Support Guide 4: The Position That Manages the Enemy's Time

Position 4 is the freest function in Dota and therefore the one that produces the most lost games with good intentions. It doesn't have a mandatory lane, it doesn't have a fixed list of items and it doesn't have an obvious goal on the screen. There is plenty of initiative, and initiative without criteria is what produces the 4 that spends forty minutes walking around the map without anything happening because of it.

The definition we use is short: position 4 manages the opposing team's time. Every second an enemy hero spends returning to base, buying detection, waiting for his support to respawn, or looking at the minimap in fear is a second your team used for something else. That's the product.

Part 1: The First 10 Minutes

The lane, and what you're solving there

The 4 usually starts with the 3 position, in the difficult lane. There he has only one decision, and it repeats itself with each wave: am I making my 3's lane viable, or am I trying to get kills?

Both things are legitimate, but not at the same time, and choosing wrong is how the offlane goes wrong.

• If your 3 gets beaten in the trades, you're there to make the lane sustainable: pull the field, trade damage at the right moments, make sure he levels up.
• If your 3 wins the trades, you're there to convert that into pressure: deny creep, force the use of regeneration, push the wave to steal the field on their side.

When to go off the lane

The 4 is the first to rotate, and that's where he hits or misses the entire game. The criterion is the same as the mid, and it's worth repeating because almost no one applies it:

Does my rotation create a threat that the opponent is forced to respond to?

A rotation that only tries to kill doesn't pass this check: if it fails, you've spent two minutes and one TP. A rotation that threatens a tower, steals the big jungle on their side, or grants a power rune, passes: even without a kill, it produced.

The most expensive mistake per bracket:

Part 2: Vision, and the Difference Between Defensive and Offensive Ward

The 5 usually takes care of the defensive vision (which prevents his team from dying). The 4 takes care of the offensive vision: the one that allows his team to attack.

Offensive ward is the one that sees the territory you want to take: the entrance to their big jungle, the ramp that gives access to the lane you want to push, the Roshan pit before the discussion starts. It's more expensive to place (you have to be there) and pays a lot more.

A rule of thumb that works on any bracket: place the ward thinking about what your team is going to do in the next two minutes, not what the enemy has done in the last two. Reactive vision protects; offensive vision produces.

And there is the half that no one trains: taking away their vision. A well-placed sentry before a smoke or a Roshan is worth more than two observers, and it's the job of 4.

Part 3: the move that almost no one makes, and that changes the game

There is a class of errors that we see repeatedly in replay analysis: the team tries to protect the carry by placing heroes around it, while the opposing aggression arrives through a path that no one contested.

The typical example is Twin Gate. The enemy support traverses the map for free through the gate and appears behind your carry. You can place two heroes to protect him, and he still dies.

The correct reading is: protection is a problem of origin, not of destination. If the aggression comes through the gate, you don't protect the carry, you deny the gate: you take the gate first, or put vision on it and make the enemy pay for using it. Denying the origin costs a click. Defending the destination costs the entire team.

This goes beyond the gate: if you know where the aggression arrives, contesting the entrance is always cheaper than reacting on the way out.

Part 4: Smoke, and Why It's Almost Always Used Wrong

The Smoke of Deceit is the cheapest item to create an advantage in the game and the most wasted. The typical mistake is to use the smoke as a transport: five heroes walking around hidden until they find someone.

Smoke is a tool for denying information with a deadline. It is valid when there is something specific on the other side, and what usually counts is:

1. Take a stand for the Roshan before the other team knows.
2. To enter their big jungle in the cycle in which the fields formed.
3. To get to an angle of initiation that their vision covers.

Which is not worth it: leaving the base in smoke without a target. You spent 50 gold and, above all, you spent suspicion: when the enemy team realizes that everyone is gone from the map, it stops playing loose, and it is precisely the loose game that you wanted to exploit.

Part 5: The 4 in the Midgame

After the 20th minute, the 4th is usually the hero with the lowest assets of the team and the greatest tactical responsibility. Three habits define the good 4 in this phase:

• Be the first to see. You arrive first, and what you see decides whether the team enters or not. Information is worth more than damage.
• Guard control. Your stun or silence should almost never start the fight: it should respond to the enemy's initiation. It is the opposite of what instinct asks for.
• Buy the wave. When the map crashes and no one finds a move, it's because no wave is advancing. The 4 is the one who can solve this the most by pushing a side lane and forcing response.

Part 6: Posture

It's worth repeating something we say a lot in the replay analysis, because that's where the 4 slips the most: don't give away a map pixel for free.

The 4 is the hero who dies the most alone in Dota, and almost always for the same reason: he stood near a wave, for no reason, within reach of anyone who passed by. The habit that fixes this is silly and works: click on the wave from time to time. If there's someone hitting it, you find out before you find out the expensive way.

Before your next rotation

• The product of 4 is the enemy's time, not the score.
• In lane, choose between sustaining the 3 and converting advantage. Don't do both.
• Rotation without mandatory threat is a walk.
• Offensive vision is about the next two minutes, not the last two.
• Protection is a problem of origin: deny the path, not the destination.
• Smoke only with named target.
• In the mid-game, see first, put the controller away, and push the wave that unlocks the map.