DOTA Tips And Guides: Tinker Guide!

Contents

Background
Hero Overview
- Stats
- Pros/Cons
- Skills
Skill Build
- Explanation of Skill Order Choice
Item build
- Explanation of Items
- Optional and Entertainment Items
- Items Not to Get
Game Strategy
- Early Game
- Mid Game
- Late Game
General Strategy
- Role in Team Battles
- Using March of the Machines
- The One on One Situation
- The Helpful and the Hurtful
Change Log
Replays
Conclusion

Background Story

Why hello there and thanks for taking the time to start reading my guide. This is my very first DotA guide and I hope it will be of some help to some people. =] I chose the Tinker because he is by far one of my most favorite heroes, he is fun to play, and I see him played in a way I feel, is incorrect. Enough of me lets talk about him!

Boush has been educated in the most advanced Goblin technology. These mechanical systems allow him to damage the enemy at a distance, while keeping himself relatively safe. He can also upgrade his systems to allow him to fire quickly. A true demonstration of the power of knowledge.

Summary- All Boush wants is Bang, Bang, Bang.

Since I originally wrote this, there have been many major gameplay changes through the different versions of the map. Item build has been renewed, general early game play-style modified, random crap taken out and added to the guide hopefully making it better than it was before.

Hero Overview

The Tinker

Strength- 17 + 2.0
Agility- 13 + 1.2
Intelligence- 27 + 2.2 <- Primary stat growth that makes me cry.

Starting Damage 49-55
Starting Armor 3.8
Starting HP 473
Starting Mana 351

Attack Range 500
Movement Speed 305 <- Above average <3

Pros

His ultimate is basically a refresher orb, without the cool down. Giving you interesting item combinations.
His skills are useful at all stages in the game.
You can push multiple lanes like there is no tomorrow.
Above average movement speed, in combination with Boots of Travel, will help you run when you have to.
You have a sexy backpack…thing…

Cons

Primary stat growth is hardly “decent.”
Item-less, very frail. (Also due to stat growth.)
May find yourself saying, “WTF WERE B MY MANAZ?!”

Skills

Laser [E]

Fires an intense beam of light at a target, dealing damage and blinding enemies 300 AoE within the primary target for 18(9) seconds. Deals precise damage.

Level 1 - 80 damage, 10% miss.
Level 2 - 160 damage, 15% miss.
Level 3 - 240 damage, 20% miss.
Level 4 - 320 damage, 25% miss.
Mana Cost: 95/120/145/170
Cooldown: 15

Remarks: AoE blind + Hero damage nuke with a low-ish cool down and mana cost= Sexy nuke #1

Heat Seeking Missle(s) [T]

The Tinker fires a rocket at the nearest visible enemy hero. Range of 2500.

Level 1 - 100 damage.
Level 2 - 175 damage.
Level 3 - 250 damage, 2 targets.
Level 4 - 325 damage, 2 targets.
Mana Cost: 120/ 140/ 160/ 180
Cooldown: 25

Remarks: Decent damage, wtf range, and you hit two targets (levels 3 and 4). This is sexy nuke #2.

March of the Machines [C]

Calls in hordes of robotic goblins in an area of 1200 * 1400 to destroy your enemies.
Lasts 6 seconds.

Level 1 - 16 damage/goblin.
Level 2 -24 damage/goblin.
Level 3 - 32 damage/goblin.
Level 4 - 40 damage/goblin.
Mana Cost: 145/ 150/ 165/ 190
Cooldown: 35

Remarks: This skill, in part, makes you a pushing monster. The AoE is enormous, and overlapped via rearm, deals very substantial damage.

Rearm [R]

Instantly refills the Tinker's weapons.
Doesn't refresh Refresher Orb, Necronomicon, Hand of Midas, and Helm of Dominator.

Level 1 - 3 seconds to rearm.
Level 2 - 2 seconds to rearm.
Level 3 - 1 second to rearm.
Mana Cost: 150/ 250/ 350
Cooldown: 3/ 2/ 1

Remarks: One of my favorite ultimates. We will abuse this to make the most out of the Tinker.

Skill Build

Many skill builds are situational, but I find myself making very few tweaks to this one.

1. Laser
2. Missile
3. Laser
4. Missile
5. Laser/ Missile
6. Missile/ Laser
7. Laser
8. Missile
9. Rearm
10. March
11. March
12. March
13. March
14.-25. Stats until you feel comfortable with your mana pool. Then proceed to maxRearm.

