To start with, I repeat the quote which I first heard from Na'Vi Puppey:

Support is a role - not a hero!

Yet, obviously some heroes are more suited to fill out this specific role.

Obviously, there is a wide range of support heroes. Summarizing, you can say that a support hero is a hero with either one or several disables or one or several strong nukes. The typical supporter doesn’t need items too much and experience is also not as important as it usually is for carries.

Most support heroes are ranged, allowing them to effectively harass enemies without taking too much damage. Note that a lot of heroes can be played as support, yet with some heroes it makes more sense than with others.

As everyone knows, a dota team usually consists of 5 different heroes, therefore there are 5 roles in a team.

#1 is usually the hard carry. This role normally takes claims the safe lane and focusses on farming a lot throughout the game to be able to accumulate a lot of items quickly and deal the major portion of your teams damage in the later stages of the match. In other words: To carry your team hard.

#2 is usually the solo mid. This role focusses on the 1on1 battle in the middle lane. It is usually a hero that benefits hugely from an early ultimate & runes and is able to gank and amass kills on cruical enemy heroes fairly early on in the game.

#3 is usually the offlane or hard lane. This role often finds himself in a 1v2 or 1v3 scenario. It focusses on getting whatever experience possible out of a difficult scenario and ideally on preventing the enemy hard carry as much from farming as possible. In a perfect world, the #3 role is so annoying that the enemy support players are not able to leave their carry on his own, therefore allowing your solo mid player and your safe lane to be rather "secure".

#4 is usually the semi-support. This role helps out with the general "support" of the team, but at the same time tries to get some farm and items. Often this role is filled by heroes that can either farm woods quickly or have great ganking abilities (and therefore get their "farm" from assist gold and kills).

#5 is usually the hard support. This role focusses on purchasing all the necessary wards for your team and on providing safe farm to your team's hard carry. Also this role should try to deny as much XP and gold as possible from the enemy hard-lane hero.

Note that this guide focusses on the #5 role. The main reason for this is, that in public games you will more often than not end up being the only support for 4 core heroes. When I am talking about "support" in this game, I mean the classical #5 hard support role.

Original Posted By azulyc►Gw juga prefer support yang sekaligus bisa nge push lane gitu.

Simply karena Gw gak jago last hit, dan dulu Gw buddhis taat, jadi gak nyaman buat ngebunuh heroes musuh. Lebih suka harrash aja sih, dan biarkan Allies yg ngebunuh.

Tiap pake support, Gw bakal beli ring of protection; iron branch dan recipe buat head of reju apa gitu. Biar nanti bebli boot; ring of regen 2 kali nya di secret shop aja, biar gampang. Sisa nya Gw beliin courier.

Setelah itu biasa gw bikin Vladimir's Offerings; Mekans; Shiva's Guard; and tons of wards.

Kadang abis beli wards, Gw drop from stash gitu, biar Allies yg munggut dan naroh di tempat yg mereka mau. Walau somehow Gw kesel, krn mereka gak gt ngerti letak naroh wards yg tepat.

Gw prefer ngorbanin diri gw, biar carry bisa ngacir. Karena kalo Carry mati, otomatis support pun mati.

Kadang gw suka nyiciln darah creeps dan musuh, biar Carry yg last hit.

Support yg oke menurut gw sih:
**ShadowShaman = Bisa support, ngiket, ngancurin tower, bisa handle lebih dari 1 carry lewat shackles and hex nya. Listrik nya pun mayan sakit.

**Venge = Kencengin damage allies; stun nya sakit; kurangin damage and bisa bikin desolator.

**Ogre = Tebel banget, susah di gebuk mati, skills consist buat nyicil musuh, gampang bikin Aghanim nya.

**KOTL = cukup susah mati. Ini gw pake kalo lagi mood nge bully musuh. Gw cuma naikin 1 level illuminate nya, penuhin 3rd skill and 2nd skill. Itu musuh jamin pada kocar kacir gak ada mana. Mau di bunuh pun susah banget, karena dengan ulti nya, bisa bikin serangan musuh miss. Terus bisa hemat TP kalo mis. ada 1 temen yg baru respawn dan Kita lagi nge gebuk tower.

**Silencer Pudge boleh dapatin STR. Tapi Silencer nyolong INT, alias INT Kita berkurang. Belom lagi serangan glaive nya jadi pure gitu. Dapat 16 INT aja, gebukannya udah sakit, gak musingin mana lagi. Musuh makin kecil mana nya. Belom lagi buat INT Steal gak perlu sedeket Pudge.

**Chen = Convert 1 creep buat Kita; convert creeps lainnya buat ngikutin Allies. Biar kebantu lewat aura, mis. nambahin attack speed; hp regens; atau crit.

**Pugna, Gw selalu naikin wards nya, terus skill 1. Bikin musuh devastate banget deh. Bikin mereka duga2 dimana wards Gw taroh.

**Necro = DOT nya kenceng, cukup diem aje pake shadow amulet di deket2 musuh. Lama2 jg mati.

**Disruptor sesuai nama nya, ini bikin kesel banget. Gw pernah lawan disruptor yg nge bully Gw, saat Gw baru Tele ke Tower, sama Disruptor di kirim balik ke base ! Kan Anjeng.