Hello guys, if there is anyone here knows who I am, it would be from the last guide I've written, Poof, unlocking Meepo's potential. At that time Poof Meepos were few and far between.
It was entered in DA's guide contest and won second place to a techies guide. Oh, the irony.

So now I'm here again, writing on another strange hero. Yes, I'm the strange hero guide man that appears once in a blue moon.

Let's get some things clear,this guide does not aim to teach you step by step how to play techies, and expects you to be a fairly experienced DotA player.

Another interesting to note before we begin, after you play techies a bit you might realize that techies can actually be more effective against good opponents that gank and push as a team. This is because of the more fluent movement of experienced players that makes them vulnerable to minefields (as opposed to noobs who just farm in lane without doing much).

Without further ado, I present to you:


I. Introduction
-What techies is not
-What techies is (what you need to play a good techies)
II. Skills
-Land Mines
-Statis Trap
-Suicide Squad, Attack!
-Remote Mines
III. Item Build
-Luxury
-Justification
IV. The Build
-Justification
V. General Gameplay
-Start of the Game
-Early game
-Early-Mid game
-Mid game
-Late game
VI. General Things to Watch Out For (Tips and Tricks)
VII. Mine Games (Basic and Advanced Skill Usage)
-General
-Land Mines
-Stasis Trap
-Suicide Squad, Attack!
-Remote Mines
VIII. General Mining Areas
IX. Gems, Dusts, and Wards
X. Synergies and Counters
XI. Conclusion
XII. Replays



First off, please be noted, this guide isn't filled with screenshots showing good mine spots. Instead, I'll describe what a good mine spot is, and a few spots will be shown. Giving screenshots limits one's creativity, especially since if you're reading this you're probably learning to play our suicidal trio, so don't expect tons of pretty pictures in this guide.

What techies is not
playing techies isn't about being able to hotkey as fast you're typing an email, playing techies isn't about being able to last hit and denying perfectly.
playing techies isn't about landing all your AoE stuns with stunning accuracy.

What techies is (what you need to play a good techies)
Playing techies is about reading your opponents mind,
playing techies is about being able to read the game at all times,
playing techies is about planning your kills,
playing techies is about out-thinking your enemies,
playing techies is about surprise and mind tricks,
playing techies is about doing what your enemy least expects,
playing techies is about versatility,
playing techies is about using the lay of the land to it's ultimate limit.

If you're aiming to increase your overall map awareness, understanding of the map, and unit movement (from enemies to allies to creeps), techies is a good hero to learn. Improving these aspects of your gameplay will ultimately make you a better DotA player as a whole.

Skills

Land Mines
Plants an invisible land mine that waits indefinitely for an enemy. The explosion deals damage. You may only have 15 placed at one time.
Level 1 - Deals 300 damage.
Level 2 - Deals 400 damage.
Level 3 - Deals 500 damage.
Level 4 - Deals 600 damage.
Cooldown:25/20/15/12 seconds.
Area of Effect: 200 for full damage, 500 for half.
Mana Cost:125/150/175/205
Cast Time: Instant.
Useful things to know:
Deals mixed damage, meaning it's possible to reduce it's damage by getting more armor AND magic resistance. Will damage all melee creeps to 1 last hit, deals shit load of damage to towers. Great farming and pushing tool.


Statis Trap
Plants an invisible Stasis Trap that stuns nearby enemy units when detonated.
Level 1 - Stuns for 3 seconds.
Level 2 - Stuns for 4 seconds.
Level 3 - Stuns for 5 seconds.
Level 4 - Stuns for 6 seconds.
Cooldown:20/16/13/10 seconds.
Area of Effect: 450
Mana Cost:80/110/140/160
Cast Time: 2 seconds.
Useful things to know:
Cast time of 2 seconds and another 2 is required to detonate, stuns every enemy in it's radius regardless if the mine triggerer is still in the area, faster enemies will be able to run right through it without being affected. Instantly casted stasis mines take roughly 5 seconds to detonate. Huge stun radius makes this a potential gamebreaking skill.