Explanation:

I’ve experimented with many early game skill builds such as Stats/missile, Stats/laser, Stats/March, March/Missile, Laser/March. I find this to be the most effective for a few reasons, one of them being that laser is precise damage AND a blind. Precise damage makes for a nice nuke, and the blind effect will hinder your enemy’s ability to last hit/deny, which in-turn makes it easier for you to last hit/ deny them. This skill will always be maxed first and foremost.

Missile basically adds to your early game nuking power, where you will net/assist with the majority of your kills. Maxed early as well.

This is where I disagree with many proposed Tinker builds. I find March useless early game. Using this will force your enemies back, sure. In turn this pushes your creep waves up to their tower more quickly, making it harder to deny/last hit, and easier for you to be harassed. Early game you don’t want to break the enemy’s tower, you want to be able to block, deny, last hit, and stay on your side of the river as much as possible to avoid pointless deaths.
Now for Rearm. I find no need for this skill until level 9, sometimes but hopefully not later. Before level 10-ish, it is strenuous on your mana pool to spam rearm and chain nuke enemies in your lane. Plus, if you get it too soon (e.g. level 6) you deny yourself a point in laser or missile which increase a decent amount level-to-level. I judge the time getting this skill by two things. 1) ALWAYS after laser and missile and 2) around the time you get Boots of Travel.

With that note, on to the Item Build.

Item Build

Core Set

Ideal Set (You should never get this far, ever.)

Basic starting items for many heroes, shouldn’t be too much to argue here. Normally I will stack a few branches, 2-3 sets of tangos and 2 clarities.

1. Chicken (Only if one of your allies hasn’t purchased one already, in this case ask politely for control. Or threaten him, I could care less, as long as you get one).
2. Empty Bottle
3.Boots of Speed
4.(Optional Bracers or Nulls 2-3)
5. Boots of Travel
--Cost of 3400--
6. Complete Eul’s scepter of Divinity
--Cost of 6200--
7. Complete Guinsoo's scythe of the Vyse
--Cost of 8570--

**Before you obtain Boots of Travel, I strongly suggest you take a Scroll of Town Portal around with you wherever you go, when you can afford one. These have saved my life countless times and should be bought on just about every hero. **

Hopefully the game has ended by now, if not, work toward the optional items mentioned further down.

Explanation:

Chickens are gods, use them to your advantage, don’t get them killed or they will rise from the grave and eat your babies. Nothing makes me sadder then getting +15 gold from an enemy chicken left to idle at the secret shop. Get what you need, send it back. This is the first break I make from my old item order.

After testing, I've found that empty bottle is by FAR the best way to increase your early game prowess. If you are doing your job right, with bottle you can basically run lane to lane plucking runes to refill your bottle while helping take down heroes. Around this time you will be thinking on nulls or bracers. I used to advocate bracers for the cheap and efficient hp boost. But I've found that they are not really a necessity. If you are getting your ass handed to you and can't seem to farm up the gold for travels, then go ahead and pull a few bracers or nulls.

All the other cool Tinkers at goblin school have Boots of Travel, you should too. By using Rearm in combination with boots of travel, you can be almost anywhere with full HP/Mana in around 30 seconds. Allowing you to super push lanes when needed, escape sticky situations, get back and forth between clear lanes to farm, and most importantly get to team battles/ assist allies quickly.

After Travels, Eul's is the logical choice. Mana regen, mana pool, int damage, and a reliable escape/disable.

*Exceptions! If the other team is obsessed with disabling your face, even though you should be near the back of the battle, or there is an enemy Doom Bringer, something like that. You may want to swap Eul’s out for Linken’s sphere. This will be explained in further/optional items later on.

Previously I suggested the straight manta rush after Eul's. But after playing and thinking about it, I've found it is far better (in most cases) to get Guinsoo earlier instead. Early Guinsoo is far too useful to pass up for illusions. Boasting 60 damage and Hex, this item brings a lot more to your arsenal.

*Exceptions! There may be times you deem the purges useful. Maybe when you are against Warlock/ Ursa/ Blood Seeker/ Sven/ Anyone I’m forgetting at the moment you really need to debuff. In this case you may opt to purchase Diffusal Blade after Boots of Travel or Eul's and whore the charges for all they are worth.

Finish up your sheeper and if the game is going on STILL, FOR GOD KNOWS WHAT REASON, get some of the optional items below.

