After a significant rework to Techies in Dota 2 patch 7.31, we take a look at how the hero has adapted to pub games.

Till a few weeks ago, seeing Techies picked in their game would make most players squirm. Watching out for mines, having to buy an endless supply of sentries and always knowing random death could be just over the next high ground you chose to wander was never a nice feeling. But all that has changed since Techies’ rework in the recently released Dota 2 patch 7.31.

It was announced nearly a week before the release of patch 7.31 that Techies would be reworked, so that was one of the big things that the Dota 2 community was looking forward to. The rework got rid of two of the old Techies skill-

●        Stasis Trap

●        Remote Mines

and added two new skills

●        Sticky Bomb

●        Reactive Tazer

The reworked Techies, as it turns out, is much more of a team fight hero than the one that used to stay off the map, mining every place possible to give the opposition a sudden jolt that took their HP from 100% to 0% in the blink of an eye.

Sticky Bomb is an interesting ability. The sticky bomb prioritizes heroes, and it cannot be destroyed like Proximity Mines. So once it latches on, the damage is guaranteed unless the hero can escape with something like Blink or Dispersion or Eul’s active Cyclone. It is a good way to deal damage in lanes and secure last hits as well. The skill also pairs well with Proximity Mines to push out lanes and farm neutrals, especially neutral stacks. At level 7, the combination of the two skills results in a total of 740 damage, and the cooldown isn’t too high on them.

Reactive Tazer is slightly less impressive. Reactive Tazer when paired with Blast Off is an insane way to silence and disarm multiple enemy heroes, but it is tricky to time. It does take 6 seconds to go off, and it isn’t the easiest to keep all enemies stacked up for a long time. It does get slightly easier with an Aghanim’s Shard though, as enemies stunned by Blast Off will have a slightly more difficult time to avoid getting disarmed. Reactive Tazer gets a lot better when with Aghanim’s Scepter when it can be cast on allies and also deals damage, but it does require an investment of 4200 gold, which isn’t the easiest thing to do every game.

In the first week, the reworked Techies failed to impress in pubs, and the hero was given a few buffs in Dota 2 patch 7.31b.

After patch 7.31 was released, Techies’ pick rates skyrocketed, but the win rate fell quite a bit, and that’s not a surprise. Regular Techies players, who had years of experience of studying the farm patterns and movements of heroes, who knew exactly where to plant Remote Mines or a combination of Statis Traps and Proximity Mines suddenly had their advantage taken away from them. But once the buffs from patch 7.31 kicked in, the win rate nearly went back to what it previously was. Right now, it stands somewhere around the 46%-48% marks. The pick rate is still high, which is an indicator of two things – more players are willing to pick Techies, and there are fewer games where the hero is getting banned.

One of the biggest buffs in patch 7.31b was the self damage from Blast Off changed from max HP to current HP. Blast Off no longer deals lethal damage to Techies (change made in Dota 2 patch 7.31), which actually made it riskier to use at low HP. Earlier, at least the enemy wouldn’t get the gold and experience from the kill. But in the time between patches 7.31 and 7.31b, if a low HP Techies used Blast Off on enemy heroes, the hero would just end up near the enemy at very low HP and get killed off. Now, Blast Off barely does any damage to Techies.

Laning

According to Dotabuff, over 60% of the Techies games have seen the hero in the offlane. Position 3 or position 4 seems to be the best position for the three goblins, with the latter typically being more popular.

Skill Build

The most common skill build for the reworked Techies involves starting off with Blast Off, maxing out Sticky Bomb at level 7 and getting Reactive Tazer at level 11, when the only other option is picking stats. Having a 360 damage nuke (270 against heroes, with the 25% magic resistance) with a cooldown of 6 seconds is great for team fighting, as well as for farming. At level 10, a hero hit by a combination of Sticky Bomb, Blast Off and Proximity Mines takes a total of 1260 magic damage, which is quite a bit that early on in the game. For that, it does behove Techies to get early levels so as to have a high impact in the mid game.

Both, the most common skill build and the skill build with the highest win rate are exactly the same with respect to when skill points are taken. The only difference is which talents are picked.

Talents

Level 10: The level 10 talents are the most evenly contested. The 20% magic resistance is great not just for oncoming magic damage, but also to reduce the self damage from Blast Off. The -3 seconds Proximity Mines Cooldown is a 20% reduction in the charge replenish time at level 3 of the skill, and helps in putting out a lot more mines in the same time (potentially, 25% more mines).

Level 15: At level 15, the verdict is clear. +200 Blast Off damage is the way to go!

Level 20: Amongst the level 20 talents, -15 seconds Blast Off cooldown edges out +125 Sticky Bomb Latch/Explosion Radius, possibly because of the fact that most Techies will take the Blast Off talent at level 15 and also that it literally halves the Blast Off cooldown to 15 seconds, but the additional latch radius really helps in ensuring the Sticky Bombs find their mark.

Level 25: At level 25, the -0.8 seconds Proximity Mines Activation Delay is preferred, as that then reduces the activation delay to 0.2 seconds, meaning a Techies that stuns enemies with Blast Off (Aghanim’s Shard effect) has time enough to get one, or possibly even two, Proximity Mines to go off near the stunned enemies. The +252 damage is pretty much a meme talent, but hey, like Johan “Notail” Sundstein says, anything can work in Dota 2!

Item Build

While there is quite a bit to learn about the new Techies, a few items make a lot of sense on the hero.

1) Soul Ring: Considering Techies have four usable skills, the mana requirement is quite high. Soul Ring helps to quell that mana thirst from the early to mid-game.

2) Aether Lens into Octarine Core: An amazing item for Techies, which increases the range of three of the four skills (all except Reactive Tazer). It can later be upgraded into Octarine Core, which provides the hero tankiness and reduces all four cooldowns by 25%.

3) Kaya into Ethereal Blade: Ethereal Blade is now one of the most bought items on Techies. The new Ethereal Blade gives passive spell amplification thanks to Kaya, which is one of the components that makes it, and it provides an easy way to further amplify the damage by using the active (Ether Blast) to slow down enemies and reduce their magic resistance.

Besides his, the game dependent items include Eul’s Scepter of Divinity, Force Staff and Eternal Shroud or Bloodstone.

On the whole, Techies has been reborn. Patch 7.31 has completely changed the way to play the hero, and while the early signs are not too peachy, the new team fight Techies might just be the one more casual and professional players warm up to.