Tinker is an incredibly powerful hero, however he needs a lot practice to be able to play well. The more you play him, the faster you will be able to react with your fingers. Keep items you buy on him on the same key binds every game, so that casting spells and active items will become muscle memory for you.
Constantly watch your positioning in fights, guess where they are farming or hunting you and move accordingly. Try to minimize the time spent in base by fully utilizing your mana-pool and not going back to base after using a couple of spells in a lane. Be quick on your feet and Blink around as much as you can – just not foolishly.
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[/column]Tinker Skill Build
- Laser
- Heat-Seeking Missile
- Laser
- Heat-Seeking Missile
- March of the Machines
- March of the Machines
- March of the Machines
- Rearm
- March of the Machines
- Talent
- Heat-Seeking Missile
- Heat-Seeking Missile
- Rearm
- Laser
- Talent
- Laser
- –
- Rearm
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Laser is a single-target spell that deals damage and blinds enemies, including creeps and Roshan. It should always be chosen at level one, as the blinding effect makes this spell more effective than any of his other spells. Laser can be upgraded with Aghanim’s Scepter, which makes it bounce to nearby opponents for full damage.
The damage from Laser is Pure, so if you’re playing against an Ember Spirit, Anti-Mage or other hero with high magic resistance, it may be worth putting points from Heat-Seeking Missiles into Laser. Otherwise, it’s usually better to skill March and Missiles, because all of Tinker’s spells cost a lot of mana. By keeping only one or two points in Laser the mana cost is kept relatively low while being able to deal a bit more damage and to still be able to blind opponents. It’s good to get 2 levels of Laser because the damage is doubled between these two levels, which is a bigger difference than it is later.
You can go for a ganking build, whereby you max Laser and Missiles but if you don’t secure kills in the laning phase and early game it’s much harder to farm, and you’ll find yourself falling behind in levels and items. This is mainly because you’ll have low levels in March which makes it hard to farm lanes or the jungle. Use it to blind the opponent mid-laner as they attempt to last hit your creeps and deny it, or use it to trade hits with the enemy more effectively.
Missile sends a pair of damaging missiles to two separate enemy heroes. These Missiles have a really long cast range but, if in doubt, you can hover over the spell with your mouse and it should show the full range. This can be very helpful if you’re racing to catch an enemy, or help an ally. Aghanim’s Scepter adds two more missiles so up to four heroes can be hit.
It fires to the nearest two enemies, so you may need to position yourself so they reach the desired heroes. Be careful not to use it if the opponent can easily move into fog, such as if they are trying to kite you through a tree-line. This is because Missiles only tracks opponents it can see. This spell is also great when it comes to harassing enemies that are sieging your buildings and should be spammed in this situation. You can also use this spell to cancel your lane opponent’s Healing Salve for a relatively low mana cost.
If you’re going for a kill, use Missiles from a distance, and blink closer to finish them off with Laser. This is because the Missiles have to travel the distance first and by timing it so that Laser hits them roughly the same time as rockets, the enemy has less time to react in a way that may save them.
March of the Machines makes damaging robots appear in an area around the cast point. The Machines do not pierce magic immunity. Maxing this early is safest for a number of reasons. Firstly, it can be used to counter enemy ganks by forcing them to take massive damage, and possibly even killing them. Secondly, it allows you to farm the jungle earlier, so you can get more levels and faster Boots of Travels. It also means you can defend against any early pushes more easily.
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Try to clear the mid-lane creeps before you go to the jungle to stack. You can use March either to clear mid faster or to stack two camps at once. If not, ask a support to stack the jungle for you. Farming ancients is not effective, because it won’t damage many of them. At level four, two casts of March will almost always clear a creep-wave. Try to place them in different angles as well, for maximum damage.
