Tinker Pushing 'n Ganking Build

introduction

Welcome to my guide for Tinker.

In this guide I'm gonna focus on two strats that work very well for Tinker. If you want to play Tinker correctly you should consider those pros and cons.

Pros:
Global presence on the map
Really good nukes
Incredible pusher

Cons:
Squishy
Needs some farm to really be efficient
Not very good attack animation
Low mana pool

If you are running against a heavy nuking team, Tinker isn't a really good pick because you gonna have a hard time farming your Boots of Travel.

Now let's take a look at Tinker skills.

Skill Build

Laser:

Fires an intense energy beam, dealing damage and blinding the target for 3 seconds, causing it to miss all physical attacks.

-The type of damage is pure.

If you are going for a ganking strat you should consider maxing out Laser early. It's a really powerful nuke and it's gonna help you kill all those squishy supports. If you are trying the pushing build I highly recommend not leveling up Laser, although 1 level in it could be a good idea if you are against a hard right clicker. The 3 second blind is really useful to get out of risky situation and to deny the enemy to farm.

Heat Seeking Missile:

Launches a pair of rockets at the nearest visible enemy heroes within 2500 range.

-The type of damage is magical.
-Does not work on Ghost form unit (

Ghost Scepter, Ethereal Blade and Pugna Decrepify)


Heat Seeking Missile does less damage than Laser but you can shoot them at a bigger range which will help you more in lane. In a pushing or a ganking strat you should max Missile early on.

March of the Machines:

Enlists an army of robotic minions to destroy enemy units in an area around Tinker.

-The type of damage is Universal
-Go through magic immunity and does damage to mechnical units

March is one of the best pushing skill in the entire game. If you are considering to play a pushing Tinker, you should max March first. It does a lot of damage against creeps and help you get a lot of last hits and kills. A lot of players don't notice March in a teamfight and they are melting down in it.

Rearm:

CHANNELED - Resets the cooldown on most of Tinker's items and abilities.

-Does not have cooldown
-Rearm works on all items except

Black King Bar, Arcane Boots, Helm of the Dominator, Hand of Midas, Refresher Orb, Linken's Sphere and Necronomicon.


Rearm is the skill who make Tinker an awesome pusher/ganker. With this skill you can reset your items cooldown and your skills cooldown. You should not take your ultimate at level 6 because it will take to much mana from you. At this point you will probably not have your Boots of Travel so it is not important. Try to max 2 skills before leveling up Rearm. If you are lucky enough to get Boots of Travel early you can take a level in Rearm.

Gameplay

The item build on Tinker is pretty much the same on a pushing or a ganking strat.

Early Game:

You should get some decent regen ( Tango and Healing Salve) and some Iron Branches. The regen is gonna be helpful to stay in your lane and the branches gonna give you some good stats to last hit well and to be a little bit more tanky. After getting few last hits, you should try to get a Bottle a fast as possible if you are on the middle lane. If you are on a sidelane, Bottle is not that effective but it can give you good mana and health regen. At this point you should try to gank side lanes if you are in the middle lane. If you are on a side lane, just try to help setup gank on your lane and farm your Boots of Travel as fast as possible. Also your Bottle gets refilled each time you are going back to base

In a ganking strat

Tinker should always be on the middle lane. It will help him get the rune control and be able to rotate from a lane to another quickly. It will also give him some good early levels to make his nukes hit harder.

In a pushing strat Tinker should be in the the middle lane, although he can go on a side lane to farm his Boots of Travel faster. The inconvenience is that he is not gonna get as much level as a solo laner. The trick to get there is to farm the ancients. If you are on the hard lane it's really easy to stack the ancients and then farm them later on with March of the Machines.

Here is a little video about stacking the ancient: Here!



At the 10 to 15 minute mark you should have your Boots of Travel. If you are falling behind, go on a lane and try to get as many last hits as you can. When you have your boots you are a completely different hero. You can now go back to your base each time you need it with Rearm.

In a ganking strat, try to tp in lanes to help getting kills. You want to go everywhere so you can nuke the **** of the enemy team.

In a pushing strat, try to tp in lanes that need to be push. As a pushing

Tinker you can pressure towers quickly and farm a lot with March. To kill creep waves faster, try to Rearm and March again.


Mid-game:

At this point, you should try to get a Soul Ring. It give some good health and mana regen. You should use your Soul Ring before using Rearm to keep your mana up and spam more spells before going back to base. After getting Soul Ring, you can take down tower and jump in and out of fight quickly. This allow you to push a lane during a teamfight and get back to help your teammates.

At this point, Tinker can shine a lot because his spells are doing a lot of damage and he can jump in and out of fights.

Late-game:

In the late-game Tinker have a lot of options. If you can, you should try to pressure all towers as fast as you can. When you are not pressuring, you should try to get some kills.

There is a lot of good late-game items on Tinker. Let see a couple of them here:

- Blink Dagger:
With a blink you can go in the trees and spam March of the Machines without being seen. It's also a really good mobility item that synergies well with Rearm. It will allow you to get out quickly and tp out.

- Force Staff:
Basicly the same thing as blink although Force Staff could help you get your teammates out of trouble.

-Dagon:
A 400 damage nuke that you can repeat. It is really good on a ganking Tinker since it add more to your already punching set of skills.

-Sheep stick ( Scythe of Vyse)
It is an awesome item on Tinker. Why?

Hex

Laser

Heat Seeking Missile

Rearm

Repeat the process

Profit


- Ethereal Blade
It's a good pick up if you already have a dagon. It add more damage to your nukes and give you some nice armor. You can also use it on yourself while you tp out so the enemy can't attack you with basic attacks.

- Shiva's Guard
Really good for a pushing Tinker. It add more damage in an area of effect to kill creeps.

- Observer Ward
Your support should get the wards in normal situation, but Tinker should buy wards in the late stage of the game to help his support and avoid being gank while pushing.

- Manta Style
If there is a lot of silences in the enemy team, a Manta Stylecould be a good pickup since it remove the silence and allow you to have 2 illusions to help you push. It's purely situationnal tho.

Friends and Foes

Tinker is good in some particular line-up and bad against some others:

Friends:

Disablers - Since you don't have any disable, your foes are gonna escape if you don't do enough damage. Disablers helps you to get some auto-attacks on the enemy to be able to kill them. Some good examples would be Lion with his Hex and Earth Spike or Shadow Shaman with Shackles and Hex

Nukers - More nukes help to take down enemies

Leshrac - His Diabolic Edict can melt towers. Kill the creeps for him and he will love you. (Also he have nukes and disables)


Foes:

Nukers - You are squishy and they know it

Invisible heroes - They can gank you easily when you are Tping to push in a lane.

Silencers - You can't cast spells? You are useless.

Mana-Burners - No mana? You are useless.

Riki- He have a silence, he is invisible and can burn your mana (if he get a Diffusal Blade). He can be really be annoying. Be sure to grab some true sight to kill him.

Tips and Tricks

Here are some basic tips for Tinker:


Use your Soul Ring before using Rearm

When your mana is about the 3/4 of your 3rd skill you should start to tp in lane from base. During the channeling of the Tp, the rest of mana you need is gonna regen to be full when you arrive in lane.

Your machines from March of the Machines die when they hit a creep so if you use it twice, try to orientate it in a different direction to be sure to get all the creeps.

You can perma-hex someone with a Scythe of Vyse and Rearm.

Good Luck!

Mastering Tinker is hard but this hero is really awesome to play. Good luck!


Dendi playing Tinker