How to Last Hit in Dota 2 Properly [Improve and Practice]

Like it or not, last hitting is one of the most important mechanics in Dota 2. It is the primary way of obtaining gold in the game, which allows you to buy items and progress through the match. However, many beginners and inexperienced players have a difficult time mastering this concept. In this Dota 2 guide, I’ll tell you what you need to know about last hitting and getting better at it. 

Basic Last Hitting Interactions and Mechanics

Last hitting in Dota 2 relies primarily on mechanical skill, but there are also some things you should know that can help you land your hits more consistently. 

Stop Action

The most important mechanic for last hitting in Dota 2 is the stop action key. By default, this action is bound to your “S” key. Pressing S will immediately cancel your hero’s current action. This includes movement, ability casts, channeling spells, and most importantly, your auto-attacks.

The stop action key lets you time your hits more effectively. While you’re waiting for an enemy creep to fall into last hit range, you can start issuing auto-attacks on that creep and repeatedly spam the “S” key. This lets you time your last hits properly and avoid any premature attacks that would make you miss the final blow.

This stop action is exactly why you’ll always see professional players cancel their attacks before striking a last hit. 

Hero Damage and Creep Armor

You’ll also have to take a look at your hero’s current attack damage, so you can get a good idea of when to time your last hits. Your hero’s right-click damage is visible to you next to your hero portrait. 

However, it’s important to note this isn’t actually the real amount of damage you’re dealing to creeps. Creeps in the early game are equipped with two Dota 2 armor points, meaning they are slightly tankier and that you’ll deal a little less damage.

For example, your hero may have 60 attack damage, but in reality, you’re dealing around 53 to 54 damage to the creep. That’s around a 10 percent difference, so it’s definitely worth noting. 

Enemy Denies

And of course, if you’re playing in a game with real people, there’s a solid chance they’re going to try denying creeps from you. This means you’ll also have to out-last hit your opponents in lane while timing the hits properly. 

Buying Items to Improve Last Hits

Now, last hitting becomes tricky if you don’t invest in any items for the early game. It’s important to buy starting items that boost your damage, giving you an easier time last hitting and staying competitive against your enemy laner. This is why you’ll see the best Dota 2 players buy these items in the laning stage. 

Quelling Blade

The Quelling Blade is one of the most necessary items to buy as a melee carry hero. This cheap item provides a passive ability that grants you bonus attack damage against non-hero units. In other words, creeps. 

Melee heroes receive an additional eight points of damage, while ranged heroes only get four. This makes Quelling Blade an extremely valuable item for melee heroes, as eight damage in the early game can make a massive difference in last hitting. 

Iron Branches

Iron Branches are another important item to stock up on heading into the laning stage. Normally, you’ll spend a good chunk of your 600 starting gold on a few of them.

This item provides you with one point of every attribute. This essentially means you’re getting an extra point of damage, no matter what hero you are.

Stat Items

If you’ve watched professional matches at all, you’ll most likely see people buying items like Circlets, Bracers, Null Talismans, or Wraith Bands. These are cheap, cost-efficient items that give you a nice injection of stats. More stats mean more damage, attack speed, and mana, making it so much easier to secure last hits.

Trust me on this one – if you’re buying these items and your enemy laner isn’t, it becomes so easy for you to out-last hit your opponent.

Laning Stage Mechanics

When stepping into a real game, here are some mechanics to remember when contesting last hits. 

Ranged Creeps

There are two main types of lane creeps in Dota 2: melee and ranged creeps. Ranged creeps have a significantly larger gold and experience bounty compared to melees, making them the top priority in the laning stage.

However, ranged creeps are naturally positioned further back, making them potentially dangerous or difficult to secure. That’s why it’s usually fine for heroes to use spells to secure ranged creep last hits. 

If you see a melee and ranged creep about to die at the same time, you always want to prioritize the latter. 

Creep Aggro In Tough Lanes

In some laning matchups, the enemy laner just has your number. They might deal significantly more right-click damage or have kill potential on you. These situations make it very difficult to contest last hits.

The best way to secure last hits in difficult situations is to use creep aggro. Here, you issue an attack on the enemy laner, which turns the enemy creep wave’s attention to you. These creeps will start following you while trying to attack you, so the key here is to pull them closer to your side of the map.

This will drag the creeps away from the enemy laner and put you in a more favorable situation to secure last hits. You can spam this aggro as many times as you want to keep pulling the creeps further and further closer to your tower. 

Last Hitting Under Tier 1 Tower

Sometimes, there are situations where the enemy creep wave pushes into your tower, and you’re forced to last hit while the tower is attacking the creeps. Since towers deal extremely high damage to creeps in the early game, it can be pretty difficult to secure these last hits yourself.

For melee creeps, the trick is to check whether your hero deals more or less than 70 damage to creeps. This includes the Quelling Blade damage. Assuming melee creeps are full HP:

• If your hero deals less than ~75 damage, you can hit a full HP melee creep once and wait for the tower hits to bring it down to last-hit range. 
• If your hero deals more than ~75 damage, do not hit the creep. The tower will naturally bring the melee creep down to last-hit range for you to finish off.

Ranged creeps are much easier to hit under tower. Typically, you just let the tower hit it three times, and it’ll be set up for an easy last hit. All of these tips apply only to tier 1 towers, though, as higher tier towers deal more damage per shot.

How to Practice Last Hitting in Dota 2

Learning the key concepts is nice, but isn’t enough to make you proficient at last hitting. Mastering last hits requires time and practice, which is why it’s important to routinely train your mechanics. In Dota 2, here are two main ways to practice last hitting on your own. 

Dota 2 Last Hit Trainer

Valve has implemented their own last-hit trainer in the Dota 2 client, which can be found in the tutorial section.

Follow these steps to find it:

1. Launch Dota 2.
2. Go to the Learn section.
3. Flip to the third page of the Tutorial.
4. Click on the Last Hitting tutorial and hit Start. 

Once you’ve loaded into the last hit trainer, you can select whichever hero you want. Then, you’ll load into a single-player lobby with two Faerie Fires, giving you an additional two damage each for a total of four.

From here on out, just try last hitting and denying as many creeps as possible before the timer runs out. At the end, you’ll see the percentage of last hits you got and an overall rating.

Remember that in a normal game, you’ll probably have a Quelling Blade and other stat-related items, so you’ll have more damage in actual games. This trainer will just help you get used to the concept of last hitting.

If you’re relatively new to the game, you can stick to melee carries like Anti-Mage or Juggernaut. But, if you want to kick it up a notch, you can challenge yourself by picking Shadow Fiend. Shadow Fiend has incredibly low base damage and is a ranged hero, making it harder to land last hits. 

Training Polygon Last Hit Trainer

The built-in last hit trainer by Valve helps you get used to last hitting. However, there are several unrealistic factors, which include not having an opponent and having no items at all. You’ll pretty much never find yourself in this scenario in a real game.

That’s why the Training Polygon Last Hit Trainer might be a little more useful. It’s a community-made map that is free to play. 

To play the Training Polygon map, you’ll have to download it. Follow these steps below:

1. Launch Dota 2.
2. Go to the Arcade section. 
3. In the search bar, type in Training Polygon.
4. Once you’re on the map page, hit Install. 
5. After the installation is complete, hit Play Training Polygon.
6. Select Last Hit Training.

On this map, you’ll be put into a more realistic scenario, where you’ll lane against a robot that tries to deny your last hits. This game mode forces you to last hit on time and also tells you your average delay resulting in missed last hits.