Powerful Support Heroes to Try in Dota 2 Patch 7.35d

Dota 2 patch 7.35d introduced some new changes to the game and some of the support heroes have become very good for gaining MMR. You may not know how to play them well but with a little bit of practice, you can certainly reach a competence level that will allow you to climb the ladder.

In this guide, we’ll explore half a dozen support heroes that are very strong in Dota 2 patch 7.35d.

Dark Willow

Dark Willow was buffed by IceFrog and her Bedlam now has a Roaming duration of 5.5s instead of 5s. This hero is very difficult to play against because her toolkit provides excellent crowd-control and also multiple escape mechanisms.

If you try to run away from her, you’ll get stunned. If you try to run toward her, you’ll get stunned, terrorized, or avoided.

Bramble Maze roots targets for 2.5s and it’s almost guaranteed to catch a hero or two when placed properly. Only the best players know how to properly avoid the brambles while moving, so you can expect to root the same hero twice in a lot of cases. This gives your team 5s to deal massive amounts of damage to the rooted target.

If additional items are bought, the duration could be even longer. Rod of Atos is underestimated on Dark Willow. With it, she could easily guarantee a 4.5s root on any trapped target, which would then allow a hero like Mirana, Invoker, Elder Titan, and many more to land their skill shots, resulting in an easy kill.

Dark Willow’s Shadow Realm makes her untargetable and allows her to deal an attack with 600 bonus range and 360 bonus damage. She can remain in this state for 5s. That’s enough time to teleport away if the situation becomes too dangerous.

Curse Crown further improves Dark Willow’s ability to control enemy heroes. Its debuff gets activated after 4s. At the end of that duration, the target is stunned for 2.4s. In fact, everything around the target in a 360 radius will be stunned for that duration. The only thing this ability is lacking is damage.

Bedlam allows Dark Willow to heavily damage opponents who either try to get close to attack her or simply cannot get away from her. Per second, this ability deals 280 – 680 damage. The total duration is 5.5s, which is enough to kill a hero in the early game.

When things get really complicated and you need to escape from the enemy team or help an ally who is being chased, you can use Terrorize. This ability makes affected enemies run in fear for 2.8 – 3.2s. During this time, you could even turn back and fight because your opponents can’t fight back.

As you can see, Dark Willow is perfectly equipped to deal with all kinds of situations. Buying the right item will further increase her potential and versatility. Usually, you want to buy an Eul’s Scepter, a Rod of Atos, and a Blink Dagger for this hero. But it all depends on what your team needs to succeed and on what you need to stay alive.

Clockwerk

Clockwerk now deals substantially more damage with his Power Cogs. Half of the burned mana gets transformed into damage, which means that the ability now deals nearly 350 damage at level 4.

This hero is the perfect roamer after level 6 because he can gank from 2000 – 3000 units away thanks to his ultimate, which deals 75 – 275 damage and stuns for 1.2 – 1.6s. You can use it once every minute at level 6 and once every 30s at level 18. So after level 6, Clockwerk is expected to create a lot of space for his cores and assist in smoke ganks.

Battery Assault deals 20 – 95 damage per instance and damages a close target every 0.7s, making their escape very challenging thanks to the ministun it applies. The duration is 10.5s, so if a target gets caught, the total amount of damage is greater than 1000. That’s a lot of damage in the first 20 minutes of the game.

Cockwerk’s Power Cogs last for 5 – 8s and require 2 attacks to destroy. You can destroy them with one attack, but enemies who try to escape will have a hard time destroying them if they’re continuously stunned by Battery Assault.

This ability can be used to disjoint enemy teams or to prevent them from following you when you want to retreat.

Clockwerk should build items like Force Staff, Spirit Vessel, Blade Mail, Arcane Boots, and anything that could be useful to his team. Keep in mind that this hero will often put himself in harm’s way when initiating, so a bit of durability doesn’t hurt.

Force Staff is important because it allows you to leave the cogs without destroying them. This keeps the enemy trapped for longer. Additional help from your team will often lead to a kill if the enemy team doesn’t intervene quickly enough.

Bounty Hunter

Bounty Hunter can deal massive damage thanks to his 5s cooldown Shuriken Toss. He can cast it from a decent range and you can greatly improve that range if you buy Aether Lens.

Bounty’s Jinada will steal 12 – 36 gold each time you use it and its cooldown at level 4 is only 3s. This makes it very tempting to prioritize and maximize early. Its bonus damage at level 4 is 180, which is a lot in the early game.

Bounty Hunter can roam with ease and gank whenever he wants using Shadow Walk. This ability allows him to stay invisible for 20 – 35s and has a cooldown of just 18 – 15s. The mana cost is 55, which means it can be spammed, especially if Clarities are used.

When you hit a target out of invisibility, you stun that target for 0.8 – 1.4s. At level 4, the stun is effective. But at level 1 it can at best stop a TP.

The reason why Bounty Hunter is picked has a lot to do with his ultimate. Track gives you critical strike, bonus speed, and a lot of gold if the target dies while being affected by your debuff, which lasts for 30s. Allies will also receive a bit of gold for every enemy hero that dies while being tracked.

