Techies
Hero
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   19 + 2.5
14 + 1.3
22 + 3.3
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Squee, Spleen, and Spoon, the Techies, are a trio of ranged intelligence heroes, known for laying deadly traps around the field with a wide array of mines.
Having little direct combat ability, the Techies have an unorthodox, if effective, method of dealing damage to the enemy team in the form of powerful laid explosive mines and stasis traps that enable other heroes to set up a gank or retreat. Their mines, set across key points of the map — and even less conventional locations — are an effective method of denying area and guaranteeing damage if enemies dare to initiate. They have an even more bizarre ability in the form of their Blast Off! which causes them to violently explode and lose half their life but deal massive damage in a moderate area of effect.
The unique mechanics of the mines mean that the Techies utilize mechanics not used by any other hero, including preemptive mine clusters and such strong area denial that they actively play a large role in securing the area controlled by friendly heroes. The Techies have statistics aligned to those of semi-carries, but play a largely passive, defensive role throughout the game.
Contents
Bio[edit]
Squee, Spleen, and Spoon, the Techies▶️ "Measurements made." "Bombs built." "Powder's dry." "Okay, let's blow something up!"
Lore:
In the storied saga of Dredger's Bight, no business has ever been more reviled than Techies Demolitions. Then again, Dredger's Bight no longer exists. Nor does Toterin. Or even Trapper Town. In fact, if one were to track the history of Techies Demolitions they might notice that shortly after Techies appear, towns tend to disappear.
Like every inevitable disaster surrounding Techies, the obliteration of Dredger's Bight began with an invention. Tasked with designing a safer way of detonating explosives in the mines beneath the city, pyrotechnic prodigies Squee, Spleen, and Spoon developed their most outlandish creation yet: a button which, when pressed, would trigger a distant device to spark a fuse.
Overeager to test their invention, the trio stuffed barrel after barrel with flamesalt explosives, piling every corner of their tiny workshop high with the newly developed remote bombs. From this stockpile they plucked a single payload, burying it in a far away field. As they cowered in a ditch, Spleen pressed the detonator button. Yet after a moment, nothing happened. Confused, he stood up, pressing his button again and again until, finally, an explosion tore a hole in the field. Elated, Squee and Spleen turned toward home just as a massive wave of sound and force arrived to knock them over.
Bewildered, their ears ringing from the unexpected blast, they gathered in the dingy miasma to see a smoking ruin where their workshop once stood. Chunks of wood and stone continued to fall as the yawning crater before them slowly deepened into an expanding pit. The whole of Dredger's Bight shuddered, and then gradually started to slide into the mines below as its panicked residents fled.
Sitting at the edge of their sinking home they grinned and giggled, as giddy at the possibilities as they were oblivious to the scorn of their former neighbors. They wondered only one thing: how could they trigger an even bigger blast?Voice:
Abilities[edit]
| Proximity Mine | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Plant an invisible mine that cannot be detected by True Sight, but is visible if an enemy is within the active 400 AoE of the mine. Mines detonate if an enemy is standing within the active AoE for 1.6 seconds. The explosion deals full damage in the blast radius, and deals 25% damage to buildings.
Cast Animation: 0+0.47
Cast Range: 100
Trigger Radius: 400
Damage Radius: 400
Activation Delay / Fade Time: 1.75
Detonation Delay: 1.6
Damage: 200/400/600/800
Building Damage Percentage: 25%
12 (
8)
110/The bane of Toterin!
Notes:
- It takes 3.35 seconds for a Proximity Mine to detonate when placed right next to an enemy unit or structure.
- Proximity Mines are visible during the activation delay.
- The mines only damage enemies when they get triggered, not when they are destroyed by attacks.
- The mines only detonate when an enemy stands within its trigger radius for 1.6 seconds
- This means quickly entering and leaving the area does not cause them to trigger.
- Upon entering its trigger radius, a sound is emitted from the mine, warning the enemy that they just got within the trigger radius.
- This sound is audible to everyone and audible through the fog of war. The mine's explosion is also audible through the fog of war.
