Art of support.pdf

Written by Ler

Art of Support A theoretical Approach on Dota Support Game-Play

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Chapter I : Introduction 1

1.1 Short Biography ................................................................................................................................ 1

1.2 Competitive History .......................................................................................................................... 1

1.3 Motivation behind the Guide ........................................................................................................... 1

1.4 Guide Overview ................................................................................................................................ 1

Chapter II : Basic Concepts 2

2.1 Position Model .................................................................................................................................. 2

2.2 Two different Support types ............................................................................................................ 2

2.3 Understanding your Position ........................................................................................................... 2

2.4 Different kind of Supports ................................................................................................................ 3

2.4.1 The "Greedy" term ................................................................................................................. 3

2.4.2 Greedy Supports ..................................................................................................................... 3

2.4.3 Aggressive Supports ............................................................................................................... 3

2.4.4 Defensive Supports ................................................................................................................. 4

2.5 Tactical Concepts .............................................................................................................................. 4

2.5.1 Push ........................................................................................................................................ 4

2.5.2 Four-Protect-One ................................................................................................................... 4

2.5.3 Two Core ................................................................................................................................. 4

2.5.4 Tri Core ................................................................................................................................... 5

2.5.5 Gank ........................................................................................................................................ 5

2.5.6 One-Protect-Four ................................................................................................................... 5

2.6 Correlation: Tactical Concepts and Early-Game-Impact .................................................................. 5

2.6.1 Limited Decisions .................................................................................................................... 5

2.7 Lanes ................................................................................................................................................. 6

2.7.1 Defensive Tri-Lane .................................................................................................................. 6

2.7.2 Aggressive Tri-Lane ................................................................................................................. 6

2.7.3 Dual-Lanes .............................................................................................................................. 6

2.8 Rotation ............................................................................................................................................ 7

2.8.1 Reason behind Rotations ........................................................................................................ 7

2.8.2 Effects of Rotations ................................................................................................................ 7

2.8.3 Rotations - Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 7

Table of Contents

Chapter III : Support Concepts 8

3.1. Possible Support Duos ..................................................................................................................... 8

3.2 Support Duo Breakdowns................................................................................................................. 9

3.2.1 Defensive, Defensive .............................................................................................................. 9

3.2.2 Defensive, Greedy .................................................................................................................. 9

3.2.3 Defensive, Aggressive ............................................................................................................. 9

3.2.4 Aggressive, Greedy ............................................................................................................... 10

3.2.5 Aggressive, Aggressive.......................................................................................................... 10

3.2.6 Greedy, Greedy..................................................................................................................... 10

3.3 Role Determination ........................................................................................................................ 10

3.4 Position 5: Hard Support ................................................................................................................ 11

3.4.1 Tasks ..................................................................................................................................... 11

3.4.2 Items ..................................................................................................................................... 11

3.5 Position 4: Semi Support ................................................................................................................ 12

3.5.1 Tasks ..................................................................................................................................... 12

3.5.2 Items ..................................................................................................................................... 12

Chapter IV: Supports enter the Battlefield 13

4.1 General Advice ................................................................................................................................ 13

4.2 Chicken and Wards, Sentries and Smoke ....................................................................................... 13

4.2.1 When to skip Sentries? ......................................................................................................... 13

4.2.2 When to Skip Smoke? ........................................................................................................... 13

4.3 A new Battle begins ........................................................................................................................ 14

4.4 Defensive Tri-Lane Pattern ............................................................................................................. 14

4.4.1 Safe-Lane: Movement Paths and Zone-Corridor .................................................................. 15

4.5 Aggressive Tri-Lane Pattern ............................................................................................................ 16

4.5.1 Off-Lane: Movement Paths and Zone Corridor .................................................................... 17

4.6. Dual-Lane Mid ................................................................................................................................ 18

4.7 Dual-Lane Mid Pattern ................................................................................................................... 18

4.7.1 Supports as a Duo ................................................................................................................. 18

4.7.2 Supports on their own .......................................................................................................... 18

4.7.2 Middle-Lane: Movement Paths and Zone-Corridor ............................................................. 19

Table of Contents

Chapter V: The Mind of a Support 20

5.1 Game of Patience ............................................................................................................................ 20

5.2 Lane Decisions ................................................................................................................................. 20