Suicide Squad, Attack!
Sacrifice yourself for the greater good. Deals massive area of effect damage.
Level 1 - Deals 650 damage.
Level 2 - Deals 850 damage.
Level 3 - Deals 1150 damage.
Level 4 - Deals 1550 damage.
Cooldown: 75 seconds.
Area of Effect: 500
Mana Cost:100/125/150/175
Cast Time: Instant.
Useful things to know:
Deals less damage then stated as it is reduced both by armor and magic resistance. Level 1 can usually deal around 500 damage if done perfectly, usually around 450 is more realistic though. Not advisable to be used late game except for self-denying.

Remote Mines
Plants an invisible mine that will only activate when triggered. Doesn't damage buildings. Lasts 8 minutes.
Level 1 - Deals 300 damage when activated. (450 with Aghanim's)
Level 2 - Deals 450 damage when activated. (600 with Aghanim's)
Level 3 - Deals 600 damage when activated. (750 with Aghanim's)
Useful things to know:
Cast range 500 normal, 1000 with Aghanim's. Cast time 3 seconds. Possible to cast at the enemies feet and detonate in his face with Aghanim's, dealing damage equivalent to an AoE Laguna Blade. Deals magical damage, reducible by Hood, Plainwalker's, and Pipe.



Boots of Speed > Bottle > Void Stone > Staff of Wizardry > Point Booster > Ogre Axe > Aghanim's Scepter


Also as many as you need before your .

Starting items


or





Luxury
Force Staff

Really useful for pushing Gem carriers to their doom, and the push is quite good all around.
Necronomicon

Get this if the enemy have a sentry warder and many invi-heroes.
Guinsoo

Most reliable item to farm, a safe and wise choice, an extra disable is never useless.
Eul's Scepter

is very useful, alongside with Guinsoo or instead of it.
Boots of Travel

Sell Treads for this in a game where you need to push like mad, only after Aghanim's
Orchid

if against things that require prolong periods of silence to counter. (Blinkers, Farmed Terrorblade, Farmed Obsidian) The damage along with your absurb range is nothing to scoff at either.

Everything else is rejected.

Justification:
Bottle is 210 mana for 600, with the ability to Rune Whore, faster Regen at fountain, and emergency health. Void Stone is a good mana regen item which will provide vital early mana and can be used for Eul's or Guinsoo later. Aghanim's Scepter's parts are easy to farm and increases techies mana pool. The increase in casting range enables you to use remotes as a 1000 range AoE nuke and the increase in damage, while seemingly not much, actually accumulate to a huge number when mines are stacked. Force Staff enables you to push remote mine destroyers to their doom, is retardedly cheap and is useful all around. Guinsoo is a no brainer, giving techies a conventional disable, Eul's is cheap and always useful, Orchid should only be bought when you really need the silence. Necronomicon let you summon units that can do battle, but most importantly, have true sight! With it you can destroy sentries and protect yourself against invi-assasins like NA and Gondar which can deal with you in a few seconds.

The Build

Level 1 Land Mines
Level 2 Suicide
Level 3 Land Mines/Suicide(if situation seems to favour it)
Level 4 Suicide/Land Mines(if Suicide at Level 3)
Level 5 Land Mines
Level 6 Remote Mines
Level 7 Land Mines
Level 8 Stasis Trap
Level 9 Stasis Trap
Level 10 Stasis Trap
Level 11 Remote Mines
Level 12 Stasis Trap
Level 13 Stats
Level 14 Stats
Level 15 Stats
Level 16 Remote Mines
Level 17-23 Stats
Level 24 Suicide
Level 25 Suicide

Justification
No other build is realistically as effective as this one. Suicide early is invaluable for early game kills which can have a huge difference on the game. Stasis isn't really needed until mid-game and no skill is worth sacrificing for it. Suicide isn't need to level past level 2 because after early game you should generally only be using it for self-denying. Get Level 2 Suicide at Level 3 instead of Land Mines if it seems that the situation favours it, for example if you can kill or help kill 2 heroes in your lane with it.

Start of the Game
Pick techies as soon as the games allows you to. Generally there are 2 strategies you can use at the beginning of the game.

