4Game

Years and years ago, in the long long ago of 2013 when I started playing dota, one of the first "advanced techniques" I learned was creep blocking and manipulating the "creep line" or "creep equilibrium" whatever you want to call place where the creeps meet AND the momentum of a wave to either push or fall back.

In 99% of games I've played, everyone who gets a chance to block a creep wave will aim to get in front of the foremost creep and block the entire wave as it runs down the lane. This is great because it adjusts the natural meeting point of the opposing creep waves. But I have ALWAYS been of the opinion that blocking the ENTIRE wave is not ideal, particularly at the start of the game. I believe that blocking all but ONE creep is the best way to creep block.

I feel this way because if you let just one of your creeps run freely down the lane while you impede the remainder of the wave, that one creep will likely find himself up against 4-5 enemy creeps, taking damage from all of them, while all his lil buddies are still trying to catch up. This means that he will do NEGLIGIBLE damage to the enemy wave and they will nearly wipe him out before the rest of your wave arrives and suddenly you've got a wave with one more enemy creep than your own. This creates momentum for the enemies wave to push into your tower, allowing the carry to farm a little safer for longer.

Some might argue that once the enemy wave pushes into the tower and the tower begins attacking them, then you create a big momentum shift in the other direction and that's unfavorable. While this is true to a degree, a good lane pair should be able to mitigate that momentum switch with effective denies, wave pulls, and/or offensive right clicks. If the waves are meeting closer and closer to your tower but you don't necessarily want to farm directly under it, causing the tower to push the wave out, throw in a few extra aggressive right clicks onto the enemy creep wave to start to rebalance the equilibrium.

I've been a fan of this method for literally 8 years and I'm still surprised that I've basically never seen anyone else who does this.

Am I crazy? Am I wrong? Why isn't this as effective if not MORE effective than a full creep wave block? What are your thoughts? Do you have any personal creep block/wave manipulation techniques that you prefer?