When playing in the first position in Dota 2, a player must make every effort to farm as much gold as possible and acquire the necessary artifacts faster than the enemy heroes. The success rate of farming is the GPM level, or gold per minute. The more gold a hero receives in this period, the more effective his farm is. To achieve high GPM rates, you should not only know but also apply various methods of maximising farming in Dota 2.

Last Hits

The first thing that not only a pro but also every player should have the ability to finish off creeps. In the game, this is called a last hit. Killing creeps' hero will receive a reward in the form of gold and experience. Thoughtless hits on creeps, especially at the early stage of the game, are useless. Firstly, you push the line towards the enemy, which means it will be easier for them to farm. Secondly, enemy heroes or your creeps can finish off the desired creep, and as a result, you will not receive gold for them. However, you can also finish off enemy creeps, preventing them from farming and getting ahead of you in terms of gold.

In the later stages of the game, when your hero is stronger and your goals change slightly, it will be advisable to auto-attack creeps to skip the line and farm creeps on the line and move to another point faster. Also, don't forget to use some of your hero's abilities to finish off the creeps if you feel that your attack power is not enough.

Much attention should be paid to mage creeps, as killing them gives you more gold and experience than killing a swordsman creep. In addition to them, catapults and bearer creeps are important targets that give bonus gold for killing them. To make it easier to kill them, you should get used to the animation of the character's attack and its attack power at different levels and item purchases. You can practice killing creeps in the game's test lobby.

Items for farming

Artifacts in Dota 2 not only help you fight enemies but also speed up your farming by giving you bonuses to attributes or special effects that allow you to farm faster. At the beginning of the game, you usually take items that give a bonus to the attack or the main attribute of the hero, which again will increase not only one of the character's stats but also damage.

Quelling Blade used to be one of the best items to help melee heroes farm easily on the line. However, its additional attack is now much lower, and therefore it is advisable to spend the initial gold on this item only if you plan to buy Battle Fury.

The aforementioned item provides a slash effect that damages not only the main target but also nearby. It is only used on melee heroes, and not all of them, but only those who are planning a long-term farm. Such heroes can be Anti-Mage, Phantom Assassin, Juggernaut. Some heroes who need to attack speed and can engage in early fights can buy Maelstrom, the effect of which releases lightning that spreads to several nearby targets, causing damage, which helps to farm. The third item for farming is Radiance, which deals constant damage to the surrounding units. Its choice is limited to a few heroes whose abilities correlate well with this item, such as Alchemist and Spectre.

Farming abilities

Some characters have strong AoE abilities with a short recovery time, such heroes are called procasters. Thanks to their abilities, they can easily farm packs of creeps in a short period of time. Such heroes are Lina, Storm Spirit, Meepo, Zeus.

Others have controlled units that they can summon, which also makes farming easier, or even faster, such as skeletons of Wraith King or Nature's Prophet's ents.

Farming in the jungle

The jungle is the most common source of farming, although the reward for killing a single creep camp is somewhat less than for killing a pack of creeps on the line. However, there are many camps in the jungle, and as the hero moves from one camp to another, clearing them out, the old ones are restored, so the hero is constantly farming in the jungle. While on the line he needs to wait for a new pack of creeps coming from the enemy base.

It is important to prioritise which points you will farm. Firstly, these should be ancient creeps and strong camps. However, there are situations when the enemy creates dangerous situations, so you cannot safely farm some points. Therefore, you should choose safe ones. You can often move into the enemy's jungle and take farms from enemies if you have the opportunity, but you should do this if there are wards there.

Creep stacks

Ask your supports to make you a creep stacks if they don't. As a last resort, you can make them yourself if the timing allows. For example, if you are approaching a neutral camp and the time is approaching the 50th second, instead of farming them immediately, make a stack and farm two packs of units at once.

Control players who play heroes with controlled units can make stacks of creeps in several camps at once. However, this requires practice and proper timing.

Adapt to the situation

There are situations when the line is too complicated, and you can't farm, and in addition, enemy heroes finish off their own creeps, and you lose half the experience from it. Then you should turn your attention to the nearby jungle. To begin with, you should farm the creeps in the weak and medium camps, and use the support to clear out the strong creeps if they are too difficult.

You can make the situation easier with the help of supports by asking them to make a pull. This will put you in a more favourable position for farming. Sometimes you can go the route of deliberately fluffing your line by farming enemy creeps, and then moving into the jungle, taking a few stacks of creeps and returning to the line again.

Don't waste time

Every minute of your playing time should be spent farming creeps. This means that you should not run aimlessly from point to point, doing absolutely nothing. Wherever you go, farm along the way. The most profitable option for getting gold will be to gradually move from one line to another, farming creeps, moving to jungle camps, and shifting to another line if it is free. You should pay attention to whether there is a large accumulation of enemy creeps on the line. It is formed after the enemy fluffs the line. And this is a great opportunity to raise GPM, as two packs of creeps on the line are more profitable than two stacks of neutrals.

Farming Routes

This tip is a kind of addition to the previous one. When farming creeps in the jungle, you should not just mindlessly farm all the camps, but also develop a route for your farm. For example, there is no point in clearing one of the central camps and then moving towards a dead end camp after which there is nothing, because then you will have to go back through the already cleared creep points. This is a waste of time. Therefore, the route should be consistent, so that you don't have to go back and forth, but specifically from one point to the next, knowing that you are waiting for the creeps.

Walk less

Try to use all the ways to walk as little as possible. The more you walk, the more time you lose for farming. If your character has an ability or item (Blink / Blink Dagger) that will help you shorten the distance, use it. This is especially important when playing as an Anti-mage, who can farm very quickly due to his mobility.

Do not cover long distances by walking if you have a teleportation scroll. This is especially true in the early game. If you die, use the scroll to return to the line. If you are low on health on the line, you should not return to the base unless there is a good reason for it. Ask the support to bring you a consumable to heal you. The same applies to farming in the jungle, if you need mana or health, it is easier to buy something to restore resources and cover these costs with farming than to run from the jungle to the base and back.

Keep an eye on the map

Study the map to understand where the enemy heroes are so that you can farm as far away from them as possible. If there are no enemies nearby, then you can push the line by farming creeps, and at the same time try to push the tower, which will give gold to you. If the allies are fighting a 4v5 team, then take advantage of the situation to push the line accurately so that this battle is not in vain.

If you see that the enemies have disappeared from the view of the minimap, or they teleport closer to your side. It is better to move to the jungle, or teleport to a free part of the map and continue farming and pushing the line. Knowing that some enemies will not be able to reach you quickly because they have just spent a teleport scroll.

Try not to Die

One of the biggest problems with carry is that they get ganked by enemy heroes. Therefore, you need to farm near your team to always have support to cover you, as well as have wards placed to see the movements of enemies on the map and minimise their ability to kill you.

You should also avoid engaging in meaningless battles that you know you won't get out of alive. You will lose some of your gold, you will farm your enemies, and you will also lose time in the tavern that you could have spent farming creeps. It is better to tell your allies in advance that you are unable to participate in battles because it will not make sense. Of course, this is easier said than done, as situations vary, but fewer deaths is one way to increase your farm.