Dota 2 Techies Guide
Dota 2 Techies Guide by Vorsai
Intro
I’ve never really written a guide before, but people have asked me for one so I’m going to have a go at it here. It may not be the best way to play Techies, but it’s good enough to have gotten me to rank #45 on DotaBuff. So this is how I play.
Before any tips, you have to understand that when you play Techies, you’re no longer playing the same game as the other 9 people in the match. Unless you have an overwhelming advantage, you as Techies are not going to be going one on one with anyone else without some prep. Which is why you have to be able to play a couple minutes into the future.
In order to play Techies effectively, you have to be able to have a feel for the game and figure out where people are going to be in the next min or so, where big fights are going to happen, what routes the enemy is going to take to gank. You figure that out and play for the future.
Despite what people like to say, nobody inherently counters Techies. Techies is unique as the only hero in the game that can outright kill any other hero in the game at any point in the game with enough prep. That is incredibly strong. Zeus is not a walking gem, he doesn’t counter Techies anymore than he counters Riki or Clinkz. Nature’s Prophet, Enigma, Lycan, the other minion heros don’t counter Techies. If they’re actively scouting for land mines they make the first couple minutes a little harder, but they’re not a counter. The closest thing to a direct hard counter to Techies is a Night Stalker with Aghs and a gem. But with the recent patch to Techie’s Aghs, even that isn’t too much of a problem.
Even if they go hard and invest into countering you, that’s fine too. Just existing in the game changes the match. They can either invest a lot of money covering the map in sentries or a gem making their supports poor, or they can let you have your way with the map. Either way is good for your team.
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Bindings
bind “kp_1” “dota_health_per_vertical_marker 225”
bind “kp_2” “dota_health_per_vertical_marker 337.5”
bind “kp_3” “dota_health_per_vertical_marker 450”
bind “kp_4” “dota_health_per_vertical_marker 337.5”
bind “kp_5” “dota_health_per_vertical_marker 450”
bind “kp_6” “dota_health_per_vertical_marker 562.5”
These are very useful binds that change the health markers to the damage done by Level 1, 2, 3 remotes without Aghs and Level 1, 2, 3 remotes with Aghs respectively. These take into account the base magic resistance of heros. No more having to guess if you have enough mines. The only time these won’t work is against heros with different magic resistance like Anti Mage, Rubick, etc. Or if they have a pipe or hood.
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Laning
Soon as you spawn you’re going to buy a TP scroll, 3 clarities, and a soul ring recipe. That’s it. Techies is not a support, and if your team has shoehorned you into being a support you’re just all kinds of fucked.
Playing as Techies you come into lane with the advantage. The vast majority of people aren’t really expecting too much from the Techies lane and more often than not will make a lot of mistakes, like jumping on you.
If you are playing unranked, there is enough time to lay down 4 mines before the creep lines meet. In ranked there is enough time to lay down 5. No idea why there is a difference, but there is. So you TP to offlane immediately and start laying mines. If you get scouted, that’s fine, it happens. With the current meta of being fight for the runes, you will get scouted very rarely honestly.
Radiant offlane
Using the middle flower as a guide. 3 mines
Dire offlane
Using a flower as a guide again. 3 mines
If you’re doing unranked, you’ll have to do either 2:2 or 3:1 and hope for the best. Otherwise, the 2 stacks will take care of most int supports and some agi carries at level 1. Even if they don’t die, they’re either going to have to go back to base or burn some consumables before the match has even started.
The 3 stacks will take care of anyone else save for a few heros that need 4 mines at level 1. On the Radiant offlane, the 3 stack gets really close to the creep wave so you might have to use creep aggro to manipulate where the creep are.
Getting a first blood with one of these stacks pretty much assures you winning that lane. If not, or they demine, that’s fine too.
From there you play aggressively. With the change to landmine activation time you can be a real bully in lane, especially if they’re melee. Push the lane with mines or poke them with your pitiful auto attack, always be careful to save enough mana for suicide. Your skill build is level 1 mines, level 2 suicide, and from there either mines or suicide. If you recently suicided and the cooldown is still more than 100 seconds, go ahead and level mines, otherwise level suicide.
