Support Guide

Connors Impromptu Support Guide V 1.5
Now with Trilanes!



As the best support player in our group (right?), I felt like I should write something about supporting so I can play other roles without the supports feeding. Also, I'm hella bored on the bus. All of these things I say in the guide should be taken with a grain of salt. Not every game is the same.
Also check out The Art of Support http://www.liquiddota.com/forum/dota-2-strategy/465232-the-art-of-support-part-1


A. Pulling

Never do just a single pull (only one small camp), unless you are trying to push because it will actually push the lane due to having two ranged creeps.
On the radiant side you should do a pull through. You will do the normal pull (x:41-45ish or x:11-15ish) into the small camp then eat a tree with a tango and pull the medium camp into it when there are about 1 and 1/2 creeps left in the small camp (about three of the little creeps that give like 8 gold).
 You may need to do a triple pull if either of the first two camps was week camp. To do this you will pull the big camp into your creeps when there is a big creep with about half health or a small creep with full.
On the dire side you can also pull through with same timings (1.5 creeps), but you will not need a tango. This is a lot harder to time.
What I recommend on dire is to do a big camp pull. You will pull the big camp into lane when the creeps are at your T1 tower. About x:51-53 and x:21-23. If you pull it the x:53 you can stack the big camp as well. This will give you a tremendous amount of XP from the big creeps. On this one you can auto attack the big creeps to get last hits. You need a tango for this.
You can just stack the small camp and pull; however, this will give you less XP.
Get a last hit on the creeps you are pulling whenever you can.
 If you actually take damage from the camp the aggro range of your lane creeps is increased. This gives you more leeway in your pull timings.

B. Items

Your starting items as a 5 position should look something like this:
Cour
Observer wards
1 or 2 sets of tangos ( i really like 2 sets to help with zoning and to give to your mid/carry)
1 branch
1 clarity (2 if you don't buy branch. Depends on hero)
Salve (if you only bought one tango)
Sentries( if you're against invis)


Starting items as a position 4:
Boots (if you want)
Tangos(only 1)
Clarity
Branches
Smoke (only for early roaming like bane/Mirana)
Sentries
TP (techies/abbadon/dazzle only)


Courier should be upgraded by min 5.
Wards should be bought every cool down unless you are saving for a crucial item (brown boots, flying cour, gem.) not your aghs or force staff.
Most supports get tranqs for the regen and armor. A few who get arcanes need the extra mana pool, not the regen. (Arcanes are pretty shit right now for supports). You can buy treads if you need the raw HP.
All supports should buy a full magic wand. The stats are helpful and the burst regen keeps you alive against cores.
 Many supports aim for an urn. Some buy medallion instead like venge and dazzle.
 Force staff is a great luxury item to keep your cores alive and save yourself. Try to get it on one of the supports.
Some supports rush blink (ES, SK) this should come after boots.
Sheepstick and linkens are good ultra late game items for supports.
 Mek is too expensive and costs too much mana for most supports. Don't blindly buy it.
Dust should be bought for invis detection.
Smokes are very valuable for roaming and ganking mid. Also for later pick offs and space creation. Remember couriers can use smoke.

C. Warding

Warding is super situational so I’m not going to give any spots or anything just general areas.

You should always give your offlane one ward to block or give vision on his side of the map.
The ward on your safelane can either go on the rune or be a lane ward. Up to the game. Rune wards aren't that good because you should be checking them yourself.
When ahead you should ward in their jungle to try to find pick offs or where their towers used to be.
When behind you should ward the entrances to your jungle and where your towers used to be.
Don’t ward the obvious marked spots. EZ deward
If you are in a dewarding war with the enemy support, place only your sentry to deward and put your observer in a different spot that gives similar vision outside of sentry range. Also, if you know where their ward is and they keep warding there they are wasting their time.
A gem is great in the late game for dewarding then putting it safely away in your base.
Blocking the enemy jungle if they have a clear jungler is a good idea and will seriously cut the junglers farm.
Don’t block your own camps.
At the beginning of the game don’t run all over the map to ward. If you forget to give to offlane a ward, just put a lane ward and a rune/ ancient ward.
Putting a ward on the enemy side of the river helps your mid a bunch. Especially vs a pudge.

D. Roles

In general your 5 position will be in lane zoning while your 4 will be pulling and leaching XP.
A 5 will normally have a good spell for zoning (SWM arcane bolt, WD cask, Dazzle poison touch) use this to help secure your carry an advantage.
Your 5 should buy the majority of the wards although the 4 should help out occasionally.

