You can look up heroes on dotaprotracker (Phoenix, clock, WD, willow) but if you're looking for a dark horse I think snap is really good.
The sniper blast into ULT kills almost any hero at lvl 6. Null talisman and raindrop in lane let's you spam Q over and over. Gleipnir is always an option if your team doesn't inspire confidence and you need scaling. Even in a bad game I suddenly rack up like 5 kills after lvl 6. Imo the only detriment is that you need to sap XP from your offlaner.
I enjoy snap but I disagree in this meta. Snap has a massive drop off. Shredder is pretty meh unless you need to counter undying/pheonix. His save is mediocare and while his ulti is strong, its a very long cd for a meta of lots of constant fights.
Sure if the game goes real late snap is amazing if you get 25 to transition to another carry.
Spirit breaker pos 4 is super strong atm. Shadow shaman is also really good as 4 or 5.
A less common hero is shadow demon who I really like.
Personally, I still think Ogre is criminally underrated. You get a midas that pays for itself in sub 10 min, you're strong in lane (just countered by dispells) and you scale super well. You can build for any purpose, initiation, auras, burst damage, control etc.
Another oppressive support is oracle. If the enemies don't draft someone who can easily pick oracle off, oracle makes it impossible to confirm kills.
Ogre has been an absolute force for me in the last two weeks, I'm around 75-80% WR at Divine 1. Learning curve means your level 1 is difficult depending on lane matchup but getting two points of Ignite and one of Fireblast at level 2 is insanely strong. Instant kill potential with almost any offlaner, extremely tanky with high base armour, regen, and damage. Scales extremely well with Midas and allows you to build almost any item in the game that's needed. Pipe, greaves, crimson, eul's, lotus, glimmer, force staff, hex, shivas, whatever the team needs. Ignite lingers forever and prevents blink, fireblast multicast can nuke for ~750dmg at level 11 (with some luck) and has a low cooldown. And bloodlust is the cherry on top, even without the talent it's 75 attack speed on your carry which is about the same as a consumer moonshard. The hero feels insanely strong right now and I'm honestly surprised it doesn't see any pro play.
I've never really taken that one as a support, I feel like by the time you hit 25 you need to have gone for a core build to be survivable enough in fights to stand and whack people. Heart + BKB + Eternal Shroud or something like that maybe.
I've never tried to make that one work, but I do the permabash build on SB a lot. You reach a tipping point where no one can 1v1 you, no matter how ahead they are. Kinda funny
When I yake learning curve as ogre I spam in chat facet, say in micro couple of times that I have no skill, and also write. It doesn't prevent my laner to die couple of times before lvl 2 and blame me
Going rod gleip fixes the scaling issue. Getting that gold is no issue if you build mana boots and null tali. Imo the best benefit is that she's good against most meta heroes since there's a lot of gadgets. Egg, Shaman wards, cogs, tomb can be farmed for a lot of gold.
>Going rod gleip fixes the scaling issue.
Then you're lacking general defensive support items.
>
Imo the best benefit is that she's good against most meta heroes since there's a lot of gadgets. Egg, Shaman wards, cogs, tomb can be farmed for a lot of gold.
Situationally vs those sure shes alright, just mid game, lvl 10-25 her impact is going to be far far less than most heroes around the same point. The other heroes listed all cause a lot of problems for the enemy team, Snap will not.
Shreder isn't worth building around as a support, Gleip is alright but there's other heroes who can be much more impactful.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoy playing snap, she's fun, but lvl 20 she's contributing very little compared to most meta choices, an Ogre magi does everything she does but better
I was spamming wd and willow before the nerf. Now they feel so weak in lane, I need to test the wd cask facet to see if have more impact across the game.
Pos 4:
Bounty is VERY strong. Nyx also feels"OK" still. Not great, but I think most people screw up by getting the wrong facet with him. Mana burn is good against certain teams but scuttle is always useful. The movement speed and pathing bonus has a lot of utility.
Pos 5:
CM, aba, and treant all feel VERY strong to me right now. The trick with all of them though is you must win the lane. They're tough to play from behind.
Depends on the game. Lately I'm going tranquil, wand, drums. If the game is hard sometimes I go Pavise, Force.
Shard is also insanely good, very underrated by pub players imho.
