Tinker Guide

Why play Tinker? 
No cooldown on almost any skill/item thanks to his Rearm ability. Strong at all stages of the game. Tinker's trademark skill is that he can Rearm Boots of Travel and teleport almost anywhere on the map!


Generic Skill Build:
Lvl 1-8: Max Missile/Laser 
Lvl 9: Rearm
Lvl 10-13: Max March of the Machines
Lvl 14: Rearm
Lvl 15: Stats
Lvl 16: Rearm


My Generic Item Order:
Bottle -> Boot -> Boots of Travel -> Soul Ring -> Guinsoo -> Manta Style -> Linken's Sphere -> Shiva's Guard -> Dagon 5


Get (blank) Item By (#) Minutes: 
Boots of Travels: 10-15 minutes
Must have items before getting Guinsoo: Boots of Travel, Bottle, Soul Ring
Guinsoo: 20-30 minutes
Manta Style: 30-35 minutes
Linken's Sphere: 35-40 minutes


Final Item Choices (in order of importance):
1. Boots of Travel
2. Guinsoo
3. Manta Style
4. Linken's Sphere
5. Shiva's Guard
6. Dagon/Ethereal Blade/Soul Ring


General Tinker Tips:
Use Heat Seeking Missile FIRST then use Laser. This will allow both spells to hit at almost the same time. By doing the two spells in this order, it'll reduce the time blink heroes or wind walk heroes have to react to trigger their abilities to negate the Missile damage.
2 overlapping March of the Machines does A LOT of damage. If a hero is foolish enough to fight you in this madness, stay, fight, use a Laser for 3 seconds of miss, and you will probably win.
Use March of the Machines with your back facing the enemy/enemy creeps and at a 45 degree angle for maximum damage. There is also a certain way which you should run and lead the enemy creeps/heroes through the March to maximize the damage. The picture below is a rough depiction of what I mean. If this is still confusing, watch a couple of my replays.

If you're going against a gank heavy line up with lots of roamers and you find yourself hugging tower more than usual, switch over to the March of the Machines build (maxing March by lvl 7). The rest of the skill points can either be equally distributed between Laser and Missile or all into Laser (don't ever skip Laser completely, the 3 sec miss is invaluable).
If you are going March/Laser build, you should use March when enemy creep waves stack. For example: If there are 4 creeps per wave, wait until there are about 5-6 enemy creeps in lane before you March. 
If you're solo mid Sentinel side with March build and you're having a tough time farming, occasionally stack the small neutral camp next to mid Sentinel tower and clear when you have lvl 3 or lvl 4 March.
Watch the minimap at ALL times. Analyzing the minimap determines where Tinker can farm and what heroes are safe to gank. I like to make sure that at least half of the opposing team is accounted for elsewhere on the map before Tinker TPs.
Buy observer wards right after you finish Guinsoo and place them in areas that will prevent ganks on Tinker when Tinker pushes a lane. Take this seriously, don't be cheap.
Use Soul Ring right before you Rearm for additional mana. Soul Ring is an item that should always be bought. Rearm refreshes Soul Ring.
Get an item hotkey program and get used to using it. It should be an extension of your body so when you want an item to go off, it should go off without delay. (I use Pie.Cr3w's Inventory Helper A+ which can be found here: [ inventory+ ])
Know the mana cost of all your spells. Laser: 170 mana. Missile: 180 mana. March: 190 mana. This will help push the limits of Tinker and help in critical decisions in game such as should Tinker stay or should he go? Remember that Laser and Missile (both at lvl 4) together costs 350 mana.
Guinsoo-ing a hero and then immediately TP-ing will safely get you back to base just as the Guinsoo effect ends.
If you need to escape from a hero that is hitting you to death, use Laser and TP home. The 3 second miss gives Tinker just enough time to get back to base safely.
Predict creep waves so Tinker can cast March before seeing the creep wave. This will limit the amount of time Tinker is visible and will allow for quicker farming. Detailed map of creep walking times below:

To defend your base against a push, you should do 2 pre-emptive Marches before the enemy comes into vision in addition to using your Manta images if you have the item. If you watch me during a big push in one of my replays, I'll time a march before the creeps/heroes are in range so they will walk into the March(es). This will greatly damage the heroes if they walk into it and it will clear all the creeps that make up the push. Their push is now stopped, so they either have to wait for the next wave, retreat, or push the base without creeps (which doesn't work thanks to imba Tower Regeneration).

