[Bloop] Divine/Immortal Tinker Guide (7.19d)

About Me

Name: Scott
Age: 27
Location: Florida

I first started playing MOBA's in 2010 and it started off with Heroes of Newerth (HoN, a DotA clone). I managed to climb the ranks rather quickly over the years playing both games and have peaked in the 6k~ MMR average bracket. I have experience playing w/ higher MMR players and some professional/semi-professional players (Tier 1/2) on both HoN and Dota 2. I hope these guides can help improve your knowledge and over-all game play and style on Dota 2!

My Twitch Link is: www.twitch.tv/BloopDotA
For those interested in watching / giving me a follow I stream on Twitch! where you can watch me play live and ask me any kinds of questions. I'm very interactive w/ my viewers/followers and give insight throughout the game on occasion. I also play w/ viewers occasionally and have a personal Discord to hang out and chat in. We do viewer in-house games over the weekends for fun, too!

Make sure to up-vote my guide, share it and like it if helped you and you enjoyed it!

This Guide Was Last Updated On: November 15th, 2018.

Skill Builds/Talent Trees & In-Depth Laning Phase Strategy

There's quite a few skill builds you can do on Tinker early on during the laning phase.
How you decipher what skill build you should be using varies on the lane match-up and how you're scaling throughout the lane against the enemy mid laner (and preference to the player on how they want to play the lane).

Here's my in-depth laning phase thought process/level up order in skills and how to efficiently farm for your early BoTs:

- At level 1, i'll point Laser always and use this spell against the enemy mid laner for harassment and most importantly to deny them from getting creep kills since Laser makes them have an 100% miss chance for 3 to 4.5 seconds (depending on what level it is of course). I'll occasionally use Laser to last hit creeps that I can't get to secure myself creeps early on or to help when creeps are underneath the tower. This ability is also PURE damage! (not Magical like Heat Seeking Missiles.

- At level 2, I'll hold my skill point

- At level 3, i'll point Laser up to level 2 and continue using Laser as I said above, to constantly harass, deny creeps (after harassing) and to last hit creeps that I can't get.

- At level 4, i'll be deciding on whether or not to level up Heat Seeking Missile to secure myself kills in lane or simply for more harassment against the enemy mid laner to zone him out of the lane and force him to use more regeneration or leave the lane. In MOST cases (80% of the time) i'll ignore pointing Heat Seeking Missile and start to max March of the Machines for more damage early on to push the waves out and farm the jungle to/from lane.

- At level 5, depending on what route you chose to take (more often I'll take the March of the Machines route so we'll go with this option) you should have pointed March of the Machines which should now be level 3.

- At level 6, i'll then point Rearm (which resets all of your abilities and the majority of all the items in the game's cooldowns which is what makes this hero so incredibly strong.

- At level 7, i'll point March of the Machines to max it out at level 4 and start to use this ability to push the creep waves out to fill bottle or to start rotating into the jungle to and from the lane to farm with it.

- Going back to levels 3/4/5/6 (this is very important), something i'll also be doing from the mid lane (If deciding on maxing March of the Machines which I favor in the majority of the games I play on Tinker with (more securing way to farm)) is stacking my jungle camps around the :40~ second markers every minute or two.

What I mean by this is simple, around the :40~ second mark in-game, i'll simply leave the lane after either getting the last hits/pushing the wave out and running into my jungle and stacking either the medium camp and/or the hard-camp. Now depending on what side your on makes it easier to stack multiple camps at once (you can also call on a support to do this for you instead so you don't have to sacrifice some farm in lane in order to do this) by stacking jungle camps will further increase your farm and get your Boots of Travel at an earlier time.

If you're on the Radiant side, you can stack the hard camp (the camp closest to your mid lane Tier 2 tower just beneath it) around :53/54 seconds by pulling it straight upwards, you can stack the medium camp just above it at :55 by also pulling it upwards. To know whether or not you successfully stacked the camps or not you should hear a sudden "chime" effect in-game after the minute mark ends and that'll tell you whether you stacked the camp or not.

