Asian Girls | Dota Guide and Strategy

Tiny, the Stone Giant

HEY! Before I start, I’d like to tell you some of the changes. Up till now it’s been a v6.49 guide, and now with 6.51 out, I need to change it.
Firstly, I’m not really aware of any changed to Tiny. Nevertheless, if you know any, please say so and I will update my guide accordingly.
Second, the items haven’t changed much either, other than a little change in bottle, which doesn’t affect my guide much, nor dagger, since this guide isn’t based on that. However, Eul’s is now total shit, not being upgradable, so that’ll be mentioned. THANK YOU FOR READING…now, for the guide –>

Guide Layout:

1: Intro
I) Introduction
II) Pros and Cons
III) Tiny’s Role
2: Spells and Explanations
I) Avalanche
II) Toss
III) Craggy Exterior
IV) Grow
3: Skill Build
I) Spell Build
II) Spell Build Justification
4: Items
I) My Item Build
II) Possibilities and no-nos
III)Other Item Builds
5: Strategies:
I) Early Game
II) Mid-Game
III) Late Game
6: Hero Killing Tips:
I) Solo Kills
II) Team Kills
7: Interaction with other heroes
I) Ally Heroes
II) Enemy Heroes
8: Replays
9: Updates
10: Credits and Thanks
I) Bibliography
II) Thanks
11: FAQ
12: Last Words

Where does this Giant hide? He’s in the Sentinel’s Sunrise tavern, bottom row, second from the left.

INTRO TO TINY: Tiny is a very powerful ganking hero, with two AoE spells that deal 300 damage each, and one of which is a 2 second stun as well. Excellent in pairs or trios. He’s not that bad solo either, but best with another hero.
INTRO TO GUIDE: I decided to write this guide, because, well I love tiny, and also I saw that this forum lacked good tiny guides (plus his name is so ironically funny!). I’m not saying mine is good, because this is the first guide I’ve written, but I’m striving to make it as useful to Tiny players as possible. In this guide you can read about interesting ways to build a strong tiny, suited for any situation in the game. This guide is mostly for low level games; a non-blinking Tiny has a hard time positioning his toss in high level games. Don’t be prepared for a long, deep guide (except for items), this will just be a quick run-through of how to play Tiny, and some useful builds for him.

Tiny’s point gains per level comments:
Strength: 24 + 3.0 pretty good…well, he IS a str. hero
Agility: 9 + 0.9 - omg, I am going to kill myself, probably the lowest agility gain in the game
Intelligence: 14 + 1.6 - Eh…all right I guess for a strength hero

That being said, let’s see some pros and cons

PROS:

• Good AoE stun –> good in team battles
• Good hero killing spells for a str. based hero
• Good Str. gain –> tanky giant
• Okay Int. gain

CONS:

• Huge module by late game
• Very low agility –> slow attack speed
• Horrible armor
• Slow MS
• Not a huge mana pool to support all his spells

Here’s how I play Tiny:

Tiny is not:

• A hero assassin
  - He’s not a hero killer
  - He doesn’t track down running heroes to finish them off (Phantom Assassin, Bounty Hunter, etc)
• He’s not a tank (Centaur, Pudge, etc)
• A soloer
• A spell spammer

Tiny is:

• A caster
  - use his spells, but don’t spam them, he can’t support that
• A fighter
  - use his high damage to your advantage, don’t rely on just you spells!
• Great ganker because he’s a mix of a tank and a caster
• Great hero killer with a partner

Avavalanche

Bombards an area with rocks stunning and damaging enemy land units.

Level 1 - 100 damage.
Level 2 - 180 damage.
Level 3 - 260 damage.
Level 4 - 300 damage.

Cooldown: 20 seconds.

Level 1 - 120 mana, 20 cooldown, 600 cast range, 200 AoE.
Level 2 - 120 mana, 20 cooldown, 600 cast range, 200 AoE.
Level 3 - 120 mana, 20 cooldown, 600 cast range, 200 AoE.
Level 4 - 120 mana, 20 cooldown, 600 cast range, 200 AoE.

Basic Notes:Fantastic spell, I love it. Extremely useful in team battles, good mass stun either to keep enemies in place for other heroes to cast their own spells and do physical damage, or to catch escaping heroes and pound them to death before the stun wears off.

Avalanching and natural barriers: You can avalanche anywhere, up or down hills, over trenches. heres an image.