When farming lanes as Tinker, farm the side lanes if it's possible and safe and leave the middle lane for your team mates to take care of. This will cause the enemy heroes to run long distances to organize and gank your Tinker. Frustrating for them, but fun for you.

After getting your Boots of Travels, ask someone to come and take over your solo lane and go gank the other lanes, but do not idle in the other lanes too long waiting to gank. To harass: spam 2 sets of missiles -- Missile, Rearm, Missile, and then TP home to get ready to gank or harass another lane. Once the first outer towers are down, you can start farming more intensively, while doing ganks/harassment when it is opportune.

Ignore sloppy team battles where it doesn't look like your team has a good chance of winning or when they have poor positioning. This might sound like horrible advice, but Tinker is more valuable pressuring the enemy base and forcing them to defend. If done correctly, this should enable your team to roam the map and/or farm. This is advice from personal play experience and I realize the "pros" do not exactly do this.

Against heroes that get Linken's Sphere to counter your Guinsoo, simply Laser them first to disable their Linken's. Laser's damage will work but the Miss Effect is what will trigger the Linken's Sphere. Also if you Shiva's them, the slow effect that Shiva's causes will also remove Linken's. After Linken's is triggered, proceed to kill with Hex-Nuke cycles.

Whenever you use Rearm, you should always be using a SHIFT-CLICK MOVE to move in the direction that you want to start walking when the Rearm is done. How to do this: While Rearming, simply hold SHIFT then right click with your mouse to indicate where you want Tinker to go after he's done Rearming and finally let go of SHIFT.

Many people think getting BKB is the answer to defeating Tinker. When going against heroes that have BKB, just run around in circles until it wears off then Guinsoo them and kill them or avoid them altogether if possible. Thank goodness the duration of BKB diminishes to 5 seconds after 5 uses.

Ideal Item/Skill Sequences:

Farming Sequences:

No farming items: TP in, March, Soul Ring, Bottle, Rearm, March, Laser a creep if possible, and TP out.

Manta Style: TP in, March, Manta, Soul Ring, Rearm, March, and TP out.

Manta Style + Shiva's Guard: TP in, March, Manta, Shiva's, Soul Ring, Rearm, Shiva's, and TP out. Notice I skipped the 2nd March.

Turbo Pushing (Virot2's original strategy): Do the farming sequences above and immediately move on to the next creep wave. You will lose some experience doing this since you are leaving the creep wave before the creeps die, but in exchange, Tinker's pushing power will be increased and you will get more gold per minute.

You can cast Shiva's while TPing.

Ganking Sequences:

If the enemy hero has around 650-750 hitpoints, Tinker will not be able to kill with just one Missile/Laser combo. So this is what you do, you TP into lane unnoticed if possible and spam one Missile then Rearm. The reasoning behind this is that the enemy is only taking 1 hit from a Missile and they probably aren't low enough to panic and run. They're still around 550 or so. By the time you're done with spamming one Missile and Rearm-ing, you should still have enough mana for a Missile/Laser combo. Simply run up to them with your fast movement speed and nuke them. They should die. It's like a 1-2 punch and they didn't even see the 2nd punch coming. BAM!

Ganking a hero with only Guinsoo: (A Tinker with Boots of Travel, lvl 3 Rearm, and a Guinsoo can take out most heroes. TP in, Guinsoo, Missile, Laser, Soul Ring, Bottle, Rearm, Guinsoo, Missile, Laser, and repeat if necessary. This should create a perma-hex effect (an effect where you continuously disable them). If you can't perma-hex them efficiently, you should strongly consider mastering this before you play Tinker. If you're quick, you can fit a March in somewhere before you Soul Ring and Rearm. Video demonstrating a hex/nuke gank combo.

YouTube Video: YouTube - DotA - Arkana (I'm the 1st highlight)

Ganking a hero with Guinsoo and Manta: TP in, Guinsoo, Missile, Laser, Manta, select the Tinker images to attack the hero, hit F1 to select Tinker, Soul Ring, Rearm, Guinsoo, Missile, Laser, and repeat but skip using Manta the second time around. This is a complicated sequence of actions, so I encourage anyone who tries this to practice. Using Manta will give you less time to perma-hex the enemy hero.

