Hero Strategy: Goblin Tinker

[Revelade]

One of the lesser used heroes, the Tinker has lots of potential for new strategies and styles. His 2 spells are either a summon or an AoE stun, with his ultimate being the most unique by far. Oddly enough, he is an intelligence hero, yet fights as melee. His strength and intelligent stats improve equally, while agility is his weakest area.

When using the Tinker, one will have to choose either the path of the Factory or the road of the Rocket.

Spells:

Pocket Factory is an unique because it's the only building to be summoned in the game. From the building however, spawn the tiny clockwork goblins. These guys are similar to skeletons, except they only have 80 hp and do less overall damage. However, the real treat is that they explode when they are killed that inflicts small AoE damage. The spell is not easily spammed as it costs 125 mana, so it must be placed carefully. I would either have it in front of your army to create a wall for your ranged units, or behind the enemy, for maximum damage. Upgrading this spell upgrades the amount of splash damage each clockwerk goblin does which is 30/60/80. It's a strong summon, but can cost a bit too much and cannot travel too far.

Cluster Rockets is similar to Stasis ward in that both are AoE stuns. This costs a relatively cheap 70 mana, but that also reflects on the result. Damage at all levels are 30/65/100, which is very weak compared to other spells. The main treat is the stun, but it only lasts 1 second, which is fine for stopping channeling spells, but 1 second doesn't help too much. Of course any stun allows your army to gain a better position, so it's better suited to a faster army. The spell does however, have a large radius, so you can hit more enemies with this, than say blizzard. Use this for the large area and stun, but it's weak in damage and duration.

Engineering Upgrade is a decent skill for the Tinker as it boosts his other spells and stats. He gains bonus damage and additional speed every time it is used. The Factory makes goblins even faster, while the Rockets get a larger area.

Finally Robo-Goblin turns the Tinker mechanical, meaning he gains immunity from hero killing spells. Keep in mind beneficial spells also do not work on him. He also gains the demolish ability that allows him to do 350% more damage to buildings, which allows base killing to be easier. At 25 mana, it's very easy to use this ultimate and he can stay in either form as long as he wants. With him being mechanical, workers can repair him back to health, similar to a priest. In total, you use this to keep the Goblin safe from hero killer spells, and to rock buildings.

Skill Point Pattern:

F/E/F/E/F
R/E/R/E/R

In total, you have a hero with a:
- strong summon that is limited to an area
- AoE spell that stuns, but is weak in damage and stun length
- a passive that makes him faster, deadlier and boosts his other spells
- an ultimate that costs cheap, lets him avoid killer spells and lets him do great damage to buildings

So I urge all of you to try the Tinker on your next visit to Bnet.

[IceDevil9]

I'll have to try this, I'll post a replay for you guys to see how well it worked out.

-Frank :cool:

[Revelade]

I used him a lot, but it doesn't seem I'm getting progress. Of the 2 paths, I found the Factory to be more reliable and deal more damage. Rockets do poor damage, unless you manage to hit a tightly clustered pack of units, which is not often. The 1 second stun is only good for stopping channel spells, but is useless other than that. The engineering upgrade makes him better, so I don't have much to complain about that. Finally, the ultimate doesn't pack a great punch, with the only advantages being he does more damage to buildings and can be repaired.

Factory - good
Rockets - bad
Engineering - good
Robo-Goblin - bad

Interesting hero, but he's weak in many parts.

[Chris]

Hell, if you are human. You can turn Tinker invisible and bomb the enemy with Kaboomed Goblin Robots. Tinker is great for some things, if you can keep him alive. Being a Robo-Goblin is actually a good thing. Instead of having to pay for an item to heal him, you can use ur own peasents to repair him (he's mechanical).

[IceDevil9]

I played him as human, w/Mass Gryphs, and I got my ass handed to me. I'm not necessarily the best player, so it could've just been me, but he doesn't seem to be a very good hero. The Cluster Rockets isn't all that great, the pockety factory was never beneficial to me at all, and the only skill thatw as halfway decent was his morphy thingy (Ulti).

Thanks, but no thanks.

-Frank :cool:

[Chris]

The rockets or any stun type spell helps people like ranged ne defeat melee without fear of them going to thier faces. I once Cluster Rocket some Grunts in front of a guy's archer group. Used my trolls and his archers to pick off Grunts for him to make skeletons out of. What do you know? The skeletons start blocking and the grunts were easily killed. Stun helps but when you get only 1-2 seconds for it, you are kinda helpless.

[Revelade]

I've decided to disregard Rockets as a 1 second stun is only good against channeling spells and it only works great vs a large number of units.

However, I think I see the light with Robo Goblin. If you take a look at all the races, mechanical ground units are usually the siege units that do the most damage. Their weakness however, is the fact that they are slow and fairly easy to kill. Robo Goblin exceeds both of these weakness, in that he can use items to heal, and with the Engineering upgrades, he moves very, VERY fast. This enables him to be a great base harasser, while being able to move out when danger comes near. The ideal conditions for him would be a game where both armies are small and it comes down to holding bases. He should be considered a Siege Engine, with a ground attack and great speed.

[Ntrik_]

I thought robo goblin was awesome, spell immune = anti nukers!!

Im glad you posted this guide Revelade, I think with little bit of revisions, this could well go into the sticky, hell it may not even need any at all

[x42bn6]

Pocket Factory is murder against Archers. -.-;*

[Chris]

Especially when you have an explosive surprise for them . Robo-Goblin can also allow you to bring peasents to heal yourself more faster if you are say being hero nuked by something like Dryads or Fiends.

