Creep blocking 101: How and when to block creeps in Dota 2

Dota 2 is probably the most complex MOBA out there and has all the bread-and-butter MOBA elements that make a 5v5 arena come full circle.

Since it is ultimately a game centered around defending towers, creeps and creep waves are an integral part of the game. Other than being the primary source of gold and XP, creep waves are also a tool to control the flow of the game via objectives.

And thus among the many intricate game mechanics of Dota 2, some of the most important ones have to do with controlling the creep wave.

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The creep equilibrium in Dota 2

In all three lanes of Dota 2, radiant and dire creeps march from areas close to their respective barracks all the way through the lane until they clash. There are small adjustments to the spawn points for each lane to ensure that the creeps always meet at a certain point if they are uninterrupted.

However, there are ways to upset the travel times of creep waves. There are primarily two ways to do this. The first one is to pull creep aggro to redirect the attention of the creeps elsewhere. The other way is, of course, to impede the creepwave’s progress physically.

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Creep blocking via abilities

Like in League of Legends, Dota 2 creeps can be blocked indefinitely through impassable terrain. In Dota 2, however, there is only one spell to reliably do this: Earthshaker’s Fissure.

Other spells like Tusk’s Ice Shard technically also create impassable terrain, but creeps can pathfind their way around the relatively short width of an Ice Shard.

There are other methods that can technically disrupt the creeps’ pathfinding - like Pudge hooking creeps onto cliffs. But for the purposes of general creep blocking, these are inefficient.

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Creep blocking, the hard way

All units in Dota 2 have a collision model. These are important for many skillshots to register: Pudge’s Meat Hook, for example. The only way to ignore collision models is to phase through them, and no units by default have innate phasing. Creep waves cannot walk through a hero standing right in front of them.

Creep blocking is simply constantly repositioning the hero so the first creep of the wave gets blocked repeatedly. If done well, this can slow down the creepwave’s speed dramatically.

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When and when not to block creeps

The general idea of creep blocking is to draw the creep equilibrium close to the allied tower. Among many other benefits, this allows for a much safer laning experience while trying to last-hit.

On the other hand, creep blocking too hard can also be counter-productive. It can make the two opposing creep waves meet under the allied tower’s range. As the tower keeps firing at the nearby enemy creeps, this will inevitably push the wave, and thus reform creep equilibrium close to the enemy tower instead.