Asian Girls | Dota Guide and Strategy

An apology
Greetings all, and thanks for reading this. Before you continue I want to state clearly that this is my first guide ever. Due to my relative low age, my English is not the world’s best and you may happen to find a lot of incorrect grammar. Furthermore I have never played a high competitive game, so I cannot assure that this guide will help you through a tougher match.
Thanks for your patience and understanding.

Table of Contents

• Patch notes
• Introduction
• Pros
• Cons
• Stats
• Abilities
• Skill order
• Item build
• How to play
• The art of farming
• How to net - The guide
• Using Poof
• Controlling the midgets - Unit groups
• Controlling the midgets - Micro
• Runes
• Heroes to watch out for
• Meepo’s best friends
• Epilogue
• Replays
• FAQ
• Changelog

Patch notes

6.39: Meepo the Geomancer gets introduced to DotA.
6.40: Meepo can no longer solo Roshan (thanks to this guide).
6.41: Zeus’ ultimate, Thundergod’s Wrath, no longer strikes the clones. Only the original gets hit.
6.42: Meepo finally gets his health (stats) boost. All clones now gain 40% of the original’s extra attributes.
6.43: Meepo-clones’ extra stats bonus gain reduced from 40% to 25%.

Introduction

When v6.39 was published, I see most people claiming that the Geomancer is very low in quality, about how easy he is to fight and how bad he is to play. This is completely wrong! Geomancer and his clones have a low health pool through the game yes, but played by the right players, he is a killer machine. Meepo simply is one of the funniest and most original heroes to play and I’m sure that as soon as you learn to control him, you will simply enjoy every game with him. With his ability to lock any enemy completely while he smashes them down with his shovel, he slowly climbed my favourite heroes ladder and has now become one of my aces, and with help from this guide, he will probably do the same with you.

I recommend you to play Geomancer if you

• Want to play a brand new hero with a very entertaining, enjoyable and original play style
• Want to feel satisfied when you play him and enjoy every single kill you get
• Are handy with your keyboard and hotkeys
• Have a good general view of the situation and the entire map
• Are swift with your hands
• Can control more heroes at the same time
• Are a good micro player

I do not recommend you to play Geomancer if you

• Cannot control more than one hero at the same time
• Feel confused with rapid unit-switching and targeting
• Don’t feel comfortable by keeping your focus more than one place at a time
• Don’t have a good general view
• Don’t use hotkeys
• Feel pity for your enemies when you what the fuck own them again and again and again…

If this sounds interesting, please continue reading.

Now let’s have a closer look on his pros/cons, stats and abilities.

Pros

• Four heroes, each with their separate cooldowns
• Can lock an area of units, including one or more heroes, for as long as he wants
• Has the ability to farm more places at the same time, and therefore will gain more gold and experience compared to other heroes
• Has one of, if not the best slow abilities of all heroes which also includes a damage over time debuff
• All the clones deal full damage and takes full damage as well
• High damage at a higher level
• Can shop, farm and assist battles at the same time
• Can gank an enemy hero alone

Cons

• If one of the four heroes die, they all die
• Very difficult to play
• A relatively low health pool
• Clones with no inventory but the Geomancer’s type of boots, which are automatically added to their inventory on purchase and therefore don’t benefit from many items
• The clones have even less health than the original and therefore are easy prey for some heroes
• Has the lowest stats gain of all heroes
• Difficult to boost

Stats

How to pick Geomancer

Description

Originally worshipped by the pagan tripes of Germania and the black forests that encompassed it, Meepo is a mischievous spirit of the earth who enjoys burying his enemies alive in mountains of rock spikes, pinning them down into helplessness as he pummels them into submission with his mighty shovel. The most disturbing of the Geomancer’s powers, however, is his ability to separate his being into multiple selves, each as powerful as the original and making him potentially four times the trouble for the unlucky who encounter him.

Strength - 17 + 1,3
Agility - 23 + 1,9
Intelligence - 20 + 1,6

Attack range of 100 (melee).
Movement speed of 300.

Level 1 information:
- Health: 473
- Mana: 260
- Damage: 34-40
- Armor: 5
- Attack Speed: 1.38 sec.

