Inside Look at Competitive Techies - Build Guide Techies Dota 2

 

So there's been a lot of people decrying the addition of  Techies to the roster saying about how he's actually a useless hero, countered by a 250g item, countered by Gem of True Sight, no one serious will ever use him, the usual (further fueled by the recent showing in the Allstar game that played him extremely weirdly) - so I decided to actually write up an inside look at the competitive history of Techies and his effect on the game and how we might see him used in the future.

HISTORY

Competitively he was used a few times in the North American scene (Merlini and Demon being the 2 notable players on him).

That said, the most famous and notable usage of Techies was in the SEA region where the team Pacific.BadBurn had such success with Techies during the GEST June tournament so large that other teams started respect banning Techies for the finals because he was securing their wins quite easily.

PROS & CONS / DRAFTING STRATEGY

• Strong pusher, one of the best deathball pushers in the game.
• Strong poker, one of the best pokers in the game that basically enables a "League of Legends"-esque offensive playstyle.
• Strong split pusher, he's not really the best but he can be freaking annoying since you either walk to him and hope to god he hasn't mined up or slow yourselves down removing stuff with sentries/Gem of True Sight, or you Town Portal on him and he will just Blink Dagger + Boots of Travel /Town Portal out and Suicide if you DO catch him. Indirectly this also means he's good at farming creep waves fast and he can get utility items pretty dang quick when played properly.
• His very nature forces the enemy team to spend lots of gold or else they will live in fear for the entire game.
• Due to Roshan Pit mechanics Techies basically scares the enemy team from every trying to take Roshan, and if they do they basically have to risk sacrificing a player to do it...and that's hoping he doesn't have Remote Mines inside the pit ready to blow on top of that.
• He also counters "ratdota" pretty hard.
• 2nd highest base armor in the game @ 6.96 (tied with Ogre Magi, only Terrorblade has more), highest base attack range in the game @ 700.
• Outside of poking people and doing some cool combos with other heroes he is incredibly useless in a direct confrontation, especially if it is short lived. If someone gets on top of him and he isn't near a Stasis Trap ready to blow, he will die because he is paper thin and his only real option out of using one of his utility items is to suicide.
• He has the lowest base damage @ 29-31 and slowest base movement speed in the game @ 270.
• He basically can't gank what-so-ever so your lanes NEED to win their lanes. His ultimate is a strong nuke but it's pretty terrible to gank with until you get Aghanim's Scepter.
• Rather than items countering him like people like to say, he is actually countered by more heroes than most any other hero in this game tbh. Sentry Ward/Gem of True Sight can be played around, but people throwing summons/illusions to disarm your mines can't be really.
• Can pretty much only play mid, needs XP & Gold heavily.

Drafting wise there's a few things to keep in mind

• Techies might force a Gem of True Sight buy, but if nothing else he will force a plethora of sentries. Avoid picking invisibility heroes...and if you're drafting against Techies you should do the same if you intend to buy a Gem of True Sight just in case if you lose it. This also means when drafting Techies that you should keep in mind that the other team will be more gold starved than normal, picking heroes who can secure their lanes very well and are strong during the early to mid game is a smart idea.
• Techies can't gank really. He's very much a Broodmother -esque hero and kind of pushes constantly, by himself early on and hopefully with your team later, although he can kind of split push - if the other mid leaves he will lose his tower pretty fast and if he stays Techies is a pretty rough hero to gank and if you pull off Suicide the gank won't even come with any Gold/XP rewards. If your sidelanes go bad and the other players can't help them recover, while Techies can stall the game he might not be able to recover it like a Tinker could. Techies is basically a "momentum" hero, if you're winning he will make you win MUCH MUCH faster, if you're losing while he can delay even harder than a Tinker might he can't really carry you out of it necessarily unless people make big plays, but he'll give you the space and time to at least attempt that.
• If you're going to deathball push strat you should try to pick up heroes who have strong poking skills - Bristleback/Kunkka/etc.
• Techies is mostly countered by anyone with a summon or illusions as they can just disarm all of his mines except for the Remotes. Solid examples include Phantom Lancer, Lone Druid, Lycanthrope, Enigma, Nature's Prophet, Chen/Enchantress, etc.
• Techies is also mostly countered by heal heavy teams since they prevent the poking deathball push strat he so favors from working nearly as well.
• Techies is also mostly countered by anyone where Blade Mail is an amazing pickup, like Clockwerk as it utterly wrecks him if he doesn't Eul's Scepter of Divinity himself out of it.

