:

Every creep needs 1 hit by a hero so that the carry can last hit it safely after a few tower hits. (Exception: Carry with a really high base damage and/or quelling blade). So, if the wave is at the tower and your own creeps are not there (because you pulled), help your carry out by hitting the FULL HP CREEPS just once. Note that if you hit a creep he has already hit once, you will likely screw up his last hit.

As mentioned before, this is probably the most common scenario you will be facing in your public game hard support career. So it makes sense to take a look at certain heroes and at the supports you can pick to ruin their laning life. For this section, I will be assuming a farming carry that does not offer too much in terms of killing potential (e.g. an Antimage).

This nasty fellow is known for ruining safe lane lifes since he was introduced. He is disgusting to play against, but there are good ways to deal with him. The best counter to him imho is Silencer. Once you cast last word, he cannot used icarus dive to escape. If he tries to, he will just return to the spot he started at. Silencer can also trade hits effectively with him if he puts one level in his glaives (they are pure damage after all). Another hero that is decent against Phoenix is Skywrath Mage. Also has silence, Slow, and Bolt is almost as good to harrass as Glaives are. If you have quick reactions, Disruptor with Glimpse can also be hard to deal with for Phoenix.

Bat actually isn't too scary if you avoid being stacked up with Napalm. Silencer, Skywrath and Ruptor are well equipped to deal with him. So are all heroes that have more than 1 nuke (assuming your carry has it in him to come and help for some extra hits).

Imbalanced high base armor & auto stout shield purchase make this bugger really annoying to deal with. Moreover, his habbit of being invisible and stealing your experience from your pulls is really annoying. If you see him being picked, you should always have dust and sentries ready. There is no support that is especially good against Bounty, but the aforementioned Orb heroes like Silencer and Skywrath Mage are decent to deal damage even through his high armor and stout shield (since their abilities are unaffected by that reduction).

He will become tanky with a few levels and stacked up spray kills supports like few things do. The key to succeeding against him is to zone him out from level 1. He can't really hurt you much on his first 2-3 levels, so you should play as aggressive as possible against him.

Welcome to the most annoying offlaner of all times. If he goes spiderlings, you should make sure to either pick a support with AOE spells or you should have 2 supports or a carry that can help in killing her. Brood is one of the few heroes that can easily win 1on3 lanes if the setup isn't good against her. You will need detection, nukes and ideally something to remove trees. So Leshrak and Lina are a good combo against her.

Quite tanky, quite annoying. As with Bristleback, I would always suggest trying to put 2 supports against him. Like Bristleback (and Doom), he can't really do much against 2 ranged supports.

Surge & Ion shell make it both hard to kill him and hard for your carry to farm. Upside is, shell constantly pushes the lane, so you will always be close to the tower. Downside is, if he gets levels, he can easily just surge you down with shell. Ruptor and Silence heroes are good against him as well, but you should consider getting a second support on your lane if you are facing him.

Scorched Earth makes it hard to kill him and he will always find some farm and experience because of devour (or just go jungling). Needless to say, if you let him get 6, he can solo kill you easily. His main weakness is his low base armor which makes him a prime target for lane harrassment. So you should pick a hero with a decent animation and damage to do so.

Another one of those tanky, escaping strength heroes. Spirit and aura hurt if he gets levels. Its hard to trade blows with him if he has an active spirit returned with like 1203120301203 bonus damage and movespeed. Either get help or pick Skywrath Mage.

He is a good offlaner, but unless you are in the very high regions of rmm, you won't see him offlane too much. If you do, since he has fairly low HP and HP gain, he is relatively easy to deal with.

He is like the one offlaner that you will have a hard time outzoning all by yourself. The bear is just strong. Ask for a second support and you can easily kill him.

Timber feeds on strength heroes, so you should never pick one of those against him. He is weak against silence, nuke and heroes that have a fast traveling disable ability which can interrupt his chaining away. I always think about Rubick when I face him.

That fat fish is hard to deal with for most supports. Anchor smash reduces your rightclicks to ashes if you let him come close and Kraken just dispells your negative buffs on him. Don't pick a mêlée against him! I find Skywrath the best choice here.

Clocks is also a really annoying hero to deal with. With good cog usage, he can ruin the creep equilibrium and get the waves into his tower range. He can also burn your precious mana with it and if he gets his levels, he can likely solo kill you once he is 3-4, with boots and battery assault, if he catches you off guard. Against him, usually 2 supports make a lot of sense. Rubick is a great choice here since you can telekinesis him out of his cogs, therefore ruining his escape/protection mechanism. Also I find Disruptor a good choice, especially on the later levels, because if you are not hookshot yourself, you can just glimpse him back and safe an ally. Against this hero, I'd always try to get a ForceStaff as fast as possible to be able to force yourself out of the cogs.

Sometimes you will find yourself facing a 2v2 lane. If you and your carry are facing two enemies, the laning is a lot different and harder. Apparently in this scenario all depends on the hero setup. Most often, you will have the weaker lane, since most hard carry heroes tend to be more or less useless in the early game. If this is the case, focus on denies, try to score an occasional harass on the enemies and play it safe. Protect your carry and your own life at all costs. If the lane is weaker, call for help or swap the lanes.

The carry needs to farm! The lane will not get stronger if anyone of you dies. Do NOT pull on 2v2 lanes if you are at a disadvantage. The enemies might dive your carry (or you!) while you are pulling.

Fortunately, this scenario happens less and less since putting two heroes on your hard lane to keep the enemy carry from farming exposes your own safe lane and therefore most people do not want to do it anymore. Yet, it is a situation you might face.

If for some reason your lane is stronger, communicate with your carry, discussing when to move in on what hero and score kills!

