How to play Techies Mid in Dota 2

Here, I’ll give you all a basic rundown of how to play Techies mid.

Settings to Make Techies Easier and Faster

Go to Hero Hotkeys and set your ultimate, Proximity Mines, to Quick Cast. Then, bind the Quick Cast version of your ultimate to your mouse scroll wheel. This will allow you to place Proximity Mines much faster and more efficiently.

Laning phase

As a Techies mid, your goal during the laning phase is to push out the wave as quickly as possible, then rotate to your triangle and stack the camps.

To achieve this, we’re going to make use of Techies’ third skill, Blast Off!, to quickly clear the wave and secure the last hits on lane creeps before rotating to the camps in the triangle.

To do this efficiently, keep in mind that Blast Off! costs HP, so you’ll want to buy Tranquil Boots as quickly as possible. More often than not, the enemy mid laner will be able to punish you for using Blast Off! on the wave, usually with right-clicks.

To counter this, you’ll want to use your second skill, Reactive Tazer. When activated, it disarms the enemy when they attack you, making it much safer to use Blast Off! on the creep wave.

Combined with Tranquil Boots, this should allow you to quickly recover your HP and use Blast Off! on the creep wave again when needed, without putting your life at too much risk.

You’ll want to play relatively passively until you reach Level 6 and gain access to your ultimate, Proximity Mines.

While pushing out your lane, make sure you’re ready at the triangle’s Ancient camp to stack it before the timer reaches 51 seconds on each minute. When the timer hits 52 seconds, issue an attack command to hit the Ancient camp, then immediately move toward the large camp and attack it as well. After that, walk back toward your lane.

If done correctly, you’ll have stacked both camps. Stacking camps is extremely important because it allows you to reach your item timings and level up faster than the enemy mid laner, helping you snowball your advantage.

Make sure you start stacking the camps from minute 1 onward.

Mid Game

Once you’ve reached Level 6 and decide you want to start moving around the map and racking up kills, which is usually around Levels 6–8, you’ll want to start building an Aether Lens.

Aether Lens increases the cast range of Blast Off!, Proximity Mines, and Sticky Bomb, allowing you to initiate on heroes from outside their vision and catch them off guard.

To speed up the process of getting Aether Lens, farm the camps you’ve stacked yourself using Proximity Mines, Blast Off!, and Sticky Bomb.

Techies Abilities — Simple Explanation

Sticky Bomb: Throws a sticky bomb that attaches to an enemy, slows them, and deals damage when it explodes.

Reactive Tazer: Gives Techies movement speed and disarms enemies that attack him and does a little damage. It can also cause enemies to be disarmed when the effect ends wich can be triggered by the player.

Blast Off!: Techies jumps toward a target area, damaging and stunning enemies when he lands. It also costs Techies some of his HP.

Proximity Mines: Places an invisible mine that explodes when an enemy gets close, dealing heavy magical damage. This also applies a debuff to the enemy’s magic resistance.

Combo used at this stage of the game

Use your second skill, Reactive Tazer, followed by Blast Off! to stun the enemy you’re trying to kill. As soon as Blast Off! hits the enemy, move your cursor in a circle around them while using your scroll wheel (your Proximity Mines Quick Cast hotkey) to quickly place all three mines around the enemy. Then, use your first skill, Sticky Bomb, to slow the enemy and deal additional damage.

The combo is intended to be executed in this order:

  1. Reactive Tazer – Activate it before engaging to make the enemy unable to right-click you.
  2. Blast Off! – Jump onto the enemy to stun and damage them.
  3. Proximity Mines – While the enemy is stunned, quickly move your cursor around them and use the scroll wheel to place all three mines around their position.
  4. Sticky Bomb – Throw it at the enemy to add more damage and apply the slow.
  5. Follow-up damage – Once the stun and slow wear off, continue attacking or use any remaining abilities to finish the enemy although most enemies would be dead by this point.

