Best support heroes in Dota 2 patch 7.34e

Dota 2 patch 7.34e has consolidated the status of many fascinating support heroes. Nobody would have guessed five years ago that in the future, the game will revolve to a large extent around supports. But the changes introduced by IceFrog over the years have made support heroes a lot more powerful than they used to be.

In this guide, you will learn about the best support heroes of Dota 2 patch 7.34e. A total of 10 of them will be analyzed, giving you a deeper understanding of why they’re so successful at the moment. If you don’t play these heroes but are a support player, you should start.

1. Witch Doctor: 55% WR

Witch Doctor is one of the best support heroes in Dota 2. Everyone loves playing the doctor and it’s understandable why. His toolkit allows him to be the perfect defensive lane support and also the perfect offensive lane support.

He can heal allies while damaging opponents with his Voodoo Restoration. He can stun multiple targets repeatedly and damage them with his Paralyzing Cask. And he can ensure that a target takes an enormous amount of post-fight damage using Maledict.

After level 6, WD’s ultimate can easily kill any hero in the game thanks to the fact that it deals pure damage: 70 / 105 / 140 per instance. However, the ability hits many times per second, which basically means that anything will die in a matter of seconds. Add Maledict and there’s no escape.

When playing WD, it’s important to position yourself correctly. Because Death Ward is a channeled ability, any stun or silence will cancel it. The trick is to either use a Glimmer Cape or to position yourself in a way that makes it hard for the enemy team to get to you.

The attack range of Death Ward is 600, which is quite good, but you’ll still need to place it sufficiently close to your opponents if you want it to get the job done. Most cores won’t carry dust because they have more important items. So if you use a simple Glimmer Cape, you’ll be able to use your ultimate effectively, without any worries.

Before using this powerful ability, make sure you throw a Paralyzing Cask and use Maledict. That way, whatever damage you will deal will get amplified. And if the target tries to run away, it won’t be able to if it’s stunned.

2. Jakiro: 53.9% WR

Jakiro, the two-headed dragon, is a powerful support hero that can quickly destroy tier 1 towers thanks to his Liquid Fire ability.

After the 10-minute mark, when bigger fights start to break out, Jakiro’s Ice Path will be enormously useful thanks to its range. This ability can be case from afar and will stun one or two heroes for 2 seconds.

Another powerful ability that Jakiro can use is Dual Breath, which deals 400 damage over 5 seconds and slows movement speed by 40%. It also slows attack speed by 40. Any hero that loves to right-click will experience a lot of pain while fighting against a Jakiro lineup.

When your movement speed is greatly hindered for 5 seconds and you take lots of damage, fighting becomes much harder.

If both Liquid Fire and Dual Breath hit a target, that target will have -100 attack speed for 5s, which is a huge debuff.

Jakiro’s Macropyre deals a lot of damage and is quite useful, but it needs to be set up. Otherwise, the enemy heroes will simply avoid it or walk out of it. To some extent, Jakiro can create the setup himself using his Ice Path or his Dual Breath.

Both abilities make movement much harder, ensuring that Macropyre will deal a lot of damage. But it’s better to have a different hero to take care of the setup. That way, Jakiro can follow up with his abilities and make the slows and stuns much longer.

When playing the dragon, you need to buy items like Rod of Atos, Aghanim’s Scepter, Aghanim’s Shard, Eul’s Scepter, Aether Lens, and Glimmer Cape. You could also opt for a team-oriented build. The ultimate goal is to be as useful as possible.

3. Warlock: 53.3% WR

Warlock excels at healing allies, but he’s even better at damaging opponents, slowing their movement speed, and ensuring they don’t get out alive. His toolkit makes him a scary hero in team fights, but that also makes him a key target for the enemy team.

You can protect yourself using items like Glimmer Cape and Ghost Scepter. Such items guarantee that you will get to use your abilities at least once before dying.

If the enemy team has powerful initiators like Magnus or Faceless Void, you will absolutely need to buy yourself an Aeon Disk. Without it, you may never get to do anything in team fights.

Warlock’s ultimate can change the course of a fight. You can also use the Golem to push a lane. However, Warlock’s true source of power is his Fatal Bonds mixed with Upheaval. The slow per second provided by this second ability is 11% – 20%.

The first ability causes targets to take 12 – 24% shared damage for 19 – 25s. That’s devastating in a team fight if you have allies who deal AoE Damage. For example, if you have a Zeus on your team, Fatal Bonds followed by his ultimate will completely destroy the enemy team, causing it to flee in panic.