2vs3:

The worst nightmare of every support and hard carry is facing an aggressive tri-lane. If you and your lane mate do not out-skill the enemies by a lot, it is normally hard to win this lane.

As the name says, an aggressive tri-lane is all about kills and preventing your beloved carry from farming. To ruin it, you either need backup from teammates or you need to be incredibly careful, abusing the proximity of the tower without dying. Since most hard carries are either mêlée or low ranged heroes, an aggressive tri-lane is likely to prevent ANY farm from your carry. If you don’t get back up or swap the lanes, you can feel free to try to get some last hits on your own. Your carry can’t get them anyways and if you don’t get them, no one will or they are denied.

Fortunately, tri-lanes are a phenomenon that occur mostly in games with a relatively high skill level and therefore can be countered with a tri lane of your own.

IF you face a 2vs3 lane, it automatically means that you should have some other kind of advantage. Either a jungler that is farming well and can move in to help you. Or a 2vs1 scenario of your own on some other lane. If the latter is the case, it isn’t even too bad that your carry is denied the farm (so ignore his whining!). IF you win both other lanes while at the same time not dying to the enemy tri-lane, chances of winning the game are actually high for you.

3vs3:

Tri-lanes can happen on either safe or hard lane. They are an art for themselves. Arguably, some heroes form stronger tri-lane than others. Mostly the heroes with really high AOE range/damage and low cool downs/mana cost are dominating these lanes. Jakiro, Undying and Earthshaker are three of the heroes that can help dominating a tri lane. If you think that your enemies might run an aggressive tri-lane, you should think about picking one of these heroes and/or ask an ally to take another one.

Tri-lanes require a lot more communication and coordinated execution than normal lanes, so make sure you talk a lot with your lane mates and decide when to attack which target. The mission remains the same: Enable your carry hero to farm whilst killing the enemies. Because this guide will be long enough as it is, I will not go into details here. One could probably write an entire guide just about the art of tri-lanes.

Note that if a tri vs. tri matchup occurs, this has several effects:

First of all, your own mid lane hero as well as your hard lane hero will be in 1vs.1 situations.

Second, they are far less likely to get ganked since if you pull one or even two heroes off the tri-lane, the remaining heroes are likely to be overwhelmed. Plus, it is incredibly obvious if heroes disappear from a tri-lane, therefore it is easier to dodge ganks.

Third, it is being said that the team doing the aggressive tri-lane loses the lane if there are no kills involved or if they just have less kills than the defensive tri-lane. This is because the safe-lane heroes always have the possibility of pulling creeps. (Even though they most likely will have to de-ward the pull spot first) and therefore the chance of gaining a significant level advantage early on.

Apparently, even if there are 0 kills, if you are on a defensive tri-lane and your carry gets close to zero last hits, you pretty much lost the lane.

The process of “pulling” describes the method of pulling a neutral camp towards your creep wave, causing your creeps to leave the lane and attack the neutrals. This is good for several reasons:

1) You can get safe experience and gold from the neutrals without taking any damage at all.

2) You cause the enemy creeps to fight under your own tower.

3) And most important, it gives you an opportunity to deny an entire creep wave.

Pulling is really important for supports and can win or ruin a lane. Even if you are an experienced player, I suggest looking at this section, since even on high level public games, I have seen lots of people doing it wrong, not understanding the trouble they have caused.

First of all, to pull the creep camp, you need to attack a neutral creep at approximately .42 or .12 and walk back to the lane towards the upcoming creep wave. This causes the wave to attack the neutrals at around .46 or .16. The creeps will now follow the neutrals back to their camp and continue fighting them there.

(Note that since recent changes, there are not more wolves in the small camp; it doesn't matter which creeps there are!!)

The picture shows two creeps going back to the lane. So why is this bad? Obviously, since your wave wasn’t there and your carry couldn’t tank the enemy wave yet, it got into the range of your tower which destroyed it really quickly.


Also, if you check the game time and the mini map, you will see that the next creep wave is almost there, so you will have 2 more creeps than the enemies in the next wave. This will push the lane towards the enemy tower, thus allowing the enemy hero(es) to farm safer and putting your carry in increased danger. Something you want to avoid at all cost. And there are two different ways to avoid it.

The first, easier and 100% successful way is to stack the neutral camp once before you pull it. Stacking means you attack a neutral creep of the camp at .53 and walk away from the camp. If there are no creeps in or around the camp at the full minute (0.0) mark, a new set of neutrals will spawn. After the creeps you pulled away return, there will be two full sets of creeps. If you pull this camp now, your entire wave will be killed, therefore you will not push the lane and your carry can keep farming within the safety of your tower.

Note that it can happen that you accidentally pull a second wave towards the camp, since fighting it takes a while and the last surviving creep of your wave is usually the ranged creep which will be situated somewhere around the place where the hero is on this screenshot. Depending on the situation, this might be enough to get the agro of the next incoming wave. If that happens, you might end up pushing the lane, again. Due to the map layout, this happens a lot more on the Dire side and less likely on the Radiant.

Note that IF the camp consists of a healing troll, you shouldn’t attack to pull agro since the troll will just start healing and NOT follow you. In that case, just walk in to take the agro. Also, if the camp consists of those nasty banshees with their ice arrow, you have to pull 1-2 seconds LATER than usually, because their MS is so high.


But what’s the second way of pulling without pushing the lane? It is simply continuing to farm the jungle with the kind assistance of your creeps.

On the Radiant side, if you use a tango on the trees as can be seen in the following picture, it is possible to pull the camp straight above towards the first creep camp where your wave is still battling the neutrals. The tricky thing here is to time it. You want the second camp’s creeps to arrive at the time, the last neutral from the first camp dies. If you don’t time it well, your creeps will either have returned to the lane already or the creeps of the second camp will return to their camp while your creeps are still busy fighting the first camp, thus not activating their agro.

