In theory, Tinker should be a broken hero concept. Newfound versatility due to 7.30 Reworkħ.30 Tinker: Laser now an AoE nuke, March and Defense Matrix’ slots swapped, and Keen Conveyance teleportation (via Dota 2 Fandom) The rework frees up more item slots and combinations to fit a variety of team compositions. With a large enough mana pool and high mana regen, Tinker can Rearm items like Scythe of Vyse or Eul’s Scepter to chain disable an enemy. Tinker is one of the heroes that can reliably lockdown a hero indefinitely with the right items. Apart from those, Tinker can buy many items like Aghanim’s Scepter or Ethereal Blade to augment his burst potential even more. Laser is an AoE pure damage spell, Heat-seeking Missiles is a long-range homing nuke, and March of the Machines (Aghs’ Shard) is a lingering DPS ground targeted spell. Three of Tinker’s skills are all magic damage nukes. The downside is that a silence will now cancel his teleport channel. This meant that Tinker didn’t have to relegate 2450 of his early net worth into the item every game. Tinker’s Keen Conveyance is a sub-ability of his ultimate that functions essentially the same as BoT.
IceFrog was bored of Tinker’s one-dimensional BoT build so he gave him a built-in alternative. It also gives him a forgotten advantage, the ability to efficiently clear ancients again. It now nukes enemies for 320 pure damage in a small AoE, which means that he can clear a creep wave faster and earlier than March (which was turned into an Agh’s Shard upgrade). His modified Laser replaces March of the Machines as his main farming skill. Tinker can literally flash farm in 7.30 (get it? because Laser is light?). If Tinker gets an early lead, he can snowball into a 100% uptime global laser death machine with an arsenal of item add-ons like Dagon, Shiva’s Guard, Scythe of Vyse, and Aghanim’s Scepter. With enough resources, he can contribute a lot of burst damage, base/objective defense, and global lane push- a kit no other hero in the game reliably offers. Rinse and repeat.Īnd while a typical mid hero creates space for their team, Tinker can focus on becoming a spellcasting carry- choosing instead to farm gold and experience for himself in order to dominate the late game. The item allowed him to teleport to any allied creep or building, kill enemies or farm creeps, rearm its cooldown, and then return to the fountain to regenerate HP and mana. That is also why a big chunk of Tinker’s playstyle relies on Boots of Travel (BoT) which gives him global presence as well (This is now obsolete because of the 7.30 rework - more on that later). This means that if Tinker gets his core items, he can be ready to fight anytime. The skill is only offset by a short channeling duration and high mana cost. The concept of the hero is built around his ultimate, Rearm, which allows him to reset the cooldown of all his skills and most of the items in the game.