Among the most important items bought by Warlock players, Aghanim’s Scepter and Arcane Boots are some of the best. Glimmer Cape, Aether Lens, and Refresher Orb are also top picks. Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide what you need to make a big difference.

Lanes that have a Warlock are harder to bully because of his Shadow Word, which heals a total of 250 HP at level 2!

4. Treant Protector: 52.8% WR

Treant Protector became one of the best supports of Dota 2 patch 7.34e thanks to his abilities and highly survivable playstyle. This hero can offer an ally +10 armor and +6 HP regen for 30s. If you combine his Living Armor with a Medallion, he can give that target +16 armor.

Upgrade that Medallion into a Solar Crest and you have +17 armor, +6 HP regen, +70 attack speed, and +15% movement speed when Treant takes care of you. If Treant gets to level 20, his talents allow him to further improve his Living Armor, giving it a +18 armor buff. That’s a total of +25 armor on your chosen hero.

Assuming that they already have around 25 armor, their total will be 50 armor, which essentially makes them four times as resistant against physical damage. Instead of 2000 HP, they will have 8000 HP. And keep in mind that Living Armor is a global ability that can also be used on buildings.

Other Treant abilities are just as useful. Nature’s Grasp slows movement speed by 35% and deals damage per second. Leech Seed further slows movement speed and deals damage per second to all affected enemies, healing your allies if they’re nearby.

Finally, Overgrowth, which is Treant’s ultimate, will root every enemy in place for 3 – 5s, dealing 85 damage per second. The radius of this ability is 800. In team fights, this is almost as powerful as Void’s Chronosphere.

Lots of players like to play Treant aggressively, using a Meteor Hammer and a Blink Dagger. This allows them to farm very quickly and position themselves well for a fight.

5. Silencer: 52.7% WR

Silencer is the hero that every team picks when the plan is to kill a key target during a long silence, to break a powerful combination of abilities, or even to stop just one ability while it is channeled, such as Enigma’s Black Hole.

When you pick Silencer, the fact that you have a global ultimate that can block the use of all abilities for 4.5 – 6s is quite comforting. Even if you’re not involved in a team fight, you can still help from afar. And even if you die, you can buyback and prevent a complete disaster.

Ideally, as a Silencer you always aim to use your ultimate offensively, in order to win a fight or take an objective like Roshan. Another thing to keep in mind is that Global Silence pierces spell immunity, which means that it will affect heroes who have used their BKB.

On the other hand, silence is dispellable. The later the game goes, the higher the chance that you will have to play against heroes who have a Manta Style, a Eul’s Scepter or some other method of getting rid of your silence. Because of that, Silencer lineups should try to end the game before the 30-minute mark.

Silencer is a strong laner. He can deal damage to multiple targets in a 350 radius area and cause them to take additional damage for every spell they cast. In team fights, if you hit two or three heroes with your Arcane Curse, those heroes will suffer a lot if they try to cast any spells.

The effect lasts for a minimum of 6s, with 2 more seconds added for each spell that was cast. The worst part about this ability is that it slows your movement by 25%.

6. Shadow Shaman: 52.6% WR

Shadow Shaman is an excellent choice for situations in which you need to control a key target for a long period of time. His Shackles last for 4.2s and his Hex lasts for 2.9s. This means that in total, a mere Shaman will keep an enemy hero disabled for more than 7s, which is more than enough time to kill him if you have a core nearby.

While a target is under the effect of Hex, it takes 10 – 25% more damage. If it’s shackled, it takes 300 damage for the entire duration.

Shadow Shaman clears lanes quickly thanks to his Ether Shock, which deals 320 damage to up to 9 targets. His ultimate, Mass Serpent Ward, is useful not just for destroying towers and farming creep waves, but also for killing jungle creeps and even heroes.

Players who enjoy picking Shadow Shaman have a split-pushing mentality. They know that their job will be to create space for their cores and generate as much chaos as possible. If the enemy team is forced to respond to you every minute, that will allow them less time to think about offensive plans.

Shadow Shaman works well in combination with heroes like Juggernaut, Slark, or Phantom Assassin, who love having a stable target they can hit. Whenever you’re dealing with very slippery heroes, such as Morphling or Weaver, Shaman can help you solve that problem.

Combining this support with a hero that enjoys ganking early will give you the option to invade the enemy jungle repeatedly using smoke. This is a tactic that can greatly slow down and disrupt the farming patterns of a powerful enemy carry. Just one or two kills may be enough to get a big networth advantage and win the game.

7. Lich: 52.% WR

Lich is a very fun hero to play and he can be used in combination with Treant Protector to cause massive damage to the enemy team with ultimates, or to provide an enormous amount of protection to a key target.