This spell is almost unrivaled when it comes to defending. Keep an eye on the mini-map and when you see the opponents pushing in a tower, get there before them and spam march. Be careful, however, when using this to defend towers or barracks, as the enemy will be looking to catch you. Get into the habit of blinking away immediately after casting March anywhere on the map. Even if you think you’ll be safe in the trees, or in the fog of war. I can’t count how many times doing so has saved my life. Aim to be in one place as little as possible.
Keep March up constantly in fights, as it deals damage and is a good way to prevent Blink Daggers. Doing this will help you push Dota 2 ranks. If you have mana left over after using March in a lane, head to the jungle and clear a camp or two. You can place it it between two camps at around 54 seconds to stack them both, depending on which camps they are specifically. This can be a good way to get some extra farm in the early game as well, by pushing your lane out first and heading to the jungle, you can stack some camps at :54 and farm them before returning to the lane.
Rearm resets the cooldown of all of your spells and most of your items, with a few exceptions. In most cases, you won’t have the mana or the need to skill Rearm before you get your Boots of Travel. You should also put the second point into Rearm when you have about 800 mana. Be careful where you stand when you use Rearm, as bad positioning can sometimes cost you your life.
You can’t shift-queue spells that are already on cooldown while you are Rearming but, if you are fast, you can sometimes blink out of damage-over-time spells immediately after Rearming. Any action will interrupt Rearm. Sometimes, a blink out of Rearm will be your only possible way to escape and you should consider this as an alternative to running away despite its difficulty.
The following items cannot be Rearmed:
The cast range will allow you to stand farther back in fights and cast from a safer distance which can be helpful against enemies that can catch you out with nukes, disables or silences. It also lets you cast March of the Machines from a farther distance when stood in the trees. If you’re not worried about getting caught out in fights, then you can get the extra spell amplification. It’s a great talent for all of your spells and works well with items like Aghanim’s Scepter, Dagon and Shiva’s Guard. It also stacks additively with the spell amplification from Kaya.
These talents are both quite situational, but generally the lifesteal will be more helpful. The movement speed will help your positioning a bit more and allow you move in and out of fights a bit more easily. It will allow you to, for example, Blink forward aggressively and nuke an enemy and run away to a safer position before Rearming. It can also be good against heroes with Radiance, as it will disable your blink, or any other spell or item which you you may need to run away from. Some spells for example may include, Boulder Smash, Sacred Arrow or Glimpse. Often, an item can be bought to help you survive anyway and you usually Blink around the place to maneuver fights, so running isn’t always as important.
On the other hand, the spell lifesteal quickly adds up when you get some items like Agh’s, Dagon or Shiva’s as well as some levels. The result will be a surprising amount of healing from all of the damage that you deal, although don’t expect it keep you alive if you get caught out.
The damage is almost completely irrelevant for Tinker because he almost never right-clicks anything. March of the Machine farms creeps faster than attacking, and your spells and items are used to get kills. There is almost no situation where you’d get the right-click damage over the March of the Machines damage, except perhaps if you needed more tower damage when pushing, but even then you would be trading off another skill point worth of damage in the spell which is usually not worth it. More March of the Machines damage will help you to defend more easily, farm much faster as well as deal more damage in team-fights.
The extra Laser damage can be good if you are facing heroes with lots of magic resistance, or if you need to burst down enemies more easily. Otherwise, the Ministun on Heat Seeking Missiles provides you quite a lot of utility and is very strong against channeled abilities, or abilities with relatively long cast times. It’s also very strong when defending the high-ground, as you can spam your rockets to deal a ton of damage, which the enemy will have a harder time running away from because they will keep getting mini-stunned. Aghanim’s Scepter increases the significance of both of these talents by quite a lot.
The starting items listed above you should buy almost every game. They provide you with good damage and enough regeneration until you get your bottle. The Iron Branch is to double the regeneration you get from one of the Tangos and the Faerie Fire can be useful to help you survive a skirmish.
A bottle is always necessary due to the amount you will be teleporting to and from base. Use it in the well and use it on allies when they need it. Make use of the fact that you get the regeneration effect from the well a few seconds after teleporting somewhere to spam bottle on yourself/allies.
