None Quicker (7.06e)

Introduction

Time to update this *****. Clinkz has undergone a pretty big change in 7.06 that I originally thought was an unneeded nerf, but turns out his winrate has gotten a pretty significant boost!

This is my first guide. I figured that after seeing about a billion people playing my favourite hero somewhat incorrectly, I'd just go right ahead and make my own guide.

I'm closing in on 300 games with Clinkz, and I can't remember the last time I haven't had AT LEAST 15 kills with this build.

The first build is for solo pickoffs in the mid game that allows you to turn into a hard carry - this is the main build and the best one. The second build is more teamfight oriented, focusing on survivability and less on single target damage - only go for this build if the opposing team is a strong team fighting team and if they're very likely to stick together.

Let's get started:

Abilities

Strafe -

Attack speed bonus: 130
Duration: 4/6/8/10 seconds
Mana cost: 90
Cooldown: 40/35/30/25 seconds

Massively increases Clinkz's attack speed for a few seconds. This is part 1 of what makes you so strong mid game - no other hero has this much attack speed so early. The 4 seconds are usually enough for early kills, so don't max this out until everything else is maxed.

Searing Arrows

Range: 600
Damage: 30/40/50/60
Mana cost: 10

Increases the attack damage of each right click... BY A LOT. There are very few heroes that hit this hard so early on, and pretty much guarantees you free last hits against any other hero if you master the dog**** attack animation. This allows you to harass almost anyone out of lane. The few heroes that can 'out-harass' you are Viper, Silencer, Queen of Pain (you have a tiny HP pool) and Huskar, so it's best not to mid when those heroes are mid.

Skeleton Walk -

Fade time: 0.6 seconds
Move speed bonus: 15%/25%/35%/45%
Duration: 20/25/30/35 seconds
Mana cost: 75
Cooldown: 20/19/18/17 seconds

Turn invisible and move extremely fast. This is your escape tool, your roaming tool and your element of surprise. Only start attacking once Skeleton Walk is almost off cooldown, so you can escape before anyone else shows up after you get your kill.

Death Pact -

Duration: 65 seconds
Base attack damage bonus: 5%/7%/9% of creep HP
HP bonus: 50%/70%/90% of creep HP
Mana cost: 100
Cooldown: 85 seconds

The most underrated ultimate in Dota. This ability maxed out, can potentially give you around 1000 HP, 100 extra damage and a free heal. In other words, early on it makes you the tankiest hero in the game that does double the damage of anyone else for 85 seconds. At level 25, you'll have well over 3000 HP with this enabled. So you'll have the damage of an agility carry with the HP of a tank. This allows you to 1v1 most heroes (except the obvious ones like PL -you can still kite Ursa and get MKB or Bloodthorne for Troll Warlard or Phantom Assassin.

Skill Build

This pretty much never changes - the ONLY time it may change is before level 2. You either skill Searing Arrows if you survive the rune war so you can start harassing and last hitting, or you skill Skeleton Walk to escape first blood attempts, or to steal the rune.

After that, you max Searing Arrows first (60 extra damage at level 7 is ******edly strong) and Skeleton Walk second (45% extra movement speed at level 11 is ******edly strong). Get one point of Strafe at level 4 for kills and skill your ult when available.

The talent tree is interesting - lots of stats options but generally the more obvious options are the best. At level 10, go for the 10 int. You'll need it a lot more than the magic resistance (Clinkz has mana problems) and that extra magic resistance is almost completely negligent.

At level 15, 30 extra searing arrows around the same time you get a desolator is amazing. Out of nowhere that Nightstalker that you just can't kill is suddenly getting 5 shotted. The strength is good if you're going for a tankier Clinkz but your hero excels at getting in and getting out fast, not taking damage in a fight.

At level 20, I almost always go evasion over the stats because I like building butterfly. With butterfly you'll have 47% evasion - nearly as much as Phantom Assassin. Yes, the enemy can buy Monkey King Bar, but you're still forcing the enemy to build a 5K item just to hit you.

At level 25, it's either/or. If you've got a Dragon Lance or Hurricane Pike, the extra range can be a lot of fun, but the attack speed is insane. You press Q and buildings and heroes just melt before your eyes. I guarantee you will push buildings faster than any hero in the game if you have a Desolator and the attack speed talent.

