Tiny the Rock Monster

Introduction - Why play Tiny?

People look at Tiny and say "Huh. Interesting abilities, but I'll go play somebody else." Little do they know they are making a huge mistake.

In the early game, Tiny doesn't need to spend any time in lane, because instead of farming creeps he farms heroes. He can gank any lane from level 4, and solo anybody in the game at level 6.

Once he gets his Aghanim's Scepter, he can do whatever he wants. If the team is pushing, he can gank. If the team is ganking, he can push. He dominates teamfights, trashes towers, and generally is a game-winner.

Early Game

Take any lane you want. Seriously. If you need a mid, go mid. If you need a Safe Laner, go Safe Lane. If you need an Off Laner, go Off Lane. The items don't change, and neither should your playstyle. Once you have your bottle, sell your unused tangoes to make space for treads and start to gank.

• Step 1. Announce to your team that you are going to gank.
  
  
• Step 2. Get to lane (Walk, teleport, hitch a ride with a passing farmer, it really doesn't matter). Make sure you have 240 mana, and no less. If you don't have 240 mana, replenish it with your Bottle. Preferably you have at least 1 charge left in your Bottle when you're done.
  
  
• Step 3. Get behind the enemies. Sneak through trees, come up the river, or use the Rune of Invisibility you found on your way there. Make sure that neither the creep line nor the victims are under a tower.
  
  
• Step 4.Kill Them.
  
• Step 4.1 Avalanche onto enemies. If there are multiple enemies in Avalanche AOE, try to hit them all.
  
  
• Step 4.2 BEFORE Avalanche is done dropping death from the sky, Toss your victim onto himself. This will double the damage from Avalanche as well as apply damage of its own.
  
  
• Step 4.3 Autoattack the enemy until he is driven out of lane (in which case you can sneak behind the tower to get a kill if you're feeling ballsy or just go gank somewhere else). It will usually take 1 autoattack. If the enemy is in sight and at low health 3 seconds later, Toss a creep to them for the kill.
  
  
• Step 5. Take the river back to your lane. Finish off your Bottle and refill it along the way.
  
  
• Step 6. Repeat until you have your Aghanim's Scepter. If this happens before 20 minutes, you are doing very well. If it happens at 20 minutes, you're right on schedule. If it happens after 20 minutes, don't despair; you will still win. You are Tiny.

Point Booster

Aghanim's Scepter

Mid Game

Now that you have your Aghanim's Scepter, you can also farm enemy towers. With the Buckets of Gold your new pushing skill is giving you, buy a quick Yasha so you can move and attack faster. This, coupled with the bonus damage from Grow and the massive cleavage from Aghanim's Scepter will make you a powerful pushing, teamfighting, and farming machine.

Don't stop ganking yet; killing your enemies is a great way to get gold. After Yasha, start the almighty Assault Cuirass. BUY Hyperstone FIRST. This will give you the much-needed attack speed, and the armor is nowhere near as important.

If you bought Drum of Endurance in the early game, sell it for the Hyperstone. Around this time, your Bottle should start to become useless; sell it as soon as you feel your regen and max health/mana is sufficient to play without the Bottle.

**See Edit Log about Blink Dagger**

Late Game

Here is where the build branches off. Up to now, you have been buying items that Tiny cannot function without; now you are buying items that are nice to have but not as necessary. Start to stop ganking, and focus more on teamfights; with your Assault Cuirass, you are a commanding presence. Push out all the lanes, take towers non-stop, and remember to use your combo on key enemies in teamfights. It is still a serious damage-dealer. Once you have won the teamfight, use toss to deal with any fleeing enemies, as toss has a ridiculous range and significant damage.

If the game is all tied up and you need to sneak towers, sell your Power Treads for Boots of Travel. These will allow you to push lanes before the enemy has a chance to react, as well as putting your move speed at around 430.

If you are doing a lot of 2v1 or 3v1 fighting, buy a Satanic. The lifesteal will improve your longevity and also let you regen health from neutral creeps when not fighting.

If you haven't needed to TP back to spawn for a quick health and mana refill all game, you should probably be playing a bit riskier; nevertheless, buy a Mjollnir. The attack speed will have you attacking twice per second for 300 damage per attack in a huge cleave area, meaning you can deal 600 DPS to the ENTIRE ENEMY TEAM for as long as you want.

If you enjoy playing Kunkka and want to teamwipe with a single right click, buy a Daedalus. If you're lucky, you can get a nice 900 damage crit and destroy the enemy.

If you just want to live longer and hit harder, the Heart of Tarrasque is a solid choice. It give you strength and HP regen, which is really all a rock monster wants in life, right?

