Introduction
“Oh look! A guinea pig.”
Tinker is a ranged intelligence carry. Unlike most carries, his power comes primarily from dealing burst spell damage, but where many other nukers scale off in the late game Tinker only becomes stronger thanks to his ultimate, which refreshes the cooldowns on his items and abilities – this makes a good Tinker player almost unstoppable.
Tinker is also famed for being one of, if not the best split pusher and anti-pusher in the game, thanks to March of the Machines.
You can find Tinker's complete character profle here.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- High burst damage
- Amazing anti-pusher
- Can delay a game better than any other hero
- Great split-pusher
- Incredible single target lockdown late game
- Becomes a global presence
Cons
- Needs a lot of farm
- Needs Boots of Travel asap
- Really high skill floor and incredibly high skill ceiling
- Poor attack animation
- Very mana reliant
Item Build
Tinker is almost always laned mid, as this allows him to secure an early set of Boots of Travels. In public matchmaking he will sometimes jungle (either stacking one camp and using March to clear both it as well as a nearby camp, or by stacking a clearing Ancient camps with March of the Machines), but this is very, very risky – if the enemy supports decide to block the spawns or otherwise disrupt your farming you’ll have a very tough time of it.
Starting Items
Assuming a standard mid lane, or even side lane scenario (it’s viable, but unusual), the following is a solid starting build:
- A set of Tangos, Healing Salve, 4x Iron Branches.
This gives you good starting stats as well as plenty of regen to see you through the first few creep waves. It also leaves you a nice chunk of gold to help get an early Bottle.
Early Game
Tinker’s early game items are minimal – his main goal is to get Boots of Travel as quickly as possible. There are a couple of must-haves though:
Bottle rush is the standard opener for Tinker. You’ll also want some early Boots of Speed and then shoot for a Soul Ring.
Magic Wand is optional – if you don’t want to waste the Iron Branches you bought earlier then you can upgrade them – although Bottle and Soul Ring on their own are sufficient once you’ve got your Boots of Travels up and running.
Core Items
There is only one core item for Tinker – Boots of Travel. They are absolute core on any good Tinker. Tinker’s early and mid game impact will largely be measured by how quickly he is able to get his BoTs and to then start being active around the map using them. The sooner you get them built the better, and that’s why his early game item list is quite spartan, as it allows him to rush BoTs.
Why are Boots of Travel so important on Tinker? There are a few reasons: - They allow him to teleport to towers and creep waves, and from there use March of the Machines to help fend off pushes and to push the creep wave out. - They give him a global ganking presence. He can teleport in, then cast Missile for long range burst damage, and March to help zone enemy forces out. If he’s close to the actual engagement Laser can be used to blind an enemy core. - He is able to teleport in and out of lanes with speed and efficiency. By using Rearm you reset the cooldown on BoTs, allowing you to coming on, spam March of the Machines, and then move on to the next target location.
Luxury Items
Scythe of Vyse – Tinker is the best hero in the game to purchase Scythe of Vyse on. Scythe is rightly regarded as the best late-game item for any intelligence carry/semi-carry, and that’s equally the case here – good stats, high mana regeneration, and 3.5 seconds of enemy disable, but Tinker’s Rearm makes it simply that much better on him compared to any other hero. Yes, Rearm refreshes the cooldown on Scythe’s Hex, which means that you can – in theory – constantly Hex a single target, making Scythe simply incredible on Tinker.
Blink Dagger – The other high priority luxury pick up for Tinker is Blink Dagger. Blink Dagger allows you to teleport to creep waves and towers in what may otherwise be risky moves, as you can shift queue Tinker to Blink into the trees to one side of the tower/creep wave and from there cast March of the Machines in relative safety. Without a Blink Dagger Tinker’s job of keeping waves pushed out and towers defended can be very risky if the enemy team decides to attempt a gank.
On top of that, Blink Dagger gives you superior positioning capability in teamfights/skirmishes, and allows you to chase more effectively. Often fights will also take place some distance away from a creep wave or tower (such as in one of the jungles or near Roshan), and a Blink Dagger will allow you to get to the fight quickly, even if you’re on the other side of the map when it breaks out – simply TP to the nearest tower or creep wave and Blink forwards from there.
Shiva’s Guard – After BoTs, Blink and Scythe are always the top priority luxury items. After that the options open up considerably. A good all-round option is Shiva’s Guard – the high armour will help tank you up a bit, while the high intelligence gain will help out hugely when it comes to maintaining your ability and Rearm spam.
