Art of Support. A theoretical Approach on Dota Support Game-Play. Written by Ler

Transcription

1 Written by Ler Art of Support A theoretical Approach on Dota Support Game-Play Edition 1 released on Timo Waszek - All rights reserved

2 Table of Contents Table of Contents Chapter I : Introduction Short Biography Competitive History Motivation behind the Guide Guide Overview... 1 Chapter II : Basic Concepts Position Model Two different Support types Understanding your Position Different kind of Supports The "Greedy" term Greedy Supports Aggressive Supports Defensive Supports Tactical Concepts Push Four-Protect-One Two Core Tri Core Gank One-Protect-Four Correlation: Tactical Concepts and Early-Game-Impact Limited Decisions Lanes Defensive Tri-Lane Aggressive Tri-Lane Dual-Lanes Rotation Reason behind Rotations Effects of Rotations Rotations - Conclusion... 7

3 Table of Contents Chapter III : Support Concepts Possible Support Duos Support Duo Breakdowns Defensive, Defensive Defensive, Greedy Defensive, Aggressive Aggressive, Greedy Aggressive, Aggressive Greedy, Greedy Role Determination Position 5: Hard Support Tasks Items Position 4: Semi Support Tasks Items Chapter IV: Supports enter the Battlefield General Advice Chicken and Wards, Sentries and Smoke When to skip Sentries? When to Skip Smoke? A new Battle begins Defensive Tri-Lane Pattern Safe-Lane: Movement Paths and Zone-Corridor Aggressive Tri-Lane Pattern Off-Lane: Movement Paths and Zone Corridor Dual-Lane Mid Dual-Lane Mid Pattern Supports as a Duo Supports on their own Middle-Lane: Movement Paths and Zone-Corridor... 19

4 Table of Contents Chapter V: The Mind of a Support Game of Patience Lane Decisions Neutral Pull Effects Objectives of Neutral Pulls Efficient Harassment Skill-Builds Experience and Farm leech Effects of Pushing Objectives of Pushing Different Forms of Rotations Gank Rotation Pressure Rotation Defensive Rotation Trade Rotation Rotations conclusion Rune Control Impactful Runes Who should control the Rune? The Rune Trap Stacking Neutrals Priority of Stacking Neutrals Farming Neutrals Neutral Pull Timings General Fight Behavior Safe Positioning Skill Priorities Skill and movement Pattern... 28

5 Table of Contents Chapter VI: Warding Concepts Idea of efficient Warding Efficient Wards Good and Bad Wards Deward Prevention Warding Objectives Defensive Warding Aggressive Warding Push related Warding Rosh-Pit Warding Neutral Warding Rune Ward Why Rune Wards should be avoided Rune Ward Conclusion Chapter VII: Epilogue 36 Image Contents 37

6 1 Chapter I: Introduction 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 Short 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 Competitive 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.

7 2 Chapter II: Basic Concepts Chapter II : Basic Concepts This chapter is all about Dota basics which are needed to understand Support Decisions better. 2.1 Position 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 different Support 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 Position 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?

8 3 Chapter II: Basic Concepts 2.4 Different kind of Supports An order how different support types beat each other. Image 2: Support Order 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 Greedy Supports 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 Aggressive Supports 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.

9 4 Chapter II: Basic Concepts Defensive Supports 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 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 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 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.

10 5 Chapter II: Basic Concepts Tri 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 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 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 Correlation: Tactical Concepts and Early-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. Tactical Concept Draft Lanes Support Decisions Early-Game- Impact Image 4: Tactical Concepts and early game impact 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.

11 6 Chapter II: Basic Concepts 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 Defensive Tri-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 Aggressive Tri-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 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.

12 7 Chapter II: Basic Concepts 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 Reason behind Rotations 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 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 Rotations - 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.

13 8 Chapter III: Support Concepts Chapter III : Support 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 Possible Support 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: Defensive, Defensive Greedy, Greedy Defensive,Greedy Aggressive, Aggresive Defensive, Aggressive Aggresive, Greedy Image 6: Support Duos

14 9 Chapter III: Support Concepts 3.2 Support 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 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 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 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.

15 10 Chapter III: Support Concepts 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 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 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 Determination 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.