Level 25 information (without any worn items):
- Health: 1442
- Mana: 1014
- Damage: 79-85 +20
- Armor: 12 +2,8
- Attack Speed: 1.01 sec.

Abilities

Earthbind

Rains earthern spikes across a target area, pinning down all enemy units in the 225 AOE. Lasts 2 seconds.

Level 1 - 500 casting range.
Level 2 - 750 casting range.
Level 3 - 1000 casting range.
Level 4 - 1250 casting range.

Cooldown: 20/16/12/8 seconds.
Mana cost: 100/100/100/100.

Comment: This is the skill that allows Meepo to lock multiple enemies as long as he can stay alive. In the first few levels, it isn’t more useful than to assist your ally(ies) in a gank or for an escape mechanism. It can even be used to pin down an escaping and low-healthed enemy. This ability requires, not much, however, little practice to aim.
When Earthbind and Divided We Stand are maxed (level 16) you can permalock an area of units. I will give a more advanced explanation later in this guide.

Useful information: The animation of this ability is a net the casting Geomancer throws. It does not rain down from the sky or shoots from the earth. The net itself flies for roughly 2 seconds from when being cast and till it lands providing that it’s fired from max range with level 4 Earthbind.
The net does not ensnares invisible heroes, however, if you ensnare the hero just before he turns invisible, he will be revealed just like the Naga Siren’s net. The net also interrupts Boots of Travel and Scroll of Town Portal when casted, but does not interrupt Furion’s Teleportation, it only respites it for as long as he gets netted. In addition, the net does hit magic immunes (Repel, Blade Fury, Black King Bar) and also ignores Linken’s Sphere, however, it doesn’t hit Oblivion’s Decrepify.
Throwing a net into fog of war also provides you visibility in the net path. This is very effective during the early game to discover ganks.
Nerubian Assassin’s and Demon Witch’s Impale, Sand King’s Burrowstrike and Earthshaker’s Fissure will not hit a netted enemy due to some unknown bug. This goes for both the damage and the stun.

Poof

Drawing mystical energies from the earth, Meepo can teleport to another Geomancer, leaving destruction in his wake. After channeling for 2 seconds, Meepo instantly teleports to nearest target Geomancer, dealing damage in 400 AOE in the departure and arrival locations.

Level 1 - 40 damage.
Level 2 - 80 damage.
Level 3 - 120 damage.
Level 4 - 160 damage.

Cooldown: 60/50/40/30 seconds.
Mana cost: 225/210/195/180.

Comment: This skill has many aspects. It can for instance be used for escaping orchanging your heroes’ positions.
Then what about the damage? We wont care much about this untill later, but I will describe it all later in the guide.

Useful information: The damage in the departure happens when the Geomancer takes off. The targeted Geomancer can still move and fight during the teleportation and will still continue its current action after the teleport. The Geomancer can teleport to himself. You can Poof a “real” Meepo to an “illusion” Meepo, for instance from an illusion rune. It is also noticeable that you can click anywhere you want on the minimap, on the ground or on your Geomancers, but you can’t click on allies/enemies. If you click on the ground, the casting Geomancer will Poof to the nearest Geomancer (including himself).
If the Geomancer gets stunned when he channels Poof, the channel will continue after the stun duration expired.

Geostrike (Passive)

The Geomancer enchants his weapon with the essence of the earth, crushing the life from his enemies and numbing their legs. Slows target movement speed and deals 15 damage per second. These effects are additive with other geomancers. Lasts 2 seconds.

Level 1 - 5% slow.
Level 2 - 10% slow.
Level 3 - 15% slow.
Level 4 - 20% slow.

Cooldown: None.
Mana cost: None.

Comment: This, ladies and gentlemen, is the slow above slows. In matter of fact, it slows just as much as Bristleback’s goo multiplied but only requires 1 single hit from each Geomancer to settle in. In addition, 60 damage per second makes a noticeable different, though this is not your primary damage either.

