General DiscussionSupport advice

1964 :(

Dont support in solo queue if you want to maintain sanity

You think so? I actually think I did way better as a carry, when I'm solo supporting its so annoying I swear

Uh 1964 isn't the year I have been born at if you thought so

Dude, i am in this fucking trench, and i often play support too. Usually, on the lane phase, you'll make up gold by pulling/Stacking. You can even Stack a camp 5-6 times for yourself, to get some gold and exp, i often do so as Jakiro.

Anyway, just keep in mind that you always ALWAYS must have a tp. Go gank other lanes, do not only protect the carry. Protect him when he's in danger, and he will be in danger if your team don't make up space for him. Go teamfight, push other lanes, don't always stay on the lane just sitting around leeching xp. Put wards where you think it's necessary, not always on rune spots. Deward.

Items that you're building depends on the game. Usually, you won't build any, excepted a force staff, maybe, because someone else MUST build mek, ect...

Anyway, you have to find one sane person in your team and carry him to the late game. Don't buy wards if people don't even use minimap, try to think as the game is going.

"Mindless warding" runes still works on your bracket because the enemies wont go to some unpredictable path, keep warding runes imo.

Be greedy, if you think your carry doesn't take last hit properly, dont hesitate to steal last hit. to get ward and flying courier up quicker

What about dual lanes? Do I really go stack/pull when it will usually end up in my carry not getting farm/getting harassed/killed?

My last game, PA and I vs lion and kunkka, if I went to stack/pull he would probably get reckt

Also yea, getting force staff is usually really the only thing I can get as a solo supp, yesterday it was like it, I barely could get any gold and then suddenly luna is like "rubick get pipe"... Gladly lycan built it (I said either lycan or axe could)

Its annoying when people pick jungle just not to pick supp, fucking cunts I swear

You dont always need to stack and pull. Just hard deny and you will have creep control ez

Decision making dude. You don't pull when your carry is facing an aggresive dual lane or even a strong solo offlaner who can kill your carry when left alone if you haven't zoned him/them out first.

Yea that's what Im wondering about, I stack/pull when I see it's safe (usually when it's trilane) or carry insist but sometimes I have a feeling that this carry is like "wtf nigga go stack". I guess I will just leave him then and let him die (which will probably happen if I havent thought of pulling myself)

yeah, of course, in dota, every game is different so adapt. If you can kill the guys that harrass your carry, do it. If you can't call for a gank.

Support play-style is not for everyone. If you think like Yfay: "Be greedy, if you think your carry doesn't take last hit properly, dont hesitate to steal last hit. to get ward and flying courier up quicker", - don't play support.

If you like to play carry - it's ok. You can pick another carry even if there are 4 already in your team. It's still better than greedy support.

^agreed with comment about yfay. Disagree with 5 carries. If you have too many carries and for some stupid reason refuse to support, just jungle.

wait you guys talking about 3.4k or what

pick aggressive heroes that can be supports and also do good with farming, like skywrath and phoenix... if the games go terribly bad you can still do a lot in fights, if the game is going awesome you'll get even more ahead due to their snowballing potential

and play agressively, people at this bracket don't fucking know when to retreat or when to engage (BE CAREFUL, THAT WORKS FOR YOUR ALLIES ASWELL), so you can exploit that in your favor. BUT its a double edged sword because you can over extend and get killed

but usually you'll do good because people tend to pick really passive laning carries like Spectre, Void, etc.
You just zone them out, mainly as Skywrath, you have a no-cd nuke with low mana cost

as phoenix its basically the same, you have DoT, AS slow, MS slock, thats fucking annoying.

if the meta at your bracket already involve trilanes, go safelane with an aggressive supporter and feed on their offlaner. carry a tp scroll, if someone dives at your offlaner, insta tp there and kill the foe, gg ez

Ah wait, yeah 3.4k bracket. Abuse Warlock, people don't know how to handle the golem(s) and Upheavel there and your carry will never die unless he's really retarded. I think that's what I did...

Roam. Don't just sit behind your carry in lane sapping xp.

Go mid and win his lane for him with a gank. If you kill the offlaner a bunch and your carry is just too far ahead of him, just let him solo the lane and apply some pressure on their safelane, even if you don't get kills you're hurting their carries farm.

If you're falling behind and your rotations have turned to shit, smoke up. Smokes are a supports best friend, more than wards. You might have the most brain-dead, passive, shit-tier allies, once you touch them with smoke they turn into navy seal commandos looking for kills. It's seriously like they just tasted blood for the first time, smoke is not a "pro only item".

Also get ready to cry because you're always gonna have a carry that throws harder than EG, no matter how much you win the early game. Nothing you can do about that though, Dota's a team game and you can't win a game on your own.

I try to roam if I have to opportunity to, usually I end up dual lanning so it's risky for my carry.

Well, if I'm mostly bond to dual lanes I gotta take the advice and pick aggressive supports to win that "duel", I guess veno might be good, sky is rather seen on mid but who knows, might do well as a default supp too, maybe lion (I really hate lanning vs him if he really plays aggressive).

Never really see warlock at this point, I used to see him often before at lower brackets and he was that pubstomper but now if he is here he is actually in the enemy team thats losing lol

Roaming sucks. You can ping mid, type it out, call it out with a mic a million times and your mid will still fuck it up. Just try to secure free farm for your carry in lane, whether that's lane control with denies, harras, killing the offlaner, creep pulling, whatever. That's the most important thing.

And then try to pick supports that can do something mid game/late game. CM is kind of overrated in this aspect cus her nukes fall off and while her ult is godly she gets insta gibbed ~30 minutes into any game. On the flip side dazzle just gets more useful, so does omni and his op ult, pugna can get scary, jakiro and shadow shaman can push towers like a baws and so on.

If you would like I can do a full fledged talk through via Skype/TS/Vent if interested about support, support roles/jobs, item theory, and the current meta. You can contact me @ : Steam account - Group - In dotabuff Guild chat - G+.

Just add me on any of those and we can work a time to where I can take you in lobby and we can discuss things via any chat interface.

This actually seems pretty helpful, I remember when I tried to deward and 1. I blocked my own camp and 2. I didnt realize it might be hidden in the threes, oh well, baby's first dewarding

Again, just add me. I'd be more than happy to discuss anything you're curious about and I have alot of references and images like this. Lol.