Support is one of the most strategic roles in Dota 2. You control the map, provide vision, save your teammates, and create space for cores to shine. A good support sets the pace of the early game, leads map movement in the mid game, and prepares the groundwork for successful teamfights.

Position 4 vs Position 5

Hard Support (Position 5) stays with the carry, buys wards, sentries, and smokes, and gives up farm to core heroes. Your focus is survival, vision control, and lane stability.

Soft Support (Position 4) has more freedom and resources. You rotate across lanes, assist mid and offlane, and often initiate fights or apply pressure. Your job is to create chaos and opportunity.

Laning: What You Should Do

As a support in lane, you're multitasking: managing creep equilibrium, pulling and stacking camps, harassing enemies, and helping your carry get last hits safely. You also need to track siege creep timings (minutes 5, 10, 15) and use them to push towers.

If you’re just standing next to your carry doing nothing, you're wasting early potential. Everything you do should have purpose.

Stacking and Pulling: What and Why

Stacking means increasing the number of neutral creeps in a camp. To do it, aggro the camp at around 0:53, pull creeps out of the box, and let new ones spawn at 1:00. This benefits heroes with AoE abilities and helps accelerate farm for cores.

Pulling redirects your wave to fight neutral creeps, slowing down the enemy push and bringing the lane closer to your tower. You gain XP, deny farm to the enemy offlaner, and protect your carry.

Chain pulling means pulling a second camp just before the first dies. This keeps enemy creeps busy longer, delaying lane reset and giving you even more control.

Vision: Always With a Purpose

Warding should never be random. Think about why you’re placing a ward: to defend a farming area, prep for a tower push, cover smoke paths, or scout Roshan. Don’t keep warding the same place every game.

Observer + Sentry combos are key — vision plus dewarding. A ward with no purpose is wasted.

Mid Game: What You Do

Once laning ends, you move with your team’s most active core — usually mid or offlane. Set up vision ahead of fights, prep smoke ganks, and contest key areas like Roshan or enemy triangle.

If you die but save your carry or reveal enemy movement, you’ve done your job. Good supports trade their life for team advantage.

Teamfights: Your Role

Before the fight: place vision, set up sentries, and position safely. You should never be the first hero caught.

During the fight: use items like Force Staff, Glimmer Cape, or Guardian Greaves at the right moment. Watch BKB timers and don’t waste disables on magic-immune targets. Your job isn’t to deal damage — it’s to create opportunity and prevent collapse.

Recommended Items

Core:

• Glimmer Cape – magic save
• Force Staff – repositioning
• Ghost Scepter – physical damage mitigation
• Guardian Greaves – heal and purge

Situational:

• Lotus Orb – against disables
• Eul’s Scepter – setup or self-save
• Pipe of Insight – against magic-heavy lineups
• Blink Dagger – mobility for fights or escape

Buy what your team needs — not what you personally want.

Map Movement

You should always have a purpose: warding, stacking, escorting a smoke, or defending an area. Don’t walk around the map aimlessly.

Never enter the dark side of the map without smoke. Avoid reactive warding — vision should be placed before fights, not after.

Top Supports in the Current Meta

Position 5:

• Witch Doctor – strong lane presence and teamfight utility
• Dazzle – excellent save and sustain
• Oracle – powerful single-target save, great vs direct spells

Position 4:

• Snapfire – long-range damage and teamfight impact
• Hoodwink – versatile, strong in lane and in picks
• Nyx Assassin – excellent vs mobile spellcasters and squishy mids

Pick heroes that fit your draft and game plan — not just your comfort zone.

Common Mistakes

• Doing nothing in lane — if you’re not pulling, harassing, or warding, you're wasting potential
• Random wards with no clear purpose
• Greedy builds — delaying useful items for luxury
• Forgetting Dust or Smoke
• Not communicating — pings and chat can lead a team without voice

Support isn’t about stats — it’s about structure. A smart support sets up the win by enabling cores, controlling the map, and creating tempo. You don’t need gold to make an impact — you need awareness, timing, and decision-making.