[DOTA] Hero Guide - Tiny

Okay, here goes another hero guide. Flame away! XD

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There are several phases I suppose, most players go through when playing DotA.  One of the major one of course is realizing how vital runes are to the game.  When I realized this, I played heroes that can pimp it the best.  Usually, target-stun(trigger stun) heroes were preferred, but there was one exception, and it was Tiny.

So what does Tiny do in a game?

Tiny is ultimately, a support.  I think he can be a semi-carry if you are really outright bulldozing through the game.  But the nature of the hero is really just a support.  He buys wards, he pimps runes and ganks.  The goal is to outright kill someone in a single combo.  If you do this well enough, you own the map control.  People would be scared laning, let alone jungling.

Tiny is not a hero that is commonly used in competitive scene.  Erm.. Actually, it's almost never used.  Because obviously, there are better alternatives.  But, it doesn't mean this hero is absolutely garbage.  This hero in my mind sits at mid-tier, and it can work in competitive games.  In any game where the opponent have three or more squishy heroes (Leshrac, Zeus.. etc) and if you can be a follow-up stunner (to say, Sven or Earth Shaker), Tiny can have fair presence.  In any case, Tiny is all around a very fun hero to play.

As great as Tiny is, there are a lot of players that just have no idea how Tiny works.  Lot of players are left puzzled when they die to Tiny's combo when they have (in their minds) plenty HP.  Ah, if it was not obvious enough, Tiny's combo is Avalanche and Toss which is followed by his auto attacks.

Here are the list of his abilities:









The description to these skill are self-explantory.  Alright, then the subtle things that lot of people don't understand... hmm okay, what about this: Avalanche hits twice.


Huh?

Yes, avalanche hits twice.  The thing about avalanche is that if you get caught by the very last frame of the avalanche, you will be stunned for full duration, and damaged for full duration.  Now, let's look at the combo, it's avalanche into toss.  Well, obviously, you stun the guy so he's immobile, and then you toss him.  But there's a hidden factor here.  If an opponent lands from before avalanche is over, avalanche hits him twice.

I'll make it simpler, you want to toss the opponent ASAP when your avalanche hits. The faster, the more reliable chance there is of avalanche hitting twice.  Honestly, it's not that tight of a window, but it has to be relatively fast. A lot of the players do not know this and attribute Tiny's freak burst to his Toss land damage, which is obviously wrong. 

Another misconception of Tiny is the ignorance of his ultimate.  His smack, yes, it scales with armor, and yes, it's slow.  But it's very important to the combo.  Usually, during his combo, he hits twice. Once in the air, and again when the target lands.  The third attack may or may not happen.  Sometimes you smack and see the dreadful red "miss".  And of course, the added damage on Toss, although not that huge, is still an overlooked element of Tiny.

That's why you see so many Tiny players who never get ult and keep themselves as little as possible.  You are actually losing damage if you do this.


Anyhow, with this in mind, your skill build generally follows like this;
By level 7


By level 9


I am not too fond of craggy exterior, I rather have stats over it.  But if there is a melee carry in-game.  It may not be too bad of an idea to put anywhere from 1 to maxing it. After level 9 you can go all stats and get ult whenever possible, or get craggy exterior as you see fit.


Huh, hold on a minute..why 3ava 3toss? 
Shouldn't you max avalanche since it's the main contributer to Tiny's damage?

Ah, valid point.  Yes, you can do it 4ava 2toss.  But you don't because landing the combo is really hard at early levels.  Hard because you probably don't have a blink.  And without blink, you are pretty much relying on runes and other teammates.  Which can be very situational.  So you take 3 of each, and really, 3toss isn't bad.  Considering you can toss a lot further per level and having ult also buffs the toss land damage.  It's a better all around build in my opinion. 


Items?
A) Early


This is an early item build I recommend.  This is something that fits me, so the casual two circlet, one branch, and two set of tangos work just fine as well.  The rationale behind these items are that, I actively gank as Tiny.  And at level two, I have 247 mana, which is enough for a single combo (120 + 120).  And I also know that I can pump about 300 damage in a combo at level 2.  So, I ward early, and gank early with runes. 

