Wreck Your Enemies With The 10 Best Support Heroes in Dota 2
Have you ever wanted to work harder than everyone else on your team and receive little praise for it? Well, then support is the role for you! In all seriousness, supports are a vital part of any Dota 2 team lineup and no team, despite what they may claim, can function without good supports. You have many options to choose from for your supporting needs, so hopefully this list of best supports in Dota 2 can give you a good idea of what to do in your next match.
10. Crystal Maiden
Banished to the realm of Icewrack, Crystal Maiden learned to utilize her ice abilities
Crystal Maiden is a mainstay of the supports available in the game. Every meta game will have situations where picking her is just the right decision to make your team more stable.
The main thing Crystal Maiden has to offer to a team is the stability she can provide for a lineup. Does your lineup need a bit more disables? She can fill that role. Team seems a bit mana intensive? Her passive can help fix that problem right up. Add these abilities on top of her team fight altering ultimate and you have yourself a support all star that is easy to play and very versatile.
Crystal Maiden’s ultimate can help control a team fight
Her efficient abilities make her great at roaming the map
9. Winter Wyvern
An academic, Winter Wyvern will go to extreme lengths for the sake of research
A key defining point of being a good support is being able to assist the core heroes on your team, and Winter Wyvern is excellent at this. At one point Winter Wyvern was the top support in the game, and while she’s been toned down quite a bit since then she is still one of the best in the game at helping save your carry while also helping your mid lane player nab that kill.
The main tool Winter Wyvern has at her disposal is her ability Cold Embrace. The main appeal of this skill is being able to save an ally in a tough spot, but it can also be effectively used to heal up a hero in between waves and save some gold or a trip to base. Meanwhile both Splinter Blast and Arctic Burn are amazing at helping secure those early game kills. Later in the game her ultimate, Winter’s Curse, can easily swing a team fight in your favor, while also being a last ditch attempt to save a hero in danger.
If you’re looking for some versatility in your supports, then Winter Wyvern is the hero for you.
Winter Wyvern is very good at saving heroes in a pinch
Winter’s Curse is great at controlling team fights, while also serving as initiation and defense in tight situations
8. Jakiro
Jakiro possesses both abilities key to his race due to his twin heads
Jakiro falls under a different definition of support, and thrives on pushing lanes. When you have a Jakiro on your team you shouldn’t be surprised to take the first tower in under five minutes. You trample on through burning down everything in your path on your way towards the Ancient.
Now you might be wondering why this makes Jakiro a good support. Jakiro is a hero that is outstanding at creating space for the rest of his team. When you are able to take an early tier one tower that gives your entire team a nice boost in gold and experience and they can pull that momentum into hitting their peaks that much quicker. On top of being a master of creating space, Jakiro is also just solid at helping pick off enemy heroes, and possesses one of the most annoying ultimates to have to fight around with Macropyre.
Overall Jakiro shines in the early game, but with the right talent you can fly straight through to the enemy base with gold to spare.
Jakiro has a lot of simple abilities to help control a lane in the early game
Macropyre can be one of the most annoying ultimates in the game if you know how to use it
7. Dazzle
Dazzle is the youngest Shadow Priest in the history of his people
Dazzle fills a unique position as a support, and that’s that he is the best slot filler in the entire game. Now what does that mean, exactly? Well primarily that he can fit on any team without sacrificing anything. Dazzle doesn’t excel at any one thing, but he is pretty good at everything.
Dazzle has a good host of abilities for multiple situations. Shadow Wave is decent heal while also being a decent nuke to be able to help push down lanes, while Poison Touch is a strong slow to help your cores catch their kills. Dazzle’s defining skill, however, is Shallow Grave which will keep a hero alive for as long as it’s active allowing for some miracle saves.
All these skills go well alongside his ultimate which may not be very flashy (increasing armor for your allies and decreasing it for your enemies) it can really swing a team fight in your team’s favor. If you’re ever struggling on the pick screen not knowing what to pick, Dazzle is an easy include into any lineup.
A well-timed Shallow Grave can save someone from the brink of death
His ultimate is simple but can help swing fights in your team’s direction
6. Ancient Apparition
Ancient Apparition is an old deity from the depths of the universe
The early game is a rough time for an Ancient Apparition player. You have some good skills that can help chase down some early kills and push the lane, but you don’t have anything super flashy. It all becomes worth it when you get your ultimate, though, and the game becomes yours.
This isn’t to say that Ancient Apparition is only an ultimate as his other skills are very strong. Cold Feet is one of the longest early game stuns in the game and can catch your enemies off guard easily. The magic resistance reduction of Ice Vortex combos well with the added magic damage that Chilling Touch provides and go a long way of scaring enemy heroes out of the lane.
These good abilities, however, get immediately outclassed by Ice Blast as you find yourself with one of the most punishing ultimates in the game. With a well-timed Ice Blast lost fights can turn in your favor, an enemy that has run away will get dropped on the spot, and you can even help turn the tides if one of your cores is getting picked on to help them steal a kill. A good Ancient Apparition is a thing to be extremely wary of as even when you think you’re safe in your base you may find yourself victim to freezing temperatures.