Strategy 1: Mine Full House
In most pubs or as a matter of fact, most games, you would want to do this. It brings a lot of satisfaction when successfully pulled off. Get your Boots and 2 Clarities and rush to any lane of your choice. Using your clarities, immediately begin stacking mines in the lane in a position where
i) The creeps won't step on them on their regular path and when they spread out a bit when they meet.
ii) The enemy heroes are likely to step on in when laning.
Generally this means you should place them in a position where they are as close as possible to the creeps without being detonated by them. You should be able to place 4 mines before the creeps clash if you pick techies straight away, enough to kill almost every Level 1-2 hero, with the possibility of even killing 2 heroes. Practice makes perfect, to know where are the best positions just create a single player game and experiment, here are however some of the better ones:
i) below on the side of the mid lane ramp of your side
ii) close to the side shop entrances on either the long and short lanes, yet as close to the creeps as possible.
In each lane there is a side where the creeps lean towards too when they move, learn each to get the best positions.

Red = possible mining spots for this strategy
Green = where the creeps will learn towards in this lane
Note: In -pick mode, you will not have enough time to plant the 4 land mines if you walk towards the lane with Boots. Buy a teleport scroll to do if you wanna do this.

Strategy 2: Polluting the jungle
This might be considered by some to be a dirty trick, but there are no rules against it. The idea is that the neutrals won't spawn when there's a unit in their "spawning zone", so you place your mines in them to prevent them for spawning. The evil thing about it is that to hide your mines, you tango a tree and place your mine there, so that when the trees respawn they hide your mines making them almost impossible to be found. To do this, start with 1 set of tangos, 1 scroll of tp, and some clarities. Teleport to the mid lane and make your way through the rune spots to the opponent's jungle as soon as the game starts. Go towards any camp you wanna shut down, eat a tree very close to the neutrals, and place a mine there. 1 is enough to shut down any camp. You should be able to do this to 3 camps before the creeps clash.

Reading the game
While doing either of the above strategies, be sure to check out what heroes your enemies have.
Do they have a lot of farmers/carries/junglers?
Do they have a lot of pushers?
Do they have a lot of gankers?
This will prepare you throughout the game.

Early game
Once you do either one of the strategies above, particularly the first one, try to walk behind your creeps as though you just arrived. You won't be last hitting much, but try anyway, don't let your health drop too low. Lure your enemies to your mines if possible. All it takes is 1 step, the drow trying to launch that extra frost arrow will do it.

At Level 2, try to Suicide when you have the chance. Make sure your ally is within range of experience or close to finish off the opponents if your suicide leave them barely alive. If done successfully, you basically have won your lane for your ally. Try to do this till Level 4, don't however do it too many times. There's no point blowing yourself up if you've already crippled the opponent, you need experience too. Travel to other lanes to blow yourself up is a viable choice if that lane is having trouble. Buy clarities on your way back from your Suicide trips to plant mines.

At Level 5, with Level 3 Land Mines, use them to farm a bit, don't be stupid and use them to blow full hp creeps to red life then fail to last hit. Be sure to get the gold. You should at least have Bottle and be close to Void Stone in a bit, if you manage some early kills this shouldn't be a problem at all. You should try to damage towers as well at this point with your mines.

Early-Mid Game
Once you reach Level 6, mid-game has begun. You should have Bottle and Void Stone at this point. If you don't have Void Stone yet, spend some time farming a wave or 2, and just spam clarities until then.

Reading the game
Are the enemies ganking furiously? If so, begin visiting each lane and planting land mines at the lane or at gank junctions as well as remotes ON the lane itself. Mining ramps at the rune spot area is also good for getting kills. Place remotes at your jungle as observers to protect your team.

Are the enemies turtling and farming? Place remotes in their jungle for ganking or shut down the neutrals using the above starting strategy 2 (You'd have to clear the camp first)

Are the enemies pushing the outer towers? Remote the outer towers before they're destroyed for a good chance of kills. Alternatively remote on the lane itself a distance from the towers for surprise.

Is YOUR team heavily ganking the enemy team? Place remotes on rune spots,


At this stage of the game, generally you should aim to plant 4 remotes a cluster, which will deal 225x4= 900 damage after resistance. This should be enough to kill most agi/int and critically damage strength heroes. Put 1 more if you're aiming for strength heroes.

