While playing as a position 4 or 5, usually I am not sure whether to play safe or go ganking. It is even more confusing when supporting in the hard-lane. How to calculate the risk of whether to be pro-active and go ganking, or whether to play safe avoid getting kills?
Dota 2 Support – When to Play Offensively or Defensively as Support
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Related Solutions
Well if you are really affraid of being hooked versus Pudge, having wards high ground is the best solution.
You can ask your support to put up wards so you will always see where pudge is (see screenshot at the end).
Then as an Invoker you can put an early point in wex just fot ghost walking away. This might delay your dual forge spirit (in the QE built) but if you really feel insecure that might be the best way to go.
With any mid hero you have to not make the basic mistake versus pudge which is : try to escape the rot by running. If you ever get hooked, trade hit with pudge and burst him with your spell. If you try to run you're almost certainly dead. Pudge has a really low armor at low level so your right click damage will hurt him badly, plus remember that the rot inflict damage to himself too so you can often turn a hook into a kill for yourself, just dont be afraid to manfight him. Pudge players tend to get overconfident when they land a hook, prove them they should not.
Another great tip is : rot does not dispell healing salve until its level 4, so you can use a salve to get some hp back between 2 hit and that might save your life.
Screenshots
Those wards' position can be used to avoid any kind of early ganks. You can watch the minimap to have an idea on what vision it gives.
When you are on the Radiant side :
When you are on the Dire side :
This last observer is usefull to scout mid highgrounds at all time to avoid hooks (you can place it on both side but preferably the enemy's side) :
Lane support is also called a babysitter because the hero will basically babysit the ally carry to help him grow faster and without too much danger.
Being a babysitter means:
- observer wards close to the lane
- harassing the enemy (best done with a ranged support like dazzle)
- Denying creeps to disable some xp from the enemy
- Not last-hitting any creeps and creating space for your carry to move around without any danger
- Using the pulling techniques for keeping your own creeps next to your towers
- Using the hero-attack technique (i do not know how it is really called), where you have to stay behind your wave of creeps and right click an enemy hero, so that the enemy creeps start attacking you, and they will move inwards to your lane, leaving them exposed for the carry to dispose of them more safely.
- Providing occasional tp's/healing salves/sentry wards for heroes like Broodmother/Rikimaru/Phantom lancer/Bounty hunter,etc
The Support is usually assisting the whole team, and he's not focused on babysitting even though he might do something similar on the lane. Though the support role is encouraged to get some kind of farm to provide certain items (Mekansm, pipe, etc) that will be necessary to the team, where the babysitter or lane support, focuses on sacrificing a support's money and early game towards a fast rush to success from the main carry.
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Best Answer
This is a tough question because you will never play the same game of DotA twice. DotA is always situational. However I can try to give you some advice depending on what type of supports you are playing and how your team is doing.
First thing to have in mind
The carry is the 1 role because a carry can win the game by himself. Good carry + bad support = tough game (hardly winnable). Bad carry + good support = lost game (and painfull game if you are the support).
If you want to win a game of DotA, your carry has to have a fairly easy game. It is then up to you (and your mid) to give your carry the space he needs to win you the game. Nothing is more rewarding as a support than letting your carry free farm for 45 min then watch him take down the entire enemy team by himself, all thanks to you.
Second thing to have in mind
Your mid (role 2) is almost as important as your carry. You can see your mid as your "mid-game carry" (in most situations). The mid player will be your mid game pillar (from min ~15 to min ~40) and it's his role (and yours) to apply enough pressure on the enemy team so your carry can reach the late-game without trouble.
Types of supports and early gameplay
You are now aware of the 2 mains roles of your team. It is your job as a support to make their lanes easy.
To understand how to do your job well (or know when to be agressive/defensive etc.) you have to understand the different lane configurations you can have with supports.
