Best support hero items in Dota 2 patch 7.35c

In Dota 2 patch 7.35c, support heroes are far stronger than they used to be in the early days of the game. Back then, supports were expected to buy a lot of consumables and be poor for the entire duration of the match.

Nowadays, supports are often rich and can afford to buy Blink Daggers, Force Staffs, Glimmer Capes, and much more. They don’t get as much farm as the cores, but they do get enough to have a high impact. These heroes are no longer just an ultimate and a stun or a slow. They are valuable members of the team that shouldn’t be allowed to die at the start of a fight.

This guide presents some of the most important support items in Dota 2 patch 7.35c. Buying them will greatly enhance your hero’s capabilities.

Force Staff

Force Staff is an incredibly useful mobility item that can be used not just on yourself but also on your allies. Quite often, one of your teammates gets stunned and attacked by a melee carry that deals a lot of damage. The ability to push your ally 600 units away from that hero will often give him almost 2s of protection. Those 2s could be enough to save his life.

Force Staff is quite expensive, costing 2250 gold. It also costs 150 mana to use it. But despite these costs, it remains a very important item that your team could use against heroes like Ursa, Troll Warlord, Sven, Phantom Assassin, and so on.

Apart from its active ability, this item also gives you +10 intelligence and +175 HP. You tend to need both to do well as a support.

Glimmer Cape

Glimmer Cape costs 2150 gold and provides +25 magic resistance. Its active ability can be used on yourself or an ally. Its effect is quite powerful. The target becomes invisible for 5s. It also gains a magic barrier that absorbs 300 damage and +40 movement speed. These are great bonuses for anyone who’s trying to escape from a dangerous position.

The cooldown of this item is just 14s, which means that you can use it more than 4 times per minute. When you’re invisible, you can both escape and initiate. Many support heroes have the ability to stun or slow a target. Having the ability to move in invisibly before the enemy team can figure out what you’re up to is very valuable in Dota 2.

Drum of Endurance

Drum of Endurance costs 1650 gold and offers great bonuses to your teammates. You also gain +7 strength and +7 intelligence from it, as well as +20 movement speed. Your allies gain this movement speed as well.

The item’s active ability can be used 8 times throughout the game and will give every ally in a 1200 radius +13% movement speed and +45 attack speed for 6s. These are really nice buffs to have in a team fight.

Pavise

Pavise is one of the most powerful and cost-efficient items in Dota 2. It costs just 1400 gold and provides +150 HP, +250 mana, +2 armor, and an active ability that gives you 300 physical damage protection for 8s. You can cast this ability every 16s for just 75 mana.

With everything it offers you, Pavise gives your hero around 600 effective HP against physical damage for just 1400 gold, as well as a lot of mana to work with. As a support hero, all of these stats are very useful, so nothing goes to waste.

Another great aspect of Pavise is that you can upgrade it into a Solar Crest. This item costs 2700 gold but provides even more spectacular benefits that can be partly transferred to an ally.

• +4 to all attributes
• +200 HP
• +300 mana
• +4 armor
• +25 movement speed
• Shine: gives +7 armor, +70 attack speed, +15% movement speed, and a 400 HP barrier for 8s. You can cast it from a range of 1000 units.

If you have a carry that needs to absorb a lot of damage and deal even more in return, this item could easily win you the game. In Dota 2, networth is only relevant to the extent to which it is put to good use. Most of it is passive and does not count in a team fight. But you can change this to some extent using items like Solar Crest and their active abilities.

Urn of Shadows

Urn of Shadows is among the first items that you must buy as a support hero, assuming of course that one of your cores doesn’t do it first for tactical reasons.

This item costs 880 gold and gains charges whenever an enemy hero dies in a 1400 radius. These charges can then be used to heal allies for 240 HP over 8s or to damage enemies for 200 HP over the same duration.

Urn of Shadows also gives you +2 to all attributes, +1.4 mana regen, and +2 armor. All of these stats are really nice to have in the early game.

You can upgrade this item into a Spirit Vessel, which gives +6 to all attributes, +125 HP, +1.75 mana regen, +2 armor, and better Soul Release regeneration / damage. Allies receive 320 HP over 8s while enemies receive 35 DPS + 4% of their current HP as DPS. The effect lasts for 8s.

What’s great about this item is that it prevents enemy healing to some extent (45%). This is crucial against heroes like Alchemist, Huskar, Bristleback, and Timbersaw, who often rely on their ability to regenerate quickly.

Blink Dagger

Many support heroes, such as Rubick, desperately need a Blink Dagger because without mobility, they are very limited in what they can do. This is a relatively expensive item for a support, costing 2250 gold. But it’s not impossible to buy it if you learn how to farm the jungle a little bit each minute.

Keep in mind that you don’t need to drastically improve your gpm as a support to be able to buy yourself the basic items. Even 150 extra gold per minute will make a big difference over a period of 15 minutes.

Hand of Midas

Hand of Midas is a luxury item for support heroes, but if you get a great start and can afford it, it can give you lots of gold and experience throughout the game. This item costs 2200 gold, so it’s not exactly cheap for a support hero. But from time to time you may find yourself in a position that allows you to buy it.

If you expect the game to be long or if you notice that the enemy team is greedy, buying this item can help you to keep up in networth with your opponents.

Infused Raindrops

Infused Raindrops can keep you alive in the laning phase and also during the first portion of the mid game.

Apart from the fact that you receive +0.8 mana regen, which translates to 48 mana per minute, you also get a shield against magical damage that activates whenever you receive more than 75 damage of this type in one instance. The amount of damage blocked is 120, which is a lot. The item blocks 6 instances of magical damage and then it disappears.

The cost is very low: 225 gold. This is why a lot of support heroes choose to buy the item as soon as possible.

Gem of True Sight

This is an item that you absolutely must buy at some point to deward your own jungle or the enemy jungle and to gain superior map vision. In Dota 2, vision wins games, so investing in a gem tends to be a good idea. The only problem is that the item costs 900 gold and is lost when you die.

Its active ability, called Reveal, allows you to see enemy wards in the fog of war. This means that you can use it to detect high-ground wards and destroy them without using wards of your own.

When buying a Gem, always make sure that you put it back in your fountain after you’ve done dewarding. Keep it on yourself or an ally only when the enemy team has invisible heroes that have the ability to ambush you in dangerous positions.

Ghost Scepter

Ghost Scepter is an underrated support item that gives +5 to all attributes and physical immunity for 4s. In combination with a Force Staff or a Blink Dagger, it could easily buy you 6s or more when getting attacked. Without it, you might die very quickly without a chance to respond.

The cost of Ghost Scepter is only 1500 gold, so you can afford it at an early stage. Prioritize it when the enemy team has heroes with excellent physical damage and great initiation. If your only escape is to become physically immune, a Ghost Scepter can help a lot. Another option is to buy Glimmer Cape, but the opponent could simply place down a Sentry Ward.

Cloak

Cloak offers +20% magic resistance, which is often life-saving in Dota 2. If you play against heroes like Lina, Leshrac, or Zeus, this item is of great importance and will significantly boost your effective HP. If you have enough gold, you can upgrade it into a Glimmer Cape or even a Pipe of Insight.

Buying this item requires 800 gold, which is gathered in around 3 minutes when you’re a support hero.

Arcane Boots

All support heroes need mobility items and Arcane Boots tends to be the most common choice. These boots give you +45 movement speed and around 220 mana per minute, which is a great way of keeping your mana pool in good condition and ready for battle.

The cost of Arcane Boots is 1300 gold. These boots are less expensive than other mobility items, which is great when you’re a support hero with less gold to spend than a core.

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