Farming creeps is the main source of gold and experience in Dota 2, thanks to which heroes can level up their abilities and buy the necessary items to make their hero stronger to defeat opponents and destroy the enemie’s Ancient. However, farming in the jungle should be as strategic and necessary a decision as possible, and it should also be as profitable as possible: each role should make every effort to ensure that the heroes who need farming the most, namely the heroes of the first and second, and sometimes third position, are in a winning position.

What is a Jungle in Dota 2?

The jungle is an area of the map in Dota 2 that lies outside the base and the main three lines. These spaces contain camps of neutral creeps of different difficulty levels, for killing which heroes receive gold and experience, but somewhat less than for killing creeps on the line. Also, the jungle often becomes the territory of clashes between enemy heroes, who prevent each other from gaining additional advantage from controlling the territory.

Jungle (neutral) creeps

Neutral or jungle creeps are creatures that do not belong to the forces of Radiance or Dire. They appear at the first minute of the game time within their camps. They begin to attack other players or creeps of one of the sides if they get too close or are the first to attack. At night, jungle creeps sleep and do not react to other creeps nearby. Neutrals do not fight each other, but a player can take control of a jungle creep with abilities or items.

Every minute, a new pack of creeps of the same level, but not necessarily of the same species, will appear in place of an empty neutral camp. The time until the appearance of new creeps is counted from minute to minute of the game time, not from the moment the last creep dies.

Stacking and Farming creeps

Back in the days of DotA Allstars, players noticed an interesting feature: if you move the creeps outside their camps when it's time for a new group of creeps to appear, then the lunch packs coexist in the same camp. This mechanic, although initially a partial mistake on the part of the fan map developers, has since become an official Dota 2 mechanic that is still used by players and balanced by developers.

Creep stacks allow heroes to farm neutrals in large quantities to gain more gold and experience and gain an advantage over an enemy hero. Typically, creep stacking is the job of support staff, who implement this mechanic whenever possible to make farming stacks as productive as possible. In addition, the hero who makes stacks receives bonus gold from the killed creeps if another player farmed them. This way, the carrier wins because he farms his artifacts and the support team is not completely without gold.

The process of stacking creeps is as follows: a player uses an attack or ability to draw the attention of jungle creatures to himself and takes them away from the camp as far as possible until the game timer shows the beginning of a new minute. After a certain period of time, the creeps return to their camps, so you should keep within the time limits. Usually, the creeps are allocated for 53-54 seconds of the game time, because after 7 seconds, the creatures will return to their place.

There are several places in the game where a player can stack two or more camps at once if they time it right and have enough movement speed to get from one camp to another. You can also stack creeps with some abilities, such as Kunkka's Torrent, which lifts creatures up, but you need to time it right.

At the initial levels, it will be difficult for heroes, regardless of their role, to clear a neutral camp, and even more so for stacked camps. To simplify this process, you need to gain a higher level to become more resilient, as well as buy an item that will help you easily farm several targets at the same time. Radiance, Maelstrom (Mjollnir), and Battle Fury are the best items for this purpose. The choice of an item depends primarily on the character. It is advisable to buy such artifacts before 15-17 minutes of playing time, otherwise, it will be more difficult to continue farming and outrun the enemy lane.

Some heroes may have abilities that will help farm creeps, such as various AoE abilities, splash, or the presence of controlled units. Sometimes you can enlist the support of allied support.

Creeps Pull

When standing on the line, one of the parties loses the advantage because the allied creeps are too close to the enemy side. This plays in their favor and creates better conditions for getting creeps and security. The allied side, on the contrary, loses the ability to farm comfortably. That's why support has to make diversions, which means luring the closest neutral creeps to the allied ones standing on the line to set them against each other.

By choosing the right timing, the allied creeps will leave the line and follow the neutrals and start fighting with them in the camp. And here the side will receive several advantages at once. Firstly, the carry or support has the opportunity to farm the jungle camp at the expense of allied creeps and get gold if farming on the line is difficult. Secondly, if the jungle creeps kill your allies, the enemy will lose some farm and experience, your line will shift in your favor, and you will be in a better position again.

When should I farm the jungle?

Farming on the line will give the hero more gold than farming the jungle camp. However, there are certain reasons why this is a necessary action. In the jungle, sappers can get some gold at some stages if they need this resource to buy some items. The heroes of the first, second, and third positions are carries, midlaner, and offlaner. The higher the role position of the hero, the more gold he requires and the more greedy he is.

