Tinker's Skill Progression

So I've read a few guides and played plenty of games as Tinker, and what I love about him is that he has several possible ways to level up his skills depending on the match. But what I'm curious about, I guess, is the standard progression for him.

Usually when I play him I level my nukes up first ( Laser and Heat Seeking Missile) for ganking and making the other mid's life a living hell. I used to take a point in March of the Machines, but now that I can't farm ancients with it, I usually don't bother with it until I have my Boots of Travel and start pushing. Typically I try to have both nukes maxed with a point in March and Rearm by the time I get my BoTs. Is this a decent way to level him up, or am I not properly taking advantage of his skills?

If you max your nukes first, you have the potential of losing middle lane to certain matchups, with March of the Machines maxed, you can win the lane 99% . And you can still farm the jungle with it.

What are some key matchups where you would want March first then? I would assume just about any melee like Dragon Knight or Brewmaster so they have to tank the damage to get last hits. Do you max it completely or just take a point or two for laning and max the rest later?

The best build used to be to level march no doubt.

Because of the changes to ancients i would get points in laser + rocket untill travels, as soon as you have them you should have at least 3 points in march.
But personally i think tinker safelane is really good, it makes sure you get farm since you cant rely on ancients anymore. You can always get potential jungle stacks with multiple march levels. Right now its the best way to play him IMO.

ive been trying Tinker as a mid game fighter. since he has the potential to deal a crazy amount of damage really quickly.

i go q-e-w-q-w-q-e-r-w-q then max rockets then march.

i go mid and use march when the lane is pushed up to their tier 1 at 1:40 3:40 so forth around every two minutes. you can do it every minute if you want but the lane wont be pushed out as far.

then i head to the creep camp near middle and stack that. up until 4 stacks.

meanwhile i ask our safe lane supports to stack creep camps hard and medium at least 3 times.

if i dont die and get at least 6-8 ls a minute and take those camps at around the 9 minute mark thats my boots and soul ring and bottle by 9 mins.

buy tp's early game and keep mana for a tp rocket because most tinkers dont buy tp and theymiss out on kills they would have got.

then i rush dagon to lvl 3 then blink then build e blade.

then you want to get a Scythe of Vyse. then BKB.

when lanes are pushed up spend that time stacking camps since you can clear two camps at once with a well placed MotM.

in fights you want to focus supports first but laser the hard carry.

always try and gets to fights first to lay down 2 marches.

glhf

Believe it or not, Shadow Fiend is one of them. Allowing him to get souls might just lose you the lane. He's going to have stacks in the jungle anyway, so he is going to be very far ahead. Not that he won't be able to farm with Shadowraze mid.

neevermore has such low HP that I feel using Laser and heat seeking missiles is best. You can throw him out of lane quite easily and laser can be used to also prevent last hitting by right clicking, forcing him to throw out some mana and cd's against creeps that could have been used to harass you.

Or he could do both at the same time. The beauty of Shadowraze. And what if he doesn't die if you combo him? He's just going to hit back after bottling up, a lot harder than you will.

If you do not max March of the Machines, you won't get Boots of Travel in time. Maxing Laser and Heat Seeking Missile will just make you a Pudge with high burst damage that has no hook. If the enemy has good wards, you won't get any ganks off.

This. Max March of the Machine is your "default" build, nukes first is the situational one: that is because people usually play Tinker as a dedicated ganker, but in high level games you always see supports stacking jungle and ancients so he can get fast Boots of Travel. I always go March first, sometimes going 2-2-0 by level 4 so I can still gank if needed, but in any case I focus on farming (and not roaming/ganking like a Pudge or Puck) until I can get my BoT. That's why I also run him in the safe lane, which is even better because ganking the safe lane is much more difficult than ganking the middle lane.

The risk of going 4-4-0 is being unable to split push or farm after getting your Boots of Travel: it takes about 12 minutes if supports aren't helping you, and by that time I'm usually level ~9-10. On the contrary, if you go March first you can split push and get quick levels and gold, so that level 4 Heat-Seeking Missile comes online in a reasonable amount of time.

I'd say going 4-4-0 is fine versus low-HP mids and when facing a low mobility team, so you can gank other lanes with ease. If you have no points in March of the Machines and end up without kills either, you're going to need a lot of time before becoming relevant in the mid game.