New to Clockwerk--Everything I do kills me.

Not all the time, but mostly.

Is this hero just not new-guy friendly? With the exception of flare, when I try to get the most out of my abilities everything seems to backfire horribly.

Cogs to escape? Snags the pursuer, dead. (Yes I use Force Right Click, but it doesn't help much.

Cogs to trap? Yeah, I can trap most of the time. Too bad I'm either nuked to hell by enemies on the outside, or the hero in question kills me in my own cogs.

And oh boy...the Hookshot. Man I LOVE (hate) the Hookshot.

I don't know how to aim this thing. Is it a spell? Because when I click directly on an enemy, it usually misses completely. And if there is even one creep around, I don't bother with the bloody thing at all.

Not to mention that in terms of damage and stun and just getting it to hit, it takes you waaaay out of position. Usually to my death, even if I get one kill.

So is Clockwerk just genuinely a harder hero to play, or is there any tips that can help me from being renamed Scrapmetal?

Thats the nature of clockwerk as a hero. Cogs are more for trapping the opponent so they cant escape. As for missing your hookshot, its a skill shot like pudges hook. U have to guess where ur opponent will be in when the hook reaches them. Chances are, click on them wont get you a hit. Hes more of a teamfight initiator. Hookshot an enemy and if you hit, put up cogs. Then battery assault them and your team should come in to take care of the rest. Dont worry about dying during this, its not your fault but just the way hes played as you should build him tanky to be able to survive the initial assault. Hope I helped.

If you don't have teammates who are ready to jump in when you are, it's probably better to be more passive and wait to counter-initiate.

If you do have a Blink/-dagger heavy team, then they would likely look to you to start a fight. I encourage you to build an Aghanim's Sceptre, the 12sec CD will let you use it multiple times in one fight.

He's not a terribly noob-friendly hero - your global missile range means you need good map awareness, and his skills can go wrong quite easily.

The secret with Hookshot is:

- You need a clear path between you and your target (you hit the first thing in your path)

- Aim past your target rather than right on them, this gives you more chance of hitting if they move a bit

- Aim where you think they'll be rather than exactly where they are

with your Ulti u have the moment of suprise, as the other told alrdy how to use it I can complete to make use of n blademail.

Initiating with him like - Start battery & Ulti in, **** 1 or better more, use blademail use your rocket and try to beat the **** out of as much as possible of them, if u did - u made your job fine at the moment

If you wanna learn how to use your hookshot, simply create lobby with cheats, fill with bots, and when game starts type -lvlup 25, -gold 99999, buy aghanim and some mana regen items like Bloodstone and practice your hooking. With it's high speed and 3000 range you can hook to top line almost from mid.

I'm always building him very tanky, just to enter fight and take all dmg on me while my team destroys them all. With Blade Mail it's also very easy to win 1v2/3 fights when you have enough hp.

My standard build is:
Tango, Stout Shield, Healing Salve and 3x Iron Branch > Magic Wand, Boots of Speed, Bracer > Power Treads, Vanguard, Blade Mail > Aghanim's Scepter and Heart of Tarrasque as mid-late game items.

http://dotabuff.com/matches/139935742 - Here you can see as I also bought second Tarrasque and Boots of Travel for more fun (5k hp overall).