- Proximity Mines can be triggered by invisible, but not by invulnerable or hidden units.
- Proximity Mines cannot be placed within the trigger radius of other allied Proximity Mines.
- When selecting the spell, all own Proximity Mines display a red circle, indicating their trigger radius.
- However, when choosing the speed granting talent, the mines can be moved together after being placed.
- The damage source is the mine itself, meaning certain on-damage effects react on the mine rather than on Techies (e.g. Blade Mail).
- Flying units cannot trigger or be damaged by the mines.
- Wards cannot trigger or be damaged by the mines either.
- A Proximity Mine deals 50/100/150/200 damage to buildings.
- Provides 300 radius flying vision at its location for 1 second after detonating.
- The damage is based on the current level of Proximity Mines, rather than its level as the mine was placed.
- Proximity mines cannot be targeted by Quelling Blade and Battle Fury.
- Proximity mines do not block neutral creep camps.
| Stasis Trap | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Ability
Target Area
Target Area
Affects
Enemies
Enemies
Plant an invisible trap that roots nearby enemy units instantly when triggered.
Cast Animation: 1+0
Cast Range: 150
Trigger Radius: 400
Root Radius: 600
Activation Delay / Fade Time: 2
Root Duration: 2/3/4/5
20/ 80/Modifiers
Stasis Trap Stunned: Dispellable with any dispel.The scourge of Trapper Town!
Notes:
- Roots the targets, preventing them from moving and casting certain mobility spells.
- Provides True Sight over the targets.
- The traps only root enemies when they get triggered, not when they are destroyed by attacks.
- When a stasis trap triggers, all other stasis traps owned by the player within 600 radius of the triggering trap are destroyed.
- Despite this, the traps can still be placed within 600 range of each other.
- Stasis traps do not trigger on spell immune, invisible, invulnerable, or hidden units.
- However, invisible units are rooted when within range as a trap is triggered.
- Provides 600 radius flying vision at its location for 1 second after detonating.
- The root duration is based on the level of Stasis Trap as the trap was placed, and not as it detonates.
- The trap's explosion is audible through the fog of war.
- Stasis traps can be targeted and destroyed with Quelling Blade and Battle Fury.
- Stasis traps do not block neutral creep camps.
Blast Off!
Techies hurtle themselves into the enemy's midst, detonating charges upon impact which deal massive area of effect damage and silence enemies. Upon landing, the assault deals Techies damage equal to 50% of their max health.
Cast Animation: 1+0.9
Cast Range: 1000
Radius: 400
Max Health as Self Damage: 50%
Area Damage: 300/400/500/600 ( 600/700/800/900)
600/700/800/900)Leap Duration: 0.75
Silence Duration: 4/5/6/7
35 100/Modifiers
Suicide Leap: Undispellable. Silence: Dispellable with any dispel.Where we going?
Notes:
- The leap always takes 0.75 seconds, so the horizontal speed varies between 0 and 1333.33.
- Leaps in an arc up to 281.108 range high, so that other units can pass below them.
- The self damage is lethal, so that Techies can deny themselves with this ability.
- The self damage is pure damage flagged as HP Removal and therefore cannot be blocked or altered by most sources of damage manipulation.
- Borrowed Time, Ghostship, and False Promise are the only ones able to interact with the self damage.
- Shallow Grave prevents dying to the self damage.
- Damages enemies in the area before damaging Techies, so Techies still gets the experience when enemies die to this spell.
- This means Techies can die to Blade Mail, Spiked Carapace, Dispersion, Last Will, and Static Charge if his health was low enough on cast.
- The explosion first applies the debuff, then the damage.
- Destroys trees within 400 radius around Techies upon landing.
- Can be interrupted by forced movement during the leap but is not interrupted by any other sort of disable.
- Can be cast while rooted and getting rooted during the leap does not interrupt it.
Minefield Sign
Affects
Allied Units
Allied Units
Plant a warning sign to remind enemies to step lightly. Only one sign can exist at a time. Lasts 180 seconds.