16 11 Chapter III: Support Concepts 3.4 Position 5: Hard Support Also known as the ward bitch Tasks The hard support has certain tasks, which seem kind of easy, but are often forgotten or ignored: General Wards/Sentries/Smokes/Chicken/Dusts. Carries early Teleport Scroll. Laneing Zones opponents. Does not leech experience or farm. Rotation First one to rotate when needed. 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 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

17 12 Chapter III: Support Concepts 3.5 Position 4: Semi Support The farming Support Tasks Semi supports follows the principles of greed. General Laneing Rotation Aims for a core item. Buys Support items when other support too poor. Farms Neutrals and stacks his jungle. Gets as much experience / farm as possible. Avoids rotations until his level and farm objective is achieved or rotates when lanes are free. 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 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.

18 13 Chapter IV: Supports on the Battlefield Chapter IV: Supports enter the Battlefield 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, Sentries 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 When to skip Sentries? 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 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.

19 14 Chapter IV: Supports on the Battlefield 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 Tri-Lane Pattern Scout your wood Deny neutral block Place Wards Secure Rune Move to Lane 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.

20 15 Chapter IV: Supports on the Battlefield Safe-Lane: Movement Paths and Zone-Corridor 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 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.

21 16 Chapter IV: Supports on the Battlefield 4.5 Aggressive Tri-Lane Pattern Secure Rune Move to Lane Place Wards Move as 3 to your Tower Move to neutral creep camp 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.

22 17 Chapter IV: Supports on the Battlefield Off-Lane: Movement Paths and Zone Corridor 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 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.

23 18 Chapter IV: Supports on the Battlefield 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 Supports as a Duo Scout your wood Deny Neutral Block Place Wards Secure Rune Try Firstblood 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 Supports on their own Scout your Ancients Deny Warding Place Wards Scout and contest Rune Move to your Lane 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.

24 19 Chapter IV: Supports on the Battlefield Middle-Lane: Movement Paths and Zone-Corridor 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.

25 20 Chapter V: The Mind of a Support Chapter V: The Mind of a Support The theory part is over. Now we take a look at actual decisions and their outcome. 5.1 Game of Patience Patience is the key to make good decisions. Think about what you want to do, how you want to it to and who should be involved. in certain actions. Tell people where you want them to be and wait for them to be in position. The same applies to your opponents and creeps. Keep track of their movements, wait them to overstep their boundaries to make clean swipes. Do take risks, but calculated ones. If your actions are not thought well, the clock will work against you. Movement takes time and failed actions will result in experience and farm loss. The worst case is that someone of your own team is killed because of your impatience, so keep it slow, but steady. 5.2 Lane Decisions During the laneing phase several decisions have to be made in order to secure and advantage. If you make the wrong calls you give your opponents an advantage which they can abuse in certain cases Neutral Pull Effects You will find yourself on the safe-lane against a Solo, Dual- or Tri-Lane. Let us take a look which effects pulling has. Positive effects Lane equilibrium moves towards you. Additional Experience and gold gain for the pulling person. Possibility to double wave which can be used to push. Deny of experience and farm for your opponents. Zone-Corridor gets larger. Negative Effects Carry needs to last hit under your tower. Carry takes damage since he has to tank creeps. Opponents can contest the pull. Opponents can pull creeps from your pull to their tower. Enlargement of the Zone-Corridor can be used against you. Image 16: Neutral Pull Effects As you can see, pulling has a lot of side effects. Let see how we can take advantage of these.

26 21 Chapter V: The Mind of a Support Objectives of Neutral Pulls Pulling Neutral creeps to gain experience and gold should only be done if you are sure that the outcome of the lane equilibrium will be to your advantage. Here are some scenarios: Pull when the lane equilibrium is next to your opponents tower to get the creeps back to your side. This will enlarge your Zone-Corridor. Pull when your carry can tank the damage without risks and does not lose last hits while being under your tower. Pull if you want to push to create a double wave. Pull to punish rune contests. I hope it is clear now that you should not pull for the sake of a little experience and gold advantage but to achieve certain objectives Efficient Harassment There are two forms of harassment. The so called right click damage and mana based damage. When you go for a certain form of harassment you should first look at hero stats. Right click damage, armor, damage reduction through passives and items, and regeneration through items. When you trade right click hits you have to make sure that you can outlast your opponents. When this is not guaranteed you have to make use of your mana to push your opponents out of the lane. When there are multiple targets you should always have a priority which target you want to hit first, second,... to maximize your damage. At the same time you have to avoid getting hit by targets that deal a lot of damage to you. Harassment follows also an objective: Gain full control of your lane. When you cannot control the lane with the damage or your presence in general, go and do something else since you have no effect Skill-Builds Many heroes can be skilled in different ways. These choices have benefits and downsides. General advice: Do not skill before you actually enter your lane. Sometimes opportunities will be missed if you select a certain skill to early. Next step: Do not skill something which can have huge drawbacks if you are not 100% sure that it will do what you have planned. Last but not least: Do not make the mistake to go for the same build over and over again. Question yourself. Analyze your and opponents lineup and think about your tactical concept. Certain matchups and certain lanes require certain Skill-Builds. o Example: Dazzle can be skilled in two different ways. Lane control and push oriented. Going for the lane control build in a 5 man push centered lineup does not make much sense.