Item Usage Tips:

Items that you should not get EVER:

Bloodstone: After repeated testing, the added mana, regen, and charges are not better than being able to Rearm a Soul Ring. Simply do not get.

Eye of Skadi: Skadi does give Tinker stats and hp/mana, but that's not what Tinker is looking for in an item. Tinker wants items that he can refresh and reuse. The frost effect is not effective since Tinker's time will mostly be spent moving around, casting spells, and Rearming.

Orchid of Malevolence: Not a horrible item, but I would not have this item in place of a Guinsoo/Manta/Shivas. Guinsoo already gives you a silence. Buying an item just for 25% damage amplification is simply not worth the cost.

Black King Bar (BKB): It's not refreshable anymore. I know the "Pros" get it on Tinker still like Angel/Misery/Kuroky/(Insert another "Pro" Tinker player here), but from my experience, BKB is going to be used so often that it's going to reduce down to the 5 second cooldown and only being able to use BKB every 50 seconds or so for 5 seconds is not worth the value. Tinker is better off getting a Linken's or even a Ghost Scepter or a Manta Style. Playing without BKB is another way of playing that you should be able to get used to. You can't absentmindedly run into battle anymore. Positioning in team battles becomes more important. Virot2 also advocated no BKB Tinker usage.

Hand of Midas: Doesn't refresh.

Necronomicon: Doesn't refresh. Better items available. Want pushing power? Get Manta Style. Against invisible heroes? Get a gem.

Ghost Scepter (GS)/Ethereal Blade (EB):

SpiritBreaker (SB): GS will stop SB's charge from stunning you, but won't protect Tinker from the stun from Nether Strike. If you notice that you are being charged, turn on Ghost Scepter and immediately TP.

Naga Siren: When Naga nets you, simply activate Ghost Scepter to get out of her net.

Stealth Assassin (SA): When SA clouds you and ganks you, you're silenced but you can still use items under cloud. Use Ghost Scepter, Guinsoo him if you got it, Rearm, use Ghost Scepter again, and immediately TP.

Using GS and triggering Boots of Travel right after will enable you to TP while keeping the ethereal effect.

When upgrading GS to EB, remember that you can target yourself with EB if there is no target or if the enemy hero is BKB'd.

When an enemy hero is EB'd, Missile will not do any damage to the enemy hero. Laser/March will still do damage.

Dagon:

Ganking: To gank with Dagon, there is a specific sequence in which you should do your burst damage spells. The order is – Missile. Dagon. Laser. This all should take a total of 1 second to cast. Dagon also has a long cast range. Keep this in mind if you're chasing down heroes.

Farming: When you're farming lanes, use Laser and Dagon to ensure 2 guranteed last hits of farm.

Time Benchmark: Dagon lvl 1 by around 18 minutes and Dagon lvl 5 around 26-30 minutes.

Manta Style:

Use images as bait: As a team is pushing your base, split with Manta and send out 1 image and try to make it as realistic as possible. Hopefully you waste some of their spells and if you're lucky, some ultimates.

Escaping a near death scenario: If Tinker is low HP, use Manta and move an image away from the trio of Tinkers to make the enemy believe that the one running away is the real one. If you are lucky and they decide to chase it (they usually do), immediately TP. It's quite hilarious when this works. Quite brilliant actually.

Use the Manta images to attack the tower in the lane that you are pushing. The images deal little damage, but towers don't regenerate HP and they will fall eventually from this chipping. This is the main reason why I buy Manta after Guinsoo. Tinker isn't a carry that does well in team fights late game. Buying Manta offers Tinker a win condition in the form of pushing lanes and towers. Tinker's unique ability to push lanes makes him a pushing carry.

Canceling enemy spells: Using Manta will get rid of various negative effects that are cast on Tinker. Examples: poison, most slows, silences, Treant's Ultimate, Naga's or Meepo's net, and others. When in doubt, use Manta.

Canceling stuns: Manta can be used as a Linken's Sphere block if you time it correctly. You can cancel things from Storm Bolts to even Earthshaker's Ultimate if you split at the right time. Basically works like a Blink cancel.

Focus Attack: Be sure to highlight use all your images to attack the enemy, then hit F1 to select your hero and resume casting spells.

Scouting: Unsure whether you should push a lane into no vision territory? Use the 2 images to check if it's safe.

