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Each role in Dota 2 has a different short-term goal.
Irrespective of their game-specific objectives, every core in Dota 2 needs farm. Ultimately, the end goal of the game is to build enough of a gold and XP advantage to push high ground successfully.
Since stacking neutrals got nerfed in the final pre-TI patch of Dota 2, a renewed interest in strong laners has surfaced in the meta.
With a strong laner, it is important to build some farm advantage right off the bat to keep positive momentum alive. Needless to say, gold and XP advantage in lanes depends on safe access to the creepwave.
There are several types of creep-pulling in Dota 2 that can turn the tides in a lane
Pulling is essentially using creep aggro, i.e., their attack prioritization behavior, to manipulate the natural creep pathing.
The basic safelane pull
The most common form of pull uses the pull camps, i.e., the small neutral camps near the safelane tier-1 towers. The purpose of a safelane pull is to bring the creep equilibrium closer to the tower.
A full creepwave in Dota 2 will kill a small camp in about 10 seconds, which will give the opponent creepwave time to advance closer to the safelane tower.
By cutting certain trees in the current map of Dota 2 patch 7.30c, it is also possible to connect a pull and simultaneously stack a nearby hard camp.
Denying the whole creepwave
There are two ways to deny a safelane wave completely, i.e., get it killed by neutrals entirely.
Firstly, you can stack the small pull camp before pulling the creeps. A double-stacked small camp in Dota 2 can kill three entire creepwaves once pulled.
The other way is to pull the creepwave into the small camp, then attack the nearby medium camp and walk into the small camp. The timing should be such that the medium camp creeps attack the player just as the final small camp creep dies. If timed correctly, this will again redirect the allied lane creeps to attack the medium camp.
Denying the whole wave in Dota 2 can create a significant XP advantage if the safelaner gets the entirety of the opponent creepwave's XP. As the opposing creepwave is quickly killed by the tower, this also serves as a reset of the natural creepwave equilibrium.
In practice, this is difficult to do. Either form of this pull is likely to incite a reaction from the opponent laners, who will then come to contest the pull.
Half-pull
Sometimes, pulling in the safe lane will delay the creeps enough that the opposing creepwave comes under the tower and gets decimated before the pulled wave returns to lane. This will create a double wave in the next wave, pushing the equilibrium even further away from the safelaner.
To avoid this disaster, it is always better to attempt a half-pull, mechanically one of the most challenging tricks of Dota 2. It requires you to time your pull and position yourself in a precise way near the creepwave such that only two of the four lane creeps are derailed by the aggro range.
