Advice on a build for Clockwerk

 

Position and Role

Your role as Clockwerk will be controlling the tempo of the game

You are very adapt at getting solo kills on supports and your initiation in team fights can make or break it for your team. Because you are a strength hero you are quite durable and with Power Cogs and Hookshot you can save allies a lot of the time. Rocket Flare should be used to counter push and scout Roshan or other locations like checking ancient stacks, it can also be used to block jungle camps from spawning with some training.

Your presence isn't actually that global, since Hookshot obviously isn't global and Rocket Flare doesn't deal enough damage to be a huge threat

Nonetheless you are still a deadly force and your enemy needs to play around the possibility of your initiating any moment because the range of Hookshot is just way too large.

Your position within the team will usually be at 3 and rarely 2. As a role 3 you will play on the off lane. That means you get very little gold in most cases, but quite a bit of experience. Clockwerk is a strong off lane hero and can easily kill certain carries who aren't careful like Medusa, Faceless Void, etc. basically some of the scariest heroes late game are easy targets for Clockwerk because they are incredibly weak early game since they require so much farm. From the off lane you often transition into a roaming ganker because you can't farm well and you don't benefit greatly from farm like other heroes do.

As a role 2 you take the position of mid

Clockwerk works surprisingly well in mid because you can farm with Rocket Flare and with an early lvl6 you become a huge threat to your opponent, most of the time though you want an even stronger mid that is better at setting up ganks earlier or more reliably. When you are playing you also want to use Power Cogs to burn your opponents mana and reduce his options to make plays or go for ganks. In this situation Rocket Flare should also be used to scout for runes, usually the bottom rune since top is easier to scout yourself.

Overall you want to play aggressive but you also have to display a lot of patience and wait for the right moment to separate your opponents with Power Cogs or land multiple-hero Hookshots.

Clockwerk Abilities

Battery Assault

This ability is your biggest strength because it deals a ridiculous amount of magic damage IF you are able to keep close to your opponent. At all levels this ability will last for 10.5seconds and fire every 0.7seconds which means it will hit 15 times. You may think of it as a weak ability because the damage numbers are low with 15/35/55/75 but if you look at the total damage dealt it's suddenly 240/560/880/1200 magical damage. You will mostly use this to get kills while trapping opponents in Power Cogs or to push waves because all of Clockwerk's abilities have relatively low cooldowns, from the normal abilities  Battery Assault has the longest cooldown with 20seconds.

Power Cogs

This is probably your most important ability because depending on how well you use it, it can literally destroy your team or win you every fight. Learning how to use Power Cogs properly is very difficult because there are a lot of uses for it and it's easy to screw up. You should always use Power Cogs to block the creep wave at the beginning of a game so you have an easier time gaining experience. Later on you will use Power Cogs to trap opponents, create blockades for either your escape or to stop your opponents or burn mana. Power Cogs has an important role when you play the 2. position because you will constantly use it to burn your opponent's mana away and interrupt their last hitting.

Rocket Flare

Since we already went over the most powerful and most important of your abilities, here is the most useful ability. You could argue that it is your bread&butter and much easier to use right in comparison to your other abilities. While in lane you can use it to get some last hits if you are getting zoned out or you can't reach the creep in time, you will also want to use it to counter push, while it doesn't deal a lot of damage it can still help push a wave when there is nobody there. Using Rocket Flare to scout is vital during mid and late game to get information about your opponent's location, Roshan pit, etc. In the off lane you can even use it to block the pull camp and make it easier for you to do your job.

Hookshot

Your ultimate and signature move is Hookshot. Even though it doesn't say so in it's tooltip it is an AoE stun and not only affects people that come into contact with Clockwerk. The damage and stun duration are in a lot of places neglectable because the important part is it's range. The range of Hookshot and the range of the hook all contribute to it's power because enemies are disabled UNTIL Clockwerk reaches them. This means you can add quite a big of duration to the 2seconds stun duration (at max level) of Hookshot. To put the range into comparison you can hook someone near your T3 towers and barracks all the way from within your fountain. This is important to keep in mind because it means you can hook people that aren't on your screen so be active with your camera and move around.

Item and Skill build

Starting Items

You always want to put your first skill point into Power Cogs, I haven't seen a situation where a different skill would be more beneficial. When the first creep wave spawns make sure to block them so they are closer together and then catch them all in your cogs. Towards the end of it's duration (5seconds) you want to destroy the cog at the back so the creeps will run back a little to get around the cogs giving you a few extra seconds of delay. With this and normal creep blocking you will almost always get the creep equilibrium in your favor.

Starting items in off lane should always include Tango + Healing Salve + Stout Shield. If you have random gold feel free to pick up a Ring of Protection here but usually you want a second Tango(for a total of 8 charges) because you want to have enough regen to outlast the enemie's lane.