Strengths/Weaknesses

Strengths

Insane DPS
One of the best ganking heroes in Dota
Great map control - get a few solo kills and enemies won't want to leave their base
Permanent Haste
Built In Escape
Ultimate is also a Heal
65 Seconds of Tankiness
Amazing pusher
Awesome Harass with

Searing Arrows

Serious Mana Issues
Very Item Dependent
Extremely squishy without Ult
Rubbish attack animation
Rubbish damage without searing arrows early on
Pretty much an invisible creep during the 20 seconds of downtime on ult
No disables
After a few solo kills, competent teams will tend to 5 man and get lots of detection
Struggles to come back from a bad start

Gem of True Sight

Sentry Ward

Dust of Appearance

Ghost Scepter

Ghost Scepter

Ghost Scepter

Heaven's Halberd

Blade Mail

Orchid Malevolence

Slardar

Axe

Phantom Lancer

Legion Commander

Spirit Breaker

Queen of Pain

Storm Spirit

Ember Spirit

Anti-Mage

Lion

Crystal Maiden

Sniper

All about Clinkz

Clinkz is pretty much the definition of a glass cannon. Except he isn't. But I'll explain more on that later.

Clinkz is a mid game carry, in the sense that he can absolutely wreck literally ANY hero between the 15 - 30 minute mark. However, if he's been taking everyone to penetration station all game long, he'll basically be 6 slotted at around 35 minutes and he can out DPS anyone late game. This generally leads to him making insane amounts of space for his team because the enemy team is forced to stay in base or to five man, and when the enemy holds hands, Clinkz will melt towers in seconds. This is why I go Boots of Travel on Clinkz. He rapes heroes and rats like the best of them.

A typical Clinkz player will farm Orchid Malevolence by 15 minutes and run around looking for solo heroes to kill. Which is fine - until the enemy team starts buying detection and starts 5-manning. This is where most people start feeding away their lead and become ****. Clinkz almost always requires Black King Bar immediately after Desolator in order to stay relevant and help in team fights. If you pop up in the middle of a fight and turn on BKB, you can straight up melt the entire enemy team.

Early Game

Before lvl 6 is when Clinkz is at his most vulnerable, due to his ridiculous squishiness. Tangos should keep you in lane until you reach level 6.

Clinkz can safelane, but his ideal lane is mid in my opinion because he dominates most enemy midlaners and can farm a very fast Orchid Malevolence. Few things are more satisfying than seeing an enemy hero spiraling out of control, and suddenly you pop up with an Orchid and kill them for 800 gold.

Focus on harassing with searing arrows by orb walking (click + cast, not autocast). His attack animation is rubbish but searing arrows also makes it much easier to get last hits.

Rush Ring of Aquila for early stats and mana regen, get Boots of Speed in the side shop and then immediately start building your Orchid Malevolence (all items except the recipe are in the side shop, in case you went safelane).

As soon as you reach level 6, go eat a large neutral creep, go invis, turn on Searing Arrows, wait for an enemy to push too far forward and go attack. You WILL get the kill, especially if you have the help of a support. By now you should have AT LEAST your first Oblivion Staff, which allows you to rinse and repeat this process until you have your Orchid Malevolence. Don't forget to keep last hitting as well, and to TP to every fight you see on the map (usually by the time you arrive at the fight, enemy heroes are medium - low health and will NOT expect your ridiculous attack speed and damage).

Once you have built your orchid, eat a creep, go invis and start searching for lone heroes. The enemy jungle is an amazing place to lurk, as you're taking their farm and you're available to gank any heroes in that area with the help of your offlaners. Don't forget to finish your Boots of Travels ASAP.

Mid-game dominance

This is where Clinkz's snowball potential gets ridiculous. Continue the process of ulting a large creep, going invis and searching for lone heroes, while farming your Desolator. If you arrive at a lane hoping to find an enemy hero and nobody's there, push the lane and attack the tower. Clinkz is an amazing tower pusher and can usually take a tower within 10 seconds with Strafe turned on (never start the tower attack with strafe - enemy will fortify towers and you'll waste 5 seconds of strafe).

Something I do regularly as Clinkz is warding - you have the benefit of ridiculous movement speed and invisibility, and your gank potential is outrageous. Buy observer wards and place them in the enemy jungle, enemy ancients, enemy secret shop etc etc. It may seem annoying at first but it will help you tremendously with your ganks, especially at lower MMRs where supports don't ward, or there aren't any supports at all. Clinkz is great to get out of low MMR hell.

Once you've farmed Desolator, start farming your Black King Bar. At this point the enemy will be ****ting themselves because of you and will be placing sentries etc, and you need to start fighting with the team. BKB will allow you to completely dumpster the enemy team without them being able to disable you.

