From time to time you may have noticed one of your lane opponents disappearing off into their jungle every minute or so, only to return shortly after with one more level than when he left, and no lost health. You may even notice your opponents getting to that ever so important level 6 before you do, despite the fact you never once left the lane, and that your lane is always pushed right up next to their tower. How are they doing it?
The top lane for Hellbourne and the bottom lane for Legion are special lanes. Each has an advantage over the lane on the opposite side because they are right next to the jungle. The jungle is full of neutral creeps, each one full of yummy experience and gold, but only a few Heroes can really rob them of their treasure early on without taking too much of a beating. You need to be able to kill them quickly or redirect their attacks onto a lesser minion, such as Tempest's Elementals, or a creep controlled by Ophelia... or onto your own lane creeps.
Pulling Creeps to Lane
Creeps, be my meat shield!
Pulling neutral waves of creeps into your own lane is a very effective way to level up for various reasons. First, it enables your team’s creeps to do the tanking and more than likely one or more of them will die, resulting in less experience for the other team. Secondly, it keeps the lane close to your team’s tower which means that it is safe for whoever is in that lane and also, it makes the other team more susceptible to ganks.
Pulling while on the Legion
Something's been pulling me down lately.
On the Legion side the easiest way to pull creeps is to attack the bottom most neutral spawn at either 14s - 16s or 44s - 46s and bring them towards your bottom lane creeps.
Pulling while on the Hellbourne
Just a little field training for the next creep wave.
On the Hellbourne side it is even easier to complete a successful pull into the creep wave, but the downside is that the place where you do the pull make you very susceptible to ganks from the other team. The easiest way to pull creeps is to attack the neutral spawn closest to the top of the map at the 13s - 17s or 43s - 47s and bring them up towards the top lane creep wave.
Why Do It?
Wildlife population control, of course.
The most obvious advantage is the additional gold and experience you can gain from killing the neutrals. You gain roughly the same amount of experience by pulling as you would if you stayed in the lane, and you'll get an easy supply of gold to boot. Your lane partner benefits too because they are going to gain full experience from the creep wave while you are pulling.
Creep pulling also pulls the lane back to your tower because your lane creeps are fighting the neutrals instead of the enemy lane creeps. This makes your lane safer because you can farm closer to your tower, and also makes it easier to gank your opponents. When you only pull from one camp then the majority of those lane creeps will survive, and what you effectively end up getting is two of your creep waves arriving in the lane simultaneously. This will ultimately result in your lane being pushed, which makes it a great time to gank your lane opponents because they will have to deal with a double creep wave, and if you manage to kill them then you'll soon have two creep waves attacking their tower.
Pulling a second neutral camp after the first, or double stacking a camp before you pull it into the lane creeps will usually kill the lane creeps completely. This will pull the lane right back to your tower, but it will also completely deny your opponent the experience and gold they could have gained from one of your creep waves. As I mentioned earlier, this is one of those tactics that can easily end up causing you more problems than its worth, and it can especially put your lane partner at quite a sizable disadvantage. It can be a useful trick if you wish to farm the jungle later in the game and lack the items you would otherwise need to do it with, but while the first tower is still up its best to stick with pulling just one creep camp.
How to Counter Creep Pulling?
I've had it with these monkey fighting creep pullers on this Monday to Friday plane!
There are a number of things you can do to prevent or hinder pulling creeps in the lane. The first method is to simply stop those neutral creeps spawning. Several things can block the creeps from spawning, but usually a Ward of Sight is placed inside the creep camp to prevent the neutrals from spawning. This can be countered in turn by using a Ward of Revelation. You can also use Scout Wards if you place them in the trees where they cannot be seen, or you can even shoot Pharaoh's Tortured Soul into the creep camp just before they spawn to block the creeps.
Secondly you can attempt to gank the person who is pulling while they are doing it. You can easily catch somebody alone and away from their lane partner by doing this, and even if you do not succeed in getting a kill you can at least make them think twice about pulling in the future. You can also attempt to steal kills on the neutrals for the gold and experience. You have to be careful when attempting to gank people who are pulling though, you'll be without your own lane creeps and a long way from your tower, do not attempt it if middle is missing.
Another way you can dissuade people from pulling creeps is to play aggressive and attempt to get a kill on the hero left alone laning against you. If you time your attack well they will be stuck without creep support and without the aid of their lane partner. Again, even if the attack fails to get you a kill it'll still be a warning shot that will make them think twice about attempting a pull.