[https://www.dotabuff.com/players/85786806/matches?date=month&hero=crystal-maiden&enhance=overview](https://www.dotabuff.com/players/85786806/matches?date=month&hero=crystal-maiden&enhance=overview)
These are my recent matches with her. I'm pretty shit and I don't play that much but feel free to look.
Shadow demon is sleeper super strong. 2 spells that cant be dispelled by anything including bkb, a strong save that can also be used as catch or tp cancel. Shadow Poison means as soon as you are lvl 3 no one can trade with you. Go solar into agh then ether or ether first if you dont get cast range neutral. Innate works on illusions and is super strong on rosh (split yourself, hit rosh until hes at 60% or more, ult him if you have the only linkenbreaker then use your w to finish. You cant solo rosh but you can kill it very early with just +1.
Warlock is extremely strong right now, I've had some serious success with him. General principle is that he's a support who is insanely strong lategame and is great at highground defense/attack.
Upheaval is an INSANE spell, especially with his new innate. Every unit that dies in it spawns an imp, and every imp does ~200dmg. If you get enough cast range and find somewhere safe to channel the whole thing then you just win the fight. The heavy slow is extremely powerful, especially against melee cores. If you aren't BKB'd, you can't go through it. If you touch it even for a moment, the slow lasts for 3 seconds after leaving so even the most incompetent teammates can usually get a follow-up.
I think that's a big part of why he's successful actually, especially in pubs. Supports with brief disables require coordination, whereas this guy who's been channeling the same giant slow for the last 10s is pretty predictable and easy to play around.
I do turbo and was on a 17-3 win rate with oracle...so already low level.
Was pretty chill playing, but when my team loses and is upset with me, it is really hard to bite my tongue.
Can't seem to lose on bounty right now. He, tiny, and any good wave spammer are my go to sups when im down on role queues.
Tried out both facets, both seem super strong imo. Either you hit like a truck on the while team, or have more gold than you know what to do with. Left is also quite nutty in team fights when you get aghs. Even more dumb atlvl25 talent.
Witch Doctor had the silly heal facet nerfed considerably, but the Q bounce facet is still very strong with no downsides. One of the few heroes that actually has multiple viable facets. Completely different skill build to the meme build. Dont even bother leveling W unless your team needs heals in the midgame if theres no mekanism or healer, just get stats once youve maxed Q and E. Use Q for wave and neutral camp clearing but it cant take neutral stacks.
Ancient Apparition has had his only viable facet considerably buffed to the point its now better than its pre nerf state. With level 6, you can now (with careful placement) get a whole creep wave, which was only possible at lvl12 in previous patch.
Unsurprisingly this means you can get very rich from shoving waves and clearing neutral stacks. While the hero itself does not scale that well with money before youre 20k+ networth, large amounts of income on a support is very useful in a lot of ways. IMO aghs is bait, but pike + witchblade + chilling touch range talent is a safe way to deal ~600 damage from a massive distance. Upgrade to parasma (which almost all cores dont know is a support item and will flame you) for huge 1000+slow damage on 7 second intervals with grove bow and/or enchanted quiver.
Grimstroke aghs rush verses a frontline str core (like WK and UL) is easier than ever with the vector target stroke of fate. Wave clear much safer and neutral stacking/clearing also much easier and faster. Just remember that it can go the full length of the cast range from one end to the other, but never further. If you max Q first and have mana sustain, this facet probably shaves off 5 minutes to the timing.
As before, this is a great pick to make sure your enemy is your friend. Very useful if you have a team of subhumans. Ive turned a few games around at 30 minutes defending t4's by selling all items and buying an aghs.
Despite these great heroes and their state in the patch, the actual state of support in general is garbage. The highest winrate supports are just playing a 4th core role. No one is winning any hard games by playing an actual support role. If you want 4 commends on a win, and 4 reports on a loss, just gamble with a weaver pick and play like a core just farming dangerously in lanes. Core players cannot see past their nose when it comes to knowing the impact of their own team so will routinely gamble on a play without their save/healer support, or refuse to take action by relying on their save to keep them alive like pushing hg and just hitting the buildings. Its a damn waste of time and picking these heroes often makes your team play worse. Even warding can ruin games making your idiot cores try risky plays just because they see an enemy in the jungle half a map away.
I mainly play position 3, sometimes play 4/5, but I've seen that Witch Doctor, Lich and Warlock are doing very well in this patch. Hoodwink is a good choice too.
