13 Ways to Counter Night Stalker (Balanar)

Night Stalker is now a high pick in Captains mode Dota games.  He is a horrifying ganker having a skill that can damage as well as slow his opponents, he has high movement and attack speed at night, and he can tank.  People, who don't want that kind of hero to ruin their games, simply ban him.  However, there are other heroes who are more worth banning than Night Stalker.

A good Night Stalker player can completely mess up your strategy if you don't consider countering him.  He can just have lane-hopping and gank the hell out of you.  So, you should be ready whenever the opponents have the option to pick him.

If your opponents have a Night Stalker, these are the 13 counters you can choose from or you can combine number of counters.  

1.  Initiate team fights

Knowing that Night Stalker is a pub game hero utilized to be a ganker in Captains Mode matches, he is a weak hero in terms of 5v5 clashes.  In ganking he can kill alone by chasing his prey wherever it goes.  In team fights, he can't do that.  He'll be stunned and nuked to death.  His skills are single-target making him weaker at team fights.  The best he can do at team fights would be 1 or 2 voids and few punches on his target. 

2.  Have enough amount of disables

You want to kill him?  Then, you should disable him.  Not only he got tanking skills but he's way fast at night.  You want to make him stay in one place long enough to kill him.  You also need disables to help your team mate Night Stalker wants to kill.

3.  Have high hp heroes

Simply because Night Stalker's void is too painful for low hp heroes.  Having high HP means having enough time to run, juke and shout for help.  At early game, Night Stalker doesn't have that much Mana to kill you with his void.  He'd prefer focusing on low hp heroes then.   If your low hp heroes know how to hide whenever they sense danger, the vampire would be hungry the whole night.

Vampires won't dare getting a panda bear hug.

4.  Bait at night

Night Stalker forgot to have a spoiler on his name.  We know that he would gank at night.  Pro players would use this to their own advantage baiting heroes to kill the deceived vampire.  He's predictable.  The only thing you should do is stay focused.  If you don't have the ability to sense when the gank is coming, simply put observer wards.  For Balanar to completely kill a hero the average time would be 8 seconds.  That is the time he void, chase, normal attack and another finishing void.  If you can predict when he's going to gank, why not stealthily wait for him and kill him when he tries to kill your bait?  That way he would have fear in ganking again making him a worse Night Stalker player.

You tricked me... aaahh...

 5.  Take advantage of the vampire's rest hours

Morning is the part of the day when you should be executing most of your attacks.  Yes, he can turn the day into night, but the worst part of using Darkness in the morning is that when the duration of the Darkness end, the morning period stayed the same.  You can also bluff a team fight for him to waste his Darkness and pursue fighting after the skill's duration.  Balanar doesn't have that bonus movement and attack speed making him more vulnerable and ignorable.

TURN OFF THE LIGHTS!!!!!!!!

6.  Have healers

Healers doesn't prevent Balanar from killing a prey but they help prolong the killing.  Once the back ups arrive, Balanar will be left no choice but to retreat.   Some good healers against Balanar are the following:  Warlock, Omniknight and Enchantress.  They are the heroes that can survive Balanar's attack longer.  Chen, Dazzle and Vol'jin are good aids to team mates being ganked by Balanar.  They should be careful though because they have low delicious HP Balanar would want.

7.  Counter his tanking ability

He can be a good tank because of his decent hp and armor.  Countering strength heroes is not new to us.  Heroes like Necrolyte, Slardar and Shadow Fiend are good for taking down tanks.  Armor reduction items such as Stygian Desolator make it easy to take tanks fast too.


8.  Use his movement speed to your advantage

The buff on another pub game hero, Blood Seeker, made him suitable for CM games.  His Rupture can cause great damage to high ms heroes like Balanar.  Another hero that can be used to turn his speed to your own advantage is Ezalor.  Mana leak on Balanar will surely drain his mana.  He may choose not to move but that's dangerous for him specially in Captains mode where most heroes aren't alone.


9.  Use Ghost Scepter wisely

Void is a nuke that will be amplified if used on a hero which has activated Ghost Scepter or in an ethereal form.  Thus, if used wisely, ghost scepter can save a hero's life when being chased by Balanar.  After he used his void on you, that's the time you turn to Ethereal form.  Now, he can't attack you for 4 seconds.  If you have dagger of escape, you can now dagger out.  If you have none, you should be calling for help now before you turn back to your original form and receive quick blows from Balanar, not to mention casting another Void on you.

