Techies

Squee, Spleen, and Spoon, the Techies, are a trio of ranged Intelligence heroes, known for laying deadly traps around the field with a wide array of mines.

Having little direct combat ability, the Techies have an unorthodox, if effective, method of dealing damage to the enemy team in the form of powerful laid explosive mines and stasis traps that enable other heroes to set up a gank or retreat. Their mines, set across key points of the map -and even less conventional locations- are an effective method of denying area and guaranteeing damage if enemies dare to initiate.

They have an even more bizarre ability in the form of their Suicide Squad, Attack! which causes them to violently explode and die but deal massive damage (at early - mid game) in a moderate area of effect.

The unique mechanics of the mines mean that the Techies utilise mechanics not used by any other hero, including preemptive mine concaves and such strong area denial that they actively play a large role in securing the area controlled by friendly heroes.

The Techies have statistics aligned to those of semi-carries, but play a largely passive, defensive role throughout the game. Since their Remote Mines have a large sight range and last longer, they can act as substitute Observer Wards, allowing the rest of the team to save gold.

Recommended items
Starting Items:
 * gives Techies health recovery in-lane, mitigating harassment damage. In general, a Healing Salve is not necessary since the hero can use in case the enemy tries to jump on them for a kill.
 * Multiple stacks of provide Techies with the mana needed for early-game  stacks.
 * is a necessary purchase for all teams at the start of a match.
 * is useful to plant mines faster in a lane or rune spot.

Early game:
 * are very strong on Techies due to their low cost, passive health regen, increased armor and increased movement speed. Techies are the slowest hero in the game, so increasing their base movement speed allows you to be more mobile when planting traps.
 * is your most important early-game purchase, as it allows Techies to continue planting mines over extended periods of time. The health cost is countered by Tranquil Boots' passive health regen.
 * is extremely important on Techies, as the hero has to be globally mobile in order to plant traps in unexpected areas. The heroes' strong defensive potential allows them to instantly fortify a tower's defenses, discouraging the enemy from pushing.
 * gives you mana, damage, and health, as well as you can use it with Soul Ring to gain more mana.

Core:
 * provides Techies with a bigger mana pool, scaling mana regen and more base movement speed, allowing the hero to be more mobile and plant mines more frequently. As well, the active ability can be used to disable an enemy (either to place a mine at their feet to deal nuke damage when they land, or deploy a to stun them for a longer duration), or to provide temporary invulnerability and a self-dispel if the enemy jumps on them.
 * drastically increases Techies' effectiveness across the board. become a much bigger threat due to their increased damage, and Techies can place them from farther away, allowing them to be used tactically in teamfights and allowing Techies to place traps more safely. Additionally,  becomes a usable ability, allowing Techies to use the sign to place guaranteed undetectable traps or to trick the enemy into avoiding an area that does not have mines.

Situational:
 * gives Techies a great amount of health and mana, as well as tremendous regen, allowing them to place mines more frequently. The respawn timer reduction further cuts down any respawns with Suicide Squad, and Pocket Deny can be used to deny yourself if you are caught while Suicide Squad is on cooldown.
 * is a great survival item, as it allows Techies to become temporarily invulnerable to physical damage when focused by the enemy. This can buy them more time to use Suicide Squad, or to attempt to lead the enemy into mine traps.
 * gives Techies much needed Intelligence as well as armor. The aura and active can be used in teamfights to hinder the enemy, reducing their ability to spread out from your area-of-effect nukes.
 * is a very powerful intelligence item, providing a lot of mana and a very strong disable that is useful in any situation. It allows Techies to provide additional lockdown in teamfights.
 * gives Techies more mana and mobility, and can also be used to quickly displace yourself either to escape or to get within range to cast Suicide Squad, or to push enemies into your mine traps (especially Gem carriers).
 * gives Techies additional pushing ability, provides more health and mana, and the True Sight from the level 3 Warrior can spot enemy Sentry Wards, allowing you to place traps with confidence.
 * reduces the cooldown on all of Techies' abilities, allowing them to place traps more frequently. With Octarine Core, Techies can place up to 66 on the field, compared to the default 52. Techies can not lifesteal on his mines, as his mines are their own damage source.
 * s are a useful regular purchase on Techies, not only for de-warding enemy Observer Wards but also for destroying their Sentry Wards. Eliminating their Sentries from play can allow you to place traps in areas that they once considered safe, and forces the supports to buy more Sentry Wards, slowing their item progression considerably.
 * One or two s can be a useful purchase in the early game, as it increases Techies' attack damage and mana pool, allowing more placement of mines in the laning stage and utilization of physical attacks to harass the enemy carry. Combined with Soul Ring, they can be dropped to get more mana out of its active.
 * can be useful to purchase on a roaming Techies, as they often pass by runes on their way to set up traps. This allows them to replenish their mana and set traps over extended periods of time.
 * are a very strong purchase on Techies, as it gives them additional mana replenishment on top of Soul Ring. Like Null Talisman, it can be dropped prior to using Soul Ring's active in order to restore more mana.
 * is a strong utility item, as it allows Techies to cloak themselves when traversing areas with possible ward coverage. As well, it can be used to help teammates initiate or can drastically increase an ally's magic resistance for a short period of time.
 * is a situational item, but can drastically improve Techies' mobility. It can be used to jump on top of enemies with Suicide Squad, place mines inside of tree lines to block neutral camps in the enemy jungle, quickly get within range to use Force Staff on an enemy who is destroying your mines, and so on.
 * is largely situational, but has strong utility if used properly. The item itself grants tremendous scaling mana regen, allowing Techies to passively regain mana while placing mines in enemy territory. The active can be used not only to reset the cooldown on Suicide Squad, but also on Minefield Sign, reducing its downtime from 180 seconds to 15.