5.2.1 Neutral Pull Effects ............................................................................................................... 20

5.2.2 Objectives of Neutral Pulls ................................................................................................... 21

5.2.3 Efficient Harassment ............................................................................................................ 21

5.2.4 Skill-Builds ............................................................................................................................. 21

5.2.4 Experience and Farm leech .................................................................................................. 22

5.2.5 Effects of Pushing ................................................................................................................. 22

5.2.6 Objectives of Pushing ........................................................................................................... 23

5.3 Different Forms of Rotations .......................................................................................................... 23

5.3.1 Gank Rotation ....................................................................................................................... 24

5.3.2 Pressure Rotation ................................................................................................................. 24

5.3.3 Defensive Rotation ............................................................................................................... 25

5.3.4 Trade Rotation ...................................................................................................................... 25

5.3.5 Rotations conclusion ............................................................................................................ 25

5.4 Rune Control ................................................................................................................................... 26

5.4.1 Impactful Runes .................................................................................................................... 26

5.4.2 Who should control the Rune?............................................................................................. 26

5.4.3 The Rune Trap ...................................................................................................................... 26

5.5 Stacking Neutrals ............................................................................................................................ 27

5.5.1 Priority of Stacking Neutrals ................................................................................................. 27

5.5.2 Farming Neutrals .................................................................................................................. 27

5.5.3 Neutral Pull Timings ............................................................................................................. 27

5.6 General Fight Behavior ................................................................................................................... 28

5.6.1 Safe Positioning .................................................................................................................... 28

5.6.2 Skill Priorities ........................................................................................................................ 28

5.6.3 Skill and movement Pattern ................................................................................................. 28

Table of Contents

Chapter VI: Warding Concepts 29

6.1 Idea of efficient Warding ................................................................................................................ 29

6.1.1 Efficient Wards ..................................................................................................................... 29

6.1.2 Good and Bad Wards ............................................................................................................ 29

6.1.2 Deward Prevention ............................................................................................................... 29

6.2 Warding Objectives ........................................................................................................................ 30

6.2.1 Defensive Warding ............................................................................................................... 30

6.2.2 Aggressive Warding .............................................................................................................. 31

6.2.3 Push related Warding ........................................................................................................... 32

6.2.4 Rosh-Pit Warding .................................................................................................................. 33

6.2.5 Neutral Warding ................................................................................................................... 34

6.4 Rune Ward ...................................................................................................................................... 35

6.4.1 Why Rune Wards should be avoided ................................................................................... 35

6.5.2 Rune Ward Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 35

Chapter VII: Epilogue 36

Image Contents 37

Chapter I: Introduction 1

Chapter I : Introduction

Everything has to start somewhere. Let us quickly take a look who I am and the motivation behind

this guide.

1.1 Shor t Biography My name is Timo, also known as "Ler". I am from Stuttgart - Germany and was born 1990.For now, I

studied 2 Semester Chemistry, 5 Semester Software-Engineering and 3 Semesters Economics paired

with Informatics. My first competitive Dota experience came with .37b. The journey started in

Battle.net to G-Arena over to Dota-League. After that, I quickly found a stable team and got vouched

into IHCS2. Since the first day, I played the Support role. In my opinion, supports decisions can impact

a game as much as any other core hero.

1.2 Competi t ive History After several months in in-house leagues and through connections build over time it all began in

Team Visualize with ZoN(Later SK Gaming) and Alan. After that I teamed up with people like

Black^(Later LGD.int/Mouz), Black-Lotus, Azen(Later Dignitas) . But somehow I lost interest in Dota

since the competition back then was not like it was today so a switch to World of Warcraft seemed

like the better call. If I just knew that Dota would develop like it is today I would probably never left

the game. I was kind of late to the Dota 2 party since keys have been expensive on Ebay and I was

not lucky enough to get early access to the Beta.

Tournaments I competed in:

Yard Orange Festival

Razer Qualifier #3

EMS ONE Qualifier

GG-Tournament

MSI Beat-It

1.3 Motivation behind the Guide Over the last couple of months I met a lot of people, be it in Public Games or as a stand-in who

played support and believed they have a clue what they actually do and as far as I can tell it was a

disaster. After TI4 it seemed even clearer that good supports can decide games on their own and that

a functional support duo is a very rare thing.