Useful information: The 15 damage per second does not really stack but is added to the target. Instead of dealing 60 damage per second, it actually deals 4*15 damage. This means that the damage from the previous hit doesn’t get refreshed so it wont miss any ticks. The damage can also kill a target. Venomancer’s or N’aix’s damage for example can only bring the target to 1 hp so this makes Geostrike vital for last hitting in the early game.
The least movement speed a unit can have is 100. By an easy calculation, I can tell that with 80% slow, you need 505 movement speed to end with 101 movement speed. Not many heroes have that fast movement speed. A hero with maximum movement speed (522) and 80% reduction will have 104 movement speed. Get down boy!

Divided We Stand (Ultimate, Passive)

Meepo summons an imperfect, semi-autonomous duplicate of himself, which can gain gold and experience as he does and shares his experience and abilities. However, the clones cannot wield any items but the boots that Meepo himself wears. Clones gain 25% of any extra attributes the primary has. If one clone dies, they all die.

Level 1 - 1 Geomancer.
Level 2 - 2 Geomancers.
Level 3 - 3 Geomancers.

Cooldown: None.
Mana cost: None.

Comment: This is what makes Meepo so highly overpowered, but also highly fragile. With this ability, you can gank lone heroes all by yourself and. Furthermore you can have one or two heroes to push while the rest creep in the forest. You can even go with your original for shopping while the others keep farming for experience and gold. This also “boosts” Meepo’s low damage by multiplying it with 4 (4 heroes is 4 times the damage) and he now becomes Tiny-like.

Useful information: All the heroes share experience and gold, yes, however, it is not divided. If you gain 40 gold for a creep kill, you will gain the full amount. The same goes for the experience. This means you can gain much faster experience and gold than rest of the players.
It is important to know that the hero skill “Attributes Bonus” does not further improves the clones’ stats. Having +20 stats from Attributes Bonus does not affect your clones in any extra ways but the normal +20 stats from the skill. However, items with +stats worn will affect the clones.
When you summon another Geomancer, this hero spawns at the hero that learned the skill with full health and mana independent on that hero’s current percentages.
It is also important to know that when you choose an ability with one of your heroes, the rest get it as well.

Skill order

Beginner’s build
Level 1 - Geostrike
Level 2 - Earthbind
Level 3 - Earthbind
Level 4 - Poof
Level 5 - Earthbind
Level 6 - Divided We Stand
Level 7 - Earthbind
Level 8-10 - Geostrike
Level 11 - Divided We Stand
Level 12-15 - Stats
Level 16 - Divided We Stand
Level 17-22 - Stats
Level 23-25 - Poof

Skill explanation
This build is mostly for public practice. This might sound stupid, but as Meepo in fact is a really difficult hero to play, some public practice isn’t bad at all. Before going to any stages further than public, I recommend you to start with this build and get the feeling of how it is to play Meepo.
Geostrike at level 1 is for making our last hitting and harassing ability much more easier. The 15 damage per second for two seconds adds a 30 damage bonus on each attack from the start - or at least 15 damage from the first tick. We will then max Earthbind as fast as possible. Its range gets pretty long when it hits level 4. It will then get much more easy to catch your target, but what is most important is that it hits 8 seconds of cooldown, which means you can throw it very often if you should miss.
Poof by level 4 is to allow your heroes at level 6 to teleport forth and back to each other. After we have our net, slow and clones we want some stats to boost ourselves and our clones. You rarely poof the same hero twice in the same minute anyway (with this guide), so we don’t need to upgrade Poof before the final levels.
Maxing Geostrike and Earthbind so early is what makes this the “Beginners’ build”. If you aren’t very experienced in timing your net, Geostrike’s stacking slow and some faster net cooldowns will save your day - and your kill.

Champion’s build

Level 1 - Geostrike
Level 2-3 - Earthbind
Level 4-5 - Stats
Level 6 - Divided We Stand
Level 7 - Poof
Level 8 - Stats
Level 9-10 - Earthbind
Level 11 - Divided We Stand
Level 12-15 - Stats
Level 16 - Divided We Stand
Level 17-19 - Stats
Level 20-22 - Poof
Level 23-25 - Geostrike

Skill explanation
We will focus a lot on our early game survivability in the meaning of stats instead of maxing Earthbind from start. The reason why we get 2 points in Earthbind at level 2-3 is to improve its range a bit so we can hit something without having to sacrifice ourselves. The Poof at level 7 is for allowing our new and old heroes to teleport to each other. The Geostrike at levle 1 is the same reason as in the previous build, but we will ignore the slow. If you can master your Earthbind, there is not much need of a 80% slow. Geostrike is in most situations pretty useless (except for the damage over time) and is not worth skilling over stats or poof. When we are level 9, we will probably have our Mekansm (read the item build below) and our survivability is somehow improved through the early game stats so we will now max Earthbind to let its cooldown become 8 seconds and its range become 1250 and hereby prepare to level 11 with 3 heroes.