E. Movement

After securing your carry in the safe lane both supports should rotate to try to gank and farm more.
Before you leave lane make sure you have a TP so you can help if your carry gets dove.
At this point you should be level 3-4 and have brown boots at least.
Smoke ganking mid earlier on (min 1-2) helps secure your mid an EZ mid (EZ game).
Don’t gank the offlane until after your offlane has some items to help; however, killing their carry is a huge accomplishment.
Always move to secure runes.
If you can, try to stack a camp every minute.
Stacking camps can help your offlaner recover
ALWAYS HAVE A TP. If there are enemies diving under tower, a timely TP can secure a kill for your core.
If a lane is unoccupied, try to farm it to get some more gold. Don’t stay too long in one place else the enemies might come for you.
Both supports should farm the jungle when possible. Even expend mana to kill creeps.
Be as active around the map as you can. Make as much space as possible for your carries to farm.
Use fog of war to your advantage. Don’t show on a lane if you don’t have too.
Get as many last hits as you can without stealing farm from others.
Assits are your primary income. Be involved in kills.
Don’t feel bad about stealing kills. Don’t intentionally try to but if you do don't worry about it.
Don't just chill in lane and leach XP.
Secure your carry in lane then help other lanes.

F. Trilanes

Trilanes are the best possible lane for supports. If done properly it secures your carry total free farm while having space for the supports to farm and rotate.

1. Trilane against a solo offlaner

Trilaning against a solo offlaner is ideal because it allows your four position to farm the jungle more
Your 5 position should should stand ahead of the waves out of aggro range and continually zone the offlaner
If your 5 position is the same level as the enemy offlaner you are doing well
The 4 should do any pulling that needs to be done and leach XP in lane
After your carry is far enough ahead on levels vs their offlaner you should gank other lanes or farm the jungle. The 4 getting farm priority of course.
Make sure you pull the big camp as the 4 to get the most XP

2. Trilaning against a duo offlane

Against a duo offlane is harder.
Your 5 wont be able to zone 2 heroes by himself unless he is a hero really good a zoning (skywrath, silencer, etc.)
As the 5 you should still zone; however, you must be behind your creepwave
Try to abuse creep aggro to deny them last hits
Both supports should lane at the beginning in order to try to burn as much of their regen as possible
Try to pull as much as you can to keep the creepwave right in front of your tower.
Kill them if you can (duh)
After your lane has an advantage, one support should rotate to gank. Maybe both if your carry is a strong laner (not spectre)

3. Trilane vs Trilane

As the safelane trilane you have the jungle advantage try to use this to your advantage.
If the lane is cancerous (Undying, viper, dazzle) just leave and trade with your offlaner
Secure you carry as much farm as possible.
Your carry will likely be underfarmed due to their aggressive trilane. Try to stack camps to help him catch up
DONT LET YOUR CARRY DIE! IF YOUR CARRY DIES, YOU LOST THE LANE!
If you lose the lane, dont just keep trying to recover it. Move on. Help win other lanes. Try to punish them
Abuse the jungle as much as possible to keep them out of XP range and increase you XP/Gold gain
Never leave your carry alone in lane unless they are very strong laners (Jugg, Troll, Viper)
Deny as much as you can.
Both supports should be in lane most of the time
The 4 should do any pulling, but dont spend too much time or they may try for a kill
If they contest your pulls, try to fight back if you can, but dont die for it

4. Agressive trilanes

Try to secure as many last hits for your carry as you can
Deny as much as you can
If you are radiant you can side pull by cutting a tree and pulling when the creeps are at about your T1
Try to contest their pulls if you can.
Steal stacks with your carry
If your lane is designed to kill try to go aggressive
Otherwise simply put pressure on their carry while not serriously impacting your carries farm





Conclusion:

Supporting is the hardest role in DoTA. You have to do the most with the least. Try to get your core items up as fast as you can while buying consumables. Don’t die in a fight without getting something out of it. Supporting is more than just buying Courier and wards, its a different mindset. Try to organize your team and be the shot caller in fights. Make every second of time count. Never stand around doing nothing (the mexican standoff at mid around 10-15 min is stupid). Supporting is a thankless role, but is the most important.

Git Gud

-Connor





Appendix

Timings

X:53 pull timing on most camps
X:55 pull timing on the radiant lower medium camp and dire middle medium camp
X:41-45 and X:11-15 pull timing
X:51-53 and X:21-23 hard camp pull timing
The pull timing change after 7:30 afterward they are slower so aim for the later pull timings.
2X :00 rune spawn
3:00 flying courier
Every 6 minutes restock for Obs
Every 9 minutes restock for Gem
Obs last 7 minutes
Sentries last 4 minutes

Good Supports
These are heroes in the meta right now (6.83)

Venge
Lion
Dazzle
Chen
Rubik
AA
SK
Zues
CM
Omni
My nigma'
Mirana
Vissage