Strategy
Gameplay
| Playstyle | |
|---|---|
| Tinker is a very mobile nuking hero with powerful pushing and disabling potential depending on how he is built. He should be played around his ultimate, as it allows him to cast his spells and use his abilities multiple times in a single engagement. | |
| Pros | Cons |
|
|
Ability Builds
| Mid Tinker | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 20 | 25 | |||||
 |  | | | |  | | | |  |  | | | | | |  | | | | |||||
Talents
| Hero Talents | ||
|---|---|---|
| +0.2s Heat-Seeking Missile Ministun | 25 | +80 Laser Damage |
| -0.5s Keen Conveyance Channel Time | 20 | Defense Matrix Grants 25% Cooldown Reduction |
| +1 Heat-Seeking Missile Count | 15 | +125 Defense Matrix Damage Absorbed |
| +8% Manacost/Manaloss Reduction | 10 | +50 Laser Radius |
Notes:
- Stacks diminishingly with other mana cost/manaloss reduction sources.
Tips & Tactics
General
- When pushing out lanes, care must be taken to avoid being jumped on by the enemy. Tinker is a very frail hero who, despite his mobility, can be easily killed if caught and disabled.
- As well, while Tinker can find farm quite easily by pushing out multiple lanes, doing so can deprive your own teammates of farm, particularly your carries. Combined with the above, this can lead to dangerous situations where your team is unable to do anything without you, and can lead to a loss in the long run as the enemy is able to kill your under-farmed teammates easily if they manage to kill you once. As such, it is recommended not to push out lanes too aggressively or take farm away from your carries if possible.
- In general, Tinker is best played in the mid lane, as his skill set allows him to take on most other mids reliably and the farm and early levels allow him to become active much more quickly. He can nuke down and harass the opposing mid and push his lane at will with his abilities, allowing for good rune control.
- Tinker can ferry allies' items from fountain much quicker than courier can by using his backpack, Rearm, and Keen Conveyance.
- Tinker's mobility items like Blink Dagger help him collect runes, so pay attention to Bounty Runes or any runes that spawn in the river.
- As Tinker can jump immediately to the front lines with Blink Dagger and Keen Conveyance, he is uniquely qualified for placing aggressive Wards that his team can capitalize on. Forward wards can give him advance warning on incoming ganks as well as provide vision for hitting targets with Heat-Seeking Missile.
- Consider using Glyph of Fortification to prevent lane creeps from dying, so Tinker can finish channeling Keen Conveyance.
- All of Tinker's basic abilities have extremely long cast backswings which you must cancel in order to play Tinker efficiently.
Abilities
Laser
- Laser is a strong pure damage nuke that inflicts blind on its target. It is a powerful harassing tool against the enemy mid as the blind allows Tinker to last-hit a creep that the enemy is attempting to deny, or vice versa.
- Never underestimate Laser's ability to change the course of an engagement. Using it against an enemy hero prevents them from trading hits due to the miss, and used against the proper target in a teamfight it can force them to retreat or activate a Black King Bar at an inopportune time to remove the blind.
- Laser can also be used as a supplementary nuke when pushing a lane. The blindness lasts for 6 seconds on creeps, so it can be used on a siege creep to remove its attack output.
- It can be a nice last hit ability while in the lane, especially against siege creeps due to the pure damage.
- It can be used to farm Neutral Creeps extremely easily and quickly, especially when combined with Rearm. Ask a support to make stacks for you.
- It has an extremely short cast range without Aghanim's Scepter or Aether Lens, and an extremely long cast point. Be sure to position yourself well to not die while casting Laser.
Heat-Seeking Missile
- Heat-Seeking Missile has an extremely long range. With Rearm, you can continuously spam missiles as to harass enemy heroes and wear them down in preparation of a fight.
- Due to its long range, Heat-Seeking Missile is also a good finishing spell for killing fleeing enemies who are low on health. If an enemy has escaped an engagement but is still within vision range, launching a missile can be all that is needed to finish them off.
