Here are the reasons to play tinker:

-Able to teleport around the map with no cooldown
-Able to push all the lanes
-Can be at every defense/push/gank in a matter of seconds
-Always have something to be doing either pushing, ganking, or defending

If this sounds interesting to you then Tinker is definitely the hero for you. He offers unrivaled mobility by being able to teleport around the map with a 1-3 second cooldown which will always keep your enemies guessing where you will show up next. It will force your enemies to 2nd guess all their ganks because you can be there to help an ally in a couple seconds to unleash high burst damage that will easily turn a gank around. He can also effectively change most item cooldown to 1-3 seconds as long as he has mana which gives him great flexibility.


Tinker has decent starting stats and great starting damage. His great damage and 2 nukes make him a great solo mid hero able to last hit effectively and harass/kill the enemy.

Skill Build:

Laser: 1/3/5/7
Missile: 2/4/6/8
March: 10-13
Rearm: The first point of rearm should be gotten at either lvl 9 or whatever level you manage to finish your Boots of Travel...substitute a level of missile with rearm if you get your boots before level 9. You should get the 2nd lvl of rearm after buying your first mystic staff. The 3rd lvl of rearm usually comes around lvl 20 or later when you have a much bigger mana pool to support it and need to dish out the damage/disables much faster in team fights.

Skill descriptions:


Item Builds:

Starting build:
OR 2 x , 2 x , 2 x

In pubs you can usually go bottle from the start with no problem but in more serious games use the 2nd build to give greater last hitting power.

Core build:


These 2 items are the main items that enable Tinker to be a pain for the other team. At this point Tinker can appear anywhere on the map in a few seconds to assist in ganks, defend a teammate, or push/farm a lane. Once these items are bought tinker should never be sitting still doing nothing since he can push somewhere and teleport back to immediately get full hp/mana and be somewhere else in a matter of seconds.

Tip: Always spam your bottle when you teleport to the fountain to regen. This significantly reduces the amount of time needed to regen since you will get the bottle's regen plus the fountain's regen.

Final build:
, , or ,

This build gives Tinker great farming, pushing and surviving abilities. After the core, you should make your choice between Shivas or Guinsoo. I suggest getting Shivas first in most situations since that will give you another nuke and increase your farming capability even more but Guinsoo first can also be a good option if your team really needs more disables. Shivas adds an extra 200 magic damage to his combo in a huge AOE while slowing the enemies by 40% at the same time...plus it can be used for last hitting creeps while farming a lane with march.

Manta should be the 2nd big item you go for since it gives Tinker a lot of bonuses: 190 health, 130 mana, 10% move speed, and spammable images. It also increases his survivability by allowing him to dodge some projectile spells and it get rids of many purgeable debuffs like silence, slows, and entangles. The images confuse the enemy as well since they will have to choose 1 out of 3 tinkers to attack/disable. And if they correctly guess the right Tinker then you can always rearm and split again to force them to start over.

With shivas alone you are a monster pusher but once you complete manta, you can also take out a tower extremely fast. If some enemies are missing don't be afraid to just use manta and let your images beat on the tower while you teleport back to the fountain. This tactic will weaken the tower and make knocking it down next time even easier.

If the game is still going on finish Guinsoo if you did not choose it earlier and start perma hexing people during fights. There is nothing more frustrating for the other team than to see their carry hero permanently in sheep form while your team assaults them.

Alternate Pure Support Build:


Luxury/Situational Items:

The spell block on Linkens gets refreshed every time Tinker rearms his spells and is great for blocking targetable spells like Doom.

Some people may laugh at this item on Tinker but being able to keep this item constantly active with rearm can be a big help when you are facing multiple enemies. It essentially turns your total HP into a pure damage nuke which will enable you to 1v1 a farmed up carry when combined with your other skills pretty easily or discourage the enemy team from focus firing you.


It costs a ton of gold but if you get a Dagon 5 with rearm you can nuke someone from full health to death in a matter of seconds. Recommended only as a really late game item if the game drags on and just will not end.

: Even though BKB can no longer be rearmed it still grants Tinker the ability to dump all his spells on the field without being stopped...in 5 seconds of immunity Tinker can go through his combo twice. I only recommend this in cases of extreme disable when Linkens just would not cut it.

Ghost scepter is extremely situational and should only be bought when you are facing a few carries without many nukers around. While permanent physical immunity is nice, the 44% extra spell damage will get you killed quickly if you are not careful.

Rejected Items:
NEVER get either of these boots for tinker. Tinker's greatest advantage is his ability to teleport anywhere on the map in a matter of seconds and a little extra attack speed or armor is not worth giving up that ability.

