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Tango
Healing Salve
Iron BranchIron Branch
Clarity
Stout Shield
Gauntlets of StrengthGauntlets of Strength
Animal Courier
Bottle
Boots of Speed
Magic Stick
Phase Boots
Magic Wand
Arcane Boots
Urn of Shadows
Aghanim's Scepter
Blade Mail
Heart of Tarrasque
Dust of Appearance
Gem of True Sight
Sentry Ward
Necronomicon
Mekansm
Ghost Scepter
Hood of Defiance
Linken's Sphere
Pipe of Insight
Force Staff
Armlet of Mordiggian
Black King Bar
Vanguard
Assault Cuirass
Bloodstone
Boots of Travel
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Hello all. This is a guide to playing pub Clockwerk, written by a pub-player. Clocky is, in my opinion, one of the best initiators in the game, excelling at focusing a target and making them rage about how OP Clocky is. In truth, like most DotA heroes, Clock isn't overpowered at all, as there are quite a few enemies who can make your life hell. But onto that in a later section.
In short, Clockwerk is a ranged melee initiator who is good at both disruption and lockdown during teamfights. His late game HP is good, although his mana pool is poor in the early game. He can be played in any lane, although he will do best in either mid or offlane solo. Both his durability and his ability to get kills and avoid death mean that he can easily solo a lane to get his levels then start rotating and ganking successfully.
Clockwerk's spells all have better many, many more uses than they appear to have at first glance. Let's take a look at each one.
Battery Assault: Deals minor damage and ministuns a random target in a small radius. Shrapnel is release once every .7 second over 10.5 seconds, dealing a total of 1200 damage, and will stay active even is Clock is disabled. On a long second cool down and with low mana cost.
This is your main source of damage. 1200 will melt any squishy Agility or Int hero. However, it is generally underestimated by opponents, as the DOT doesn't seem too threatening. The ministun is also extremely important. See 
Sand King winding up for an ult? Battery Assault him. 
Bane's 
Fiend's Gripping your carry? Send some shrapnel his way.
Important to note that this will not hit invis units, so it's imperative to have dust or sentries when ganking heroes like Riki.
AND NOW FOR AN EXTREMELY IMPORTANT FACT ABOUT CHASING: When chasing an enemy (which shouldn't be that hard if you have phase boots), do NOT autoattack them when you are close and have BA up. RUN ALONGSIDE THEM. It will do more damage and will slow them down. A fast hero like Phase Boots 
Razor can just haul *** away if you let him get outside of Battery Assault Radius by taking the time to autoattack.
One last important thing to recognize: the shrapnel and thus the damage is distributed randomly to all enemies in the AOE, so the more people that are close to you, the less damage they will take.
Power Cogs: Forms 8 cogs in a square around you, trapping any units in a small radius in with you. Any nearby units outside the cogs will be pushed back by a cog a short distance over the course of about a second and will lose 200 HP and 200 mana. Each cog can only push once but can push invis units. Cogs can be destroyed in one attack by you or 3 enemy attacks. Lasts for 8 seconds. Long second cooldown, low mana cost.
This is the skill that makes Clock come together as a hero. It combos well with battery assault because it traps the opponent in Assault for almost the full duration, causing them to take massive damage. The knockback is another ministun, so you may be beginning to see why channeling heroes hate Clock.
Although it may not look like it, Power Cogs can also act as an escape. By running away from the enemy so that they are outside of cogs range and then dropping the cogs, they will be pushed back as they keep running toward you, and then blocked off until they hit a cog 3 times, by which time you can easily deny the front cog and run away. Of course, this can easily backfire if you misjudge your distance and cog an enemy in with you.
Trapping multiple opponents in Power Cogs is a mixed bag. It's amazing for lockdown, but don't expect to be doing a lot of damage, because Battery Assault will be hitting all of them.
Cogs can also be used to set up for skills from your allies like ghost ship, 
Sun Strike, 
Split Earth, or 
Mystic Flare.