27 22 Chapter V: The Mind of a Support Experience and Farm leech You are allowed to take farm and experience of your cores when it benefits your team. Cases: You are able to get a crucial level. o Example: Level 6 to gain access to your ultimate. You can finish a core item with the farm you take. o Example: You lack 2 last hits to finish Mana-Boots. Your core is already high level and does not benefit as much as you of the experience gain. o Example: Your carry is farming a big ancient stack and you take off some experience. That should give you a good feeling when you are allowed to leech and when you are not Effects of Pushing At some point lanes will be pushed. The reasons for that can be fights near creeps or pushing on purpose. This leads us to a question: Which effects has pushing in general? Positive effects Forwarded vision caused by your creeps. More map space for you, less map space for your opponents. Creates preassure for your opponents, removes preassure from you. Negative Effects Forwarded creep waves are dangerous to farm. Easy accesable farm for your opponennts. Loss of vision in or next to your zone corridor. Forces a rotation by your players to start the push. Image 17: Effects of Pushing These observed effects can be used to your advantage.

28 23 Chapter V: The Mind of a Support Objectives of Pushing As we just saw, pushing comes along with benefits but also has drawbacks. Lanes should never be pushed just to be pushed. Pushing solves a purpose. Let us have a look what opportunities we create by pushing close to your enemies towers or to push out lanes in general in late and mid game. Pushing Scenarios: Pushing close to towers creates pressure and forces rotation. Usually 5 man pushes force engagements out of your opponents. Pushing out all lanes before you take Roshan is crucial so you have time to take him down without losing towers. Pushing to take down a tower should be thought through to make sure the tower will not be defended or denied. Pushing lanes or towers to create space for other lanes. Pushing into towers to set up ganks that come from behind. Pushing out lanes in general to remove pressure from your base in late game. Example: The support duo has to kill the Off-Laner in order to secure the tower destruction afterwards. The carry starts pushing the lane so both supports can smoke and move behind his tower. With the tower attacking the creeps, they are able to take down the Off-Laner without much trouble and secure the tower destruction. But do not forget about the negative sides when you decide to push a lane. Doing it wrong might harm more than you think. 5.3 Different Forms of Rotations Chapter II contains basic information about Rotations. Four different forms of Rotations come to my mind, each have different purposes. Before you think about rotating, keep these words in mind: Do not teleport to lanes if it is not necessary. Walk as much as possible to have your teleport ready when it is really needed. I cannot point out how important this is. Example: You just spawned in your Base after you got killed. You teleport to your Off-Lane to set up a gank there. You kill the target. That seems good. But your opponents realized how fast you got there right after your respawn and set up a counter gank on your carry immediately. There is nothing you can do about it. Now imagine you thought about this before you teleported. If you just walked there which approximately would have taken 30 seconds longer. Next time you better walk to do whatever you have to do. This will open up the ability to support other lanes in real time. when it is really necessary As I said before, sometimes you cannot control your lane via damage or your presence in general. When this happens, you have to move somewhere else, not for fun but with a purpose. But there are also other reasons which should make you rotate to other lanes. The next page will analyze which forms of rotations exist and when they should be considered.