Cast Animation: 0+0.53
Cast Range: 10
Invisibility Radius: 0 (
125)
125)Invisibility Fade Time: 0
Max Signs: 1
Aura Linger Duration: 0.5
Duration: 180
360
Allows Minefield Sign to hide any Proximity Mines, Stasis Traps, and Remote Mines in an area around the sign from True Sight.Modifiers
Minefield Sign Aura: Undispellable.Watch your step!
Notes:
- This is an innate ability and cannot be learned or leveled.
- Only one sign can exist on the map at a time.
- Planting a second sign causes the previous one to immediately disappear (although there is a visual delay).
- The sign has no collision and cannot block unit pathing.
- The sign does not block neutral creep camps.
- Aghanim's Scepter grants the Minefield Sign an aura, applying invisibility which is immune to True Sight and has a 0-second fade time.
- The aura only affects Proximity Mines, Stasis Traps, and Remote Mines. Other kinds of wards are not affected.
- The aura affects the mines of all allied players, not just the ones of Techies himself, but not enemy mines.
- Mines within range of a sign do not have to go through their fade times to become invisible.
- The aura's invisibility prevents enemies from seeing Proximity Mines even within its trigger range, or from seeing Remote Mines during their detonation delay.
- The aura's buff lingers for 0.5 seconds.
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Remote Mines
Plant an invisible explosive that will only detonate after a brief delay when triggered. Does not damage buildings.
Cast Animation: 1+0.13
Cast Range: 500 ( 700)
700)Damage Radius: 425
Activation Delay: 0
Detonation Delay: 0.25
Fade Time: 2
Damage: 300/450/600 ( 450/600/750)
450/600/750)Mine Duration: 600
8 120/ Increases damage and cast range.The downfall of Dredger's Bight!
Notes:
- The mines only damage enemies when they get triggered, not when they are destroyed by attacks or when they expire.
- Remote mines can be instantly detonated after placing them, but detonate with a very short delay.
- The damage source is the mine itself, meaning certain on-damage effects react on the mine rather than on Techies (e.g. Blade Mail).
- The mines can be stacked on one spot and cannot block unit pathing.
- Can have up to 67 remote mines at a time with the default cast time, cooldown and duration.
- Provides 500 radius flying vision at its location for 3 seconds after detonating.
- The damage is based on the level of Remote Mines as the mine was placed, and not as it detonates.
- However, they do upgrade/downgrade when picking up/dropping Aghanim's Scepter.
- Level 2 mines are 10% bigger than level 1 mines, and level 3 mines are 20% bigger than level 1 mines.
- Remote mines can be targeted and destroyed with Quelling Blade and Battle Fury.
- Remote mines do not block neutral creep camps.
Focused Detonate
Ability
Target Area
Target Area
Affects
Enemies
Enemies
Detonate all remote mines in the target area.
Cast Animation: 0+0.53
Cast Range: Global
Radius: 700
1Why light one fuse when you can light them all?
Notes:
- Focused Detonate is unlocked when Remote Mines is learned.
- Focused Detonate can be cast without having to face towards the targeted area.
- This ability can be used while Techies is dead, but not while Techies is disabled.
- If there are no remote mines within the search radius, nothing happens, wasting the cooldown.
Remote Mine ability[edit]
Pinpoint Detonate
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Ability
No Target
No Target
Affects
Enemies
Enemies
Detonate all selected remote mines.
Cast Animation: 0+0
0Kablooey!
Notes:
- This is cast from the mine itself, making it possible to detonate mines when unable to use Focused Detonate due to disables.
- Detonates all selected remote mines with a 0.03 seconds delay from each other.
Talents[edit]
| Hero Talents | ||
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| +25 Mines Movement Speed | 25 | +251 Damage |
| +150 Gold/Min | 20 | +50 Movement Speed |
| +6 Mana Regen | 15 | +300 Blast Off Damage |
| -4s Proximity Mines Cooldown | 10 | +30% XP Gain |
Notes:
- Gold granted from the talent is unreliable gold.