This process takes some practice and is easily messed up, so if possible, stick to stacking the camp first. As a rule of thump you can usually go ahead to pull in the second camp when the first small camp has about 1.5 creeps left alive.

Note that on Radiant, it is possible to even move your creeps to the big camp. To do so, you simply need to remove a tree on the left side of the small camp to be able to walk the shortest possible path to the big camp, get the aggro and pull them over. This requires some serious timing, so I would recommend training it in a solo game. Also, you can farm both of the small camps with your wave and THEN pull them over to the big camp. This is especially helpful if you actually have a fellow support on your side. You can then both get a lot more experience out of the jungle.

Note that on the dire side, you do not need to remove a tree; you can simply walk to the big camp closest to the lane and pull them towards the small camp. It is harder to do than on the Radiant side, though, because the distance is bigger. Unfortunately, I cannot give exact game times of when to do the second pull, since it depends on what neutrals are there and therefore on how long your creeps need to kill them. Again, rule of thump is about 1.5 creeps left in the small camp.

It is important to be aware of the fact that you shouldn't autoattack the neutral creeps. If you do and have the "wrong" creeps there (e.g. banshee into satyr), at least 1 or 2 of your creepwave will survive (which again ends up pushing your lane). So focus on lasthitting only!



Especially on 2v2 lanes, but also on 2v1 lanes, the enemy hero might try to interrupt your pulling or try to steal your creep experience and gold with nasty spells like shadow walk. So always keep an eye on the lane and where the enemies are. If he or they try to interrupt you, you need to judge the situation and maybe call your carry for help. I’ve seen first blood being spilled countless times because heroes overcommitted to preventing the pull and getting themselves in a bad situation. This is even more true if your team has a jungling hero which might come in and assist as well or if your middle hero happens to grab that haste rune close to you in exactly that moment.

Scenarios in which a single pull is actually useful:

Don't get confused now, generally speaking a single pull is a bad thing and you shouldn't do it! But as with every rule, there are exceptions. Since a single pull will inevitably end up pushing the enemy lane, it can be used as a tool to score an early tower. This is especially helpful if you e.g. have a jungling hero on your side that can come in and help with his creeps (Chen, Ench, Nigma, Natures Prohpet) or if either you or your carry hero have skills that also help in bringing down towers fast (e.g. Leshrak, Jakiro, Veno). An early tower kill gives a large boost of gold to all heroes on your team, which means it can have a big impact e.g. on your middle and hard lane as well. The downside is that an early killed T1 tower somewhat increases the risk of exposure for your own carry and makes it a bit safer for the enemy hardlane hero to get experience and farm. If you are unsure whether it is smart to push down the tower early, just ask your teammates about their opinion. (Note that if you decide to do it, the best moment to pull is when there is a wave with a katapult incoming. Every 7th wave has a catapult incoming (this means, the first wave with a cata spawns at minute 3:00). Make sure to pull the wave BEFORE the one with the katapult, so you will have around 4-6 mêlée creeps, 2 ranged creeps AND a catapult to bring down the tower).

Apparently, game play is highly situational, yet there are a few hints that improve your support play by a lot. Let’s start with the most important issue:

Often, you have to ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ stay back in teamfights. Support heroes are not always the ones to start a fight. If you are forced to do so because your team has no initiator whatsoever, ok, go ahead, you will die but someone has to do the job. Yet ideally, you should have at least one hero who has more farm and levels than you and a better skill set to start a fight (magnus, axe, centaur, void, basically every hero with a big AOE disable).

Note that this IS indeed highly depending on the situation. If you are the only disabler on your team and you can manage to take out a crucial enemy hero by initiating on him, do not hesitate to do so. Vengeful Spirit and her Nether Swap are the perfect example for this. So is e.g. Disruptor with Glimpse (yet he can cast it from a rather safe distance)

The reason for you to generally NOT start the fight is simple:

You are usually behind in levels and items.

You usually have a huge target on your head which tells the enemy carry “please kill me with 2 hits for additional gold and experience”. So, if you go in first, you might die without even casting all your spells. Yet, if this causes the enemies to focus you down while your team cuts through them, it is ok.

Generally, it is better to stay back, choose your target and get off all your spells. If you play heroes with low cool down spells, the longer you stay alive, the more you can cast. If you are a Rastafarian and you put down wards, used fork lightning, hexed and shackled enemies, you’re out of mana anyways and you can bite the dust, forcing the enemies to waste their time killing you while they ignore your carry. If you can get all your spells of and die, it is ok, you’ve done your job. Staying alive is still better!

If you happen to play Lion or Lina: Use your ultimate immediately on the enemy’s key hero. Be it either that sick initiator (e.g enigma) to bring him down before he initiates OR if that initiation has already taken place, just nuke the enemy carry. Even if they are at full HP. Carry players are careful and cowards by definition (I’m exaggerating of course), they are the most crucial heroes, without them, their team doesn’t deal damage. So, if you can bring them down to half HP in the beginning of the fight, you might cause them to think even for a second whether to take the fight or retreat, this second might be enough.

If you have a disable, try to use it on the carry before he pops his nasty BKB.

If your team happens to be engaged upon, do not panic and just spam your spells. Instead, try to anticipate the opponent’s target priority and used your spells and items to interrupt that priority.

In most battles, the carry will try to or bring down the supports first, then focusing on the other carry and/or tanks/initiators/other roles. As a support player, you will spend a lot of times walking around warding, trying to assist in kills or simply waiting in the fog for your trap to snap or to find a lonely hero to gank. During that time, try to think ahead to the team fights. Try to anticipate the enemy battle order, their items, their positioning. This will help you a lot to do the right decisions when the time is there. E.g it is apparently useless to focus down their enigma after he got his full 5second Blackhole through and used his stun and midnight pulse already. Apart from his low damage low attack speed right click he has nothing more to throw in. Rather focus the enemy carry in that case.

