Introduction
“Measurements made. Bombs built. Powder's dry. Okay, let's blow something up!”
Techies is a ranged intelligence nuker and disabler. Techies has one of the most unorthodox playing styles in the game that makes it a hero that is both loved and loathed in equal measure. Techies excels at planting invisible mines at key locations on the map and judiciously utilising suicide attack to kill off enemy heroes whilst simultaneously dying and denying himself.
Techies' complete character profile can be found here.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Huge burst damage potential
- Has access to the longest stun in the game
- Can deny himself whilst dealing huge burst damage
- His Remote Mines provide vision, making them mini-wards
- Very strong counter pusher
- Long attack range
- Invisible nature of his abilities will heavily tax enemy supports
Cons
- Often played poorly, becoming a burden to his team and making him a highly controversial pick
- Absolutely terrible base damage
- Terrible base move speed and has no escape mechanism
- Squishy
- Has mana issues
- Abilities are largely countered by True Sight
Item Build
Techies is usually played in the offlane (or sometimes mid), as this gives him excellent access to the enemy jungle which he can block very effectively using his Land Mines. You want to get into the enemy jungle as quickly as possible if you play him offlane so that you can start planting your Mines – at level 1 they have a 25 second cooldown, so the sooner you get into position the sooner you can start choking off their jungle and the more you’ll be able to plant before the enemy team starts moving into position to defend its jungle.
Techies, unfortunately, has absolutely abysmal move speed, and so a standard starting item purchase for him is actually a TP Scroll – you quickly grab your starting items, which will look something like the items listed below, and then instantly TP to your tier 1 offlane tower, then head straight into the jungle and pre-emptively start blocking the spawn camps.
Starting Items
- Tangos, TP Scroll, Clarities.
A Soul Ring Recipe is also an optional but highly recommended starting item. It provides no utility off the bat but it will allow you to complete your Soul Ring early on using the side shop instead of having to tie up the Courier.
Early Game
Techies’ two early game items are a Soul Ring and Boots of Speed.
Soul Ring will give you good mana and health regeneration, and the active will allow you to continue to plant Land Mines throughout the early game, even after you run out of Clarities. Soul Ring also allows you to ensure you always have enough mana left to use Suicide Squad if you’re about to die anyway; much better to ‘deny’ yourself using Suicide Squad than to die naturally, as not only is your death timer reduced but you also deny enemy heroes experience and gold bounties from your death.
Boots of Speed are direly needed on Techies. With absolutely terrible base move speed of 270, no escape mechanism, and terrible base health, he is one of the most vulnerable heroes in the game to early ganks. Boots of Speed won’t prevent it entirely, but they’ll make you much less susceptible to such rotations.
Core
Unsurprisingly, given the high mana cost and generally low cooldown on all of his abilities, Arcane Boots are the boots of choice for Techies. Once you have Arcane Boots and Soul Ring you have a plentiful mana pool and good sources of burst mana regeneration, allowing you to max out your Land Mine cap (20 mines maximum at any one time), constantly utilise Stasis Trap, and start building up Remote Minefields when you hit level 6.
Eul’s Scepter of Divinity is your other core item. On the surface, such an item build leaves Techies extremely squishy – none of the items purchased thus far actually provide any raw health, but Eul’s is absolutely amazing on Techies for a few reasons:
- The mana regeneration is the most obvious benefit derived from Eul’s. 10 intelligence and 150% mana regeneration on top of your already-purchased items really will put an end to your mana worries.
- The Cyclone active, however, is the best part of Eul’s for Techies. With it, you can send an enemy hero into the air for 2.5 seconds, giving you enough time to get within range of them, plant a Stasis Trap, and have it active in time to stun them before they can move outside of its blast radius. Combine with Land Mines and Remote Mines to deal huge burst damage.
- Alternatively, Cyclone can be used as a pseudo escape mechanism if you find yourself caught out of position and ganked by a lone hero – Eul’s them and attempt to make a safe getaway while they’re in the air.
- The other benefit derived from Eul’s Scepter is a bonus 40 move speed, which is very much welcome on such a slow hero as Techies.
Luxury Extensions
Aghanim’s Scepter – Aghanim’s Scepter gives you some good stat gain - +10 all stats, 250 health, and 150 mana – all of which is a nice boost for a squishy hero like Techies.
However, as with all Aghanim’s Scepter purchases it is not bought for the stats, but for the buff it supplies to your ultimate. On Techies it increases the damage dealt by Remote Mines from 300/450/600 to 450/600/750 and increases the cast range from 500 units to 700 units. Given the strength of Remote Mines and Techies’ heavy reliance on its burst damage, Aghanim’s becomes a great luxury option.
