Managing Your Lane Effectively

This is the kind of guides I am into. Love love, +1 for Sando.

Good stuff. Maybe add a small section on double/triple pulling and when/when not to do it (i.e. recognizing which offlaners can easily leech/steal the pull)

Very thought, good guide for new players as well as for more experienced player, that tend not to learn about DotA.

I like how you stated that even last-hitting might break the lane equilibrium and heroes should substitute that difference with attacking your own creeps when below 50% HP. +1 and don't you dare to stop contributing.

Great guide as usual Sando, keep up the good work !

I'm not your maths-***** Xyrus ;)

Hehe there are too many different types of creep to work this out easily...as well as different outcomes depending on how the focusing goes, neutral auras getting lost, etc. The rule of thumb I work on is that 2 stacks of any easy camp will beat 1 creep wave fairly decisively, while 1 neutral camp of spear throwers will beat 1 creep wave with losses. Any other single easy camp will lose to your creeps with some damage to the them (usually 1 melee creep lost and half health on another), so you need to double pull.

Good points on contested last hits (solo lanes) where you can't outhit your opponent easily. There's some other tricks to where a carry and support can "double-deny" an allied creep by both hitting it on low health at about the same time - making it very hard for your opponent(s). It's also quite possible to just pull out a ranged creep from your wave with a late pull, which can be handy for when you want to ease the lane back rather than give it a full pull.

There is 1 other time when you should damage another Creep before Last Hitting it, and that is when you're 1 vs 1 with your Last Hits being contested, if it brings the Creep's HP down to the point that the timing for the Last Hit matches up with the timing for your opponent to get his next Last Hit.

In Solo Mid where you want to get as many Last Hits early on as possible, this is a useful strategy to employ to maximise your Farm, since it forces the other Mid to lose a Last Hit when they contest you, whether they successfully get the Deny or not.

You can also use this trick to kill your Ranged Creep faster. Simply stand near the Creep Wave and Right-Click on an enemy Hero (doesn't matter if they're in Range or not, it will Aggro the Creeps), then run back towards your Ranged Creep. When the Creeps lose their aggro on you, 1 or 2 of them should hopefully be attacking your Ranged Creep now, instead of a Melee.

If you're trying to Pull through to the next camp, it really depends on the Creeps in the Small Camp, as some will die faster than others and which side of the Map you're on. You should have time to Last Hit 1 of them, then move to the next Camp and Aggro it, even on the Dire side. On the Radiant side, you may want to Pull the Medium Camp when there's about 600ish HP overall in most Radiant Small Camps (less for Hill Troll Priests), and about 800ish for Dire Camps...I think.

Honestly, I haven't actually calculated how much HP is needed depending on the Camps and side of the map...Sando! Do it for me! 8{D

Thanks for the feedback guys:

BobbyJay, it does depend a bit what kind of neutral creeps you get - the best ones are the poisoned Spear Throwers, they can kill a normal creep wave without even being stacked, and kill them very quickly when combined with another stack. Most of the others are a bit slower, especially the Troll Healer camp (a pain as he has to be stacked by moving in and tanking damage rather than attacking and retreating).

It's really important to have 2 or more stacks in the easy pull camp so that most of the neutral creeps survive, and so they deal with your creep wave before another arrives and is pulled too (esp. for Dire). You generally need 2 easy stacks (or a double pull) to completely wipe out your creep wave (which is what you're aiming for). Single pulling to 1 stack will generally hurt your waves a little, but then they double up with the next wave to arrive and push the lane right out (great when you want to attack their tower, terrible for lane control).

DON'T attack the neutrals except to last hit, attack your own creeps on less than 50% health - again this kills your creeps faster, and helps maintain the neutral camp's size. Stack it again every chance you get, remembering that bigger stacks need to be pulled out a little earlier to stack them again.

Allegiance, it's noted in there, but I'll expand it and make it clearer. Generally drawing aggro has a relatively small effect, but it can begin to add up as you say. Obviously it has it's uses too - even in the safe lane you occasionally want to aggro the creeps to draw them in to a safer place for your melee carry to hit.

when pulling the easy camp stack how long should it take to clear those waves and how much damage should your creep wave take?

You should maybe add, that supports need to be careful not to pull creep aggro when harrassing and zoning the enemy offlane, since this would also disrupt the creep equilibrium.

However, especially in the midlane actively using creep aggro to get saver last hits (as melee) or making it harder for your opponent to get the last hit is highly advised!

As always, comments and questions are welcome, what else can be done to improve this guide?