Top Tier Supports in the Current Meta
The current support pool cannot be characterized by a single idea. It is very varied and multi-faceted, with individual character strength being the deciding factor for the hero’s success, rather than their ability to excel at some specific game timing. Today we are going to discuss top tier supports in the current meta for pub play and why they tend to work so well.
Omniknight
We did a feature on the hero some time before and most of the information in the previous post is very much relevant. Omniknight is exceptionally strong, critically underrated and heavily misunderstood.
Give it a read. The hero is definitely slightly weaker after the 7.32 nerfs and he doesn’t do as well at the highest level of play, but in average games there are few heroes who are as strong as Omni.
Nyx Assassin
The popularity and success of Nyx Assassin is a little less dependent on the hero itself. Nyx is mostly good because a lot of Intelligence cores and supports are making their way back into the meta. Uncontrollable enemy damage is what Nyx is great at abusing with his Spiked Carapace and almost every single meta hero has some sort of easy-to-catch AoE.
He also complements glass cannons really well. Nyx lacks damage output, at least until the later portions of the game, so having heavy hitters like Lina and Zeus in the meta makes him a lot more viable. He is good both with and against the meta characters, making him a naturally great support, who might not be the strongest of laners, but more than makes up for it in midgame.
Undying
More or less the opposite of Nyx. The strongest lane dominating position five right now and it is not even close. Even after the nerfs the hero feels a little bit unfair. He is really tanky, deals a lot of damage, causes semi-permanent damage in lane, creating kill openings and he also scales pretty well.
He can be hard-countered by a lot of other supports, at least in terms of his Tombstone effectiveness. However, it is one of the few meta heroes who can dominate their lane so hard, there is no comeback for the enemy offlaner. This can be especially powerful in games where a team relies on their offlane for playmaking.
We talked about how the current mid is frequently dominated by glass cannons like Lina and Zeus. They are extremely reliant on having a good position three in the earlier midgame: they might need to have some space to farm and they can’t risk going for plays themselves. Undying can ensure that the enemy doesn’t have a playmaker, which can be absolutely devastating and allow his team to snowball.
Silencer
A series of buffs later, Silencer is suddenly one of the strongest supports in the game. Courtesy of Arcane Curse buffs, he is now one of the stronger laning supports, who can transition into a pretty strong teamfight hero come level six.
It is still mostly a pub support. He doesn’t really have stuns and his strong talents are pretty late: at level twenty and twenty five. In long duration pub games that regularly get past the forty minute mark, getting to these talents is a definite possibility.
Do we recommend playing him in Divine+ games? Probably, the hero is still doing really well, though we fully expect his win rate to start going down some time soon, since players will simply adjust.
Do we recommend him for games below Divine? Definitely. He is one of the best first phase heroes, since he can be flexed a little between different support roles and can even be played as a core. And with the level twenty talent, he can ensure that a 25% slow sticks on the enemy carry for at least six seconds, regardless of whether they use BKB, Manta or anything else.
who might not be the strongest of lakers - this is a typo right?
What do you think?
Best perception EU
CM still a sleeper hero. Makes pretty much every lane a kill lane and the aura pretty much replaces the falcon blade in this meta. Movement speed seems to be the biggest flaw. I have been experimenting with going brown boots with drums instead of tranquil boots, since the tranquil boots movement speed nerf from a while ago.
Interesting that all of the "top tier" supports don't have a reliable stun bar perhaps Nyx, although a couple of them have movement slows. Surely this plays more into the hands of the elusive carrys like Morph, Slark etc.?