Starting items in mid lane should always include  Stout Shield. If you have a nice team ask them to pull you a few Tangos(usually 2, but 3 is better) and go off your way. If nobody helps you then buy another Tango. You want to save as much gold as possible to buy a quick Bottle, although I don't recommend starting out with one.

Early Game

If you have an easy lane and you get last hits then I suggest you pick up a Ring of Basilius as the extra armor and mana regen will come in handy quite well (thus picking up RoP with random gold), because you will be able to go for better items instead and farm more. If you have a rough game or you play mid then Bottle is often the way to go. It gives you enough regen and allows you to steal the occasional rune.

As for skills you will want to skill Rocket Flare on lvl2 to be able to get easier last hits and block the pull camp (needs some training and timing) if you are off lane. It also gives you the option to scout the enemy jungle (if they have junglers), help out with ganks or scout for Roshan and runes.

Starting with lvl3 and all the way to lvl5 you want to skill  Battery Assault. Back in the day you would skill Rocket Flare to increase your chance to score a last hit, but that's not really necessary if you are good enough with the timing.  Battery Assault does absurd amounts of damage if you are able to get a target into your cogs alone, when you reach lvl5 you have a high kill potential if an enemy is out of position!

Your boots of choice will bePower Treads, again in a slow bad game the combination of Bottle + Power Treads gives you good sustain in lane while being efficient with your mana (don't forget tread switching). Power Treads also give you some really needed attack speed to make last hitting easier and helps increase your overall damage slightly. If you have a good game then early Arcane Boots can be your choice. Arcane Boots + Ring of Basilius will make you less survivable but that's not your concern since you are having a good game and you are farming. You can spam your abilities often and stay off the map for a long time.

Note : Tranquil Boots were almost always the way to go back then because you could make the parts into a Vladmir's Offering later on, but since they changed it you shouldn't built them anymore!

Mid Game

With lvl6 you will always put a skill point into Hookshot and start looking for gank opportunities. Always carry a tp scroll with you. Scoring a kill on an enemy support that tries to flank you is very easy now unless the enemy has a trilane or a lot of stuns and disables. You can also try to get a gank on mid or your safe lane. Max  Battery Assault by 7 and then max Rocket Flare to increase your damage and lower its cooldown.

Basically if possible, go get kills, otherwise just sit in lane and try to farm. It's a critical phase tbh because depending on your impact now you can completely take over the game or fall off really fast. It's also your only chance in a bad game to come back with the help of your allies. Team up with your supports and go for smoke ganks together if you are missing the damage yourself. Prime targets are supports like Crystal Maiden, Bane (although Nightmare sucks), Lich, etc. for solo kills or carries without escape abilities.

Item-wise if you are behind OR your enemy has a considerable amount of burst then Blade Mail is your choice. The problem with Blade Mail however is that it only works if you take damage, so if you are having a good game and you are dominating and don't take much damage while ganking, than skip over Blade Mail. If you are behind however or you die during ganks, then Blade Mail is a good choice.

After Blade Mail you want to build a Force Staff, especially if you skip Blade Mail, Force Staff should be your choice. It increases your mana pool by a good amount and opens up a whole lot of new options to you. First of all you can use Power Cogs now to single out an enemy like Ursa, Lifestealer, Doom, etc. because you can force yourself out of your cogs trapping the remaining opponent. It also allows you to keep up with your enemies to get more hits from  Battery Assault it helps your supports because you can force them into range for their stuns or help your carries by forcing them away or out of range of enemies and of course it helps you because you can force yourself up cliff,etc if you are escaping or chasing.

That is pretty much the core of any Clockwerk, with just those items you have everything you need to be an effective initiator and ganker. All items beyond this point are considered situational so I will put them into categories that you should few as slots, fill the remaining slots with one item from each category. The remaining skills are pretty much redundant, after you max Rocket Flare, you take Hookshot again at lvl11 and then max out Power Cogs last, stats at lvl15 and Hookshot at lvl16, after that only stats are left. Now all we can do is talk about more item choices.

Situational Items / Late game

Note: I am going to rank the items making the most useful the top and the least useful the bottom in each section, this is of course still situational but you should get it when to use which item.

Magic Immunity*

Since you are the initiator a Black King Bar will go a long way with you. It make getting kills on supports a lot easier and makes sure you can survive the initial onslaught of damage. If you own a Blade Mail make sure you use Blade Mail after Black King Bar or you might waste a lot of potential damage, in the best case scenario you take very little damage during Black King Bar and then when it stops you use Blade Mail while they try to burst you down. If your enemy has no or very little disables and magic damage than you can skip the Black King Bar and look at alternatives instead.