10.  Respond Quickly

The main reason why Balanar is so strong in pub games is that nobody cares if you're being killed and you can't command your stranger team mates that easy.  Balanar is scared of heroes teleporting on towers because he needs to chase for 8 seconds to cast 2 Voids on a hero.  In Captains mode games, Night Stalker shouldn't be owning a lot if your team knows how to be careful and how to respond quickly.

Prey saved again, darn it!

11.  Ruin his early game

Not making Balanar have an easy game having all the levels and items he needs, makes him not a very productive ganker.  He is also not that easy to farm unlike heroes who have AOE spells.  Once you disrupt his early game, there's nothing to fear much in mid game.  He can gank but responding at once will waste those ganks.  He can even die in the certain gank if he would be aggressive.  By mid game he needs vanguard or other tanking items to make him last longer in clashes.  If you ruin his early game, it is hard for him to recover and he'll be useless until late game where he can be easily killed by a disable and painful normal attacks.

12.  Know how to juke effectively

Take advantage of his range.  He is a melee hero and juking into forests would make him have difficult time landing his normal attacks on you.  Know the juke spots and use fogs.  If you survive until your team mates arrive, you'd be more likely safe now and you can cast a skill to help your team mates kill Balanar or you can run through the fountain if the disables of your team mates are not that dependable. This strategy is not applicable when he got Aghanim's Scepter.

13.  Teleport

Void can cancel channeling spells and teleporting is one of them.  You can use teleport to escape after he cast his first void on you but be sure he doesn't have a team mate with disable or deadly nukes when you're planning to use this.  If he does, juking, shouting for help and panic buying are the best options.  You shouldn't be displaying yourself on the first place if Balanar is not seen in the map. 

You don't have teleport scroll my dinner?

Balanar isn't as scary as his appearance.  He is just scary if you'll take for granted countering him.  Remember,  there are a lot of Dota Guides on countering heroes but all you need to do is find out every heroes' weaknesses.  Then, you can beat them easier by exploiting their weaknesses.

Read more »

Posted in: Guides,Heroes,Strategies

Trilane Do's and Don'ts Dota Guide

3-1-1 laning is used in most of the Dota games today because it gives your team greater chance of winning. You can have 2 solo heroes that can be stable on their lanes receiving most farm and levels and you can have a lane composed of 3 heroes ensuring a lane dominated, your trilane.  2-1-2 lane won't be successful against trilane because 2 heroes definitely won't win against a trilane and their other 2 heroes couldn't kill a solo hero.


These are the Do's and Don'ts in Dota Trilane

Do's

Have nukes and disables: Without these, your trilane will obviously fail.  The amount of disables and nukes are preferably more than 1. You need to hold your opponents long enough and you have to kill them fast enough.

Have regeneration items:  Trilane definitely would consist of non-stop harassments and battles.  You will need to regenerate your hp and mana in order to be more stable at your lane and avoid going trips back and forth.  Leaving your lane for a while means free time for the opponents to farm and to dominate the remaining heroes.

Buy other important items: Other important items, like magic stick, add to your lane advantage. (See them all here - Dominating Trilane): 

Aim for low hp heroes:  Low hp heroes are easy to kill and most of the time they have the best disables and nukes in the lane, so taking them out as soon as possible is a wise decision.

Maximize skills:  Use your skills with perfect execution and proper timing.  Communicate with your allies and know who should be first to act and who's next.

Have combo:  Your heroes shouldn't be composed of random heroes and just lane them up on the trilane.  You should think of how they would complement their skills.  Here are some of the best trilane combo that can serve as models to you. 

Cheap Shots (Harass opponents):  Try to position yourself so that you can be safe while doing cheap shots on your opponents.  When they have low hp, you'd have quicker time to kill them once you execute your combo.

Kill as quick as possible:  Time is gold.  Yup, even in trilane.  When you're able to kill a hero as quick as possible it's down now to 2v3.  You can choose to kill another one or retreat if it's too dangerous to proceed.

Consider allies' position:  Before initiating know where your allies are.  If they are too far away, you'll just waste your mana and worst you can even die because of that.

Don'ts

Picking heroes that don't compliment each other:  It's best to have heroes that compliment each other because it's easier to kill and there won't be much hassle in battles.