It’s also got great teamfight utility, primarily thanks to the -25 attack speed aura on enemies, and also for the active (a 200 damage nuke and 40% movement speed slow that lasts 4 seconds), which is great to slowing fleeing enemies and dealing a large area of effect slow and nuke in skirmishes. As with all items that have actives, this is also refreshed by Rearm, so you can use it multiple times.
Dagon – 400-800 additional burst damage… in active form, which means you can refresh the cooldown using Rearm. Dagon is very much a viable late-game option on Tinker, for the same reasons his other burst abilities maintain relevance – because of the ability to use it multiple times in engagements thanks to Rearm.
While Dagon usually trails off in effectiveness on most heroes that pick it up, it doesn’t on Tinker, and so IS a solid item to go for.
Ethereal Blade – If you do go the Dagon route, you’ll definitely want an Ethereal Blade next, in order to further magnify your burst damage output. Ghost Scepter on its own is a fantastic luxury item on Tinker anyway, because it’s a great counter to physical DPS’ers and will buy you time to Rearm and refresh the cooldowns on your other items and abilities.
Situational Items
A six slotted Tinker will probably look something like this: Boots of Travel, Blink Dagger, Scythe of Vyse, Shiva’s Guard, Dagon, Ethereal Blade, but there are some alternative options:
Eul’s Scepter of Divinity & Force Staff – These first two items tend to be thought of as situational, low-cost alternatives to Scythe and Blink Dagger, respectively. Eul’s is considered something of a poor man’s Scythe (high mana regeneration and a pseudo-disable), while Force Staff gives you a lot of the mobility advantages of a Blink Dagger whilst also allowing for some team-wide utility. The downside of Force Staff is that it destroys trees, and so will not afford you the same level of protection as a Blink Dagger when using your BoTs to travel into a potential dangerous situation, and for this reason I do not recommend it as an alternative on Tinker (it can make for a great addition, however).
Manta Style – Perhaps an unexpected item to list on an intelligence carry, but nonetheless a very solid situational item to consider. Why Manta on Tinker? For one key reason – it removes silence, and vulnerability to silence is one of Tinker’s biggest weaknesses.
Black King Bar – Another rare item on Tinker, but situationally great. If you find yourself being nuked down or stun-locked then the Spell Immunity from Black King Bar will prove a life-saver in teamfights. Note that Rearm does NOT refresh the cooldown on BKB.
Aghanim’s Scepter – Aghanims is a lot of fun to get on Tinker, but it’s not really all that good on him unfortunately. Actually, that’s not quite accurate – it does give you good buffs, but you only have 6 item slots and anything that you replace Aghanims with is much more useful on Tinker. For this reason it’s not really recommended unless you just want to see the buffs to Tinker’s abilities in action and mess around a bit – a total of 4 Heat-Seeking Missiles instead of 2, and double the range on your Laser. If you have 8 item slots it would be well worth considering, as things stand, however, it should be avoided if you’re playing for real.
Linken’s Sphere – The same applies to Linkens as it does to Aghanims – there’s almost always a better alternative you should be purchasing instead. The two exceptions here are: 1) You’re not confident in your ability to use 6 active items and want to have a passive item in your inventory. 2) You’re being targeted with a disable that goes through Spell Immunity, such as Primal Roar.
Skill Build
Tinker has two very distinct skill builds. Which you go for will depend a lot on your play style and also how confident you are in your ability to split push/your skill level.
The most common build at present is the March build (shown above) – this has you maxing March of the Machines first, followed by Heat-Seeking Missile. Your role here is to use your Boots of Travel largely to push out the lanes, defend towers, and split-push. It is the more defensive, less combat-oriented skill build.
The other build is the nuker build (shown below), which is naturally very popular in public matchmaking because of its high burst potential, but it is almost never used competitively. Here you max Heat-Seeking Missile and Laser for maximum burst potential, and you use your Boots of Travel to help gank, rather than split-push. March is maxed last. Be warned that in higher levels of matchmaking this build will often attract criticism from teammates.
Laser is a single target nuke which also Blinds the target. It is always skilled first but tends to be maxed last or second. It deals pure damage to the tune of 80/160/240/320 and also Blinds (i.e. causes the target to miss with their attacks 100% of the time) for 3 seconds. It has a 14 second cooldown and costs 95/120/145/170 mana to cast.
Laser is a great nuke at all stages of the game as it deals pure damage, it is also great for establishing lane control early on (by Blinding the enemy laner, causing them to miss out on creep kills/denies) and for being a thorn in the side of enemy cores in the mid and late game.
