The goal of an offensive support caster is to help your allies to get kills and to push lanes so your team can farm the jungle safely. You should focus on spells and items which have CC, and you should build a little more power than a defensive caster.


Although any hero in this guide can play as an offensive support caster, the following are particularly good at it.

• Iah – excellent at pushing towers and has a powerful CC in her Quickpit (W).
  
• Trixie – has two CC moves and does a lot of sustained magic damage in a fight. Her ult is a massive disable which also reduces enemy Resistance and combines well with other AoE ults such as Bastion's, Hale's, Iah's, Claudessa's, and Fetterstone's.
  
• Malady – master of CC: a stun, a slow, and her very unique wall. Usually played as an assassin, but she can be a support as well.
  
• Vex – excellent at split pushing and can countergank once he gets his ultimate.
  
• Bandit.0 – great at pushing and can potentially stunlock enemies if he gets lucky.
  
• Ray – well rounded with a stun, a slow, and great wave clear.
  
• Chester – excellent wave clear and harass. His abilities help allies such as Hale secure kills.
  
• Jin She – melts through enemy Resistance and has a powerful skillshot stun. Excellent wave clear.
  
• Bastion – massive AoE magic damage and a great initiating stun. His shield helps buff brawler waves to take down towers.
  
• Bo – great initiator, although not the best at pushing waves. More teamfight oriented.

• Hexbane of Restraint – 1x Power Crystal, 1x Power Relic OR 1x Health Crystal, 1x Power Relic. Core on every support. This particular craft is good for dealing extra damage.
  
• Cursed Wand of Ruin – 1x Clarity Shard, 1x Power Crystal OR 1x Mana Shard, 1x Power Crystal OR 1x Power Shard, 1x Health Crystal. Core on every offensive support. This craft is good for extra damage as well.
  
• Diadem of Blood or Mastery – 1x Mana Stone, 1x Mana Crystal. Adds power and mana. The Blood enchantment is good for survivability, while Mastery is good for extra damage.
  
• Windrush of Diligence – combination of Clarity Shards, Mana Shards, or Power Shards. This helps your allies push and rotate and gets them out in a pinch.
  
• Arcane Emblem of Heritage – combination of Clarity Shards, Mana Shards, or Power Shards. Adds lots of extra damage and Heritage feeds well into Diadem, plus it's one of the best enchantments in the game due to how gold efficient it is.
  
• Runed Scepter of Empowerment – combination of Clarity Shards, Mana Shards, or Power Shards. Empowerment will add a lot of damage and the cooldown reduction will help you push faster.
  
• Everwinter Charm of Restraint – combination of power and HP. Good for melee supports, this is a massive CC and it adds a little survivability as well.
  
• Giant's Visage of Might – 2x Health Crystals. Also good for melee supports, adds a lot of power and survivability. Works well with Diadem of Blood.
  
• Power Boots – cheap power and Resistance penetration. If you picked up Runed Scepter this should probably be your boot choice.
  
• Rune Boots – cooldown reduction and regen to help you push. If you didn't pick up Runed Scepter, or you are finding that you are constantly out of mana, this should probably be your boot choice.

• Mystik – adds magic damage and lets you harass better in the laning phase. In a pinch the extra mana can turn the tide of battle.
  
• Plunder – top notch for pushing towers. Adds some survivability too.
  
• Topps – adds another CC to your arsenal. Good for melee heroes, but situational.

Max your CC abilities first. These will help your allies get kills and they're just generally useful.

During the laning phase, your goal is to push the enemy out of lane to prevent them from farming and to give your laning partner room to take jungle camps to increase their GPM. Focus on last hitting so your laning partner doesn't have to put themselves in danger.

In the mid and late game, follow your allies around so you can rotate to take objectives. When a fight starts, find the enemy carries and disable them.

The goal of a defensive caster is to keep your allies alive so they can deal out lots of damage. While any hero can build for defense and utility, the following heroes are particularly well-equipped with heals, shields, and other utility spells. You should max your heals and shields first.

• Lady Tinder – the queen of support. She has a power heal and a powerful shield. Her ult can defend objectives and also take enemy towers.
  
• Zaku – along with Tinder he has the best healing potential in the game, with his ability to lay down pods which heal for massive amounts of health and restore mana!
  
• Bo – also has an excellent AoE heal and lots of CC.
  
• Claudessa – her heal adds Resistance, which can really help protect your carry in a fight.
  
• Bastion – has an excellent AoE shield.
  
• Vex – has the strongest shield in the game (although it doesn't last very long.) His ability to purge enemy CC is unique to him and Chester.
  
• Bandit.0 – his heal adds movespeed and with luck he can chain several heals to restore anyone to full HP in a heartbeat.
  
• Chester – has the ability to purge enemy slows and get an ally out in a pinch. His ult makes any ally nearly unkillable.

• Healing Rod of Diligence – 2x Clarity Shard. This should almost always be your first item. Use it to heal your lane partner to keep them fighting, or heal yourself in a pinch.
  
• Hexbane of Restraint – 1x Power Crystal, 1x Health Relic. Core on every support, this craft will give you some survivability since you need to stay alive to keep helping your allies.
  
