well pos4&5 is chinese way of calling them. the truth is it's game dependant. dont focus on this much i guess. but generally there should be 2 sups. some sups need core items some dont. usually pros dont pick 2 item dependant sups because they eat a lot of farm/space so one of them only gets wards n stuff so the other buys his aghs. (like disruptor aghs)
now some heroes can do ok without items but their core item really changes the game. basically pros see which core item effects the game more like an earthspirit's blink or lion's blink then they decide who farms the pulls and who needs a key level more abd stuff. generally the one that needs a key item more than the other would be called 4 i guess
It depends on the hero, the enemy and your team's picks and the current state of the game.
Some heroes can either pos 4 or 5.
Ex you can use cm as a roam/jungle like mine OR you could use her as a lane support, shes viable in both.
But its the other picks that decide what you do.
Ex enemy has agressive 3 offlane, then both supports will pretty much be pos 5 for thr laning stage, only later on in the game 1 goes into pos 4.
Also, yes you can exchange positions and it happens to every role not jus pos 4/5. First half i'd buy wards while teammate gets his midas, then when he does he buys wards while i get my glimmer
Or as a carry i could be taking farm that my team sets up for me, but after a while ill go set farm up for them.
Ex naga before radiance vs after radiance.
Before shes in her jungle farming, after she goes pushing and into enemy junglr while her team farms
^You type out what I couldn't, or too lazy to do.
Sorry my broken England has been boomm by techies
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Okay, this is something that has confused me for long enough, even after watching dozens of professional games and streams and what not. So far as I understand, position 4 and 5 supports are terms used to denote which hero will be greedy and buy items like mek/glimmer/force staff/ euls etc. and which one will focus on wards, sentries, smokes, dusts and be the sacrificial lamb to smoke ganks.
What I don't understand, is how and whether their role in the early game/laning stage is interchangeable or not. To my understanding, position 4 roams/ganks from minute 1 due to their innate ability to catch/slow/stun heroes eg. tusk, pudge, slardar, monkey king, riki, bounty hunter etc. They may even stack camps, steal runes, harass junglers etc. As for position 5, they will usually lane with their carry, pull, stack, harass offlaners and get some levels from neutral camps. So far, I think most will agree to this.
But in some cases, I see the roaming support being the sacrificial one, buying wards, sentries and all that kind of stuff, but not always. Even with the same hero, like earth spirit, sometimes he'll be dirt poor in the late game and in other cases he'll have his blink, force staff etc.
So what is it? I'm guessing there has to be an understanding between the two supports who desires their blink/midas/scepter more, so either hero could go greedy and let the other one be the ward bitch. But what I thought was that roaming/ganking support is always position 4 and goes greedy and lane support is always position 5 and goes sacrificial.
Am I wrong? Help me clear this up just for the sake of brevity, because I play solo support in my games anyway and do all of the above listed and get flamed and reported anyway (I'm good like that). HS and VHS opinions only because I'm sure NS players make up their own 'facts' like I do.