Dota 2: Top strongest hero pos 4 support patch 7.31

We continue the series of top strongest heroes in patch 7.31. This article will focus on the top strongest support hero pos 4 today. Unlike pos 5, this role has changed significantly from the previous patch.

MIRANA

Mirana received many buffs in 7.31. Although armor, base damage and attack speed are reduced, in return base agility is increased, making attack speed and damage more beneficial while armor value remains unchanged.

Additionally, Starstorm’s manacost is reduced by about 20%, allowing the hero to spam more, indirectly increasing farm speed and lane push potential. Not to mention, the hero’s Shard has also been changed from hand to magic, but this change is almost unnoticed.

One major consideration is the importance of jungle in 7.31 and Sacred Arrow remains one of the most powerful tools for dealing with early game pressure from summon dominated creeps. Mirana is a great solution to many heroes, including Chen, Enchantress and the popular Beastmaster.

Mirana also plays a little differently now. Currently, the player who maxed Starstorm and built the most successful high rank pub now chooses 0-2-1-0 at level 3. An extra point for Sacred Arrow early game, then max Starstorm at level, discard via ultimate.

This ensures you have a very long disable early in the game, high damage burst on a single target and still have mobility. Talking about how to build items, the kit usually has Eul’s, Spirit Vessel and green staff.

The article believes that Spirit Vessel can be replaced with Veil of Discord in games where you don’t need to heal and reduce enemy healing. The Veil of Discord’s mana recovery and magic damage boost from Veil of Discord is sometimes more beneficial. This item is very beneficial when the game tempo changes from odd to total teamfight.

SKYWRATH MAGE

We usually don’t include pure damage supports, but this time around, we can’t ignore Skywrath patch 7.31. Nearly all of Skywrath’s damage moves have been improved. Although Ancient Seal has been nerfed significantly, making the hero unpopular in the professional arena, it is the ability to play independently as well as the influence of Skywrath support that is what pubs need right now.

Speaking of hero development, there are two groups. One is to max out Arcane Bolt and try to deal as much damage as possible, making the most of the low cooldown. This is most effective when trading lanes: the lower cooldown allows you to trade more efficiently.

The second way is to maximize Concussive Shot and this is the most supportive article in most games. It’s better in terms of damage/mana, which is the most limited early game. It also helps more in early game teamfights, not to mention the shorter cooldown. The difference between 15 and 12 seconds may seem small, but it can make the difference between one or two Concussive Shots in a teamfight, not to mention a 40% slow for 4 seconds that can make a big difference early game.

There is a lot of debate when it comes to items for Skywrath Mage. First: don’t play this hero without Boots. There was a time when this was a popular and effective early game build, but the article doesn’t think it’s good at the moment. Having an inventory full of Null of Talisman also raises a big question mark: there’s nothing wrong with getting one or two Nulls during the laning phase, but don’t go all out on them because they don’t add spell amps anymore.

Rod of Atos is still strong when you need to control the opponent or possess the ability to solo kill the opponent. Aether Lens in most other situations is still better. Finally, at the end of the game, players should have a green stick, even if it is a support, the damage caused by the green stick is huge and cannot be ignored.

SHADOW SHAMAN

The Shadow Shaman is in a somewhat strange position. Hero mostly plays at pos 5 support in low rank pub, but stable pos 4 from Ancient rank and above. Since the article focuses mainly on high-rank pubs, the presence of Shadow Shaman on this list is not too surprising. Hero is very strong since the beginning of the patch and can compete against Bane in lane.

Shadow Shaman’s power comes from his laning power. The damage reduction from Shackles can be ignored, but the great healing makes the hero trade well, plus the early game damage and high armor. Very few heroes want to trade hits with Shadow Shaman for this reason, despite Shaman’s low movement speed and limited attack range.

Shackles now heals Shadow Shman, allowing you to play more proactively, encroach on the opponent’s side of the field more, and sometimes even take damage from creeps. Some high ranked gamers also apply 2-1-2-0 at level 5, as opposed to 3-1-1-0 and the article believes that 2-1-2-0 is worth considering.

You still want to max out Ether Shock first in most games: Shadow Shaman needs to get to the Aether Lens and Shard at the right time to maximize Shackles’ cast range. Investing 2 points in early game Shackles can make a big difference in the active lane, where you have a lot of kill potential. It increases disable by almost 1 second and increases damage/heal by more than twice, compared to level 1 Shackles. Well worth the increase while only adding 10 mana cost.

EPILOGUE

The author is very disappointed that the pos 5 meta is almost the same in 7.31, but when it comes to top hero pos 4 support, everything looks fresh. A lot of the heroes that dominated the high rank pub that disappeared a long time ago in the meta are now back.

Surely the game also has many other heroes as effective as the three mentioned above. Therefore, please share more in the comment section at the end of the article.

According to dotabuff

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