Rocket Flare is one of the most versatile skills in the game. You can farm with it, push with it, scout with it, KS with it, nuke with it, harass with it, and snipe with it. 200 damage isn't a lot, but it's sufficient to get you some CS even if you're being zoned out in lane. It's especially useful because you can use it to grab last hits and harass your opponent in lane. It's not anywhere near a lane dominating spell, but it's certainly useful.
You can also use it to blindly snipe low health opponents as they run back to base, scout the jungle for a Furion to kill, look for a potential gank, or keep an eye on Rosh.
Hookshot lets you maximize the effects of Battery Assault and Power Cogs by bringing you right on top of the opponent. It's a skillshot, obviously, but it's not the hardest in the game. The hook travel speed is much faster than that of a 
Meat Hook from 
Pudge. It's range is also ridiculous, meaning you can jump someone from very, very far away.
Just like Pudge hook canceling is important, 
Clockwerk hook canceling is critical. Hook has a short cast time. Having played clock for a while, I generally know during the cast time if my hook will land. Canceling it gives you another shot, unless, of course, you're slow to react.
Another rarely-utilized but very important mechanic is the hitbox of Hookshot. The hook itself is small, but when Clockwerk is traveling to his hook, he is larger than the hook, and, since he stuns anyone he comes in contact with while traveling to the hook, you can potentially stun multiple enemies. It's hard to do and often risky, but it can work out very well.
Lastly, since you can hook to any non-neutral unit, you can escape with Hookshot by hooking to creeps or a friendly hero.
If you're mid against another melee, a fast Bottle build is a good idea. Start with a set of Tangoes and 3 Iron Branches.
If you're not confident in your lane for whatever reason, the preferred build is 2 Gauntlets of Strength, a Healing Salve, a set of Tangoes, and a Clarity. The Clarity lets you spam flare on cooldown for a bit and the gauntlets can build into an Urn of Shadows later.
A Stout Shield can be purchased if you're taking heavy harass in lane, and, god forbid you have to, an Animal Courier is mandatory, so you may be forced to buy one if your team is comprised of morons.
Whatever lane you're in, a Bottle is almost always necessary. Why? Because 1 bottle charge gives you enough mana for about 1 spell (excluding Hookshot). This greatly increases your ability to continue early ganking without going back to base.
As far as runes go, double damage rune and illusion rune both increase the damage done to a trapped opponent, regeneration rune greatly increases your ability to keep ganking, haste rune lets you chase and often just run right on top of an opponent and cog them, and invisibility rune lets you simply walk on top of an opponent without them noticing and use Power Cogs.
Magic Wand is always a good pickup for a bit of burst regen.
Generally I go for Phase Boots for extra damage to trapped opponents as well as increased chasing potential, meaning that you can more easily keep up with fleeing enemies and continuously hit them with Battery Assault. However, Arcane Boots can be used if you're having severe mana problems.
An Urn of Shadows is a great item to pick up to allow you to both deal more damage and heal yourself after a kill, because you'll almost always take a chunk of damage when you cog someone.
Aghanim's Scepter gives Clockwerk everything he needs: more HP, a better intelligence stat, more mana, and the ability to initiate much, much more often. You can Hookshot to start a fight, hook again onto someone else, then hook again to safety if you're about to die, all thanks to the 15 second cool down. It's ultimately (no pun intended) the preferred first core item on Clockwerk if you can get it fast enough because it nets more killing potential than any other item as well as more utility.
Blade Mail is generally a good item choice because it turns trapped enemies' attacks against them, and, if they have less health than you, they'll only be killing themselves.
Heart of Tarrasque gives you great regen and nearly unparalleled tankiness, allowing you to win the manfight against whomever who may have trapped.
Gem of True Sight, Sentry Wards, and Dust of Appearance are necessitated if you're trying to kill a hero with a shadowblade or invis skill. Since Battery Assault doesn't hit invisible heroes, you'll need sight if you want to kill them.
I've rarely gotten Necronomicon but it's useful to give you sight (if you have Nec 3), burn mana on a low int hero, or just add extra damage.