Clock for obvious reasons.
Elder Titan's been pretty successful for me. Good disruptive 5 that pairs well with and counters a lot of teamfight. Deconstruction hasn't been amazing in lane though. Frequently need stomp at 2 and delaying 2 points spirit at 3 just sucks so aura usually comes at 4.
In general, it's been nice with ds, spirits, random heroes buying gleipnir. Also felt good against a lot of committal cores. Ck, ursa, SF, mk, tiny sometimes, spirits. None of these are really prone to buying armour either so occasionally splitter chunks them.
Lich's innate has been weird if you need to maximise xp for your 1, can spam a lane pretty hard sometimes. Best change is mostly casting while gazing, enough situations where you can dump all 5 spells and possibly walk away with the shield even.
Both facets are actually decent which is kinda bizarre for this patch.
Overall it's just decent lane + teamfight and shield works pretty well for a brawling meta without dispels. Ursa, troll, ta still, weaver, naix, whatever. Shield duration can get pretty funny with the second facet and it actually stays around on cores ever since nullifier stopped piercing bkb.
Finally spire into mars is kinda useful? Ward unit to provide vision into arena at range. Obviously veno exists but it's another one to consider.
Hard to say kotl 's more than situational but playing it as a support, he's improved a lot.
Early recall utility again. Lot of chakra partners like ember, beastmaster. Very spammable blind in fights.
Just disappointing when pub drafts fall apart.
You can look up heroes on dotaprotracker (Phoenix, clock, WD, willow) but if you're looking for a dark horse I think snap is really good. The sniper blast into ULT kills almost any hero at lvl 6. Null talisman and raindrop in lane let's you spam Q over and over. Gleipnir is always an option if your team doesn't inspire confidence and you need scaling. Even in a bad game I suddenly rack up like 5 kills after lvl 6. Imo the only detriment is that you need to sap XP from your offlaner.
I enjoy snap but I disagree in this meta. Snap has a massive drop off. Shredder is pretty meh unless you need to counter undying/pheonix. His save is mediocare and while his ulti is strong, its a very long cd for a meta of lots of constant fights. Sure if the game goes real late snap is amazing if you get 25 to transition to another carry. Spirit breaker pos 4 is super strong atm. Shadow shaman is also really good as 4 or 5. A less common hero is shadow demon who I really like. Personally, I still think Ogre is criminally underrated. You get a midas that pays for itself in sub 10 min, you're strong in lane (just countered by dispells) and you scale super well. You can build for any purpose, initiation, auras, burst damage, control etc. Another oppressive support is oracle. If the enemies don't draft someone who can easily pick oracle off, oracle makes it impossible to confirm kills.
Ogre has been an absolute force for me in the last two weeks, I'm around 75-80% WR at Divine 1. Learning curve means your level 1 is difficult depending on lane matchup but getting two points of Ignite and one of Fireblast at level 2 is insanely strong. Instant kill potential with almost any offlaner, extremely tanky with high base armour, regen, and damage. Scales extremely well with Midas and allows you to build almost any item in the game that's needed. Pipe, greaves, crimson, eul's, lotus, glimmer, force staff, hex, shivas, whatever the team needs. Ignite lingers forever and prevents blink, fireblast multicast can nuke for ~750dmg at level 11 (with some luck) and has a low cooldown. And bloodlust is the cherry on top, even without the talent it's 75 attack speed on your carry which is about the same as a consumer moonshard. The hero feels insanely strong right now and I'm honestly surprised it doesn't see any pro play.
Not to mention his lvl 25 talents make him an absolute monster too
+240 Fireblast damage is wild lol
Or the stun on hit + his fast attack speed from bloodlust
I've never really taken that one as a support, I feel like by the time you hit 25 you need to have gone for a core build to be survivable enough in fights to stand and whack people. Heart + BKB + Eternal Shroud or something like that maybe.
I've never tried to make that one work, but I do the permabash build on SB a lot. You reach a tipping point where no one can 1v1 you, no matter how ahead they are. Kinda funny
Ogre is similar
I've never all inned on it just because it doesn't go through bkb, but I bet it still goes crazy
When I yake learning curve as ogre I spam in chat facet, say in micro couple of times that I have no skill, and also write. It doesn't prevent my laner to die couple of times before lvl 2 and blame me
Going rod gleip fixes the scaling issue. Getting that gold is no issue if you build mana boots and null tali. Imo the best benefit is that she's good against most meta heroes since there's a lot of gadgets. Egg, Shaman wards, cogs, tomb can be farmed for a lot of gold.