Linken's Sphere

Item gives you stats, regen, and a spell block every minute. The catch is you are the almighty Tinker and you can refresh the cool down on the spell block. That last part increases the value of this item a lot. =]

Eye of Skadi

You will not obtain the frost attack because of feedback. But this item is by far one of the best way to buff yourself and your images. If you have the money at this point in the game, why not aim for Skadi?

Massing Eul’s

An idea a friend gave to me and made sense. If you have the money after the core build, you can keep buying Eul’s using up the charges, then passing it off to someone on your team and buy another. With Eul’s and your original Guinsoo, you basically can make every team battle a 5v3. If you don’t want to throw it away after the charges have expired, then simply make another Guinsoo.

Radiance

Although the bonus damage is not beneficial to the Manta images, it is one of the better items in damage to cost. After Manta/Guinsoo/Linken’s your real Tinker’s damage is pretty decent, radiance will help with this. The immolation is also spread out (but does not stack) with your images. And with 8% evasion as well, no one can complain.

Manta Style

I took this out of the original core build, but that doesn't make it any worse of an item to grab later. Basically for all the reasons I suggested it in the first place make it an item worth getting later on. Rearm and images allow you to have constant images, images spread, but do not stack the radiance immolation, and Manta allows you to break many different spells.

Items to take into consideration:

Black King Bar

Gives Strength, damage, and magic immunity that you can refresh. A bit over-kill compared to Linken’s but fun to mess around and scare people with. (For those who don’t know, you turn into a tank thing when you use bkb on Tink).

Dagon

I've really flip-flopped on this item a lot recently. I've found if I can grab one in under 15 or so minutes you can really work down enemy heroes and keep them there. In my opinion though, bottle and your allies that should be there are generally enough to successfully gank whatever heroes. Dagon does and can help, but for the price you are paying for it, you can almost have bottle and travels instead.

Items Not to Get

Arcane Ring

Seems okay at first, 300 mana, +3def, and replenish. Potentially it can be a good item since it restores mana to both you and your allies. But by getting this you delay Boots of Travel, your MOST important item. A Tinker without boots is a terrible one. Assuming you get this after Travels, it allows you to use level 1 rearm for minimal Mana cost, even though you can very well Tele to base and refill. This would take the place of Eul’s, but it provides no real Mana regen, or the ~~priceless~~ 2800 gold cyclone charges.

In addition a few versions back made it so that rearm would not rearm the arcane ring, making it far less useful to the team and yourself. Bottle > Arcane.

DPS Items

Lack of any real damage boosting skills makes pure damage items pretty useless on Tinker. The only exception I would make would be for Radiance. With a highly inflated Mana pool, and pushing power, you may begin to live near your enemies’ base. The immolation combined with March and normal attacks creates a pushing monster.

Cranium Basher

Please, if you considered this, never play Tinker again.

Refresher Orb

…

Enough with items, on to Strat.

Game Strategy

Early Game

Whatever I said before is different now. Tinker is a VERY good solo hero. He is capable of holding his own against just about any other solo if played well. So if at all possible demand a solo lane. The added jump on experience will make you more useful while your nukes do considerable damage relative to the max hp of most heroes on the map. Stay alive, deny as much as possible to keep the creeps close to your tower to ensure survival. It may take a while to get used to Tinker’s attack animation. It is a bit slow, practice, practice, blaah. But more importantly, when you get an opportunity, take down the heroes in other lanes by abusing the bottle and runes.

If you do not get the solo lane, do not fear. Hopefully you are paired with another nuker and between the two of you, you should net kills fairly easy.

Mid Game

Around this time you should be getting your Boots of Travel, if you haven’t done so already. And with one level or rearm, as stated previously, you can simply tele to any part of the map and farm in peace, assist allies in trouble, or participate in team battles. You should make your enemies know, that wherever they go, there will be a missile and blind waiting for them. Much of mid game you need to farm as much as possible in order to obtain the Manta. Something I must stress here, if you haven’t read Bengal_Tiger’s guide to misconceptions of farming, do so. Using march on every creep wave you can may seem fast, but it is sloppy and you may not get every kill in the wave and you end up pushing too fast, denying yourself or your teammates farming time. Take the time, get the last hits, earn the gold.