- Remember that vision over the target is required in order for Heat-Seeking Missiles to acquire lock. This means that not only are Observer Wards important in spotting out targets, but that the spell also has great synergy with heroes with vision abilities such as Corrosive Haze, Thirst, and Track, which can reveal targets when ward vision is unavailable.
- When ganking a target with your burst damage spells and items, it is best to lead off with Heat-Seeking Missile. The travel time can be used to apply a powerful strike to a target by firing the missiles first, and then blinking within range to use your other nukes just as the missiles reach their target.
- Beware that the missiles are visible in the Fog of War, and the enemy might see you coming and have time to react and escape.
- They also give away the fact that you have vision in a certain area, making it easy to deward.
Defense Matrix
- Defense matrix creates a powerful shield around an ally which totally negates a significant amount of damage. Therefore, use it to make your allies or yourself Tankier. Additionally, the damage negation can allow you to use Blink Dagger.
- Defense Matrix gives status resistance while the shield is active, which can be useful if you know the enemy has powerful disables such as Hex, or Demonic Purge.
- Generally, you should level Defense Matrix last in favour of your nukes and ultimate.
- More tips needed.
Warp Flare
- Use it defensively in order to push enemies away from you.
- It does a small amount of damage which can be useful for cancelling Blink Daggers.
- It also reduces cast range and attack range which can make it easier for you to escape by reducing the range which enemies can disable or nuke you down or attack you.
- Generally, you should avoid using it if you aren't in danger, because it can push enemies away from you and your team, potentially saving them.
- Use this to push enemies into your allies.
- Note that it might backfire if the enemy has powerful initiation or counter initiation abilites, such as Ravage.
- More tips needed.
Keen Conveyance
- A free Town Portal Scroll at level 1, Boots of Travel at level 2, and Boots of Travel 2 at level 3.
Rearm
- Rearm is Tinker's signature ability, allowing him to cast spells and use item abilities profligately as long as he has the mana to do so. Combined with Boots of Travel, it allows Tinker to become one of the most active heroes in the game, globally repositioning himself to push lanes, gank enemies and take map objectives.
- Beware that Rearm getting cancelled in any way will put it on an extremely long cooldown, leaving you vulnerable for a while. Try not to take too many risks and avoid accidentally cancelling your own Rearm.
- You can stack commands by holding Shift (also called Shift-queuing) to prevent unintentional Rearm interruptions.
- One of the most important factors in playing Tinker well is efficiently managing his mana pool. As Rearm removes cooldown limitations on his spells and most item abilities, you must carefully decide which spells to cast in a teamfight or when pushing, as well as how to most efficiently cast these spells depending on the situation. Using an unnecessary spell reduces Tinker's ability to cast additional spells in the same engagement, forcing an earlier return back to base and reducing his efficiency.
- Always keep enough mana handy to escape and teleport back to base, as Tinker is a very squishy and vulnerable hero when caught out in the open.
- Bottle heals with flat bonuses and gets refilled at your fountain. Therefore, move items to your stash or backpack in order to reduce the size of your mana pool, increasing the effectiveness of the flat regeneration and allowing you to get back into action faster.
Items
Starting items:
- Tango sustains Tinker's health in lane.
- Healing Salve also restores health to Tinker.
- Clarity replenishes Tinker's mana so that he can always have enough nuke power to attempt a kill.
- Mantle of Intelligence gives Tinker more base damage as well as a bigger starting mana pool. It is useful for helping with Tinker's last-hitting and casting in-lane.
- Iron Branches are cheap and give attributes to help with the early game. Branches can be consumed with Tango for increased healing.
Early game:
- Null Talisman provides Tinker with more damage, which helps with last-hitting. As such, it is advised to start with a Null Talisman when playing mid, as the extra damage can make a huge difference against certain lane opponents.
- Bottle is essential for a mid Tinker, as it provides HP and mana regen critical for allowing him to stay in-lane to farm. Bottle remains vital on Tinker throughout the game, as it extends his mana pool when teleporting forward to cast spells and speeds up healing in fountain, so consider dropping it in the Stash instead of selling it later.