If you're on the Dire side (my favorite side for Tinker) you can stack both the medium and hard camps at the same time by your shrine near the offlane. You want to leave the mid lane around :40~ seconds (like on the Radiant side) and start running to your shrine. You start off by standing to the left of the shrine by the medium camp auto attacking the creep around :53 seconds and start immediately running towards the hard camp to the right of the shrine and VERY IMPORTANT Lasering the hard camp neutral to pull him outside of the camp and start immediately running upwards towards your throne to successfully pull them both out of their camps and be stacked.

The rest of the skills for leveling up is pretty self explanatory.

At levels 8/9/10/11, you want to be leveling up your Heat Seeking Missile over your Laser simply because the rockets give more range than Laser, they hit multiple targets, you can use them to harass lanes easier when you Boots of Travel into lanes and to of course kill your enemy as well.

At level 12, you want to point Rearm making this ability now level 2 (going from a 3 second channeling delay down to 1.5)

At level 13, you want to point your +75 Cast Range.

At levels 14/15, you want to finish making your {[Laser]] ability.

At level 16, your second talent is more so player preference. I personally prefer +40% Movement Speed over 10% Spell Lifesteal . I tend to only get Spell Lifesteal against heavy Blademail counters (which doesn't happen TOO often). Having the additional Movement Speed will help you position better or get out of sticky situations more often.

At level 18, you put your final spell point into Rearm making this ability level 3 (going from a 1.5s channeling delay down to 0.75s ).

At level 20, for your third talent, I choose +8 March of the Machines Talent over the +10 Armor Talent. I prefer having the additional damage to push out waves and deal more damage (even though it's not that massive) in comparison to the +armor, you're not often going to find yourself being hit in engagements if you position yourself correctly and depending on how fast your reaction times are ONTOP of your positioning you shouldn't be getting caught w/ the proper items ( Scythe of Vyse, Ghost Scepter / Ethereal Blade, Black King Bar Etc.

At Level 25, your final talent, I tend to go for the +0.3s Heat Seeking Missile Stun Talent over the +100 Laser Talent. The reason for this is pretty self explanatory. Late game, you tend to be spamming Heat Seeking Missiles (and Laser too of course) a lot, more so Heat Seeking Missiles, though. Having the additional mini-stun attached to your Heat Seeking Missilies is incredibly for high ground defense, for team fights and for canceling Town Portal Scroll]'s. The only time i'd ever consider the [b] +100 [[Laser [/b] Talent is if you're dominating and snowballing and want the additional damage for Burst or if you're lacking it for late game (but I find even if you are, it's still better to have the mini-stun to help better suit your fights/ganks/defense/offense).

Early Game Items & Strategy

Starting Items:
- 2x Tango (Shared) (Get these from a Support)
- 1x Null Talisman
- 1x Iron Branch
- 1x Faerie Fire

Early Game Items, Timings & Strategy:
Bottle (2 Minutes) -> Soul Ring (4-5 Minutes) -> Boots of Speed (7 Minutes) -> Boots of Travel (9-12 Minutes) -> Blink Dagger (14-16 Minutes).

During the early game, right after laning phase farming the jungle camps you stacked during the laning phase to and from farming the mid lane for your early Boots of Travel you want to continue the same pattern going to and from the mid lane and farming jungle camps farming w/ March of the Machines unless you see an opportunity to Boots of Travel to another lane and help out by assisting with Laser and Heat Seeking Missile until you have enough to purchase your Blink Dagger.

Mid/Late Game Items & Strategy

Mid/Late Game Item Suggestions & Strategy:

There's a few different item builds you can go for depending on how you're scaling, your team's scaling and how the enemy team's scaling. It's also a bit of player preference, too. Whatever approach you take can make a difference in the amount of impact you have so make sure to think it through before committing.

If you have a bit of a snowball start w/o needing much lock down (or worrying about needing lock down right away) and they have a relatively squishy lineup i'd consider going for a Dagon 5. Now before committing to a FULL Dagon 5 see how you're scaling after the 2nd and/or 3rd level of it. If it's starting to "fall off" a bit in damage and you need lock down or more control in fights, stop upgrading it (for now) and focus on going for something else (i'll explain more below).

