These are the top five Dota 2 support heroes you should be playing, with the focus on hard support position five and the 7.25 patch.

We already discussed in our previous article the top five carry heroes you should be playing in Dota 2, so it’s only natural to bring up which support heroes you will want to try out as well to gain MMR. 7.25 was just recently released and it saw countless amounts of item changes, neutral changes, and hero balancing changes.

The focus of this support list is going to be on hard support position five. You can definitely play these in the position four and have no issues, but for now this focus is on hard support. Let’s dive right in!

Solid Pick #1 – Ogre Magi

Ogre Magi, the two-headed ogre that I’m sure everybody loves to lane against! Kidding. Ogre Magi is a beefy, strength-based hero that is in my opinion one of the most annoying supports to play against but I’d love for him on my team! It’s large in part due to the fact he has low-cost mana abilities and is one of the best level one heroes.

• Ogre’s Level 1 – 57 damage, 660 health, 7 armor, 5.5 health regen with no items. Are you kidding me!?  At level one Ogre Magi is an absolute monster. 7 armor and 5.5 health regeneration is absolutely nuts and this makes him one of the best right-click traders in the early game. You need to grab an orb of venom and just trade with the enemy offlaner. Feel free to grab multiple tangos for even extra base regen. Zone the opponents out of the lane and when you start getting low use his natural regeneration plus some tangos to get back to higher HP. If you’re passively sitting back in lane as Ogre and not zoning out the enemy you are playing him incorrectly!
  
• Bloodlust is Ogre’s third ability that gives bonus movement speed and bonus attack speed for 30 seconds to either you or whoever you cast it on. Bloodlust has always been a solid ability because it is useful at every single stage of the game. Giving your carry +60 attack speed is devastating and can be very useful when your team is pushing a tower. A Dragon Knight that ulted with Bloodlust will deal massive amounts of damage to the tower. Additionally, an additional maximum of 14% movement speed is very useful for saving heroes or even using it on a hero to initiate.

• Useful in any skill bracket and doesn’t take a lot of items to be impactful. Whether you’re a professional or a beginner just starting out Dota 2, Ogre Magi is useful and will have a solid impact on your team if you play it correctly. Ogre is very easy to pick up and learn Dota 2 with. If you’re just starting out, feel free to spam him for a while to understand how Dota works. Buy Arcane Boots, Force Staff, Glimmer Cape, Aether Lens and WARDS! Be there for your team, use your stuns to save them, as well as these items I listed and your team will be in a great spot.

Those are a couple of specifics for why you should pick Ogre Magi right now. He is easy to pick up and play, and overall just a strong hero. Make sure you harass your enemy in the early game to take advantage of just how strong Ogre is in lane at level one and on.

Solid Pick #2 – Lich

Lich has been a relatively strong support hero over the past year. He has solid movement speed, good abilities, and is another support hero useful in all stages of the game. He also had a few ability changes with the change to Frost Shield giving AOE damage, and the addition of Sinister Gaze, which is where Lich disables and pulls the enemy towards him for 1.4/1.7/2/2.3 seconds.

• Use Frost Blast to harass enemies with it’s short cooldown. I’d put Lich in the safelane with the carry and let him use Frost Blast in order to slow and deal damage to the enemy. It offers a slow which will allow Lich to get a few more right clicks in and potentially set up a kill with the carry if that opportunity presents itself. Get two levels in this ability before your ultimate at level six.

• Frost Shield is a very strong ability now. Players are maxing this ability out more often than not and that is because it grants 30%/40%/50%/60% damage reduction and a slow to the enemy of 20%/25%/30%/35%. Use this on your initiator or carry to chase down your opponents, or use Frost Shield defensively in order to save your hero from getting spammed by right click heroes.  60% damage reduction at level four is extremely powerful so make sure to use it to your advantage!
  
• Sinister Gaze is powerful! This newer ability on Lich offers disable and can completely mess up an opponent if they are out of position. If your opponent blinks in, use this ability on them and it will pull them in which allows your team to hopefully take them out before they get their proper elimination on them. Or, if an enemy is trying to run away because they might be low health, similarly use it on the hero to bring them right back into your team. In previous iterations of Lich, his third ability granted him mana when he used it on a creep. Use Gaze on the enemy to drain 10%/15%/20%/25 of their mana. This is very strong on heroes with a low mana pool like many strength heroes.

Lich offers a lot of disable, damage reduction, slow, and damage into fights for a support hero. This makes him very viable as a position five hero and I would absolutely pick him when you can. Couple him with a carry like Faceless Void who can use his Chronosphere, and Lich’s ultimate will deal massive amounts of damage by bouncing from enemy to enemy.

Solid Pick #3 – Disruptor

Disruptor is one of those heroes that in my opinion never seems to be a horrible pick, but is overall just a solid choice if he aligns with the direction of your other picks. He has great harass potential, amazing lockdown, and one of the most powerful ultimates in the game if used properly.

• Thunder Strike. It’s overall just a great ability to use for harassing your enemies in the early game. If the opponent doesn’t have a lot of regen, make sure to have a clarity or two so you can use this ability four to five times. It also has a decent amount of damage with a very low cooldown at every level. It deals four strikes of 45/70/95/120 damage with a cooldown of 18/15/12/9 seconds. Make sure to have some mana regeneration, and use Thunder Strike plus your right clicks to deal solid damage to the opponents.
  
• His ultimate Static Storm is one of the best in the game! Disruptor’s ultimate silences all enemies inside of the AOE. Save it for the right time and it can win you the fight more times than not. Being able to silence a carry before he uses his abilities, or silencing a Dazzle before he gets to save a teammate is game changing. Don’t be afraid to use his ultimate to kill one or two important heroes. Despite it being an AOE ability, meaning you can catch all five heroes if they’re close together, it’s more important to use it at the ideal moment to give your team the advantage at specific moments.