Tips

 * Techies are the most unorthodox hero in the game, as their team contribution comes mainly from placing traps outside of combat rather than engaging enemies in fights. Playing Techies well requires good map awareness and game sense in order to know when and where to place traps.
 * Techies are also one of the few heroes able to truly mess with the enemy. Play mind games with them. Do not force yourself into any habits, while making sure you continually adapt to theirs.
 * Due to their skill set, Techies is best played as a roamer or off-laner in the laning stage. The high nuke damage provided by their traps allows them to get early kills with well-placed Land Mines. These traps can make life hard for the enemy supports if they try to zone you out as an off-laner or rotate for ganks, and can be used to get kills on the enemy mid if they attempt to get runes.
 * Planting mines very close to each other can increase the amount of focused damage they deal, and confuse the enemy by preventing them from easily seeing how many mines have been placed in a spot. Unlike Techies' other mines, the Land Mines are not phased, so they cannot be stacked perfectly on top of each other. However, their small collision size still allows them to be placed very close to each other.
 * In general, it is best to place your mines in areas where the Fog of War prevents them from being spotted until it is too late. Examples of this include at the top of stairs that transition from low to high ground, inside of trees and juke paths in the jungle, and inside of Roshan's pit.
 * Keep track of your enemy inventory to see if they have a . If you see one, alert your allies and try to retrieve it as soon as possible.
 * is a strong basic trap that triggers when an enemy walks near it, dealing Physical damage.
 * The general rule of thumb is that six Land Mines at level 1 are enough to get a kill in the early game. When laying traps in the laning stage, dropping six in one spot that you expect an enemy to traverse usually ends up netting a kill.
 * Beyond the laning stage, be sure to gauge how many mines to place depending on how much health and armor the enemy heroes have, as well as how many levels you have in the ability. In general, Land Mines should be maxed out first, as they are your bread-and-butter trap ability until you get beyond level 11 and purchase an Aghanim's Scepter.
 * One useful aspect of Land Mines is that they can damage siege creeps, as well as structures. When pushing, you can drop Land Mines at the base of enemy towers to deal tremendous amounts of damage; this can force the enemy to use their Glyph of Fortification, and you can further cause them to waste it by feinting and planting a Stasis Trap instead of a Land Mine, saving it until after the Glyph is finished.
 * Beware when facing enemy heroes who can create illusions or cheap summoned minions on demand, as they can use these units to scout ahead and trigger any Land Mine clusters you have placed.
 * Land Mines still trigger if an invisible enemy walks over them. This means that it is possible to kill invisible enemy heroes who walk over them, and even get multi-kills if a group of enemies under the cover of stumble over one of your clusters. It can be worthwhile to place your traps accordingly if you expect such situations to arise.
 * is an unorthodox trap that can stun multiple enemies for up to 4 seconds.
 * Stasis Traps are not very useful in the laning stage, but one early level can allow you to place traps more creatively. Placing them in juke spots or incoming gank paths can allow you to turn the tables on enemies when they least expect it.
 * Remember that a Stasis Trap going off also disables any other Stasis Traps within its radius. Be sure to separate your Stasis Traps accordingly so that you do not end up wasting them. As well, be sure to avoid placing them along creep paths in order to ensure that only heroes can set them off.
 * Stasis Traps affect Roshan. When killing Roshan for the Aegis, placing a Stasis Trap within the pit can stun him for a very long duration.
 * Always be sure to place Stasis Traps behind your team when pushing. This ensures that if the enemy attempts to chase or initiate, they are met with a 4 seconds stun. This allows you to turn chases around, as well as ensure that your team disengages safely.
 * is one of the most bizarre abilities in the game, allowing Techies to instantly commit suicide (denying themselves in the process) while dealing tremendous Physical damage in an area around them.
 * In general, this spell should be maxed out second after Land Mines, as it is most useful in the early game before enemies get enough armor to resist its damage. Getting within melee range of an enemy allows Techies to get a kill while halving their respawn time.
 * Using Suicide Squad offensively is what allows Techies to be a strong off-laner. If any of the enemy supports or their carry gets too low, then Techies can kill them and then respawn faster than them, returning to lane with a gold and experience advantage. However, make sure that your suicide nets a kill, as its cooldown is very long.
 * Suicide Squad can be utilized past the laning stage to get kills or deal strong nuke damage to the enemy, or to deny yourself in order to prevent the enemy from profiting from your death. Techies have little direct teamfight contribution otherwise, as time outside of teamfights should be spent placing traps.
 * Otherwise, you may abstain from maxing Suicide Squad, and only use the level 1 ability in terms of denial, just like you would with, or skip it entirely.
 * are Techies' most powerful nuking spell, allowing them to kill virtually any hero in the game given enough time to plant the required number of mines.
 * Unlike Land Mines, Remote Mines cannot be automatically triggered by enemy units walking within range. This allows Techies to place them in the middle of lanes and in high-traffic areas, activating them only when a kill is assured. Be creative with when and where you place your traps, as Remote Mines give you more control over when and where you can deal your damage.
 * Remote Mines provide vision in an 800 radius, so they can be used as pseudo-wards to give your team map vision.
 * While Land Mines eventually lose some of their potency due to them dealing physical damage and physical damage and enemy heroes getting more resistant to physical damage as they level due to their armor increasing, Remote Mines deal magical damage, which makes them deal overall more damage, since a hero's magic resistance does not increase naturally, only a few items and abilities can boost magic resistance. This, allows Remote Mines to remain useful throughout any match.
 * With standard 25% magic resistance, Remote Mines are able to deal 225/337.5/450/(562.5) damage. Remembering these values or aligning health bar markers with them allows you to guarantee kills with relative ease on most enemies.
 * , combined with Aghanim's Scepter, allows Techies to place mines that are not revealed by True Sight.
 * Remember that you must move exactly to the spot where you wish to place the sign, and that its effect radius is only 125. This means that you must effectively place your mines right on top of the sign in order to shield them from detection.
 * The long cooldown on the sign means that you must make the most of each placement, as placing the sign means that it is unavailable for placement again for another 6 minutes.
 * Minefield Sign can be used to play tricks on your opponents. When using it to defend your base, you can place it in a covering area but spend your time placing traps in other lanes. This way, enemies who know that you have Aghanim's Scepter get discouraged from attacking down a lane, when in fact there are no traps there.