Techies SKILLS

 
 

Land Mines [Q]

Plants an invisible mine that explodes when an enemy nears. The explosion deals less damage if the target is farther away. When a new mine planted exceeds the mine limit, the oldest mine will explode.

Mana Cost: 125/150/175/205
Cooldown: 25/20/15/10
Damage Type: Composite
Range: 100
Max Mines: 20
Full Damage Radius: 200
Half Damage Radius: 500
Damage: 300/400/500/600
Activation Delay: 1.75

• If destroyed by attacks the mines still explode.
• Has 64/64 sight range.
• Stop neutral camps from spawning.
• Can damage structures.
• Deals 45.5% of the stated damage to Tier 1 and 2 Towers.
• Deals 40% of the stated damage to Tier 3 Towers.
• Deals 35% of the stated damage to Tier 4 Towers.
• Deals 62.5% of the stated damage to Ranged Barracks.
• Deals 52.6% of the stated damage to Melee Barracks and the Ancient.
• All of the above means that at Rank 4 of Land Mines it takes 5 mines to kill a Tier 1, 6 mines to kill a Tier 2, 7 mines to kill a Tier 3, 8 mines to kill a Tier 4, 4 mines to kill a Ranged Barracks, 5 mines to kill a Melee Barracks, and 14 mines to kill an ancient. Keep in mind that half damage radius applies to buildings so if you place mines in between the barracks or Tier 4s the amount needed is doubled

 

 

Stasis Trap [W]

Plants an invisible trap that stuns nearby enemy units when detonated.




Mana Cost: 80/110/140/160
Cooldown: 20/16/13/10
Range: 150
Activation Delay: 2
Detonation Delay: 2
Stun Duration: 3/4/5/6
Trigger Radius: 200
Stun Radius: 450
Trap Duration: 270/300/330/360

• Stasis Traps destroy all other Stasis Traps in the area when detonated.
• Cast time of 1 second.
• Invisible units can't activate the trap but will be affected by it.
• Has a 400/400 Sight Range

 

Suicide Squad, Attack! [E]

Sacrifice yourself for the greater good. Deals massive area of effect damage.



Mana Cost: 100/125/150/175
Cooldown: 180/170/160/150
Damage Type: Composite
Range: 100
Full Damage Radius: 200
Partial Damage Radius: 500
Full Damage: 650/850/1150/1550
Partial Damage: 350/400/450/500

• Your death timer is halved when you die this way.
• You are given Gold and XP for any kills earned with this skill.
• Counts as a Suicide and does not reward normal gold or XP to any hero.

 

Remote Mines

Plants an invisible mine that will only activate when triggered. Doesn't damage buildings.


Mana Cost: 200/240/300
Cooldown: 10
Damage Type: Magical
Range: 500 (700*)
Max Mines: 20
Explosion Radius: 400/410/425 (410/425/425*)
Damage: 300/450/600 (450/600/750*)
Activation Delay: 2
Mine Duration: 480 seconds

• If destroyed by attacks the mines still explode.
• Cast time is 1.5 seconds.
• Has 900/900 Sight Range.
• Adds a sub ability to detonate Remote Mines in an area that is global.
• Each mine can be clicked on and it has its own sub ability to detonate just that mine too.
  

Techies Skill Build

The pretty much set in stone Techies skill build is:

1. Land Mines
2. Stasis Trap or Suicide Squad, Attack! (which one you pick depends on the game state, Stasis Traps helps you basically ward spots you could get ganked from since they have 400 sight range, but Suicide could be helpful if you get all inned on, also depends on what kind of CC you'd be looking at from a Smoke gank.)
3. Land Mines
4. The skill you didn't take at level 2.
5. Land Mines
6. Remote Mines
7. Land Mines

From then on you will max Stasis Trap, take  Suicide Squad, Attack whenever you can, max ultimate of course.

Taking Suicide first like RTZ did during the Allstar game is basically only viable in a gimmick lane (Tiny + Techies) and Land Mines is something you will take first 99.9% of the time.