Stun Descriptions:The only con of this is the stun-time. It’s up to 2 seconds, not the greatest; as opposed to Slardar’s Slithereen Crush, that stuns nearby enemies for 2.5 seconds. Ah well, it’s just as good, it being an AoE stun, it’s not bad, and the damage is good as well.

Avalanche as a wave:One thing to remember is that the avalanche is more like a wave. A unit might not get hit straight away when you hit the ‘v’ key. It takes time, as the ‘wave’ passes over the units in the AoE to get hit. This way, if a unit enters AFTER the start of the avalanche, he might not receive the full 300 damage. One rock deals 25/45/65/75 damage every 0.25 seconds for 1 second, so the damage the new-come unit receives depends on the rocks that hit him.
Here’s an image that shows Nerubian Assassin getting a Mana Burn in on me even though I let the avalanche free already. The full damage that caused him to die was not yet dealt when he Mana Burned me.

Here’s an image showing the process of losing damage. The Necromancer receives about 75 damage from a rock (74, 75, 74, 75, from the rocks). Max damage dealt (at lvl 4 avalanche) was 298.

1. I sneak around, behind the creep line, and start the avalanche (it was poorly placed, yes, but this kill was INTENDED to be screenshot and made into an image for this guide. Using a single unit is easier)
2. First rock hits, his HP is now 256. I move closer.
3. Second rock hits, his HP is now 181. I move even closer.
4. Third rock hits, his HP is now 107. I get ready to hit. (Notice how I got another kill in the bottom left corner )
5. Fourth rock hits, lowering his HP to 32. The damage cap of avalanche is now dealt to the Necromancer. I get even closer to hitting.
6. Final blow got the kill. Shows the wave-like damage dealt by avalanche.

If you don’t agree, and say that a rock deals ALL damage at once, it might be because this skill changed. This is the latest version of the game, perhaps in previous version, one rock dealt full damage. Arguments against this are welcome, but my image is pretty clear proof.

Avalanche’s TRUE AoE:Helpful tip: Watch the AoE of this spell! The actual stun and damage area is greater than what the cursor shows.

Quote and Image from
Far’s guide to Tiny, the (blinking) Stone Giant

Toss

Tiny grabs the nearest unit, friend or foe, and launches them at a location. Upon landing, the unit deals damage in an area as well as receiving 20% of that damage to themselves (this damage increases as your size increases). Cannot toss Elder Form DK.

Level 1 - 500 range, 75 damage.
Level 2 - 700 range, 150 damage.
Level 3 - 900 range, 225 damage.
Level 4 - 1100 range, 300 damage.

Cooldown: 15 seconds.

Level 1 - 120 mana, 15 cooldown, 500 cast range, 300 AoE, 275 Pick up AoE, 1 Travel Time.
Level 2 - 120 mana, 15 cooldown, 700 cast range, 300 AoE, 275 Pick up AoE, 1 Travel Time.
Level 3 - 120 mana, 15 cooldown, 900 cast range, 300 AoE, 275 Pick up AoE, 1 Travel Time.
Level 4 - 120 mana, 15 cooldown, 1100 cast range, 300 AoE, 275 Pick up AoE, 1 Travel Time.

Notes on Toss’s range: What a range! You can get heroes down with this when they are lurking in the trees, low health, but not wanting to go to the fountain yet, thinking they can get in a couple hits and gain a little money before they HAVE to.
Only problem that should be changed is making this spell not unit targeted, but area target. By doing this, you can aim in front of running heroes and throw them there, much like a blink/meathook/burrowstike, etc, except you don’t move.

Toss in team fights: You also can get a kill easily in the mass confusion. If two waves of units are bunched up, and the low life enemy hero is trying to escape, and you can’t reach because you have a creep or two in your way, just do a toss, that hero is gone.
The cooldown isn’t that bad, so you might be able to get a toss-avalanche-toss combo in. Hard one to score, because of the initial toss, perhaps not having anyone near you. If not that, then you can easily finish a half life hero with the avalanche-toss combo (this will later be explained more clearly in the HERO KILLS section).