After your spells are on cool down, you also only have that sad right click power, but always be aware of the fact that every second the enemies concentrate on killing you or even chasing you, your teammates have time to kill them. So be visible and be a nuisance to the enemy.

If you have a chance to sacrifice yourself for a teammate, do it! Even more so if this teammate is your carry. If the situation is a definite kill on both of you for whatever reason, don’t do it. But if you see even the slightest chance of helping your ally to survive, go suicidal. Block the enemies with your fragile body; use your meka on your ally. Shallow grave him. Pop out all your spells on a chasing hero, maybe he thinks there are more of you incoming. Just support! It is fun and if you do it correctly, you will eventually be praised more than any carry would be.

Rampaging with the 40mins free farm Phantom Lancer is fairly easy. Providing him with the 40mins free farm is the true art of dota.

As a support, one of your tasks is to provide ganks on the cruical heroes of the enemy. A good way to do this is using smokes whenever possible. Not only do you become invisible until you are withing range of an enemy hero, but you also gain movespeed, allowing you to wander around faster. A nice bonus is the fact that smoke is not broken when you use a TP or a spell, only by physical attacks or when an enemy is near. You can also dodge certain projectiles that are following you with using smoke (if no enemy is near). And you can evade global damage spells like Zeus Ulti, Furion Ulti, or Spectre's Haunt Illusions with smoke.

You should never use smoke in an area in which the enemy might have observer wards. So the best spot usually is behind your own towers, at your base or at a typical ward spot if you just de-warded the opponents.

A fact most people are not aware of is the travelling area of smoke. Once it is used, there is a cloud of smoke travelling quite a distance and this can be seen by enemies. So avoid using it too close to a creep wave since the enemy might spot it.

If you run around smoked, you should always pay attention if you are revealed. I have seen people breaking the smoke because they attacked an illusion. A great way to determine if it is an illusion is just to check your status, if the smoke didn’t break, it is NOT a real hero.

Since it only breaks if an enemy hero is close by, it is also a great way to find opponents e.g. in their own jungle. Before you even see them, you know they are there, which gives you time to prepare it.

Generally, you might want to approach whichever lane you are ganking by an “untypical” way. This means, if you are Radiant side and on the safe lane support, it might be worth to go all the way around your own ancient camps to gank the middle lane. Most middle laners have the tendency to orient themselves more towards the direction of their own safe lane, which gives you an opening. Most people do not expect a gank to come from their own jungle.

The introduction of smoke changed dota quite a bit. A lot of typical mid heros are incredibly vulnerable to smoke ganks, a fact you should abuse at any time. Even if you just stand around and do not get a kill, if your middle hero who was being owned before gets some farm and XP time because the scared enemy stays back, it might be worth it. A kill is still better of course.

As hard support, you should most often take your #4 role with you when you smoke gank. The things cost 100 gold a piece, so they are not exactly cheap and shouldn’t go to waste.

Since you should always have your observer wards on cool down anyways, smoke is a good thing to buy when you know you are about to die and have around 200-400 gold. Instead of losing this gold, invest it. That is why I always have smoke on the quickbuy menu when I play hard support.

Smoking can decide the outcome of long and close games. Team fights are everything at a later stage and the team with the better positioning/execution most often wins the game. Since the enemy cannot see you, you are at a natural advantage. At the same time, if you ever have some wards up and you do not see any enemy hero at all, they are likely smoked, so always pay attention to the minimap.

Unlikely or uncommon wards help a lot in avoiding smoke ganks. It is always fun when you SEE the enemy go into smoke and you can see the way they are likely to take. So you just rotate your team and backstab them.

Originally, I intended to implement screenshots on smoke ganks, but I think the way better way of learning it is to watch the tier1 teams battle each other, since they will always use them. If the feedback is demanding, I will add screenshots and scenes from games which illustrate the power of smokes.

In this last section, let us have a look at typical early game scenarios and possible decision making. Once again, I can only state that this is of course highly situational. But I still think it might be helpful since I have met quite a few people who are simply overwhelmed and often do not know what is useful and what is not.

If you have a vs 0 lane, meaning you and your carry (and maybe your team’s other support) face no hero at all, your goal should always be to stack and pull camps as much as possible without pushing the lane. (Or, if you all agree on it, do a single pull once the first wave with a siege engine comes and kill the tier1 tower.)

If you have a hero with spammable nukes you might even consider just farming the respective easy camp in your jungle. In this scenario, your carry will get his easy farm and your goal is to get money and levels as quickly as possible. Once you reached level 2 or 3 OR if you have a hero that has a really nice disable on lvl 1 already, you should take a look at the other lanes.

Does your middle hero need help? Even if he is winning the last hitting battle, a kill is always a nice thing, especially if your middle hero is one of these typical high impact early-mid game heroes who can snowball really hard. Help him to score a kill. If necessary, grab a smoke and ask your other support hero to come with you. Since both of you were pulling/jungling, the enemy middle hero should have been scared of ganks since the beginning, so he just might become a little careless.

The enemy safe lane will be a lot harder to gank, since the opponents abandoned your own safe lane, which means they have either 2 supports on their own safe lane or one support and a typical jungle hero who might come in to help his carry at any time. In both scenarios you need to take a look at your hard lane hero, ask your fellow support and decide whether a gank is useful or not. Also ask the solo mid hero, if he can get the next rune and if it is a good rune he would be willing to kill the enemy carry.