Offensive tri-lane supports : in an offensive tri-lane the goal is to contest the farm of the enemey carry or pull off a combo that will give you lots of early kills allowing you to snowball into the midgame. Supports in offensive tri-lanes will bring regen, wards to cover the jungle near the lane and try to be as agressive as possible. Your tri-lane carry will get the last-hits while you try to set up kills. You will also contest enemy supports that are stacking and pulling to deny them as much XP as possible. In offensive tri-lanes you will find supports with powerful disables and nukes such as : Visage, Venomancer, Shadow Demon, Vengeful Spirit or Lina.
Defensive tri-lane supports : Played in safe lane, the defensive tri-lane has to offer a free and really easy lane to farm for your carry. The 2 supports will have 2 main tasks : Control the lane (with stacking and pulling) and zone the enemy offlaner out of the lane. Usually one of the supports will be dedicated to stack the camp while the other harass the enemy hero in the lane. Supports in defensive tri-lanes offer powerful defensive spells such as heals or harassing nukes : Dazzle, Ezalor, Treant, Sand King.
Dual lane supports : When your team runs a jungler, you can have a dual lane (generaly in the safe lane) carry + support. The support in this scenario will be focused on stacking and pulling to get fast levels (in order not to become irrelevant in the mid game). Make sure to get some wards up to avoid ganks on your carry. Think about this lane as a defensive tri-lane where you have to both stack/pull and harass the enemy in lane.
Roaming Supports : The roaming support will be focused on ganking the enemy mid as much as possible. This can secure an easy mid game for your team thanks to the free farm given to your mid. You generally want to have a support with 2 disables (stun + slow) or at least 1 reliable disable. Some common roaming supports : Crystal Maiden (Frostbite + Crystal nova), Vengeful Spirit (Magic missile + Wave of terror), Venomancer (double slow) etc. You will want to use smoke of deceit to come undetected in the mid lane, and you usually place wards on the rune spot for a better visibility of the map and a better rune control.
Jungling Supports : The jungling support will be focused on getting early levels and free farm in order to rush a specific item (often the mekansm). There are few supports that can jungle, the most common are Enchanteress (will get an early urn or mek) and Chen (for a fast mek and level 6). When playing Chen or Enchanteress, Your team will expect you to come with your creeps and gank once in a while (with smoke), then push the lane (because your creeps can tank towers or cut the creep wave behind the tower).
Farming Supports : Pretty much the same as jungling supports, farming support's goal is to get free XP. Usually those supports benefit a lot from level 6 (Nyx Assassin, Lion, Wisp etc.). They do not have a great farming ability but they will be given some free space to stack and pull or a free lane at some point in the game (When your mid leaves the lane to go gank for example)
Hard Support : When you run more than 1 support (1 lane support + 1 roaming,2 tri-lane supports , dual roaming supports etc.), this term designates the one who will get no farm and will be focused on buying : Wards/Smoke/Courier/Flying Courier/Sentries/Dust etc. You can eventually get boots at some point if nothing else is needed. You have to be useful for your team, with no gold, with few levels and without feeding. Playing hard support is really hard because of that.
Playing Support in the later portion of the game
Once the laning stage is over and you have accomplished your lane's tasks (depending on your role : jungle, roam, get XP, be in a killing spree in your tri-lane etc.) you have to undestand what your hero does bring to the team.
If your hero is a ganker (such as Nyx) you goal is to apply pressure on the enemy team. If your hero has great defensive abilities, you can stay near your carry in order to secure his farm. If you are a great initator (Earthshaker, Clockwerk etc.) stay with the part of your team that is pushing and try to get a great initiation (or coutner initiation).
Think before acting. As a support you always have to ask yourself : "what does my team need ?" and "what does my carry need ?"
At this point of the game, the only part of "early supporting" that you really have to assume is putting up wards and getting detection agaisnt invisible units. The rest of your role depend on the hero you are playing. Once you understand how the abilities of your hero come into play, you will understand how your team can benefit from you.
A few tips