Projectile notes: A mistake I used to make earlier on with this spell was using toss when a unit wasn’t close enough, thus wasting the spell. Always make sure you have a unit very close (Pick-up AoE is 275) to you. Once you get pro, and if you use the blinking Tiny (explained later in the strategy section), the new challenge will be which ONE to toss, not ANYONE to toss…
A paragraph about the projectile. It was pretty confusing to me at first, but it’s simple. The unit you toss takes damage, no matter what. If it’s a friendly unit, it takes 20% of the Toss damage, 15/30/45/60 at each level. If the projectile is an enemy, it takes this damage IN ADDITION to the damage of the impact, 75/150/225/300. Pretty nice, huh? That’s why selecting a good projectile is useful. This way, you can get double kills easier. Here’s an example (sorry, no screenshots):
You slowly lower you two opposing heroes’ (Pugna and Troll Warlord) health to half, Troll being close to red. How to get a double kill? Well first, when the time is right – you’re close to Pugna only, and they are close to each other – you spray em with an avalanche. They get stunned, you quickly get a few hits on Pugna, then toss him. The impact damage will kill Troll, him being in red from the avalanche. Pugna takes the extra damage from being the projectile, so he’s close to dead. Now you just need a hit or two of your massive damage, and voila, there’s your double kill.

Grow and Toss: Your ultimate, Grow, affects the damage the projectile receives. 35% of the impact damage at lvl 1 Grow, 50% at lvl 2, and 65% bonus at lvl 3 grow. At lvl 3 Grow, level 4 Toss, the projectile takes 195 damage. That’s nice, you have to admit.

Toss AoE: The AoE of the impact damage:

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Craggy Exterior

Tiny’s body is made of solid granite, causing great pain to those who attack it. Whenever a melee unit attacks Tiny, there is a chance that they will be stunned for 1.2 seconds.

Level 1 - 6% chance, 25 stun damage.
Level 2 - 12% chance, 35 stun damage.
Level 3 - 18% chance, 45 stun damage.
Level 4 - 24% chance, 55 stun damage.
Passive

Craggy and heroes: Well, not a bad passive ability. Very useful ability if you’re up against melee heroes. If you have mostly range enemies, you should go for attribute bonuses instead (See spell build).

Craggy and creeps:Also great at clearing creep waves. You set yourself in the middle and attack, clearing ‘em with your massive damage, and when they attack you, they pay for it.

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Grow

Greatly increases Tiny’s power and size, but does so at the cost of his attack speed. Improves toss damage and slightly increases move speed.

Level 1 - 40 bonus damage, 20% reduced attack speed.
Level 2 - 80 bonus damage, 35% reduced attack speed.
Level 3 - 120 bonus damage, 50% reduced attack speed.

Level 1 - -0.2 Attack Speed Increase (%), 0.35 Toss Target Damage.
Level 2 - -0.35 Attack Speed Increase (%), 0.5 Toss Target Damage.
Level 3 - -0.5 Attack Speed Increase (%), 0.65 Toss Target Damage.
Passive

Basic notes: Well, not much to say about this. Very useful in making you a hard-hitter for your team. A comment I wanna add is that by lvl 2 of grow, you MUST have some sort of attack speed increaser object, be it gloves of haste, hand of midas, a hyperstone, anything. If you don’t, you could lose good kills because of it. Trust me, I’m speaking from experience.

Grow and Toss: As I mentioned before, Grow affects your Toss’s projectile’s damage.

Grow images: An image of the different sizes of grow. [Note: it says level 1/2/3/4. Nevermind that. it's meant to be 0/1/2/3, I didn't feel like changin it. ]

Movement Speed: Grow increases movement speed though. 5/10/15 increased MS per level, which is nice, kinda makes you less mad about the decreased AS…lol

[1]Avalanche
[2]Toss
[3]Avalanche
[4]Toss
[5]Avalanche
[6]Toss
[7]Toss
[8]Avalanche
[9]Grow
/ [10]Craggy Exterior/Attribute Bonus
/ [11]Attribute Bonus / Craggy Exterior(get the opposite of lvl 10)
[12]Craggy Exterior
[13]Attribute Bonus
[13]Attribute Bonus
[15]Grow
[16]Grow
[17]Craggy Exterior
[18]Craggy Exterior
[19]Attribute Bonus
[20]Attribute Bonus
[21]Attribute Bonus
[22]Attribute Bonus
[23]Attribute Bonus
[24]Attribute Bonus
[25]Attribute Bonus

