Guide: How Topson plays the new Techies

Since the introduction of the reworked Techies in Patch 7.31, a lot of players have tapped into the forbidden waters of playing the obnoxious hero. The very foundation of Techies has been changed and, believe it or not, he is now what we consider a 'normal' hero. One specific player, Topson was spotted spamming this hero mercilessly at the midlane. But what garnered attention to his Techies was his insanely high winrate in pubs. At one point, his Techies had a 77.8% winrate, with 14 wins and 4 losses.

While you might think this hero is overpowered, his general winrate isn't that great. So how exactly does Topson play this hero? Based on his pubs, here is how Topson plays and itemizes on the new Techies.

Remember the sneaky Techies that used to hide around and plant traps, praying for enemies to walk by? Scrap that. The new Techies has transformed into this aggressive, up-in-your-face, and always hungry for battle type of hero. At least that's how Topson plays him.

For full details of Techies' abilities, click here.

Here are Techies' basic stats.

Techies own a powerful stack of spells that can slow, nuke, disarm, and deal massive silence to enemies. He has a great attack range which is useful to harass opponents during laning. Blast Off allows Techies to have slight mobility and his spells have an overall low cooldown.

Similar to most mid heroes, Techies need huge mana sustain. Due to the low cooldowns, he will be spamming spells and making the most use of his mana. This hero also doesn't have any reliable escape mechanism - so you'll need to pay special attention to your positioning.

Pick the Sticky Bomb at Level 1 and then the Blast Off for Level 2. Proceed to max out the Sticky Bomb first and then Blast Off for maximum damage output. Pick up a point for Remote Mines when it is available to upgrade and pick the Reactive Tazer last.

For the Talent Tree, go for the +20% Magic Resistance and +200 Blast Off damage for Level 10 and 15. At Level 20, both the Talent options are great and you can choose either depending on the situation. Oftentimes, Topson opts for the -15s Blast Off Cooldown. At level 25, pick the -0.8s Proximity Mines activation delay.

The two-time TI winner has quite a straightforward itemization for Techies. Most important items? Ethereal Blade and Octarine Core. These two are compulsory to maximize Techies' potential on the map.

In the early game, get a set of Tangoes, a Faerie Fire, a couple of Iron Branches (2 or 3) and Null Talisman components. Techies have a great attack speed and attack range but terrible attack damage. Getting the Iron Branches will boost his damage a little and help him secure creeps as well as harass the opponent.

Topson rarely completes the Null Talisman and instead, rushes Bottle to help sustain himself during laning. Complete the Iron Branches into a Magic Wand, get a Boots of Speed, and start rushing for the compulsory items.

If it's a free game and your Techies is rich, you can get a Veil of Discord first. If not, you can jump straight to a Kaya and upgrade it to Ethereal Blade. Right after the Ethereal Blade, Topson usually picks up the Aghanim's Shard which is a crucial stun. Build an Arcane Boots to later disassemble into an Aether Lens, then complete it into an Octarine Core. By the end game, he usually has Boots of Travel including other situational items.

If opponents have heavy magical damage heroes like Skywrath Mage and Zeus, Topson picks up an Eternal Shroud. Against powerful lockdown spells like Duel and Winter's Curse, Topson gets a Linken's Sphere. Oftentimes, he gets a Wind Waker for a general escape item. When the game is free and Topson is spamming Blast Off every off cooldown, he buys a Heart of Tarrasque.

Earlier on, Topson uses the Sticky Bomb to secure creeps or harass the enemy. While he right-clicks his opponent, he throws the Sticky Bomb which slows down the enemy and allows for him to harass more. He also blindly tosses the Sticky Bomb to hit any hero out of vision - or simply to give vision in the small AoE.

Since he's playing in the midlane, he doesn't usually complete the Null Talisman and instead just rushes a Bottle. He plays aggressively, right-clicking the opponent mercilessly and spamming the Sticky Bomb. When the enemy gets to half HP, he uses Blast Off to burst them.

When laning against tanky heroes that could be difficult to kill, he uses his spells to clear stacks and waves to rush the compulsory items.

Techies have a simple combo that can burst any squishy heroes from full HP. Toss a Sticky Bomb to slow down the enemy's movement speed and Blast Off right onto them. The movement speed slow will make it almost impossible for them to dodge your Blast Off. Immediately, plant mines all around the target, and BOOM!

Of course, this combo could be dodged if they have items, so rushing the Aghanim's Shard which lands a 2 seconds stun for Blast Off is very CRUCIAL. The addition of Ethereal Blade during the combo makes this combination LETHAL. This combo is also great to one-shot squishy carry heroes with an escape or healing ability as the Blast Off gives one of the longest silence in-game.

Topson plays the hero in the most chaotic way where he goes in and out of a fight. The act of jumping in, going out, and then slowing and kiting the enemies brings a next-level nuisance to the enemy.

Watch how he handles this teamfight where he constantly moves around, making good use of all his spells including the Reactive Tazer.

By late game, a Wind Waker is extremely useful for repositioning and escape. Once you jump into a fight using Blast Off, you might not be able to run away so a Wind Waker can help you reset.

So that's the breakdown of Topson's Techies throughout his pub games. There's no guarantee that you'll score a high win rate but there's absolutely no reason not to try. Get explosive in your pubs and hopefully, this guide gave you some helpful insights!

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