Pipe of Insight is the first alternative. If you intend to build a Pipe of Insight don't build a Blade Mail. It is very effective on Clockwerk because it lowers the magic damage you take and gives you much needed HP regen. If you intend to build a Pipe of Insight don't build a Blade Mail. Pipe of Insight should always be your choice if the enemy has only 1-2 hard disables and mostly nuke or continues damage like Lich, Venomancer, Crystal Maiden, Ancient Apparition etc. because the added magic damage block on your team is worth more than a few second of immunity for yourself.

Linken's Sphere is your second alternative. With the recent change it's actually an okay choice for Clockwerk because you can also give the magic block to your carry if you don't need it. The additional mana regen and health regen come in handy because it will allow you to stay active at all times. It also makes you a bit more tanky, but so does the Black King Bar so it's not a factor really. What's important though is thatLinken's Sphere, to be effective on Clockwerk, requires your enemies to have very few disables or targeted spells, like literally anything more than 1-2 is too many. It also doesn't protect you from continues damage like Venomancer's poison or Viper's poison so it scores the lowest of all options here.

Armor

Vladmir's Offering  will be your first choice as it increases your entire team's damage, armor, mana regen and every melee hero life steal. Honestly though, every team should have one of these late game. If you already built a Ring of Basilius early on then it's only natural to upgrade it whenever you have some extra money. Be careful though not to buy multiple of these for your team.

Assault Cuirass is another item you can get as a team player if you face heavy physical damage and are looking for a way to increase your team's damage and survivability. Clockwerk doesn't benefit too much from rightclicking since his overall attack is rather weak, but if you already have Vladmir's Offering  or no natural Assault Cuirass carrier you can buy it.

Shiva's Guard is the last alternative because it's another item that should be on every team during late game, but gets the least benefits from it. Yes, the armor is what you are looking for but the massive increase of your mana pool is completely unnecessary and a waste of stats tbh and the blast doesn't make up for it either. Again though, if you have no natural Shiva's Guard carrier than you should buy it because the aura is very helpful in late team fights.

Disables and Luxuries

Note: This section is special as it's the only one where buying multiple or even all of them is beneficial and a good choice.

Aghanim's Scepter is a really strong item especially if you are ahead. Usually you buy this quite early when you are ahead as your second or third major item. It lowers your cooldown for Hookshot to 12seconds! With the upgrade you can use Hookshot very liberate for example to travel faster by hooking creeps or allies. Don't worry too much about missing hooks anymore and just go nuts!

Heaven's Halberd is a really good choice against strong melee heroes like Ursa, Lifestealer, etc. If there is a hero that you need/want to trap then disarming is often just as useful, imagine trapping a Lifestealer for 8 second in cogs and after that you disarm him for 3 seconds, a Lifestealer that deals no damage for 11 seconds gives you enough time to deal with his team first. It also gives you a chance for a maim effect that makes chasing easier. Add to that the slightly increase in damage and survivability and most notably the dodge chance.

Orchid Malevolence is a really good late game choice because it increases your damage output slightly but more importantly it gives you much needed mana regen that you didn't get for the most part until now. Unfortunately it's not an early or mid game item because you don't have the burst to really benefit from the 30% extra damage and the build up doesn't benefit you either since it doesn't increase your survivability.

Note: This is about Boots of Travell. You should never buy them as your first item, even if you expect to teleport a lot. The farm you are missing is just too much, that could be a Force Staff for example, because you just gain no stats from this item and movement speed is rather useless because you often stand inside cogs. Another point is that when you buy Boots of Travel PLEASE don't sell your other boots right away except when you have no other free slot. It's okay to carry two boots around for a while. Too many times do I see people who sell their boots, buy Boots of Travel and then run around for 15minutes with an empty slot. You still gain all benefit like stats or mana from your other pair of boots but get the movement speed from Boots of Travel.

What is the optimal Clockwerk build?

Since your skill build doesn't really change in any scenario, all you have to worry about it are your item choices. Personally I like to get Bottle into Power Treads. Then build Force Staff into Black King Bar and then Aghanim's Scepter. This give you great utility and mobility. The remaining two slots I fill with whatever I need in the situation, usually I will build Vladmir's Offering and Orchid Malevolence so I never need to go back to base and just can keep hooking. I believe that is the strongest combination of items on Clockwerk.

Good combinations

Heroes, mostly supports, that work really well with Clockwerk are Skywrath Mage since enemies can't escape from your cogs (most of the time) he can easily ult them and so you can set up good ganks together. Crystal Maiden is another really helpful support because of her mana aura you can get Ring of Basilius + Power Treads and forget about Bottle completely allowing you to spam your skills almost right from the beginning. Those are the most important combinations in my opinion, as far as carries are concerned there isn't much to say about that. Anyone who is ranged usually works well with Clockwerk because they can hit the targets in cogs.

Bad partners for Clockwerk are obviously heroes that are melee or reposition enemy heroes and might pull them out of cogs like Pudge or Dark Seer.