First of all, avalanche and Toss are your two best abilities, and also hero killing abilities, you must level those up first. You can switch up the order, whatever you prefer. The list above is what I prefer. Since you are (hopefully) getting a mana item early in the game like nulls, or by level 8 an arcane ring, you should be able to support the spells in the later levels, though the mana cost luckily doesn’t increase. Although, you still need a mana item, the mana pool is crappy. But you’ll hear enough of this in the ‘items’ section. At level 7, the normal avalanche, toss rhythm is interrupted. Why? simple. Toss damage increases more. Avalanche damage goes from 260 (level 3) to 300, while Toss goes from 225 (level 3) to 300. I like the increased damage, which makes your combo better at level 7. Basically, if you take level 4 avalanche, you deal the 300 ava damage, and only 225 Toss, adding to 525 if you don’t count the double damage from avalanch (will be explained later). With toss, you deal 260 + 300, which is a little more, 560. Better, lol….

Attribute Bonuses and Craggy Exterior, hm…The list seems to spread them out fairly well. I like the two early AB a little after lvl 10 to help me with the mana pool, they give about 100 more mana, and also a little more health, because no matter how great the strength of this guy is, without items, his HP is only around 2100. But if you’re against three or more melee heroes, level up craggy ASAP. But if there are more ranged, go for AB, which gives you more HP, MP, and armor.

Grow is not wise to take before level 8, because it starts slowing your already slow attack speed. By the time you get lvl 2 grow, you should have an attack increaser item. (In my build’s case, a hyperstone). I used to take level 2 grow at 11, to help with the Toss projectile damage, but found it not too worthy of that decreased AS. So instead, you get one grow at 9 for damage and toss, and then hold themm off till 15 and 16. This is good because you have time to get that IAS item in your inventory, and makes your shining levels, (9-15) great, because you will not only balance the lost AS, but incfease it.

In this section, you can see all the items that work well on Tiny, and the ones that suck. There are plenty of useful items, because Tiny is a VERY item-dependant hero, so be prepared to do some major thinking when setting up your core build. There are many choices, so it’s a hard task. Good luck!

Allright…here’s the edit. I used to have differnet priced builds, poor normal and rich. Well that’s gone. So what you will see now is my current build, and bunch of items that are good, and some possible combinations.

For not-so-experienced players:

All DotA items and shops, if you have trouble recognizing items or don’t know what each does.

When I started playing Tiny, I read a few guides, got to know a few items that won’t and don’t work, and slowly, through experience of using these items, I created a build that I strive for. So to start of, I will dedicate this section to MY builds. I know how hard it is to get a GOOD build for Tiny, so here’s an example, works for me. If you’re not interested, skip ahead to the next section of other good builds.

Here is where the old stuff is gone. This is my one and only current build…though not really one and only, because as you will see, there are some alternate directions to go towards…Also, I took out Radiance, i realized its a waste.

Build:

Bascally, there’s two directions: Orchid Shiva build or Cuirass Arcane build. They both start off the same

1. 2 Nulls (950)
2. Boots of Speed (500)
3. Ring of Basilius (500)

Here is where the build splits. Either bottle–>Orchid+Shiva or Arcane Ring–>Cuirass

4. Arcane Ring (1770) —- OR —- Bottle (700)
5. Assault Cuirass (6120) —- OR —- Shiva’s Guard (4700) + Orchid Malevolene (5625)

And now re-fuse and end with

6. BoT (2200)
7. Butterfly (6250) / Buriza (6200)

So…lets see the differneces:

Arcane vs. Bottle

I personally like Arcane Ring more. Tiny isn’t a roamer so doesnt have a lot of oppurtunities to pick up runes to fill bottle, but I see many Tiny players with bottle…and well it’s acceptable. Arcane is useful in the Cuirass Build, because of the lack of mana pool increasing item. For the Shiva Orchid build, you get tons of mana, so Arcane is a waste, and i think a quick mana boost on tiny is nice, so get bottle.