After these starting items, I get bottle, then boots.  Supply wards as necessary, and always carry a TP.


B) Mid

Now, you have some options.  Some like to go arcane ring, I don't like that build as much.  I have no problem with just bottle.  But arcane ring is definitely an option.

I recommend rushing blink dagger, fast.  After blink dagger, now you can choose; dagon, or cuirass.  What do I go? I get dagon.  Because I figure, my job is to outright kill people in a combo.  And dagon really adds to making sure the job gets done.


C) Late

If game really came to late, you are not in a very good shape as tiny.  If you got dagon, max it out, and your next item can be shivas or sheep.  If you went cuirass, I suppose you'd still want shivas or sheep.  Heart, linkens, pipe are all options. 

To make it simple, because Tiny's presence becomes weaker and weaker as the game goes on, you want items that makes you little more useful.  The fact is, Tiny is a deadweight.  Deadweight meaning heroes that have no use after their skills are spent (such as Spiritbreaker), Tiny is no different.  His combo is at 20sec, once he uses his combo, he's spent, useless. 

The trick is not letting it get to late.  You want to end it between 30-40min.  Any game that stretches longer is not a game Tiny wants to be playing. 


Tossing

Tiny's toss is perhaps what makes this hero really fun.  With the recent fix to toss actually tailing appropriately, you can do a lot of fun stuff.  From chasing to providing a ghetto blink, it's just a fantastic skill.  Your imagination is your limit when it comes to using toss.

Let's list some examples;
There's an ES on your team, and he doesn't have blink for whatever reason.  The opponents are pushing, and they came with huge creep wave, and they're conveniently sticking together.  You get the idea, you toss ES to do his thing.

Same can be applied for Shadow Fiend ult, Tidehunter's ult, and all sorts of things. You can also blink and toss back an enemy to your side.  It's like a ghetto VS(vengeance spirit) swap.

However, tossing is not as easy as it sounds.  Anyone who's done it would know how random it is if there are other units around.  I believe the popular belief is that Tiny tosses with his left hand.  And this may be true, I don't know.  But from experience I think this is utter bull****.  So what is the answre?  There is no answer, it's just all practice and feel.

Tossing allies into enemy fountains is also fun!


Hazzards

Don't fall behind in farming.  Lot of players get caught up with just ganks and later on, they pose no presence.  This is actually true for almost every hero in this game.  Some guys are so caught up with harassing, they don't farm enough (huskar/viper players often fall into this trap).  Tiny is the same.  Find the time, and put in the effort to farm.  Don't go farming like crazy, but farm adequate amounts to not fall behind.  People who gank well, also find the time to farm.  And that is skill.


Wait!! You didn't tell me who I should lane with on Tiny!!

Well, my style of Tiny is a roaming Tiny.  I don't necessarily stay in lanes after level 2.  I go around ganking, and sometimes stay in lanes to get that creep or two to get levels.  With appropriate runes, I jungle as well.  I suggest going mid lane with someone who can solo.  Mid is my favourite lane since you can easily pimp runes, top or bot. 

If that isn't an option, laning with a raged target-stun (or disable) is not a bad idea.  I'd say Crystal Maiden, Shadow Priest, Vengeance Spirit or Venomancer.  Lina, or Lesh isn't a bad idea either.  Although it's not a target stun, if opponent have any melee in a lane, it isn't too difficult to land stuns.  Any follow up stun by Lina or Lesh would really hurt them. 


Alright, I think I covered everything.  Thanks for reading, and happy rapage with Tiny then!


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Another lengthy entry, hopefully this is a nourishing entry as large as it is.

I had a damage spreadsheet for Tiny on my comp.  I was going to bombard you guys with DATA and MATH so I look smarter.  But uhh.., my PSU literally blew up.. it went boom and I saw the smokes.  So I'm here at a lan cafe writing everything pretty much from memory. 

Ahhh..brutal Q_Q..

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