How to Play Techies in DOTA 2

Techies are one of the strangest and mechanically intensive heroes in the game. Their unique potential to seal off areas with their mines makes them especially powerful against opponents who don’t have a lot of experience playing against the hero. However, the hero is considered weak overall due to their insane difficulty level and reliability on mispositioning.

If you want to play Techies in Dota 2, we can help. This article focuses on the basic playstyle and some tips when using Techies.

Playing Techies in Dota 2

Due to Techies’ unique role as a supporting nuker, they are best left to sidelanes or cutting off enemy lanes with their traps. This can be both an advantage and a serious drawback. Since you’re essentially working without one team member, the numbers disadvantage in a lane can be deadly. With some good mine positioning, though, you can mitigate this effect and ensure your lane is safe from intruders.

Since Techies have the highest base range in the game (at 700), they can safely harass enemy heroes while receiving minimal damage or even avoiding creep aggro in turn. However, Techies have minuscule attack damage early into the game, with the brunt of their damage coming from Proximity Mines and Blast Off!

Speaking of Proximity Mines, knowing where to place them will be the bread and butter of Techies gameplay.

As a rule of thumb, stack a few mines where you think the enemy will cross at some point, like the side shops, common jungle, or river paths. Rune spots are highly contested, making them a sure bet.

On the other hand, a single Sentry Ward can reveal all nearby mines, so keep track of the enemy’s vision habits. If the enemy sees your mines, change the location of the next ones to keep them guessing what you’re planning. A Proximity Mine can be used to help clear a wave of creeps, which is their primary function if you’re playing Techies as a semi-carry nuker.

This skill is extremely mana-intensive, which is why most players will start with a few Clarities in their inventory to replenish their mana supply. Some of the first buys will include Arcane Boots and a Soul Ring since they alleviate some of the hero’s mana concerns.

Blast Off! is an excellent ability in chaotic fights or when you have the enemy locked down. Its area damage is insane – even at Level 1. However, keep in mind that it costs half your maximum health, so you might die in the process sometimes. The ability also incurs a lengthy silence, making it especially potent in prolonged fights.

You can use items like Rod of Atos or Eul’s Scepter, or Scythe of Vice later to keep enemies in place while you set up your abilities on top of them. Your Blast Off! takes 0.75 seconds to unload, so you need to be precise if you’re using Eul’s beforehand.

Aghanim’s Scepter is one of Techies’ greatest boons. With this item, you can start planting truly invisible Remote Mines, which also get a sizeable damage boost from the item. With Aghanims, you can remove an unsuspecting opponent, or a few of them, from an area with only a few carefully placed Remote Mines.

You also have to keep in mind the enemy heroes.

Some heroes are naturally hard matchups, usually tanky or magic-resistant ones, and you might need to change tactics in the middle of the lane to accommodate. Don’t be afraid to leave the lane for another one. Also, communicate to allies about optimal mine placements to disrupt or even kill enemies as much as possible.

Your Proximity Mines work on invisible heroes, making them excellent at discovering incoming ganks and relaying the enemy’s whereabouts. Note that the mines only trigger if an enemy spends 1.6 seconds within the activation range, usually by crossing over the mine. Extremely fast heroes might not trigger the mine, and some can randomly evade it by darting out of the area.

Tech Up for Techies

Learning new heroes in Dota 2 can be a time-consuming process. However, there are very few things more rewarding than scoring a kill with a few well-placed mines on the other side of the map. Keep training in proper mine placement and adapt to the enemy actions to get an advantage over time.