Cuirass vs. Shiva + Orchid

Okay, the main fork in the road when you build Tiny. Biggest question here is: when to get which? Well first of all, all who play…around 6.43 or lower, go Cuirass, cuz neither Shiva’s nor Orchid is in those…lol, but that’s a smal factor. Basically, if you need to play more like a caster, go Shiva+Orchid for the mana. If you dont need mana that much, and the 300 or so that arcane gives is enough, get Cuirass. Cuirass is a better build for noobs, because both shivas and orchid need hotkeys, they have active abilites, while cuirass doesnt.
Also, Arcane+Cuirass is way cheaper then bottle+shiva’s+Orchid. But it depends on playing style or how the game goes. 75 percent of the time I go cuirass, i just love that item.
For Shiva’s and Orchid, the order doesnt matter. Main thing is to have a staff first, and then see if you need shiva’s armor and disable more, or orchids silence and IAS.
One trouble with the Shiva’s build is that it’s pretty hard to farm up, and well Tiny is a good farmer once hes got mana…and to get mana he needs a staff, and for a staff he needs farming, and for farming he needs mana and for mana he needs staff ETC, its a catch 22 situation…so bottle, in a sense, is essential. perhaps even two, one set of bottle supplying 300 mana or so, I’m not sure about bottle’s changed. Anyways, if you go caster style, the first thing to get is a staff, and to get that you’ll most probably need a bottle.

Butterfly vs. Buriza

This isnt a really big decision. If you like the IAS more, get Butterfly, if you want massive critical strikes, get Buriza. Most of the time I get Buriza, though i usually end with a Crsystalis anyway…
Prices are the same, so its your choice.

The starting and finishing items are kinda self explanatory. Butterly at the very end if you have time/money, but you usually wont.

Well that’s about it for MY builds, hope it helped somewhat. Now for other builds:

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1. GOOD ITEMS: Let’s see some items that can work on Tiny. I will categorize them by how they support his weaknesses.

First of all, increase in Mana pool:

Null Talismans (485)

Great early game, fairly cheap. Having one or two in your first 10 levels isn’t a bad idea. (I personally get two by level 6. Good mana boost!)

Arcane Ring (1770)

As you could have seen in my builds, this is one of my core items. It’s pretty cheap, gives a good mana pool increase that is pretty much enough because of Tiny’s fairly good int. gain. Also, when I purchase the energy booster before level 10, I get freakin’ mana-full, it’s a nice feeling. This is always my first big item.

Eul’s Scepter of Divinity (2800)

This used to be a great item on Tiny. First you use up cyclones and the mana is nice, and then you change it into a guinsoo’s late game, which gives you an extra disable…useful because you’re combo will be too weak now, and you’ll have the damage to smack em to death while they’re hexed…sounds superb yea?
Well here’s a pickle. With the change in guinsoo’s, you can’t change eul’s into it, therefore not the best item on Tiny anymore. It’s still not bad, I just don’t like getting AT ALL lately.

Orchid Malevolence (5625)

Again, a second luxury item, which isn’t that great, but works. Good int. boost, good IAS, good mana regen., can be considered a perfect item for Tiny. Very useful, can be taken instead of the Radiance/Butterfly, so this is my third choice. Also, the soul burn is pretty cool too. The con of this is the Mystic Staff. I like the Arcane Ring because it takes care of the mana problem early in the game. But for Mystic Staff, you need to save up quite a bit, which is hard at lvl 10. A way to counter this problem is by getting at extra Null or something and then sell it when you purchase your Staff. Pros: great item on Tiny, not THAT expensive. Good item, I approve it. xD.

That’s pretty much all the mana-increasing items in the game. All of them work, it all depends on which luxury item you decide on getting. Because usually in a game, it’s hard to gain so much money to buy two (my rich build, teehee!)

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Now for some attack speed increasing objects:

Of course, the o-so-loved-by-me Assault Cuirass (6120)

This item (I agree with other Tiny players) was MADE FOR TINY, better than OM. The personal increases (40% attack speed increase, +10 armor) are two of Tiny’s weaknesses. The auras aren’t bad either, helping your friends and at the same time weakening your enemies. This item is in my core build. If you decide on an OM+AC build (which I think highly of) the IAS is crazy, so throw that MoM straight out the window, it’s a waste.

Power Treads (1850)

If the game isn’t goin so good and you don’t think you’ll make a Hyperstone nor a BoT, go with this. But decide fairly early, by level 12 have either a Hyperstone or the gloves, because, as mentioned earlier, with Grow, you’re starting to decrease your attack speed. So basically I consider this an item for a poor build. Also that int. boost in the new versions (like 6.49, the version my guide is based on) is useful. But hey, your choice. Again, the part about this being a guide mostly filled with my opinions and not having a wide point of view comes in. Ah well. Next Item:

Mask of Madness (1950)

Good item on Tiny, his tankyness supports the increased taken damage, and the 75% increase attack speed is good against avalanche-stunned heroes. Though i personally hate this item, it used to be in my build, and worked for a while till i started…not liking it. lol

Yasha (2050)

A simple Yasha (Without Sange!) would do on Tiny as well. The agility increase is good for Tiny’s crappy agi, and also the little MS and attack speed it gives is good. Personally I think Yasha, without Sange is a waste. But SandY is horrible on Tiny, so I don’t usually get this. Again, your choice.