My hope is that many people will read this document and step up their support abilities to make

right calls in publics and or competitive play.

1.4 Guide Overview There are multiple scenarios and tactics, drafts and lanes. I will try to go as deep as possible in every

single aspect of support game play to give you a deeper understanding of certain decisions and

concepts. This is not the usual guide which tells you a direct order of actions based on the current in

game time or how a certain hero has to be played. This guide aims for your mind to support your

own decision making. Supporting is more than just buying wards and protecting your carry, but

maintaining a tactical advantage for your team.

Chapter II: Basic Concepts 2

Chapter II : Basic Concepts

This chapter is all about Dota basics which are needed to understand Support Decisions better.

2.1 Posit ion Model Someone developed a Model to describe how the farm is divided onto the played heroes in a game.

Since there are 5 heroes per team the following 5 positions came up:

Image 1: Position Model

As the tiers progress, the more farm and levels they get. This shows that the two supports have the

lowest farming and level priority.

2.2 Two di fferent Suppor t types The position model showed us that there are two different kind of supports. The position 5 leaves

most of the farm to the rest of his team and the position 4 takes all of the farm that is not taken by

the other three remaining positions. The experience which you get by creeps/neutrals is often

forgotten but also a very important part. The position 5 also leaves all the experience to his team and

position 4 takes all the experience which is not taken by the rest of the team. Later we will talk more

about the two individual positions.

2.3 Understanding your Posi t ion Before the game starts you should figure out which kind of support you are because this will lead

your actions in the early stages of the game.

Position based questions:

Do I take as much experience and farm as possible?

Do I in general buy Wards/Dusts/Sentries/Smokes?


2.4 Different kind of Suppor ts An order how different support types beat each other.

Image 2: Support Order

2.4.1 The "Greedy" term

The term "Greedy" is being used for a while now and I believe it needs an explanation. If you call a

Hero "greedy" it means that the hero is level and or farm depended which makes him vulnerable

during the early stages of a game.

2.4.2 Greedy Suppor ts

Why is this important for support heroes? Well, support heroes lead a team through the early and

mid game and while doing that dictating the speed of the game. The conclusion is that having one or

even two "greedy" support heroes will automatically cause a very slow game speed because the

supports are busy getting levels and farm. These kind of supports make the team vulnerable to

aggressive support duos who can usually impact the game without getting much levels and or farm.

Examples:

Enigma - Farm and level dependent.

Rhasta - Level dependent.

Sandking - Farm and level dependent.

2.4.3 Aggressive Suppor ts

Aggressive support duos are usually not level and farm depended and come along with a huge kill

potential which allows them to set up ganks very early without leeching lane or pull experience.

Playing with such supports allows you to play a very "fast" action oriented game.

Examples:

Bane - Sleep opens up many combos.

PotM - Arrow.

Enchantress - Creeps to control early game

These supports seem kind of strong and the way to go, but they can be easy countered by the next

support type, defensive supports.


2.4.4 Defensive Suppor ts

Not long ago, people developed a play style which relied heavily on defensive supports. These

defensive supports are usually used to safe people when they are engaged to allow a reengage. The

upside is that these supports usually are kind of weak in the laneing phase or fall of during late game.

Examples:

Shadow Demon - Banish to save or banish blinked in targets.

Dazzle - Grave focus targets.

Treant - Living armor focus targets.

2.5 Tactical Concepts When a lineup is drafted, different tactical concepts are used. The idea behind a certain draft must

be clear to everyone in the team so everyone can fulfill his or her purpose according to the overall

game plan.

Image 3: Tactical Concepts

There are probably more but I think this should be enough to make my points later on.

2.5.1 Push

A lineup that relies heavily on pushing towers early to close the game out with the gained tower gold

advantage. These lineups are often used to counter four protect one lineups. Greedy supports

benefit a lot from pushing lineups.

2.5.2 Four -Protect-One

In this scenario you rely on one carry to become really fat to close out the game in the later stages of

the game. The goal is to out carry the opponent team. To make sure this happens 4 players try to

secure the carries farm. This lineup is often played with two defensive supports.

2.5.3 Two Core

A more dynamic approach is to have two heroes farming instead of one. You can basically say that

one core makes up for the other one and vice versa. Alone they are weak, together they are strong.