Boots of Travel should be the first item you get after Bottle. If you farm mid lane and jungle stacks well you should get them between 8-12 minutes. When you get them you can begin spamming spells on the opposing mid laner and pressuring the hero and the tower. In the meanwhile you should also be clearing the jungle with March, helping your team in ganks and defending all of your towers. Until you get your Soul Ring, be careful with your mana. You don’t want to get caught out without enough mana to get back to base. You can see which direction you are facing when teleporting in to a lane or to a fight, and you should keep this in mind for when you use Blink Dagger, as you will need to turn first if you Blink in the opposite direction.
This is when you can begin to have more of a map presence. Soul Ring can be Rearmed, providing you with significantly more mana than you would otherwise have. Note that you don’t need to go back to base every time after you use a couple of spells in lane. Do some farming if you have mana left, otherwise you waste a lot of time refilling your mana unnecessarily.
You should get Blink dagger between 14-18 minutes. At this point, you can do much more with Tinker. Now you should be pressuring all lanes that aren’t, or can’t be farmed by your teammates. This is because you, as Tinker, are much harder to catch. There are some heroes you need to watch out for though, see the next section for this.
You should shift-queue a blink into trees followed by a March into creeps, a Soul Ring, a Rearm and repeat. Blink into a different place after Rearming, because heroes that have a vendetta against you can sometimes work out where you are based on the angle of the March. After placing March twice, if you have the mana-pool for it, you an blink along the treeline in the lane and cut the creeps from the trees by placing more Marches. You can often guess when the creeps will arrive by looking at the corresponding lane on you side. The more you play Tinker, the more you’ll get used to timing it. This is a great way to farm without being caught, because it’s a harder movement to predict, provided you stay hidden the whole time.
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At this point you should make a judgement call on which items you want to get next.
Aether Lens is a great item for Tinker as it compliments his skill-set very well. The increased cast-range helps being able to cast March from an ever safer distance. The same can be said for all of his other spells and active items. The extra mana helps a lot with casting all of your spells as well. Overall, it’s a good item for Tinker and works well with Aghanim’s Scepter because of the increased cast range it gives your Laser and Rockets.
Aghanim’s Scepter is a great item for Tinker because it makes his Laser bounce to nearby enemy heroes and gives another 2 Missiles. It’s an excellent choice against pushing line-ups as it prevents them from damaging buildings, or teams with several physical damage dealers. Aghanim’s is usually a safe purchase, although sometimes there may be other items you need to prioritize before it if you don’t need the AoE blind so desperately. Aghanim’s Scepter also gives you some good stats to tank you up a bit, giving you almost 400 HP and almost 300 mana which helps with Rearms. Having an Agh’s will also increase the significance of your level 25 talent, whichever one you choose as well and is core in almost every game.
Lots of Tinker players like to buy Dagon because of the Rearm ability and the fact that you can get a lot of kills with it. A casual Dagon 1 can be good if you need the extra burst and intend to get it to Dagon 5 later, after a few other items. However, Dagon may not always end up winning you the game. Going for a Dagon 5 can be good if your team lacks much damage or if your carry is very under-farmed, but often a Scythe of Vyse or Aghanim’s will help your team more, even in such cases.
It can be fun, but consider whether you really need it, or if you would benefit from something else more. You will likely need this late-game however, as Tinker’s damage begins to fall off when the opponents get some items. Dagon also instantly kills illusions, which is great against Terrorblade.
A Kaya is a great item on Tinker and relatively cheap. It provides great overall stats and has a large impact on preserving his mana pool because all of his spells have quite high mana costs, especially Rearm and Dagon. The mana-loss reduction makes it very strong against mana burn abilities and although it may not be core in every game, it can be very good if you are going for a max Dagon early build or if you are facing some mana-burn abilities. Generally, you should choose between getting a Kaya or an Aether Lens after your Blink Dagger. There are some exceptions to this, but these relatively cheap items provide you lots of nice stats that make you more effective in their own ways.