Khadgar's pipe used to be a good situational item but now a hero can only recieve the barrier buff once every 50 seconds...so rearming the pipe is useless now.

Strategy

Early game levels 1-9

Tinker has a pretty good early game and is one of the best solo mid characters. You should try to insist on getting solo mid because the faster you get your nukes leveled up the better off you and your teammates will be. At this point you should be focusing on last hitting to get your boots of travel as fast as possible and checking the runes every 2 minutes so you have mana to continue casting your spells.

However, keep an eye out for people that drop below your instagib point and take them out. If you get a good ganking rune(haste or invis) then check the lanes and gank whoever the prime target is. Tinker has great burst damage with his 2 nukes so don't be shy about jumping in to help your teammates out.


Your early game is officially over once you get your boots of travel and a point in rearm.

Mid Game levels 10-16

This is where things really start to get interesting for Tinker. He has the ability to teleport anywhere on the map at any time with rearm and boots of travel. You should keep your eyes open for any gank opportunities and any defense where your team needs help. Tinker is one of the few characters that goes straight for boots of travel which will make you faster and far more mobile than anyone else on the map so use this to your advantage.

If nothing important is going on then just teleporting to an ally's lane to spam your spells and leave will make the enemies far less aggressive and easier on your teammates...plus setting them up for a later gank if they don't heal. And this will not really slow you down since you can teleport to the fountain and then back to your lane in no time. Don't be afraid to jump in and help an ally who is in trouble, your 564 burst damage out of nowhere can quickly turn a gank to your team's favor.

At this point you turn into a pushing and farming fiend as well. With march of the machines leveled and your boots of travel you can teleport to farm/push any lane then be back where your team needs you very quickly. When teleporting to a lane cast your march of the machines, then use your bottle, and finally start rearming...this should all be done in a couple seconds and your bottle will regenerate your mana while you are rearming. Before using your BoTs to teleport out use the bottle again so you are constantly regenerating mana while channeling. If you use your bottle in this manner it will decrease the amount of time you need to stay at the fountain before teleporting out again.

Late game level 16 and beyond

Tinker is one of the few int heroes whose power level does not cap at late game until his whole inventory is full of rearmable items. At this point tinker will likely have the highest creep score by a pretty large margin which is great because the more money he gets the more of a monster he turns into. The ability to permahex the enemy's carry or go all out spamming spells everywhere is crazy and will create a lot of confusion. At this stage you should have your first big item done and your 2nd item should be on its way to completion.

At this point you should be able to take pretty much any character 1v1 without a problem. This means that when you are pushing the enemy team will have to dedicate at least 2 people to stopping you which gives the rest of your team an advantage to push or gank elsewhere. Performing your combo(laser,rocket,shivas) 2 times will deal 1427 damage(after resistances) to the enemy you are facing plus you will have 2 images beating on them while all of this happening.

With his extremely fast pushing he can get a tower or rax down without the other team being able to react if they are not careful. He can wipe out a full creep wave regardless of the size in a matter of seconds and rush ahead to the next wave to annihilate that one as well. If you push to a tower and there are multiple enemies mia then just summon your images and let them beat on the tower while you teleport to safety. This will weaken the tower making it easier to take next time and tie up the enemies while you push or gank elsewhere. Your fast pushing can also be done when your team is setting up for a major push so that the enemy's lanes are being pressured on all fronts while you teleport in when your team gets close to the point of a clash. It will give your team the option to quickly switch to another lane if needed or take a 2nd tower if the push goes in your favor since the creeps will likely be pretty close to another tower as well.

Great Allies:
CM will make your laning even stronger by allowing you to spam your nukes and gank more often.

Meepo armed with BoT is one of the few heroes that can come close to your mobility. Meepo can teleport to wherever you teleport so you can have a 2 man push or gank somewhere extremely fast...then be able to switch just as fast to another lane if a gank is coming.

OD is a great hero to have around Tinker mid to late game when he has the mana to truly spam/rearm his spells. His passive allows Tinker to stay in the action a lot longer before he needs to teleport back to the fountain for mana.

Worst enemies:
Doom is absolutely your worst counter. Most silencers can only disable your spells but still allowing you to use your items. Doom stops both items and spells which just makes you a strong creep for a ridiculously long time.

You have a pretty big mana pool and you go through it extremely fast. If AM catches you with mana void after you run your mana to empty you will take a huge amount of damage.

NA is just a pain in general. He will likely be ganking you constantly and if he is laned against you he will keep your mana at 0 for the laning phase which takes away your lane control.

Silencer is a pain for you late game when you are spamming your spells and rearming because his aura will cause a 3 second delay between everything.