Force Staff – Force Staff is more a utility option. Its active has both offensive and defensive uses on Techies. When it comes to using it defensively, it will help to mitigate your poor movespeed and lack of innate positioning ability. It's also great for clutch escapes and gives you some team-based utility (i.e. you can use Force on allied heroes if they’re caught out of position).
Offensively, it is often used on Techies to force an enemy into one of your Mine fields or Stasis Traps. The most well-known counter to Techies is True Sight (typically from a Gem or from Necronomicon Level 3), but those won’t save even a cautious enemy hero from your Force Staff. If a ranged hero is dewarding one of your Mine fields from a distance you can really punish them with Force Staff and force them into the heart of the Mine field they’re attempting to deward.
Boots of Travel – On most heroes BoTs are a situational late game item that allow you to combine your TP Scroll slot with your Boots to free up inventory space, although there are a few notable exceptions like Tinker who purchase it much earlier. On Techies they’re a popular luxury pick-up, and not just a post-luxury option.
Techies excels at creating fear around the map, planting his various Mines and Stasis Traps in key locations that span the entire map. BoTs allow you to move around the map planting them as and where they’re needed much more efficiently and also turn you into something of a split pusher thank to your Land Mines’ effectiveness at clearing creep waves and damaging structures.
Post Luxury Options
By now you almost have a full inventory. The following items are good candidates for that final item slot or two, and can also be used to situationally replace one of your current items (for example, Soul Ring can be sold off once you have your core if you need the space, and BoTs will free up a slot).
Scythe of Vyse - A fantastic luxury item for any intelligence hero. Good stats, fantastic mana regeneration, and 3.5 seconds of enemy disable which will be great for teamfights and/or escaping. The prohibitive cost is what makes it a post-luxury option as opposed to a luxury one.
Orchid Malevolence - It gives you a great boost of damage, attack speed, and mana. The added mana and mana regen allow you to use your abilities more liberally and the active 'Soul Burn' will allow you to silence an enemy hero and for your team to deal significantly more damage for its duration. Highly recommended if you’re forced to get involved directly in teamfights, otherwise you’re better off with something like a Scythe or even a Necronomicon if you go full-on rat mode.
Shiva’s Guard - The armour will go a good way to making you a bit tanky, while the aura is great to have for your team. You also gain a nice chunk of intelligence (always helpful for Techies; both as a way to increase damage and maintain your mana pool). You can also use the Arctic Blast AoE nuke to damage and slow enemies in teamfights or to quickly burst down creep waves if split pushing.
Bloodstone - Bloodstone is usually the perfect item for a caster in need of tanking up, but it’s not particularly popular on Techies because his direct involvement in teamfights is minimal, and so a lot of Bloodstones potential teamfight benefits are lost on him. However, it gives a huge 500 health and 400 mana, as well as enormous health and mana regeneration, all of which is nice to have on Techies. The Bloodpact passive will further increase your mana regeneration, as well as reduce the amount of gold lost upon dying and the respawn timer, and will heal allies in a 1675 radius when you die.
Skill Build
Land Mines is a composite damage nuke. It is skilled and maxed first. Land Mines allows Techies to plant an invisible mine which deals up to 300/375/450/525 physical damage to targets that are within 200 units of the mine after a 1.75 second activation delay. Units that are within 500 units are also damage, but for half of these damage totals.
Techies is able to plant a maximum of 20 mines of the battlefield, with any additional ones above 20 causing the oldest to explode. Land Mines has a 19/16/13/10 second cooldown on planting.
Stasis Trap is an AoE stun. It is skilled last but maxed second. As with Land Mines, this ability allows you to play an invisible trap which stuns enemy units within a 450 unit AoE of the trap once triggered for 2.5/3/3.5/4 seconds, making it the joint longest disable in the game. Stasis Trap has a 2 second activation delay after being deployed, and a 2 second detonation delay after being triggered.
Each Stasis Trap has a duration of 360 seconds and the ability has a cooldown of 20/16/13/10 seconds.
Suicide Squad, Attack! is, as the name implies, a suicide ability. It is skilled second (one point early on), but maxed last. It allows Techies to deny himself by blowing up, dealing burst physical damage in a small AoE.
The damage dealt by Suicide Squad, Attack! depends on how close to target is to Techies when he explodes. If the unit(s) are within 200 units then it deals 500/650/850/1150 physical damage. If the unit(s) are within 500 units but not 200, then it deals 260/300/340/380 composite damage.