Too many melee heroes:  Melee heroes are prone to harassments and are weak at harassments.  You wouldn't want to give opponents a free farming lane so you should often limit your trilane heroes on 1 melee hero.  There are cases where you can have 2 but it's not advisable to have all the heroes at the trilane melee.

Not warding:  Observer wards are essential in trilane.  It can either be used defensively or for attacks.

Aiming for tanks:  You don't have enough damage to kill tanks in one combo early game.  There are other heroes you can finish in few blows.  Aiming for tanks will get you in trouble most of the time.  He will make your skills useless and he will just run away laughing at you while his allies punish you for your wrong decision.

Playing too passive:  Your opponents will have a free farming lane when you do this.  You should limit their items and levels as few and low as you can. 

Being too aggressive:  Playing too aggressive, on the other hand, causes you to die giving more gold for the opponents.  What you should do is balance your plays.  Know the best time to execute your combo and wait for this opportunity.  Try to bait your opponents too for them to commit errors.

Not considering opponents combo:  Not only your team has deadly combo, your opponents have too.  You should know what are the things they can execute.  This is easy because you already know the skills of every hero in Dota.

Wasting Mana: Don't use your skills on creeps just for the sake of farming, especially if you're using a low mana hero.  Reserve your mana for your combo.  Stun and other disables are also best used in killing not in harassing.  Use nukes to harass.

Creep pulling a lot:  I wondered why most asian teams I watched doesn't pull neutral creeps.  Instead, they keep on harassing and trying to kill opponents on their lanes.  I realized that it is more important to do that because you can help your team mate have more farm by harassing your opponents.  You can also save allies anytime.  Nonetheless, you can prevent your tower from receiving cheap shots.

These are the common things you should and you shouldn't do in your trilane to have greater opportunity to win, not only your trilane, but the entire game.  For more trilane Dota Guides see these: Dominating the Trilane and Some of the Best Trilane Combo

Read more »

Posted in: Guides,Strategies

Quelling Blade Tips

Quelling Blade

Introduction

• Possible one of the best farming tool in the game, this light, handy axe provides additional damage to creeps making it a lot more easier to last hit using so-called "money shots". Also a good tool for juking and making seemingly impossible paths in the forest because of its active Tree-Chop skill that, as the skill name itself says, chops trees down. 

Item Statistics plus a few facts

• Gold Cost: 225
• Deals an additional 32% attack damage to non-hero units if the user is melee, adds 12% bonus damage to ranged users.
• Grants the ability to chop down trees with a cooldown of 5 seconds
• Cannot be wielded by Admiral
• Bonus damage does not work on towers and siege units and flying neutral.
• Orb Effects override the "Quell" ability, the one that deals bonus damage, except for feedback and if Quelling Blade is acquired after getting the feedback ability.
• The Quell ability works with Illusions

The Pros and Cons

Pros

• The added bonus makes it easier to get that creep last hit
• Excellent for Juking out during jungle chases

Cons

• A bit expensive for something that doesn't add any stats
• Doesn't add any stats (redundancy ei?)

Getting the most out of it

• So, what's the best thing to use Quelling Blade? Juking So maybe most of you will be thinking what the hell is Juking?

Juking

• In general Juking is a way to trick or fool your enemies during chases, it could be done either by making jungle paths, using in-game juke spots and abusing the fog, in this case for Quelling Blade, juking can be done by making jungle paths when cutting down trees.

Some Jungle Juke Spots that could be found or made using your Quelling Blade

[Note: I won't be able to give everything on this section since there are still some that I didn't discover as of yet but I will giving out useful and some not so common spots that could be used anytime in the game]


Spot 1:

Bottom lane sent shop juke spot, cutting down this tree would lead you here:


Full path that could be made with Quelling Blade

Spot 2:

This part here could be found near the river entrance of the sentinel jungle this spot has two parts, this one would be the entrance


And this would be the exit


Full path after chopping down both trees. Note, spot could also be used as a hiding spot

Spot 3:


Now this part one's a bit tricky and would easily be done using a QB+Tango combo, this part here would be the entrance


Now here's the tricky part, the exit, as you can see there would the smaller tree is overshadowed by a bigger one, this one requires a little target practice, or you could use two tangos if you don't get the right one at first.


Full path

Spot 4:


This spot gives an escape route towards the scourge tier two tower, good against tower diving offensive trilanes or for offsetting ganks coming from the side


Full Path after taking down that tree

Spot 5:


This one gives a safe path towards the sentinel tier 2 tower


Full Path

Now those are some spots that I've discovered and would come in handy when you want to escape or trick out those chases
Added tip: These spots are more preferable to use at night for that added fog abuse.