This lineup can have any form of supports in.


2.5.4 Tr i Core

The idea behind this concept is to spread your opponent. It is nearly impossible to shut down 3

people farming the map so there will be always one player that comes out farmed after the midgame

to prolong the game. That gives the other cores time to catch up. In this lineup any support type fits

in.

2.5.5 Gank

Gank lineups are usually used to counter greedy play in general. The goal is to achieve early kills.

These kills should force rotations from other lanes and or push the tower as a result. These lineups

can often fall off when early ganks fail. These lineups are usually played with aggressive supports.

2.5.6 One-Protect-Four

This is the most greedy tactical concept. You rely heavily on one support to fill the support role, while

the second support on position four moves to a core position due his jungle farming. Another option

is that the position four is on a roaming mission so he snowballs out of the kills taken or has to play

catch up when it fails which leaves the position five alone on his support job most of the time.

Greedy supports in general benefit from that tactical concept if you leave them time to farm.

2.6 Cor relation: Tactical Concepts and Ear ly-Game-Impact Before the draft is started ,a tactic is chosen. This leads to a certain draft. The draft has to be laned in

a certain way. The laneing opens up certain decisions for the support players. These decisions lead to

the early game impact.

Image 4: Tactical Concepts and early game impact

2.6.1 Limited Decisions

As you can see in graphic 4, decision making heavily relies on the steps taken before. That includes

laneing, draft and the overall tactical concept.

What does this mean for a support player:

Understand your Tactical Concept and Draft.

Analyze your lanes and opponents lanes.

Make your decision on the points above.

This should show you that many decisions are not random nor game dynamic but can be planned to

maximize the early game impact. On the other hand you can also see that the tactical concept and

the out coming draft forces supports to decide in a certain way.

Example:

Your Captain decided to go for a Four-Protect-One lineup and picked two defensive supports.

Your opponents run an aggressive Tri-Lane. This will limit your movement to a minimum if you

planned a safe lane Tri-Lane since your carry need to farm and you have to ensure this

happens.

Your decision making is now limited by your draft, your laneing and by your opponents

laneing.

Tactical Concept Draft Lanes Support

Decisions Early-Game-

Impact


2.7 Lanes There are three different kind of lanes. In this section I will talk about the possible lanes, why they

are chosen and what supports do on these lanes.

Image 5: Lanes

2.7.1 Defensive Tr i -Lane

A defensive tri-lane will always be played on your Safe Lane.

The Following objective shall be achieved:

Secure carries experience and farm.

Deny off-lanes experience and farm.

Secure supports experience and farm.

Stack your own wood.

Control safe-lane rune.

2.7.2 Aggressive Tr i-Lane

An aggressive Tri-Lane will always be played on your Off-Lane.

The Following objectives shall be achieved:

Deny opponents carries farm.

Deny supports experience and farm.

Limit opponents support movement.

2.7.3 Dual-Lanes

Dual lanes can be on any lane. Safe-Lane dual lanes share the some objectives as the defensive Tri-

Lane and Off-Lane dual lanes share the same objectives as the aggressive Tri-Lane.

Another possibility is a dual lane mid. This scenario is kind of rare.

Dual-Mid Objectives:

Deny mid-lanes farm.

Secure your mid-lanes farm.

Control of both rune spots.

Stack your own wood/ancients.

You should keep in mind that a Dual-Lane is limited compared to a Tri-Lane when it comes to secure

the given objectives.


2.8 Rotation The term "Rotation" is used when you leave your initial lane to make something happen on the map.

This can bring several benefits but also comes along with certain problems. This section will show you

which things happen when you decide to rotate.

2.8.1 Reason behind Rotat ions

Dota is not a static game. Lanes are not set in stone and several things can happen in a game which

make people leave their lanes to rotate somewhere else.

Common reasons:

Opponents off-lane left to rotate somewhere.

Aggressive tri-lane did not go well and has to be abandoned.

Opponents supports rotated.

Mid-lane rotates to gank.

Try to avoid random rotations with no reason. Do not walk around the map with no plan and keep

the effects of your rotations in mind.

2.8.2 Effects of Rotations

When people rotate on the map, usually space opens up in one or the other way. This space can be

used to your benefit but will also be used by your opponents.

Positive effects:

Experience and or farm distributed to other players.

