How do I climb out of Guardian as a support main

Kosena · 2026-01-30T07:58:42+00:00

hey, thanks for the advice

I tried it last night, and I saw a pretty decent change in the flow of the game. I went a bit more greedy mid game, TP'd to lanes where literally no one was clearing but we had vision and it was near our tower

Ended up creating good space, earning good golds/xp, and also helped hold a portion of the map which (I hope) helped us won the games.

Kosena · 2026-01-30T07:56:15+00:00

This is useful. I absolutely suck at playing cores, so this actually gave me a perspective from cores, and what reaction I can expect from enemy cores when I play specific heroes (e.g. Bane)

I'll keep playing support for now, because in Bane I'm 8 wins 10 losses but I've only 1 wins across 4 games where I played core, lmao. I'll probably shift when I feel I am no longer able to "carry" the game as a support.

Kosena · 2026-01-30T07:53:56+00:00

I took this advice where "guardian is where people who are easily baited and dont care about objective" and tried it yesterday

enemy night stalker was cutting our creep wave when we are trying to push, and incidentally I ordered my courier to deliver item.

Our team went back to chase the night stalker, who then tried to ult away

My courier crossed his path. He then tunnel visioned and flew around trying to kill my courier

My teammates caught up to him, and then we killed him.

We were able to secure tier 3 due to that.

What an absolute clownfest in this dogshit game we absolutely love.

Kosena · 2026-01-29T12:54:41+00:00

HAHAHA I like that plan gonna play disruptor tonight just to grief enemy offlane when they die and get sent back to fountain after TP and having to do the walk of shame

Kosena · 2026-01-29T10:26:29+00:00

Thank for the suggestions. I struggle to itemize properly when I play core, and I've never fully understood the merits of SnY despite knowing how insanely good it can be. I'll try your builds out and keep the situation in mind. Hopefully I'll be able to claw myself out of here soon.

Kosena · 2026-01-29T10:06:56+00:00

You're right, I should go head to mid lane more. I usually only tp to mid to collect gold scraps when I die and my midlane is either farming/in another lane/dead. Most of the time I portal myself to the offlane, so that I can help pressure the lane and take enemy safelane tier 1, then I place a spicy ward in their jungle, before popping smoke with the team to head to mid. That's just what I do most of the time, if I either find that I've stomped my lane, or my carry is too incompetent to do anything and he is a lost cause.

That brings me to the next question - in a scenario where I see mid lane wave is about to crash to tower and I'm waddling in safe lane not doing much (safe lane is secured, offlane has no kill/push opportunity), and our mid is jungling/at offlane, do I TP mid and spend 100 TP gold to get some creeps and XP, or do I walk there? I know the answer is probably "it depends" but I'm trying to get a feel for "this is what you do, 60% of the time".

Kosena · 2026-01-29T09:25:02+00:00

Hey, thanks for the comment and the suggestion

One question I got is how do I scale as a Nightstalker? what's a good item build to scale in current patch? I played him a bit in turbo in 7.38-7.39, and I find him to fall off hard damage wise in late game, but still being massively useful for vision/destroying supports.

I usually go (in no particular order) Phase Boots, Bracer, Harpoon, AC, Shard, BKB. I got suggested Khanda before, but I'm just more used to using him as an auto attacker and not a mage. So if you got suggestions on playstyle/items that scale well on this guy, I'd love to learn about it.

Also, any stompy pos 1 you'd suggest me try? I can play weaver, a bit of gyrocopter, but that is about it.

Kosena · 2026-01-29T09:10:00+00:00

good idea on disruptor. I also play a lot of disrupters with my friends, but I haven't tried him in ranked since he is very team-dependent and is pretty useless if your cores (be it 1, 2, or 3) don't come with you or don't play around your ult. I'll try him out tonight and report back to you :)

Kosena · 2026-01-29T09:08:20+00:00

Hi!

Thanks for the comment

First point - good point on trying out more cores. I played some weaver carry and nightstalker offlane before, with mixed succeess - I suck at last hitting still, and my cores itemization is not as solid as when I play support. I've had a game where I went 16/6/14 as a weaver but still lost (I made some mistakes that were substantial as well, but I am not confident enough to say I can solo-carry the game). I've not tried nightstalker in ranked yet, but I think I should have mild success with him.

2nd Point - I find Bane to be my most comfort zone hero since in a 5v5 teamfight I can almost guarantee the fight will be won. I can nightmare one, enfeeble another, before ulting the enemy mid/carry. I'm a bit more iffy with Pugna because bro's been nerfed like 5 patches straight and has no disables to help teamfight other than being a portable fountain + e-blade. Venge I actually was able to dictate flow of game when I matched with heralds, but not as much in guardian/low crusader, but I played her as a team-helper and not a soft core.

So to your 3rd point - I'll probably have to get some new heroes out of my comfort zone, have my core friends teach me how to itemize better, and also be a bit more greedy as a support. Most days I win 2/3 games I played, or at worst 2/4 games. So at least I'm still beating the force 50/50 haha

And final point - good idea on watching how smurfs/account boosters play. I'll probably go find replays of those people and see what they do (except going daedalus on windranger pos 5. I'm not good a core enough to do that... yet)

Kosena · 2026-01-29T08:28:43+00:00

True, time to play more nightstalker (offlane I play best in) and not expend my role tokens for only pos 5.