• Static Storm V2! Not only does his ultimate silence enemies for five seconds, but if you can manage to get an Aghanims Scepter, it Mutes the enemy as well. To recap, muting is when a hero cannot use abilities OR items. This easily makes it one of the most powerful abilities in the game if you can manage to grab a Scepter. Being able to stop a hero from using a BKB and becoming magic immune will more often than not win you the fight. Don’t forget to purchase your support items first though. Grab Arcane Boots, Force Staff, Glimmer Cape, then get an Aghs if you can. Remember the Neutral Item Philosophers Stone will grant you higher GPM which is very useful on a position five support.

In conclusion, Disruptor is overall just a solid pick if you’re looking for a support hero that is good at all points of a match. Make sure to get him some useful neutral items and if the game can go long enough, definitely try to snag yourself that Aghanim’s Scepter!

Solid Pick #4 – Jakiro

Jakiro is the two-headed dragon, intelligence hero that packs a punch with stuns, slows, and heavy damage if the enemy decides to stick around. Not only that, but for an intelligence hero Jakiro has one of the highest base Strengths (27) in the game sitting in third only behind Spirit Breaker (29), Batrider (28), and Tiny (28).

• Dual Breath is Jakiro’s first ability and it offers a lot in the early game. It slows movement, slows attack speed, and is very useful to harass your enemy. Use this ability as much as you can in the early game because later on in the game it is more difficult to use this to it’s fullest potential. The reason being is because Dual Breath has a very low cast range, and as heroes become more powerful later in the game it is harder and more unsafe to get closer to them. However make no mistake that if an initiator blinks in or a carry tries to chase, use Dual Breath to slow them down! Additionally, max this ability first because it quadruples in damage at level four and only costs 35 more mana.

• Early game strength to take on your opponents. At level one Jakiro has 740 health! Use this to your advantage. Unfortunately Jakiro only has two armor, so trading with right clicks isn’t as viable as it is with Ogre Magi like we mentioned above, but don’t let this stop you from trading auto attacks to get that offlaner out of your lane. Use his HP to your advantage when you can. 57 damage and his 740 health should give you no problem in staying alive and assisting your carry.
  
• Liquid Fire is an underrated ability. Jakiro’s third ability is Liquid Fire, which costs a whopping ZERO mana. That’s right, it doesn’t cost you anything besides a relatively short cooldown! It offers burn damage to enemies, creeps, and towers for five seconds. Spam this as often as you can to harass your enemy and don’t be afraid to help your team push a lane. Liquid Fire also slows attack speed, so when you’re pushing and cast it on a tower, the burn damage will deal heavy damage to the tower itself and the attack slow will make sure your creeps and heroes stay alive longer.

Jakiro offers so much that many other heroes don’t. Support heroes that have abilities to help get towers faster should not be undervalued. Couple that with his stuns, slows, and reduced move / attack speed and Jakiro just makes for exactly what the title says…  A solid pick! Make sure to try to pick up a Eul’s Scepter if you can on Jakiro. Use the Eul’s and cast your Ice Path to instantly stun an enemy. However be aware that if the enemy has a BKB or a Juggernaut or Lifestealer with built in BKB’s, they can avoid the instant stun.

Learn This Hero! – Snapfire

Snapfire quite frankly is still just an absurd hero to play against, so you should learn and play her while you still can! Her abilities don’t cost a lot of mana, deal so much damage, offer movement slow, a stun, right click damage, and an escape. She’s a strength hero which naturally means she has more health than most, and doesn’t require many items at all to be productive. Snapfire can be effective in almost any role from a mid, offlaner, position four, and hard support. Lets go over her abilities:

Scatterblast – Point and shoot in a cone formation that deals 80/150/220/290 damage (plus an extra 50% if they’re close). It also provides 100% movement slow at all levels and barely costs any mana to cast. Below you can see the range for the extra damage in the light green. Max this skill first and use it to trap your enemy and slow them when they get too close.

Firesnap Cookie – A unique ability that can be casted on a friendly unit (or creep) to have the casted unit hop forward 450 distance. If casted on a unit and that unit then lands next to an enemy, it will stun the enemy for 1.6/1.8/2/2.2 seconds and deal 90/160/230/300 damage. This skill is extremely strong and you can use it in very creative ways. Save yourself or your teammate by casting it on at the right moment to hop over a cliff. Yes that’s right, you can hop over cliffs with this.

Lil’ Shredder is Snapfire’s third ability which deals physical damage with six auto-fixed instances. This means when you hit the ability and then click on the enemy you get six auto attacks that deal 35/50/65/80 damage per shot. It also applies an attack slow and can be stacked so feel free to use this ability on the enemy right clickers!

Mortimer’s Kisses – It’s honestly one of my favorite abilities in the game because it does require skill to hit, however it still will probably see future adjustments because of it’s insane damage. Her ultimate fires eight globs in a circular AOE where you pick where it lands. Deals 160/240/320 damage per hit plus 50/75/100 burn damage.

I just want to put this in a quick perspective that if you are a level six Snapfire and are against an Axe level eight with no items, he has 1200 HP. If all of those globs hit Axe he will die. Granted this is in a perfect world however an ultimate that can deal that much damage at level one is utterly insane!

It doesn’t cost that much mana and the cooldown is respectable, but is not super long. Again don’t be afraid to use this when you can as you shouldn’t be trying for the super huge ult, you just want to get kills with it as quick as possible to help your team. Use it at a range because you don’t have to be anywhere near the enemy to cast this ability.

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