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1 Votes

Support for Dummies

April 17, 2020 by caerulea
Comments: 1    |    Views: 6057    |   



What is your Job

Your job is to carry the game for the first 10-15 minutes of the game, after that your cores can take over the job for you

Babysitting Cores

As a

Safelane Pulling

You can pull the small camp near T1 safelane tower at :14-17 or :44-47.

Why pulling
- To restore creep equilibrium
When you pull, your creeps will go to the jungle instead of lane, but the opposing creeps will still come to lane, which means that the lane will naturally get pushed towards your tower.

- To create space for your carry
If the enemy is smart, they will contest your pull, which makes your lane becomes two separate 1v1, or even 2v1 and your core can farm safely.

- Deny some creeps
Depending on the camp type, you can deny 1-3 creeps.

- To get solo resource
You are pulling. You get solo exp and gold. You carry is alone. He gets solo exp and gold. Both of you gets more resource because you farm lane and jungle instead of only from the lane.

When to pull
- Creep equilibrium is far from your tower


- Your carry is strong
If your core is strong or have sustain ability, you are allowed to leave him when pulling because he probably won't die easily.

- Your carry can push fast
[naga siren], [sven] naturally can push very fast with their abilities. In that case, we need to pull so the next wave will held back, and your carry can farm closer to the tower later.


When NOT to pull
- Creep equilibrium is UNDER your tower
If the lane is pushed hard, you need to defend it, or else you will lose the tower or your carry gets dived and die.


- Your carry is very vulnerable
If you have weak core and facing strong enemy laner, for example [anti-mage] against [axe] [skywrath mage]. If you leave him alone, he will probably die.


How to pull

Different Pulling Types
- :15 or :45
If you pull at :15, it will get cleared at around :45, which means the neutral camp will respawn at the next minute, and you can pull again at the next :15.

If you pull at :45, the next neutral camp won't spawn because it is blocked by your creeps and neutral creeps.

It is usually better to pull at :15 because you can pull again at the next minute.

- Stack pull
You stack at :55 and pull at :15
Most of the time, when you pull with a double stacked camp, there will be two outcomes.
1. Your creeps get wiped out
And you don't get much exp and gold from the camp
2. Your creeps can wipe them but it takes a long time.
And you probably will block the next spawn.
3. You wipe the camp with your help
And you waste extra hp or mana by doing it


In both cases, your carry needs to tank the entire wave by himself. So this kind of pull is allowed when your carry is fine by himself alone.

- Chain pull
Pull the large camp to small camp when your creeps nearly killed the last creep.
You can deny more creeps by doing this, also you will get more resource from the large camp.
This pull is easily contested by the enemy, also you leave your carry vulnerable for more period of time.

- Large camp pull
You don't pull the small camp, instead you pull the large camp. Sometimes you need to cut some trees to make it easier.

You will get more deny and resource because large camps are stronger.
This kind of pull is easy to contest because it is closer to the enemy.

If your lane is pushed really hard under enemy tower, it is good to do this. Also this camp is closer to you if you are near enemy tower.

Offlane Pulling

In offlane, you can use the large camp to pull at around :18-:19 and :48-:49.

It is harder to do this because
1. the camp is closer to the lane
2. easily contested by both sides.
3. the lane needs to be pushed

The reason and benefits are similar to safelane pull.
1. Restore creep equilibrium
2. Get extra resources
3. Create space for your core
4. Deny some creeps

On Radiant offlane it is easier to pull. On dire offlane it is harder. You need to cut some trees to make it easier.

Contesting Pull

You can identify when your enemy is pulling by
1. Enemy is missing for some amount of time

2. In-game timer is showing near pull time (around 7-12 second before pull time)

3. Your creeps are pushing and enemy creeps are missing
This one is VERY OBVIOUS.

What can you do?
1. Come to the camp and contest it.
Steal the last hits for extra resource.

2. Block the camp with your body or ward.

3. Hit the neutral creep when they are pulling

4. Pull the neutral creep away from the lane JUST before the pull time

Offlane Cheese

In the offlane, you can cheese the lane whenever you are facing hard matchup

1. Farm the creeps behind enemy tower.
If you are strong enough like axe, you can do this.
Also you can drag the creeps to neutral camp to get more resource.

2. Drag the creeps from behind their tower to your tower

3. Drag the creeps to the next wave and tp away

4. Drag the creeps to the next wave and bring them to your tower

The goal of dragging creep is to allow you get uncontested resource. Also you can deny some of your creeps by dragging enemy creeps to behind your tower. Instead of laning against strong enemy, you get uncontested resource from doing these things.

Warding

- Sentry before observer
If you are under enemy vision, they KNOW what you are doing, so if you put your observer, they KNOW that you put it and it can be dewarded later by your enemy. By putting sentry first and secure vision around the area, they don't know whether you put observer or not.

- Don't ward on obvious spots
Why? Because it's obvious. You can do this IF
1. Your team are strong enough to protect it and you DO protect it
2. When fight breaks out and you need vision advantage

- Use ability or courier to deward highground ward spots
Some abilities like [ice path] or [crystal nova] can give you vision on the highground. Use them instead of sentry, because by putting sentry in other spots, you can cover more area to deward.

- Offensive warding
Ward offensively on enemy jungle if your team is winning and have the ability to gank and kill enemies inside their jungle.

- Defensive warding
Ward defensively on enemy jungle if your team is focused on farming and not able to play aggressively.

After the Laning Stage

Usually after the laning stage, you want to play with your strongest core, which is usually your offlane or midlaner.

Positioning

- Stay in a safe spot
In many fights, supports are usually the first target to aim.
If you're a weak support, try to hide before the fight started, and show up when the fight has already started and some abilities have already thrown. Stay around or behind your cores.

Some tanky support like [ogre magi] and [abaddon] are fine to show up, but still need to stay in a safe position so they are not disabled and still be able to cast spells.


- Use saving items
[glimmer cape] against heroes who can dive like [storm spirit] [ember spirit] [spirit breaker]
[force staff] against [pounce] [power cogs] [sprout]
[ghost scepter] against physical damage
[eul's scepter of divinity] to buy some time or cancel channeling spells
[aeon disk] quite expensive for support, but still good if you have it to buy some time

How to get Gold

Dead lane

Neutral camps

Kill/assist gold

Unfarmed lane

Identify what can you do at every moment.
Sometimes the game is going slow and you are allowed to farm neutrals while your cores are farming the lanes.
Sometimes your cores are jungling and the lane is empty.
Sometimes your team are hungry for blood and looking for kills.
Sometimes your core keeps dying in same spot over and over.

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