Kill potential on other lanes.

Deny of ganks / possibility to counter gank.

Force rotations out of your opponent.

Negative effects:

Leaves the lane you left vulnerable to ganks / push.

Deny of experience and farm while rotating.

Opens farm and experience for your opponents.

2.8.3 Rotat ions - Conclusion

Rotations do often fail because certain circumstances have been ignored before the rotation started.

When this happens, you are pretty much behind. You lost experience and or farm and you give space

to your opponent. On gank heavy lineups, this can snowball out of control and result in a quick loss.

On the other hand, playing a greedy lineup and avoiding rotations gives you a huge advantage due to

the fact that you did not waste time and got what you want, experience and gold.

What does this mean to support players:

Think about the rotations you do. Are they necessary? Can they achieve a given objective? What is

the backup plan if it fails(if there is any)?Is it worth sacrificing my lane to rotate to win another?

In the following chapters you will get the information you need to solve these question on your own.

Chapter III: Support Concepts 8

Chapter III : Suppor t Concepts

The previous chapter gave you an overview which types of supports exist, the objective behind

certain lanes, tactical concepts and what can happen when people start to rotate. Now we take a

close look how certain supports function with each other, point out strengths and weaknesses and go

deep into actual support scenarios.

3.1. Possible Suppor t Duos In a standard draft, two heroes are committed to the support role. One will play the semi support

(Position 4), and the other one will play the hard support (Position 5). In rare cases, there will be only

one Support hero at all (Talking about competitive Dota, this obviously does not apply to public

games).

There are several forms of support duos. Chapter II told you that there are basically three different

kind of support heroes. Let us take a look at possible combinations and their benefits as well as their

weaknesses. Let us take a look at all the possible combinations:

Three different types: Defensive, Aggressive and Greedy.

Two Support slots.

Possible Combinations:

Image 6: Support Duos

Defensive, Defensive

Defensive,Greedy

Defensive, Aggressive

Aggresive, Greedy

Aggressive, Aggresive

Greedy, Greedy


3.2 Suppor t Duo Breakdowns Earlier I talked about possible laneing scenarios. Now since we got all the possible Support-Duo

combinations we take a look in which laneing scenarios they are strong and what makes them weak

when they are laned wrong. I will also point out general benefits and weakness regarding the overall

tactical concepts.

3.2.1 Defensive, Defensive

This is by far the most safe way to play a safe lane and a good approach when you face gank heavy

lineups. You are also able to handle aggressive Tri-Lanes very well . This combination is often chosen

for a four-protect-one lineup. One of the two can always camp behind the farming hero to make

sure he does not die.

Example: Dazzle / Treant.

On the other hand this setup is usually bad when you want to play an aggressive Tri-Lane or want to

play aggressive in general. But you should keep in mind that there are several aggressive Tri-Lanes

which work wonders with two defensive supports.

Example: Shadow Demon / Dazzle / Centaur

3.2.2 Defensive, Greedy

Against a single player on the Off-Lane, this scenario works pretty well. The defensive support zones,

the greedy support gets his farm and or his experience. A big problem will be aggressive Tri-lanes

since they will contest the greedy support. The gank potential in the early stages is also very limited

because the greedy supports usually gets his farm.

Example: Rhasta / Treant

If you want to run an aggressive Tri-lane yourself with these supports, this is the wrong approach.

This combination is often run in Push heavy and two-Core lineups. The Greedy supports benefit from

the tower gold and the defensive support makes pushing saver.

3.2.3 Defensive, Aggressive

A very solid combination. You can handle aggressive Tri-Lanes very well, zone any Off-Laner and

huge gank potential because you are not bound to get levels and farm.

Example: Shadow Demon / Enchantress

A huge benefit is also the possibility to run an aggressive Tri-Lane if you want to.

Example: Razor / Rubick / Ancient Apparition

This combination is often run in Two-Core/Tri-Core lineups. The aggressive support makes often kills

possible with certain core heroes and the defensive support makes sure that cores have an easier

time.


3.2.4 Aggressive, Greedy

This combination works wonders on your safe lane against a single Off-Laner. The aggressive support

can zone and the Greedy one can farm and get his levels. Gank potential is also huge when they roam

together.