If you want to push towers REALLY fast and like scaring the living daylights out of your enemies, buy a Manta Style. It essentially increases your damage by 66%, which is not to be sneezed at (that's 500 damage per group attack, cleaved).

Butterfly is a really nice item if you have the gold for it. Like Assault Cuirass and Mjollnir, it increases your attack speed, and the active is a really useful getaway. The evasion helps if you are focused, and so it's all in all a pretty solid item which is useful if you are doing a lot of 1v1 or 2v1 items. Protip: buy this to piss of Legion Commander. The evasion will make her HATE you.

Blink Dagger is nice if you want to close the distance, pull an Adele on enemies (hate to turn up out of the blue...), or juke like a god. Get it if the enemy has escape-type blinks (like Queen of Pain or Anti-Mage) and you want to counter-blink or if you have a 20 minutes Assault Cuirass and want to have some fun with your still-laning enemies.

Finally, if you haven't died once all game but everything's all tied up, buy a Divine Rapier. DO NOT buy this if your team is winning; chances are you won't need it in that case. Buy this is you are on the back foot and the bonus damage will allow you to win. Once you have it, DO NOT GO ANYWHERE WITHOUT A TEAMMATE. They can pick it up on your death and bring it back to the fountain for you.

Friends and Enemies

Friends:

• Tidehunter: Toss him into a bunch of enemies to get a solid ravage without him needing to spend 2250 gold on a Blink Dagger.
  
  
• Enigma: Same as Tidehunter.
  
  
• Anybody with a close-range powerful disable (like Tidehunter or Enigma).
  
  
• Io: Go mid, keep the Tether up, let Io get the Bottle, and stomp. Raw power.
  
  
• Omniknight: Even if you get focused, this guy can help you stay alive. Same can be said of Dazzle
  
  
• Anybody who can deal huge damage close-up but has trouble closing the distance (like Juggernaut).

• Phantom Assassin: is a pain in the *** when you have just finished ganking and so don't have the mana for another stun. Make sure you know where she is, keep 120 reserve mana, carry a TP scroll, and you'll be fine.
  
  
• Omniknight: Jesus this ****er is annoying. Guardian Angel renders you useless in a teamfight, forcing you to retreat. Just back off and let it go to waste before going back in.
  
  
• Lifestealer: You have lots of health and a reliable kill if you can land your Avalanche/ Toss combo. He shreds people with lots of health and can become immunte to magic with Rage. :(
  
  
• Rubick: No matter when he steals a spell, he will get a good one. Kill him first.

Closing Thoughts

Get out there and play some Tiny! He takes a little bit of getting used to, but once you do you'll be getting rampages and towers all day long. Keep casting those spells, gank hard, and rock on. Right now, Tiny has a winrate of under 50%. Let's change that.

Leave suggestions in the comments below! I'd love to get some feedback on this.

And finally:

Always carry a TP scroll.

Until the late game, build these items IN THE ORDER THEY APPEAR. Otherwise the synergy is lost and you are simply an average Tiny player.

Responses 'n' Stuff

Edit Log Oct. 12, 2014

Added icons and general formatting improvements

Slight tweak to skill build (level 5 point now goes to Avalanche)

Added Manta Style in Late Game

Added alternate Drum of Endurance build (not really very alternate, but it does have Drum of Endurance in it)

Added Blink Dagger in Late Game

Added Lifestealer to Enemies

Added Dazzle to Friends

Why no Drum of Endurance before Aghanim's Scepter? Although it is a useful item to have, before you have Aghanim's Scepter most of your damage output is coming from your nukes and after you have Agh's you can farm up a Yasha in 5 minutes just by autoattacking in lane. Since Yasha gives better stats, I chose to forgo Drum of Endurance.

Why no Blink Dagger? Your Yasha (or Manta Style) gives you the speed you need to close distances, your Toss lets you nab those pesky fleeing enemies, and I personally feel Tiny needs stats/health/attack speed more than a blink.

Edit Log Oct. 12, 2014 Part Two

The Blink Dagger Discussion!
So, this came up a lot. Blink Dagger can be good on Tiny, but ONLY if your team has no other initiator. Tiny isn't actually that strong of an initiator; he can blink in, do some damage, and tank some damage, but Tidehunter, Enigma, or Magnus (just to name a few) are much better at initiating. The other two reasons to get Blink Dagger are for the ganking and for the mobility. However, when ganking as a Tiny, you should be able to get behind the enemy and thus block their escape, and once you are in range your combo should be more than sufficient to kill them. As far as mobility is concerned, Yahsa's movement bonus should be more than sufficient. Therefore, if you are acting as an initiator or several of the enemy have blinks/speed buffs/invis (basically powerful escape tools), get Blink Dagger. If not, don't get it.

Minor tweaks to skill sequence