Note: Plant mines while still staying near to the lanes for money and experience. Weave in and out of the lane. Don't hang around stupidly planting at a spot while forgetting to gain experience and gold.

Take some time to farm after planting strategic mines. One or two waves with Level 4 Land Mines before you go home to regen can make a huge difference.

Defend your towers because they are essential for map control and they provide you with a chance for easy kills.

Suicides are still viable at this stage of the game but only if there are allies there to get the experience and in team battles.

If your teamates are pushing you can join them by taking down the towers fast with Land Mines or taking the chance to plant a few Remotes behind the push to cover your teammates.

Mid-game
After when everyone's around Level 10 or so (very rough estimation and variable game to game), if the game is going well for you you should have a fair amount of kills, if not your mines might be sitting there idle rotting away.
In either case it doesn't matter, after that initial planting craze you should be focusing on reaching Level 11, which shouldn't take a long time. Also focus on getting gold for Aghanim's.

Read the game
and plant Mines accordingly. At this point look out for Gem carriers or sentries and try to kill them Gem carrier and trick the warder.

Focus on pushing for a while. Try to get rid of all the outer towers and use your Land Mines to get creeps for exp and gold. The reason you want to reach Level 11 is for the 600 damage Remotes with Aghanim's.

If you managed to blow some shit up early, you should be really close to your Scepter already. With Aghanim's Scepter at Level 11, you can take out most agi/int with 3 Remotes. (450x3 = 1350 damage after resistance) Most agi/int should have around 1000-1300 hp at this point of the game.

Focus on taking out their carries by planting clusters of Remotes deep in the enemy lane. 3 is usually enough, and takes no time to plant at all at the beginning of Mid-game with Aghanim's.

At this point of the game, Stasis Traps are at their peak. Plant them whenever you're pushing (with or without your team) near to the battlefield either at the jungle or in lane for a quick escape or to turn the tide of battle. Also plant them in areas where team battles happen a lot (varies from game to game)

Don't be afraid to abuse mass mining towers or lanes to gain easy double or triple kills if the enemy is stupid enough to continuously push the lane and not get anti-invi.

Late Game
Team battles are all over the place and each team is trying to dominate the other. All I can say is this: Keep planting mines.

During Late Game you should always stick with your team when pushing. Plant Stasis, Nuke your 1000 range remotes (AoE Laguna blade woohoo!) or plant Remote Mine fields right behind the team push for a getaway even if they have anti-invi or even changing the tide of battle.

If your team is losing and your team is desperately defending the inner towers, Mine all around the towers with all 3 different mines. Don't try to cluster them too much, instead spread them out over an area. Remotes have more then enough damage with Aghanim's and by spreading them out around the towers and Barracks you make it almost impossible to clear your mines, even with a Gem.

Remember during late game adrenalin is pumping high and people then to be more desperate for kills, meaning they are slightly more reckless when chasing heroes. This might give you a chance to detonate your mines even with anti-invi due to the relatively large AoE of remotes. If the enemy responds by playing extremely passively because of your mines you have already given your team a huge advantage.

Also you don't really need to level beyond Level 16. All you basically want is the 750 Remotes. After that you can basically forget about experience and go crazy with mines. Lower levels gives you cheaper buyback and faster respawn time. You'll also surely get lots of experience by sticking with your team.



