[HoN]: Accursed, Support Style

Disclaimer

I do not claim to be an expert by any means, but for anyone who has read my blogs you will know that I'm pretty good at picking up things quickly and have very good analytical skills which should lend to my credibility.  If you have discrepencies with anything I write I welcome the criticism as long as it is constructive as I'm always looking to improve not only my knowledge but my writing as well.


Preface

One of the things I noticed in my time playing wow was that I absolutely loved playing support classes.  Every one that has pvped can attest to how incredibly annoying a good player can be when backed by a very solid support player.  Whether it be a pally keeping freedom and dispels on his melee dps, or a mage/ccer making sure his healers aren't bothered it is very significant advantage to have solid support players on your side.

The guys over at the ohcee touched on the idea of meta game shifting to more hybrid support players who can fulfill multiple rolls making them more versatile and able to adapt as the game goes on.  I couldn't agree more, and this is one of the reasons I've really enjoyed playing accursed as a support player as opposed to an offensive damage dealer (which he can do effectively as well).

Overall Mindset

Really my strategy revolves around baby sitting the carry early game and maxing out shield + the heal/nuke so we can stay in the lane and farm.  The nice thing about these skills is that you can turn around and go offensive by comboing shield on yourself and nuking your opponents causing your shield to go off since the nuke causes damage to yourself.

Items

Ideally you want to aim for enhanced marchers (don't complete till later IMO) -> ring of sorcery -> astrolabe (throw in a talisman of exile or bracer or 2).  You need to get arcane ring before astrolabe simply because you won't have the regen nor the mana pool to support constant spamming or shields and heals (or nukes) in addition to astrolabe.

Abilities

Cauterize

• Deals damage or heals allies at the cost of his own health.
• 100/150/200/250 damage/heal and 50/75/100/125 health cost
• always 75 mana

Fire Shield

• Removes certain debuffs on cast
• Absorbs damage
• Deals aoe damage when max damage has been absorbed
• 100/140/170/200 damage/absorb 100/105/110/115 mana cost

Sear

• Slows targets movement speed
• People attacking the target gain 10/20/30/40 % increased attack speed and 10% movement speed
• Not an orb

Flame Consumption

• Heals based on damage done during duration of ability (1:1 ratio)
• Will auto activate if below 400 hp

Skill Build

Fire shield
Cauterize
Cauterize (I like to keep cauterize ahead of shield because its low mana and will set off shield instantly till later levels because the self damage > shield absorb)
Fireshield
Cauterize
Flame Consumption
Cauterize
Fireshield
Fireshield

From here on out it is basically a decision of if you want to play full on support or a mix up hybrid dps support.  You can either max out sear (Picking up Flame of Consumption when it is available) or go stats for more hp/bigger mana pool (which I generally prefer).

Team Fights

Generally in team battles I don't like to sit on the front line, but I also don't like to sit all the way in the back.  I like to sort of bait myself but not too much since Flame of Consumption won't always save you, but it will make them think twice about focusing you allowing you to constantly heal/shield your team.  Also I like to stay a little farther back so I don't risk getting stunned/cc'd so I can actually support my team with shield (dispels debuffs as well) heal and ring of sorcery / astrolabe spam.

I know the guide isn't super specific about certain things, and if the readers would like I can go into more detail about starting items and full ability descriptions.  Hope you enjoyed my support style accursed build!