If for some reason you cannot gank any of the other lanes, make sure you stack, pull and farm as much as possible. Early level ups and money are essential on support heroes. You should avoid walking around, failing at ganks since you absolutely gain nothing from it. The only scenario in which a failed gank is worth it is if you force the enemy carry or middle hero to take a trip to the fountain, causing him to lose a lot of farm and XP.

If you have a really potent carry that is able to farm stacks and even ancients fairly easily, you can always go and stack your big camps and/or the ancients. Your carry will thank you for it.

If you face a vs 1 lane, you and your possible fellow support have to decide who is doing the stack/pull and who zones out the enemy. The goal here is to either kill the enemy hero as much as possible or to at least not let him get any XP at all. To do so, it is essential that you do not push the lane towards his tower. This will also depend on your carry’s ability to last hit without pushing the lane and/or taking creep aggro. I find that if both support heroes are able to zone the enemy hero out, the best scenario always is to swap stack/pull and zoning out. Meaning, for one wave, you will do it, while your ally pulls while for the next wave, you will pull and he will zone the enemy out. This way, both of you get XP and Gold from the neutrals.

There are scenarios in which both of you might be needed for zoning out. Some heroes are by defintion hard to zone out since they either hit very hard or are sneaky bastards. An example for this would be Windrunner who is able to trade hits with most supports fairly easily. In these scenarios, try to score a kill and if you are unable to kill the enemy, just once again swap with your lanemate so neither of you has to use up all of his consumables.

Another possible scenario is that your carry has the better hero for a particular 1on1 matchup. If he is confident he can farm and maybe even kill the enemy hard laner on his own, you and your other support player might as well move towards middle or the enemy safe lane instantly.

If you face a vs 2 lane, it will all depend on your heroes and on the opponents picks. If they send a dual lane towards you that is by defintion weaker than your own, they are stupid. You should always punish stupidity. Unfortunately, it is more likely that their lane is “stronger” which means your main goal should be to protect your carry at all cost. If you are 3 players, you should be able to score quite some kills against a dual lane and even manage to stack and pull in between.
If you have a jungle hero, let him do the farming, wait until he is strong enough or finds a decent creep and then kill the enemy.

Note that there are scenarios in which your carry will not be able to farm no matter if you are on the lane or not. If he is confident the enemies cannot kill him, you might as well abandon the lane and try to go ganking. This way, even though he will not farm, he will at least get the solo XP and you minimize the risk of dying yourself to that strong dual lane. Additionally, your ganks might force the enemy to rotate one of his hard lane heroes to another place, giving your carry some space. In scenarios of 2vs2 lanes in which the enemy is way stronger, I most often resist the temptation to pull since pulling might offer a window for the enemy to either kill your carry at his abandoned tower or you while you are pulling and your carry is busy with creeps.

Since you might always have "free time", focus on the minimap and analyze how the other lanes are going. Check the inventory of enemy heroes and inform your teammates about certain item pick ups (E.G "The enemy void went Midas, he will be really fragile for a while, lets gank him). If you don't spot enemy heroes, try to predict their movement and eventually warn your teammates about incoming ganks. Especially on "lower levels" of public play, the mid hero usually is too focussed on his lasthits/1v1 play to notice missing heroes from the minimap.

A great way to find out if enemy supports are pulling or on the way to gank is to constantly check the stats screen. Since it shows levels, you can often analyze the levels of the enemy support and therefore are able to tell if they are pulling or maybe waiting somewhere to gank.

If you face a tri-lane, it all comes down to the composition of these lanes. If your carry is able to farm well, you are in no hurry to score kills. If he cannot farm at all, you should either swap the lanes or try to score kills on the enemy. If the enemy tri-lane is by far superior to yours, go move your fragile ass to another place OR try to bait them into overcommitting. The higher the skill level, the more you can be sure of the fact that the enemies KNOW that they have the stronger tri-lane. This will result in a lot of attempts to kill you and your allies. And often, public players have the tendency to overcommit themselves. I have seen countless “stronger” tri-lanes losing because of overly optimistic tower diving.

Concluding, I can only state that especially tri-laning is an art for itself and requires a deep understanding of the game and the different hero combinations. If you decide to become a hard support player, you should most often be the last pick after the enemy support heroes are already picked. This is a rather easy way to counter most aggressive tri-lanes or to go aggressive yourself. In any case, I would recommend to master heroes like Ancient Apparition, Visage, Earthshaker and Undying since it is really hard to beat a tri-lane that involves any of these heroes.

In this section, I will try to provide information about which skills your hard support should get as first skill. It is of course incredibly situational, but nonetheless there are some guidelines. Generally: Ecept for very few heroes, do NOT use your first skill point until you have seen which lane you are up against!!!! There is no need to rush using that skill point and the enemy might surprise you with an aggro trilane, which might require you getting a different skill build than you would otherwise.
If you are uncertain about a special hero, I'd recommend to go and look for a special hero guide on the person of interest!

In 99% of the scenarios, you should pick aphotic shield to max out first and Mist Coil as a second skill. In some scenarios, one early level in your passive might help scoring the kill, but if you are the solo hard support babysitting your safelaner, you should go for shield/coil for sure.

As a support Alche, always max out Concoction over Acid Spray and skip Greed entirely. As support Alche, it is important to know that Concoction is a physical damage spell, therefore it is affected by armor reducing spells/items. Ideally, you channel it, throw it and before it hits the enemy you cast spray on him to get more damage because spray reduces the armor. For the same reason, an early Medallion of Courage works miracles on this guy. That way you can do a lot of physical damage with one combo.

Here's a tough one. If you have other set-up stuns (like in the replay I provided), 1 level of Cold Feet early on can be really amazing. If you don't have an additional disable or slow on your lane, it is generally not worth getting Cold Feet. Generally speaking, Chilling Touch is an amazing spell early on (more so on trilanes), but if you have a slow hitting mêlée carry, one level in it will probably be enough. You can use Chilling Touch to efficiently harrass any hero out of the lane. As a rule of thump I would say for this hero, make sure that on lvl 3 you have 1 level invested in each skill.

