General DiscussionNeed some support advice please :)

a good support (or anyone who plays a specific role) has a wide variety of heroes they can play to fill that role. only play 1 hero if you want to grind mmr, and you probably won't do that playing support (though not necessarily)

support tips
- make sure you don't mindlessly ward. ward in places that will actually be useful... for example, is your carry getting shut down in his lane? ward your jungle entrances so you can secure the jungle for him (else they will gank your jungle and your carry will get 0 farm)

- roam or not to roam. don't abandon your carry if he isn't strong enough to continue farming. that isn't to say you can't leave him for 1 minute to gank middle, but if he isn't strong enough to survive, go back and help him (stack/pull/zone/harass/etc.) a simple presence will discourage ganks as well which often turn into tower pushes. and if you lose that your carry can potentially lose a lot of farm.

- don't just AFK in lane either. if your carry is doing fine, leave the lane and go roam gank otherwise you are just sapping EXP. if you don't think you can successfully roam gank then just go stack the entire jungle 4x. whatever you do, don't sap EXP if you aren't being useful.

- ward in unexpected places. river wards are rarely any good. generally you want a river ward early on for rune vision for your mid player. and then beyond that you only want a river ward to defend roshan. of course once you get to higher mmr, people finally realize this and stop warding river, making it useful again as players will sometimes walk through river expecting no wards.

- as above: if you have a strong mid ganker, or ganking lineup in general. try to place some very aggressive wards. toss a ward in their jungle. you can find easy picks this way.

-when you are doing aggressive/unsafe warding watch your mini-map and have an idea where their team is. try to ward right before a teamfight breaks out, or after. if you are doing it before, make sure you have a TP to help your team. you can also smoke to ward, but only do this if its a very deep ward and you don't think you can safely do it without a smoke.

- use smokes. talk on voice and gather your team. make sure you have a plan first. don't just blindly smoke and expect magic to happen. if you see their carry cycling lane/jungle farming a lane you can try to gank him. generally just have a plan when smoking.

idk, there is probably 1000 more things i could tell you, but im tired and my back hurts.

Focus on learning the hero first, before playing a role. Take a hero u enjoy, lets say rubick, play him 30 times in a row, and you will get a grasp on what the hero is capable to. Then when the hero itself is not the issue anymore you should focus on the role.

In addition it is a big difference whether you are a 4 or a 5 or what strengths you as a player have.

You should be aware that practise in ranked will set you down as a player as you will lose more likely and will be discouraged by losing mmr.

In my eyes I would recommend you to practise one hero and then try to find a team and practise supporting them

Well, Lion is pretty staple, WD for team fights and Rubick is excellent vs push or teamfight oriented opponents. I would put Venge and Earthshaker in there too for variety, as none of the supports you mentioned were heavily defensive supports. Rubick can be weak if under leveled, and really needs someone to deal the damage if you roam with him, since he is mostly a set up. Tree is another good defensive support, though if they have a lot of damage sources (running zoo with invoker or lycan or prophet or with fast DoT) his living armour doesn't do much, leaving him feeling lacking (I personally prefer Abaddon for this role, less impact early across the map, much more impact later and in a single lane). I personally like Lina, she can be difficult to play well due to positioning being so important and her lack of escape mechanisms, she is one of the few supports that can easily farm up a euls in jungle or in a free lane if your cores rotate to jungle and once you can time your stun with euls, she can wreck quite hard.

There is a guy talking quite specifically about support in the 3-3.9k range on reddit.com/r/dota2 front page who actually has some legit talking points to improve your support game.

I used to play a lot position 5, because i liked to fill the gaps in pubs. I recently started trying out other positions more or less successfull but im learning a great deal by doing so. You seem to have enough knowledge about dota 2 w almost 2000 games. marlan gave lots of good, basic insight, which is often sadly neglected. I assume ur 4k bracket, so u know what to do technically. Kotl and Jaki are very strong there.

Yet, I think ur focus is not exactly right. Supports are very impactful in early/mid game even before getting any core items. Most player think its boring and start neglecting their team's/carry's needs. They want to farm their items and think they cannot win without items, which often leads to a disadvantage. Dont be like that. Supports are the mightiest force until approx. 7-10 min mark and can make so much happen. Map contorl, vision, smoking, prepare rosh contest, team fighting, babysitting, ganking, stacking, pulling. You have to be aware of the strengths of ur position. U make things happen! Without u ur team is a cryin kid on a play ground! guess u need some daddy genes for that pos though ;)

http://www.liquiddota.com/forum/dota-2-strategy/465232-the-art-of-support-part-1

This guide is very useful is you want to play a good support. I can sit here and type out what I think supports should be doing, but this guide basically has it all.

A good tip for this bracket though, is to always carry a tp scroll (even in the early game). People tend to dive towers early. Punish them for that.

Ok thank you all! So much to read now, alongside that r/dota2 posting!

@marlan

- I understand the theory behind proper warding, and when whichever is appropriate, I just struggle to do so in game. I like to think of it in terms of my experiences mid, when they have an alch that just got bfury, or a luna that just got dominator, I know that I want vision on them in the jungle, both to shut them down and snowball. I try and use the knowledge from other positions to ward where I think it's needed.
- So far I have had really shitty luck ganking mid as a support. The lane always seems at the enemy's tower, and smoke seems to be wasted alot. I am trying to learn more from my friend (the anon Lion in my last windranger game). He uses smokes so well, mid late game we were so far behind, yet his decision (over voice chat) telling everyone to get there, nagging them, and then rotating to the enemy secretshop high ground pretty much won us that game.
[Thank you very much for your input! Appreciate your time and effort!]

@ иВин4Арка

I guess for my situation the getting a team isnt really applicable. I have 2 irl friends I play with all the time, I never solo. I play Dota for fun, and solo just always seems frustrating and tense. I play for the enjoyment and flaming between friends.
Re: The hero spam, it is kind of hard to do that since playing as a 3 man stack, generally the other 2 want to lane together, and as do my friends, which leaves me mid. I guess I could practice Lina/Rubik mid, get really good at them, and whenever those few games come up where a support is needed, apply that hero knowledge to the role!

On a side note, does Lion still work mid? I remember my first few games were mid with him iirc.
[Thank you too for your time!]

@ 13oundary

Thank you for that, I found the posting and am going through it now while at work :) Man I didnt realize there were so many situationals to consider when picking these supports :D Was looking for that magic "go-to" hero :D Thank you!

@ hushhush

I like to think I have good game knowledge in the sense of watching streams, guides, reading up, and playing for a decent amount of time. I am just limited in the time available to practice in the evenings, mostly 2 games per evening average. One thing I find myself doing, which is very wrong, is passively sitting sapping exp from the carry. I see the emphasis on that now and will try to be more active in creating space!

Thank you guys :)

When I say team I just mean a 5-stack of players you often play with, and just participate on casual tournaments, nothing more. The tournament experience is quiet valueable as you learn to play carefully and in the making of decisive decisions