Best support heroes of Dota 2 patch 7.35b

Dota 2

17 Jan

Radu Muresan

Many years ago, nobody wanted to play the position 5 role in Dota 2. IceFrog recognized where the problem was and made the game much more enjoyable for support players by no longer requiring them to spend all their gold on consumables and by adding lots of opportunities to farm in a non-disruptive way.

This guide presents some of the best support heroes of Dota 2 patch 7.35b. Their strengths, item builds, and what can be done with them.

Witch Doctor

Need a cure? (Credit: Valve)

Witch Doctor has been a rock star among Dota 2 support heroes since patch 7.34. That’s when he received the great buffs that made him overpowered. The bounce delay of Paralyzing Cask went from 0.3s to 0.1s, and Death Ward went from being a magic damage spell to being a pure damage spell that pierces magic immunity. Since then, he’s been nerfed multiple times but he continues to get picked because of his toolkit.

His ultimate deals pure damage, which means it’s relevant at every game stage and against every type of hero. Of course, some enemies will easily escape or cancel it. But even those heroes can be caught off-guard. The damage is substantial: 65 – 135 per hit. But the attack speed is so great that the damage per second is more like 260 – 540.

During the laning phase, WD can heal allies at a rate of 20 – 50 per second, for a cost of 8 – 20 mana per second. In most cases, you’ll just put one point into this ability and use it to keep your carry healthy at all times.

Paralyzing Cask is the perfect tool against enemies that clump together. The ideal number is two, because the eight bounces at level four will destroy them if you also use Maledict and Death Ward.

Maledict is one of the most underrated abilities in Dota 2. It deals damage based on how much HP the enemy lost since receiving the debuff. It lasts for 12 seconds, which gives you ample time to damage a target. Every 4 seconds, it takes 16 – 40% damage based on its lost HP. So if you Maledict a target and bring it down to 50%, it will probably die unless it teleports to base.

When playing WD, Arcane Boots, Aghanim’s Scepter, Glimmer Cape, and Aether Lens are some of the best item choices. The goal is to always use your ultimate from a safe distance and ideally from a hidden spot.

Vengeful Spirit

Wanna swap places? (Credit: Valve)

Vengeful Spirit is definitely one of the best support heroes of Dota 2 patch 7.35b thanks to her ability to compromise an enemy’s position or save an ally that’s trapped in a bad position. The cast range, even without an Aether Lens, is 800 – 1100. This is a huge distance that allows you to initiate each fight.

The great thing about Nether Swap is that it deals damage: 150 – 450. This means that the target cannot easily blink away unless it has blinking abilities. The cooldown is also very good: 50 – 30s. Venge can fight almost continuously during the mid game, which is what you want from a position 5 hero.

Vengeance Aura gives all allies in a 1200 radius 10 – 25% bonus damage. For heroes like Earthshaker, Phantom Assassin, or Sven, this is a huge buff that gets further amplified by their abilities.

Wave of Terror is another ability that works well in team fights, as well as the laning phase. It deals 85 – 130 damage, reduces armor by 3 – 6, and most importantly, reduces attack damage by 10 – 25%. This means that a level 10 Venge will create a total of 50% damage output difference between her allies and the enemy team. That’s a very big advantage to have.

Finally, Venge also gives her team a fairly reliable stun targeted at one hero. The duration is 1.4 – 1.7s while the damage is 90 – 360. In most cases, you will maximize this ability last, but you can maximize it second as well.

Playing Venge is great because the hero doesn’t require any major items to be effective. Just go out there, throw spells, swap allies, die, and relax!

Jakiro

Two heads, one dragon. (Credit: Valve, wallpapercave.com)

Jakiro will put a lot of pressure on the enemy heroes during the laning phase, and likely end up damaging a tier 1 tower severely during the first 5-10 minutes. In some cases, you can even take down the tower if the strength difference is big enough.

Despite the nerfs he received, Jakiro remains one of the best heroes of Dota 2 patch 7.35b. He is very effective at sending enemy heroes back to base thanks to his ability to harass them with ease from a safe distance. There’s hardly any offlaner or carry that wants to trade hits with him in the first 5 minutes.

His Liquid Fire slows attack speed by 30 – 60 and deals 100 – 250 burn damage. It can be used every 16 / 12 / 8 / 4s at a cost of 0 mana. So by the time it’s level 2, you can already spam it 2-3 times per creep wave. That’s very hard to deal with. It also works on towers, greatly slowing down their attack speed.

Dual Breath deals 100 – 400 damage, slows movement speed by 25 – 40%, and also slows attack speed by 25 – 40. In combination with Liquid Fire, it destroys almost any melee hero in the laning phase.

Ice Path offers a long-range stun that lasts for 1.25 – 2s. The ice path itself lasts for 4.5s and is wide enough to trap multiple heroes.

Macropyre deals 1000 – 2000 damage over 10s, along a massive path that’s 1400 units in length and 520 units in width. If you have an ally that can reliably trap heroes or slow them down, this ability can destroy an entire team.

When you play Jakiro, all you need is some boots, a Force Staff, and an Aether Lens.

Oracle

Started from Delphi now we here. (Credit: Valve, cybustwallpaper)

Oracle can keep a key ally alive and essentially offer it a free Aegis if enough heals are provided during the duration of False Promise, the hero’s ultimate. The duration of False Promise is 7 – 10s. During this time, your protected ally cannot die and will receive double healing from every source.

Assuming you’ve reached level 18 in the late game, you can cast this ability every 60s from 900 range. The key when playing Oracle is to stay close to your mid or carry and have them playing in a very exposed way. Never use the ultimate on yourself. The enemy team will try to force you to do this because that’s one of their win conditions in major fights.

Oracle’s Purying Flames allows him to heal allies for 135 – 405 over 9s. However, you will also deal damage to them. This ability is best used against enemies because you can deal the initial damage burst of 90 – 360 and then cancel the healing using Fortune’s End, which applies a basic dispel. This ability also roots for up to 2.75s and deals 100 – 280 damage.

Fate’s Edict is useful when you need magic damage resistance or want to disarm an enemy hero for 3.5 – 5s. It buffs magic resistance but makes basic attacks unavailable. Therefore, it’s perfect for a hero like Leshrac because he doesn’t care about right-clicking enemies.

Oracle greatly benefits from a Blink Dagger or an Aether Lens.

Warlock

Careful, I have muscular friends! (Credit: Valve)

Warlock is one of the best Dota 2 heroes of patch 7.35b thanks to his team fighting abilities. The ultimate, Chaotic Offering, creates a powerful Golem that deals massive amounts of damage and is difficult to kill.

Fatal Bonds will get up to 6 enemies to take damage from the damage suffered by others. The shared damage is 12 – 24% and the duration is 19 – 25s. This means that you can curse all of the enemy team and the effect will last for the entire duration of the fight.

Warlock works well in combination with heroes that deal AoE damage with ease, such as Zeus or Leshrac. Thanks to Fatal Bonds, their damage gets greatly amplified.

Shadow Word is perfect for healing allies or damaging opponents during the laning phase. If you have enough mana, you can cast it every 14s. It lasts for 10s and the effect is substantial: 150 – 450 heal / damage.

The final ability that makes Warlock a great support hero is Upheaval. It slows movement speed by 11 – 20% per second, up to a maximum of 55 – 100%. This means that at level 4, if a hero is trapped by it, he will escape with great difficulty because the radius is 650.

When you play Warlock, always buy an Aghanim’s Scepter.

Header: Valve