Generally, most Banes will go nightmare on level 1. It is a great setup tool for other spells (e.g. Mirana's Sacred Arrow) and can be used to save allies and/or urself. Nightmare renders a target invulnerable for the first second after it was cast on that target. That means you can help allies dodge certain spells and/or projectiles that way. E.g. let's say Sven threw his stormhammer which is about to hit your carry. If you time it correctly, you can cast nightmare on your ally just as the Hammer is about to hit to save him from the damage and stun effect. It is of course important to then remove the nightmare instantly, since your ally can't move while under the effect of it. On some lanes (especially 2v2 lanes) it can make sense to get an early level in enfeeble. It reduces the enemy heroes right-click damage by 30 on lvl 1 which means he'll have a hard time last hitting creeps and/or harrassing your or your lanemate. The general skill build for bane is to max out brain sap, but since it is very inefficient as a spell on lvl 1, you should always get this on lvl 2 & 3.

The battle whether Nova or Frostbite on lvl 1 is as old as dota itself. Frostbite gives you the ability to kill jungle creeps fast, whereas nova is an AOE ability. So I'd generally argue if against a solo hero, Frostbite should be better than Nova. If several heroes are there, Nova might be better.

Normally people get either heal or poison at level 1 and also go for 1 skill point in each skill by level 3. Then you either max heal or poison out. In some scenarios, it might make sense to max out Shallow Grave first, but normally there is no need for it early on.

Depending on which hero you lane against, you'd normally either get Glimpse or Lightning Strike. Strike is awesome on lvl 1 and deals a lot of damage, so it can be used nicely to harrass the enemy offlane hero. Glimpse on the other hand is perfect against squishy offlaner who rely on their escape mechanism. Because the range of glimpse is low on lvl 1, using it effectively will require good positioning from your side. I usually max out Glimpse and Kinetic field if I play him as a hard support.

Here in one of the heroes that make it easy for the first skill: Always get fissure!!!!!! Usually you'll then want to max it quickly, with 1 point in Enchant Totem and maxing your passive.

If you are facing a single hero that is neither a threat to you and your carry, nor likely to be killed, I'd go for Liquid Fire on level 1. It has a high cooldown, but offers a free harrassment tool every 20secs. Also it allows you to push towers quickly. If you see kill potential or threat, you should go for icepath on lvl 1. These days, people usually max out Liquid Fire alongside Icepath.

Normally, you'll go Illuminate first. Exception would be a carry with a good, spammable nuke on lvl 1 (e.g. a Phantom Lancer), then you might wanna think about going for Chakra first. If you have kill potential, mana leak might be an option, but more often than not, it won't be. Usually you should max Iluminate and Chakra.

Again depending on the scenario. In a 2v1 I'd go for either stun or Edict. Edict is especially good against those tanky mêlée heroes that might try to run you down (like clocks e.g.). Lightning Storm isn't too good for a 2v1 lane, since you will end up pushing the lane this way.

Normally you will always want to get sacrifice on level 1. Unless you face a really aggressive enemy lineup. Since it will keep your lane pushed back to your tower, you might end up giving them an easy opportunity to kill you and your carry. And if you have Sacrifice on level 1, all you have to offer is those puny rightclicks. But a scenario like this is rare, so sacrifice should always be your choice. Note that once you are lvl 2, you can always nova the enemy and give him 1 or 2 rightclicks as long as hes slowed. Lich is incredibly hard to lane against for almost every solo hero.

I'd pretty much always get stun first and then max out slave.



Since the buff on hex lvl 1, it is pretty much a MUST GET as a first spell. However, against several heroes on a lane, a well placed impale can also be really good.

If you see kill potential with it, get shackles level 1. If not, forked lightning is an awesome tool to harrass (avoid hitting creeps with it so you don't push the lane). Generally, 1 level in shackles will be enough, I'd always max out Lightning and Hex on that guy.

99% you will get disruption first. Note that you and your ally can use it to get an enemy hero stuck by simply walking close to him while hes disrupted. With the 2 illus spawning and both your bodies, it is fairly easy to trap the enemy for firstblood.

Usually, Glaives level 1 is an amazing tool for harrassment. It is pure damage and doesn't trigger creep aggro, so most heroes have a hard time trading blows with you. Against certain offlane heroes (like phoenix e.g.) it might make more sense to get last word as a first skill. Generally, Glaives isn't worth maxing and Curse of the Silent is only really good early on if there are several heroes on the lane (or a hero with a really low mana pool and high cost spells like Centaur or Void e.g.) I'd always max out last word & curse, with 1 level in glaives.

If you play him as lane support (2v1), normally Arcane Bolt is the best skill to get. Free harrass with addtional magic damage just makes it too viable. If you are opting for a ganking hero on lvl 1, you should get Concussive Shot on lvl 1, since it is a long ranged slow with a little bit of damage. Generally, Bolt & Seal are the skills to max out since Concussive scales rather badly compared to the other 2 skills.

Normally armor first. Unless you go boots first and/or find a haste rune, then get leech seed first and get the easiest firstblood of your life :-)

To be continued...

In this section, I will try to post links to both public and pro games with interesting support plays. If you find any such game that might be interesting to have them featured here, feel free to tell me. I will likely post some of my own games and also some games which show situations in which supports failed to do their job in one way or another (if it is my own game, then how I myself failed to get the job done).

To watch the replays, all you have to do is go to the Watch tab > Recent Games > Filter and there should be a box there that says Match ID, you then type the numbers there and voila, replay shows up.