Late Game

If things have gone well, when late game rolls around you better have Travels and Guinsoo. By this time you will want to have also maxed Rearm. Normally I’ll do this somewhere between 16 and 18 since the one second casting time is invaluable, though the Mana cost is high. Make sure you do not leave your team stranded, with refreshable Boots you should be in every team battle. But, your main job should be… Pushing! It is now more acceptable to use March on creep waves as you want to push multiple lanes as quickly as possible. Keep the pressure on the enemy team, push hard with allies, win. =D

General Strategy

Role in the Team battle

If team battles occur before level 10 there is not much to do. Just use your skills and assist with poking. By mid game, in team battles you should try to blind as many enemies as possible then proceed to use March, Missile, Rearm, Laser another group for the blind effect or the low EHP heroes to assist in damage, March again, and Missile again. That should drain the majority of your mana. Aside from blinding a dps or cluster of heroes, your main goal is to get March down twice. The giant AoE and damage will significantly help the team. Late game is almost the same, you just need to be a little quicker with your fingers and make sure to Manta and Hex (or cyclone), Rearm, repeat. Make sure to disable the biggest threats, use your judgment.

To sum this part up, use your skills... duh.

Using March of the Machines

This skill is kinda funky, and takes a bit of practice to get going right. Here are attempts at screen shots with professional editing to perfectly demonstrate the exact and only usage for this skill. (I lied about all of that).

Creeping

This may not be the best screenie because I moved from where I had cast in the first place.

Key:
Blue circle- Original position
Yellow circle- Target point
Green line- Creep line
White arrows- Direction of March

In most cases, you want March to be cast in diagonals. This allows for a few more machines to hit the targets as they pass by. The diagonals do not need to be perfect. As long as you do not cast this skill horizontal to the creep line, it should work just fine. (If you cast it horizontally, the first one or two creeps take all the hits leavign the last ones unscathed).

Casting when trying to Detour/Delay/Damage a Chasing Enemy

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 799x299.

When an enemy is chasing you, and you have no other option but to run, March should be casted in this way.

Key:
Green circle-Enemy
Red arrow- Escape route
White arrows- Direction of March

As you can see in the first Screenie, March is targeted in the direction toward the enemy. This should cover your escape route and force the chaser, if he decides to purse further, to walk through the entire wave of Machines going by.

When Ganking an Enemy Hero

Key:
Green square- Enemy
Green arrow- Enemy possible escape route
Red arrow- Your entrance path
Yellow circle- Target location
White arrows- March direction

By using March in this way, you force the enemy to be hit by your nukes as well as the March by covering the path of escape.

Team Battles

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 800x300.

This might be the confusing one...

Key:
Green- Enemies and their entrance route
Red- Allies
White arrows- March Direction

As you can see, I cast March with my back to the enemy. By doing this, the machines spawn from the area where the enemy is. Assuming they will move in, the March will continue to hit them. As opposed to casting it toward them, where they could avoid it, or I would have to move closer to get a better target area, putting me in harm's way.

Honestly though, if you panic, just cast it. There is a 99% chance it will do something. It is pretty hard to miss with the giant AoE.

The One on One Situation

You will encounter this eventually. Early/Mid game you have a few options. If you think you can win, you generally should know (I hope), Use your nukes, throw a Eul’s, Rearm, nuke again. Without a stun or a slow, they have a pretty good chance of getting away from you if they are at full hp. If they are low and running, normal attack them, and try to run at the same time. This too takes a bit of practice, but you can get a few hits in while keeping up, or close behind them. Then fire the missile if you have not already. If your missile doesn’t kill them, don’t both chasing unless you feel confident that you can run and chase like and idiot for 25 second waiting for your missile cool down to finish. What I’m saying is leave them and continue farming, if you have to chase that long, allies will be there, and you will die. Option two of course is running for your life. If you have Eul’s, use it and Tele out. If you do not have to use Eul’s if they have nothing to interrupt your Tele, and you have enough hp to take 3 seconds of hits. If they have a Mini-stun and you don’t have Eul’s, last resort is running for your life. Try to lose them in fog, and Tele as fast as you can. Read the guide on Ambush and Escape by Fun With Gamen for help, saved me a lot I know. =P There are more than that are included on the guide, look for nooks and crannies, they could buy you the extra second or two you need.

The Helpful and the Hurtful

Tinker works best early game with other heavy nukers or those with a disable nuke, Examples are:

Tinker has the same generally enemies as most Intel heroes. Other heavy/combo nukers (stated above + Scrouge), disablers, perma-bashers. Most notably:

Pudge, the Butcher. Let it be known I hate Pudge with an undying passion. If he pulls his combo on you, you are as good as dead

Void/Troll/Anti-Mage, many people go for the lame perma-bash builds on these heroes. If you can’t disable them before they get to you, get a drink of water since you will be at the fountain for a while waiting. More on Magina, if perma-bash wasn’t enough, Mana Break and Mana Void rape your empty Mana pool hard.