This soft support position, or position four, plays a crucial role in establishing the tempo of a Dota 2 game. The soft supports will usually have more flexibility and a higher priority than a hard support. These supports aid their team by roaming, securing objectives, and generating map pressure. The 2025 tier list from ESPN Insider highlights the best soft supports to be your go-to heroes in this patch. The heroes are simply ranked S-Tier to D-Tier.
Straight to the Top
The S Tier consists of Spirit Breaker, Snapfire, Shadow Shaman, and Clockwerk who are known for their consistency and impact on the game later on. These heroes do well due to their crowd control, initiation, and ability to turn early aggression into early objectives. They easily blend into different compositions, making each a very reliable option for ranked and professional play.
Very Good and Very Versatile
Image Credits: Valve
In the A Tier, we can find consistent heroes like Earthshaker, Bounty Hunter, Hoodwink, Vengeful Spirit, with their kits providing a lot of utility and flexibility throughout their kit such as stuns, vision, and burst damage. In addition, Dark Willow, Silencer, and Skywrath Mage are still great picks due to their lane presence and spell efficiency; they also work well for players looking for more consistent associates.
Situational and Riskier Options
All of the B-Tier heroes (Rubick, Marci, Tusk, Pugna) are still relatively viable but require effective execution and a smooth draft. They can perform in favorable matchups, but often require coordination with teammates. C-Tier heroes, like Tiny, Invoker, Zeus, are simply considered niche or are probably better off in another role.
Read More: Dota 2 Patch 7.39e: Most Successful and Struggling Heroes After the Latest Update
Underperforming Soft Supports
The D-Tier consists of heroes like Monkey King, Riki, and Primal Beast who simply do not perform at what we think of as a soft support level (or responsibly should not, due to meta shifts or higher item dependency). They can find success, but would require a specific strategy and they beyond no doubt would be less reliable picks holistically than higher-tier heroes.
All in all, the Dota 2 soft support meta favors heroes who have early impact, utility, and adaptability, in other words, traits that currently define the pace and tempo of play in the current competitive environment.