Heat-Seeking Missile is Tinker’s other nuke ability. This one deals 1125/200/275/350 magic damage to up to two enemy heroes that are within 2500 range of Tinker.
Although it deals less damage than Laser to each target (Laser deals pure damage), as it can hit two enemy heroes at incredible long distances it tends to be maxed first or second.
March of the Machines is an area of effect, damage over time ability. It spawns a small army of robots that travel alone a wide area dealing universal damage to any units or heroes they come into contact with. This tends to be maxed first by high skill players (including professional players), and last in lower ranks of matchmaking.
March of the Machines deals a high amount of damage over time, with each robot dealing 16/24/32/40 damage. It is not until heroes become extremely farmed in the late game that they will be able to stand in March of the Machines spam without watching their health quickly melt away, and for this reason it is an amazing anti-push ability that can help a team defend against base pushes for a very long time.
Tinker’s ultimate, Rearm, is skilled once when you acquire your Boots of Travel (so that you can begin teleporting around the map and then back to base straight away). It resets the cooldown on all of Tinker’s abilities and most items. It is not maxed until you acquire a Scythe of Vyse or some other high intelligence gain and mana regeneration item, as its mana cost becomes extremely prohibitive with additional levels (150/250/350 respectively).
Rearm is what allows Tinker to have both a global presence and also allows him to become a carry later on in the game. With Rearm you not only reset the cooldowns on your abilities (allowing you to spam your nukes and/or March of the Machines in teamfights), but also your items (so you can, for example, hex a target with Scythe indefinitely).
Gameplay Tips
Laser allows you to frustrate you mid lane opponent. Using Laser on them as creeps approach low life is a great way to ensure they miss out on crucial last hits and/or denies, in turn making your job of last hitting a bit easier. It can even be used to secure last hits on a creep if necessary.
The enemy carry or high physical DPS cores should be your priority target(s) for Laser in mid and late game teamfights – the 3 second 100% miss chance on their attacks can be crucial.
Laser & Heat-Seeking Missile is Tinker’s bread-and-butter burst damage combo. With both at level 4 you’ll deal 670 damage to a single target, 320 of which is pure damage. As with other burst damage heroes like Zeus, less experienced players will often under-estimate the damage output from your combo – try to lure them into a false sense of security, chipping away slowly at their health bar with auto-attacks. As soon as you feel they’re within kill threshold of your combo go in for the kill.
March of the Machines is a hugely versatile ability. A few of its most vital uses:
- Clearing creep waves. Teleport to a creep wave or tower and cast March of the Machines in anticipation of the creep wave. A March wave or two will quickly clear it and push the lane out
- Tower and base defences. March is fantastic at zoning out enemy pushes – as soon as they see a couple of March of the Machines waves almost any team composition will be forced to back off or wait outside of its range for the duration to end. Keep up the March spam during base sieges to dissuade enemy aggression.
- Teamfights. March has a large 900 unit radius. Although there is a slight delay between casting it and the machines appearing, it’s still well worth casting it in anticipation of, or during, teamfights – it deals huge amounts of damage.
- Stack clearing. March allows Tinker to quickly and easily clear jungle stacks, although not ancient stacks as of patch 6.82. If mid laning on Radiant always try to stack the nearby jungle if there’s some down-time in the lane, and then come back later to clear them once you’ve levelled March of the Machines and Rearm.
March of the Machines now deals magic damage (it used to deal 'Universal'). This means it no longer deals damage through Spell Immunity and so cannot be used on Ancients.
Rearm resets the cooldowns on all of Tinker’s abilities and most item actives. The few exceptions to this rule are: Black King Bar, Arcane Boots, Helm of the Dominator, Hand of Midas, Refresher Orb, Linken’s Sphere, Bottle, Necronomicon.
Learn how to shift queue – it’s pretty much essential for a good Tinker player, as it will limit your vulnerability to ganks following BoT usage (BoT > Blink into the trees) and will prevent you from interrupting the channelling of Rearm, as well as minimise wasted time between using Rearm and using your abilities.
Once you have Boots of Travel and a Soul Ring you can teleport to lanes, cast March of the Machines a couple of times, and then teleport back to the fountain straight away. Rinse repeat to keep lanes pushed out and the enemy team busy, as well as quickly increase your gold income. Add in a Bottle to accelerate your regeneration in the fountain as well as to allow for an extra set of skills out in the field. Remember that Rearm will refresh the cooldown on your Soul Ring.
Last Updated - Patch 6.83.
