How to be a better techies(6.88)

Introduction

Hello guys

Techies is one of the heros that usualy everone hates and everyone think that picking techies is GG. that's because that most people not using this hero correctly. techies is an intelegence hero with high starting armor, high intelegance growth , second longest attacking range in the game (after Sniper), and it's heavily mana and level dependent and these charactrestices make techies an excelent offlaner that can dominate the offlane most of the times.

the main reason that most people hate techies is that techies players usauly play this hero as a roamer, planting mines all around map and doing nothing else! they are always under-leveled and under-farmed and don't help in the team fights at all. that kind of play style with techies simply won't work unless u are playing at -2K MMR or you have some kind of realy realy hard carrys in your team that going to dominate the late game.

i have around 400 games with techies and i am here to suggest you another playing style with techies: SOLO-OFFLANE TECHIES.

When to/not to pick techies

Generaly you want to pick techies when the enemy team are some kind of squishy and they lack a hero that can focus you easily in the fights, to be more exact here the list of heros that i generaly avoid playing techies against them:

• Storm Spirit: since he will be building Orchid Malevolence and he can focus you in the fights so easily that you can't actually be in the fights at all.
• Legion Commander: you are a great target for her Duel and every wise Legion Commander player will be looking for you in the map to hunt down.
• Lina : she has a lot of burst damage and with a help of a Eul's Scepter of Divinity she can burst you down anywhere on the map and you won't even have enough time for suicide.
• Phantom Assassin: a fully farmed Phantom Assassin can 1 hit you with his daggers in the late game and he can focus you easily in the fights.
  
• Spectre: he can hunt you with his Hunt and also his Haunt reveal your position in the map during the fight's just like Zeus Ultimate.
  
• Sniper: he is the only one who has more attacking range than you in the game and you can't right click him down in the offlane and he can grant high ground vision with his Shrapnel.
  
• Anti-Mage: he is a very good hard carry and with his Spell Shield he is so difficult to be burst down with Remote Mines in the late game.

Most people believe that heros like Zeus , Nature's Prophet, Shadow Demon are Techies counters but i think that they are not. Zeus for sure might cause you a little trouble with his True Sight in the game but he is not a counter and Nature's Prophet and Shadow Demon can't do anything after you get you level 6 so they are not a counter either.

So generally you want to pick Techies when you know that the enemy has no hero that can focus you in the fights and your carry can beat their carry in the late game.

Early Game

At the start of the game you will buy your starting items as I mentioned above and TP to the lane ASAP and start planting your first blood mines. I am not going to show you my spotS for first blood mines but I am going to give you some tips:

• Don't mine the side shop. It is the most obvious place in the map.
  
• Watch the creep moving pattern in the lane and place your mines close to where creeps meet each other. It is a little hard to find the exact spot but it is a guarantied first blood 99.99% of the times.
  
• Take a look at the enemy heros and adapt to it, Usualy they will send their carry and a support to your lane. if you see that they have heroes like Sven, Ogre Magi, Terrorblade you have to put 6-7 mines to kill them but most other heroes will die to 5 mines so don't waste your time and mana.
  
• after you plant your first blood stack you have enough time (you will have even more time in ranked matches) to plant 2-3mines somewhere else. use them as back-up plan.
  
• I put 2 Clarity in the starting items. only one of them is enough for planting 5 mines in the early game. plant 2 mines then use one of them on yourself. don't waste them.

After the creeps arrive to the lane you should do just what any other offlaners will do. staying in the lane, getting XP and Last Hitting. I know, you have the lowest base damage in the game but you also has one of the longest attacking ranges too. so use it as your advantage and try to last hit. it will be a little hard at the beginning but Practice makes perfect... .

There is one more important thing that usualy most techies players don't do: Harassing the enemy carry and support.. if you take a look at my early game item build you will notice a Null Talisman and an Orb of Venom, buy these two items ASAP. trust me, these two magical items turn you to a offlane dominator monster. You have a huge range,Huge amount of starting armor,Good starting strengh the only thing you lack is base damage and with the help of these two items you can even right click their carry down in the early game(most of the times).Since Orb of Venome deals magical damage so it will go through armor, this way you can even harass heavy armor guys like Sven and Ogre Magi easily in the early game.

Most of the times when the enemy support see a Techies in the offlane he will plant some sentries in the lane and leave the carry alone. you know why? becuase he/she thinks that Techies can't do anything with out his mines. but THAT'S NOT TRUE. if the support left you alone with the carry, just right click their carry all the time to force him out of the lane. if they let you have a free lane, stay in the lane,put mines around you and push the tower.

If they tried to zone you out in the offlane just play passively and try to soak up XP.remember that like any other offlaner your number one goal in the offlane is getting xp. you need that early level advantage to be useful in the game.

let do some math calculations:
1.Techies Remote Mines deals 300 Damage at level 6
2.if you have an Aghanim's Scepter at level 10 or below your mines will deal 450 Damage.
3.Techies Remote Mines Deals 450 Damage at level 11.
from those 3 sentences above we can conclude that a level 10 or below techies with Aghanim's Scepter is equal to a level 11 techies with out Aghanim's Scepter. this means that by being level 11 when the other players are about 8-9, you will deal the same amount of damage as you have an Aghanim's Scepter with an under-leved Techies. That's the main idea behind running Techies in the offlane.

if you dominated the offlane and got that fast level 11 it's time to move around the map and joining the fights and planting some land mines in your jungle maybe. during the fights stay back and try to throw Remote Mines in the middle of the fights. you can deal 450 AEO Magic damage every 10 seconds or you can suicide if you are about to die to deny gold and XP while dealing a huge damage to the enemy team.

