Best Support Heroes of Dota 2 Patch 7.35c – TOP 5

Many years ago, Dota 2 supports did not matter as much as they do today. They had very little power and their main role was to spend all their gold on wards, couriers, dust, and consumables. They had problems leveling up and everything about them was weak.

These days, supports are very powerful and can level up relatively quickly. Some of them, thanks to the large number of jungle camps and the low cost of many support items, can keep up with the rest of their teammates and stay relevant from beginning to end.

In Dota 2 patch 7.35c, there are at least a dozen viable support heroes that you could pick in your pubs to make a substantial difference. In this guide, you will discover 5 of them.

Witch Doctor

Witch Doctor excels in many departments and that is why he is picked in 19% of all games. His win rate is above 53%, which clearly indicates that he is very successful. In the right hands, his win rate can easily surpass 60%.

WD has one of the strongest ultimates in the game. Death Ward deals high amounts of pure damage, which means it’s relevant at every stage of the game. In fact, it gets stronger and stronger thanks to its decreasing cooldown and increasing damage.

At level 3, you can cast it every 80s and its damage is 135 per instance. But you get nearly 5 instances per second. That’s roughly 600 pure damage per second. If you manage to attack for just 3 seconds during the late game, an enemy hero will die. Possibly more if you have Aghanim’s Scepter.

In the laning phase, Witch Doctor is played with a point in Voodoo Restoration, which gives yourself and your allies 20 HP per second at a cost of 8 mana per second. The remaining points should be used to upgrade Paralyzing Cask and Maledict.

The first of these two abilities allows you to stun and damage two opponents multiple times. The second one greatly amplifies all of the damage they take after the debuff is applied. Apart from the base damage, which is quite low, Maledict deals 16% – 40% of the damage you dealt as additional damage per instance. And a total of 3 instances are applied over 12 seconds.

This means that if Maledict is level 3 had has a 32% damage of the damage you managed to inflict upon your target after casting the spell, all of that damage will be doubled because of the three damage instances. That’s a very powerful debuff.

This works not just for your damage but also for the damage of your allies. So if you’re level 5 and have applied Maledict on an enemy, both you and your carry essentially have double damage against that target. This is overpowered if used properly and can lead to many lane kills.

When playing Witch Doctor, you should buy items like Aghanim’s Shard, Arcane Boots, Aghanim’s Scepter, Glimmer Cape, Aether Lens, Force Staff, and Blink Dagger. A Ghost Scepter can also help a lot against heroes with high physical damage, such as Templar Assassin, Phantom Assassin, and Juggernaut.

Oracle

Oracle is one of those Dota 2 heroes that allow you to keep a key ally alive for much longer and potentially save their life if they have good HP regen or lifesteal.

Despite having a pick rate of less than 5%, Oracle’s win rate is above 53%. This hero is easily one of the best picks for the position 5 role. It’s not as fun to play as other supports, which is why few players pick him, but he certainly is a great addition to any draft.

Just imagine having a Phantom Assassin on your team. That hero will likely get initiated on numerous times. But with you there, she will not die. You can keep her alive for an additional 7 – 10s using False Promise, and that’s plenty of time to kill at least two heroes.

Other abilities used by Oracle can disarm targets for 3.5 – 5s while making them immune to magical damage. You can cast this ability on an ally while on the defense, or on an enemy who is initiating and wants to use his basic attacks.

Another thing that Oracle is good at is rooting opponents for up to 2.75s. The ability that does this is called Fortune’s End and you must channel it for up to 2.5s. The damage is not very high, just 280 at level 4, but the root duration is substantial and can secure important kills.

The most offensive Oracle spell is Purifying Flames. This ability deals 360 damage but it is followed by a substantial amount of healing per second, which lasts for 9 seconds.

So the key is to use it once, wait for 2.5s, use it again, and then dispel the buff using Fortune’s End. Then you can cast it for a third time. In many cases, the total damage will be close to 1000, which is enough to kill supports and low HP cores.

When playing Oracle, the most important item to buy is Aether Lens. If you have this item, you will have all the mana and mana regen you need to cast your spells. More importantly, you will also have the range required to cast spells from a safe distance.

Other items worth buying are Blink Dagger, Force Staff, and Glimmer Cape. Arcane Boots, Solar Crest, and Urn of Shadows can help as well.

Warlock

Warlock a great combination of defensive and offensive spells. This hero excels in team fights because of his AoE abilities. All you need to do is cast Fatal Bonds and catch at least three enemy heroes with it. The debuff lasts for 15s and during that time, all of the targets take shared damage. This means that damaging one of them will damage the others as well to some extent.