Treant gives +10 armor with his Living Armor. Lich can also buff an ally for 8s, giving him +60% damage reduction, which is an enormous amount of protection. Not to mention the fact that all enemy units that are close to the target will get slowed by 35%, as well as damaged.

Lich can keep an enemy trapped for 2s and drain 20% of his mana using Sinister Gaze. This ability can be very useful if an enemy hero tries to teleport away or disengage in any way from the fight.

With his Frost Blast, Lich will slow movement speed by 25% and attack speed by 60 in a 200 radius area. He will also deal 200 damage in that area. In the early game, the movement speed debuff, which lasts for 4s, is often enough to kill an enemy hero.

In team fights, or whenever he catches two or more enemy heroes clumped together, Lich can use his ultimate to cause massive damage and slow. The ability deals 250 – 550 damage per bounce and slows movement speed by 65% for 2.5s. That’s an enormous debuff that ensures the effectiveness of the spell, as long as the targets can’t easily blink away or go invisible.

Lich should be picked against melee carry heroes that depend on mobility and physical damage to get the job done. By slowing down their movement and attack speed, and by greatly reducing the effectiveness of their attacks, you will assist your team in winning the fight.

8. Oracle: 52.1% WR

When you have a key core that should never die in team fights because that would compromise the entire strategy of the team, Oracle is an excellent choice. This hero will keep someone alive for an additional 7 – 10s, and potentially much longer if the target gets healed during this time.

A lot of teams use a very basic strategy: use everything on the primary source of damage, in order to remove it from the fight, and then kill the rest of the team. For instance, if you’re playing against a Slark or a Morphling, chain-stunning and focusing on them until they’re dead is often the only way to win a fight.

A good Oracle understands this, and will position himself in a way that compromises his opponents’ plans. One thing to keep in mind when playing this kind of game is that the enemy team will also understand that you’re trying to stay close to your cores.

So they will either attack you directly, in order to force you to self-cast your ultimate, or they will seek to silence you so that you can’t use your False Promise in time to save your cores.

Another strategy is that of displacing either you or the target that needs to be killed. This kind of separation often leads to a compromised ability to optimally cast the spell.

Oracle has several other abilities that make the hero very strong in the laning phase. Fortune’s End deals 100 – 280 damage and roots a target for up to 2.75s. Fate’s Edict grants a target 100% magic resistance for 3.5 – 5s. Purifying Flames deals 90 – 360 damage every 2.5s. Despite its subsequent healing, it is still deadly in most cases. Plus the healing can be dispelled with your Q.

9. Venomancer: 51.5% WR

Venomancer is a very unusual type of support hero in this meta. A lot of players use him in the offlane, either as position 4 or position 3. He is quite strong and can provide a lot of useful tools to his teammates, while damaging his enemies significantly.

One Venomous Gale is enough to compromise a target’s ability to move or blink away. The damage may not seem great at first, but it quickly adds up. Furthermore, targets who try to run away are often hit numerous times in the process. This increases the odds that they’ll get killed.

Plague Ward allows Venomancer to keep enemy creeps away from his towers, and also to farm the jungle with ease. By the time you’re level 5, you can already leave the lane and allow someone else to take that gold and experience.

Venomancer’s passive ability, Poison Sting, slows movement speed by 14% and will deal an enormous amount of damage over time: more than 450 after just one hit, split over the next 15 seconds. That is absolutely impressive.

Because of this, many players like to put more than one point in it during the laning phase and then harass their opponents. When used in combination with Plague Ward, few heroes can deal with the pressure.

Venomancer’s ultimate will deal a lot of poison damage over 5s, as well as slow. The initial damage is just 150 – 350. But the max HP as damage adds up in the late game: 4 – 6% per second.

Venomancer plus Silencer or Venomancer plus Necrophos is a lethal combination. It’s enough to try it once to understand just how easily it can destroy an enemy lane.

10. Undying: 51.3% WR

Undying is the perfect choice when the objective is to make sure that your carry will not get harassed too much, and when the strategy is to have massive fights at static locations.

For example, if you have a Templar Assassin and the goal is to finish the game after the 2^nd Roshan, picking Undying allows you to kill Roshan more easily and guarantee that the enemy team will not want to fight you near the pit.

When you pick Undying, you should aim to dominate the early game and snowball. In the late game, this hero is quite weak and doesn’t offer very much apart from his Tombstone. Many players like to use him as an offlaner because of this. If you have good items, his ultimate becomes a lot more effective.

In recent patches, Undying has become a hero who can save his teammates using his Tombstone. He is highly effective against heroes like Enigma, who like to trap a key target and get it killed early.

Header: Valve