This game lacks CC-only mages especifically designed for the Support position

Skyroar·6/16/2018, 1:49:09 PM·1 votes·690 views

For years, I've always disliked playing the support role because I enjoy messing with and overpowering my opponent. My prefered playstyles are (battle) mages first and bruisers second, champs that naturally do not lend well to support in this game (some exceptions aside, I'll talk about them bellow).

However, I've just started playing DOTA 2, and I'm surprised at how much I can mess with my opponent there as a CC mage in a support position. This made me look back to LoL and think: wait, what's the closest equivalent I have to those heroes in this game? And I've realized that there's barely any.

Most spellcasters designed especifically for the support role are almost always (female) enchanters with heals, shields and all kinds of party support. Sometimes they have a bit of CC (morphing, silencing, the occasional stun), but they're party buffers first and foremost. If I want to play a heavy CC driven support, I'll have to resort mostly to melee frontliners/ tanks. And then there's the third option: the "mid rejects", heavy damage mages with one CC skill that found their place in the bot lane instead of the mid lane, but they're still mostly ap carries. And then you have the mid reject/ enchanter hybrids, which are a bit of both.

But a mage WITHOUT much damage that is specifically designed for zoning, debuffing, position control, cc without doubling as a (female) enchanter overloaded with shields/ heals? Barely any. (Zilean is the one that comes the closest, I guess).

What am I surprised is, it's such an obvious archetype (mage support that messes with enemy instead of buffying ally), and yet there's so little of it. You're either a melee frontliner if you want CC, a mid reject with heavy damage and high killsteal potential if you want a mage, or a (female) enchanter.

5 Comments

Khristophoros6/16/2018, 1:54:21 PM1 votes

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