What's the best way to attack :

  • Right click (attack) > walk a few steps in the direction your target is moving > right click (attack) again
  • Just right click (attack) the target?

I See people do it different ways, so I can't understand which is the most efficient/best way to do it.

  • I always press 'A' and left click, so that it is the same as denying and the right mouse button is only for move commands. This is also a good habit for attack-moving as well, which is part of the whole animation cancelling stuff explained by WizLiz. – patchandthat Oct 23 '13 at 15:47
  • Thanks for the opinions. Most of that stuff I already knew, I was just curious about this only. Should I just keep right-clicking the target or should I right click and walk a few steps after each attack in order to do more attacks on the target. I should test this with a Lifestealer or something. – evil Oct 23 '13 at 18:01

If I understand your question correctly, you want to know if mooving between each attack is more efficient than just right clicking your target and waiting for your hero to finish the job ?

You first have to understand the concept of "animation cancelling". Animation cancelling consisit in manually stoping the animation of the attack of your hero in order to "attack faster".

Example : let's say you attack with crystal maiden, when she raises her arm to throw an attack, the projectile is fired right after the arm started mooving down. Once the projectile is fired, letting her finish the animation (the arm going down) is pointless. If you start mooving right after the projectile is fired, you will gain the time of the end of the animation and use it to moove toward your target thus not loosing sight of it. This concept applies for almost every hero in the game as there is always a small time you can gain between the moment where the damage is dealt and the moment the next attack begin. I've made a more elaborate post about it : Here

I'll answer depending on your target :


  • Neutrals : It doesn't really matter but if you can animation cancel you will jungle slightly faster.
  • In lane : Usually you don't want to auto attack creeps in lane so the lane wont push toward your enemy tower. Pushing makes last hitting more dangerous because you have to get furhter from your tower in order to get last hits. But the same concept of animation cancel applies here too.


I don't see any reason to just "right click and wait", I'll show you some common situations in which mooving between attack is more efficient :

  • If you are chasing and don't want to loose sight : When you just "right click" and the enemy hero goes for some reason in the fog of war (because of trees or going high ground where you have no vision), your hero will stop mooving thus making the chase a lot harder. In this situation it's better to follow the enemy hero by choosing manually your path then attack him when you are in range.
  • If the enemy is not running in a straight path, you can choose a better one to catch up with him. When you are trying to catch someone, always try to take the shorter path between you and the spot your enemy is trying to reach (If he's trying to exit your jungle, try to be at the exit he's aiming for before him or at least faster than him). This applies even if he has a slightly better movespeed than you.
  • If you want to orb walk (I described this concept in the post linked above).
  • If you want to dodge a skill/skillshot : just "right cliking" makes your hero deplacement very obvious thus giving the opportunity to the enemy team to land a skillshot (Pudge's Hook, Mirana's arrow etc.). Mooving between attack (if you have a better movespeed than your target) will allow you to stay in range between attack while being able to quickly change direction.

So my answer will be : it's more efficient to move between attacks in most situations, you just have to get used to doing it.

  • Everything seems spot on, except for the lane part. Sometimes you want to push the lane faster, especially if you have a support alongside a Chen. Then you can easily get the tier one tower on a safe lane within the first 5 minutes. – krikara Oct 24 '13 at 5:29
  • One thing you didn't point out: This is one of those 'small reward for the fancier approach, but big penalty if you fail' things very common in games. If you orb-walk even a millisecond too early, you lose the entire attack, as an attack is cancelled if you move during the wind-up or 'forward swing', but not if you move during the 'backswing' (after the projectile), which is far worse than not orb walking. Getting the timing down to the exact frame is a bit too much to ask for for 99.99% of players, so take a margin of error when moving between attacks. – aphid Aug 5 '16 at 18:21

In the early stages of the game, you need to make sure you aren't just continually hitting the creep, as this is 'pushing' and isn't really meant for early game. Just make sure to get the finishing blow ("last-hitting") in order to gain a gold bonus.

A good laning enemy will be trying to harass you as much as possible, so you will want to make sure you head in, last-hit a creep, and then get out again. This is that much more important for melee heroes laning against a ranged hero.

As for attacking heroes, I assume you mean harassing, getting a few hits in and then retreating. It is safest to do this when the enemy creeps are near your own tower, and the enemy hero is there as well. This is easiest to do on the Radiant bottom lane (as Radiant) and the Dire top lane (as Dire). These are the 'safe lanes' of the respective factions.

There is no most efficient way to do right-clicking itself, it is all down to habit and personal preference. Some people like to last-hit and then run a few steps towards their enemy laning partner, as a threat in order to get them to back off from the creeps themselves. Most people just run in, get a last-hit, then run out.

  • Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't the Radiant bottom lane (as Radiant) and the Dire top lane (as Dire) both referred to as that team's "safe lane"? Useful tidbit to add, I think as that seems to be what most players call them. – John the Green Oct 23 '13 at 0:39
  • I'll just add that now. Thanks for the suggestion! – user57801 Oct 23 '13 at 1:09
  • I think OP is talking about the point of mooving between attack and not just right cliking once then let the hero do the job – WizLiz Oct 23 '13 at 7:37
  • Reading the question again, that does appear to make a bit more sense. woops – user57801 Oct 23 '13 at 7:48

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