An amazing ability that Bounty can gain is Friendly Shadow. This ability requires only Aghanim’s Shard and will essentially make one of your allies invisible by allowing you to cast something equivalent to Shadow Walk on them. This kind of invisibility lasts for 20 – 35s and the cooldown of the ability is just 10s at level 4.

This means that you can organize ganks very easily using Bounty even if you don’t have smokes.

Hoodwink

Hoodwink is perfectly suited for a playstyle that aims to kill an important hero each time and then press that advantage by taking map objectives. This hero has excellent crowd-control abilities and will assist with lots of damage from afar.

His ultimate, Sharpshooter, can be cast from a very long range and deals a maximum of 550 – 1250 damage when fullly charged. The maximum charge duration is 3s. After an enemy gets hit by Hoodwink’s arrow, his movement speed is slowed by 30 – 50% for 5s. The arrow also applies the Break mechanic for the same duration.

This ability has a cooldown of just 45s, which means that you can fight frequently and have a guaranteed way of breaking a target down with the help of your teammates.

Hoodwink’s Q, Acorn Shot, is similar to Witch Doctor’s Paralyzing Cask. It bounces up to 5 times and slows movement speed by 100% for 0.35s. The ability also deals lots of damage in the process.

Bushwhack stuns for up to 2s and deals 90 – 360 damage. This ability should be followed up by another form of stun, root, or slow in order to give Hoodwink the possibility to use his ultimate with precision. Keep in mind that your opponents need to be near trees if you want the ability to work as intended.

When in the vicinity of trees, Hoodwink’s Scurry gives him 20 – 35% movement speed and 15 – 30% evasion for 5s.

As you can see, this hero heavily relies on trees to be effective, so make sure you don’t pick him against Timbersaw or in combination with him.

When playing Hoodwink, your item build depends on your role. In some cases, you’ll want to buy utility items that help your team. In others, you will be expected to deal lots of damage. In such a case, investing in a Gleipnir might be a good idea.

Earth Spirit

Earth Spirit is rarely picked in Dota 2 not because he’s weak but because he’s difficult to play. Dota 2 patch 7.35d buffed him substantially by doubling his Rolling Boulder’s base damage from 30 to 60. This ability can also stun for 0.3 – 0.9s but that’s without a rock.

If you also use a rock, the duration is doubled, as well as the distance (750). The speed increases from 1000 to 1600. When this ability is level 4, you can use it every 4s. This makes Earth Spirit one of the most mobile heroes in Dota 2. When you can travel 1500 units every 4s, you essentially have twice the movement speed.

Boulder Smash will slow a target for 4s at level 4 and will also deal 300 damage. Creeps take 40% more damage, which makes the ability good for farming creep waves.

Geomagnetic Grip can be used to silence opponents for 2 – 3.5s, as well as damage them for 50 – 200.

This hero has incredible movement, the ability to silence, and the ability to stun. His ultimate, Magnetize, will deal 40 – 120 damage per second. The effect lasts for 6s. But if you place a stone next to your enemies, the debuff is refreshed. This means that it can potentially last for much longer than 6s.

During the mid portion of the game, when you deal 80 damage per second, refreshing the duration after 4s guarantees a total duration of 10s. That’s 800 damage just from this ability alone. Add to it your other abilities and some right-click damage and you can easily kill a target if it doesn’t have a BKB or some other way to get rid of the debuff.

This hero has a fantastic attribute increase per level: +3.8 strength, +2.4 agility, and +2.1 intelligence. Buying more items that further increase his attributes tends to be a good idea.

If you play Earth Spirit in a core role, instead of buying a Black King Bar, it can be wise to buy a Heart of Tarrasque before the 20-minute mark. Doing that makes you very hard to kill.

This is one of those heroes who can quickly reach 3000 HP and then fortify it with some armor and magic resistance for optimal results. His abilities give him most of the damage he needs, so he can be an offensive tank.

Ogre Magi

Ogre Magi is highly picked right now because he’s one of the tankiest heroes in the game for the first 20 minutes and can severely disrupt enemy farm with his abilities. Bloodlust increases his damage output enormously and it also gives him 7 – 13% movement speed. The effect lasts for 30s, so you can just buff yourself and start clubbing your enemies. You can also farm faster.

For better results, buff yourself and then debuff your enemies using Ignite. This ability deals 20 – 50 burn damage per second, lasts for 5 – 8s, and slows movement speed by 20 – 29%. Using it will quickly create a massive difference between your movement speed and your opponent’s. If you also own some items that can further increase your speed, that will work well.

Ogre Magi can also stun enemies for 1.2s and deal 70 – 250 damage to them using Fireblast. The most satisfying thing about this ability is the multicast effect. At level 6, you unlock your ultimate, which gives you the chance to cast your spells multiple times. The 2x chance is 75% while the 3x chance is 30% when the ability is level 2.

This makes it possible to cast multiple times your Hand of Midas but also your damage spells.

Header: Valve