Example: Skywrath / Lion

However, aggressive Tri-Lanes are still dangerous since they can shut down the greedy support and

playing an aggressive Tri-lane with this setup is also the wrong approach since the greedy support

will not get his levels and farm.

Greedy and Aggressive supports in combination can be used in any tactical concept.

3.2.5 Aggressive, Aggressive

The badass combo. Your safe-lane cannot be contested in any way, not by a Tri-Lane and not by any

Off-Laner. Huge gank potential during the early game. You will find a combination of these type in a

gank lineup. The problem is that they can fall of pretty easy if crucial kills are not made during the

early game. Another problem is the late game where they can also fall off due to their missing late

game scaling.

Example: Enchantress / Venge

Aggressive Tri-Lanes can also be run efficient with this setup.

Example: Venge / Ancient Apparition / Drow

3.2.6 Greedy, Greedy

Many times people asked me how to counter greed. My answer: Be more greedy! This is the ultimate

farming combo with the highest late game potential of all the support combos. The downside is

obvious: Push heavy 5 man, hyper aggressive and Tri-Core lineups will counter this and can lead to a

quick game.

Examples: Enigma / Rhasta

Aggressive Tri-Lanes with this combination should be avoided at any cost. No farm, no experience

will result in no fun and a quick game.

3.3 Role Deter mination Sometimes it can be hard to say who is the hard and who is the semi support. Greedy supports

automatically move to position four. When there are two Greedy supports in one game, you need to

communicate who takes most of the farm and experience.

When there is no greedy support, you need to take a look at your lineup and determine who can use

the farm and experience to have the highest possible game impact.

Example: Two aggressive supports are in the same team. The one who literally gets more

kills/assists in the early stages will transition into position 4. The other one will be position 5.


3.4 Posit ion 5: Har d Suppor t Also known as the ward bitch.

3.4.1 Tasks

The hard support has certain tasks, which seem kind of easy, but are often forgotten or ignored:

Image 7: Pos 5 Tasks

Your job is to get all the support items needed. Also an early teleport scroll is nice to have since you

can leave a lane without losing much. Another important fact you need to understand is the

experience trade:

The Position 5 player basically always trades himself for the opponents Off-Laner. The reason for that

lies in the Position Model. An Off-Laner wants farm and experience since he is on the 3 position. A

position 5 priority is to get his support items going and that's it. That means that a position 5 player

can deny enemies experience and farm without a drawback.

A Safe-Lane Tri-Lane is won when the Off-Laner has the same or lower level then your Position

3.4.2 Items

Usually you are poor compared to all other positions. That means cheap but efficient items are they

way to go. You should not build in example Mekansm or other important core items. The reason lies

within the timing. In a normal scenario, you will be off certain timings for early pushes/early fights.

That is the reason why other position go for core items like Mekansm.

But there are two cheap and highly efficient items which you should aim for when you have an

average early game:

Urn of Shadow

Medallion of Courage

The timing of these two items does not matter. They are always good. If no one of your team has one

of these try to get at least one of these as early as possible. Sometimes they open up pushes or

Roshan. But there are exceptions. Some heroes highly benefit from Aghanim's Scepter. These can

slowly but steady build into it.

Examples: Ancient Apparition / Visage

General

Laneing

Rotation


3.5 Posit ion 4: Semi Suppor t The farming Support.

3.5.1 Tasks

Semi supports follows the principles of greed.

Image 8: Pos 4 Tasks

The main goal on Position 4 is to get core items up in time to achieve certain objectives like pushing.

5-maning or roshing. That means you usual do not zone Off-Laners or rotate to other lanes to

support them. Maximizing farm is the key but never forget that your main position is still support.

That means no experience or farm leech of the other three remaining positions. Do not forget to

communicate with your position 5 player for ganks and to make sure he is capable of buying all the

mandatory support items like wards/sentries/dusts.

3.5.2 Items

It is really hard to say which items you should buy on this position because it will differ heavily from

hero to hero. In general you will buy whatever is needed to make your hero work. If you do not need

anything to play your hero at full potential, then you usually aim for items like an early Mekansm or

Mana Boots if none of your other cores gets one of these.

