Gone are the days of the brown boots supports. Thank goodness. Not only are the games more exciting with supports who have their
force staff and
blink dagger at the ready, but their team contributions to these games can tip the scales of a close game in their favor. In no particular order, my top five supports for current pro play are:
Skywrath Mage,
Ogre Magi,
Mirana,
Elder Titan, and
Vengeful Spirit.
The Skywrath Mage (
DOTA buff profile) is probably the best support in
CM currently. His instant silence in the hands of a pro player makes
Pandas look silly as they blink on to shake hands with Ancient Seal. Seal also makes heros like Storm, Weaver, Puck, and most supports over glorified creeps. Concussive shot is the other spell which needs mentioning here. The range on this spell is a ludicrous 1600 units, which makes it perfect for setting up ganks or zoning heroes during the laning stage and beyond. This spell, like Mirana's sacred arrow, takes advantage of being cast from the fog of war; mid heroes beware.
The bra-less wonder. Ogre McGee. Our favorite melee support, the Ogre Magi (
DOTA buff), received a buff of last patch (
6.82) to his 2X multicast, allowing him to make an impact on the game earlier, and base HP regen to 2.5, increasing his ability to harass. These seemly small buffs create a larger window of time for this hero to maintain relevance, propelling him to a tier 1 support. The Magi signature spell is his fireblast, which also received a decrease in damage but an increase in the duration between each proc thus stunning a target for longer. This reliable, instant cast stun provides the burst damage necessary to gank and blow up other heroes. The other reason to pick up this hero is to boost a right-clicker's dps and movement speed with bloodlust. At level 4, the 50% increased attack speed and 16% movement speed is like having 1.5
yashas equipped (with out the bonus states).
Mirana (
DOTA buff) is the most polar hero in this pool. She fluctuates from unbeatable to a waste of space, all depending on how prepared people are for the arrow. A team constantly on guard and placing wards will make a roaming Mirana look embarrassing. However, if those arrow are hitting and translating into kills, the early game lead, and probably the game itself, is yours. Mirana also pairs well with other supports who can set up arrows like Ogre, Venge, Shadow Demon, and Rubbik to name a few. Lastly on the ability front, Moonlight shadow adds a unique dimension to team fighting and ganking. The other thing about Mirana that is unique among these 5 supports is that she can play any position, from farming carry to
brown boots support so picking her early or late isn't a liability and reveals very little about your strategy.
Team Secret's Big Daddy has been playing out of his mind on the Elder Titan (
DOTA buff)recently in the support role rather than as an offlaner. This hero offers unique effects which only get better as the game goes on, namely Natural Order. Removing 100% base armor cripples stat based carries, like Morphling and Drow, as well as amplifying your teams damage. This hero also scales well with items, but is not dependent on them because of Astral Spirit. His stomp offers a long range initiation that sleeps units for a full 5 seconds, allowing your team and an earthsplitter to set up for a complete blow out. The only weakness of this hero is that his laning presence early is poor because stomp takes time to channel and he is melee so he has trouble harassing and zoning enemy heroes.
The Vengeful Spirit (
DOTA buff) is well positioned right now because she works well with farming heroes that rely on physical damage - like Razor, Death Prophet, and Lycan, offers a bat rider-like ability to remove an enemy hero from play at instant speed via swap, increases the teams damage and has a reliable stun. Nether Swap and the increased damage through vengeance aura and wave of terror are the reasons to pick the Venge. She also facilitates Roshan with all the minus armor she's packing, especially if you get a
medallion of courage. This item seems to have the DOTA communities consensus on being a
core item for her. Shendelzare (yes, that's her name) can also play more of a core role, but operates just fine without items.
These 5 supports the best at what they do. Items aren't a necessity and they all add a dimension to your team which creates space for the team's cores to farm. Next time you play have to play a support, keep these 5 in mind; they won't steer you wrong.
