I remember when I just started playing DotA; I had no clue of the intricacies of the game, and I had no one to introduce me to its minor aspects, which most people overlook. I searched the internet a lot for such an article/guide back then, but I never really found anything like it (this might reflect on my poor Google-ing skills, but I’m sure a lot of you suffer from the same). All I found was hero guides, hero combo guides and strategies, which was basically meant for players that come under the intermediate skill category. It's been almost two years since I’ve been playing DotA now, and I've really struggled to learn a few of these minor details by watching replays, and playing a lot. So, I've decided to write this for all you novice DotA players, so that you don't have to go through the excruciatingly long learning process I did. This guide is meant for players who have at least played a few games of DotA, but don't know too much of the game; so, if you're completely new to DotA, I suggest that you play a couple of games before you read it. I hope that this guide points you in the right direction to becoming a better player, and in the process helps you form a better understanding of the game...

Last-Hit Creeping

The only way to boost your gold supply in DotA, is by getting the killing blow on enemy creeps. A lot of people think, that auto-attacking creeps is the better way to go if your hero has a high attack speed; this might be true in the later stages of the game, when your hero is powerful and takes down creeps in 2-3 blows. In the beginning however, it’s really important to learn how to farm this way, since your damage is low and so is your attack speed (most of the time), which makes getting the last shot on a creep harder using auto-attack. Once your last-hit creeping skills get better, you’ll have a better supply of gold than most other players in the game, which promises better items, and if your team plays well, a better chance of winning the game. Now I’m sure that quite a lot of you find it rather difficult to get the last hit on a creep, so let me tell you how you can get better at it...

The way to better farming requires a little understanding of the game’s mechanics, getting accustomed to the 'attack delay' of the hero you’ve selected, and a little practice. So, start a single player game (so that we can practice/experience what i'm about to show you) and load the DotA map, after which you should select a hero you like playing with, and get to one of the side lanes. The reason I pick the side lanes, is that it’s longer than the middle lane, which allows more room to practice. As soon as you get into your lane, issue an attack command on one of the enemy creeps and observe carefully. You’ll notice that there is a slight delay between the issue of the command, and the actual impact of the attack on the target. [This delay is slightly larger in ranged heroes, since it takes a few milliseconds for their projectile to get from the hero, to its target (which doesn’t happen in melee heroes, since they attack in close range)] After one attack, keep pressing ‘S’ (which is the stop command) or keep issuing move commands, so that your hero does not auto-attack. (Speaking of auto-attack, if your hero is left without any commands issued to him, and he has an enemy unit in his range, he will start attacking.) Attack again in the same way (i.e. attacking and stopping), and keep doing so until you get accustomed to the delay between the attack command and the actual attack of your hero. Growing accustomed to, and mastering this delay, is the key to successful last hit creeping.