29 24 Chapter V: The Mind of a Support When your lanes run smooth and do not need extra help, rotating is often a bad idea. But smooth lanes implicit that you are at least even with your opponents farm and level wise so rotating might give you the lead you need to snowball. Also consider that when you have a lead increasing that lead can give you the edge which you need to close out the game. Forms of Rotation: Gank Pressure Defensive Trade Image 18: Forms of Rotation Gank Rotation Rotations with the purpose of ganking can increase your lead but also can bring you back into games in general. When you lost lanes this is often the only approach that makes it possible to come back from behind at all. Gank Scenarios: Your carry has free farm and is already farmed enough to control the opponents Off-Lane solo. Your Off-Lane got zoned badly but still has potential to set up a successful gank which can bring him back into the game. Your Mid-Lane has a rough time in his 1on1 and a gank can turn the favor. Your Opponents overcommitted and you are sure that rotating there can guarantees you kills. If you are going to leave your lane for a gank, you should make sure that the gank will give you a lead or bring you back from behind. Else you are in danger that the gank will rather decrease your lead Pressure Rotation Now we talk about rotations with the goal of pressuring a certain lane or hero. The reasons for that are keeping opponents cores/supports busy and force them to play more passive which will decrease their farm or experience gain. Pressuring a lane will in general force rotations out of your opponents. This fact can also be used to set up ganks on other lanes after your opponents rotated. Pressure Scenarios: Your carry is less farm depended than your opponents carry or you got a second farming core. Happens often against Four-Protect-One lineups. You want to force rotations to create space on other lanes to split-push. You want to force rotations to sneak a Roshan. Often used if you are on the Dire side. You want to force fights in general because you have the stronger team fight lineup. It should be clear now which goals can be achieved using the Pressure Rotation.

30 25 Chapter V: The Mind of a Support Defensive Rotation This form of rotation is needed when your opponents decide to push or you realized that a gank is on its way. Timing is crucial for this kind of rotation. If you are too late your target could already be dead. When you decide that a defensive rotation is needed, make you that you will be in time and that you will not expose yourself. Defensive Scenarios: Opponents push a lane to siege your tower. Opponents push out lanes to split push. Opponents push out lanes to attempt Roshan. Opponents supports rotate to your lane to set up a gank. Opponents supports or cores rotate in to pressure your core. Many times I have seen supports teleporting in to defend towers which resulted in a dead support and a taken tower because they underestimated the situation. Another case: Supports rotate to defend towers without any mana which results in a destroyed tower and a lot of wasted time Trade Rotation Trade rotations are used if you cannot make it in time for a defense or a contest. Your goal is to trade at least something in return. Trade Scenarios: Opponents attempt Roshan and you will not be there in time to contest it. Your are low on mana and low on hp to make a proper defense. Your teams ultimate's are down so you cannot take a fight. Your team misses core items to take a fight under proper conditions. Your team can not make it in time due to teleport cool downs. If you have to give up certain things, never do it without taking anything back Rotations conclusion Since we took a look at all possible forms of rotations, some conclusion can be drawn. The main thing that I want to point out is the fact, that rotations are not always your choice, but are forced by your opponents and vice versa. Unnecessary or not fully planned rotations will harm you, planned and necessary rotations give you a lead or at least hold your lead. Rotations follow objectives and are not done random.

31 26 Chapter V: The Mind of a Support 5.4 Rune Control Rune Control is a job that is mostly done by supports. Controlling the rune brings several benefits and has only small drawbacks which can be ignored. The outcome of the Mid-Lane is often decided by runes. There are also some runes and rune timings which can in general impact the early game heavily. Let us first take a look at the benefits runes can bring in general for your team. Rune Benefits: Runes open up the possibility to gank, take fights or push. Runes can be used to refill bottles which can heavily change the outcome of Mid-Lane and Off-Lane. Runes taken by your team can not be used by your opponents in any way. Runes in general can change the outcome of fights at any stage of the game. This shows us that rune control is a very important thing and should not be forgotten Impactful Runes There are certain runes that are even more important to control. The four minute Rune: This rune is probably the most important one. Let me explain why: Your Solo-Lanes will hit level 6 between the four and six minute mark. This fact on its own already opens up the possibility for certain rotations. If you add the 4 minute rune into the mix, certain objectives of your choice are basically guaranteed. The Late- and Mid-Game Runes: If we take a look on the later stages of the game, rune control is still a nice thing to do: Double Damage runes can be used to take down Roshan really quick or take a fight which you are usually not capable of winning. There is a reason that the double damage rune is also called "rune of gg" Who should control the Rune? Usually the position five player makes sure the rune on his side of the map is controlled. But there are some rules that should be taken into account. Rules of Rune contest: Check your timing: Will you be in time for the spawn? Check for Opponents movement: Will they be there and can they kill you? Check for your team mates: Will they be around to take the rune or to support you? If you cannot handle the rune control on your own, make sure your team will be there to back you up or do not go for the rune at all. You will either waste your time or get killed. When you are around the rune area and you cannot contest it on your own try at least to scout it without dying so you know what is coming The Rune Trap Since your opponents are usually also interested in the rune, you can abused that fact to set up ganks around the spawn areas. You should be ready for that. Communicate with your team to set up this kind of gank and do not walk into your opponents rune trap.