Trivia

 * Before their release, Techies were showcased at the All-Star match of The International 2014, used by Artour "Arteezy" Babaev. He originally picked, but right before the picking phase ended, his pick got replaced by , fireworks were launched in the arena, Techies' portrait was shown on all screens and this Techies super explosion.mp3 sound effect played.
 * Techies' lines tech rival 11.mp3 "They're going to have to glue you back together! Yeah, in Hell!" and tech lose 06.mp3 "We're a sorry buncha losers. You said it" are references to similar lines lines spoken by the Demoman from Team Fortress 2 (as heard here and here).
 * The flavor text of "Kablooey!" is a direct reference to the line "Kabloeey!" spoken by the Demoman from Team Fortress 2.
 * Many of their lines also reference Counter-Strike, such as tech lose 03.mp3 "Counter-Techies Win", Tech remotemines 01.mp3 "Bomb has been planted" or tech failure 02.mp3 "Bomb has been defused. Darn!".
 * Techies' attack line tech attack 09.mp3 "See! Fore!" is a pun on the plastic explosive C4.
 * The line tech rare 05.mp3 "Who said we couldn't count to three, huh?" is a reference to a joke about the fact that Valve has not released a single game with the number three in the title (Half-Life 3, Left 4 Dead 3, Portal 3 etc.).
 * The line tech lasthit 02.mp3 "Continue testing." is a reference to GLaDOS, a character of Valve's Portal series.
 * The line tech items 15.mp3 "Claymore! But not that kind of claymore" is a reference to a Claymore mine used by the U.S. military.
 * The gag about Spoon being hidden in a barrel without the other two knowing is a reference to DotA, where only some time after Techies were released did people realize that there were actually three of them instead of two; the third one's feet could barely be seen under the barrel behind the other two (Techies used to be named "Squee and Spleen" and eventually became "Squee, Spleen and Spoon").
 * The name "Spoon" may be a reference to a scene from the movie Matrix where a boy bends a spoon with his mind and then says to Neo "Do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead, only try to realise the truth", followed by Neo asking: "What truth?" and the boy answering it with "There is no spoon. Then you'll see, that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself."
 * Squee and Spleen think that Spoon died to the explosion in their workshop, so they thought "there is no Spoon" anymore and the voice is only in their heads Tech rare 02.mp3.
 * The names of the original two Techies most likely came from Magic the Gathering. Squee is a legendary goblin from Magic the Gathering lore, while Spleen was probably named after the flavor text on the Goblin Soothsayer card ("I see a great victory and rivers of blood. And . . . hmm, looks like a spleen.")
 * There is a hidden trollface in the Remote Mines icon.
 * According to Techies' in-game lip synching, Squee is the one sitting on the cart with the rocket launcher and the cigar. He has the deep voice and Spleen is the big one pushing the cart, with the high voice.
 * Squee's design may be a reference to the soldier from Team Fortress 2, as his eyes are covered by a helmet, and he wields what appears to be a rocket launcher.
 * may be a reference to this scene from Monty Python's Life of Brian.
 * The line tech focuseddetonate 06.mp3 "Loud noises!" is a reference to Brick Tamland, a character from Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.

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