In DOTA 2, the easiest way to gain MMR is to pick the best hero for the situation. Things like opponent team composition, your team composition, and your hero pool eliminate a lot of potential heroes trying to lure you into the trap of playing a "worse something else." In the game, there are roles and picking the best hero for the role you want to play or the role you get stuck with (sorry, position 5) will dramatically increase your teams chances of winning. I have a few pocket pick offlaners and mids so that I can play that position competently. Even though I don't know all the intricacies of each matchup, I have confidence in my ability to play my hero correctly.
Picking a "worse something else" is especially obvious in captain's mode. Commentators almost always point out what they will think is the best pick for the current situation and they are right much of the time because they can properly identify each teams composition, strengths and weaknesses of the current line up and, based on the current meta, sum up what hero would be the best. This idea of picking the best carry or mid hero is what drives a meta.
So the next time you find yourself in the enviable position of picking last for your team, just remember don't pick a "worse something else." Let me know in the comments if this tip was ever helpful for you or if it gave you that "aha!" moment.
Showing posts with label strategy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label strategy. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Friday, August 14, 2015
The International 5 Part 2: All Things Heroes
Lets talk heroes. There were winners and there were losers. Let's start with the biggest loser: Queen of Pain.
The biggest disappointment hero-wise for TI was the Queen of Pain. She had a paltry 25% win rate over 20 games. This poor showing demonstrates that not even professional player can avoid every trap. In a future post I'll touch on this, but the basic idea is this: QoP gives players the impression that they are having a huge impact on the game when, in greater context of the game, they are. Part of the problem for for QoP was the patch. During TI, the mid lane lacked heroes that could reliably win their lane and contribute to the late game. Teams had to chose what they wanted in a midlaner: win the lane or have a strong late game. This, of course, except when they could pick Lina, who I'll talk about next. For now, back to QoP. Heroes exert pressure on the enemy team in three forms: lane pressure, map pressure, and direct pressure. QoP is supposed to be a lane dominator and she is. She's the reason that we didn't see more melee mids picked (like ember, dk, TA and others.) The problem is that after the laning stages, she lacks the ability to sufficiently and directly pressure the map and heroes. Her spells are AOE and don't offer the direct pressure in the form of single target pick off potential that a Lina or Storm do. Nor can she can't stand and bang with carries like an SF can. She doesn't push towers particularly fast and can't contribute much to taking Roshan, so her map pressure is negligible. I wish that more players had gone for aghs into necro book so that she could contribute more to Roshan, offer more pushing potential, and threaten to pick off supports with minimal risk to herself. Sadly, only Waga advocated this.
The biggest disappointment hero-wise for TI was the Queen of Pain. She had a paltry 25% win rate over 20 games. This poor showing demonstrates that not even professional player can avoid every trap. In a future post I'll touch on this, but the basic idea is this: QoP gives players the impression that they are having a huge impact on the game when, in greater context of the game, they are. Part of the problem for for QoP was the patch. During TI, the mid lane lacked heroes that could reliably win their lane and contribute to the late game. Teams had to chose what they wanted in a midlaner: win the lane or have a strong late game. This, of course, except when they could pick Lina, who I'll talk about next. For now, back to QoP. Heroes exert pressure on the enemy team in three forms: lane pressure, map pressure, and direct pressure. QoP is supposed to be a lane dominator and she is. She's the reason that we didn't see more melee mids picked (like ember, dk, TA and others.) The problem is that after the laning stages, she lacks the ability to sufficiently and directly pressure the map and heroes. Her spells are AOE and don't offer the direct pressure in the form of single target pick off potential that a Lina or Storm do. Nor can she can't stand and bang with carries like an SF can. She doesn't push towers particularly fast and can't contribute much to taking Roshan, so her map pressure is negligible. I wish that more players had gone for aghs into necro book so that she could contribute more to Roshan, offer more pushing potential, and threaten to pick off supports with minimal risk to herself. Sadly, only Waga advocated this.