Public Games

Match ID: 769854156 Ranked game (average mmr ~5.3k). I was solo hard support Skywrath Mage, safe laning with a jugger against a clocks. I messed up the single pull (as I said, you should NEVER single pull!) and my jugger even got firstblooded, so I quit the lane on level 3 and decided to help out our storm. The game was kind of onesided, but it is a decent example for decision making and when it is good to actually leave the lane. My reasoning was: Clocks with good cogs usage can burn all our mana, therefore we dont have killing potential (jugger AND sm both rely heavily on their mana in the early game). Since jugger gave away first blood while I was pulling, I got level 3 in decent time and was facing 2 options: Either returning to the lane or go gank. Since clocks showed that he is a decent players and jugger was somewhat "weak", I decided that a gank has a higher chance of succeeding, especially considering the weakness of an Invoker mid. We'd probably have won the game either way, since our Brood was doing a great job on the offlane, but shutting down the enemy mid hero and helping our Storm to snowball seemed like a good decision.

Match ID: 763261355
Page 1 Slot 1 game. It is an example of adjusting your skill build to the situation. Normally you'd get chilling touch first, but with 2 setup stuns I found Cold Feet to be more useful. It shows that even Ancient Apparition can move around the map early if he has a decent support at his side. I made some mistakes in this game, mainly positioning wise, allowing the enemy mid Skywrath Mage to pick me off several times. Quite the feed from my side. It is an example of the dangers when you play against this specific hero. It is also worth watching DroiD in this game who plays a really nasty good Rubick!

Match ID: 763151125
I picked Silencer here because he seemed a great choice vs. the enemy matchup. The game starts with a really idiotic mistake by me (which is explainable in the fact that I got a call from my fiancée and was too stupid to pause the game, therefore didn't realize the rune pickup) which kind of ruined the safelane for me and destroyed my entire early game. Silencer of course isn't a ganker, and since we were more or less playing 4 cores lineup, my early game impact was incredibly limited. But one of the reasons to pick this guy is his ultimate anyways. So just watch the teamfights and see what happens after a completely failed Global Silence.

Match ID: 778053021
In this game, I opted for a fairly passive early game. With our lineup it was hard to get a kill on the enemy offlaner or mid hero, so I decided, given the fact that we had a tinker, time was best spent at stacking woods & ancients. I also picked the Venge in this game, because Swap is a decent ability to save people from Chronospheres or Clockwerks initiation. Unfortunately, this replay is a good proof at how important positioning and reaction are for a support hero. I failed quite a few times in saving my allies. Also, I pretty much never could use Swap as an initiation tool simply because of the enemies sick counter-initiation. Note that despite the average rating of ~ 5.6k in this game, the play and especially the item builds of some players are more than questionable. Also it is important to mention that our Tinker constantly flamed the entire team from Minute 1 (for some reason known only to him).

Match ID: 782755070
Page 1 Slot 1 game; average around 5.8k. Game has 2 relatively even 1on1 lanes (middle and bot) and our team went aggro trilane with Rubick/SM/Jugger against a void/wd with Nigma jungle. Imo this game is a perfect example of 1) how picks can decide games early and 2) how support rotations have an impact. Rubick and I did a lot (and so did the enemy team, often scoring a return kill once we rotated). The game was quite one-sided but it shows how supports can have a huge influence early on.

Match ID: 788628300
Mirana is a very situational support hero, that is best used as either roaming solo or with a good setup partner for arrows (e.g. Shadow Demon). In this game, I felt like trying to go for roam. Voker vs Tinker in mid is a quite even matchup, but with one or two good ganks, you can entirely ruin Tinker's life forever. Which is exactly what I tried to do. Note that it is helpful to know about playing mid heroes to use Mirana to full efficiency. It is all about predicting the enemies positioning. Tinker turned out to be a real arrow magnet :)
Special kudos to the guy who played Nyx, I was assuming he had a way higher MMR than his actual 5.4k, he played really well on the lane vs. that meepo.
Mirana works best if the enemies don't have a good support duo. Without sight or TP support, there is almost no protection from arrows.

The International 4: Main Event

Match ID 783330532:

VG opted to go for the roaming ShadowDemon&Leshrac duo. This game is a perfect example of how the draft sets the pace for your game entirely. Here, VG are forced to make ganks happen early on or they will be pushed in early.

Match ID 783390334:

Game 2 of Main Event VG vs Newbee. These supports are all about positioning. It is highly interesting to watch their movement prior to teamfights and perfectly shows the power of Vengeful Spirit and Ancient Apparition. The batrider was forced to engage on vengeful because elsewise swap ruins lasso. Shadow Demon was on point with defensive disruptions against doomed targets all game long and FY on Ancient Apparition was just incredible with his aiming.
Special Notice: Top fight minute 22/23: Watch out that Prophet Sprout Bait. Sprouting his ally Doom as the BKB is about to run out, all of Newbee walk in to kill the Doom and get hit by Ice Blase & Sleight of Fists. Just insane play there by Sylar!

Match ID 783470838:


Deciding game 3. It illustrates the power of a brilliant Skywrath Mage play by FY. Also it shows the weakness of sand king, whose stacking was brilliantely delayed by Furion. A really interesting game worth watching!


Match ID: 785842796:
This game just shows one of the very best Rubick plays I have ever seen. And this is not in terms of one or two big ultis stolen which changes the game, but in terms of early game play. MMY easily was the main reason that DK could slowly build up a huge advantage. If you ever want to master Rubick, watch this replay and learn from his positioning and reactions, it is just insane.
Also, this game is a MUST SEE for everyone who likes Pro Games, since it set a record in terms of comeback from over 30k disadvantage with 2 raxx down.