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This is almost always a great item. This allows for Tinker to ‘perma-hex’ his enemies and is incredibly powerful. It takes a lot of Mana to keep an opponent hexed for more than a couple of Rearms however. It also gives a lot of mana and good mana regeneration, which helps a lot in long fights. Necessary against heroes that are hard to lock down, such as Puck, QoP, Ember Spirit, Juggernaut etc. Also helps if you’re trying to escape from enemies, hex them and teleport away.
Ethereal Blade can be great when coupled with Dagon or Shiva’s Guard, or if you just need more damage or to be able to protect yourself/allies. Can be good against Ursa, Juggernaut, Drow Ranger etc. Just watch out for purges from Diffusal Blade. The agility doesn’t help much, it gives you a bit of armor and helps when you’re pushing a tower, but the attack speed is mostly negligible.
Bloodstone is a fun item on Tinker as it can be Rearmed, effectively allowing you to deny yourself every death. You may not always end up snowballing however, and as such may find it hard to build up some charges on it. Can be good if you or your team are getting many kills, are you don’t need to rush for a Scythe of Vyse or Linken’s Sphere.
These items can be very helpful in certain situations:
This can help you survive a lot, particularly against Kunkka’s X marks the Spot, silences, Slark’s Pounce, Invoker in general, and more. Also provides you with another disable. Often Eul’s is a necessary item, but weigh it against a Linken’s Sphere.
A Force Staff can be helpful against Riki’s smoke cloud, and is vital against Clockwerk in case he catches you in his Power Cogs. Coupled with Blink Dagger, you have a lot of mobility in fights and become much harder to catch. It can also be upgraded into a Hurricane Pike against heroes that get close to you, but this is rarely preferable over a Ghost Scepter, a Linken’s, a Eul’s or Scythe.
Shiva’s Guard is very helpful against physical damage dealers, especially Phantom Assassin’s Stifling Dagger as she can cast it from afar for significant damage. Allows for good control in team fights if your team lacks it, and can be used to kill creeps in lane and jungle much faster. Provides a lot of mana for Tinker as well.
Linken’s Sphere can be a great item against single-target spells and for many of the same reasons as Eul’s. Note that it cannot be Rearmed. Weigh this item against Eul’s and Lotus Orb, although Linken’s is often better than both of the alternatives as it protects you against some of the hardest Dota 2 heroes. Lotus can be more helpful if you are against multiple very strong single-target spells.
Ghost Scepter is a great item if you are behind and you’re dying to physical damage dealers like Slark or Juggernaut. It also helps against ganking heroes, as you can just Ghost Scepter and teleport away. You don’t necessarily have to upgrade it to an Ethereal Blade.
Manta Style can be good if you need to purge spells like Invoker’s Cold Snap or Slark’s Pounce. It can also be used to split push a lot better and it gives you some helpful stats. You can even be fancy and dodge spells like Sven’s Storm Hammer. Usually, there are better alternatives to Manta Style, however if you are 6 slotted, consider picking it up to split push better.
This could be considered if you are 6 slotted, otherwise it cannot be Rearmed and should be avoided. It will allow you to split push when not on cooldown.
Black King Bar may be necessary in some situations. It can sometimes be hard to identify which defensive item is best, but sometimes BKB is the answer. It cannot be Rearmed, however the Magic Immunity can still win fights. Move it into your backpack when it’s on cooldown to free up a slot.
Some Tinker players like to get a Veil. This can good in situations where you have a lot of magic damage on your team and no one else on your team is getting one. It does increase the damage of your spells and items, however, it’s often more worthwhile to get a bigger and better item. That said, it’s a fairly cheap item, and when coupled with Aghanim’s Scepter can dish out significantly more damage.
Atos is effectively a worse Sythe of Vyse. A Rod of Atos can be purchased if you are behind and need lockdown against Blink Heroes. It’s cheap to build and provides some decent stats to allow you to catch up.