Tip 1
Always pay attention to how much max hp each enemy hero has and whether they have magic resistance items or anti-invi to determine how many you need to kill them.
Tip 2
Communicate with your teammates. Tell them to use your mines for cover, be it land mines or stasis traps or remotes. Ask them to lure enemies when possible. Teamwork with allies can mean the difference between watching your mines rot away while silently weeping and scoring ultra kills.
Tip 3
Don't Panic if things don't go as planned. Techies is a hero with no guarantees. Just because you got first blood double kill in 1 game with a mine spot doesn't mean it'll happen every game. I've seen the same mine spot score double first blood in some games while being replaced due to the 15 Land Mine limit in another.
Tip 4
Pretend. A lot. Deception is your friend. Plant a mine in plain sight so the enemy wastes a sentry ward in that area. Rush forward pretending to suicide to let your ally last hit easily. More in-depth strategies will be in another section, which are basically elaborate ways to pretend.
Tip 5
Read the game. All the time. Are you enemies aggressive gankers or passive farmers? Is there a guy that keeps buying Gems or are they running blind into your bombs? Do most battles happen in your jungle, their jungle, mid-lane, top-lane or bottom-lane? Are your opponents experienced players or noobs? Are your allies cooperating with you or are they stupidly defending a tower with 5 remotes until your mines rot? Being able to read the game well will make you know where to plant your mines in the optimum position.
Tip 6
Kills aren't everything. Don't hesitate to blow up your mines to save your teammates or to let your ally get a double kill by reducing your enemies to red hp or to Suicide early when you can't kill them straight but your ally can finish them off. A selfish techies is not an effective one.
Tip 7
Experiment with mine spots. The whole map is your playground.
Tip 8
You should push at any time of the game if the situation calls for it. Level 3 normal Remotes or Level 2 Aghanim's Remotes can a creep wave straight before 45 minutes. Level 3 Aghanim's Remotes can kill a creep wave all the time. Generally though, take the time pushing to plant Remote fields and use Land Mines to push.
Tip 9
Abuse the fog. Gem carriers cannot see beyond the cliff, planting mines in corners at the trees or up cliff is an effective way to counter Gem of True Sight. More to be said at the strategy section.
Tip 10
Use yourself as bait. Lure. To heroes like Magina or Drow with Lothar's, techies just scream FOOD for them, for good reason. Use this to your advantage.
Tip 11
Be Alert. Constantly Pay attention to the Mini-map to see if there are heroes near your Remotes fields. It's generally better to slow down whatever you're doing rather then miss the chance to get an Ultra Kill.



General
Mining strategies here can be applied to one type of mine or more, usually it's Remotes and Land mines but in some cases even Stasis Traps as well.

Responsive Mining
This is the most important point to remember when planting mines. Always plant mines in response to the enemy's movement. Never be bogged down by the idea of the "best" mine spot. The best mine spot is different every game. If you see an enemy push gathering deep in that lane, quickly begin planting planting Remotes. If you notice they keep ganking bottom Land Mine the side entraces there or that lane itself.

Here's a simple example of responsive mining. The enemies are hanging around the bottom lane a lot after destroying the outer tower, engaging my allies. Game sense tells me that there is a high probability that someone will flee in this direction soon down the ramp, so I mine it.

Sure enough.

Alley-oop
Always plant mines for a purpose. Be it defending a lane against ganks or helping your team turn the tide of battle. Techies cannot mine the whole map. He can only seem to be doing so if you plant your mines wisely. Spending tons of time mining "cold" areas might earn you some kills, but that feeder Dazzle dying 1 more time won't make much of a difference to the game, and you just wasted 10 minutes.

The Safest Place is the Most Dangerous Place
A general rule of thumb when laying mines, the closer they are in enemy territory, the more likely some one will step in them. The deeper you lay your Remotes deeper in the enemy lane, the higher chance you get of killing something. Land Mines deep in the enemy forest or lane are unexpected as well. Bear in mine (lol pun) though that if you place it too deep, especially Remotes, you are not likely to catch many heroes as deep in their territory heroes are usually comfortable enough to farm alone. Also naturally it's considerably harder to lay mines in enemy areas, balance the cost and benefits and decide for yourself.

Stealth Bomber
You don't always have to push the lane to place mines deep in enemy territory, all you need is to avoid sight from the enemy creeps and heroes. You can predict quite accurately the location of enemy creep waves by looking at your own in that lane, since they are essentially mirror images. Enemy heroes don't usually walk around in empty lanes as well. Hide yourself in trees for safety. Easier with Aghanim's 1000 range Remotes.

Empty Castle
Named after a historical Chinese tactical genius plan, in which a general has no army to defend a castle, so he opened the gates, asked all the old people and children to run around and proceeded to play a musical instrument on top of the castle.. The enemy retreated in fear of ambush. You can do the same by planting a mine in plain sight. In the case of Stasis Traps and Land Mines, you can actually turn the tide of battle if the enemy doesn't retreat. A typical usage of this is by planting a Remote in plain sight of the enemy to defend a tower. They might just retreat even though you actually just have a single Remote there.