Against a Techies: Buy a Gem. Your images will also get the True Sight ability from the Gem. Use your images to attack and destroy mines or use the images to run over mines.

Blink Dagger:

I usually don't get this item in my core Tinker build. I usually get Dagger when I significantly outlevel the opposing team in the first 15 minutes. Item sequence: Travels, Soul Ring, Bottle, Dagger, then Wards to provide vision in the enemy team's neutrals to prevent anyone from farming neutrals. By doing this, Tinker with some help from the rest of your team should be able to roam the map and prevent the other team from farming.

Buying Blink Dagger provides a different presence in the game and if you feel like heavy ganking is your style of play, by all means, buy a Dagger.

Bottle:

Appropriate use of charges: Use a bottle charge RIGHT before you rearm. A bottle charge takes 3 secs to complete so while you're Rearm-ing, the bottle charge is taking its time to complete. Use a charge while walking to the wave that you're about to farm. Use the bottle constantly when you're in fountain to regen faster.

Magic Stick/Wand:

Great item, but I'd rather save the 200 gold that would have been spent on this item towards rushing Boots of Travel.

Specific Hero Tips:

Enigma Solo: March build.

Broodmother Solo: March build.

Bloodseeker Solo: Establish lane dominance by lvl 3. Aggro with early Laser followed by 1-2 normal attacks. Stand between the creeps and Bloodseeker. Punish Bloodseeker with 2-3 normal attacks for every creep he tries to last hit. This will offset the life gained from his early levels of Bloodbath. One of Tinker's worst solo matchups.

Bane Elemental Solo: Aggressively play your lane before Bane reaches lvl 3. Win the lane by lvl 3. If you let him passively gain levels. He'll own you at lvl 5 and definitely at lvl 6.

Doombringer Solo: Same as Bane Elemental. Lvl Death lvl 2 hurts a lot when you're level 5. Be careful.

Invoker Solo: If the Invoker has a Quas/Wex build, you probably won't be able to out nuke the amount of regeneration he has, so just do the Laser/March build and focus on purely farming. If you feel like you can set up a good face off scenario where you can force him to tank a March and Laser, do it. If the Invoker does an Exort/Wex build, do Laser/Missile and out aggro him.

Shadowfiend Solo: You should win this lane 99% of the time. Aggro early and prevent him from comfortably last hitting. Try to establish a scenario where you hit level 3 before SF does. Then use Level 2 Laser to establish firm lane dominance. A level 2 Laser takes away about 40% of SF's HP.

Meepo Solo: If Meepo is getting early levels in a solo lane or a good Meepo is playing in the game, you should strongly consider going Dagon. This also depends on your team's capabilities, but nothing counters a Meepo better than early burst damage. A good Meepo rapes Tinker, unless you get Dagon in a timely fashion. Getting Guinsoo first will not help Tinker against a Meepo.

Shadow Demon Solo: You will probably not win this lane against a good SD, but I would go March build.

Templar Assassin Solo: Due to TA's Refraction skill, Laser and Missile won't be as effective. By going March build, TA will have to risk a lot if he does decide to rush you. March will get rid of the Refraction charges quick leaving TA open to a Laser and allowing Tinker a safe 3 second face off and the advantage.

Buffs/Nerfs for Tinker over the years:

Updated for 6.73c:

BUFF: Guinsoo parts were changed to make it cheaper (remember the days when Guinsoo = Old Euls+Oblivion Staff)

BUFF: Boots of Travel movement speed bonus is now 100 (used to be 90 then reduced to 85 then back to 90)

BUFF: Boots of Travel Recipe is now 2000 gold (used to be 2200 gold)

BUFF: Manta Style got buffed in terms of stat gain (remember the days when Manta Style used to give mana burn and the parts required were Diffusal Blade+Vitality Booster were some good days for Tinker. You could do a double nuke cycle with just a Diffusal Blade. Missle->Laser->Purge->Rearm lvl 2->Repeat

BUFF: Laser changed from a 25% aoe miss effect to a 2 second miss on one hero and buffed recently in 6.73 to a 3 second miss

BUFF: Missile lvl 1 and 2 now hit two targets instead of one (6.72)

BUFF: Tinker's base movement speed increased to 305

NERF: The mana cost of Missile increased from 150 to 180. The mana cost for both Missile and Laser used to be 320 now it's 350.

NERF: Removed BKB from list of items Tinker is able to Rearm.