Lina was the biggest winner at 62.5% over 32 games (the most picked hero, I might add) for TI. Teams resorted to relying on her to burst down the golden BKB wearing cores of the opposing squad. Her attack range, stun, aoe damage, and single target burst lend her to be a flexible pick, either in the midlane or as a support. Linas popularity stems from the most stable carry for TI being the Gyrocopter. He, usually, relies on BKB to ensure he outputs maximum damage. The airship does magical and physical AOE damage, both of which take time to dish out. What better way to deal with it than to kill him before he gets a chance to flack down your whole team. The other reason why is that she stays relevant during the entire game.
As for other midlaning heroes, Storm saw a 50% win rate and SF was at 33.33%, both over 18 games. Templar Assassin at 71.43% win rate over 7 games, puts her at the second best mid hero.
There were many other winners and losers in terms of heroes. Here are some notables with a short explanation:
- Antimage - seen as the second most stable carry. strong against teams containing storm. Watch the IG vs Secret Game 1 or Navi vs VG best of 1 for reasons why this hero was picked. Even with only a 40% win rate, teams had to change how they played to minimize his effectiveness.
- Bounty hunter had a 92% win rate.This hero is broken. If you know how to play him, you should be spamming this hero in pubs. For pro players, he allows them to get back to parity or get very far ahead with just a few track kill.
- Shadow Fiend - while Artzeey's performance on this hero were nothing short of amazing during TI, the hero just didn't perform. He was looked at favorably for teams on the Radiant side because of his easy access to the two jungle camps, however, he just didn't perform. This is another hero that was picked because of the lack of viable mid-laners.
- Techies - I would be remiss if I didn't mention everyone's *least* favorite pub heroes. As AUI_2000 said "Techies is only fun for the person playing with him." Techies single handedly helped EG win TI because CDEC had to ban it every game; they weren't prepared to play against the suicide squad, with or without Tusk.
- If Gyro is the most stable carry and Antimage is the second most stable carry, then Phantom Lancer and Luna tie for 3rd. Luna started seeing more play toward the end of the tournament as teams sought 1 position heroes when a combination of banning and picking removed AM, Gyro, and PL from the pool. Luna is comparable to gyro. She has does burst AOE magical damage in the early stages of the game and then transitions into a machine. Her push is better because of the bouncing glaives but enemies that spread out wisely don't take as much damage compared to a flack cannon.
- The final winners I want to touch on are the supports. The tournament meta centered around getting the best midlaner and position 1 hero, both from a limited pool, and then countering the opponents picks with strong supports. Bounty Hunter, Earthshaker and Winter Wyvern are my top three supports for this tourney, but Disruptor, Visage (with 100% win rate over 5 games), Lion, Crystal Maiden, Naga (while only a 30% win rate, was banned almost every game against Secret and EG, among others), Spirit Breaker, Tusk, and Rubik all had over 50% winrates. The wide variety of support play is a hopeful sign for things to come.
What are your winners and losers for heroes this tournament? How do you think this will impact the pub meta in the long run? Let me know in the comments.
Sunday, August 9, 2015
Surviving 3k: Just Arriving
You've just made it to 3k MMR. Either you got your grind on and raised your MMR or this is where you, like me, were placed. The 3k MMR landscape is diverse in terms of talent, hero selection, and individual player strategy. It's not uncommon to have an ancients farming medusa go for midas and treads into rapier and carry the game. Don't fall into this trap, however. Here are some survival tips you can employ as soon as you start trying to climb the ladder to 4k.
- Don't jungle, unless it's a hero I highlighted here.
- If your team needs a support, pick it.
- If you're the hard support, I suggest getting courier, sentries, tangos, and a clarity (as per fluff)
- Always, and I mean always, play to win. Don't give up if you're behind 10 or even 20 kills. Games are swingy.
- Identify the best player on your team and ensure they have a good game.
- Don't ever farm ancients.
- Midas isn't a very good item this patch unless you get it before 6 minutes.
- When you get crushed by a single player, go back and watch how they crushed you.
- When you crush a team, go back and watch what enabled you to crush them.
- Help your supports with wards and sentries.
- Buy smokes and set up kills.
- Help zone the offlaner whether you're support or carry.
These are just a few general things to help improve your play so you can continue your progress in the 3k bracket. It's important to keep focusing on the basics of surviving 3k MMR because once you get them down, you can start focusing on playing like a 4k player.