Some other uses for Quelling Blade

• Aside from juking, Quelling Blade could also be used in Choke Point Jungling and Dual Neutral Creep pulling, it's also a good item to use in order to escape Furion's tree trap.

That would be all for this guide err review, or what ever you may call it. As what I always say, "Hope this helps, GLHF!'

Credits to:
-S!  otherwise known as Salawayun!

Read more »

Posted in: Guides,Items,Strategies

Smoke of Deceit: 5 Great Ways to Use It

Price: 100

Gives:

Consumable

Charges: 1

Stackable in inventory

Store Stock Max: 3

Store Stock Replenish Time: 10 minutes

Places a buff on all allied player controlled units in 1200 aoe. Makes them invisible, grants 15% movespeed bonus, and prevents them from appearing on minimap to enemy players.

If you get within 850 aoe of an enemy hero or tower, the buff wears off. If you attack creeps or Roshan, it dispells.

Buff lasts up to 40 seconds

90 Cooldown

1.  Early Game First Blood

How many of you check for runes before the start of the game?  How many plant wards before the game?  You often times do this right?  What if the whole gang of enemies suddenly surprise you while you are hiding or planting your wards?  It's a first blood for sure.  Your team can use that sample strategy.  Bring a smoke of deceit early game and hunt for these unguarded heroes.  You can either be in a group of 4 or 5.  Just make sure you do this as quick as possible to arrive on time on your lane and not make the opponents have free farming time.

2.  Destroying opponent's wards

Most of the time you die and whine "I was just going to deward :("  Now, there's a cheap item you can use to avoid this cheaper death.  Activate your smoke of deceit far from the place where you might think the ward is then march towards it, put a sentry, destroy it.

3.  Ganking other lanes passing through opponent's ward

It is so hard to gank lanes where there is a single ward placed perfectly to protect these lanes.  Icefrog loves the ganker and create this item for us to use.  This has long duration so you can still be patient to wait for the perfect timing to land your skills on the target hero.

4.  Ganking without hiding through fogs

Most of us rely on fogs to gank.  Now you can simply march towards your target though you are within the creeps vision then execute your combo.

5.  Killing Roshan without alerting opponents

It is impossible to place obs on Roshan's lair.  The only thing opponents can do to prevent you from going to Roshan is to place observer wards where your team would walk en-route to Roshan.  There's a vision limit in which we call phantom spot.  Once you arrive at this phantom spot be sure no one would be outside that fog to prevent alerting the team that you are killing Roshan.

Vision Limit from Roshan

Read more »

Posted in: Guides,Strategies

Dota Guides: Ultimate Dota Guide Compilation

This is the compilation of important Dota guides for easy access.

Captains Mode: Hero Picking Dota Guide

This is a guide on how to be a good drafter at Captains Mode though you don't have time to play tons of games.

Not having enough time to play a lot of games to be an experienced and effective drafter? This is the right article for you.

In my article, 8 Essentials in Winning a Dota game, having a better leader ranked 2nd to the most important. Leaders are responsible for their team's motivation and strategies. Hero drafting greatly lies on the hands of a Dota Team Captain. Team mates may suggest but leaders should have the larger vision on how the game would flow. They should be able to pick heroes that will give the team great advantage over the opponents.
Read More...

How to Dominate the Trilane

This guide will tell you the important things to remember to win a trilane.

Though I'm fed up of 3-1-1 lane type, I have to admit that this is the most effective strategy offering several advantages. 2 solo heroes will acquire their powerful ultimate skills in less time. They would also have their other skills at maximum quickly. Heroes at the trilane will apparently destroy a dual lane. 2 supports in a lane assures a safe lane for a carry making him farm all the gold he wants. So, in order to win, you have to beat the opponent's trilane. But how? How does the Pro makes trilane so effective? What must be done to dominate your opponents at trilane? Here it is...
Read More...

9 Different DotA Ganking Styles 

This guide enumerates 9 different ganking style you should use in any given situation.

Ganking, ranked 4th place in 8 Essentials in Winning DotA Games, is one of the most important tool in winning DotA Games. Thus, there are different ganking styles that will make you sneaky and unpredictable. It is important that you have proper coordination with your team mates if you are going for ganks. Pro players are too careful that they don't often die from getting ganged up. Observer wards are too cheap and placing them in ganking areas is the best counter for Ganks. So, a variety of ganking style is recommended for being unpredictable. 
Read More...

