List of some useful abilities from neutral creeps. (X-post from /r/truedota2)

TL;DR at the bottom

Cross posted to r/truedota2

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WHY AM I MAKING THIS POST?

With the changes to Helm of the Dominator, it is now less likely to be bought on carries that bought it before and more likely to be bought on utility offlaners, roamers and supports. Since a lot of people tend to focus more on one role than others, I am sure that unless you are a Doom, Chen or Enchantress player, you probably don't know neutral creep abilities too well if you didn't already before this patch.

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WHY IS IT MORE LIKELY TO BE BOUGHT ON THESE ROLES NOW?

Helm of the Dominator is now a slightly weaker version of Drums from a few patches ago. Drums gave 9 to all stats and a movement/attack speed aura, with an active that increased the attack speed and movement speed of you and nearby allies. I would nearly always buy it on Crystal Maiden for the Intelligence and slight tankiness, for example. Now though, Drums stats are decreased in a trade for 50% MP regen.

Now though, Helm of the Dominator gives the same (relevant) stats to a support and a larger attack speed aura than drums to help allies. It also gives an 8 HP regen aura in place of a movement speed aura. They area very similar items now in terms of passives gains. They are also basically the same price (Drums 1780, HoD 1800).

The difference is the active. Drums increases allies movement and attack speed for a few seconds. Helm gets you a 1400 health, 425 movement speed creep. Helm is now a viable alternative for Drum builders if they feel they would trade the active and MP regen for their own creep. (It is worth mentioning though that the attack speed, movement speed and MP regen auras can both be replaced by creeps. The MP regen especially since it gives an aura rather than only affecting you.)

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THE CREEPS

If you would like pure numbers on the creeps, here is the Dota 2 wiki and here is a post from a year ago.

My personal top creeps:

Satyr Banisher: If you are going to take away one thing from this post, this should be it. The Satyr Banisher is almost certainly the best neutral creep in the game. It has the ability Purge which can target allies and enemies. It applies a basic dispel to the target and gives enemies a 100% movement speed slow (decreases by additively by 20% each second). This skill has a 5 second duration and a 3 second cooldown meaning it has 166% uptime. The creep has enough MP to keep a continuous slow on someone for 20 seconds. The basic dispel can be teamfight changing though. Here is a post I made a while ago on every debuff that can be removed from allies. The list near the top describes everything that can be removed, with exceptions in the second half. The big ones being all silences, slows, hexes and roots. I have not made a post on buffs you can remove from allies, but here is a list. The big ones here are that you can purge invisiblity during the fade time, Dark Seer's Surge, Windranger's Windrun, PA and Ursa's attack speed increasing skills and basically all healing spells. Basically, this creep is great. Made better by the fact that it can span in either the medium or large camps.

Centaur Conqueror: Has the ability War Stomp. Very similar to Centaur Warrunner's stun. Lasts 2 seconds and in a slightly smaller AoE. Can set up the stun with another stun. Stuns are always useful, so taking this creep is often good.

Harpy Stormcrafter: This creep has 1800 night vision. For reference, a normal hero will have 1800 vision during the day and 800 during the night. Having this creep with you during a night gank will put your team at a huge advantage since, a lot of the time, vision to initiate on your enemies is what gives you the largest advantage in a fight. It also has the nuke Chain Lightning which acts very similarly to Rubick's Fade Bolt, starting at 140 damage and decreasing by 25% for a max of 4 bounces. Only a 4 second cooldown so you can get it off many times during a fight, with the MP to use it 8 times.

Dark Troll Summoner: Can use Ensnare to root enemies for 1.75 seconds. Good for setting up for guaranteed skillshots. Can also summon two small skeletons to fight with it, but they are very weak and can only be summoned if something has died nearby.

Ogre Frostmage: Has what is very similar to Lich's Frost armour as an ability (even the same icon). Only 8 armour compared to Lich's 9 and only applies the slow to melee attackers, but has a longer duration (45 compared to 40) and a longer slow duration (5 compared to 2).

Other useful creeps

Hellbear Smasher: Has the ability Thunderclap. 150 damage nuke in small AoE around creep. Slows and reduces attack speed both by 25%. Also has a 15 attack speed increasing aura.

Satyr Mindstealer: Has a manaburn skill that burns up to 100 MP from the target and deals the amount burnt as damage. Potentially useful against characters that depend on MP but have a low pool, such as Wraith King, Sven and Venomancer.

Mud Golems: Has a rock that it can throw at enemies for a small stun. When it dies it splits into two small golems that each have a 0.6 second stun that they can throw. The stuns are too short to really be able to set anything up with though, but are still good for canceling channeling spells since they have long range.

Satyr Tormentor: Has a 180 damage AoE nuke that it shoots out in front of it. Can use every 8 seconds up to 4 times with full MP. Also has an aura which restores 6 HP per second in a 900 radius. (The same as a ring of health)

Aura Creeps

Alpha Wolf: Gives 30% base damage increase in a 900 radius. Better late game and better with right clicking carries that buy stat items. Also has a crit that is not that useful.