Sunday, April 5, 2015
It's almost time for that new patch smell
Many people have hopes and dreams for the next patch and rounds of balances. The big ones that come to mind are:
- Reworking buybacks interaction with reliable gold, experience, and the comeback mechanics and
- Balancing some of pub stars: Troll, Juggernaut, Lion, Sniper, and Axe come quickly to mind.
Outside of those two things glaring straight at The International, DOTA2 is in a good place. The support hero pool is large and diverse. www.DOTABuff.com just ran a three part series highlighting 10 of the most viable supports you can pick (you can find part 3 here: http://www.dotabuff.com/blog/2015-04-02-introducing-top-tier-supports--part-3). To that list I would add the Ogre Magi, Treant Protector, and Sand King. There are only a few heroes considered unplayable (Sorry Kunkka). The mid lane is seeing a Rock- Paper-Scissors-Hammer-Blade-Scream… between Shadow Fiend, Sniper, Storm Spirit, your magic nuker of choice (usually Lina or Queen of Pain) and the maverick picks ( Ember Spirit, Brewmaster, Magnus, Viper, and even Artzeey on the Razor). With that said, there are still somethings that need fixing so here’s my wish list.
There are a few abilities that need to receive minor nerfs. Sniper’s shrapnel is crazy good at 50 mana and a 40 second recharge rate. Either the mana cost needs to increase enough to where you actually have to consider the cost of casting it, the recharge rate should be increased, or a combination of the 2. I don’t think it’s that far off from being viable but not overpowered. The other ability that stands out is Lion’s Impale. This spell is targeted so as long as you reach the cast point, the stun will land unless they are super far away. This leads to some stuns that are a bit on the questionable side. The solution here is to either have it remain targeted but once you cast it, it goes a fixed distance in the direction of the target or make it a skill shot but increase its range a little. The trend has been to make things more skill intensive; think Fissure for the Earth Shaker or Impale for Nyx.
A few heroes would really benefit from a bump because they are narrowly situational, they are a worse something else, or they are just unplayable. Visage best fits the narrowly situational pick because you almost never see him without a Drow or another pushing hero. Chen has pushed out almost every other pushing hero except for the Enigma. The buff to his abilities is a welcome change, however now the situation exists where Enchantress is a worse something else. Maybe she needs a rework to compete like buffing the damage her creeps have or increasing her healing effectiveness. Finally, the unplayable heroes: Kunka, Alchemist, Leshrac, Chaos Knight and Lifestealer just cannot be picked because they are situationally worse than everything else. A buff to these heroes would be welcome, especially Leshrac. He puts out a ton of damage, but has to compete with QoP, Lina, and Storm for the position of mid int. hero and he can’t. He’s also not a good support because he damage is reliant on being alive for the duration of a fight. A buff in either direction would be most welcome and I think it starts with Lightning Storm.
Hopefully the next patch freshens up the current meta, bringing new heroes to prominence and pushing down some of the current stars. What are your picks for heroes that need nerfs? Buffs? Let me know in the Comments.
- Reworking buybacks interaction with reliable gold, experience, and the comeback mechanics and
- Balancing some of pub stars: Troll, Juggernaut, Lion, Sniper, and Axe come quickly to mind.
Outside of those two things glaring straight at The International, DOTA2 is in a good place. The support hero pool is large and diverse. www.DOTABuff.com just ran a three part series highlighting 10 of the most viable supports you can pick (you can find part 3 here: http://www.dotabuff.com/blog/2015-04-02-introducing-top-tier-supports--part-3). To that list I would add the Ogre Magi, Treant Protector, and Sand King. There are only a few heroes considered unplayable (Sorry Kunkka). The mid lane is seeing a Rock- Paper-Scissors-Hammer-Blade-Scream… between Shadow Fiend, Sniper, Storm Spirit, your magic nuker of choice (usually Lina or Queen of Pain) and the maverick picks ( Ember Spirit, Brewmaster, Magnus, Viper, and even Artzeey on the Razor). With that said, there are still somethings that need fixing so here’s my wish list.