10 Things You Can Learn From Maelk

This guide will inspire you by informing you how Maelk became the great player he is now.

Jacob 'Maelk' Toft-Andersen is my very first inspiration in being a leader of a DotA team. I was so inspired on how his plans would always be successful. He would always be interviewed every tournaments because of his indispensable wit. Teams would often fear his team, MYM, because of his deadly strategies and his ability to counter every opponent's plan. His games would often be superb carrying the team to victories. After watching his games, reading his posts, watching his interviews and hearing the comments of his team mates on him, I learned a lot of dota guides and lessons on how to somehow be a 'Maelk' of our team.
Read More...

Dota Guide: How to Farm Fast

This guide will tell you how to improve your farming game.

People often want to know how to farm gold fast in DotA, which is a lot different from me. I am thirsty for blood when I'm playing that I tend to roam a lot. Roaming is fun for me, but then, I expect the carry heroes of our team to be equipped with their needed items as soon as possible so that we can take advantage and destroy towers easily. However, some players want to show off their mad farming skills by farming the whole game. This is not fun at all for me. I don't find self-esteem in having 5 divine rapiers but having 0 kills. I better play 4 v 5 than have a Greedy Gold Farmer team mate. However, farming is also essential in winning games. Here are some tips in getting more gold in less time.
Read More...

Dota Ganking and Supporting Guide

This guide will inspire you to play a better support and ganker role.


I have been playing support role since forever because I find this role the most fun role in the game. I love actions and I love getting into fights as early as possible. It was a good thing though because most players here want to play farmer and carry. Farming is important but I find it boring because you become an insurance for the team. You simply stick to your lane and try to farm as much as you can at early game. I know you have to dominate your lane too but if your hero have disadvantages at early game against your opponent, you'll have to play passively. I was known for being a great support for our team back then. But I have to admit, after watching one of my team mate play support role, I realized that someone became a lot better than me. I don't play too often now but I still watch replays and I see a lot of boring support players. They would often act as slaves for the team. You wont even recognize them.
Read More...


Dota Guide: 8 Essentials in Winning a Dota Game


This guide will tell you the 8 most important things to have in winning a Dota Game.

There are a lot of factors that help you win DotA games. This is the reason of its excitement and suspense. After every DotA game there are just too much to talk about. But the most discussed is how the team won or lost. Among all of these things that made them won the game, what are the most important factors to be able to win Competitive DotA Games? Here they are ranked according to importance...
Read More...


Developing Your Own Dota Team Guide

This is will guide you on how to develop a solid and successful DotA team.

I started my own DotA team when I heard about a tournament in one computer shop near our University. The team I made was composed of friends from high school. I was only an average player being taught by my DotA Teacher, Mark Bernardo. He exposed me to his DotA friends who happened to be the best team back then, the Inzane. I observed how good their team play was. Individually, they may experience defeat but when it's time to play as a team, it's quite impossible to defeat them. How did they develop that kind of team? I asked myself. I didn't stop studying how to have a solid team.
Read More...


Ultimate Dota Supporting Guide

This is a guide that tells you almost everything you need about supporting from basic to advance.

Definition: Mainly a support is a hero that takes care or, from the name itself, supports the whole team, most especially the carries. Supports are the ones that are in-charge for the overall team defense and map control.
Read More... 



DotA Pushing Essentials: How to Destroy Towers Successfully

This article is to guide you and your team in pushing opponent's towers without getting into trouble.

In every single game of Defense of the Ancients, no matter how you do it pushing is one vital and the most important thing to do in order to win. Taking down towers in order to get to the main building is one thing that a team or a player needs to master in order to dominate the opponent. Now here are a few tidbits to help you by when it comes to pushing.

Read More... 

Watch out for more Dota Guides here at Itsme DotA.

Read more »

Posted in: Guides,Mindset,Strategies

Dota Guide on How to Push Towers Successfully

In every single game of Defense of the Ancients, no matter how you do it pushing is one vital and the most important thing to do in order to win. Taking down towers in order to get to the main building is one thing that a team or a player needs to master in order to dominate the opponent. Now here are a few tidbits to help you by when it comes to pushing.

Avoid long sieges.

* Make a push as swift and powerful as possible. Laying a long siege on an enemy base or tower may result in your allies going low on HP and MP and may cause some of their skills and ultis to be wasted resulting in unnecessary cooldowns.

