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when playing support, I find myself playing Dazzle most of the time since all of his skills synergize incredibly well with common pubstomp heroes who happen to be mostly physical/right-click heroes (PA, Troll, Axe, Sniper, Bloodseeker, etc.) so can anyone explain what roles do other heroes serve?
There are plenty of other supports that I want to try out like Warlock, Venge, Lina, Lion, Bane, Omni, Treant, atc. but I cant figure out what playstyle do they excel in.
So for example,
1) Which hero is good for pushing quickly?
2) What makes a good roaming or lane support?
3) Any support who can hold its own late game?
4) Good initiators?
5) Good gem/mek carriers (aka tanky supports)?
6) Something with silence/a counter to spell caster heroes?
Roaming supports are heroes who are really good at setting up kills, and who are very strong at low levels (level 1-3).
Genreally roaming supports have pretty bad lane presence, a lot of them are melee, but they're really good for killing heroes at low levels.
Roaming supports are best played when you have a carry who has good lane presence and can solo his lane without needing help (e.g Weaver or Lone Druid)
Lane supports on the other hand are heroes who are generally really bad at setting up kills, but have extremely good lane presence and focus on harassing, pulling and denying. Unlike roaming supports, they're generally pretty level dependent. They're very passive heroes, all they generally do is sit in one lane, sap experience, harass and let their carry farm.
Lane supports are generally best played when you have a hard carry who has horrible lane presence and needs a lot of babysitting in lane to secure his farm (e.g Spectre or Anti-Mage).
Apart from some very rare exceptions, no support is truly bad in the late game, and actually most of them are still relevant. You see your fair share of Crystal Maiden ultimates being game-changing in 1 hour games.
However if you're stuck in the pub syndrome of games going absurdly late for no reason and the average game length being 55 minutes...you need dedicated late game supports definitely.
IMO the best late game supports are : Omniknight, Enigma, Necrophos (ever wondered why Omni and Necro are the top 2 heroes in pub winrates? Look no further xD)
Heroes like Tidehunter Magnus Doom Dark Seer and Elder Titan are very good in the late game as well but they're not technically supports, more like utility heroes. But if you manage to play them as supports (it can work in certain situations) it's legit.
Sometimes support must have a synergy with other heroes especially the #3 position that is mostly initiators/tanks or anti the possible future dilemna like Vengeful Spirit's Nether Swap against Batrider's Flaming Lasso . I also noticed to Team Secret that they pick offensive and defensive supports that has the ability to roam early. Watch pro scenes for more warding tactics, when to smoke gank and leave lanes, crucial buybacks, etc.
There are plenty of other supports that I want to try out like Warlock, Venge, Lina, Lion, Bane, Omni, Treant, atc. but I cant figure out what playstyle do they excel in.
Since HamsterTamer answered your other ones, I'll just answer this one.
Warlock is a greedy support that excels in teamfights. He's a great lane support because of his heal, and he has a giant AOE slow.
Vengeful Spirit excels in roaming around the map helping getting kills. Good for taking Rosh.
Lion is a support that excels in disabling enemy heroes. Because of his natural mana sustain, he can afford to be poor the rest of the game and is usually played as a 4. Blink Dagger is a good pickup.
Bane is an annoying support that excels at single-target disabling. Bane can be played as both a roaming support to annoy the mid lane with Enfeeble, or can be put as a roaming hero with someone else that needs setup. ( Mirana, Kunkka etc.)
Omniknight is a greedy defensive support that provides a great amount of heal and immunity to your team. Usually played as a #3 or a #4
Treant Protector is a melee support that excels in multiple things. His ability to heal towers render slow sieges useless, and his natural high damage and HP pool allow him to harass and zone effectively. His invisibility can be very useful for warding and scouting.
I'm gonna leave my contribution here about Lina: the reason why you mentioned her as a support but TheSofa simply explained she is usually played as a core is the following: looking at her skills overall, you will see that she has huge damage to deliver, but little else in terms of team contribution (her stun is not reliable without a set-up). Also, since she is an Inteligence hero whose damage comes mainly from her spells, she falls a bit in the late game if she doesn't have some items (either be it to make her more of a right-clicker or to make her magical damage relevant). On the other hand, she has a passive that boosts her attack speed imensily, meaning her right click deserves some attention (usually what defines cores are their AS + Damage per second and the fact that they function better with better equipment).
Because of this Lina is now thought to be better played as a core/carry, for instance putting her mid. However, this doesn't mean you can't successfuly play her as a support. I've done it with very good results, and would advise you the following: pick her as a support if your team already has one, or if the composition on the enemy team doesn't make for too much utility items - if there are invisible people or too much ganking potential, like a Pudge, you may experience some money troubles. Otherwise, go Tranquil Boots + Eul's Scepter of Divinity, considering everything else (including Aghanim's Scepter) luxury, and you're good to go ( Lina played right, even not ksing, means some money from kills always anyway). You are actually a very good partner in lane, being able to easily harass your enemies with your incredible range (the second highest base attack range of the game) and even securing early kills if you manage your mana correctly and can land a good stun. Try her if you see frail enemies that usually don't buy a Black King Bar on the other team (such as Storm Spirit, Zeus or Windranger), and you will have fun killing them repeteadly :)
The reason Lina is good as a support is because she doesn't need items to be effective, and she also scales really well into the late game. And since she has such good nuke damage early she can really help get kills in lane and while ganking. However she does do a good job as a core role also, especially solo mid as it allows her to get a level advantage which improves her ganking potential greatly.
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