Usual Position 4 Items:

Mana-Boots (One pair per team at least)

Blink Dagger (If you rely on initiation)

Hand of Midas (To Secure late game on greedy supports)

Force Staff (Very good versus certain heroes)

Mekansm (If cores will not get it)

Examples: Enchantress farms an early Force-Staff to counter a Clock-Work. Enigma gets a

Mekansm because his cores are not aiming for it.

Choose your items wisely. They can make a huge difference. Do not always stick to the same item

over and over again because you are used to it.

General

Laneing

Rotation

Chapter IV: Supports on the Battlefield 13

Chapter IV: Suppor ts enter the Batt lefield

Now we move to the actual game. This chapter is all about the game start, possible movements and

lanes in general.

4.1 General Advice There are several things you should keep in mind.

General Checklist:

Trade yourself only if you can get experience or a streak. Do not trade yourself for a carry if

other supports are near when you are over leveled or carry a streak.

Hide yourself as much as possible so your opponents have to anticipate where you are

located. This makes them play more passive and will give your team more space.

Do not teleport to lanes to get farm or experience. If you do that you will not be able to

defend versus pushes or dives. It will also cost 135 gold and you will be exposed to ganks.

Save as much mana as possible in the early stages to make sure you can support other lanes

after you rotate there.

Position yourself properly. Remember, you are squishy.

Watch the in game clock.

Check constantly peoples inventories.

4.2 Chicken and Wards, Sentr ies and Smoke The support duo has to make sure these two items are bought:

Chicken and Wards.

Now there are two more items that are nice to have but not always necessary:

Sentries and Smoke.

Skipping the second ones will allow you to go for another item on one person like boots. Do not

forget that getting sentries early allows you to block two more neutral camps in your opponents

forest and allows instant dewarding.

4.2.1 When to skip Sentr ies?

You can skip Sentries when your opponents have a weak level 1 lineup and you can freely run into

your own forest to deny enemies warding.

Another possibility is running an aggressive Tri-Lane. You will only buy sentries if you need them as

invisible detection. Else feel free to buy more regeneration items.

4.2.2 When to Skip Smoke?

When you run two Greedy-Supports or you expect an aggressive Tri-Lane an early smoke will not be

effective since you will not have time to use it early due to other objectives. Feel free to skip it and

buy one when you are ready for ganks.


4.3 A new Battle begins Before the game started you already took a look at your line-up and also your opponents line-up. You

understood what kind of line-up you play and how your opponents line-up works.

Certain things should be checked before the base is left:

Strong level 1 five man might move into your forest to place wards safely.

Aggressive tri -lane might move into your forest to place wards safely.

Roshan on level 1.

Warding enemies jungle.

4.4 Defensive Tr i -Lane Pattern

Image 9: Defensive Tri-Lane behavior

The image above applies for the Support- Duo. After you made sure your neutral creeps are not

blocked, one support moves to the rune, the other one stays to make sure the neutral spawns are

still not blocked.

While the supports do their job, your carry has to make sure the spawning creep wave is blocked

properly. This is needed to make sure the distance between where the creeps actual meet and the

opponents tower is a big a possible.

Why is this so important?

Space to zone opponents.

Space to chase opponents.

When this is not done properly and the lane pushes for any reason, the Off-Laner basicly won his

lane already. He will get experience and or farm and might be able to deny farm of your carry.

There will be heroes that have the ability to control your creep waves movement like Sylla-Bear or

Natures Prophet. When they pull your creep wave and take a walk, you have to do the same with

your opponents creep wave until another wave of yours arrives. This will make sure your creep wave

stays where it belongs.

Scout your wood

Deny neutral block

Place Wards

Secure Rune

Move to Lane


4.4.1 Safe-Lane: Movement Paths and Zone-Cor r idor

Image 9 reflects how the previous information looks like when executed in an actual game.

Image 10: Tri-Lane Movement and Zone-Corridor

Timing is the key. Do not be late on your way out because this can throw everything off. You will

need about 30 seconds for the first blue path and another 10-15 seconds for the second path.

Being late can cause several problems:

Possibly get killed if multiple enemies moved into your forest.

Off-Laner / Aggressive Tri-Lanes places their desired wards.

Losing the rune to your enemies.

When you have a flexible draft that is capable of laneing in several ways, it is often smart to hide

your laneing intentions until the last second. In this scenario you will stay at your T2 tower hidden so

you will not get scouted. This will save you from lane swaps before the game started.