Match ID: 787639738:

I am really falling for MMY. To me, he has been the best support in the main event so far. He is famous for being the best Lion in the world and here he shows why. Take a look at how he helps Mushi to get the first easy lasthits, then both supports simultaneously stack the jungle. And then, just watch his tripple impales. His decisionmaking is just incredible. Watch and learn!

There are certain console commands which can make your life a lot easier.

To activate your console, check out this walkthrough:

Activating Console[wyksblog.com]

While you are in the "launch options" tab: also add -autoexec to it. This means, your autoexec.cfg will automatically be initiated on each start of the game.

There are certain command lines that would be too annoying having to type them every time you play the game, so there is another possibility to have them activated constantly. To do so, you will need to go to your dota 2 folder. (By default this is C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\common\dota 2 beta). Once you spotted your dota 2 folder, enter the dota 2 subfolder and the CFG subfolder. (By default: X:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\common\dota 2 beta\dota\cfg)

In here, create a file called "autoexec.cfg" with using Notepad.

In this autoexec.cfg you can put all commands you wish to be executed automatically once you start the game.

There is also an automated autoexec generator with a lot of commands. You can check it out under Autoexec Generator[dota2gen.lixend.com]

So, to start this section I'll put in the binding I use for Roshan Timers. It is pretty much binding a number of commands to a single button. Once you hit that button, several things happen:

- A timer starts. After 5 minutes you get a message that Aegis will be gone in 60 seconds.
- After 7 minutes you get a warning that Roshan can spawn in 60 seconds
- After 8 minutes you get a warning that it is possible that Roshan can spawn any second now
- After 11 minutes you get a warning that Roshan has spawned for sure now.

To use these commands, again go to your cfg folder and create a file called roshan_timer.cfg

In this file, add the following commands:

say_team Roshan died at:; chatwheel_say 57
dota_center_message 3 "Roshan Died"
dota_center_message 329 " "
dota_center_message 332 "5:30 - Aegis Warning"
dota_center_message 359 " "
dota_center_message 362 "6:00 - Aegis expired"
dota_center_message 449 " "
dota_center_message 452 "7:30 - Roshan warning"
dota_center_message 479 " "
dota_center_message 482 "8:00 - Roshan can spawn"
dota_center_message 659 " "
dota_center_message 662 "11:00 - Roshan has spawned"

Save the file. Now you have to open your autoexec.cfg (which should be located in the same folder as the roshan_timer.cfg if you have done everything right) and add the following line to your autoexec.cfg


bind "uparrow" "exec roshan_timer.cfg" and save it.

Note that I use "uparrow" to trigger the script. You can of course use every single key that suits you to do so, it is just a matter of preference

Note that you can also use this way of scripted timers on things like glyph used or big teamfight abilities with high CDs (e.g. Black Hole or Ravage). This way you can always be SURE if the enemy has it available or not. But if you do so, this means that you will have to use quite a lot of different binds, which might get confusing in the beginning, so I would recommend only experienced players to do so. If you are interested in further console commands, just let me know. I will try to constantly add additional binds that are generally useful for supports.

Learning from the Pros:

Apart from things like lasthitting, execution, positioning there are things that can be learned merely by watching the best players in the world. Things that do not even require as much practice or experience as the aforementioned. If you watched e.g. The Alliance play in the TI3 times, in most games you saw that they were perfectly content with Akke and EGM just massively farming their own jungle. They were heavily relying on S4 to win or at least draw his middle lane and on Bulldog to somehow “shackle” the enemy support heroes to their own safe lane. This has the simple effect, that at the time when the early game clashes took place, Akke and EGM most often had higher levels and farm than the enemy support heroes and were therefore able to contribute more to their team’s success. I would lable this kind of support play as somewhat “passive and greedy”. A lot of teams try to do that, especially if they feel they either have the stronger carry hero and/or the stronger mid hero/player. In these scenarios, ganks are not really needed, so the supports can focus on getting level and money for themselves.

There are other team which like to go for aggressive tri-lanes, which basically forces the enemy supports to participate in the laning phase. And there are teams which like to rotate both their safe lane supports for early middle kills using smokes. In the end, it is also a matter of personal preference and circumstance. A farming support is useless, if your middle lane and hard lane are being raped. If you do not have the way superior carry hero, your team will most likely lose the game if you lose middle and hard lane. On the other hand, if you try to gank a lot and fail while the enemy supports are farming, you are also at a disadvantage. There is no typical recipe for success, it is all about experience and judging the hero setup to decide what to do.

I have to admit that I do not like being a hard support who stacks and pulls for the first 5-10 minutes of the game. If I liked farming, I would have chosen to be a carry or middle player.

Note that not all the things the Pros do is applicable in public games. They have years of experience and great communication, which people in public usually lack. But what you can learn is e.g. the timing to smoke gank and the routes they take. Supporting is all about movement and movement is something that comes with experience.

Lastly, the most important thing for a support player is: Be useful! There is always something more useful to be done than just running around. Even if it is simply stacking camps for a while. Each second you are seen nowhere on the minimap, the enemy has to worry about a gank and might lose last hits or even XP because of that.

Always remember that your carry does not only need the last hits, he also needs the levels. So if there is nothing to do for you since you either can’t out-zone the enemy hero or there is no enemy hero, go find something else to do. Nothing more annoying than a supporter who just leeches XP!

Concluding, I can only state that while I personally found it hard to climb the ladder with playing support – mostly due to incompetent core players – I am quite sure that in the lower region of ranked matchmaking a lot of games can be decided fairly early by a roaming support (duo). The less “skilled” the players are, the less likely they are to receive miss calls and/or watch the mini map themselves, so it will be quite the surprise when you show up. Plus, I may be an ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, but I find it incredibly satisfying if the enemy mid hero starts flaming you after your second successful gank on him within the first 3 minutes.