The main idea is to use Blast Off!’s stun to give you enough time to surround the enemy with Proximity Mines, then use Sticky Bomb to slow them and make it harder for them to escape the mine damage.

This combo will keep you going for a while and can kill most heroes. Heroes that may be able to survive this combo include Juggernaut and Lifestealer, as they have abilities that provide an effect similar to the Black King Bar, making them immune to disables and taking reduced spell damage for a short duration.

Items you can consider buying at this point, depending on your needs, are Scythe of Vyse or Ethereal Blade.

Techies Items untill this point — Simple Explanation

Tranquil Boots: Gives movement speed and HP regeneration, helping you recover the HP lost from Blast Off!

Aether Lens: Increases your cast range, allowing you to use your abilities from farther away.

Scythe of Vyse: Turns an enemy into a harmless critter for a few seconds, preventing them from attacking or casting spells.

Ethereal Blade: Makes a target ethereal, preventing them from making normal attacks while increasing the magic damage they take.

You should consider buying Scythe of Vyse in games where you’re playing against heroes that have abilities that allow them to escape before your Proximity Mines trigger, such as Storm Spirit, Queen of Pain, and Mirana.

Scythe of Vyse prevents the enemy from using their escape abilities while they are hexed, giving your Proximity Mines enough time to trigger. The hex lasts for 2.8 seconds in the current patch.

On the other hand, you should consider buying Ethereal Blade if the enemy team has tankier heroes who may be able to survive your combo early on, such as Bristleback, Axe, or Primal Beast.

Ethereal Blade can help you deal additional magic damage to these heroes, making it easier to finish them off with your combo.

Both items can be bought on the hero eventually. This is simply to help you understand which item is better to pick up first. The decision depends on the game and the enemy heroes you’re playing against.

At this stage of the game, you want to use Reactive Tazer, followed by Blast Off!. While Techies is traveling through the air, cast Scythe of Vyse or Ethereal Blade on the enemy. If you have both items, use Scythe of Vyse first, followed by Ethereal Blade.

Then, proceed with the same combo we used earlier: quickly place your Proximity Mines around the enemy and follow up with Sticky Bomb for additional damage and slow.

Full Combo at This Stage of the Game

At this stage of the game, the full combo should be executed in the following order:

  1. Reactive Tazer – Activate it before engaging to help protect yourself from enemy right-clicks.
  2. Blast Off! – Jump onto the enemy to stun and damage them.
  3. Scythe of Vyse / Ethereal Blade – While Techies is traveling through the air, cast Scythe of Vyse or Ethereal Blade on the enemy. If you have both items, use Scythe of Vyse first, followed by Ethereal Blade.
  4. Proximity Mines – As soon as you reach the enemy, use your scroll wheel to quickly place all three mines around them while they are disabled.
  5. Sticky Bomb – Use Sticky Bomb on the enemy to deal additional damage and apply the slow.
  6. Follow-up damage – Continue attacking or use any remaining abilities to finish the enemy.

The idea is to disable the enemy before they can escape, surround them with Proximity Mines, and then use Sticky Bomb and your remaining damage to finish them off.

These are the main items and the core combo you’ll be using throughout the game. The remaining item slots are flexible and can be adjusted depending on what you need or want to buy during the game.

Items to Consider and Their Use Cases

The following items are situational and can be purchased depending on the enemy lineup, the game state, and what you need to contribute to your team.

Dagon: Buy this if you need additional burst damage to finish off enemies.

Bloodstone: Provides spell lifesteal and increased spell damage through its spell amplification, making it useful when you want to sustain yourself while dealing magic damage.

Blink Dagger: Useful when you need better positioning or want to quickly close the gap and chase enemies. Consider upgrading it if the game goes long enough.

Kaya: Provides spell amplification and mana regeneration. Consider upgrading it if the game goes long enough.

Shiva’s Guard: Provides armor and, when activated, deals damage and slows nearby enemies.