Mekansm is usually picked up in pro games, but I don't use it a lot in pubs because the supports get them. In pros, supports are often gold-starved, so a hero who can farm a bit gets a mek, in this case, Clockwerk.
Ghost Scepter is a very, very situational core alternative because the only time you'll really need it is if you're hooking their hard carry and need to survive.
Hood of Defiance is useful if you're fighting heroes who have lots of magical burst, like 
Lina, 
Lion, 
Invoker, 
Earth Spirit, or 
Queen of Pain.
Linken's Sphere is rarely picked up but can be life-saving against some heroes who rely on one single target spell to kill you, like Bane, 
Beastmaster, and Doom Bringer. Other than for those heroes, there's not a lot of other reasons to divert so much gold to this item.
Pipe of Insight is an extension of Hood of Defiance that you could get to protect your team if the enemy team has lots of magical burst.
Force Staff gives Clockwerk a much-needed intelligence buff, a bit of HP regen, and the important ability to force himself out of cogs after trapping a scary opponent. Said opponent is now locked down for your team to kill while you're relatively safe. It can also help save your teammates if they get caught out.
Armlet of Mordiggian is mainly if you want to carry harder, as it improves your killing potential and survivability potential.
Black King Bar is for teams with lots of stuns or scary ults that don't go through BKB, like 
Ravage.
Vanguard is so you can be a bit tanker when taking physical damage, but that gold could go toward a Heart of Tarrasque which is by far a better late game item.
Bloodstone can actually replace Heart of Tarrasque if you are completely wrecking, because it lets you initiate practically on scepter cooldown. However, getting scepter first means you'll have a late Bloodstone, so it's not the best item for Clockwerk.
Assault Cuirass gives you superb tankiness against physical damage, and, when combined with Heart of Tarrasque gives you gargantuan effective HP as well as helping out your team.
Boots of Travel should replace your Phase Boots or Arcane Boots if the game goes late.
Rocket Flare is taken first for harass and last hitting, as mentioned above. However, it's better to save your skill point until you see your lane. You can sometimes take Power Cogs first to cog-block your creeps to give you an advantage in the offlane or to use the mana-burn aspect to cripple your opponent.
A second point in Rocket Flare is taken at level 4 because it turns your flare spam from a nuisance into an actual potent damaging and finishing spell.
Battery Assault is maxed first because it is your main source of damage, and Rocket Flare second because it's your secondary source of damage.
doom bringer
outworld devourer
These are all heroes that can easily murder you in your own cogs before you can kill them. Some, like Lifestealer and Juggernaut, can become magic immune and avoid Battery Assault. Others, like Ursa and Troll Warlord can just melt you with high attack speed. Still others, like Sven, Huskar, and Phantom Assassin just have enough damage to kill you. There's a few others that I didn't mention, but the gist of it is that if you cog one of these heroes, watch out.
All these heroes have a blink or other way to get out of your cogs. Invis heroes won't take Battery Assault damage but you can counter them with detection.
Basically everyone else. If they can't escape your cogs and they can't kill you in your cogs, you can kill them or at least significantly damage them. A few strength heroes, like 
Centaur Warrunner , can survive due to pure manliness, but they can't really kill you either.
You can kill heroes like 
Kunkka, 
Tiny, and 
Skywrath Mage but they will probably put significant damage on you before you bring them down.
Leshrac and 
Death Prophet are easy targets if 
Diabolic Edict and 
Exorcism aren't active if you hook them, otherwise, you'll take significant damage.
Pudge will also lose the fight with you if you initiate when you're both at full health, because Battery Assault cancels 
Dismember.
Earthshaker and Bane can't cast any of their spells except for 
Echo Slam because they cast animations are so long that they will get cancelled by Battery Assault.
Pugna is easily killed if you catch him in your cogs, but if he's outside of your cogs, you're an easy target for his 
Life Drain.
Heroes like Lina and 
Zeus can't even auto attack because the animation is so slow that Battery Assault interrupts it.
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