Supporting The Supports

[Darth_Payn]

So, this strip's become "DOTA: The Webcomic" then. I was expecting to read the punchline followed by a rimshot, not to hear crickets and the whoosh of wind over my head. It's like I HAVE to play DotA just to get the-

WAIT A MINUTE! ARE THEY PAYING YOU GUYS TO WRITE ABOUT THEM?!

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Ah, ok. This is what its like when I talk about warmachine or 40k around a MTG player.

There are occasions where I'll be trying to explain something technical to someone with no computer or electronics background and, if I'm not careful, I'll completely lose them and they'll get this strange look on their face somewhere between fatigue and desperation.

I now know that look myself.

 

[Ilikemilkshake]

Everything about this patch should in theory make supports better. Which is why I'm really confused that so far in my it seems like picking 5 carries and just waiting it out to the late game seems to guarantee success.

If you pick a sensible team: Mid, Offlane, Carry, Support/Jungler and Hard Support. If the enemy picks 5 carries then sure you'll stomp the early game but that doesn't matter anymore. You go 20 kills ahead by 20 minutes and all they need to do is get a pick off on someone and they're back in the game.

You can't even just try and push to end it fast before they get a chance to come back because they nerfed deathballing so hard.

As a support player this patch has made me so sad

Its simple really: gold is a lot, lot easier to come by after this patch and the comeback mechanics mean a couple of good teamfights can pull you back into it.

Consequently EVERYONE is virtually guaranteed to have a decent bit of gold. Sounds like support heaven but its not...because it means that heroes that scale with gold are favoured. They're guaranteed to get the gold to get their items. Hence hard supports haven't really benefited too much, and a number have dropped a little (Crystal Maiden experienced a slight drop for example before leveling off again) because they just don't scale enough.

Instead a number of hard carries that are item reliant are way, way up. Antimage jumped by 3%, Naga Siren by 3%, Phantom Assassin by 5% all the way up to Spectre who experienced a 10% winrate jump. Even Medusa went up by a full 5%.

Oh I absolutely get mechanically why this comes about. Late game heroes do more with their gold than supports. Who cares if a support gets a force staff out of nowhere, it's not going to help you all that much against a Medusa who has a rapier. I'm just confused as to why Icefrog/Valve/whoever has allowed this to happen with the patch considering it really seems like the intention was to indirectly buff supports.

 

[Alex V.Sharp]

I laughed when I realised CM was holding baby Anti-Mage and Ursa. Well played!

Also random observation: Shadow Demons flames make his face resemble a fox. Wish there was a skin like that...

 

[Risingblade]

Dota2 supports can't even afford boots? Wow I didn't know how good we had it in LoL

 

[Pogilrup]

See this is the same problem Jo faced in some of the NerfNow comics.

The joke may be witty to some, but to other people it just causes them to go "What?"

 

[anonymity88]

The 6.82 update to Dota 2 has been nothing short of a boon to hard supports. Rotating to secure runes is no longer a thankless task, as picking up the bounty rune nets the support/offlaner a bit of gold to compensate them for leaving lane. Denying the enemy mid both runes also helps keep bottle-reliant heroes in check.

The tweaks to gold and exp gain also mean that supports who net kills late game can afford to get some actual items up and the price reduction on TPs means it's not always going to be a choice between being a good support and having boots.

Hopefully this makes heroes reliant on early boots, like my personal favorite Crystal Maiden, a little bit more viable.

Man... I don't know what the FUCK you just said, Little Kid, but you're special man, you reached out, and you touch a brother's heart.

 

[Ferisar]

Dota2 supports can't even afford boots? Wow I didn't know how good we had it in LoL

Depends on how recently we're talking about. I still remember Season 2. Items? Ha, please. You're a walking ward-bot. You're lucky if you're around enough kills to afford something useful. The trinket/ward limit change is le best thing that's happened to the game since armor pen calculation went from -x and then -% to -% and then -x. Pwaise jeebus.

Oh, right, Dota 2.

Yeah I played that shit back in 2005-8. Shit was the tits. Or as captcha put it: "bees knees". Too bad Axe is in League. His name is Darius, and he shits all over his grandpa.

 

[FurinKazanNZ]

Given the large increases to gold income across the board, hard supports are actually worse since they don't scale. RIP Crystal Maiden.

 

[QuadFish]

Short explanation for people who don't play enough Dota 2 (i.e. most of you): the latest update introduced a new pickup to the map that gives whoever picks it up money and XP. For support players who don't get much money for most of the game (and in turn, the items you need to actually win) because they have to let the team carry players take it all, the bonus cash is more or less welfare money.

Playing support can be a thankless ***** of a job sometimes.

 

[ace_of_something]

Sounds like the gold fury from smite to me. Though that takes at least a couple people to take it down.

Why's DOTA2 so popular? Smite is far superior...

I think you and I are going to get along juuust fine.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

I like it. Only problem is the team mates fighting over them, but when things are so fast and unpredictable I'd think it's better to just grab the rune before the enemy does so that another one can spawn.

Now if they would just make Rikimaru killable again I just might return to playing full-time.

 

[DementedSheep]

I always find dota 2 and LoL posts fascinating because I have no fucking clue what people are talking about. I tried to play dota 2 but wouldn't start on my computer and I can't be bothered figuring out why.

"Feed the Caitlyn" is my favourite out of context line for LoL.

 

[Pedro The Hutt]

Just readin that made me so glad that I play Heroes instead of DotA and LoL. Thank you simplified mechanics!

While it's perfectly fine to prefer Tic-tac-toe over chess or checkers, as all three genuinely are fun games in their own rights, but some people really like it when a game has such near infinite depth that they can still find new things to learn after years of play. Tastes differ, and that's a good thing~

 

[Denamic]

CM could just jungle some gold if she needs it. She's very good at it. Also, Shadow Shaman should get some farm cuz he stronk.

 

[Grendich]

The rune change wasnt made to buff supports but rather to balance the RNG for the midlane a bit, i think, so that now, no matter where you go, you will find a rune to refill your bottle.
As many people have already said it, 6.82 hurts badly scaling supports pretty hard, since the game tend to be quite a bit longer and thanks to comeback mechanics, the early game isnt that important anymore.

Personally, i'd only pick supports that scale somewhat decent into the lategame now and can make some use of gold/items.

CM was already pretty weak and that patch did her more harm than good, sadly.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Those damned supports! Taking all our gold and kills.

And all the carry's hate. Don't forget that.