Mid Game

This is the time that you must shine!
now that you are level 11 you can blow people up to 3-4 mines ! you can farm the creeps fast with your Remote Mines and Land mines. you goal for the mid game is to farm you neccassry items.

• If you are doing really good in the game try to get Aghanim's Scepter first.
• If they are buying lot's of sentries or Gem, try getting your Force Staff first.
• if they are focusing you by some kind of silence and you are dying with out suiciding get Eul's Scepter of Divinity first.

always remember that as a Techies you need level-advantage and you need a good amount of farm. so don't waste your time mining the jungle the whole time. a rich Techies is much more useful than a poor Techies so don't forget to farm the lane while you are planting mines in it.

sometimes enemy team try to push the lanes fast in the mid game and they buy lots of Sentry Ward to counter you. in this case, consider joining the fights and planting mines behind your own tower! yeah i am not kidding ! behind your own tower ! because they will expect to see your mines in front of the tower and they put Sentry Ward there for sure.

Techies is all about fear, it's all about frightening your enemy, it's about limiting your enemies movement in the map ! if you stay too much in a lane, for example offlane, you enemies will try to focus the other lanes as hard as possible to win the game. in the mid game you should try to TP to other lanes and show yourself all around the map. you can't actualy mine the entire map ! but remember that Techies is all about FEAR and that's enough for them to be frightend. by showing yourself on all the lanes in the mid game you make them to play more passivly(which in this case your carry can farm easily) or you make them to buy lots of Sentry Wards (which makes their support(s) poor) so just try to be present in all the lanes.

Late Game

In the late game that you have all you basic items, it's time to play differently. you should be joining the fights more and having a back-up plan at the same time. by back-up plan i mean high ground mines for defending your T3 towers. I am not a fan of high ground defending with Techies at all but if you should, just do it.
here are some tips for the late game that comes to my mind:
1.No matter which hero and which role you are playing, you should always have BUYBACK available after 30 minute mark.
2.if you have enough money, buy a Scythe of Vyse. it will boost you mana regen, your base damage and it will give you a reliable disable. it's always good.
3.Replace your Arcane Boots with a Boots of Travel in the late game.
4.Place mines on your high grounds on all the lanes (even if they still have T2 towers because in the late game T2 tower will melt down in less than 10 second).
5.spam your Statis trap all around the map.

General Tips

here are some general tips for playing Techies:

1. dont put mines right in front of your towers, put them in front of the enemy own towers instead.
2. don't try to mine their jungles if you have Suicide Squad, Attack! on cooldown.
3. sometime enemy carry will try to farm you jungle creep camps, because he think that you have mines in their own jungles so don't forget to put some mines in your own jungle creep camps too.
4. no matter which hero and which role you are playing, you should always have a Town Portal Scroll in your bag, unless you have a Boots of Travel.
5. Generaly, when you pick techies everyone will hate you even your own team mates(unless you have the Techies arcana :D ) and the trick is to not be the bad guy. be a positive techies. don't argue and try to be friendly with your team mates.
6. if the enemy team bought a gem you can try to put the mines in the trees. just because they have a Gem of True Sight doesn't mean that they can see the mines hided in the trees.
7. If you are still learning Techies and you are not that much good at it, don't play Techies in ranked games.
8. after 20 minute mark don't treat your Suicide Squad, Attack! as a killing mechanism, use it to deny gold and XP from the enemy.
9. if no one in your team is buying Observer Ward, just buy them yourself. Techies is not a support by any mean, but if you have no other choice do it.
10. some heroes has some special playing styles, use them as your advantage. for example, Ember Spirit always push the lanes solo so you can just put some mines in the middle of the lane and shut him down easily or a hero like Queen of Pain need to take the runes almost every time to fill his Bottle so just mine the rune spot more often against this guy and ...
11. Suicide Squad, Attack! also reduce your respawn time by 50%.
12. Just because they have vision on you in the lane doesn't mean that they are watching you the whole time. That means that if you see that their carry pulled the creep waves behind his tower to last hit you can easily put Land mines or Remote Mines right in front of his tower and most of the times he will not notice because he is concentrating on his last hits!
13. in the late game just spam your Stasis Trap all around the map.
14. in the late game you should always replace your Arcane Boots with Boots of Travel, but in some cases that the enemy have too much pushing power like Tinker, Nature's Prophet you might want to have a Boots of Travel and an Arcane Boots simultaneously during the mid game to stop the push.

Changelog

Version 1.1:

1. replaced Robe of the Magi with Mantle of Intelligence in the starting build (special thanks to "Guru Drak " for mentioning it.
2. adding some general tips.
3. adding a paragraph to the mid game part.