I prefer the Tinker's Pocket Factory over Cluster Rockets. You can make little monsters that can easily deal damage across other enemy units. Plus, it gives people a distraction. Come on, they have like 3 options when dealing with this factory.

-Focus fire on Factory allowing Clockwerks to explode in the enemy's face or
even allowing your allies to get a free shot on thier units.
-Run away and let the machine spew more Clockwerks
-Kill the Clockwerks and succumb your own units to 30-80 damage

At about level 2 or 3, they can totally pwn workers and possibly level some structures at bases. You may need to rally point the factory in the correct location. So the goblins run over and blow themselves up properly. I know this cause I am on a 4-5 win streak with this hero, mostly ending up with him at 2-6. (the level 2 was from a tri-hero when I got to tier3).

[Revelade]

Oddly enough, I can't seem to edit my first post so... I'll continue here.

The Pocket Factory is THE choice when choosing the Tinker. Rockets is just too weak and specialized to be the primary choice. When engaging the enemy, try to fight next to a creep camp, preferable yellow, that you may want to fight after the battle. This way you can save mana if you win the battle, and continue fighting the creeps.

So the main order should be:
Fac/Eng/Fac/Eng/Fac/Rob/Eng/Roc/Roc/Roc

Also the tinker is devasting to worker bases. I've seen a level 1 factory do 300 or so damage in total to a base. Try to place it in a tight clustered area or in the middle of a gold/wood line. The best situation is if you are fighting a human player.

The key with the tinker is leveling up quickly. With the factory, he can do this task easily. Never waste factories on green creeps. Instead, save it for yellow creeps. He works well with fragile units that do good damage like archers, footmen, ghouls, or headhunters. He is a fast hero, so running away shouldn't be too hard. His starting armor is high compared to other heroes, so he should be sturdy in the early parts of the game. Finally, equip an orb to him, so that when he is in Robo form, his demolish ability will do even MORE damage to buildings.

Focus on Factory and Engineering and skip Rockets. Here's a target list for Factory:

- yellow creeps
- worker lines
- ranged units
- low hp units
- heroes
- blocking exits

Here's a replay that shows GREAT usage of Tinker harassment.

[Ntrik_]

Im actually thinking of trying tinker out against Orc or UD, might be useful when it comes to harassing

btw, hi2u2 @ revelade in blizzforums

[Revelade]

Originally Posted by NtRik_

Im actually thinking of trying tinker out against Orc or UD, might be useful when it comes to harassing

btw, hi2u2 @ revelade in blizzforums

Too bad I no not who you are there.

[Ntrik_]

Originally Posted by Revelade

Too bad I no not who you are there.

Im not going to reveal myself, but just see the flag here and the flag there.

I also left message in Blizzforums @ you as well Post your Banshee stuff here, or Ill have to steal it from thar sounds like its going to interesting.

[Chris]

Just plant the Pocket Factory where the Clockwerk goblins will be effective in attacking and exploding. You could wipe out tier1 units and possibly heroes if you are lucky. Its a great unit, just make sure they don't try to focus fire on your factory.

[Revelade]

The most important part about Factory is make sure it targets RANGED units. Factory absolutely rapes ranged units, so try it on creeps. Always place it in the back of their army.

[Chris]

I have necroposted this thread because I thought it needed to be continued.

With factory, you can take some yellow and any green creeps with tinker alone. Summon the factory and let 1 goblin come out, then attack the enemy. the goblins will engage and start to attack. When they die, they will explode causing 30 damage to a target. To maximize the effectiveness, move the goblins into packs and let them explode where they can harm more than one unit.

[Revelade]

Tinker is a creeping legend. He can creep orange creeps (not yellow, my mistake) by HIMSELF, with maybe a rod of necromancy. He is absolutely overpowered on small maps like Wetlands or Twisted Meadows.

So my advice is NEVER GO ROCKETS. It's absolute horrible.

Factory ranged units or casters.

Finally, at level 6, give the Tinker a staff or teleport, orb and invisibility potion. You can harass his base or expansion VERY easily.

[Chris]

For god's sake, he can take on the creep at the Healing Fountian in River of Souls. Just make the goblins attack the Trappers in the back. The Polar Bears will get hurt by the explosion. Any melee units you bring can assist damaging the Trappers too.

Just don't get careless, you need to micro the tinker, but not the goblins.

[Revelade]

Here is my final input on the Tinker.

Skill Order:

F = factory
E = engineering upgrade
R = rockets
U = ultimate (Robo Goblin)

F/E/F/E/E/U/R/R/R

Hero Control:

- creep ORANGE creeps
- place factory next to ranged units
- do not micro the clockwerk goblins
- equip a staff of teleportation/potion of invisibility at level 6

Analysis:

He is a tough hero with great armor. Therefore, he can take quite a beating, though he isn't invincible.

125 mana for the factory is too much to be wasted on green creeps. Orange creeps shouldn't be too hard to handle.

Clockwerk goblins should focus on ranged units because they do bonus damage against normal armor.

Rockets are too weak in damage and stun length to be considered seriously. You may ONLY want to use this if the other hero has a channeling ultimate.

The reason you go E at level 5 is that it upgrades the rate that the factory makes goblins, so it compensates for the less damage they will do. Also, it upgrades his stats in damage, speed and his ultimate at level 6.

Don't forget his ultimate makes him immune to spells, though he still can be ensnared. That means it is quite easy to run into a base and out, EVEN if the enemy TPs in.

Use the staff of teleportation/invisibility potion to harass or escape battle. It works VERY well to take down expansions or even bases.