At some stage, you'll need to fit a Morbid Mask into your build. You can no longer casually ult whichever creep you walk past - the cooldown is now 6 decades and you have to think a lot harder about your Death Pact choice. You can't ult a nearby creep for sustain either - you need lifesteal. Morbid mask has saved my *** so many times since Desolator was changed to no longer be a unique attack modifier.

Late Game

The general consensus is that Clinkz becomes less useful in the late game - rubbish. Your goal is to arrive late to every team fight and continue farming and pushing until you can afford your Butterfly (get Butterfly before MKB if you need the evasion). In team fights, eat a creep, turn on BKB, silence the most important hero and shoot them down while everyone else is preoccupied. Stay back and attack each hero one by one in order of importance. You do so much damage that they won't have time to react.

At this point in the game there are other heroes that may have outfarmed you - this is fine. Stick with your team and keep pushing - You hit stupidly hard so if the hardest carries are disabled, you can still wreck them. Keep an eye out for sentry wards right by the enemy rax, and never overextend. You are tanky with your ult and butterfly, so at this point you can easily take on two or even three heroes solo (except the hard carries - don't be stupid).

Once you get a Moon Shard, eat it and it's GG. Even if they team wipe, you can literally just invis to their base and backdoor every rax while they're pushing. That's why I love Clinkz. Even if you have a bad game in terms of kills etc, you can backdoor towers and push like no other hero. You can destroy a tower in the time it takes them to TP back to base.

Item Choices

Orchid Malevolence vs Scythe of Vyse

Orchid is absolute Core on Clinkz. Solves his mana issues, gives him attack speed, gives him a disable. Scythe of Vyse is another option but the disable is shorter and doesn't give the extra 30% damage taken that Orchid does, and it delays your mid game because it's more expensive.

Power Treads vs Boots of Travel

The extra stats from Treads is nice, but that's it. You'll make up for it with your talents. Boots of Travel is core to how I play Clinkz as it really solidifies your position of the owner of the entire map. No lane is safe, and if you're losing you can rat.

Ring of Aquila vs Medallion of Courage

I prefer Aquila simply because of the stats it gives you early game. Your damage is so high that the armour reduction from Medallion is almost pointless - only get Medallion if you're skipping Orchid and going for the ****ty Solar Crest build (not that **** but I prefer my build).

Desolator vs Solar Crest

I'm not a fan of Solar Crest on Clinkz because it just doesn't give you the boost that Desolator does. It's cheaper and makes you tankier, but it also does nothing to help your sieging capabilities. I don't know. Just not a fan.

Desolator does wonders for Clinkz, especially since Searing Arrows is no longer a Unique Attack Modifier.

Daedalus vs Monkey King Bar

Why not both?

As always, MKB is situational. Get it first if there are heroes with evasion, or else always start with Bloodthorne if you built an ORchid - the item is far superior to Daedalus and you alreay have the Orchid. If you go Daedalus, the damage it gives you is mental, but in 2017 even Sven goes Bloodthorne and it literally gives you what Daedalus and MKB give you combined.

Butterfly or Manta Style

Manta Style is dog**** on Clinkz. The stats are nice and being able to purge dust or silence is great, but Butterflies stats are nicer and the evasion and damage is amazing. Pretty much never go Manta. It's trash on Clinkz. Trust me.

Other Situational Items

Black King Bar - if you're getting rekt by Magic Damage, BKB is the way to go. Nobody likes buying BKB but it allows you to participate in team fights a lot more and can save your life.

Dragon Lance

I've only tried Dragon Lance a few times on Clinkz. It does exactly what it says - but Clinkz already has high range. The only reason I'd get it is for pushing towers without aggro-ing the tower or for extra stats, and I've also had a lot of fun with Hurricane Pike and the range talent at level 25, but I just don't think it fits into my item build.

Blink Dagger

Blink Dagger is something you only really need if you either keep getting dusted, or your targets keep escaping where it would only take one or two more hits to kill them. It makes you extremely hard to kill, but it's also very situational.

Soul Ring

Meh. Soul Ring is nice, only in the early game. The idea is you soul ring yourself and then use that mana to ult a creep and get the health back. It's nice, but only for 5 minutes because you basically have unlimited mana once you get an orchid. I've always hated the Soul Ring build. People often get triggered when they see me going Orchid (2011 build bla bla) but they're ignorant. This is my guide and I don't like Soul Ring.

Bloodstone

I've seen a few guides on Dotafire recommending Bloodstone. What a ****ing waste. Don't be ******ed please. It gives mana regen and some extra HP, but will do nothing to improve Clinkz's ability to be Clinkz.