"Lol again"
For some reason, I'm guessing it's common sense , people have a tendency to assume that the same mine spot won't be mined again in a short span of time. Particularly applies to land mines. Once someone died in a mine spot they might considered that particular area "cleared" and might not hesitate to step on it. Again. Thus the phrase lol again (although in the opponent's case it's "wtf, again".) Works on Remotes as well particularly when mining towers. The key to this being successful is speed. For example, you just got a triple kill at the mid outer tower, and you know the enemy is after it because it's dying, quickly teleport back once you get the kill and replant the area.

Interception
Place any of your mines in the path you predict the enemy will run to when your allies are chasing him. For example, your allies are trying to kill someone in your forest, and you think the enemy will escape using the river ramp near the rune spot, plant your mines there. Usually a land mine and remote can finish a fleeing enemy.

Mix and Match
If you're gonna mine the same area, sometimes it's good to change things up a bit for unpredictability. Keep in mine(LOL i'm on fire) that the enemy has to pass through a certain path, and anywhere on that path is a potential mine spot. Changing your mine spot location slightly can surprise the enemy and get you the kill.

Instant Deathtrap
You can make a minefield with enough damage to kill a hero really fast by planting both remotes and land mines in at the same spot. It's not easy to monitor all your remotes at the same time though, thus I usually do this when I'm in the area for cover or to lure a particular target.

"Safe"
Remember, techies is all about mind games. If the enemy has passed an area a dozen times safely, that doesn't mean his 13th passage won't be hazardous.
Example in enemy chat log:
"Rune no mines I took many times"
*Boom*
"Fuuuuuuuu-"

Land Mines

Land Mines is one of your bread and butter skills. Very useful all around defending, pushing, farming and killing.

Farming and Pushing
Land Mines will insta-kill the range creep if close enough (or till 1 last hit if not so close) and will reduce the melee creeps hp to a single last hit (even for techies). Use it to farm and be sure to get the last hits by wacking each creep once before mining or ensuring one way or another the creeps life are slightly less then full. Use to destroy enemy towers as well, time it so that you get the creeps too, that way you push much faster.

Defending Towers
Place Land Mines slightly to the side of the towers if you're trying to prevent them from being destroyed. Placing right in front will make the Land Mine detonate before all the creeps arrive, not dealing optimal damage. Placing it to the side makes it detonate when the 3rd or 4th melee creeps arrive, ensuring you clear up all of them.

So Close
One of the most reliable places to plant Land Mines is on the lanes just as you would plant the 4 mines as a starting strategy. This makes the lane so much safer for your allies and it's almost impossible to avoid them without wards, gems and what not. General rules apply, keep them as close as possible to the creeps without actually being detonated by them. Each lane has a side where the creeps lean towards.

Anti-Gank
Another most common and effective usage of Land Mines, place them in pathways where enemy gankers are required to pass to gank the hero in any particular lane, such as side entrances. This not only saves your ally, but gives you a kill!

A spot (not the spot) for typical mid-lane protection.

Tower Trap (Land Mine)
Planting Land Mines really near to the tower but where the creeps don't step on is a good way to help your team when defending against enemies. When engaging around the tower enemy heroes are almost certain to run into them.

Stasis Trap

Stasis Traps are disgusting. Never ever neglect this skill when playing Goblin Techies. Bear in mine that the AoE of the stun is huge, but the trigger area is really small. You don't want enemies running around without triggering it.

Protection
Protect your team by placing Stasis all over your team push. Cover paths to the jungle, place a few on the lane. Place them exact on where your team is.
Also use it to protect you or your team against ganks. A well placed Stasis Trap on an escape route can make your mining expedition or your carry's farming much safer.

Rear guard
When pushing with your team, one surprisingly not well used tactic is to placed a Stasis right behind your team push on the lane. This protects your team against flankers who might try to assassinate your soft heroes or from things trying to sneak up your team and unleash their AoE ultimates. Also helps when your team is retreating.