Butterfly (6250)

Perfect Item. Tiny can use the evasion and IAS late game, and is always my finishing item. Great for him.

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Armor; an essential thing. I could include a table on how much getting armor items is better than getting HP items, but that’s too much work. This topic is a “you either trust me or don’t” thing. So here, GOOD armor on Tiny is helpful (notice how I have no HP items in my builds: no Vitality Booster, Vangaurd, Heart, Blood Stone, etc.)

/ Nethrazim’s Buckler/Mekansm (877 / 2434)

Personally, I’d simply get the Buckler, because usually someone else on your team always gets a Mekansm, and I find it pointless to have two on a team. The armor boosts of both are okay, of course a little better in Mekansm, but still, good. Again, good item for a poor build. Plus the additional stat increases are good.

Assault Cuirass (6150)

Yes, Cuirass. Fits into both categories, fantastic item, made for this little giant (love that oxymoron!). Good armor, auras are nice. Not much to say.

Shiva’s Guard (4700)

Very nice item, good boosts. I especially like the -25% AS aura. The int. boost is good (+30), nice armor (+15) and the blast is useful for chasing. I don’t get it because it just doesn’t fit with my build, too expensive and I already have AC. But in a case where I can’t get AC (money troubles), I sometimes go for this, though the Mystic Staff is a bummer. But good item, I recommend it for helping with Tiny’s armor and mana trouble. Again, this shows how flexible Tiny’s builds can be, and again shows Tiny’s item dependency.

Plate mail (1400)

A simple Plate mail crawled itself into my poor build to take care of the armor problem. I had some debates with myself about getting this or the Buckler, and sometimes switch em around (though luckily I didn’t have that many games where I was forced to get a poor build). Good item, simple, good armor increase.

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Movement Speed Items

Tiny’s movement speed isn’t great, but Boots of Speed pretty much takes care of it.

Boots of Travel (2700)

For good lane pushing, hop around. If you have OM or AC that take care of attack speed, and not Treads, get this. If you can’t, always have one or two TP scrolls. This item makes you faster, +90 MS, not bad, takes you up to 380 I believe.

Treads (1850):

I like this now with the stat upgrade. It’s a nice, useful item if you think hopping around won’t be neccessary, therefore is a substitute for BoT. The stats are nice, you can switch it around whenever you want. For example, if you need to play caster, make it be an intelligence treads. This can eliminate a null. Put it strength if you need HP and damage, and put it agi if you’re not getting any other IAS items afterwards.

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OTHER good Luxury Items: To not mention those that were already mentioned, but fit into this category. Don’t worry, little explanations here.

Radiance (5325)

Excellent item, as mentioned earlier, my first choice late game item. Good damage, takes me up to nearly 350. Also helpful against eliminating enemy creep waves.

Bottle (700)

Yes, this isn’t a luxury item, but I didn’t know where else to add it. This item is frequently chosen by Tiny players, but I don’t like it. It’s like an arcane ring, so if you like to get bottle, don’t go for Arcane, go for Eul’s –> Guinsoo’s build, or Orchid/Shiva, whatever. So yea, bottle’s a good choice on Tiny too.

Heart of Tarresque (5500)

Who doesn’t want 1000 more HP? Makes Tiny an unbeatable block of stone. Good item on him, but my armor increases take care of HP problems. Again, your choice.

Buriza (6200)

Adds a bunch of damage, takes you to 370, 380 damage. X2.2 Critical strike is a massive hit, you have a chance to hit nearly 800! That’s a big critical strike, brings you up to the level of Mortred. Excellent item. After trying this plenty of times, I found it absolutely wicked. Other fisnihing item choice.

Guinsoo’s Scythe of Vise (5175)

I really like this item, and if you are a Eul’s fan, not an Arcane Ring fan, definitely get this. Not bad damage increase, of course the int. and regen. is good, and the hex disable is nice. Good item.