What each support does during the laning phase can be found in Chapter III.


4.5 Aggressive Tr i -Lane Pattern

Image 11: Aggressive Tri-Lane behavior

Let us have a look at the aggressive Tri-Lane. This time the whole Tri-Lane moves together to be safer

while approaching they enemy jungle. At your tower you make a quick stop to make sure the support

player with a disable moves in first. This will be crucial if you try to kill opponents which moved to

aggressive into their own jungle. At their neutral camp you usually stop. Stay there for a while,

someone might show up. Then place the wards you desire. The Support-Duo now moves to the rune

to contest it while the carry walks back to your base to get an optimal creep block off.

If you do not want to commit the duo to the rune because it is too dangerous, one scouts the rune

spawn, the other one also moves back with the carry helping to get a better block off.

Why is blocking as an aggressive Tri-Lane important? This will lower your space and makes your

opponents space bigger.

The following effects will occur:

Lesser way to your tower, longer way to opponents tower.

More room to take engage enemies.

Less room for opponents to take engagements.

After a successful deward supports have a longer way to support their carry after/while

pulling neutrals.

While you face their Tri-Lane, try to contest as many last hits as possible and their pulls. That means

that you take at least some of their pull experience. Take opportunities while they pull.

Keep in mind that an aggressive Tri-Lane is not always decided by kills. If you win the farm and

experience war you basically won your lane.

Move as 3 to your Tower

Move to neutral creep camp

Place Wards

Secure Rune

Move to Lane


4.5.1 Off-Lane: Movement Paths and Zone Cor r idor

Image 11 shows how the aggressive Tri-Lane pattern applies in an actual game.

Image 12: Aggressive Tri-Lane Movement and Zone Corridor

The Safe-Lane rules also apply to the Off-Lane. You will need around 30 seconds for the first path and

another 15-20 seconds to the rune so watch the clock.

Do not be late or some of these things can happen:

Safe-Lane ward is placed without your knowledge.

Enemies are in position to deny your warding

Enemies are in position to engage you.

Rune gets picked before you scouted which rune actually spawned.

Sometimes you want to hide your aggressive Tri-Lane to avoid a lane swap since you want to face a

certain lane. In that case you just scout the top rune without being seen by your opponents.

This will open up the possibility to get first blood in the mid lane. After that you move to your lane.


4.6. Dual-Lane Mid The Safe-Lane and Off-Lane patterns are also applied to Dual-Lanes. But one special part is still

missing. The Dual-Mid. In this certain case I will use the Radiant side as example. Everything can also

be applied if you are on the Dire side. There are two approaches. The support duo tries to work as a

duo as much as possible or both work on their own.

4.7 Dual-Lane Mid Pattern When you play a dual lane in middle, your job is to make space for your farming Mid hero. It will

sometimes be wise to let your mid hero full experience until he hits level two since this might opens

up kill and or zone potential. The main objective is to shut down your opponents Middle as hard as

possible.

4.7.1 Suppor ts as a Duo

Image 13: Dual Mid Pattern Duo

This approach makes a lot of sense when you have a duo with kill potential on level 1. In this scenario

you have the possibility to get an early lead and keep that lead by winning two out of three lanes due

to early support rotations.

Example: Lich and Sky-Wrath have a huge kill potential early on. After Lich got a quick level

two in his mid lane he can rotate efficient together with Sky-Wrath.

4.7.2 Suppor ts on their own

Image: 14: Dual Mid Pattern Solo

Supports should interact on their own when there is no kill potential on level 1. This means just go to

your lanes and stay there. No fancy rotations.

Example: Whisp wants to get as much experience as possible to reach his level six. He will

stay at his lane and avoids movement as much as possible.

Scout your wood Deny

Neutral Block

Place Wards Secure Rune Try

Firstblood

Scout your Ancients

Deny Warding

Place Wards Scout and

contest Rune

Move to your Lane


4.7.2 Middle-Lane: Movement Paths and Zone-Cor r idor

This shows the previous information shown on an actual map.

Image 15: Dual Mid Movement and Zone-Corridor

The Bottom blue path shows the movement as a Duo, the top blue path shows the solo movement.

As in the previous movement examples timings are crucial. Everything that was said before also

applies for this example. The timings are kind of the same.

Art of support.pdf

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