- This attack damage talent is added as raw attack damage, so it does not benefit illusions, and is not affected by most percentage-based damage increasing or reducing effects.
Recommended items[edit]
Starting items:
- Tango gives Techies health recovery when laning, mitigating harassment damage.
- Healing Salve restores health after an early kill or escape attempt using Blast Off!.
- Clarity provides Techies with the mana needed for early-game Proximity Mines. Because of its low cost, Techies often make several purchases of the item throughout the game as their major source of mana regeneration.
- Animal Courier ferries items to Techies and teammates.
- Orb of Venom's damage over time works well with Techies' long attack range to harass the enemies, lowering their health enough for Blast Off! to secure kills.
Early game:
- Null Talisman gives them mana, damage, and health. Drop Null Talisman on the ground momentarily to get more mana out of Soul Ring's active.
- Soul Ring converts health to mana, allowing Techies to continue planting mines over extended periods of time.
- Arcane Boots fit Techies well in combination with a Soul Ring to compensate for their mines' mana cost, or to give mana to use Blast Off! without risking of dying/getting killed before they can deny themselves. Like Null Talisman, it can be dropped prior to using Soul Ring's active in order to gain more mana. Furthermore, Techies can disassemble it to get Energy Booster, which builds into Aether Lens or Bloodstone.
- Town Portal Scroll grants Techies global mobility to plant traps in unexpected areas. Techies' strong defensive potential allows them to fortify a tower's defenses, discouraging the enemy from pushing.
Mid game:
- Aether Lens provides mana and mana regeneration, as well as extending Techies' cast range so he can use items and abilities, especially Proximity Mines, from a safe distance.
- Force Staff gives Techies more mana and mobility; it can also push allies to escape or push enemies, especially Gem carriers, into mines and traps.
- Eul's Scepter of Divinity provides Techies with a bigger mana pool, mana regeneration, and more base movement speed, allowing the hero to be more mobile and plant mines more liberally. Furthermore, the active ability disables an enemy, buying Techies time to plant mines and traps under their feet, or provides temporary invulnerability and a self-dispel.
Late game:
- Aghanim's Scepter increases Techies' attributes, health, and mana. Remote Mines become a much bigger threat due to their increased damage, and Techies can place them from farther away, allowing them to be used tactically in team fights and allowing Techies to place traps more safely. Additionally, Minefield Sign becomes a usable ability, allowing Techies to use the sign to place guaranteed undetectable traps or to trick the enemy into avoiding an area that does not have mines.
- Octarine Core reduces the cooldown on all of Techies' abilities, allowing them to place traps and mines more frequently.
Situational items:
- Sentry Ward reveals enemy Observer Wards and their Sentry Wards as well. Eliminating their Sentries from play allows you to place traps in areas that they once considered safe, and forces the supports to buy more Sentry Wards, slowing their item progression considerably.
- Bottle allows roaming Techies to replenish their mana and HP as they often pass by runes on their way to set up traps.
- Kaya increases intelligence and mana. More importantly, the mana cost reduction helps them plant more mines on the map. Kaya can upgrade into Yasha and Kaya for better bonuses and extra movement speed.
- Ghost Scepter allows Techies to become temporarily invulnerable to physical damage when focused by the enemy, perhaps buying them more time to use Blast Off!, or to attempt to lead the enemy into mine traps.
- Veil of Discord amplifies magical damage of Techies and allies.
- Blink Dagger drastically improve Techies' mobility.
- Bloodstone gives Techies a great amount of health and mana, as well as tremendous regeneration, allowing them to place mines more frequently; and, the active heal may buy Techies enough time to Blast Off! away.
- Scythe of Vyse provides a lot of mana and a powerful disable to lock down dangerous enemies in team fights.
- Shiva's Guard gives Techies intelligence and armor. The aura and active can be used in team fights to hinder the enemy, reducing their ability to spread out from your area-of-effect nukes.
- Necronomicon gives Techies additional pushing ability, strength, and mana regeneration; and, the True Sight from the level 3 Warrior can spot enemy Sentry Wards, allowing you to place traps with confidence.
