Support play remains crucial to the success of HotS teams, but it also carries an interesting factor into the drafting stage that the other classes often don't. Certainly there are ways to select heroes that deny your opponents their favorites or the power choices (Muradin...) of the current meta, but Support has an extra veneer because it's the class with the lowest population in the game. There are 10 Supports, compared to 16 Warriors, 20 Assassins (21 with Samuro), and 11 Specialists. While the latter are nearly in the same situation, Specialists aren't perceived to be as crucial as healers are, and many drafts proceed without them entirely (something we'll get into next time.) No competitive game would go forward without any Supports, Warriors, or Assassins like, say, Quickmatch... What that means is that it's possible to deny decent choices to your opponents, not just by taking them for your team, but also by banning and that's occasionally what occurred in the first two rounds of the Fall championship.
| Hero | Picks | Wins | Bans |
|---|---|---|---|
| Auriel | 11 | 7 | 2 |
| Brightwing | 15 | 6 | 5 |
| Kharazim | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Lt. Morales | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| Malfurion | 16 | 10 | 16 |
| Rehgar | 16 | 9 | 0 |
| Tassadar | 12 | 3 | 3 |
| Tyrande | 5 | 2 | 2 |
| Uther | 4 | 1 | 0 |
(Not selected: Li Li.)
That's actually a fairly good distribution, with almost half the available heroes in double digit picks and only one going unselected at all, with another barely out of the dungeon. Malfurion, of course, gains the obvious honors, as he ended up being the most banned hero in the whole tournament, regardless of class, and was the sixth-most frequent pick and the third-most frequent first pick. It's fair to say that the Archdruid's crushin' it right now, even with Rampant Growth removed from his kit.
It's a positive thing to see Auriel still doing so well as the latest addition to the class but, as with the other two classes previously examined, there was a clear trend toward old reliables, as well, with Rehgar finding his way into 16 games, Brightwing 15, and Tassadar 12, despite win rates ranging from good to poor. However, the reliance on old standards, again, may be a factor of the dearth of options and the drafting strategy referenced above.
Denial Drafting
Drafting to deny the opponents' options is not a single focus nor unique to Supports. Every time you first pick a currently great hero or draft a specific counter in anticipation of the opposition's draft (Tychus vs Cho'Gall, for example), you're exercising a form of denial. However, Support is the only class in which opposing choices can be so limited by bans that it forms a strategy all its own. Four times during the first two rounds, teams banned two Supports, clearly trying to deny decent options to their opponents. Sometimes this could be interpreted as map-oriented, such as denying Brightwing's global ability on large maps like Warhead Junction and Cursed Hollow. But in that instance, teams will usually just draft Brightwing themselves or simply ban her alone if they have another strategy in mind. Double Support banning usually means that the banning team is trying to limit their opponents' choices because of the small pool of Supports and even smaller pool of viable Supports. If they have their choice locked in and they've already banned the best one (say... Malfurion, just to pick one at random), then why not try to stick your opponent with something you know they're less comfortable with or which doesn't function as well on the battlground in question? Let's take a look at a couple examples of how it shook out.
Group stage 1 - Group A, Burning Rage vs. MVP Black, game 1, on Infernal Shrines:
BR has first pick and does the obligatory Kerrigan ban. MVP follows with Malfurion. It's not that unusual and MVP would go on to be one of the more frequent banners of Malfurion throughout the tournament. BR first picks Zarya and MVP responds with ETC and Tychus. Pretty normal picks, as Zarya is solid and can clear shrines well. ETC and Tychus are themselves. BR responds with Muradin and Valla. Still no surprises. MVP bans Auriel. So now the two best Supports are off the board, especially in the case of Auriel, who can contribute a lot to both Shrine clearance and the bunched up fights that happen there. BR, perhaps caught in a bind, commits the respect ban of Alarak against MVP's Rich; also eliminating a hero that excels when opponents have limited mobility. MVP then selects Rehgar and Tassadar, taking two more of the better Supports off the board and handing themselves two heroes that are great at shrine clearance. BR, cornered, takes the best Support left for this map in Brightwing and ends with Sonya. MVP, given free reign, takes a last pick Illidan. I probably don't need to tell you how that turned out. eStar would follow a similar pattern in a loss to Fnatic on Shrines in Group B, banning Malf and Auriel while picking Brightwing and Tassadar (and last pick Illidan.) They were unable to compete with Fnatic's Zarya/Tyrande/Rehgar support section, though.
Group stage 2 - Group B, Fnatic vs. ZeroPanda, game 1, on Tomb of the Spider Queen:
Fnatic has first pick and bans Malfurion. Zero bans Zarya and Fnatic first picks ETC. Zero responds with Muradin and Tychus. Again, no surprises for the current meta. Fnatic follows with Valla and Auriel. So, again, the two best Supports are off the board and the one in the hands of Fnatic excels at close quarter action, such as that which takes places in the narrow alleyways of Tomb. Zero bans Tyrael and Fnatic bans Tyrande. So now three Supports are gone, but was there a better choice than Tyrande? Zero don't seem overly worried, as they draft Tassadar and Jaina, two excellent waveclearers on Tomb. But they still have no actual healing. Fnatic finishes their draft with Xul and Leoric, revealing that the double Support ban was more about Tyrande's Hunter's Mark against their double Warrior comp and bringing in their own excellent waveclear with their last two picks. Zero finishes with Rehgar, who is still a solid pick. In this instance, the double Support ban didn't have as much impact as MVP's. Fnatic goes on to win the game fairly handily, anyway, with a kill total of 8 to 1 in their favor.
MVP Black would do the double Support ban again on Tomb against Team Dignitas, banning the standard Malfurion along with Morales away from Dignitas' double frontline of Leoric and Johanna. MVP would keep Auriel for themselves and Dignitas, like ZeroPanda, would take Rehgar with the last pick and lose a lengthy game to the Korean team.
Bottom line
What it means is that Supports can be highlighted as a crucial aspect of both drafting and gameplay, which is encouraging for Support players. But it's also an indication that the pool of viable heroes for the class is still way too small. Kharazim still hasn't recovered from the loss of the old Relentless, which most players found essential for him to survive in order to heal, and Li Li is still a very niche pick taken against auto-attack focused comps (i.e. not for her heals, but for Blinding Wind.) Even the formerly mighty Uther, king of the stun meta, is rarely seen, despite his recent enhancements to give him options other than the Piano build. In short, the game still relies on healers, but it also still relies on having healers that can be targeted and efficient.
Previously: Assassins
Previously previously: Warriors
Next: The weird types.