Wildwing Ripper: Gives 3 armour in a 900 AoE. Also has a tornado skill useful for clearing stacked camps, and harassing enemies in lane, but you will likely not have Helm of the Dominator until after the laning phase ends.

Satyr Tormentor: As mentioned above, has a 6 HP regen aura in 900 radius.

Hellbear Smasher: As mentioned, has a 15 attack speed aura in 900 radius.

Hellbear and Centaur Courser: Both have a 5% magic resistance aura in 900 radius. It is not much, but is better than nothing if there are no other creeps to dominate.

Kobold Foreman: Has a 12% movement speed aura in 900 radius.

Hill Top Priest: Has a 3 MP regeneration aura. (The amount of MP allies get from a maxed Crystal Maiden Arcane Aura) Definitely useful with allies that depend on MP and have low pools.

The remaining neutral creeps

Only three more neutral creeps are worth mentioning.

Ghost: Has a 20% movement and 20 attack speed slow on the autoattack. You've probably noticed it when pulling. Given the fact that the creep gets 425 movement speed when dominated, it will likely run faster than the person it is slowing meaning they will be permanently 20% slowed by this creep if it autoattacks them.

Vhoul Assassin: I wasn't going to mention this, but it has two actual uses. Its 10 second long DoT on autoattack means that it can stop an enemy you are chasing from using a Blink Dagger for 13 seconds. Second, the DoT deals 2 damage per instance. This means that Templar Assassin's Refraction is not wasted by it so the DoT goes through refraction, meaning that this creep is able to disable Templar Assassin's Blink Dagger through refraction. I was wrong. The DoT does not disable Blink Daggers.

Harpy Scout: Like the other Harpy, has 1800 night vision. The negative is that it does not have a nuke.

Lane Creeps

Ranged Creep: Has 500 attack range, useful for stacking camps with without taking damage.

Siege Creep: Has the Siege Damage type as shown here. This means that unlike heroes which deal 50% damage to buildings, Siege creeps deal 150% damage to buildings. This means that if you are pushing and the enemy creeps have a siege creep in them, you should dominate it to make your push speed even faster.

Useful Summons to Dominate

Hawk: Gives flying vision and is invisible

Boar: Has a 40% movement speed and 40 attack speed slow on the autoattack lasting 3 seconds. Autoattack range is 550 meaning it's easy to keep reapplying, especially with 425 movement speed.

Spiderling: If it autoattacks a unit within 2 seconds before its death, you will gain smaller spiderites. Potentially you can build up your own army to push a lane with. Cannot use an enemy Broodmother's webs.

Eidolon: It annoys Enigma if you taken them from him since he does not get many. Especially if you take it before it splits, since you can get potentially two eidolons if your one you stole autoattacks a target 7 times.

Forged Spirit: Decreases 1 armour from the target per autoattack. Another big pro about stealing this from Invoker though is that he can now only summon one at a time until potentially level 15, so stealing it from him will both hinder and really annoy him.

Lycan Wolf: Has a 20% chance to cripple the enemy on autoattack giving a 60 attack speed decrease for 4 seconds and 8 Damage over Time, also able to stop a Templar Assassin from using a Blink Dagger through Refraction. The main use comes from the invisibility from scouting. Also will annoy Lycan if you steal it from him.

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END

I hope this helps at least someone! There are many creeps out there, all with different purposes. Also, sorry for any spelling/grammar mistakes if I missed any. I have what I like to describe as 'Predictive Text' with my hands.

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TL;DR:

Good Skills:

Purge - White Satyr in Medium/Hard Camps.

Stun - Blue Centaur in Medium/Hard Camps.

Night Vision - Pink Harpy in Small Camps.

Root - Big Yellow Ranged Troll in Hard Camp.

Mana Burn - Blue Satyr in Medium/Hard Camp.

Frost Armour - Blue Ogre in Medium Camp.

Auras:

Attack Damage - Alpha Wolf in Medium Camp.

Armour - Pink Bird in Hard Camp.

HP Regen - Pink Satyr in Hard Camp.

MP Regen - Yellow healing Troll in Small Camp.

Attack Speed - Red Hellbear in Hard Camp.

Movement Speed - Blue Kobold with goblet in Small Camp.

Lane Creeps:

Take Siege Creep when pushing since it does a lot of damage. Ranged Creep is good at stacking without getting injured.

Summons:

Beastmaster Boar - Good slow on autoattack.

Beastmaster Hawk - Good Flying vision.

Broodmother Spider - Get your own army of spiders.

Enigma Eidolon - Get some eidolons for brief pushing.

Invoker Forged Spirit - Good armour reduction. Annoys Invoker.

Lycan Wolves - Good at scouting. Annoys Lycan.