- Bloodthorn grants mana regeneration, attack speed, silence, and crit for late game carry Techies who seek to enhance their physical attacks.
Gameplay[edit]
| Roles: | Nuker Disabler |
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| Complexity: | ★★☆ |
| Playstyle: | Techies Demolitions was not so much a business as it was an excuse for Squee, Spleen, and Spoon to practice their favorite hobby: Blowin' stuff up. The Proximity Mines they buried beneath Toterin collapsed that town into a heap of rubble. The Stasis Traps they set for Trapper Town stunned the trappers while their quarry got away. A new invention has to be tested on something. Packed with flamesalt explosives, a stack of Remote Mines reduced Dredger's Bight to a smoking crater. Techies Demolitions handles dissatisfied customers with unexpected cheer. The last words "Blast Off!" can be heard just before an epic explosion delivers them from the need to face any consequences. |
Audio[edit]
History[edit]
Equipment[edit]
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Trivia[edit]
- Before their release, Techies were showcased at the All-Star match of The International 2014, used by Artour "Arteezy" Babaev. He originally picked Sniper, but right before the picking phase ended, his pick got replaced by Techies, fireworks were launched in the arena, Techies' portrait was shown on all screens and this ▶️ sound effect played.
- According to Techies' in-game lip syncing, Squee is the one sitting on the cart with the rocket launcher, the cigar, and the deeper voice, Spleen is the big one pushing the cart, with the high voice, and Spoon is the one inside the barrel, who rarely ever talks, but has the deepest sounding voice.
- Techies' lines ▶️ "They're going to have to glue you back together! Yeah, in Hell!" and ▶️ "We're a sorry buncha losers. You said it" are references to similar lines lines spoken by the Demoman from Team Fortress 2 (as heard here and here).
- The flavor text of Pinpoint Detonate "Kablooey!" is a direct reference to the line "Kabloeey!" spoken by the Demoman from Team Fortress 2.
- Many of their lines also reference Counter-Strike, such as ▶️ "Counter-Techies Win", ▶️ "Bomb has been planted" or ▶️ "Bomb has been defused. Darn!".
- Techies' attack line ▶️ "See! Fore!" is a pun on the plastic explosive C-4.
- The line ▶️ "Who said we couldn't count to three, huh?" is a reference to a joke about the fact that Valve has not released a single game with the number three in the title (Half-Life 3, Left 4 Dead 3, Portal 3 etc.).
- The line ▶️ "Continue testing." is a reference to GLaDOS, a character of Valve's Portal series.
- The line ▶️ "Claymore! But not that kind of claymore." is a reference to the M18 Claymore mine.
- The gag about Spoon being hidden in a barrel without the other two knowing is a reference to DotA, where only some time after Techies were released did people realize that there were actually three of them instead of two; the third one's feet could barely be seen under the barrel behind the other two (Techies used to be named "Squee and Spleen" and eventually became "Squee, Spleen and Spoon").
- The name "Spoon" may be a reference to a scene from the movie Matrix where a boy bends a spoon with his mind and then says to Neo "Do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead, only try to realise the truth", followed by Neo asking: "What truth?" and the boy answering it with "There is no spoon. Then you'll see, that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself."[1]
- Squee and Spleen think that Spoon died to the explosion in their workshop, so they thought "there is no Spoon" anymore and the voice is only in their heads ▶️.
- The names of the original two Techies most likely came from Magic the Gathering. Squee is a legendary goblin from Magic the Gathering lore, while Spleen was probably named after the flavor text on the Goblin Soothsayer card ("I see a great victory and rivers of blood. And . . . hmm, looks like a spleen.")
- There is a hidden trollface in Remote Mines' ability icon.
- Squee's design resembles that of the Soldier from Team Fortress 2, as his eyes are covered by a helmet, and he wields what appears to be a rocket launcher.
- The line ▶️ "Loud noises!" is a reference to Brick Tamland, a character from Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.
Gallery[edit]
Concept art
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Ability icon progress [?]
Hero icon progress
References[edit]