Creepy Trigger
Creeps trigger Stasis Traps as well. Use this to your advantage and you can plant Stasis like a disgusting AoE nuke. Useful when defending and pushing when you guess the enemy is gonna start engaging. Stasis Traps won't go online for 3 seconds after being planted and another 2 seconds for it to trigger.

Suicide Squad, Attack!

Suicide is very good at destroying lanes and asserting dominance early. It's also very good for denying yourself in a sure die situation. Remember: the nearer you explode to the enemy, the higher the damage will be.

Boo!
Rushing in front pretending to suicide is a good way to chase enemies away from experience range and letting your ally farm easily. Most effective when combined with REAL suicide attempts.

Experienced
It's always better to suicide (and some might even say only worth it) if your allies are nearby to soak up the exp. If you really go crazy with it early your lane partner might just outlevel the solo lane.

Remote Mine

Remotes are one of your signature skills, and surely your most powerful.

Maphack!
Remotes are great as Observers, they last long enough and provide decent sight. Plant them at rune spots, your forest to protect your team, their forest to gank, or even single Remotes in lane for the sight. Place them anywhere where you need the sight.

Grouping
A nice little trick when playing techies is to assign your Remote Mines into groups according to clusters. Just hold Ctrl and press any number from 1 to 9 while selecting all the mines in the cluster to group that field into a control group. This will enable you to detonate your mines much faster and reduce the chance of missing kills.

Tower Trap
Perhaps the easiest and most common Remote area, place mines in front of the towers to blow up heroes trying to destroy it. Best place to place the mine is 300 range from the tower towards whichever the enemy is likely to face. Remote's detonate with a 400 AoE, this lets you get melee heroes and range heroes at the same time.

iTower-Trap
Placing an i in front of anything makes it more high tech. This is basically a slightly more deceptive version of the Tower Trap, because everyone expects a Tower Trap. Instead of placing your remote cluster right in front of the tower you want to use to kill people with, place it a distance before the tower. For example the instead of placing your mines in front of the outer mid-tower, place them on the river or up the mid-lane ramp on the opponents side. Players who are inexperienced against a good techies will just assume that the mines are in front of the tower. I've blown up people holding sentries with this simple deception.

"Safe" version 2
Another version of tricking an enemy into thinking that an area is safe. Detonate a few mines so that it looks like you don't have a cluster, then when they think it's "safe", punish them.


Many areas are covered in the above, thus this will not be a long section.

Pathways (All Mines)
Always plant your Mines in pathways rather then big open spaces. Particularly important for Land Mines, or else you'll pull your hair out in frustration as enemy heroes walk around 3 centimeters from your mines yet never triggering them.

A good mine spot for trapping and anti-gank. Green is the pathway in which heroes can travel. The enemy is almost certain to step on it when passing through.

Ramps (All Mines)
Ramps are one of the best areas to plant your mines. Not are they small pathways, thus ensuring Land Mines are triggered, mines on top of rune spot ramps are invisible to Gem carriers as well.. until it's too late. Rune spot ramps are among the most reliable places for kills. Ramps on your jungle are nice for covering forest people, ramps on theirs are decent places for kills, as long as your team isn't pushing too hard.

Tree Paths (Land Mines and Stasis Traps)
Experienced DotA players will know there are several tree paths on the map.
They are good spots if playing against experienced players as noobs tend not to use them.
Best mining among these would be the tree paths on mid-lane of both sides and on the side-lanes. Good against Gem carriers, as sight in the trees is very little. Not recommended for Remotes as your Remotes will have tiny sight as well and it's hard to detonate them on time.

On Lane (Remotes)
Anywhere on any lane is a potentially a good Remote Cluster spot, just remember to place them deep enough if the enemy is defending and place them close enough when they are pushing. Also don't waste time placing them in areas where they are too easily destroyed if there is a Gem carrier (too deep).

Shops (Land Mines and/or Remotes)
The secret shops and side shops are places where people WILL visit. Just don't spend to much time planting on the secret shop as it isn't close to any lane and it might take forever for someone to step on it. Also for the side shop, planting at the entrance to it is usually more effective them planting it inside.