• Cursed Wand of Ruin – 1x Clarity Shard, 1x Power Crystal OR 1x Mana Shard, 1x Power Crystal OR 1x Clarity Shard, 1x Health Crystal. Also core on every support.
  
• Windrush of Diligence or Tenacity – combination of Clarity Shards, Mana Shards, or Power Shards. Helps your allies in tight spots and keeps your team mobile.
  
• Spirit Ward of Protection or Charity – 2x Mana Stone. Almost core, this adds a powerful AoE shield to your arsenal. Protection works on Spirit Ward itself! Also feeds well into Diadem.
  
• Blessed Orb of Focus – combination of mana and power. Makes your heals and shields more effective and works on Spirit Ward and Healing Rod as well!
  
• Archmage's Ring (any enchantment or none) – any components. Useful for team compositions which involve lots of other casters. Feeds well into Diadem.
  
• Seer's Eye of Restraint – combination of power, mana, or HP. Incredibly useful for checking objectives and anticipating ganks. Also adds survivability and a weak CC.
  
• Diadem (any enchantment) – all mana. Gives you cheap power, lots of mana for casting, and the enchantments are amazing.
  
• Runed Scepter (any enchantment) – combination of Clarity Shards, Mana Shards, or Power Shards. Helps you cast more often and feeds into Diadem.
  
• Sage's Circlet of Intellect – 1x Mana Shard. Situationally useful. It adds lots of cheap mana but you usually don't need it. However, Intellect feeds well into Diadem and is very cost effective when you are stacking a lot of mana.
  
• Everwinter Charm of Restraint – combination of HP and mana or power. Good for melee supports.
  
• Rune Boots – if you find yourself starved for mana this will help.
  
• Warp Boots – lets you respond to enemy ganks to help your team out.

• Mystik – great for keeping your mana up since you'll be casting constantly.
  
• Fiki – holds lanes for you (even stopping Krytos pushes!) and lets your allies attack jungle camps safely.
  
• Tink – situationally good for defending towers. Adds lots of regen too.

Your goal is to constantly think about keeping your allies alive at all stages of the game. Heal them, shield them, get them out of tight spots with Windrush, Hexbane, and Cursed Wand. There's not much more to it.

Make sure you take observatories when possible. This will help your team anticipate ganks.

The goal of being a tank is to soak up enemy damage and disrupt enemy teams, allowing your allies to attack safely. Being a tanky support is more effective than you think.

• Bastion – excellent offensive tank. His shield scales with HP.
  
• Bo – excellent offensive tank as well, initiates like a champ.
  
• Claudessa – amazing defensive tank. Soaks up lots of damage and her ult seriously disables enemy carries.
  
• Jin She – gorgeous offensive tank. The longer she stays alive, the more she cuts enemy Resistance.
  
• Chester – surprisingly effective as a tank. When he can get in the enemy's face, he can do a lot of damage by landing his skills point-blank. He will also stay alive for a long time when casting his ult.

• Elder Stone of Heritage – 1x Clarity Shard, 1x Vitality Shard. A great starting item as this will add regen, HP, mana, and Resistance.
  
• Everwinter Charm of Virtue – combination of power and HP. Not only does the CC help, but Virtue is an excellent enchantment which will give you lots of Resistance when fighting several enemy heroes at once, which you are liable to do as a tank.
  
• Giant's Visage of Restoration or Might – 2x Health Crystal. This adds survivability and enough power to stay impactful so you can continue to focus on survivability and utility. After this you won't need to focus on power very much.
  
• Windrush of Diligence – combination of HP, mana, or power. Tanks should usually pick up a Windrush as any good team requires at least one and you can afford to miss out on extra defensive stats.
  
• Hexbane of Restraint – 1x Power Crystal, 1x Health Relic OR 1x Health Crystal, 1x Health Relic. Again... core on every support.
  
• Cursed Wand of Ruin – 1x Clarity Shard, 1x Health Crystal OR 1x Mana Shard, 1x Health Crystal. Core, etc. etc.
  
• Iceforged Plate of Desperation or Command – 1x Power Crystal, 1x Health Relic OR 1x Health Crystal, 1x Health Relic. Adds a huge amount of survivability and lowers the attack speed of any enemy who attacks you. Currently there are bugs with Command but it's theoretically a good enchantment.
  
• Spirit Ward of Protection – 2x Mana Stone. Adds a shield to your arsenal, useful for if you already have a shield since it will increase the effectiveness of that one too.
  
• Diadem of Blood – all mana. Feeds into Giant's Visage and Spirit Ward.
  
• Seer's Eye of Restraint – combination of HP, mana, or power. Adds survivability and like I've said before the ability to predict enemy movements is amazing.
  
• Inertia Boots – feeds into Giant's Visage and the CC purge is handy in a pinch.
  
• Rune Boots – useful for if you find that you're always out of mana.
  
• Warp Boots – situationally useful, depending on whether your enemy is ganking a lot so you need to respond to their ganks.

• Topps – adds more CC to your arsenal and the extra power helps since you will not be picking up tons of power.
  
• Plunder – helps you push waves and adds Resistance.

Focus on getting in the way of your enemies so they can't hurt your back line. Disrupt the enemy with your CC and keep an eye on your carries so they don't get ganked. Don't be afraid to be aggressive, either, as often the best defense is a good offense.