Lane Creeps

Lane creeps are a form of creep that automatically move down the three lanes towards the enemy faction's base. Each and every 30 seconds a new group (the creep wave) spawns for each faction at each of their barracks, but the number in the group and their stats eventually change, as the game progresses. Lane creeps engage any hostile unit nearby, but when left unattended, the opposing creeps end up clashing each other in the lanes on their way towards the enemy base.

Like other creeps, lane creeps are vitally important to Hero development because they grant resources, allowing for an advantage over the enemy team. They give experience to nearby enemies when killed – as well as gold to heroes who deal the last hit they take. Allied creeps can also be denied by their team, preventing the enemy from getting the resources. To get as many last hits as possible, players often manipulate creep position in the lane by abusing their simple AI, gaining an advantage and disrupting the pace of the battle into their favor. Creep control techniques include disruptively pushing forward into towers, pulling neutral creeps for allied lane creeps to fight, or aggroing enemy melee creeps to change their target.

Lane creeps (while controlled by the AI) are the only units capable of disabling. However, once taken over by a player, a lane creep no longer disables the protection.

Types
There are three types of lane creeps: Melee, Ranged and Siege. Melee creeps spawn in larger numbers and have more health and less attack damage than ranged creeps. Ranged creeps have lower health, but deal more damage per attack to creeps, and are able to attack from a small distance. However, their attack type causes them to deal less damage against heroes and buildings. Siege creeps spawn in every seventh wave. They have high health and, unlike other lane creeps, have high magic resistance. They have a long ranged attack which deals significantly more damage against buildings. They also prioritize buildings over other units when in range.

Destroying either of the enemy team's melee or ranged barracks causes the destroying team's respective lane to begin spawning super creeps instead of regular creeps. Super creeps are stronger versions of regular lane creeps that give about half gold and experience to the enemy when killed. When all enemy barracks are destroyed, mega creeps begin to spawn from all lanes and siege creeps gain additional damage.

Spawning
Spawn timing Lane creeps spawn the first time as the game timer reaches 00:00, right after the game horn sounds. After that, they spawn every 30 seconds. Unlike melee and ranged creeps, siege creeps only spawn every seventh wave. This means siege creeps spawn every 3 minutes and 30 seconds, with the first ones spawning at 3:00.

The melee creep type always forms the majority of the creep wave, but over the course of a battle the number of these creeps in a single wave increases from three up to six, at set intervals. Initially, a creep wave consists of 3 melee creeps and 1 ranged creep (and 1 siege creep every 7th wave). At 16:00 (33rd creep wave) and onwards, an additional melee creep spawns, increasing the count of melee creeps per wave to 4. At 31:00 (63rd creep wave) and onwards, a second additional melee creep spawns, increasing their number to 5. Finally, at 46:00 (93rd creep wave) and onwards, an additional melee and an additional ranged creep are added, bringing the wave's unit count to 6 melee creeps and 2 ranged creeps. Also from this point on, every seventh creep wave also spawns 2 siege creeps, instead of 1. After this, no more additional creeps are added, leaving each wave with 8 (or 10) creeps until the game ends.

Spawn locations Lane creeps spawn close to the lanes' barracks. There is however some minor adjustment for each lane, so that they meet at the center of each lane if they are not interrupted or distracted.

The spawn locations do not change throughout the entire match. How the creeps spawn within their spawn areas is random, there is no unit order. This means the ranged creep or siege creep may spawn in front or behind the melee creeps.

Stats
For the first 15 waves (up to 7:00), the creeps on Radiant's bottom lane and Dire's top lane have their movement speed boosted by 25%, moving at a speed of 406.25. On the Radiant side, the boost lasts for 10 second, effectively lasting until passing the tier 2 tower. On the Dire side, the boost lasts for 2 seconds, effectively lasting until reaching the Dire symbol on the ground between the two ramps. At the same time, Radiant's top lane and Dire's bottom lane are slowed by 25%, moving at a speed of 243.75. On the Radiant side, this slow lasts for 2 seconds, effectively until reaching the tier 3 tower. On the Dire side, the slow lasts for 22 seconds, effectively lasting until reaching the tier 1 tower. The 11th and following waves (7:30 and onwards) move unboosted and unslowed at a speed of 325. The middle lane always moves at 325 speed.