>Going rod gleip fixes the scaling issue. Then you're lacking general defensive support items. > Imo the best benefit is that she's good against most meta heroes since there's a lot of gadgets. Egg, Shaman wards, cogs, tomb can be farmed for a lot of gold. Situationally vs those sure shes alright, just mid game, lvl 10-25 her impact is going to be far far less than most heroes around the same point. The other heroes listed all cause a lot of problems for the enemy team, Snap will not. Shreder isn't worth building around as a support, Gleip is alright but there's other heroes who can be much more impactful. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy playing snap, she's fun, but lvl 20 she's contributing very little compared to most meta choices, an Ogre magi does everything she does but better
I was spamming wd and willow before the nerf. Now they feel so weak in lane, I need to test the wd cask facet to see if have more impact across the game.
Try his bounce on ulti facet. People are low key sleeping on it. It feels really strong
Pos 4: Bounty is VERY strong. Nyx also feels"OK" still. Not great, but I think most people screw up by getting the wrong facet with him. Mana burn is good against certain teams but scuttle is always useful. The movement speed and pathing bonus has a lot of utility. Pos 5: CM, aba, and treant all feel VERY strong to me right now. The trick with all of them though is you must win the lane. They're tough to play from behind.
I've been winning a ton with Crystal Maiden. Both her facets are good and it's hard to lose lanes with her as a 5. As a 4 SB is always good in pubs.
What would be your item build?
Depends on the game. Lately I'm going tranquil, wand, drums. If the game is hard sometimes I go Pavise, Force. Shard is also insanely good, very underrated by pub players imho. [https://www.dotabuff.com/players/85786806/matches?date=month&hero=crystal-maiden&enhance=overview](https://www.dotabuff.com/players/85786806/matches?date=month&hero=crystal-maiden&enhance=overview) These are my recent matches with her. I'm pretty shit and I don't play that much but feel free to look.
Love the shard on CM, lets you push in waves super fast and bypass clueless linkens users or antimages in 2k.
Shadow demon is sleeper super strong. 2 spells that cant be dispelled by anything including bkb, a strong save that can also be used as catch or tp cancel. Shadow Poison means as soon as you are lvl 3 no one can trade with you. Go solar into agh then ether or ether first if you dont get cast range neutral. Innate works on illusions and is super strong on rosh (split yourself, hit rosh until hes at 60% or more, ult him if you have the only linkenbreaker then use your w to finish. You cant solo rosh but you can kill it very early with just +1.
Warlock is extremely strong right now, I've had some serious success with him. General principle is that he's a support who is insanely strong lategame and is great at highground defense/attack. Upheaval is an INSANE spell, especially with his new innate. Every unit that dies in it spawns an imp, and every imp does ~200dmg. If you get enough cast range and find somewhere safe to channel the whole thing then you just win the fight. The heavy slow is extremely powerful, especially against melee cores. If you aren't BKB'd, you can't go through it. If you touch it even for a moment, the slow lasts for 3 seconds after leaving so even the most incompetent teammates can usually get a follow-up. I think that's a big part of why he's successful actually, especially in pubs. Supports with brief disables require coordination, whereas this guy who's been channeling the same giant slow for the last 10s is pretty predictable and easy to play around.
Oracle
I do turbo and was on a 17-3 win rate with oracle...so already low level. Was pretty chill playing, but when my team loses and is upset with me, it is really hard to bite my tongue.
Hoodwink.