There are a few abilities that need to receive minor nerfs. Sniper’s shrapnel is crazy good at 50 mana and a 40 second recharge rate. Either the mana cost needs to increase enough to where you actually have to consider the cost of casting it, the recharge rate should be increased, or a combination of the 2. I don’t think it’s that far off from being viable but not overpowered. The other ability that stands out is Lion’s Impale. This spell is targeted so as long as you reach the cast point, the stun will land unless they are super far away. This leads to some stuns that are a bit on the questionable side. The solution here is to either have it remain targeted but once you cast it, it goes a fixed distance in the direction of the target or make it a skill shot but increase its range a little. The trend has been to make things more skill intensive; think Fissure for the Earth Shaker or Impale for Nyx.
A few heroes would really benefit from a bump because they are narrowly situational, they are a worse something else, or they are just unplayable. Visage best fits the narrowly situational pick because you almost never see him without a Drow or another pushing hero. Chen has pushed out almost every other pushing hero except for the Enigma. The buff to his abilities is a welcome change, however now the situation exists where Enchantress is a worse something else. Maybe she needs a rework to compete like buffing the damage her creeps have or increasing her healing effectiveness. Finally, the unplayable heroes: Kunka, Alchemist, Leshrac, Chaos Knight and Lifestealer just cannot be picked because they are situationally worse than everything else. A buff to these heroes would be welcome, especially Leshrac. He puts out a ton of damage, but has to compete with QoP, Lina, and Storm for the position of mid int. hero and he can’t. He’s also not a good support because he damage is reliant on being alive for the duration of a fight. A buff in either direction would be most welcome and I think it starts with Lightning Storm.
Hopefully the next patch freshens up the current meta, bringing new heroes to prominence and pushing down some of the current stars. What are your picks for heroes that need nerfs? Buffs? Let me know in the Comments.
Wednesday, December 10, 2014
Death Ball so hard
The past international saw Newbee dominate with the 5 man death ball. Get a pushing hero to 6, group up, take towers, get ahead, push more, get further ahead, and win. This is the death ball way. It became so prevalent that it pushed other strategies out of the meta and wrapped how people played the game leading to a structural change for the tower glyph and gold and hero balancing (sorry, DP.) Re-balancing the game in this way reduced the incentive to employ this strategy, but it's still powerful.
The poster heroes for taking towers are Pugna, Death Prophet (DP), Shadow Shaman (SS), Nature's Prophet (NP) and the big bad wolf (Lycan). Since the nerf stick hit the DP and Lycan directly, they haven't been first pick/first ban in pro games like they were during The International 2014 but are making appearances in the hands of capable teams and players, like EG's Arteezy and Cloud 9's Eternal Envy. Pugna and the SS have fallen out of favor as a direct result of the meta shift even though they are still viable picks although more niche. The NP is a bit of an oddity here because he's picked to globally gank and fight early, evident by the popularity of the Null Talisman and Blademail build.
The strategy was too oppressive, limiting the number of viable strategies and heroes. Teams with a death ball could take two towers in quick succession by winning a team fight at a tower, executing a successful gank, or slow sieging a tower with a counter initiation edge (think Dark Seer) giving them a huge lead. This lead gave more map control the the death ball leading to Roshan, more towers, securing the enemy jungle, et al. While the lead wasn't always insurmountable, it gave significant percentage points to teams who could reliably leverage it into a win.
Why doesn't the death ball bring all the boys to the yard like it used to? Mostly it's the nerf stick, let's say 50% can be attributed to direct nerfing; Lycan, DP, and NP see play, but NP has evolved so he only counts as half leading to 2.5 out of my 5 poster children.. What about the remaining 50%? I have a few theories, and they go as such:
The poster heroes for taking towers are Pugna, Death Prophet (DP), Shadow Shaman (SS), Nature's Prophet (NP) and the big bad wolf (Lycan). Since the nerf stick hit the DP and Lycan directly, they haven't been first pick/first ban in pro games like they were during The International 2014 but are making appearances in the hands of capable teams and players, like EG's Arteezy and Cloud 9's Eternal Envy. Pugna and the SS have fallen out of favor as a direct result of the meta shift even though they are still viable picks although more niche. The NP is a bit of an oddity here because he's picked to globally gank and fight early, evident by the popularity of the Null Talisman and Blademail build.