Item build

Core item build

We will rush to Mekansm as fast as possible. It improves our survivability and farming ability and it also adds +5 to all stats to the original, which gives our clones +1 to all stats. This equals 19 hit points. But what is most important is the AOE heal. You can count the +250 healing into the Geomancers’ health pool. As soon as you get this item, your general survival will get much easier. You can better save your teammates, you don’t have to worry so much about taking damage and it will get much easier to gank. Ring of Basilius provides armor for survivability and mana regeneration for easier net spamming.
We will now get a more solid health pool to stand against some damage comboes. We do not like to be food for some enemy heroes. This is why we get the two Ogre Axes and one Reaver. Our clones benefit 25% from the strength gain which equals 209 health. This is actually way better than it might sound.
This is your core item build. When all these items are bought, you might need a chicken to hold your next items, instead of selling your old to get space.

Items afterwards

These are the items you should get if the game wont seem to end. For Meepo, the farm machine, the core items are a pretty cheap item build. After we have taken much care of our survivability we want to improve our damage through the attack speed. Why? Because this is the cheapest and the easiest and this is why we get Power Treads. Every Geomancer gets 35% increased attack speed. These 35% support our next item, the Vladmir’s Offering, pretty well. The reason why we get it so late though, is that we have just gotten the damage and attack speed to support it. We simply haven’t got enough of either of these things to return enough health during the early/middle game. When these are done, sell an Ogre Axe and buy a second Reaver instead.
After you have bought your second Reaver, you should start completing Assault Cuirass. This item does not only improves your own combat potential but also your allies’. It also adds additional armor for further survival.
The rest of your money should be saved for buy-back in case that your team or yourself is getting rumbled.

Why don’t get Boots of Travel instead of Power Treads?
Keep in mind that the only way we can directly boost our clones, is through the right choice of footwear. Everyone of your heroes benefits from the attack speed. If you want to get to a place fast, my suggestion would be to let at least one farm either in the forest or in a creep wave while you send another to the location you wanna be. When he approaches, pick the heroes you want to move and poof them to your unit. In this way, you keep gaining experience and gold and move to where you want at the same time without the biggest loss.
If this isn’t enough, I’ll give you a few numbers. Meepo’s total damage per second (dps) at level 25 with all the items and abilities but without the treads is 595,72. With treads, Meepo’s total dps is 691,25. This is 95,53 or 16,03% more damage per second - just by the boots.

Why should I buy the two Ogre Axes instead of for instance another Messerschmidt’s Reaver?
Two Ogre Axes add 20 strength and the Reaver adds 25 strength. That’s 5 strength difference, which is 1 strength for our clones. That equals 19 health. Getting 19 health for an extra 1200 gold is a little stupid when you aren’t going to use the last inventory slot for a while anyway.

I want to get a Manta Style. Why shouldn’t I?
If you think you will trick your enemy by going Phantom Lancer-style, you are completely lost. Remember that only your original can wear items. If you split into 6 heroes (3 clones + 1 original splitting to three) your enemies will quickly find a clone and just shoot on that instead.
But it is nice having 6 heroes, isn’t it? The answer is no! When you are already perma-ensnaring an enemy, 2 heroes (which both deal less damage and take extra) don’t do much difference. Manta Style is too overrated by most players.

Why shouldn’t I get Eye of Skadi? It adds +25 to all my attributes!
Meepo’s only real problem is his low health pool. He doesn’t need the agility, intilligence or the slow as there are better ways to buff Meepo’s dps. Meepo has enough mana from the RoB and the four clones, so he doesn’t need intilligence and the slow effect shouldn’t need further arguementation. The only thing we actually want from Eye of Skadi is the strength. Messerschmidt’s Reaver gives the same strength and costs 3850 gold less.

