The Dota 2 7.31 update is finally here, and the Techies rework was one of its headlining acts.
The contentious Remote Mines and annoying Stasis Traps were removed, and Squee, Spleen, and Spoon now have new explosives in their arsenal. Do these changes make Techies better or worse?
Techies rework in Dota 2 7.31 patch: What changes did Valve make?
The Techies rework gave the hero two new basic abilities: Sticky Bomb and Reactive Taser.
Sticky Bomb is lobbed towards a targeted area, and will stick to an enemy unit and slow them if it lands within a 250 radius. After two seconds, it explodes, dealing damage.
Reactive Taser buffs Techies’ movement speed for six seconds, during which, any hero attacking them will be disarmed for three seconds. Once the buff ends, an AOE disarm will be discharged. Purchasing Aghanim’s Scepter now buffs Reactive Taser, allowing it to be cast on allies and dealing 300 damage on detonation.
Blast Off remains largely the same, and is still improved by the Aghanim’s Shard to become a stun.
Remote Mines is now Techies’ ultimate, with buffs to its detonation and activation delays, charge restore time, and now reduces enemies’ magic resistance upon exploding. A big nerf to it is that it now deals damage based on distance—enemies without 150 radius will receive full damage, with the damage reduced up to 50 percent to its 500 maximum radius.
The full changes and specific numbers can be found on Techies’ official hero page.
What role does the new Techies fit in?
Techies will probably remain in his support role, tending towards position four. His laning style doesn’t change that much—Blast Off is still the preferred skill to take level one for immense harassment—and Sticky Bomb is perfect follow-up damage with a lane partner that can slow or stun.
With Aghanim’s Shard now purchasable at 15 minutes, the hero essentially gets a decently strong stun added to Blast Off in the mid-game. And while he’s no longer the most annoying base defender in the game, he’s still pretty good at clearing waves and neutrals with Sticky Bomb and Remote Mines, which means he should have decent gold influx.
The new Techies in Dota 2 7.31 will probably function similarly to a Phoenix, Jakiro, or Venomancer. They are an offense-oriented teamfight hero that deals oodles of damage, making up for a lack of hard stuns and reliable crowd control with an array of annoying debuffs.
The demolition crew can also be a pseudo-initiator, using Blast Off to create havoc and Reactive Taser to deter enemies from attacking. There’s synergy between the new slow on Sticky Bomb as well, meaning that it’s easier to land your Blast Off even without any help.
Aether Lens seems to be the perfect item for Techies, providing much needed mana regeneration to spam spells and cast range to land them easily. Aghanim’s Shard is almost a mandatory upgrade for support Techies, while Veil of Discord is a good choice for those looking to boost you and your team’s damage output.
Is the Techies rework for better or worse?
Honestly, Techies is probably a worse hero now. What other support hero could blow up multiple core heroes with one click of a button?
Yes, the whole hero was uniquely frustrating, but they were unique. Playing Techies meant that the entire landscape of Dota instantly changed into a horror game, where trees and slopes become terrifying hiding spots for something that would murder you, and then laugh in your face afterwards.
Now that Remote Mines are gone, that exasperation disappears as well—but there used to be no substitute for Techies. Will the community miss the hero? The idea of them, maybe, but we all breathe a sigh of relief that Remote Mines are gone. But ask the Techies spamming degenerates, and the answer will probably be different.
On initial impressions, the reworked Techies seem to have retained the core essence of the hero, but refitting them with teamfight rather than the frankly nonsensical Remote Mines stack one-shotting enemies.
The hero’s past polarizing nature meant that they were rarely seen in competition. Few pros ever bothered to master the hero (aside from PSG LGD’s Zhao “XinQ” Zixing in recent years, and Kurtis “Aui_2000” Ling’s performance at TI5). Squee, Spleen, and Spoon are undoubtedly less distinctive now, but more versatile, and therefore might be more commonly seen in the professional circuit rather than just being a meme pick.
As with all reworked and new heroes, it’ll take some time to figure out the optimal build for Techies. With a host of tournaments coming up, including the LAN event Gamers Galaxy Dota 2 Invitational, the new Techies might go through several experiments to finally become a mainstay in the competitive circuit.
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