Pressure the opponent.

* But not to the extent that you're gonna be reaching a point that everyone in your team is going to be low on HP and MP as stated from above. This scene is commonly seen as a part of the current meta of the game (especially in the PH scene where it is labelled as "pugak") it is an act of doing a 2 lane push wherein 4 members lay siege on one lane while another hero, which is the "one-man-mass-pusher" tries to push another. This is executed by doing a series of "push-and-back-out" tactics in order to break up the members of the opposing team and to outnumber a lane for a clash.

Check the Respawn Timer

* Especially after a teamfight or a successful gank. Know when you're opponents are gonna respawn in order to know when to back out and avoid going into unnecessary teamfights where your team would be placed in a state of utter disadvantage.

Ward Beforehand

* Warding before a push gives a good vision advantage for those fogged areas behind towers, this is to know if there is or are any incoming opponents that are going to defend and would help you decide on when to back out or to continue the push. For a more comprehensive view on pre-push warding you could check it here: S!'s Support Guide

Creep Block

* Have your tank or any AOE/High DPS Carry block or destroy the incoming enemy creepwave in order to have a higher damage output from your own creeps.

Outnumbering the enemy isn't always an advantage

* Always bear in mind what an enemy can do and not how many enemies are left, when pushing and seeing any incoming enemy defender, even if the situation makes you think that you are at the advantage since they are outnumbered, always think to yourself: Will they be able to defend this mass push? Are their spells enough to wipe out our own creep wave? Are our MPs, Spells and Physical Damage enough to take them out swiftly? You must bear this thoughts in mind most especially if you are going against heroes with some sick AOE Spells that could easily deal with massive creep waves.

Avoid the greed

* Going beyond the tower just to kill that incoming enemy defender sometimes gives a dreadful result that gives a huge disadvantage for your team and could lead to a counterpush. As much as possible limit your greed for gold and focus on the enemy tower first before going in for the kill.

Know when to back out

* What's a good way to do after a push? RUN Getting exhausted after doing a siege gives a good advantage for your opponent and could lead your team to a wipeout if you just stay near them after pushing. This is helpful during the early and mid-game phase where most of your teammates MP are easily drawn out from spamming up skills to counter enemy defense or to wiping out creepwaves.

Credits to Salawayun for the article.

Read more »

Posted in: Guides,Strategies

Ultimate Dota Supporting Guide

 The Support

Definition

• Mainly a support is a hero that takes care or, from the name itself, supports
  the whole team, most especially the carries. Supports are the ones that
  are in-charge for the overall team defense and map control.

Main tasks of supports

• Now most people's knowledge of a support hero's job is only limited to
  providing the courier, roaming and warding when in truth a support needs
  to do more than that. Here is a list of what a support user must do for
  his/her team:

1. Providing the courier
2. Warding/Dewarding
3. Roaming/Ganking
4. Babysitting
5. Teamfight Setting/Initiation
6. Lane Harrasment
7. Team Defense
8. and last but not the least and also the most important: Overall Map Control

Preferred skills for supports

• When choosing a support one must take the following abilities or spells into consideration:

1. Single Target/Area Disables
2. Global/AOE Beneficial Aura
3. Healing Spells
4. Movement Reduction Spells
5. Burst Damage Nukes
6. Status Reduction Spells
7. Teamfight Oriented Abilities

Gameplay

• A support user greatly relies on their own movements on partially on the
  items on their inventory. Supports usually go for items that add beef or
  STR type items for survivability, wards and town portal scrolls. A good
  support player should be able to survive a whole teamfight and get the
  tide of the battle in favor for their team. Here is a sample item core
  build for a support player:

1.Warding/Dewarding

• Warding
  and Dewarding are two of the most important skills that a support user
  should have. Knowing when and where to place wards gives a very great
  advantage in vision, pushing, farming and teamfights. 

Placing Observers, When to Ward, Where to Ward:

• This
  section would cover certain wardspots for Observer Wards in certain
  situations and phases in the game. I'll start with the sentinel side
  first

Early Game/Before Creepspawn
Lane Wards


Cliff beside mid lane, gives a decent view of the river, blind spots and rune area thus giving a safe mid lane farm.


One of the most commonly used spots in game, gives a good view of the
river, rune area and also provides vision for both the jungle and roshan
entrance.