Why shouldn’t I get Sange and Yasha then?
We don’t need the maim as we still don’t need another slow. We don’t need the +10% movement speed either. The only things we really want from this item is the +16 strength, +16 damage and +10% attack speed. Would you spend 5100 gold on this? I think not.

Why should I get boots so late?
Because of your ability to lock and slow. I guess you would rather like survival items so you can gank, gank, GANK! - or at least survive them yourself. If you think you move too slow to some locations - use poof! With your ability to farm more than one place at the same time, your amount of gold grows faster than you think, which means you will have your boots way before you know of anyway.

I don’t understand why you don’t include Vladmir’s Offering in your core item build.
Getting Vladmir’s Offering around level 15 is stupid. Most people have the impression that the life steal aura is nice, but Meepo’s individual damage is so horrible bad that it returns nearly no life. In 20-30 seconds it will return nearly only enough health to equal a use of Mekansm.
If this doesn’t convince you, let’s have some numbers. Let’s say you are level 11 with Power Treads, Vladmir’s Offering and +6 stats. Our increased attack speed is +83%. We will use this formula:
( 1 + IAS ) / BAT = Attacks Per Game Second
With BAT being the base attack time (1,7 for Meepo) and IAS being the increased attack speed.
( 1 + 0,83 ) / 1,7 = 1 Attacks Per Game Second
In 10 seconds you will hit your target 10 times. Meepo’s DPA (damage per average) is 62 so we deal 620 damage in 10 seconds. 16% life stolen from this = nearly 100 health, which is 10 life stolen per hit.
Let’s look on another formula:
BAT / ( 1 + IAS ) = Game Seconds Per Attack
1,7 / ( 1 + 0,83 ) = 0,9 Game Seconds Per Attack
We roughly steal 10 health per second with constant wacking so it will take us 25 seconds with no interruptions to heal the same amount as a use of Mekansm. Is this worth spending 2930 gold on (Vlad = 1900, Power Treads = 1030)?.
Buy it later when you have more damage.

Why shouldn’t I get a Lothar’s Edge and poof my clones to my original to damage an enemy hero?
Some claim that using it with the original and move him next to an enemy for then to poof all your clones to your original leaving a total of 480 damage AoE around him is good. I disagree with this completely. Spending 3800 gold and an inventory slot on Lothar’s Edge is bad enough itself and the method is relatively easy to counter. All it takes is some kind of true sight, either through an ability, wards or a gem and the combo is countered.

What happens if I get an Aegis of the Immortal?
If your original gets killed he, he will ressurect a few seconds later while the rest stays alive, taking one of the charges on the Aegis. If one of your clones die, they all die, including the original, and ressurects a few seconds later with one less charge on the Aegis. In both cases, all the heroes will be moved to the fountain, dead or alive.

Items not to buy:

• Guinsoo’s Scythe of Vyse is not recommended. It isn’t necessary to sheep your enemy, unless it is one with high damage or a devastating combo, but still, I will not recommend it.
• Cranium Basher is not recommended. There is no need for bashing the enemies 15% of the time when they are already getting held down, and Earthbind also cancels channeling spells.
• Eul’s Scepter of Divinity is not recommended. You have your net, poof and perhaps a town portal to escape, and Geomancer is not ment to fight 3-5 heroes alone.
• Kelen’s Dagger of Escape, Lothar’s Edge and Black King Bar are not recommended. They only work for the original, and the clones will still be in the dangerzone.
• Linken’s Sphere is not recommended. It only blocks a negative spell on the original, the +15 stats is only worth the strength part and a Reaver adds 10 more than this.
• Blade Mail is not recommended. You don’t really think your enemies will be so stupid to focus on the hero covered in Blade Mails while the others only have a pair of boots?
• Divine Rapier is not recommended. Meepo dies relatively easy. You have too high risk to lose it.
• Heart of Tarrasque is not recommended. It adds 10 more strength than a Reaver, but for 2300 gold? Your clones will only get 3 strength of it anyway. It is better to save your last money for buy-back.

