Carrying As Support: How To Pick Supports

Hi lads! Today our HotS boost team is offering to you another guide about supports.

During the duo queue boost sessions many clients can’t decide between all the supports available: there are many different, viable heroes with different play styles that fit in different composition. So we decided to write this article: we will talk about the strongest supports, their strengths and when you should pick them.

Before locking in your supports, don’t pick mindlessly the best hero according to our HotS tier list but think about what your team needs There are three types of supports in HotS: burst healers, sustained healers and the “specialized supports”. So let’s get started with the first category!

Burst Healers: Uther, Lt Morales, Rehgar

These healers are very popular in competitive matches, but are also great choices for your regular solo queue games thanks to their ability to keep a single target alive even in the worst scenarios. You should pick one of these guys if the enemy team has as a win condition a single target burst combo.

According to our Heroes of the Storm boost team, they excel at keeping a single target alive: sustained healers are pretty useful, but often don’t have enough burst to save an ally from a chained combo, and can become useless if the enemy Kael’Thas is able to pull off a good Chain Bomb. Maybe you won’t be able to heal every member of your team, but you will be sure that the most important ally will stay alive.

Burst healers are excellent if your team comp depends on ranged assassins like the new hero Lunara or front line divers like Illidan, Sonya or Kerrigan. With their abilities, especially Ancestral Healing, Divine Shield and Safeguard your damage dealers will be safe while doing their job, since they make these assassins able to play more aggressively and survive more punishment even if caught out of position.

Sustained Healers: Li Li, Brightwing, Malfurion, Kharazim

Right now many sustained healers are at the top of our HotS tier list since they can keep alive many allies at the same time, and they still have a decent single target heal.

You should pick these heroes if the enemy team has a lot of area of effect damage sustained damage (Kael'Thas!): maybe they won’t be able to heal an high amount of burst on a single target, but their healing per second is impressive, as long as many allies require heals.

Sustained healers are a good choice if your team depends on ranged assassins like the new hero Lunara as a main damage source. Melee assassins or fighter usually will require great single target heals to survive, but ranged heroes won’t take as much punishment instantly. However they really shine on tanky teams that focus on kiting back their enemies without committing to the fight instantly. If your allies are tanky enough sustained healers will always fill up their hp bar preventing them from dieing. On the other hand, remember that their single target burst isn’t really excellent, so you won’t be able to save an ally caught totally out of position.

Specialized Supports: Tassadar, Tyrande

Finally, we want to talk about Tassadar and Tyrande. They are both good healers with great strengths (and their placement on our Heroes of the Storm tier list reflects that), however we decided not to include them in the previous categories because their other abilities are also very important: they are not “traditional healers”.

Tyrande has a great single target heal and a good area of effect heal on top of that with her Shadowstalk, however the most important aspect of her kit is the great stun provided by Lunar Flare and the damage buff offered by Hunter’s Mark. This means that she can’t just heal her allies while they do their thing, since her healing power isn’t exceptional.

Anyway she compensates with her great damage and utility: you don’t need to heal if all the enemies are already dead, right? Tyrande is an excellent pick in composition that already have a lot of damage. When paired with heroes like Diablo, Muradin and Kerrigan thanks to their stun she can chain her crowd control and bust down instantly an enemy target.

Tassadar isn’t a conventional healer: to be honest, he doesn’t heal at all! However he is one of the best supports according to our Heroes of the Storm tier list because of his great shields. Just like the Discipline Priest in WoW, as long as Tassadar can anticipate the damage his allies won’t take much punishment. In addition, with his Khala’s Embrace talent he can provide a great health buff to his allies.

Just like Tyrande, his strengths lies also in his other abilities, Force Walls and Psionic Storms. Using his spells properly he can disrupt the enemy team negating a lot of damage and keeping his allies alive. He is an excellent pick when the enemy composition depends on melee assassins, since Tyrande can stop them from reaching the back line and protect his front line with his shield.

After reading this guide, you should know when to pick a certain type of healer and why. Always remember to look at your team composition and at the enemies’ threats to maximize your impact on the game. Carrying with a support is possible, and it’s fun too! If you liked our article, check our site in the next days for more HotS news, articles and guide.