It is no secret that players sometimes express an immense amount of emotions (and a surprising swearing vocabulary) when playing Dota 2, and that is completely normal. One of the situations where emotions can emerge is when playing against Tinker. So if you want to piss your opponents off... here's a guide on how to play Tinker!
Boush is one of the oldest heroes in Dota 2 and is considered very complicated to master and play.
His main strengths are burst damage, very good objective defense, and lane push. He offers a lot in the game in terms of impact but that comes with a price – you need to spend countless hours of practice to play him decently.
In this guide, we will cover the basic things you should know before starting the grind/practice with Tinker such as leveling, stacking, item choice, and so on.
Skill Builds
There are two skill builds that people like when it comes to Tinker. One is in the picture below, considered to be the standard build. There, you prioritize your march with 2 levels in the laser to harass/deny creeps. This skill build allows you to safely farm your core items without engaging and contesting in the laning stage.
Lately, the well-respected Tinker players in the high MMR bracket like to abuse the Level 1 W where you are doing 125 damage for 80 mana. This allows you to focus a bit more on the lane and the enemy midlaner and slowly harass him out or even kill him eventually.
There's not much experimenting going on in terms of Tinker's talents. So for a safe bet, use the talents on the left, they're the more stable ones (and in 85% of the cases, the better ones).
Item Builds
These are the timings and builds you should usually opt-out to get. You need to have a Sythe for the first one to lock down a core.
The second one is where you want to stomp over enemies and be a very heavy burster for your team.
Tinker's core items are:
- Travels
- Bottle/Soul Ring
- Blink
- Aether Lens
The other items depend on the game and the needs that you will have as it progresses.
Stacking/Farming
Tinker requires two very important mechanical skills that will determine how good you are as a Tinker player.
One of them is the mechanical skill of combining the spells/items as fast as possible and knowing where to blink and who to focus on first.
The second skill is the farming one, which is ESSENTIAL since you are playing a hero that can be at any place on the map. With an AOE spell to clear out waves/camps, you have to be in front of the enemy in terms of net worth at any stage to maximize your efficiency.
- READ MORE: Dota 2 Item Guide: Blade Mail
Double-Stacking with Tinker
In the next 3 pictures, we will show a very cool trick that you should use to abuse your E to double-stack camps and maximize your efficiency in the game.
This is the Dire (right-click) double stack that is pretty standard nowadays.
You hit the medium camp at 52, run towards the big camp, hit or laser it at 55, and run north-west.
This ensures a double stack that you can later farm to reach your Travel timing.
This is another Dire side stack but this time, you need to use your march to stack and align your hero in the same position as in the picture above. Use the march in that direction at 54, and you will double stack the two big camps (prioritize this one!)
This is the Radiant double stack – you use marches at 54, in the same direction as shown in the picture.
When To Pick Tinker, and When Not To
A good Tinker game is a game where the enemy doesn't have the Global/Long-range catch to stop you from farming or casting your spells in a team fight. The most common heroes to avoid are Zeus, Spectre, Clockwork, Broodmother (for the lane), and Storm Spirit.
Tinker is a very flexible hero that can be played well even versus counters with the proper item choice. Your impact will be reduced, but you will still be a thorn in the side of your enemies.
Don't be shy about buying Force Staff or Black King Bar when the game requires you to have it. The early Scythe of Vyse can also be of great use when you're being countered.
That's it for this guide, we hope it will make playing Tinker easier for you. Don't forget to watch some Tinker players to keep up with the current meta.
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