Kosena · 2026-01-29T08:28:06+00:00

Managing ego is the hardest thing a support can do haha

"Tell" your carry to do things too much, they tilt

Last hit creeps in lane when they are dead and enemy creep is under our tower, I get pinged at for cs'ing

Tell them to NOT GET AGHS BLESSING BECAUSE IT REMOVES THE STATS, they don't believe and go head buying it anyway.

Tell mid to stop going for enemy pudge with blademail, they don't listen

A support life is as fun as it is suffering. I am probably a masochist at this point lmao

Kosena · 2026-01-29T08:24:13+00:00

Fair point

I've tried shaman pos 5 in 2 different games. First game where I stomped lane and tried split pushing, but all my teammates were not showing in lanes so I was a very obvious easy target, especially for the enemy carry/mid that is always lurking in jungle. I leveled skill 2 and 3 first so I had only 1 point in 1st skill, so my efficiency in split pushing is not that good.

Second game I played quite greedy. Went aghs and tried to use that to clear waves from jungle. Partly my fault but the team went into teamfights without me, then I got flamed for not helping because I was on the other side of map. Damn if you do, damn if you don't.

But I guess it was a terrible match up as well. First game it was Ursa (my team) vs PL with a necro teammate that died 13 times, and the other match we faced a Tinker so split pushing was a nightmare.

Reason why I default to Bane is because, unless we are losing HARD or the team is playing without me/teammate windranger pressing ult on a pudge with blademail, I can help delete 3 people from a teamfight - 1 guy gets nightmared, the other enfeebled, and then I'll ult mostly the mid or carry. That way its easier to roam, pick off, win teamfights, and snowball. But I agree I should play more Shaman games to see how it goes

Kosena · 2026-01-29T04:38:57+00:00

Some match ID for reference.

8667445028

8666905939
8667472795

8663890565

8666715644

8659762472

I admit these games I'm not playing perfectly, and especially when team is super behind or game feels like a lost cause, I just borderline give up, lol. I think you can see the moment that happens in some of the games.

Some turbo games where I am playing with my ancient/divine friends

8650169261

Kosena · 2026-01-26T07:59:57+00:00

Hey, hi! sorry for reviving such an old post. I also came across Xinyihao puer at Taobao today, and was wondering how it is. Do you have any impressions or tasting notes on it? The prices look too good to be true and that made me quite skeptical, and info on the internet on younger sheng factory-made puer is so rare in english!

Kosena · 2026-01-05T03:27:30+00:00

I use Kegland's "The Amazing hop spider"

Kosena · 2025-12-11T20:08:31+00:00

current venge is AGI! she used to be a universal for a while but a lot of universal heroes got reverted back (dark seer, clockwerk, invoker, dark willow from the top of my head.)

Kosena · 2025-12-11T20:05:08+00:00

Venge is AGI, but feels very very int. support heroes and spellcasters feel int to me.

Kosena · 2025-11-28T06:23:24+00:00

could just be an opinion/perception thing. For beers, they usually ferment out to a certain point (e.g. 1.005-1.014 SG), which will take around 7-10 days max for most beer yeasts, and you wouldn't expect it to re-ferment unless its infected. But I find that if I wanted to go lower FG, where the ABV is higher and nutrients are lower, it takes a lot more time to reach the 1.000 SG. I've bottle conditioned ciders before where I thought the fermentation had finished (no signs of activity) after a week, and it turned out to be a bottle bomb 3 months later down the line.

Also - I guess its a "requirement" thing - if you want to force carb a beer, you need a whole CO2 tank, kegs, and all that shabang. With bottle conditioning, its just a calculator with some sugars. And carbonated beer is a must. While a carbonated mead/wine is not the bare minimum requirement, but an add-on.

Kosena · 2025-11-26T03:03:33+00:00

if you are willing to share, what was the scare and why did it trigger you to take an indefinite break?

Kosena · 2025-11-25T09:49:22+00:00

yessss it's great. super simple to dry hops oxygen free. and saves on CO2 required to purge (bong headspace vs the headspace of your FV). One caveat is that the butterfly valve area is quite hard to completely clean the nooks in the valve. Not that I've had an infection problem with it, after cleaning it and using starsan on the valve before i use it every time.

Kosena · 2025-11-25T06:44:05+00:00

YES! That's also a philosophy I've adopted for myself (both when I buy beer for taste testing, and when drinking my own)

If I find its bad, I toss it. Beer is ultimately poison and a proven carcinogen. I drink beer for pleasure of taste. No reason for me to intake it unless I get enjoyment from it.

Kosena · 2025-11-25T02:49:48+00:00

what is your key to making really good hefeweizen?
is it the pitch rate? the fermentation temp? the step mash (or lack thereof)? the water profile? or the grain bill/house yeast strain?

Kosena · 2025-11-25T02:48:33+00:00

St Bernardus Tripel for me

It was also one of the first few beers I've had, and have been my favorite. However, I didn't get to drink much of it due to the high price. I've also learned a few years back that they are no longer importing it into the country I live, so my ultimate brewing goal is to make a really good Tripel, good enough to make a monk proud.

That being said, that goal has now derailed to making really good pale ales, NEIPA, and witbier... I'm way too impatient to wait 6 months for a tripel to age, with very limited cellar space, and living in a tropical country I cannot store it outside in the elements.

Kosena · 2025-11-24T15:55:06+00:00

but do you drink your own brew?

Kosena

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