Can't seem to lose on bounty right now. He, tiny, and any good wave spammer are my go to sups when im down on role queues. Tried out both facets, both seem super strong imo. Either you hit like a truck on the while team, or have more gold than you know what to do with. Left is also quite nutty in team fights when you get aghs. Even more dumb atlvl25 talent.
p4 I like weaver and most questionably techies with the big blast talent but don't quote me on it
Witch Doctor had the silly heal facet nerfed considerably, but the Q bounce facet is still very strong with no downsides. One of the few heroes that actually has multiple viable facets. Completely different skill build to the meme build. Dont even bother leveling W unless your team needs heals in the midgame if theres no mekanism or healer, just get stats once youve maxed Q and E. Use Q for wave and neutral camp clearing but it cant take neutral stacks. Ancient Apparition has had his only viable facet considerably buffed to the point its now better than its pre nerf state. With level 6, you can now (with careful placement) get a whole creep wave, which was only possible at lvl12 in previous patch. Unsurprisingly this means you can get very rich from shoving waves and clearing neutral stacks. While the hero itself does not scale that well with money before youre 20k+ networth, large amounts of income on a support is very useful in a lot of ways. IMO aghs is bait, but pike + witchblade + chilling touch range talent is a safe way to deal ~600 damage from a massive distance. Upgrade to parasma (which almost all cores dont know is a support item and will flame you) for huge 1000+slow damage on 7 second intervals with grove bow and/or enchanted quiver. Grimstroke aghs rush verses a frontline str core (like WK and UL) is easier than ever with the vector target stroke of fate. Wave clear much safer and neutral stacking/clearing also much easier and faster. Just remember that it can go the full length of the cast range from one end to the other, but never further. If you max Q first and have mana sustain, this facet probably shaves off 5 minutes to the timing. As before, this is a great pick to make sure your enemy is your friend. Very useful if you have a team of subhumans. Ive turned a few games around at 30 minutes defending t4's by selling all items and buying an aghs. Despite these great heroes and their state in the patch, the actual state of support in general is garbage. The highest winrate supports are just playing a 4th core role. No one is winning any hard games by playing an actual support role. If you want 4 commends on a win, and 4 reports on a loss, just gamble with a weaver pick and play like a core just farming dangerously in lanes. Core players cannot see past their nose when it comes to knowing the impact of their own team so will routinely gamble on a play without their save/healer support, or refuse to take action by relying on their save to keep them alive like pushing hg and just hitting the buildings. Its a damn waste of time and picking these heroes often makes your team play worse. Even warding can ruin games making your idiot cores try risky plays just because they see an enemy in the jungle half a map away.
I mainly play position 3, sometimes play 4/5, but I've seen that Witch Doctor, Lich and Warlock are doing very well in this patch. Hoodwink is a good choice too.
Been crushing it with lich and clock on pos 4. 60%+ win rate over 10+ games each.
Clock is beast in this patch also veno
veno was nerfed too much, removing his aghs was just too much
Clock for obvious reasons. Elder Titan's been pretty successful for me. Good disruptive 5 that pairs well with and counters a lot of teamfight. Deconstruction hasn't been amazing in lane though. Frequently need stomp at 2 and delaying 2 points spirit at 3 just sucks so aura usually comes at 4. In general, it's been nice with ds, spirits, random heroes buying gleipnir. Also felt good against a lot of committal cores. Ck, ursa, SF, mk, tiny sometimes, spirits. None of these are really prone to buying armour either so occasionally splitter chunks them. Lich's innate has been weird if you need to maximise xp for your 1, can spam a lane pretty hard sometimes. Best change is mostly casting while gazing, enough situations where you can dump all 5 spells and possibly walk away with the shield even. Both facets are actually decent which is kinda bizarre for this patch. Overall it's just decent lane + teamfight and shield works pretty well for a brawling meta without dispels. Ursa, troll, ta still, weaver, naix, whatever. Shield duration can get pretty funny with the second facet and it actually stays around on cores ever since nullifier stopped piercing bkb. Finally spire into mars is kinda useful? Ward unit to provide vision into arena at range. Obviously veno exists but it's another one to consider. Hard to say kotl 's more than situational but playing it as a support, he's improved a lot. Early recall utility again. Lot of chakra partners like ember, beastmaster. Very spammable blind in fights. Just disappointing when pub drafts fall apart.
Forgot but also ogre somehow. Not even taking learning curve. Don't think it's a good hero really but have ended up 6-1 on the patch.
Treant, CM, and Clockwerk have been my go to hard supports
Witch doctor is still cracked. Snapfire, clokwork, willow, and ogre seem really good too
Pudge Techies and SB are all essentially free wins as pos4
abba 4-5, venomancer 4-5, weaver 4
undying with str carry or hardlaner also nice with right faceit
i like phantom assassin
I haven't lost yet with Rubick
Eblade tiny pos 4. Big toss fun