ITEM BUILD

For a starting item build you're pretty likely to just not buy anything to start with. You can just go mid, wait for the creeps to get slightly weak, drop a mine right next to them, and get your Bottle near instantly.

After Bottle you're going to want to pick up Soul Ring and Arcane Boots as your next pick ups. Having tons of mana regen is absolutely essential so you can keep pushing your lane and forcing the other mid to stay mid or lose their tower really fast.

The reason for Arcane Boots is because on Techies you should be Bottle crowing. If you're not as advanced and don't have the skill to Bottle crow, then you could opt for Tranquil Boots but you should just learn to Bottle crow fast because Arcane Bootss are MUCH BETTER on Techies, especially if you are pushing as a team. You can optionally pick up a Magic Wand here as well if you are playing against a team where that makes sense.

After having Bottle, Arcane Boots, and Soul Ring your next pick up is Aghanim's Scepter. This makes your ultimate completely ridiculous and turns it into a crazy poke skill.

Beyond Aghanim's Scepter you have many viable situational items including:

• Force Staff: Gives you a decent escape, lets you force people onto your mines.
• Blink Dagger: It's great on nearly everyone, solid pickup if you're going to be split pushing on your own.
• Eul's Scepter of Divinity: Solid defensive item, let's you guarantee a Suicide easier, you can also Eul's Scepter of Divinity someone close by and drop a Remote Mines and Land Mines and do extreme burst to them. Superb pickup if someone grabs a Blade Mail to try to kill you, since if you notice in time you can just Eul's Scepter of Divinity as they do it and not take any damage.
• Shiva's Guard: Helps you become tankier and the slow can be great at making your Stasis Traps more reliable to trigger. This is a very situational last pickup though usually, would only get if the game went on for way too long.
• Necronomicon: Actually not a bad pickup. At rank 3 you can use it to help remove sentries or counter any potential invis heroes and it can add quite a bit of damage for the team fights your deathball pushing encounters and also great for split pushing.
• Scythe of Vyse: Good on any INT hero, Techies isn't an exception.
• Bloodstone: Only buy this if you're INCREDIBLY ahead to where you don't really need to suicide, but this can give you unlimited mana pretty much which is great on Techies.
• Boots of Travel: Great for when you need to split push or deal with ratdoto.
• Refresher Orb: This is another "finisher" item for your inventory, it's extremely gimmicky but it does let you stun people for 18 seconds by Stasis Trapping, then Stasis Trapping again, then refreshing and Stasis Trapping him again.

Generally the average full item builds look like:

• Safe Deathball Push: Arcane Boots, Soul Ring, Bottle, Aghanim's Scepter, Force Staff, Scythe of Vyse
• Crushing the other team Push: Boots of Travel, Bloodstone, Bottle, Aghanim's Scepter, Force Staff, Scythe of Vyse
• Split Push/Defensive Build:  Boots of Travel, Blink Dagger, Force Staff, Aghanim's Scepter, Necronomicon, Shiva's Guard

Techies Playstyle

If there was a way to put this in big gigantic flashing capital levels I would.

DON'T ROAM AROUND SPAMMING MINES IN ONE SPOT HOPING FOR "LE EPIC TROLE XD" INSTANT KILL

This is the exact opposite of what you should do, especially early on.
Early game you want to just constantly pressure middle. Your goals are:

• Take the tower.
• Keep the enemy mid in middle as much as you can.
• Don't die, and if you do make sure it's a suicide.
• Use Stasis Traps to watch your flanks (and the rune spots if you're in a low level pub and someone isn't warding for you.)

When you hit Level 6, depending on what your draft is you can try to stack Remote Mines in one area and bait someone onto them and instantly kill them.

Mid game you should have your core 3 mana regen items and Aghanim's Scepter, at which point your team (hopefully smartly drafted) is going to want to force fights near tower. As Techies you're going to want to throw Remote Mines on the enemy team and combined with whatever "poking" skills your team has force the enemy team into one of two situations:

• Either they get aggressive and run towards you guys. If played right you should have this mined up, and this is why reveal doesn't counter properly played Techies. No one can do an actual team fight while disarming all the traps you have already set up, and if they try you will mitigate so much damage from your team that they will most likely win it.
• They back away from tower and you just destroy it really fast because mines/push team.

