Advanced - Last Hitting and Denying

Last hitting ones own creep and the other teams creep is a tactic in Dota which pays off tremendously for ones hero development, and the lack of development for the other team. Put simply, the concept is to wait until the creep lines, yours and the opponents, get low on life and then to attempt to get the last hit with your hero on either. To track the life of creep a lot of people like to use the alt key. By holding it down it allows one to see the life of all creep. A good last hitter will move back and forth constantly not allowing there hero to attack. Then, while holding down the alt key, when a creep reaches a level where the player thinks he can get the last hit, he will attack that creep. After this he will return to moving back and forth constantly, and the process will repeat itself.

This seems like a lot of work, but by last hitting the opponents creeps, you will not be pushing towers as much (equaling less gank possibility on you), and you will have much greater control on creep kills and gold, then by just right clicking a creep and hoping your hero hits it repeatedly and then happens to strike it last.

By last hitting your own creeps, also called denying, you are preventing the other team from finishing creep kills, thereby preventing them from gaining gold. Also when you deny creep, you deny the opponents part of the experience they normally get from a creep. If you are against a ranged hero, the amount of experience they recieve by you denying a creep is much less than a normal creep kill. Whereas, if you are against a melee hero, the amount of experience they recieve is a little more than a ranged, but still much less than a normal creep kill.
By doing this repeatedly over the course of a game, last hitting opponents creep and denying your own creep, you will level faster than your opponents and gain much more gold than your opponents. Also you will die less, because you will be pushing not as hard into enemy territory, making it much harder for the opponent to gank you.