Finish your soul ring, if you got first blood it’s already done. When the lane is pushed to their tower, this is when you start mining your lane. Gank points are good, but I really like mining their pull camps.
Radiant pull camp.
Using a mushroom, the Dire pull camp.
As long as suicide is up, play aggressive, if they jump on you that’s fine, kill them. If they have a stun or two and suicide is down, hang back or go mine around your lane. Don’t go roaming off for too long because you do need levels.
If you see they have sentries, bait them out. In clear view lay out a mine at a path or something, or if you’re level 6 you can do a fake remote by canceling it halfway through. If they’re not paying attention they might think you laid one. They will almost always drop a sentry right there to get rid of that one mine and for a bit of mana you’ve made them waste a sentry.
Get your brown boots and start on a Eul’s Scepter. Yep, that’s right, brown boots. No Tranquils, no Arcanes.
Once you hit 6 you can either push down your lane or go help another lane.
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Items
Eul’s I get after brown boots. Very very useful. Eul’s into suicide or Eul’s into landmines. The purge for yourself is nice in case you get silenced.
Force Staff I get after Eul’s. Also very useful. Mobility, chasing, Int, and of course, pushing people into mines never get old. Force Staff is very important if you’re defending high ground.
Bloodstone I usually get after Force. Gives you the mana sustain to never really have to go back to fountain and also gives you a second deny.
Boots of Travel turn Techies into the best pusher in the game.
Aghs. Do not fucking rush this. It’s not core, it’s a situational luxury item for Techies. The extra range is nice, but not needed. The extra damage could be covered by an extra remote, and the sign is cool and nifty, but doesn’t last long and you can abuse fog of war if you’re worried about them demining. If you rush this as a first item, you will not have enough mana sustain to make use of it.
Hex. Useful all around, can never really go wrong with this.
Deso makes you push towers even faster
Octarine, makes you tanky as hell and reduces your bombs to 7.5 seconds. If you’re being seiged this could make the difference between not having enough mines up and having enough mines up.
Blink. I’ve never gotten it on Techies, and I’m honestly not sure why people do. You’re not initiating with anything except suicide which is dumb. If you’re trying to be sneaky and mine in the trees or something, force staff works just as well and gives you Int.
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Mid to late game
Like I said before, read the game. Does their troll or ursa have mask yet? Smoke up and mine rosh. Their jungler is pushing a lane, mine their jungle. Mine the ramps, mine around corners, stasis mines where a big fight might happen. Look ahead into the game. Your tower is low, mine access points to that tower, mine after the tower if you’re going to lose it probably.
If you’re being seiged, mine the T3s. Stasis mines all over your fucking base. Stasis mines are OP.
There is nothing to really explain here, mid to late game is all about getting a feel for the rhythm of that match. That only comes with experience.
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Tips and Tricks
You can mine rosh without having to go into it.
If you cast Remote mine just a little past the pointy rock it will go right next to rosh. For melee rosh heros that is close enough to them unless they pull rosh away from the wall.
Gem makes your job a little harder, but not impossible. Once they have a gem, you have to start playing sneaky. Use trees and fog of war to your advantage. Gem doesn’t do them any good unless they actually have vision of your mines.
When you’re pushing in a lane, drop stasis mines every time they’re off cooldown straight in the lane. When somebody comes to kill you, they’re going to have a real hard time chasing you down.
If you have a split pusher on their team like NP or Tinker, push out a lane and lay remotes straight in the middle of the lane between towers. If they have a necro, they’re not going to pop a necro that far away from your tower, if they have a gem, hang around it in the shadows and force them into the pile.
Fight with your team. Mining stuff is cool and all, but if you have a decent amount of mines on the map already and lanes aren’t really good for split pushing, go with the team. Stasis mines after another stun is huge. You’ll probably be able to get 1 or 2 remotes off during a team fight. And if all else fails, fuck, suicide into one of them at least take one of them with you.
You can use Remotes as ghetto wards. Vision isn’t as big, but hell, it’s free.
Smoke in and mine their secret shop when you can. If you can get a pile down on the ramp into their shop without being seen, you will get a kill, every time until they decide they’re tired of that shit and ward their shop.
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I can’t really think of anything else at the moment to say but I know there is a lot more. I’ll try to answer questions as they come. Just remember, everyone dies to enough mines.
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