Optional items

Tangos and flasks can be really neat to stand against harassers. Clarities isn’t much of a help, but if they make you feel comfortable, feel free to buy some.
Gauntlets can be a really good item to survive the early game, but I don’t recommend you to change them into bracers or buy Circlet of Nobilities. The only thing we really need is health. The gauntlets give more strength and is cheaper than a circlet. A bracer costs 510 gold and gives 6 strength. 2 gauntlets give the same amount of strength and only cost 300 gold.
Observer Wards are highly recommended because Meepo is so fragile during the early game and Observer Wards can help you to avoid ganks. I recommend you to read the part in this guide about ward placing to know the smart ward spots.
Don’t buy a chicken straight away because you need your money for survivability or if your team already has one, but get it later to carry your items so you don’t have to drop/sell them.
Finally, a Scroll of Town Portal is very neat to carry with you to protect your towers from huge creepwaves or to escape ganks with no stunners/disablers on the opposing team.

How to play

Early game

Once the Geomancer is picked, buy a Ring of Regeneration and two Ironwood Branches. If you randomed him, complete your HoR. Now run either up or down because you hopefully wont meet the toughest heroes here. Try also to get laned with either a healer (Omniknight, Necrolyte, Shadow Priest, etc.), or a hero with good lane control (Leshrac, Lich, Tinker, etc.) because Meepo has nearly no lane control at all.
Now, as any other hero you would start to farm money by trying to get last hits. Note that Meepo has a low base damage, so you might wanna practice this a little. Geostrike helps you a lot though with its damage, however, you should only count on the first 15 damage.
If you are laning with another player, you can help him harass by throwing Earthbind from time to time, but you shouldn’t count on getting First Blood because you have no direct nukes. The best moment to throw Earthbind on an enemy hero is when their creeps are about to die. In front of your tower is of course the best moment.
When you hit level 7, you will probably have some money to spend. If some of your heroes are rather damaged, order them back to the fountain for heal and shopping. You should always keep your main focus on the combat and don’t switch your target to the healing one before you are sure it’s safe to do it. From hereby, just stay and farm. If you see an opportunity to kill an enemy hero then net him, run in and hit him with both Geomancers (more of this will be described later). If he retreats, just stay back and farm. It is hardly never worth suiciding to kill an escaping hero.
Your main job throughough the early game is to survive. Don’t get into any stupids situations, don’t let the enemies cut a big chunk of your health bar for a last hit, care for ganks, etc.. Leaning back and skipping the last hits, but getting the experience is a much clever tactic. You will farm four times as much later in the game, so do whatever it takes to keep you alive. In general, you should wait untill level 11 with neutral farming, but if your lane is too hard, I see no reason why not to bring both heroes to the forest and wait till the lane becomes less dangerous but don’t let a Geomancer farm the forest alone yet because he is too weak.

Middle game

Two heroes boost your farming a bit and you should hit level 11 soon, probably a level or two ahead of anyone else who didn’t solo. You should now have your Mekansm and Ring of Basilius. You now have 3 heroes and you can start to do some serious ganking. If you see an opportunity then grab it. The best way would be to let two heroes farm and let the third one run, but you can run with all of them if you want. Select your target and net him. When you run low on health, activate Mekansm, but make sure you’re either too low or too high. You don’t want to get killed with Mekansm ready, but you don’t want to use it to heal for 100 either. When you kill a target and if you see no other lone heroes, just stay and farm. If you see another opportunity to gank an enemy (preferably not too far away from you), then let him feel your anger.
If your Mekansm isn’t ready when one of your heroes are seriously injured, then order him back to the fountain. This should be done the rest of the game as well.
It is also noticeable that as soon as you hit a few levels above 11 (16 is also okay), you can and should solo Roshan #1 if he has not been killed yet. All you have to do is to run in and hit him and then micro your heroes. When they all have lost some health, then activate Mekansm. Don’t take 300 damage on one hero and 0 with the others and then activate it. You should take 750 damage (1000 damage if you have 4 heroes) shared on all four Geomancers meaning 250 damage on each before activating it. Just watch out not to be ganked while you engage him. Bring the Aegis to your fountain as you

