Support

A support is a lower-farm-priority role that helps teammates through vision, control, saves, utility, lane assistance and coordinated map movement.

What is Support in Dota 2?

Support is a broad Dota 2 role centered on enabling the team rather than taking the highest-priority farm. In the common position system, positions 4 and 5 are the two support roles. Their exact responsibilities vary by hero and draft, but common tasks include helping lanes, placing and removing vision, carrying detection, initiating or counter-initiating fights, saving allies and creating safe space for cores to collect resources.

A support does not have to heal, and supporting does not mean having no items. Many support heroes need a specific level or utility item to perform their job well. The difference is that they usually take lower-priority resources and try to generate value with fewer items than the team’s cores.

How Support is used in a match

Supports constantly trade personal economy against team value. A player may skip a dangerous wave to place vision before Roshan, spend gold on detection instead of a larger personal item, or hold a defensive spell for the carry rather than use it for damage.

Strong support play is also about information and timing. Calling missing heroes, preparing smoke moves, controlling runes and standing in the right position before a fight can be as important as the spells cast once the fight starts.

Do not confuse Support with...

Do not confuse support with Hard Support. Support is the umbrella role; Hard Support usually means position 5, while Soft Support usually means position 4.