Yet another commonly used wardspot, gives a quite larger view of the river, runearea plus jungle and roshan entry points.



Defensive
ward area for going against a Scourge trilane on bot, gives a rather
good view of the fogged area, Scourge's tier 1 tower and could be used
to offset incoming ganks.



Another preferable wardspot when going against a Scourge bottom trilane.

Mid-game/Ganking

Jungle Wards

Wardspot for Scourge jungle area, gives a good view of the two creep spawn points


Scourge jungle ubercliff, one common and very useful wardspot

Pre-push Warding
These wards are helpful when doing massive lane pushes, they provide decent
vision on the back of the tower to give sight of any incoming enemy
defender(s)


Pre-push ward for Bottom Tier 1 Scourge Tower


Mid lane Tier 1 Tower Pre-push ward area


Ward
area for when your team wants to push the Tier 1 tower on top, could
also be used as a defensive ward for going against top trilanes.


Pre-push wardspot for Midlane Tier 2 Tower

Base Warding
These
spots are good for doing that final massive Tier 3 tower push, gives a
good view on the enemy base and greatly reduces fog areas on the top
cliffs.


Bottom Lane Base Ward


Base Wardspot for Mid Lane


Base wardspot for top lane

Situational Wardspots


Mid Lane fog reduction


Top lane anti pull also gives a good view of the jungle entrance, offsetting incoming ganks


Ward area when your team wants to go for roshan or to scout if enemies are planning to go for roshan.


Another
defensive ward area for mid lane, gives a good view of the gank road in
the jungle plus reduces the fog area on the river and the opposite
cliff.


Another ward area for offsetting midlane ganks


Ward area for protecting your top lane solo hero


Ward area to give vision on the gank lane

Now that' all for the Sentinel Side, let's now check on for Scourge Team ward areas.

Early Game/Before Creepspawn


This spot gives a decent view of the river, runearea plus it eliminates the common fog spot used in ganking


A rather defensive ward spot for protecting your mid laner


Wardspot to block a creep spawn point and prevents bottom lane creep pulls


A good spot to be used when going against top trilaners, gives a good view of the river below, tower and some fogged areas.


Top rune wardspot, please note that this spot could be also used by the Sentinel

Mid Game/Ganking
Jungle Wards


Uber Cliff Wardspot, a common wardspot used in-game

Pre-push Wards


A good vision spot when your team wants to do a push on Mid' Tier 1 tower


Ward area for pushing Bot's Tier 1 Tower


Top's Tier 1 Tower Pre-push Wardspot


This area gives a further view at the back of the tower, signaling for any incoming enemy defender


Ward area for pre-pushing Mid's Tier 2 Tower

Base Warding


This spot gives a good view of both the Top Tier 3 and Mid Tier 3 Towers


Base wardspot to give vision of the Bottom Tier 3 Tower Area

Situational Wardspots


Wardspot
to give an additional edge for your mid-laner, this spot is good
against defensive and tower-hugging opponents, gives a good view of the
tower area plus eliminates a few fogged areas.


Ward area to give vision of the gank lane and jungle entrances.


Defensive
ward area to protect bottom laners against aggressive gankers, gives a
good view of the river plus eliminates the jungle fog area


Ward
area for scouting the roshan entrance, could also be used (and normally
used) as an early game wardspot since it gives a good view of the rune
area.


Ward area used to offset incoming ganks or to foil enemy setplays.


Defensive ward area to offset backstab-type gankers on the bottom lane

Now that would be all for the warding section.

Dewarding

• Dewarding,
  from the term itself, it is an act of locating and destroying enemy
  observer wards in the map. This is to reduce enemy vision to a minimum
  and it also helps in landing successful ganks and team setplays. There
  are two main ways to deward, one is through the use of Sentry Wards or by using the Gem of Truesight.
  Now for this section I won't be posting any pictures regarding on
  locations on where to put your  Sentries, why? Plain logic: If you know
  where the wardspots are then you should know where your enemy's wards
  are located. Knowing every wardspot in the game plus the proper
  observation if whether your ganks are predicted or not already gives you
  an edge on whether if the enemy is warding or not and where to hunt for
  enemy observers.  Also, take note that Sentry Wards have limited
  natural vision on itself

• The red circle shows the natural sight range of a Sentry Ward while the
  transparent white circle shows its true sight range, knowing this gives a
  good edge in Dewarding since you won't be wasting too much sentries to
  locate multiple observers that could be located by only one when placed
  correctly.

