Tiny - Steamtrain Carry

Introduction

Hey guys, this is my first guide and i'd gladly welcome if you bring out your inner grammar Nazi and give me feedback. :)

I love playing Tiny because "he" is not only bad *** but not an enemy to ignore, otherwise multiple enemies can melt in seconds. :)

In this build i will show you my ins and outs to building a successful Tiny.

Can't believe how many views i'm getting! I'm already the top guide, I love the support guys :) Please comment how i can improve - 30/10/2012

I'd also like to add: Don't downvote my guide just for no reason or so it makes yours better, tell me why you downvoted it and don't be an *******.

Pros / Cons

Pros:

+ GREAT melee carry counter from his 'E' skill
+ Amazing in mid
+ Increased movement speed from ultimate
+ Great STR and STR gain
+ Amazing burst early/middle game
+ Good carry potential or semi-carry potential if played right
+ Amazing ganker early and mid
+ Bonus attack damage through his ultimate
+ Looks f**king BAD-***

Cons:

- Attack animation can be frustrating when you're about to achieve final blow
- Low armour early game
- Slow attack speed further reduced by ultimate

Items

Starting Items:

My preferred starting items are 3x Iron Branch and one Mantle of Intelligence for a generally bigger mana pool in the early stages, Tiny is very needy when it comes to mana as i will be discussing in the "skills" section. Along with this you do your basic regeneration of a set of Tango and a Healing Salve

Your Blink Dagger and you:

I cannot stress enough about how IMPORTANT Blink Dagger is. Tiny is too damn slow to catch his enemies in various early stages of the game and becomes increasingly harder to land Avalanche and follow up by using Toss half way through the duration of avalanche to maximize his combo. Adding to this you need to have a Bottle and Boots of Speed; boots obviously for getting around the map faster inbetween lanes for ganking opportunities and bottle for runes to keep your mana pool up throughout the WHOLE game.

Primary items:

For tiny to have carrying potential you need to gank very often while farming inbetween lanes, once you have your Aghanim's Scepter your farming potential rises through the roof, It gives approximately 50% cleave damage in a large radius, increases your attack range, improves toss bonus by 15% AND lets you deal 70% extra damage to buildings for 3 attacks on a 30 second cooldown.Finishing off your boots is also a nice touch giving an extra 24 damage to your 300 damage or so at level 16, added to this Tiny's attack speed is incrediby slow without any modifiers; this is why i have included a Hyperstone to be primary in the build so you can dish out more attacks and more death.

Situational items:

There are many possible final items for Tiny it just matters on your situation! IF you need more attackspeed for faster attacks build a possible Assault Cuirass or a Manta Style for its very beneficial illusions and the added attack speed.
If you want damage, you can build a Daedalus.
Getting stunned alot and getting frustrated? Build Black King Bar and watch those stunners run for their lives (atleast for 10 seconds xD)

Skills

Avalanche:

Avalanche is a GREAT nuke at the start of the game, It also provides a reliable 1 second stun and is relatively easy to aim. BUT leveling it from 3-4 IS NOT as good as having more levels in Toss and grow for extra damage. This is because of the funny scaling from lvl 3-4 being only an increase in damage of 40 instead of 80 like the other levels. This is why I level avalanche to level 2 and max toss by level 7.

Toss:

This skill is practically your "bread and butter skill" it deals massive amounts of damage no matter what stage of the game you are in and has ridiculously long range that increases with each level. I only level this over Avalanche because it 1. Doesn't do anything with Grow! leveled. 2. Doesn't scale as well from level 3-4. 3. Doesn't increase in range. 4. DOESN'T DO AS MUCH DAMAGE!!! (considering as dps over a period of 20 seconds) Deals 1160 maximum possible damage over Avalanche's possible 600) I max this first after taking 2 levels in Avalanche at 1 & 3.

The combo!

The combo that makes Tiny a godlike ganker and burst hero is casting Avalanche and instantly following up by using toss. With Avalanche knockup makes the damage deal twice and reset the stun, this perfectly works with Toss to follow up. So mathamaticly, using level 4 Avalanche and throwing up an enemy will deal 600 damage (avalanche) + a possible 580 damage with Aghanim's Scepter (toss). This combo will just about burst any caster or carry down with the ADDED damage from your basic attacks. After this you just beat them with your tree and watch your enemies fall.

Craggy Exterior:

This skill has a chance to stun enemies and increases base armour. I find this skill a bit underestimated when it comes to physical dps heroes, especially melee carries. when at level 4 this stuns enemies for 1.2 seconds and has 1/4 chance to proc, this basically saves your *** many many times when targeted by the enemy carry either 1. Disrupting their dps giving you a chance to kill them :D. 2. Gives for a great get away from a teamfight. I get thos skill and levels 10,12,13 and 14. ( basically when i have maxed out skill 1 and 2.

Grow!:

I well and truly love this skill, it is subtly awesome. It improves your toss bonus when throwing an enemy at level 3 by 65%! It also gives you added 60 movement speed to scale late game and improves your damage by 150!!! The only downside is that it reduce your base attack speed by 50%. I get this skill as soon as possible and never skip it.

Laning

Playing as Tiny you almost always want to be put in mid, this provides early levels and relative safety from ganks in the early stages of the game.

What you want to do is:

- Harrass enemy with your melee attacks
- Remember to always have 240 mana as this is the magic number to use your combo.
- Take special priority to control rune spawn locations every 2 minutes
- Make sure to bottle runes and use them to gank, but only when you reach level 5, it will melt squishies and get you fed quickly

Summary

In summary tiny is an excellent character when executed and performed properly and a VERY capable carry if you know what you are doing. :)

Please give me some feedback and critise my guide, this is my first one after all. I am not neccessarily finished yet and will finish this later.


Thanks for reading and -Polak Out.

Shoutout to Iroh, former english teacher, who went out of his way to give me some feedback! :)