The Heroes in Dota 2 - An Introductory Guide for Tinker

Introduction

Dota 2 is a fantastic game that has many unique heroes to choose from. Each of the is unique in its way and offers the player an incredible experience. Some of them are good for doing physical damage, whereas others are mainly strong in the spell department. If you like the second type of hero, you will definitely love playing Tinker.

He is one of the most significant damage dealers in Dota 2 that's capable of carrying his entire team, given a decent start. Let's take a look at everything you need to know about this amazing hero.

Basic information about Tinker

Tinker is an intelligence ranged hero that has four active spells. Three of them do massive amounts of spell damage, whereas the last one refreshes them. Tinker is nearly exclusively played in the mid lane, where he can dominate every single hero in Dota 2. The hero has an excellent attack animation and decent damage, which makes the last hitting relatively easy. Unfortunately, he has no escape mechanism, which makes him very easy to gank. That's why it is essential to have a defensive vision on his lane so that he can dodge the ganks. 

Here are all his spells:

• Laser - this is the most deadly spell during the laning stage and after it. It is a single-target nuke that deals pure damage and also makes the enemy miss his attacks for a couple of seconds after its used. There are many ways in which you can abuse this spell, especially while laning. A good example of this is to use while your enemy is trying to get last hits. This will allow you to easily deny the creep from him in front of his face.
  Once you buy an Aghanim's Scepter,  the laser can bounce between targets that are grouped together, resulting in massive amounts of damage.
• Heat-Seeking Missile - as the name suggests, Boush (Tinker's DotA name) fires two rockets that only hit enemy heroes. Although they can be dodged in many ways, the range of these rockets makes them an ideal weapon when you need to kill someone from miles away. What's more, you can get a special Talent that allows these rockets also to stun your enemies for a brief period of time.
• March of the Machines - this is a slow AoE spell that's mainly used to push the waves and farm. It is an essential ability because it allows Tinker to keep up with the farming temp of the other heroes in the game. There are many scenarios where you can use. For example, the most popular one is to farm the neutral camps in the jungle. This is a fast and easy way to get gold.
• Rearm - last, but definitely not least, we have the almighty ultimate. Despite not doing damage, this ability is basically a free refresher orb that has no cooldown. The only thing that changes with the level it again is the casting time. As you can imagine, this ability makes tinker an incredibly dangerous hero to play against because apart from his spells, it also refreshes his items.

Items and Counters

Unlike many other heroes in Dota 2, There are not really that many ways in which you can play with Tinker. He is only good at doing damage with his spells, so there is no physical damage option here. The only thing you need to decide is if you want to play with a Scepter or not. Here is a list of all popular items on Tinker:

• Boots of Travel - this is a MUST for every tinker out there, regardless of his build. This item allows the hero to be everywhere on the map and farm at the speeds of light.
• Blink Dagger - another must if you value your safety. A tinker without a Blink Dagger is extremely easy to be killed. What's more, you need this item in order to position yourself properly during team fights as well.
• Soulring - although this is an early-game item, it is still very important because it allows the hero to have more overall mana to work with. The only thing you need to be careful of is not to overuse it too much because you might die.
• Aether Lens is a trendy choice for Tinker players who want to have a good range. Remember that the bigger the range of your spells, the safety it is for you to use them.
• Dagon - a very powerful nucking item, especially on heroes such as Tinker. If you have fast fingers, you can use it multiple times with your Ultimate.
• Scythe of Vyse - this is the item that makes Tinker so dangerous during late game. He can use it many times with Rearm, which means that you can potentially be stuck in hexes during the entire teamfight.

As for counters, there are a couple of heroes that can make the life of every tinker a living hell:

• Storm Spirit - this is a hero that's capable of solo killing every single tinker, regardless of his items or kills in the game. It's very hard to play against a good Storm Spirit because he will try to hunt you down all the time.
• Slark - similar to Storm, this hero is also capable of hunting you wherever you go. He can quickly just pounce you, and you are pretty much dead.
• Specter - this late-game monster can quickly teleport next to you if she uses her ultimate. Not only is she hard to bring down, but you can actually kill yourself because she has a spell that reflects a certain percentage of your damage.