For the oncoming Techies release, some anti-techics tactics

 

It's a little early, but I'm leaving on vacation shortly and won't have time to write this later. I've been a rather loud advocate that Techies is a steaming pile of trash, but whatever. Either way, he's coming, and for those of you who haven't dealt with him, here's a partial overview of his issues, and how to best exploit them.

Laning issues- Techies does not last hit.

Seriously. This guy is like Lina and Shadow Fiend had a baby and then dropped it down the stairs. 28-31, 700 range, 0.5/0.5 animation, and 900 missile speed. It's awful.

His entire laning presence is based on using normal mines to last hit creeps with their high damage(300/4/5/6 with mixed damage and scaling based on distance), and maybe the possible threat of suicide, or the backup of a stun trap somewhere. This is very easy to exploit.

First, mines cost 125 mana at level 1, and only go up(and they must go up if he wants any CS). Techies has MAJOR mana issues early game, and interrupting a Clarity/Bottle/killing a courier can just ruin him for quite a long time. Techies is surprisingly farm dependent, and his mines will let him eventually pull quite a bit out of the map, but shutting him down in the lane isn't very hard.

Further, it's a melee range skill, with a 25/20/15/10 second cd and a small startup time before it can do anything. If you know anything about 1v1 mid, you should be able to MURDER him for using this. Always punish a Techies walking up to the wave by dropping as much damage as you can on him. Don't let him get stuff for free

The only other threats he shows in the laning phase is either mine stacks(which leave him underleveled if not in lane, and take forever to setup with low level mines), suicide, and stun wards.

Suicide is basically a 1 trick pony. It's a threat early, but whatever. Later it's a joke, and while there's some interesting gimmick strats(yeah you're going to see tiny bombs a lot), in the end Techies players that max Suicide are 90% of the time dead weight come mid game. Just watch out for it early levels(unless you're someone like Templar Assassin, in which case you can just laugh at him).

Stun traps are what he should be leveling, and there's not a whole lot you can do about it other than either know where they are, or bring detection(Zeus should wreck his face honestly). They take FOREVER to setup(1 second cast time + 2 second "need to be in the area" time which is NOT the full AOE), but once they're down they can be obnoxious. A smart Techies will have one somewhere near his tower to ensure you don't dive him(or if you do you'll die for certain). Just be aware these are a 3 second stun, scaling up to 6.

They can lead to teamwipes mid game if he's leveling them, but there's ways to deal with that.
Jungle- there's a few strats(which are actually hurt by the change in starting game time), but the short version is, if they have a Techies , and he's not in lane, and you can check the jungle with a summon, go for it. A few Lycanthrope Summon Wolves/Treant Protector/edilons/etc will ruin his entire plan. Generally just check the large camps.

Rest of the game- Summons+detection = miserable Techies .

I'm not going to write out everything you could do, because it's quite a long list, but the short version is that things like Necronomicon 3 just ruin his life, and a single sentry ward dropped mid fight can let you destroy a stasis trap before it triggers(which is arguably one of his biggest threats). Don't be all melee and don't barrel down mid blind and you should be fine. It helps that necro 3 isn't the dead weight it used to be.

It's worth noting that anyone who'd normally do the ward clearing is probably a good person to de-mine the field as well, although be aware that you CANNOT walk up hill blind, so it might need to be someone with more farm, or you can just get your veno a gem.

Pipe of Insight and Assault Cuirass can also help you just tank through the clusters, although it's not that hard for him to hit the point of no return on his stacks where you're just going to die(and while in a comp game he's likely to not get levels, there's usually one person walking headfirst into clusters).

Blade Mail is also funny, although not tremendously legit if the Techies is smart.

In the end, he's like a less versatile Keeper of the light. Going uphill vs him is miserable, but he becomes very very weak after the 20 min mark.

His other threats- If he's smart he's going to get some small mana items first(Bottle/Soul Ring) and then transition either into utility(guins/necro/whatever) or offense(Aghanim's Scepter+Eul's Scepter of Divinity). DO NOT underestimate how much money he can pull out of the map if he's played well and left alone. If you keep on them and ward their jungle it should be fine, but if you continue to treat him as a non-factor after a point, he can bring a ton item based disruption to a fight.

Also be aware that Aghanim's Scepter+Eul's Scepter of Divinity does let him pose a semi legit threat without setup. Aghanim lets him drop mines at your feet from a respectable distance, and a 600 damage AOE nuke is nothing to ignore. Eullets him setup hits solo, although he lacks in followup unless he either blows up or you stand around and let him get a stun ward off.

Finally, heroes- Almost everyone who can summon (maybe not Broodmother or Lone Druid)

Vision/detection heroes- Zeus is one of the only heroes who gives non targeted truesight, and heroes like Beastmaster/Night Stalker can just ruin his ramp mining (although Night Stalker has issues getting rid of them). Venomancer is such a pain in the ass for a Techies if he can get enough farm for constant detection (or pair with someone who can).

Strong laners- Techies players tend to thrive on just leeching xp/tanking through the early game as best they can, and then trying to go off. Don't let them. Techies mid is actually somewhat legit, but it's easily the most all in mid ever. If you can either shut him down with someone like Templar Assassin(who just doesn't care about single mine damage) or Sniper their crow(Bottle crowing is mandatory) you can easily set him so far behind its terrible, and it means you also get free farm for that lane usually.

I could do a lot more, and point out common spots and how to deal with them, and go over the various tricks he has, but in the end this should be enough for now. He's going to win games anyways because allies will walk into stuff, and maybe the mythical "pro Techies" actually exists and isn't just feeding off ignorance, but in the meantime if you're at a serious level the biggest threat I personally think he poses, is winding up on your team.

The thing about Techies mid is he is pretty easy to gank for, particularly against a melee hero. A good stun or strong slow allows him to land Stasis+Mine. He can also be run as part of a trilane potentially that has good setup disable (better for defensive since he can pull to get exp). The latter secures the carry's farm, since it is suicide to gank into a Techies.

Also, if he can get the mine down he can always get at least two CS a wave because lvl 1 mine does 300 damage to ranged creeps and 270 to melee ones. Punishing him for that isn't hard if you are ranged, but if you are melee you can't deal with it if he plays it right (you'll eat a mine to the face if you try).

Probably the best way to run a mid Techies is to use mines to instagib the enemy creepwave then farm and stack the jungle as you wait for the next wave while using a Soul Ring+Bottle to maintain the mana costs.

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