Learn how to improve your gameplay and have more impact with our essential tips for Position 4 Supports in Dota 2
Dota 2 can be an exceptionally complex game. There are five roles in the game, and each of them plays differently. If you’re a Position 4 main, then understanding your responsibilities and knowing what you have to do in the game is essential to secure victory.
Position 4 Soft Supports are usually the roamers in the team. They serve as a pseudo-playmaker for the team, setting up team fights, initiating when needed, and, most importantly, controlling the tempo of the game. But in a game like Dota 2, this is easier said than done.
If you want to take your game to the next level, we’ve got your back.
In this article, we’ll give you a couple of simple yet effective tips for taking your Position 4 support game to the next level. So let’s get started.
6 Essential Tips for Position 4 Supports
Here are six simple tips to make your Position 4 Support gameplay more impactful:
1. Know the Meta Heroes
Credit: Dota2ProTracker
Understanding the meta is critical regardless of your playing Position in Dota 2. And for Position 4 supports, a role that relies heavily on getting favorable matchups, this is perhaps one of the most important things to know.
Learn which Position 4 heroes are strong in the current patch and figure out what makes them effective. Nature’s Prophet, for example, is an excellent Pos 4 Support in 7.35b because of his global presence and early game impact. But if you focus on only one lane while playing the hero, you’re not utilizing him to his maximum potential.
So take some time and learn to fully capitalize on the strengths of different meta Position 4 heroes. Once you have mastered a decent hero pool of meta Pos 4s, you’ll see your win rate climb. Keeping up with the evolving meta and deeply understanding a few meta picks is key to success as a Position 4 player.
2. Understand Your Lane Matchup and Responsibilities
In an ideal match, you and your Offlane duo should be strong enough to outlast the enemy Position 1 and Position 5 duo. If you get a favorable matchup, pressuring the enemy Laners as much as possible should be your first priority.
However, the lane doesn’t always go the way we want. And sometimes, you might face strong enemy safelane combos that you just can’t beat. In this situation, there are a couple of things that you can do.
- You could pull the Jungle Creeps to your Lane Creeps so that your Offlane can farm closer under the tower.
- If the opponent’s Support is pulling, you can contest the pull.
- If your Offlaner can farm Ancients easily, you could also start stacking Ancient Camps.
- Rotating to different lanes to force the enemy Position 5 to move out of the Lane is also a valid strategy that you can utilize.
Understanding the Laning situation and what you need to do to help your team in these situations is essential for a Position 4 Support.
3. Rotate to Secure Runes and Ganks
The early game (minutes 0 to 10) is the most important time for the Pos 4 support. You need to help not only your Offlane win his lane but also rotate mid in minutes 2, 4, and 6 to secure the Water and Power Runes.
With the introduction of Twin Gates in patch 7.33, supports can also rotate to opposite lanes easily without spending their Teleportation Scroll. You can use the Twin Gates to gank the enemy Offlaner if they are diving under the tower.
If you learn to be active on the map in the early phase, you can ensure all your lane goes in your team’s favor. This will help your team snowball into mid-game with impactful items that will help you win team fights and secure objectives.
Most Position 4 supports in the lower ranks tend to get stuck on a single lane. When you start focusing on the entire map instead of your own lane, you will be able to control the game more effectively.
4. Call For Smoke Ganks
The Position 4 Support is usually the tempo setter in the team, and if you start playing passive, then your whole team will be forced to play the farm game. In certain situations, farming the map and avoiding fights is important, but in most cases, you need to play aggressively on the map to choke out your opponents.
Keep an eye on your teammates’ item progression, and whenever your team reaches a power spike, call for smoke ganks. For example, when your Mid gets a key item that will give him better team fight presence or kill potential, it’s a good time to start roaming the map looking for kills.
A successful smoke gank can easily lead to key objectives like Roshan or Towers.
As Position 4, you need to actively seek out opportunities and coordinate ganks to translate individual power spikes into map control and objectives. Mastering the art of smoke ganks and knowing when to make plays is crucial to performing your role as a tempo setter.
5. Itemize Depending on the Game
One of the biggest mistakes you could make as a Pos 4 player is to build items like a core. While a Position 4 support usually gets a higher gold priority than the Hard Support, if your gold doesn’t translate to impactful items, then your game is as good as lost.
You need to look at the enemy team’s strengths and itemize to counter them. For example, if the opposing team has a Safe Lane Morphling, going for an early Spirit Vessel is a good idea. Against Ursa or Troll Warlord, rushing Eul’s Scepter of Divinity on the Position 4 will allow you to kite and control the enemy.
If you can’t find an enemy weakness to exploit, consider going for items that will aid your team instead. Items like Force Staff, Solar Crest, or Glimmer Cape are excellent for enabling your teammates.
And if your squad lacks initiators, don’t hesitate to pick up a Blink Dagger on Position 4’s like Earthshaker or Rubick. Mastering impactful itemization is key to success as a Position 4 support.
6. Plant Aggressive Wards
If you think only the Position 5 support has the warding responsibility, then you’re mistaken. As a Position 4, you have more knowledge about your game plan and how you want to apply pressure. You can leverage this to set up aggressive visions across the map.
Later on, you can use the wards you planted to execute smoke ganks or set up team fights. So always plant a few Wards in locations your team can fight around as a Position 4. This vision will enable plays and provide the information needed to control key areas of the map.
Careful ward placement and using that vision to coordinate ganks is a hallmark of high-impact position 4 play. Wards win games, and if you want to secure the victory, don’t neglect this responsibility.
The Bottom Line
The Position 4 in Dota 2 might be the most volatile and complex role in the game. As the playmaker for the team, your playstyle dictates the majority of how your team will perform in the early to mid-game stages of the match.
Once you master the tips that we mentioned here, you’ll see a noticeable increase in your win rate. Good luck!