Mid game:
- Soul Ring greatly extends Tinker's mana pool when teleporting around the map to cast spells, as he can dip into his HP pool to extend his active operation time. As he can reset its cooldown at will with Rearm, using Soul Ring once per cycle can give him vastly more mana to use. As well, he can offset the HP cost via the use of Bottle, keeping him at full HP even with regular use.
- Blink Dagger drastically improves Tinker's mobility, and gives him great survivability when pushing lanes. As it can be shift-queued after teleporting to the front lines, Tinker can instantly blink into the treeline to safely cast his spells without giving the enemy an opportunity to spot him.
- Kaya grants intelligence and mana regan amplification so Tinker can use more abilities outside of base. The increased spell damage also helps with pushing waves and bursting heroes.
- Aether Lens increases mana pool and cast range so Tinker can use Laser from a safe distance.
Late game:
- Aghanim's Scepter gives Tinker a vast amount of teamfight contribution, as he can use Laser to blind and deal pure damage to multiple enemy heroes per cast, forcing them to dispel the debuff if they want to deal any physical damage, and bombarding them with long-range artillery using Heat-Seeking Missile.
- Overwhelming Blink directly upgrades from Blink Dagger, and adds to Tinker's nuking prowess. Additionally, the +25 strength is greatly appreciated on an extremely squishy and burstable hero.
- Dagon is a very powerful burst damage nuke on Tinker that additionally increases the size of his mana pool as it is upgraded. Combined with Laser and Heat-Seeking Missile, it can instantly blow up lone targets, especially once combined with Rearm to increase the damage output by multiples.
- Scythe of Vyse greatly improves the size of Tinker's mana pool, and gives him powerful mana regen, increasing the number of spells he can cast on deployments before returning to base. The Hex is extremely powerful as combined with Rearm it allows Tinker to permanently hard-disable an enemy for as long as he has the mana to do so.
- Shiva's Guard gives Tinker much needed intelligence to continue use of Rearm, and gives him a magic nuke to assist in pushing. The extra armor and passive attack speed slow also give him resistance against physical damage if he shows up to teamfights, and the active nuke can be refreshed and cast multiple times.
Situational items:
- Eul's Scepter of Divinity is a good cheap mana item that gives Tinker good mana regeneration and a useful disable. Used properly, the Cyclone can be used to set up disables on enemies offensively, or buy Tinker time if he's caught while pushing a creep wave.
- Glimmer Cape can be a strong survivability item, both for Tinker and his team. As he can constantly have the effect up with Rearm, Tinker becomes much harder to catch since the enemy must bring detection, and their magic nukes become far less potent for focusing him down. In fights, Tinker can use the active on multiple allies simultaneously, allowing him to either save them en masse or give them increased initiation ability.
- Black King Bar prevents Tinker from being locked down in teamfights, particularly since Rearm is a channeled spell that can be interrupted. While it cannot be refreshed by Rearm, it can give Tinker the survivability he needs to cast his spells uninterrupted in a fight.
- Lotus Orb is an extremely strong defensive item, both for pushing and for teamfighting. Echo Shell can prevent enemies from easily disabling Tinker, as using targeted disables or nukes reflects them back, disabling or nuking the enemy in turn and forcing them to reconsider the engagement. As well, since Echo Shell can be refreshed with Rearm, it can be placed on multiple allies at once, giving your team a strong edge in fights.
- Ghost Scepter builds into Ethereal Blade and makes him invulnerable to physical damage. It can be refreshed to keep him safe from attacks.
- Ethereal Blade gives Tinker very beneficial stats. Additionally, it is useful for augmenting Tinker's already impressive burst magic damage against enemies, especially if he has built numerous intelligence items, and can be used on himself or teammates to grant immunity against physical damage. In a pinch, it can also be used on one of the enemy's carries to prevent them from attacking if Laser was already used on another target.
- Aeon Disk can be considered if you find you are being consistently bursted down by powerful nukes and disables such as Black Hole.
