We are concluding the “core turned support” part of our “Everything Can Work” series with Ember Spirit, a hero known for its complexity and nuance. To fully utilize Ember Spirit’s strengths without prioritizing farm, gameplay must be nearly perfect, and even then, its effectiveness is uncertain.

Ember Spirit has fallen out of favor in the professional scene, despite remaining popular. His win rate in high-level pub brackets is over 50%, which is a good and consistent result. However, he struggles in all lanes except mid. As a melee hero, Ember Spirit is not well-suited for support roles, lacking the base stats of heroes like Ogre Magi or Nyx Assassin, and he doesn’t have the mobility of Pango or Earth Spirit.

Despite these limitations, some professional teams have successfully used Ember Spirit as a five-man stack. Today, we explore the conditions under which using Ember Spirit as a support is not terrible and the reasons behind it.

The last few patches have slightly de-emphasized the laning stage, but it remains crucial. Ember Spirit can harass enemies with low mana costs and painful physical attacks, followed by a potential setup. The buffs to Searing Chains initially allowed for this strategy, but they were nerfed. It can still work if your primary carry is a proactive lane killer.

Heroes like Bristleback are less affected by weak laning supports because they can stay in their lane solo and pose an early kill threat. This allows Ember Spirit to shine with his long-range roots and constant poke damage. Repeating his combo can force enemies to retreat or consume more resources, leading to their demise.

However, in most games, offlaners can hold their ground, and position four supports have tools to catch mobile heroes. Expect to lose your lane in the absolute majority of games, making it necessary to compensate in the early mid game.

Midgame is when Ember Spirit truly excels. With maxed-out Sleight of Fist, he can deal 160 extra damage, quickly killing enemy supports. Adding a Blight Stone or Orb of Venom provides additional utility.

Ember Spirit only needs levels to become a significant teamfight threat. With Outposts and Tome of Knowledge, he can achieve this even with a subpar laning stage. If you manage to kill an enemy support while setting up further kills through Root effects, your contribution is adequate.

However, unlike Death Prophet, who can contribute without losing the lane, Ember Spirit often requires overperforming to compensate for his weak laning stage. This is not always possible.

While it’s not impossible to create chaos with Ember Spirit, you must be an excellent player who can land his combo 10/10 times and escape for a second wave of attack. Support Ember Spirit is seen in professional play but is not recommended for pubs or Solo Q. In a five-stack, he has some redeeming qualities, but reliability is crucial, especially in pubs.

Lucky neutral item drops, such as applying magic amp from Grove Bow or DoT effect through Dragon Scale, are compelling factors for using Ember Spirit in any position. However, this is extremely unreliable, and in pubs, reliability is key.

By understanding these conditions and challenges, you can better determine when using Ember Spirit as a support is not terrible and how to make it work effectively[3].