A carry goes to the jungle after receiving the first item that will help him quickly farm creeps, including stacks of creeps. Some carries only need to level six to get an ultimatum or level up one of their AoE abilities to farm efficiently and conveniently in the jungle. These can be critical hits, vampirism, splash hits, etc. Another condition for going into the jungle is the difficulty of the line. If the enemies do not allow you to farm the line, then it is better to go to farm neutrals in the jungle. But at the same time stock up on wards to have an overview of the map, and retreat if the enemies are planning an ambush.

Midlaners can occasionally farm the jungle when they miss their midlane or destroy an enemy T-1 tower. It can also be done on the way back after the midlaner has helped the team on another line.

The offlaner can farm the enemy jungle nearby by making taps on his own or with the support of the fourth-position sapper.

During the game, jungle farming should be done primarily by the main carry. If he has low mobility, he will not be able to clear all the camps, so some jungle creeps will be available for other players to farm. With a support, you can safely enter the enemy jungle and farm some camps from there, so your team has the opportunity to increase the total gold per minute and also take some farm from your opponents.

Items for maximizing jungle farming

Some items have active or passive abilities that can be used to easily farm jungle creeps. At the beginning of the game, you can buy Quelling Blade, which increases damage against creeps. However, the additional damage is not as significant as it used to be, so this item should only be taken if the player plans to collect Battle Fury, which provides a splash attack.

Several other items will help maximize farming. Maelstrom, with the subsequent upgrade to Mjollnir, has a chance to release a chain of lightning that hits nearby targets. It is best suited for heroes who are focused on high attack speed, which will increase the frequency of the lightning chain. Radiance is an item that deals constant damage around the hero, since it is quite expensive, it is bought only by a limited number of heroes who have their own AoE abilities, which, in combination with the artifact, correlate well.

Vampirism items like: Vladmir's Offering or Mask of Madness would be a great choice for farming the jungle. If a carry feels difficulty on the line, he can take Morbid Mask as the first item and go to the jungle to farm there with a certain amount of comfort and be able to restore health.

Abilities for farming in the jungle

Each hero has a certain set of abilities, not all of which will help in farming, but if they do, you should use them to the maximum. Heroes that have innate active or passive vampirism, such as Lifestealer, Legion Commander, or Wraith King, can be sent to the jungle very early on because they have something to ensure their survival. 

The same Wraith King, Meepo, Enigma, and Nature's Prophet can summon units that will fight on their side, which can be used to destroy enemy towers and farm neutral camps.

Heroes with high health, survivability, and AoE abilities that are not dependent on mana can also feel comfortable in the jungle, such as Axe or Tidehunter.

Some procs like Lina or Storm Spirit can easily kill entire camps of creeps thanks to their strong AoEs with short cooldowns, but they require more mana.

Tips for convenient and efficient farming in the jungle

• Take advantage of your heroes' mobility. Having Blink Dagger or related abilities will help you move faster between neutral camps.
• Give preference to camps with strong creeps, in particular, ancient ones.
• To maximize your farm, try to kill the creeps on the nearest line, move to the jungle, defeat neutrals, and move to another line to farm creeps there.
• It is important to control your resource supply. If you have low mana or health, it is more profitable to buy a potion that will restore them than to return to the base and go back to the jungle. The exception may be when the situation is too critical. If you find a neutral item, such as a shovel, keep it unless you have better alternatives to dig up Mango or Healing Salve.
• When playing Anti-Mage, switch Power Treads to Intelligence before blinking to increase your mana a bit before using the ability.
• Use the courier to buy items in the secret shop and bring things.
• Use wards at farming locations to prevent enemy heroes from attacking you by surprise while you are in the jungle.
• Analyze the situation on the map, if you realize that you will not help the team in any way. You should not waste time and resources to come to the line and take part in a battle that will not result in any outcome, or the worst case, you will die. It's better to spend this time farming the item you need.
• Try to analyze the map and avoid dying so that you don't lose the gold you get.

Conclusion

The above tips should not only be known but also used to be able to effectively get gold in the jungle by farming creeps. Although the whole process of farming consists of killing neutral jungle creatures, many aspects will make this process as profitable and useful as possible for you and your team.