If you find yourself more so in a defensive position or even offensive and want more team fight contribution and control dealing more damage to everyone on the enemy team instead of bursting down one target (and Blinding) i'd consider going for an Aghanim's Scepter which will give Tinker a vast amount of teamfight contribution, as he can use Laser to blind and deal pure damage to multiple enemy heroes per cast and up his Heat Seeking Missile count from +2 Targets to +4 Targets making both your Laser and Heat Seeking Missiles more impactful in team fights. Aghanim's Scepter is also really good against Illusion based heroes.
Heroes such as: Terrorblade, Phantom Lancer, Meepo etc.

If you're lacking catch on your team or need more lock down, going for a Scythe of Vyse is always good and in my opinion a must have on Tinker in the majority of his games. I just find rushing it to be a bit underwhelming before going for something smaller like a Dagon 1 or Aghanim's Scepter before hand. Unless you desperately need some sort of catch against heroes like Anti-Mage, Ember Spirit, Storm Spirit, Queen of Pain etc that are getting out of control early on w/ lack of disables then i'd consider it as a first item rush after Aether Lens. You should always consider this item as a item purchase against said heroes above, although that goes for just about anyone in the game just for more lock down and control of fights and ganks.

Normally in most games, you don't consider purchasing Boots of Travel 2 until LATE late game but on a hero like Tinker it helps a TON by having a relatively early Boots of Travel 2 after some of your core items to help get right ontop of the action wherever your teammates are to assist them. Consider purchasing this item after two or three of your core items going into the mid/late game.

If you're up against a lot of heavy burst and/or lockdown/aoe yourself, you want to consider purchasing an Aeon Disk and/or a Black King Bar. Black King Bar might seem "silly" to some on Tinker considering Black King Bar doesn't refresh it's cooldown (duh, that'd be OP) but you have to take into the fact that some teams have a ton of lock down and aoe and in order for Tinker to "do his business" effectively you need to be able to get right in on the action and positioning yourself further back just isn't as simple as it was 20 minutes ago going into the later stages of the game. So having a Black King Bar will help you position and get more of your spells and items off throughout the long engagements/fights to help secure you the victory. If you're worried about a couple items or spells that'll lock you down but it's not as heavy as to needing a Black King Bar you can also consider purchasing a Linken's Sphere to block them.

Tinker Counters, Situational Items & Tips

Heroes that are good against Tinker and how to play/itemize against them:

Zeus, Storm Spirit, Ember Spirit, Clockwerk.

Why Zeus?
- His high amount of burst damage and the use of his far range abilities. One being Lightning Bolt to catch you in the tree/back lines, Nimbus to also catch you in the tree/back lines, T hundergod's Wraith to spot you out and cancel your Blink Dagger with follow up initiation etc.

How to play/itemize against Zeus?
- Consider purchasing these items: Black King Bar, Force Staff and Aeon Disk. Black King Bar and/or Aeon Disk for the burst damage from Lightning Bolt and Nimbus and Force Staff for getting out of Nimbus cloud's aoe and then Rearming and Blink Dagger]ing into Safety. You have to play more cautious when [[Zeus gets his Aghinim's Scepter online. Watch where he is on the map and be ontop of his cooldown of Nimbus which has a 35s Duration AND cooldown. I'd recommend purchasing a Black King Bar against Zeus in the majority of the matches played vs him in dragged out games.

Why Storm Spirit?
- He can zip on you from anywhere on the map w/ his Ball Lightning ability followed by Orchid Malevolence, Electric Vortex to pull you in, Static Remnant and RIP Tinker

Why Ember Spirit?
- He can use his Fire Remnant to find you in the tree lines or simply to get ontop of you and follow that w/ Searing Chains and RIP Tinker. That or using Sleight of Fist followed by Searing Chains to catch in you the tree lines aswell. He can absorb most of your magic damage using his Flame Guard ability.

Why Clockwerk?
- He can scout you out in the tree lines using his Rocket Flare ability followed by his Hookshot, Battery Assault and Power Cogs and RIP Tinker.