The strategy was too oppressive, limiting the number of viable strategies and heroes. Teams with a death ball could take two towers in quick succession by winning a team fight at a tower, executing a successful gank, or slow sieging a tower with a counter initiation edge (think Dark Seer) giving them a huge lead. This lead gave more map control the the death ball leading to Roshan, more towers, securing the enemy jungle, et al. While the lead wasn't always insurmountable, it gave significant percentage points to teams who could reliably leverage it into a win.
Why doesn't the death ball bring all the boys to the yard like it used to? Mostly it's the nerf stick, let's say 50% can be attributed to direct nerfing; Lycan, DP, and NP see play, but NP has evolved so he only counts as half leading to 2.5 out of my 5 poster children.. What about the remaining 50%? I have a few theories, and they go as such:
- Team theory - certain teams do better at certain strategies because of their competent hero pool (who they pick and can play at a professional level) and decision making processes (why they pick certain heroes and how they use them). For tier 1 teams, on an average day, they are all within a few percentage points of each other and a few more percentage points above tier 1.5 and more yet over tier 2 teams. As the meta shifts, these percentages also shift in favor of the team which can leverage those shifts into wins. The examples of this are Alliance and Navi who were so dominant up to the last International, but derailed and haven't found much success since. Thus, because there are narrow margins separating pro teams, shifts in the meta create an environment for teams to capitalize on them based on who they are, dooming teams who relied on strategies which have been pushed out.
- Power Curve theory - with each update and introduction of new heroes, it shifts the aggregate power of all heroes and re-balances the relative power level of all heroes. All you have to do is watch the Beyond the Summit 2 game between Team Tinker and C9 where Lifestealer went up against Terrorblase and it was ugly. TB raised the power curve, pushing comparable heroes out - sorry, naix - and raising the stock of counter picks. A similar phenomena happens with an update, but the aggregate power level may not grow or might even shrink. Since the international, the updates and introduction of more heroes lowered the stock of most death balling heroes or pushed them out of the meta completely; Pugna, Dragon Knight, SS, Enchatress, Chen, Clockwerk, and Lone Druid see basically no play as attributed to the Powe Curve. As one commentator put it, Chen creeps run toward TB and die before they get there.
Saturday, November 22, 2014
Foreseer's Contract Update and Nemesis Assassin Event Thoughts
The Foreseer's Contract has been issued. After a cool digital comic which offered a peak at the newest hero to sign their name in blood for ancient's struggle, the Oracle was made live. I'll highlight some of the additions, positive and negative.
- The new Phantom Assassin arcana looks awesome, but disappointing that it's only a weapon. The model change, alternate animations, and in-game icon are well done. My disappoint with it only being a weapon stems from wanting to use a whole set, not just 4 of the 5 piece or whatever the case may be. Maybe Valve should add an "augment hero" equip slot for occations such as this.
- The Oracle as a hero seems underwhelming in power level, but I don't mind. At least for the moment, the Oracle isn't breaking pubs the way some previous heroes have (Terrorblade I'm looking at you.) I would much rather have the Oracle start a little under-powered and get tuned once it's better understood how he interacts with heroes than the alternative.
- Buying the prediction item every time seems a little greedy for Valve. If it were me, buying the PA arcana would give you one everyday for the duration of the event (as long as you used it up the previous day.)
- Playing with the in game contract idea with reward is super fun. It introduces an objective that doesn't create an advantage for either team. Creation of such an objective with a sought after reward (an awesome set) adds dimensions of freshness and fun to the game.
| Level 1 | PA: | Oracle |
| Level 2 | Razor | Razor |
| Omniknight | Earth Spirit | |
| Sand King | Phantom Assassin | |
| Centaur Warrunner | Magnus | |
| Ogre Magi | Sand King | |
| Lion | Leshrac | |
| Axe | Pugna | |
| Crystal Maiden | Undying | |
| Level 2 | Razor: | Sand King: |
| Drow Ranger | Zeus | |
| Sniper | Techies | |
| Techies | Spectre | |
| Viper | Bloodseeker | |
| Meepo | Juggernaut | |
| Bloodseek | Phoenix | |
| Sand King | Sniper | |
| Ember Spirit | Elder Titan |
Friday, November 21, 2014
The Top 5 support picks in pro DOTA
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.
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.
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