This little section will teach you how to deal with Gem carriers.Wards are not that big a threat, but the section title sounds much lamer if it were "Dealing with Gem of True Sight). Don't forget, every anti-invi item bought against techies is a liability to the opposing team. Every Gem dropped is a loss of 700 gold and an item slot.

Dusts and Wards

Just don't plant the same spot over and over again and you should be fine against Sentries. Also, if you plant a remote in plain sight, the enemy will basically be forced to stab a sentry at that point, wasting his cash while the real minefield is up ahead. Once he catches on on your plain sight technique, you can begin to really mine those fake mine fields and turn them into deathtraps. Dusts are stupid to counter techies, they don't even reveal mines. Against mass sentries buy a Necronomicon and clear them up. One stupidly effective strategy is to let the sentry rot away (which doesn't take too long in the current version) and plant your Remotes in the area in which the sentry previously covered. Enemies are less likely to suspect a place where their ward was once in place.

Gem of True Sight

Gems are most annoying things for a techies player, but every Gem bought is also a little victory for you. Don't forget that.

The easiest way to counter Gem is to ask for a gank on the Gem carrier. Don't waste your time trying to catch that guy when your allies can do the job for you!

If however this isn't possible because of whatever reason, then you'd have to use Ramps and Tree Paths to kill the Gem carrier. This will not be easy though as experienced players will avoid such places against a competent techies. Luring will increase the chances this succeeding a lot. (Gem carriers tend to hate techies a lot.)

To defend pushes, good Gem-killer spots are on the top but towards the side of the lane ramps, such as the ones near at the inner towers or outer mid-lane. While Remotes planted in the middle of the lane is easily spotted even up the ramp, the ones on the sides aren't as easy due to the fog of war. Planting both at the middle and the said area is a good way to lower the Gem carrier's suspicion. Once he destroys the middle Remotes and climbs up the ramp to the side.. it's Good Night.

Of course, another simpler way is to rely on a recommended item, Force Staff. Simply make a slightly bigger cluster then needed (so that you'd have enough to kill even with a few destroyed) then as the Gem carrier is destroying the mines push him and detonate!



Good Allies
Position changers are your friend. Vengeful Spirit, Dark Seer, Pudge are can help you pull enemies towards their doom.

Stunners like Sven, Earthshaker help land early suicides.

Soloers such as Queen of Pain, Mirana, Nevermore, Tinker can benefit most from the exp and possible gold boost you can provide for them.

Mana providers like Crystal Maiden and KotL. More mana = more mines = more ownage.

Bad Enemies and Counters
Tankers like Centaur Warchief, Pudge, even semi-tankers like Sven and Slaadar have high hit points which make them really really hard to kill with your mines.

Assassins with Silence and/or Invi can make short work of techies. Techies is squishy, slow, and useless in hand to hand fight. For example: Bloodseeker with his ridiculously long Silence. Nerubian Assassin combo, Drow with Lothar's and Silence.

Illusion heroes and Summoners like Naga Siren and Banehallow can wreak havoc on your Land Mines.

Treant Protecter is an evil evil hero. He's as tank as a tree and has free sentries the whole damn game to plop wherever he wishes. A good treant will hide his trees in places where they're hard to notice, making clearing them almost impossible. A Treant with techies knowledge can screw your game over.

Necronomicon is a very strong counter against techies as the summons have true sight and are expendable.

So I hope my guide has helped you play the infamous Goblin Techies. I spent quite some effort making it and I hope it's as fun for you to read and experiment as it was for me to write. Don't be afraid to leave a comment if you like my guide, have questions, or disagree with anything!

Replays

decentech WC version 1.24b, Dota 6.64
A pub with okay players. Pretty good game for a pub.

goodpub WC version 1.24b, Dota 6.64
Pub pwn. Players are decent for pub level.

cytech WC version 1.24b, Dota 6.63b
This game wasn't played by me but by a friend in FTZ Asia Cafe, Subang Jaya, who for some reason used my name. He was initially a techies hater, but then got converted by this very guide. Despite a questionable first blood mine location (waay too near the player's side), a pretty good game. Good usage of Lol again at rune spots and quite suicidal.
Quote from him:
" I like techies cos i can play with 1 hand"