Techies’ ultimate, Remote Mines, is a burst magic damage nuke that is similar to his Land Mines ability. It is always skilled (levels 6, 11 and 16). As with Land Mines, this ability allows you to plan an invisible mine. However, while Land Mines explode only once an enemy unit comes in range of them, Remote Mines are manually triggered.
Once triggered, the Remote Mine(s) explode, causing 300/450/600 (450/600/750 with Aghanim’s Scepter) magic damage within a 500 unit AoE (700 units with Aghanim’s Scepter). Each Remote Mine has a 10 minute duration, and the ability itself has a 10 second cooldown.
Gameplay Tips
Since you can have up to 20 Land Mines on the map, but can only place one every 19/16/13/10 seconds, a common tactic is to plant them in a concentrated location that is likely to be accessed to enemy players but not necessarily during the early laning phase. That way when an enemy hero eventually comes within range they will be insta-killed. Popular spots for Land Mines include rune spawning points, chokepoints, the top of inclines, the secret and side shops, and popular juking spots.
However, it is important that when your goal is to plant Land Mines in this way as ‘traps’ that you do not do so at the expense of acquiring experience and gold. Many Techies players will focus so heavily on mining the map that they fail to get experience and gold, and quickly fall behind all other players in the game.
Land Mines damage both enemy heroes and creeps, making them good anti-push devices, as they will quickly kill off creep waves. They also damage buildings, making them good pushing tools if you’re able to plant them close enough.
Land Mines provide a small amount of vision (64 units, both day and night), so they can used as mini wards as well as nuke traps. Rune spots, Roshan’s pit, and near to Ancient spawns are popular places to plant the odd Land Mine purely for the information that small amount of vision can provide your team. The same is true of Stasis Traps (400 sight range) and Remote Mines (700), however both of these time out.
| Tip: Land Mines also block neutral camp spawns, so they can be used to hinder an enemy’s jungle progression. It is the only ability of Techies which does block spawns. |
Stasis Trap has the joint longest stun duration of any ability in the game once maxed – a full 4 seconds – however it has both a lengthy activation delay of 2 seconds and a detonation delay of 2 seconds, which can make it difficult to successfully land on someone. The two most common tactics for overcoming this downside is:
1 – To purchase Eul’s Scepter of Divinity, so that you can plant Stasis Trap and Mines on their position, ensure they become active whilst the enemy is in the air, and then detonate them once the hero falls back to earth.
2 – To plant them ahead of time – Stasis Traps last 360 seconds – in an area where you expect the enemy to travel/push/fight. If your team follows up on its detonation then it actually becomes a fantastic initiation tool. It can also be a great escape mechanism for your allies, allowing them to make safe retreats.
It’s even possible to get a lengthy 8 second duration stun out on enemy targets using Stasis Traps – If an enemy triggers a previously placed Stasis Trap you can then place a new one on them just before the stun debuff ends.
| Tip: Stasis Trap can be used on Roshan, allowing for a handy 4 second stun on him, which can be very useful for teams attempting to kill him early on. |
Suicide Squad, Attack! is a powerful nuke, but its effectiveness is largely contingent on you managing to trigger it within 200 units so that its full damage is dealt. If you expect to die anyway then it is worth using simply as a means of denying yourself, but you should avoid over-using it/using when it’s not strictly necessary, as although your death timer is reduced by half it will still set you back greatly in terms of GPM and XPM.
| Tip: Suicide Squad, Attack! is often used to ensure you get First Blood. Since denies do not count for First Blood purposes you can use this to finish off an enemy hero after a bit of harass. Yes, you die as well, but the enemy team will not get experience or gold for your death, whilst you’ll get the First Blood bounty. |
Remote Mines will only activate if triggered, so it is important that you keep an eye on them and look out for opportunities to trigger them. There are two means of triggering your Remote Mines:
1 – Using the Focussed Detonate ability (defaults to the D button on your keyboard). This will detonate any Remote Mines in 700 radius around a target area.
2 – Using the Pinpoint Detonate ability (defaults to the Q button but you have to select the mine first). This will detonate that particular Remote Mine only.
Only the latter can be used whilst you’re dead (which means you can continue to have a large impact on fights even when dead); the Focussed Detonate Ability only works if you’re alive.
| Remember: Even when triggering, Remote Mines have a 1.5 second cast delay but only an explosion radius of 425, so you need to time their activation carefully. |
While Remote Mines deal magic damage (and are therefore blocked by Spell Immunity), the damage from both Suicide Squad and Land Mines is composite, which means it affects units through Black King Bar – so do not be put off someone triggering Black King Bar against you, it is no great defence!
Last Updated - Patch 6.83.