Keep in mind that the faster you destroy their towers the more room you have to mine and possibly catch someone out, which also makes the enemies situation even worse because now they're behind on towers AND have to buy reveal which puts them even more behind. Towards the mid game you can do some heavy mining if you want to because there will be more chances for "downtime" where your deathball is waiting for a cooldown or split pushing isn't as safe.

Mining Roshan during this time inside his pit is also a very good idea during these downtimes too.

When you opt to split push make sure you mine all the ways they can walk to you with Land Mines and Stasis Traps, and hopefully by this point you have Blink Dagger for this. Always carry a Town Portal, Suicide is only a last resort.

Late game you're either winning really hard at which point you will keep deathballing/split pushing or you're losing in which case you're going to want to just mine up lanes and delay the game as long as you possibly can with the intent of giving your other 4 allies space and chances to make a come back.

At level 16 with rank 3 Aghanim's Scepter ulti your ult will destroy creep waves so you should IDEALLY be spreading your ult barrels around in a lane then remote detonating them individually. This allows you to delay multiple lanes globally by using your previously setup R's in one lane while you Q another lane up. It also means that the instant you hit Level 16 you should be using your ultimate to flash farm as hard as you can to get big items.

HEROES GOOD WITH TECHIES 

Note: not all of them, but gives you some ideas

• Naga Siren (Song of the Siren on some grouped up people + Stasis Trap = team wipe)
• Anyone with a big AoE stun (Enigma, Tidehunter, Magnus, etc since you have a huge nuke with Aghanim's Scepter R + Q and you can also set up a Stasis Trap for a team wipe, evenFaceless Void or Medusa would be great here)
• Shadow Shaman (shackle into Stasis Trap is crazy, awesome for pushing too)
• Tiny, Batrider, Rubick, Pudge , Vengeful Spirit, Chaos Knight, Dark Seer(skills that can reposition enemies onto your mines pretty much)
• Bristleback, Death Prophet, Sniper, Kunkka, etc (anyone who can harass neigh constantly under tower and make people hate themselves, if you have a Kunkka don't destroy the creep wave with mines so that he can cleave the enemy team with tidebringer)

HEROES THAT MAKES TECHIES A SAD PANDA

  Also not all of them

• Silencer, Medusa, Nyx Assassin, Invoker, Pugna , Anti-Mage, Keeper of the Light (people who drain Techies  mana will make him useless as his stuff costs a lot of mana, facing some of these in mid is a pretty unbearable matchup, especially someone like Silencer which is basically a lane you will not win)
• Puck, Templar Assassin, Shadow Demon, Lycanthrope, Visage, Lone Druid, Abaddon, Nature's Prophet, Phantom Lancer, etc (anyone with a blink, shield, illusions, or summoned units will disarm your shit and waste your time)
• Drow Ranger, Doom, Bane, Bloodseeker, Death Prophet, Silencer (Silences = you're literally useless with that non-existent base damage)
• Omniknight, Dazzle, Necrophos etc (Healing deathball comp can shrug off most of his poke and go aggro)

FINAL WORD

Techies is a pretty situational hero that basically works in a couple of very specific strats that is easy to make more manageable with specific hero pickups or team comps, but can do some crazy stuff with other heroes on his team. He's somewhat niche, but he can definitely be game winning in competitive too. He's one of those heroes who comes and goes based on what the meta is like at the current time and I think we'll see him go in and out of vogue in DotA 2 constantly.

The key thing to remember is that he's actually somewhat hard to play (placing mines in non-obvious but effective spots, baiting people into the obvious spot ones, knowing when and when not to stack mines in one spot) and very easy to "troll" with, so you're going to see a lot of bad Techies just like there was a lot of bad Meepos, but over time there will be the really good Techies that shine. People keep latching onto the bad memories of Techies from b.net and Garena but the mentality on DotA 2 is GENERALLY a lot better and the amount of skill in the game is a lot better - higher level pubs and higher level ranked play are multitudes better than anything you could have got on b.net and Garena. Sure Techies can be used in a bad or troll way, but so can a lot of heroes. The main reason people hate him besides his troll/fail potential is he really can't do much to help the team directly for a large chunk of the game so if the game goes too bad and the enemy team gets too ahead the game is basically done, it's not something like a Templar Assassin or Shadow Fiend who can bring the game back.