Rejected Items

Diffusal Blade - You'd think this would be a great item because of your insane attack speed, because you drain mana like a mofo. Back when it could purge dust? Maybe. BUT, Clinkz is an assassin. He only attacks for the kill. Mana drain is completely pointless because your orchid has already silenced them, and by the time they can use spells again, they're dead. The agility is nice, but you get the same from Butterfly which is a much better item on Clinkz. The item has merit in certain situations but generally you're better suited going for something else. Get it against Medusa and that's about it.

Assault Cuirass - This is a ******ed item for Clinkz and it's way too expensive for what it gives you. You don't need the attack speed, you have your Q. You don't need the armour, you're an agi hero that's probably built a butterfly. You don't need the minus armour - you have a deso. I mean in theory it's a good item but in reality it's 5K gold that benefits your team more than it benefits you, and Clinkz wins the game on his own. Not a fan.

Radiance - If you're playing against 300MMR players, go right ahead. Otherwise, please don't. I used to build Radiance on every hero (Chen) when I started playing Dota and I apologise to everyone on my team in those games.

Mjollnir - Against illusion heroes, maybe, but I've tried this a few times late game and I've always been disappointed. Turns you into a Windranger. Again, I don't have any good reasons for not liking the item but I just think there are better items to get later on.

Friends/Foes

As with all squishy carries, your best friends are supports that keep you alive, or pin your enemy in place. A lane combo with Shadow Shaman is a dream come true.

Friends - Crystal Maiden, Shadow Shaman, Lion, Witch Doctor, Witch Doctor

Clinkz gets rekt by illusion heroes because he does single target damage. Phantom Lancer is an absolute nightmare, and a fed Chaos Knight can usually 2 shot you if your ult isn't active. Slarder is also horrible if he's with friends because he grants vision on you, but your movement speed is still fast enough to escape and you can still kill him 1v1 so don't run away if you meet him alone. Spirit Breaker is another hero that can be a nightmare, because once he starts his Charge of Darkness, he'll still hit you even if you activate Skeleton Walk. A Spirit Breaker with Dust of Appearance usually = Dead Clinkz.

Clinkz excels against gankers too, eg:

Pudge/ Mirana - loves to hang out behind trees during team fights to launch hook/arrow - so invis behind trees and wreck them while the team fight goes down. Once either of them are hit with orchid, they can literally do nothing.

Lastly, the biggest piece of advice I can give any Clinkz player - you can 1v1 almost anyone all game long if you keep up decent farm. Too often I see Clinkz players getting ganked by one or two heroes and instantly going invis and running away like a little *****.

The rule is this: if they don't have a disable, rape them. I remember a game I played the other day where I was hunting down an Alchemist busy jungling, so I ate the large centaur in the camp he was busy with and started attacking him. Immediately he threw his cocktail at me (he didn't wait for it to cook, he would've died if he did) and I had only just reached lvl 6. The second I attacked him, the enemy Spectre haunted to me and their Mirana launched her Sacred Arrow at me and used Leap to get within her starfall range. Unfortunately for her, she missed her arrow and didn't have mana for her starfall. So I had 3 heroes attacking me with no disables left. Keep in mind I had just eaten a centaur and had about 500 health more than the rest of them, and was doing about 120+- damage AT LEVEL SIX. I finished off the alchemist (he had low health from jungling), then went on the Mirana before she recovered mana for starfall and finished her off, and I still had 30% of my health bar (keep in mind that this is roughly a 3/4HP bar for a Clinkz without his ultimate active). Now it was me vs Spectre, and I rekt her in seconds.

Triple kill at level 6. Let the snowball begin. Obviously Alchemist only had about 150 HP when I went on him at first and Mirana is squishy as **** all game long - I tore them apart during the 4 seconds of [strafe]]. The Spectre had used all her mana for Haunt so she couldn't escape with Spectral Dagger, but she still had Desolate. I considered going invis and running away, but then I decided to try my luck. I killed her with about 200 health left over.

The moral of the story is: Clinkz can out DPS anyone at most stages of the game, and when his ultimate is active he has the HP of a tank. He turns into an OP piece of **** for 65 seconds. If you get ganked and they have no disables, ATTACK THEM. If you see you're losing the fight, you have Skeleton Walk to GTFO. If they're competent opponents they'll have Dust of Appearance, but that doesn't matter because it still makes you lightning fast and they won't have a disable to stop you. GG. A lot of the time they will have disables, which is why BKB is core.

Conclusion

So that's pretty much it!

Clinkz is an amazing pubstomper if played correctly because nobody wards in pubs, so give that a try ;)

This is my first guide and I'm low 5K MMR, so please feel free to criticize constructively.