Ok, I'll be the first to say it...TECHIES SUCK

I played Techies in a bot match the other day (before my mouse broke :<) and I can honestly say they are by far not my kind of hero. 270 movespeed??? I didn't know it could go any lower that 280. 30 base damage, so they suck at harassing and denying. Basically your only hope is that someone walks into those mine stacks you placed, because if they see no use or get triggered by a random creep walking past it sets you back quite a lot since you run out of mana very quickly. Suicide is a good skill when you are about to die, but it has what... a 3 min cooldown? There's a high chance you'll just get stunned, slowed and nuked down immediately upon arriving in lane, since they have no escape, are incredibly slow and have no instant nuke/damage. I don't play techies but from the bot game I played they are definitely not my hero of choice.

Gem is almost guaranteed win vs techies, his strength is his ult. Also his early game is **** (levels 1-7 ish) so hank the **** out of him.

Like bukansee I've played a couple games against bots. My conclusion;
Techies can only help by; Pushing, Not letting the other team near rosh and getting kills/denys with suicide squad. He can only add to teamfights IF they plan ahead. So basically if the other team is stupid enough to run straight down a lane with creeps next to them.

basically all they can do is block pulls, block access to areas and annoy the mid hero from not getting runes... if they are melee.

Techies is actually not that threatening. xD
Even without a gem you should know where he puts his mines.
As a DotA 1 player, I would say that Techies is a very lame hero, since you always know that all of his stuff (except for the stasis traps) would be at the sides where creeps won't get to it, at the side shops, at the rune spots and near towers. Put a sentry in those places and you'll get to ruin his game. Also the jungle isn't his number one priority and it's funny how you can just counter him with the creeps you have or even dominate (if you have helm).

To put it in a simpler manner in which kids would understand, Techies would be the nerd trying to be a bully and fails miserably.

Also, you can counterpick him with a support Abaddon, since the BS Techies does would be the BS his team would take xD

Techies is a pretty weak hero because there are so many counters to him

Illusions+Summons: Even without a necrobook often you can guess where the mines are and send your decoys there. Furion and Naga Siren are amazing minesweepers because of the amount of units they can summon. (Quick question, does flying movement (BM hawk/Batrider firefly) trigger the mines?)

True sight: beaten to death in this thread, because it works.

Damage block: Refraction+Aphotic shield make it incredibly easy to wander the map without worry of being imploded.

Being a ****ing tank: A beefed up Dragon Knight or similar will take <100 from the mines and only slightly more from the suicide. Late game, techies has a hard time dealing with tanks without the remote mines

Silences: To Skywrath and all Orchid carriers, Techies will never be able to suicide before dying.

For the lulz: If techies mids, mid a Bane and spam enfeeble. At level one, it reduces techies attack to <5, forcing them to mine to last hit and waste the reason why they were picked.

Flying movement never triggers the mines!! :-D

It's awesome to be a Fireflying Batrider :3

I was looking forward to seeing Techies because I stopped playing D1 before they were released and it wasn't long before I was calling them "The most useless and selfish Hero in DotA 2". After their release, they were either insta-picked on my team or the opposing team. On my team: we lost. On the other team: we won. After the 2nd loss with them on my team, I took a week off DotA to wait for the hype to hopefully die down. In my 2 games after the break they were insta-picks for my team! wtf?! The funny thing is we won both games. The Techies on my team actually played really well and contributed in lane with pushes and roamed/ mined the enemy jungle for sneaky kills. They have their Pros and Cons (as already mentioned) but I think a lot depends on the player using them, not just the Hero's abilities. The Techie players on my team when we won either really knew what they were doing or the other team didn't know how to cope. Honestly, I don't think that they are that good a Hero and I hope that a new one is released soon...Pit Lord maybe???

Techies is a great hero. I'm from beta dota 1 been playing since 15 or 16 I'm 24. You have to know how to lane with him then what items to get him I'm 7-1 with him and other players say I am mvp. You have a ultimate the you can drop in middle of battle when upgraded by scepter that does 750. I call it drop boom. Talk all the things you want about techies but he is op. Nero does not stop drop boom.

When he was picked I chose KotL so that I could be the hard support for our team. I think that KotL helps Techies as he can constantly 'giff mana' so that the Techies can drop more mines from the start of the game. Probably not the best lane duo though tbh but it worked!

Why all the hate on Techies? They just have to booby trap commonly-traversed terrain and their job is done. Supports waste gold buying sentry wards and the Gem of True Sight can be lost if your team actually ganks the carrier. Plus, you can continually suicide into the enemy carry to make sure he has no farm. However, the main role of techies in my opinion is to make your opponents paranoid and think twice before going somewhere without detection, even if you have no mines there.

People simply dismiss the techies as bad because of their weaknesses. One of the weakness of the techies is that, if ambushed without any mines, they have to either suicide or run. But then again, the vision provided by remote mines and the explosions caused by their destruction would signal a nearby enemy and indicate, to a decent player, that it would be time to run before danger befalls the techies.

The other weakness that everyone has been complaining about is that techies is not good in direct fights, that you need to spend a long time planning to be good at all, but I disagree. Even in a teamfight, you can simply lob remote mine into your enemies and instantly detonate for huge damage, especially with Aghanim's Scepter, every few seconds. You can even leave a trail of bombs behind your teammates so that if they decide to run, their retreat will be assured by your land mines and Stasis Traps and this could even result in a turnaround. If they see the mines, they would either be deterred or spend some time hitting the mines, all of which would buy some valuable time to escape. If all else fails, you can still suicide and kill their carry.

The techies' strengths are great as well, but people do not see past their weaknesses to realise their merits. For one, the techies are great at defending. Plant 2 remote mines near a friendly tower and blow up enemy creeps when they arrive. You could even stack the mines and kill any pusher greedy enough to approach the tower. The techies also have an uncanny inclination towards area denial. Picture a Sniper, busy doing his sniperino things with 800 health. Juicy, isn't it? Now, would it look even more scrumptious if you know there are techies on his team planting bombs right next to him? Nope, it would be far from delectable. And with that, some people will say "Oh, but BKB best item blablabla..." Well, if this happened to the sniperino when you were a support like Lion, could you do much against a BKB? At least as techies you can suicide to get out of that mess.



All in all, the techies love playing mind (and mine) games on his enemies and making them waste money. Coordination is also needed from your team to lure enemies into mines. Everybody simply chooses to say how useless techies is without considering the trouble he is causing to the enemy team and their effectiveness at holding important positions for the team with their mines. Besides, in a team with good mobility and carry potential, he can further deny enemies their mobility, turtle up for the carry to farm and hold the team's position when pushing, so please don't say he's useless. I've heard that it took months for people to realise Clockwerk's true potential when he was first released, and even longer for Tinker. Don't give up on techies yet :).



EDIT:
Woah... writing such a huge block of text to defend something everyone hates isn't easy :P.