Dota 101: Creep manipulation

Become a magician

Sometimes playing dota 2 is a bit like going to a magic show. There is a person in front of you who keeps pulling off these weird and confulated tricks that would seem impossible at first glance, making you feel like the stupidest person in the world. Only in dota it is your lane opponent who makes you feel like the worst player in the world as he denies you any possible last hit, while securing them all for themselves. Today you will learn how to become that magician, and what lurks behind the sparkly curtain. How you can use magic tricks yourself and dumbfound your opponents by pulling last hits out of top hats

Use your body

Especially in the laning stage it can be quite beneficial to have creeps behave in the way that only you want them to. Creep equilibrium for example is a term used to describe the place in the lane where the two opposing creep waves meet, and engage in battle. Finding a way to put this creep equilibrium as close to your tower as possible, will give you a big advantage during the laning stage. Since now you always have a safe spot to return to, without having to travel a great distance to arrive at this spot. One of the simplest ways to effect this equilibrium is through the act of creep blocking.

By walking into the path of friendly creeps traveling through the lane, they will be forced to go around you. Then proceed to also walk into the altered path your creeps are attempting to take and repeat this until you have reached the creep equilibrium. Doing this will make it so that your creeps travel through the lane at a slower pace than your opponents creeps, causing the equilibrium to be closer to your side than if you wouldn’t have blocked them. Some heroes can even take this blocking technique to a whole new level. As an earthshaker can simply halt the creeps movement for several seconds by using his fissure, and a good clockwork can herd them right into his cogs.

Use your mind

While body blocking is a pretty easy to understand and intuitive way of approaching the game, our next technique requires a bit more mental gymnastics. Because while creeps might seem to have an inexplicably complex mind sometimes, in reality their inner workings are really simple. The brain of a creep works similar to a goldfish, after 2.5 seconds they forget everything they knew before. Another similarity is that creeps, just like goldfish, can’t see very well. Everything outside of a radius of 500 units around them, they are completely oblivious of. Furthermore, they will defend allied heroes with their lives so when you click to auto attack an enemy hero all creeps within that 500 units radius will attack you. Lastly, they will always attack the closest enemy unit when they don’t have other important things to do.

By taking knowledge of these creep behaviours, one can exploit them for their own benefit. Simply by right clicking an enemy hero while in the enemy creep wave and immediately walking away, you can drag them into a position of your liking. Just remember that after 2.5 seconds they will forget what you did, and proceed to attack anything closest to them. Simply get familiar with that 500 unit range and the rules creeps are governed by, and you can play them like a fiddle. Constantly maneuvering the enemy creeps into positions that benefit you, may that be as a support or core.

Magic is logic

As we have shown you, magic is nothing more than simply manipulating existing rules in an unexpected way. May that be magiciens using physics to their advantage as the smoke and mirrors obscure their actual actions. Or dota players exploiting the weak minds of the creeps in front of them to make them do their bidding. It can all be explained, thought and learned. And whenever you are surprised by your opponent’s abilities in the future. Don’t rage and quit, but watch and learn. Because that is the only road to self-improvement and a higher MMR number.

Also read:

• Dota 101 – How to optimize your (in-game) settings
• Dota 101: All about using smokes

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Image credit: Valve