Ice Blast can help steal a kill that would otherwise get away
His skills make him a master of lane control if you use them properly
5. Visage
Visage is a gargoyle in charge with escorting the dead back to their rightful place in the Narrow Maze
There are few heroes that can control the map as well as Visage can. While not the easiest hero to play, once you get the hang of micro managing his familiars you’ll find yourself having the time of your life with the coverage it brings. Familiars allow Visage to scout ahead for enemies, help take down enemy heroes when you’re otherwise occupied, and their stun allows you to save a hero in a pinch.
Visage’s familiars are great, so add that on top of his normal skills and you have yourself a very well-rounded support. Grave Chill is one of the best slows in the game and can help save your cores pursue or escape. In addition to that Soul Assumption is one of the best early game nukes in the game and can easily take out an unsuspecting hero in a flash. Visage might take a bit more work than other supports on this list, but you’ll find that he is very much worth the effort.
Visage has very useful abilities that allow him to control the early game
His familiars allow him to control the entire map with ease
4. Disruptor
A stormcrafter from Druud, Disruptor has learned to utilize electricity for his benefit
Disruptor is the picture perfect definition of a support. He doesn’t do too much damage, can’t really take over a game by himself and really requires other heroes to make use of his various abilities. This is great, however, as that means he is excellent in this position.
All of Disruptor’s abilities synergize very well together. Thunder Strike does decent damage in the early game, but it’s real appeal is the fact that it gives you vision on the enemy it’s place on. With this vision you can use Glimpse to bring them back to be taken out by your team, and you can put a Kinetic Field right where they’re going to appear to keep them in place. Add that on top of the AoE silence that Static Field provides and you have all the pillars of a strong support that will allow your team to make your way through the game with ease.
Disruptor’s abilities all synergize very well together
His Glimpse ability is the best in the game at ensuring kills for your core heroes
3. Ogre Magi
Graced with two heads, Ogre Magi is the wisest of all the known ogres
Ogre Magi contains a trait that will probably irritate the most amount of people, and that’s inherent randomness. You’ll find yourself go from full health to dead because the numbers just weren’t in your favor and that can be truly aggravating. This would be annoying, but livable, if it weren’t for the fact that Ogre Magi is just a really strong support even without the random elements.
Fireblast is both a good stun while also being a very strong nuke that only gets stronger when it can go off multiple times. Ignite is a strong slow that also does damage over time just to add insult to injury. Then Bloodlust tops it all off to be able to buff the whole team and make everyone a force to be reckoned with. Multicast allows all these already strong abilities to be amplified and makes Ogre Magi a truly scary hero to see in the lane.
Ogre Magi is built entirely around a luck-based mechanic which can infuriate your enemies
All of his abilities are versatile and can be used to initiate or to help a core hero escape
2. Dark Willow
Getting bored of her noble lifestyle, Dark Willow burned down her family estate to become a wandering grifter
Despite being a relatively recent addition to the roster, Dark Willow has made a tremendous impact in a very short time by just having really strong abilities. All of her skills do a great job to annoy the enemy team and impede them as she puts her own team ahead incrementally as the game goes on.
She has a slow that takes up a massive area in the form of Bramble Maze that requires you to tiptoe around it or get caught out. Her AoE stun, Cursed Crown, can catch you off guard even with the inherent delay built into. Then even if you’re lucky enough to catch her out she can easily slip away with Shadow Realm and jump back in when backup shows up to help take you down.
Add all this on top of her ultimate that is amazing in team fights and allows her to scale well into the late game as roaming as a team becomes commonplace. Dark Willow is a laning and team fight monster that allows her team to get ahead while annoying the everloving crap out of you.
All of Dark Willow’s abilities allow her to control the enemy team and assist core heroes
Her abilities allow you to pursue enemies to would get away from other supports
1. Shadow Shaman
Shadow Shaman was brought under the guise of a con man who he would later avenge the death of
Shadow Shaman is at the top of the list because he is able to easily do one of the support player’s most important jobs: guaranteeing the kill for you core. Whether you need someone to back you up in lane, or to roam around and find kills where they can find it, Shadow Shaman can fill all these roles with ease.
His primary talent lies in his multiple disables. With both Hex and Shackles you should have no problems locking down the enemies for your team. In addition to this Ether Shock is a very strong nuke that can get that last bit of damage in for the kill. Finally, you have Serpent Wards as the runaway ability that is great for pushing, team fights, and even for taking down Roshan.
With his multiple disables, high damage nuke, and amazing ultimate that excels him above the rest, Shadow Shaman truly stands at the top of the supports in the game.
Shadow Shaman is the ultimate disabler and can keep enemies still for quite a while
His Serpent Wards can help with a team fight, push down a lane, or help take down that pesky Roshan
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