Every 7 minutes 30 seconds, melee and ranged creeps gain a permanent health and attack damage bonus, as well as bounty increase. The following bonuses are applied:
 * Melee creeps: +12 health, +1 attack damage, +2 gold bounty
 * Super melee creeps: +19 health, +2 attack damage, +2 gold bounty
 * Ranged creeps: +12 health, +2 attack damage, +2 gold bounty
 * Super ranged creeps: +18 health, +3 attack damage, +2 gold bounty
 * Siege creeps: No bonuses
 * Mega creeps: No bonuses

Siege creeps only gain one upgrade, and that is +16 damage upon destroying their respective lane's ranged barracks.

When a lane creep gets denied by one of its allies, or killed by a neutral creep, it grants 50% of its experience value to enemies within the area. Enemies may only get full experience when the creep dies to them. Gold bounties are only granted to the enemy player who gets the last hit on the creep.

Behavior
Lane creeps have a set path from which they do not deviate normally. The creeps walk down the lane aggressively, means they attack any enemy which comes within their acquisition range, similar to how player-controlled units act when giving them an attack-ground order. If a lane creep gets aggroed and the aggroing unit stays within the creep's acquisition range, it chases the aggroing unit until it is dead, or until it lost track of it, or until another enemy gets within range and draws the aggro off. If the aggroing enemy entered the fog of war, the lane creep walks up to the last spot it saw the enemy. If it then does not see the enemy again, it returns to the point at which it left the lane it belongs to. If the aggroing unit is outside of the lane creep's acquisition range, it chases the enemy for up to 2.5 seconds before returning to its lane. A creep which no longer is aggroed does not join other lanes even if they are closer. It returns to its own lane, even if it is the furthest away.

Drawing aggro
Aggroed lane creeps follow regular auto-attack rules, meaning they prioritize the closest enemies. So if a unit draws aggro and another unit is closer to them, the closer unit gets attacked, and not the unit which actually aggroed them. If multiple heroes are about equally close, the one which attacks them get prioritized, while the one which does not attack, or attacks an enemy from the opposing faction has second priority, and the one who attacks its own allies has least priority. Multiple non-hero units within about equal range have all the same priority, regardless of what they do. The creeps ignore units which attack them from further away, despite them being a bigger threat. They always prioritize closer units. There is one exception to this rule. If an enemy hero within the acquisition range of lane creeps issues an attack order on an allied hero, the creeps immediately switch to attack the enemy hero, trying to protect the allied hero. Siege creeps have always a lower priority than heroes and other units, regardless of what they do. Buildings have a lower priority than siege creeps and wards have a lower priority than buildings, also regardless of what they do. If a lane creep attacks one of those 3 unit types, and another creep or hero gets within attack range, the lane creep switches to attack that enemy upon the next check interval, which is every 2.5 seconds. Only enemy units within the lane creep's acquisition range is considered by this aggro system, which is 500 range for melee creeps and 800 range for ranged creeps and siege creeps. It is possible to attack enemies without drawing aggro of nearby enemy lane creeps. This is doable by manually casting active attack modifier on enemies, referred to as orb walking, or by attacking the enemy while not within the creeps' acquisition range.

Siege creeps follow the same aggro system, except that buildings are their highest priority, and enemy siege creeps their second highest. This means if an enemy building is within the siege creep's attack range, the creep immediately switches away from its current target and starts attacking the building. The siege creep prioritizes attacking buildings over other units, so a tower is more likely to get attacked than, for example, a filler building if both are within range.

Disarming
If a lane creep is disarmed, it stops moving and stands still until the disarm expires. It completely ignores everything in this state. This prevents the creep from walking past towers if disarmed while at a tower.

Wave stats
The table only considers regular lane creeps, ignoring super creeps and mega creeps.

Expand the list by clicking on the expand button at the very right.