Ganking/Roaming

• Yet another vital
  skill that any support user should posses, proper knowledge on when and
  how to roam gives a very good advantage favoring your team. Plus
  partnered with warding and dewarding skills, total map control could be
  achieved without any hassles.

Some tips about Roaming and Ganking

1. Go roam or do ganks at night, during this time most heroes and
   units visions are lessened making it easy for you to find blind spots
   behind heroes for surprise kills.
2. Ninja moves is a must, use the fog, this is your best friend when
   roaming, proper utilization and abuse of the fog-of-war in-game is an
   advantage both in attacking and backing out.
3. Do it fast, a good gank should last for no more than 10 seconds to reduce the chance of enemy counterattacks
4. Stunlock like a pro, mind the duration of your disables, plan your
   moves on who throws the stun first, who throws in next and when would
   you or they throw the stun.
5. Hero block, after stunning, quickly run forward and block your enemy's lane so that your ally could deal a good amount of DPS.
6. Timing is everything, here's a tip, wait for the next creep wave
   to get near to the enemy so that he would not have any vision or
   whatsoever from behind him, also take a look at your own creep wave to
   anticipate on where the enemy wave is currently located.
7. Be careful when towerdiving, don't directly attack or right-click
   on your opponent when your diving for them inside the tower, try moving
   in advance to where he is running and then throw some spells or nukes,
   doing this reduces the chance of the tower and the creeps going aggro on
   you thus reducing incoming damage that could possibly be taken from
   both the tower and the creeps.
8. Bring potions, if you wanna be a solid, hardcore, roamer/ganker having potions in your inventory ensures  continuous
   ganks without having to go back to the fountain to often but also be
   mindful on how much you're spend for pots for you might not be able to
   stack up for your core items which are badly needed during mid-game.
9. Anticipation and mind games, try to think ahead of your enemy, try
   to guess where he would be going or what move will he be doing next.

Babysitting

• This is the act of protecting your lanemates to ensure a safe farm for them, Babysitting is best and mostly done for heroes that are totally fragile on the early game phase or don't have any escape mechanism skill whatsoever like:

• Now take note that babysitting is not limited to these types of heroes. Babysitter type supports are mostly the ones having healing and protection type spells like:

• Well of course supports of these types are not limited to those heroes only. Now as opposed to the offensive Trilane, babysitting is a lot more defensive in every aspects, babysitters don't do too much harass but they do everything to their extent to protect their lanemate, either by slowing down enemy progress, disabling or in most cases healing.

Saving

• Now most people think that a support should sacrifice himself just to save the carry, now this is not true in most cases. A support must always do everything within his ability in order to save a dying colleague without going into the need for sacrificing oneself. A support could do this by disabling or slowing down enemy movement, healing, path blocking and drawing enemy aggro to oneself if necessary.

Teamfight Setting and Initiation

• Distance is important when doing teamfights, this is to ensure that your Support Hero would last throughout the whole clash without dying in order to deal the highest amount of damage output possible coming from you, the support user. 

When to engage in team fights?

• Mostly you go in after your carries or tanks, then throw a spell (mostly stuns), back out a bit then go back and throw a spell or a burst nuke again if you have one. Always keep an eye on who your team is focusing on and on who hits your carries to know who to nuke or disable.

When to retreat?

• A Support (or your team) should back out when:

1. There is no mana left to throw a spell
2. Carries/Tanks are dead/low on HP
3. Failed Gank Attempts

All in all, a support player should be able to master or if not at least gain a fair amount of knowledge regarding hero synergies, clash initiations/settings, warding/dewarding, proper roaming, fog abuse, and overall map control in order to be totally effective in the game. One must not be totally dependent on what items they have in their inventory but must rely on their movements and decision making skills in order to become a good support player.

oOo

Well I guess that would be all for this guide, here are some other useful articles to help you along in your journey in becoming a good support:
http://www.playdota.com/guides/the-forbidden-techniques  - "Ninja Moves" Manual
http://www.mineski.net/discussion/11067/tips-and-tricks-facts-gathered-from-all-around-the-web./#Item_65  - Fun DotA Facts Gathered from all around the Web
http://www.mineski.net/discussion/11892/mastering-warfare-tips-for-getting-that-clash-control-and-effective-hero-kills/#Item_7  - A Mini Guide for Mastering Clash Control


Credits to Salawayun for the article.

Read more »

Posted in: Guides,Strategies