Late game

As you hit level 16 you will be 3-5 levels above the remaining heroes depending on how good you have been doing and how bad they have done and you have now overtaken your enemies’ levels completely. When your late game part starts, the rest of the players are still deep digged into the middle game. You should now begin to assist your team more in ganks and pushes. Your main job in a team battle is to permalock as many enemy heroes as possible. The best heroes to net are meelee heroes so they cannot do any efforts in the combat and escaping low-healthed heroes to let your team finish them off.
As for middle-game, as soon as you hit a few levels above 16 you can solo Roshan #2 with the same method as the middle-game and again bring the Aegis to the fountain for your allies.
If there are no team battles and you see a lonely hero, go back to the mid game playstyle and gank him. If there is no battle or no heroes to gank then either push a wave or continue your multifarm.
When you reach level 25 your enemies will probably be around level 16 and you will still own them, but once you hit the level cap, your enemies will slowly start to overtake you. As closer they come to their final levels, as harder it gets for you to kill them. This is where your role changes. From being a very effective ganker/chaser/pusher/farmer you now lose your ganking role and become a disabler/support allie together with a super-pusher/farmer. In the very late game, almost your only job is to net, net and net to prevent the opposing force to retreat. If you try to kill a hero on your own, take a close look on his items, his level and his skills before rushing towards him. Many heroes might have gotten most of their items now and as higher damage they have, as harder it gets to do anything. Once you hit level 25 you should begin to change your playstyle and stop your killing streaks. Besides, you will probably already have eaten your part of the killing-cake from the ending of the middle game to the beginning of the late game.

The art of farming

The art of farming may be quite a tough lesson. In general, what to do is, you split your heroes to farm more places at the same time. But before doing this we need to take a few questions into account. What is my current level? What are my enemies’ current levels? What items do I have? Where are the creepwaves - in each wave? Where are my enemies? Can my original, or perhaps even my clones, farm each of their spot, or should they be at least two for one camp or lane? How tough a neutral creep can one of my heroes solo? Things like these are important factors so you avoid sending your heroes to sure death.
For instance, imagine that you are level 10 with Mekansm and Vladmir’s Offering. You have full health and mana. You are on the scourge team and are already farming with both heroes at the top lane, where the wave is just near the scourge tower (corner). The sentinel team are all approx. level 9. The middle lane is being pushed by 3 enemy heroes and the bottom lane is left with no heroes, no enemies’, nor allies’, and the wave is just at the sentinel tower (corner). Two enemy heroes are not on the minimap. The two smartest things to do here would either be:

1. To stay farming your top lane with both of your heroes
2. To let your clone stay and push the top lane and order the original down

Now mister Ingolf, you may ask, why these opportunities? Please explain it!
Okay, first of all we are higher level than our enemies which makes it less likely for them to succeed a gank (remember 3 of them are pushing the middle) - But the chances for them to gank us are still there, so we want to send our strongest hero, the original, to them bottom because this is most likely to be ganked. If anything gets hit by the enemies it will most likely be there. Their tower is under attack and there is noone of their enemies (meaning our allies), so this is the most obvious target for the remaining two heroes. Perhaps one comes up and one comes down. If we choose the first opportunity, to let both of our heroes stay at the top, it’s because we don’t like this risk to get buttfucked at the bottom, but this gives us less gold and experience. The reason why we wont send anyone to the middle should be quite clear. This lane is currently not available for farming. Three hostile heroes are already pushing here and an additional one or two will maybe join them soon. You still don’t want to send one of your two heroes to the forest because he hasn’t got enough stats yet to solo the tougher creeps without getting badly wounded, and therefore will have to retreat to the fountain. A creepwave also gives far more experience than three freaking gnolls.
This is one of a gafrillion situations (I hope this is much :blink: ) where you have to consider and estimate what the heck you are going to do and where your heroes can be.
But it all depends on the situation.
It is your own choice whether or not to multifarm. Just remember always to take things into moderation. I hope you understood at least very much of this section. It was pretty hard for me to describe, since there are no “rules” to tell you when to do what. You need to use your own judgement.