Glimmer Cape can help you to survive in some situations. Consider this item if you are far behind and can get killed by most of the opponents. Note that a Smoke of Deceit can be used to help you farm a lane safely, although this is generally not a great idea and should be avoided if possible. If you are very far behind it might be able to help you get some farm however.
An Aeon Disk is a very situational pickup, but there are some situations where it can be a decent item on Tinker. If you are facing heroes who have few, but very strong disables which would result in your death if you got caught, then it will give you a 2.5 second window where you take no damage, and the strong dispel means that you can usually Rearm and Blink away. You will likely need to do this more than once, but at level 3 Rearm only has a 0.75 second channel time and will often give you a large enough window to escape.
However, there are usually better items you can get for the same price which are more practical. You could, for instance, buy a BKB, a Eul’s or a Ghost Scepter and sometimes more than one. Usually it’s only worth it if none of these items could help you survive, although the 2.5 s invulnerability and strong dispel could.
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Tinker can be less effective if there are certain heroes on the enemy, or even your own, team. Watch out for the following before picking Tinker:
Clock is a very strong counter to Tinker. He can scour the treeline with his Rocket Flare, Hookshot in from a distance, and trap you with Power Cogs. His Battery Assault will also prevent you from Rearming, so make sure you buy a Force Staff to avoid him. A Eul’s can also help to sweep him up so he can’t chase you afterwards. If he’s got backup however, you’re likely dead.
An NS with Aghanim’s scepter can scout you out in the treeline when you push. Avoid dangerous split-pushing and stick to the warded jungle if you can. Warding lanes can also help.
Keep yourself hidden from the map as much as you can so that he cannot charge you while you are farming the jungle or lanes. A Eul’s can interrupt his charge and a Ghost Scepter can help you to safely blink away from him. A Linken’s Sphere will cancel his charge as well.
Timber can cut down the trees near his towers, so be careful if you’re planning on cutting waves, or if you’re farming unsafely.
Sniper doesn’t cause you much problems in Dota 2 esports, although he can scout large areas with his Shrapnel.
VS can also scout you in the trees with her Wave of Terror and cause you a lot of problems with her Nether Swap in fights.
Ember can mess with you a lot. He can scout you in the trees with his Sleight of Fist, catch you in the trees with his Fire Remnants. His Searing Chains interrupt Rearm and Flame Guard negates lots of the Magic Damage if you lane against him on mid-lane as well.
Monkey King can also scout you in the treeline by jumping on the trees and also stun you when you’re Rearming or teleporting away. Be careful where you farm against MK.
These heroes can gank you while you farm the jungle or in the trees. Incidentally, these heroes are individual counters to Tinker as well, Nyx can walk into your March with Spiked Carapace, Mana Burn you for lots of damage and lock you down. Slark can Pounce you and purge the blinding effect from your Laser and Riki can catch you with his Smoke Screen. Avoid picking Tinker into these heroes.
Spectre can be a pain by finding you in the trees with her Haunt and latching onto you with Diffusal Blade. Be careful when it’s not on cooldown.
Puck can catch you with her ultimate, scout you in the trees with her Illusory Orb and silence you. She can also Phase Shift during your Laser animation to make you recast it.
Storm can guess where you are in the trees and Ball Lightning in from a distance. Usually, he will be able to silence you and proceed to kill you. Try to shut him down in the laning phase, and get ahead.
Invoker can use Tornado on where he think you are hiding in the trees and also use Sun Strike for vision. Cold Snap is also an issue for you. A Eul’s can purge Cold Snap and can be used to avoid taking damage from a combo.
These offlaners can scout you with Firefly and Call of the Wild: Hawk, respectively. They both also have strong ultimate disables against you, so be very careful against these two. Linken’s Sphere or Lotus Orb can help you. You can also teleport to Beastmaster’s summons to gank enemies.
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