The percentage of damage taken by the bonded targets is 28% if you choose the right talent at level 10. When combined with AoE damage spells, like Lina’s Q, or Death Prophet’s Q, your enemies will simply melt. Or imagine having a Zeus, an Invoker, or a Queen of Pain on your team. Even the most basic combination will have spectacular effects.

In the laning phase, Warlock’s Shadow Word can be used both offensively and defensively. Ideally, you should use it defensively because it’s more effective. When you use it offensively, 25% of the effect is negated by the target’s magic resistance. An additional 5-10% is negated by its HP regen. But when you cast it on yourself or an ally, you get massive benefits.

At level 1, we’re talking about 150 HP over 10 seconds. At level 4 it’s 450 HP. However, if you’re confident that you can get a kill or force an enemy hero out of the lane, using it offensively might be a good idea.

When defending or sieging a position, Warlock’s Upheaval can greatly hinder the enemy’s ability to move. This 650 radius ability slows movement speed tremendously and the effect increases with every passing second. An enemy that’s trapped in your Upheaval for more than a few seconds will barely move after that point.

Finally, we have Warlock’s ultimate, Chaotic Offering. This ability creates a Golem, or two if you have Aghanim’s Scepter. This summon is quite powerful and can be further upgraded with talents. It lives for 60s and during that time, it has great HP regen (25 – 75 per second), HP (1400 – 3200), armor (8 – 14), and damage (110 – 230).

When playing Warlock, you want to buy items like Aether Lens, Glimmer Cape, Aghanim’s Shard, and Aghanim’s Scepter. A Force Staff or a Blink Dagger can also help with mobility. Positioning is very important when playing this hero, so you want to be able to be at the right place when a team fight begins.

Shadow Shaman

Shadow Shaman has two of the best disables in Dota 2, which is the main reason why this hero’s pick rate is above 15% right now. His win rate is also great, around 52.5%.

When you play Shaman, your goal is to push the lanes as much as you can and then use your ultimate, Mass Serpent Ward, to deal damage to enemy towers. This playstyle forces the enemy team to allocate a lot of resources to stop you. In most cases, you will escape by teleporting back to base. Or, if the enemy makes a mistake, you can get kills using Shackles.

The goal is to disrupt farming patterns while your own team farms efficiently. Getting killed will not be that big of a problem if you’ve used your ultimate and done some damage because the enemy will only get several hundred gold while losing the same amount or more in missed jungle camps.

Even if you’re dealing with an efficient team with excellent mobility, being aggressive pays off because your own cores will have plenty of space to farm and get their key items. When you finally decide to go on the offensive as a team instead of on your own, you will be able to make a big contribution with all of your abilities.

The key is to trap one or two key targets. If you can only trap one, use your Hex and then your Shackles. If you can trap to, use your Hex on one and your Shackles on another.

In some cases, the optimal play is to disrupt two targets that have some kind of synergy. Or to simply focus on the support that wants to help a core. It all depends on the specific details of each match-up.

Your Serpent Wards can be used to disjoint enemy teams or to trap support heroes that will either get killed by the snakes or require a long time to escape the prison. Keep in mind that when playing Shaman, you will be the target of many attacks. Having a Force Staff, a Ghost Scepter, a Blink Dagger, or other items that make you more survivable is very important.

Try buying a Glimmer Cape and, of course, an Aether Lens. You won’t need a lot of items, but it’s not that hard to farm with this hero thanks to Ether Shock, which deals 320 damage to a maximum number of 9 targets located in a 1000 radius.

Vengeful Spirit

Vengeful Spirit has a win rate of nearly 52% and a pick rate of around 11%. She is picked because she offers the perfect initiation at the start of every team fight. Or, if an ally gets caught out of position, she can trade her life to save a core.

Most of Vengeful Spirit’s abilities have been nerfed in recent patches. Wave of Terror now offers just 6 armor reduction. But the damage is still decent (120) and the 25% damage reduction is also decent. Combined with Vengeance Aura, which offers +25% base bonus damage to all allies in a 1200 radius, this creates a big damage output advantage for her team.

Magic Missile is quite weak but the 360 magical damage combined with the 1.7s stun duration is decent if you have a good follow-up or you simply want to prevent a target from teleporting back to base.

The most important ability when playing Venge is Nether Swap. Its cast range is 800 – 1100 and can be further increased with Aether Lens. If you swap an ally, they get a powerful shield for 10s. That shield can absorb 150 – 450 damage. If you swap an enemy, they receive 150 – 450 damage. This guarantees that they won’t blink away immediately.

You can also stun immediately and use Wave of Terror to get a faster kill. Doing this at the start of a fight guarantees that you’ll be fighting 5 vs 4 unless the target buys back.

Header: Valve