Hard Support is arguably the worst role to play in Dota 2. Having absolutely no priority in terms of farm and often requiring one to disregard themselves for the more important players in the team. Nevertheless, taking up this role does come with its perks, such as not taking the brunt of your team’s blaming for a lost match, and a variety of unorthodox heroes that can be hard supports.
We will break down the best hard support Dota 2 players can pick into a hard support Dota 2 tier list. Every hero pick in the five tiers (S to D-tiers) are viable in the recent Dota 2 Update 7.33, with the only defining differentiators, such as hero difficulty, learning curve and conventionality.
Hard support Dota 2 Tier List
Let’s get into more descriptive details as we go into each tier, but the gist of it is to have an absolute blast while playing your ideal support hero.
Best Hard Supports Dota 2 Tier List
S-tier: Simple and Spam-able
At the peak of all tiers is S-tier, where the best hard support Dota 2 heroes are simple and can be spammed every game. These are heroes that have basic skills that are useful in any scenario, aka utility. And often, these heroes have only 2-3 active skills to use, while the others are useful buffs/auras.
Ogre Magi and Crystal Maiden are the best representation of S-tier support heroes, notably for their simplicity. Ogre Magi, in particular, is a durable melee hero that has a stun, AOE slow, and an attack speed buff skill. With his ultimate, Multicast, which as the name suggests, multicasts his other skills, Ogre is a fun support to play. Crystal Maiden, on the contrary, isn’t as durable as Ogre, but has a similar AOE slow and disable skill. Her mana regeneration aura is a passive, so support players only need to use her damaging skills whenever they see fit.
In terms of itemization, the only items you would ever get is plain Boots before you pick up saving items, such as Glimmer Cape for your team. The rest should go into purchasing consumables, such as healing in the laning phase then wards and smoke as the game progress.
A-tier: All Utility Skills
At the A-tier of hard support Dota 2 tier list, things get much complicated as every hero has four active skills. That also means that these heroes have the most versatile skillset for every game, making them a pleasant hero.
Even so, what makes them stand out to the other tiers is that their skillset are still relatively straightforward and foolproof because the skills are unit-targeted. A-tier hard support heroes include:
Witch Doctor
Lion
Lich
Jakiro
Shadow Shaman
Ancient Apparition
Treant Protector
Several are specialized in only stuns and high burst damage, such as Lion and Lich. Whereas there are also that are fit for teamfights, healing, and even pushing.
Image Credits | Valve
B-tier: Thinking and Timing Required
At the B-tier, we have an abundance of heroes that can deliver various utility skills, similar to the hard supports in A-tier. However, with these heroes, the hard support player must take into account of timing and situation. Finding the optimal situation to use a specific skill could ultimately win you a fight and the entire game, if you keep up the great decision-making.
As such, heroes such as:
Chen
Grimstroke
Omniknight
Silencer
Undying
Snapfire
They are often oriented for teamfights, where the outcome is highly dependent on your decisions. Of course, that also means you can often turn out to be the MVP of the game because you won your team the fight.
C-tier: Unconventional Hard Support Heroes
Over the recent metas, unconventional hard support picks have been on the rise. Pro players often exhibit and set new trends in the pub matches, so hard support players are getting creative. On the C-tier of hard support Dota 2 tier list, we have:
Mirana
Windranger
Invoker
Magnus
Nature’s Prophet
These heroes offer indirect support perks, such as ganking, vision or their global presence. The most popular in the C-tier is Invoker, especially the Quas-Wex Invoker build. Its main initiator is Cold Snap with an Urn of Shadows and auto-attacks, and include other utility skills, such as EMP, Ghost Walk, Alacrity, Ice Wall and Tornado. These skills offer escape, speed buffs and disables.
D-tier: Double-edged Swords
On the D-tier, where the hard support heroes could potentially be game-losing if you make a fail. Heroes, such as:
Oracle
Dazzle
Disruptor
Io
Shadow Demon
Bane
Techies
These hard support heroes have powerful skills that could save your teammate from certain death or even catch fleeing heroes. However, it comes with a heavy requirement to land it right, else it would be just a waste of skill. For instance, Dazzle’s Shallow Grave depends on the player to land it right before their teammate dies, but not prematurely whereby the duration wore off before your ally even hits zero health.
Then, there’s Shadow Demon, whereby his skill, Disruption, can be used for saving an ally or trapping an opponent. The target is invulnerable under this spell, so it could be a very intrusive skill that potentially favors the opponent instead. The same can be said for Bane’s Nightmare.
Image Credits | Valve
Dota 2 Hard Support vs Soft Support Heroes
In most matches, the best hard support Dota 2 heroes can also be soft support heroes. However, the most defining difference is that soft supports gets gold priority over hard supports. They often don’t need to buy wards or consumables, which they can spend on utility items, such as Blink Dagger or Force Staff. Hence, why soft supports are also known as semi-carries. They contribute by being a playmaker when they have the right items to be impactful.
This sums up our Hard Support Dota 2 tier list as of Dota 2 Update 7.33. Remember, you are doing a noble cause as a hard support player.
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