Number of heroes = How to farm
Throughough the game you will have to focus on farming and ganking if you can. Your biggest advance is your growth in experience and gold and we don’t want to eliminate that.
Here’s a short table of how to optimize your farming depending on your number of heroes:

1 hero (Level 1-5): Stay in a lane and farm enemy creeps by last hitting as any other hero.
2 heroes (Level 6-10): Have both heroes farming together in either a lane or in the forest. Splitting the heroes are not recommended.
3 heroes (Level 11-15): Bring your original and a clone to the forest. Let the remaining clone farm in a lane or let it join the two neutral farmers if there are no safe lanes. If a huge, however, safe lane is pushing towards your tower, bring one, two or all three heroes to it. If two safe lanes are pushing towards your tower, bring the original to one of them and the two clones to the other.
4 heroes (Level 16-19): Split them up into two groups with two Geomancers in each. Let one group farm in the forest and the other group in a lane. If there are no safe lanes then let this group farm another spot in the forest and wait to get a safe lane. If there are no safe lanes and there are only few spots in the forest then let the groups join each other to clear the spots. You can also choose to let two clones farm one part in the forest and the original another part while the last clone farm in a safe lane. If two safe lanes are pushing towards your tower, choose the group with two clones and order one of them to the first lane and the other one to the other lane while the second group (with the original and a clone) farm in the forest. If there are no or few forest camps, bring each group to each lane.
4 heroes (Level 20-25): Mostly the same as level 16-19, however, you can now begin to use Poof as an effective farming ability in both the lanes and the forest. Each Geomancer can now safely farm alone in the forest without getting badly wounded. Two Meepos can now safely take the tougher creeps (Dragonkins, Dragons, Super Golems).

This is a table of most situations and their answers on how to optimize your farming, however, you still need to judge everything by yourself.

Notes to take: Never farm more places that your mind can handle. The most important thing to remember is to maintain your focus. If you farm three different places, but you don’t feel you can keep the general view, then perhaps you should consider to farm two places instead.
Also, always keep an eye on your minimap and your heroes’ health. If you feel some of your heroes are in danger, poof the hero(es) to the one(s) you feel are safe.
Remember which Meepo is in which place. If you get attacked, you know that hero number two with hotkey 2 or F2 has to poof to hero number 1 with hotkey 1 or F1. If you don’t know which heroes are where, you will have to click through 4 heroes to find the exposed one.
As a final note, you should always bring all your heroes if you want to take Roshan, whether you solo him or not.

Result of successful multifarming

In this game (mode: -ap (without easy mode!)) I hit level 25 after 35 minutes and 24 seconds.

How to net - The guide

First of all we assume that we are level 16 or above which means we have 4 heroes and a level 4 Earthbind. Do you remember that Earthbind has 8 seconds cooldown and a 2 seconds duration? We are going to utilize this.
If each hero throws his net each 2 second, it means that when the last net’s duration stops, the first net will be ready again. With this method, we can bind our target for as long as we want. All this requires is some practice to aim the net and that you know when 2 seconds have passed. Make sure not to use it too often. You would rather want your enemy take a single step than not having your net ready.
Now, remember that the net is going to fly for about 1-2 seconds, depending on how long you threw it, so you want to aim a bit in front of the target. Again, you need to estimate your target’s speed and direction, especially if he comes to a crossroad. Once you hit with the first net, it shouldn’t be very hard to lock him. Quickly target your next hero and throw your next net at where he is already standing (remember to make sure that you throw each net with approx 2 seconds space).

The how-you-do-table looks like this:

- Target hero 1
- Throw hero 1’s net
- Target hero 2
- Wait 2 seconds
- Throw hero 2’s net
- Target hero 3
- Wait 2 seconds
- Throw hero 3’s net
- Target hero 4
- Wait 2 seconds
- Throw hero 4’s net
- Wait 2 seconds
- Repeat

If you only have two or three heroes, just wait a little bit longer between throwing each net. Just keep in mind that it is in most cases never worth suiciding to get a kill.

Examples on how to net

But my hero, and especially my clones, don’t have much hp. Wont they get killed if I try to gank an enemy hero?
Most heroes haven’t got the damage during the middle game to kill you, and you still have your Mekansm for the heal.