Battle Fury (4785)

You might say WTF DUDE but it’s not that bad. It gives another good deal of damage, and if you absolutely hate arcane ring and basilius, go for this and bottle. The mana regen is more than enough, the damage is nice, and the HP regen can be good to make you more tanky…but its mostly the cleave attack that makes this item fantastic on Tiny. There’s a 35% cleave attack, which means by late game you deal around 100 damage to the people around you. Pretty nice nice.

Eye of Skadi (6950)

Why not? It’s an okay item, but I don’t recommend it. Good boosts, frost attack is nice as well. If you have money and like this item, go ahead.

Bloodstone (5075)

Very nice item on Tiny. Good mana and health regeneration, fantastic tankyness boost. The reason I love this item is that when you die, you restore health and mana to nearby allies: wonderful in team battles. Also decreases death time, good.

Dagon (3000)

This is a good item if you play tiny as a full-out caster, which i dont recommend, but its possible. With dagon, you can finish those pesky little heroes who can tank your combo late into mid game.

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OTHER ITEMS: these items are the special ones, that connect to Far’s guide to Tiny, the (blinking) Stone Giant. Let’s see

Ring of Basilius (500)

This item is more of a space filler. In Far’s guide, he mentioned how mana regen. Is worthless, and Tiny needs mana pool increasing items. But I think it’s all right, like in the cases of Bloodstone and Orchid Malevolence. I find this item a perfect poor build item, and good in a normal build too, the little damage is alright, the regen’s good, and of course, the good auras. Plus, it’s freakin cheap. Why not? Good space filler, as you saw this item is in my builds, so I support it.

Kelen’s Dagger of Escape [Aka. Blink Dagger] (2150)

Very, very good item on Tiny. The giant not having a good escape mechanism, this item seems perfect. Some players build their game around this. Using a blink-toss tactic, or many others. Interested about this? Read Far’s guide to Tiny, the (blinking) Stone Giant.
So back to the dagger. I don’t use it, because the times I’ve tried it I haven’t used it much, I was uber poonage without it. But, yes I recommend it, good item. It just didn’t work for me.

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2. NO-NOS

Refresher Orb (5575)

What the hell for? It’s pretty worthless. This item can come in handy when you think of Tiny’s spells’ long cooldowns (20 and 15 seconds), that’s it. I find it too expensive for those two spells, and this item was made for refreshing ultimates, and Tiny has no attacking ultimate. I say no to this item.

Manta Style (5500)

Absolute piss. Tiny’s images are tiny, without Grow. NO! Do not get it.

Sandy [Aka. Sange and Yasha. I will refer to it as Sandy though] (5100)

Nope. To quote WhYaReUToKiN from his guide to the usability of Sange and Yasha,

I agree.

Cranium Basher (3220)

I find this useless. You already have stun, plus there’s Craggy Exterior. I say no to this item.

Aghenim’s Scepter (6000)

HAHA! Absolutely pointless. Too expensive and the most important boost, the ultimate boost is worthless. If you read the item description once you buy it, it even says ‘this item does not improve your ultimate’. So what the reason for having it? 500 health and mana? Bah, get Bloodstone or just the soul booster itself if you love it, just not Aghenim’s. (By the way, I hate Soul Booster. I find it way too expensive and worthless).

Well, I guess I’ll be wrapping the items section up here. Pretty long, bunch of typing, ugh. Don’t worry, the strategy section won’t be this detailed. That’s exactly the main reason for this guide, showing the item choices. And, well, there they were.

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As I said earlier, Tiny is a pretty item-dependant hero. He needs items that balance out his weaknesses. These are: armor, attack speed, mana pool, and movement speed.
So basically there are no CORE items for Tiny, because a lot of these weaknesses can have many different possibilities to balance.

Here’s a list of how you should build up your Tiny:

Early:

• Get a Null or two
• Boots of Speed

Reasons: You need better mana to support at least an ava-toss combo. You need 240 mana for that, without items you reach that only by level 5…seriously?? As for the boots, everyone needs better movement speed.

Mid:

• Get and attack speed item (either complete treads, or hyperstone[cuirass] or quarterstaff [orchid])
• Some sort of armor (Plate mail, Chain mail, Nethrazim’s Buckler)

Reasons: You’re starting to upgrade Grow, and your attack speed is decreasing. Don’t let that happen. And your armor is crap, get it up.

Late:

• Complete a luxury item
• Get another luxury item

  Reasons: Why not? If possible…

  That basically sums up how to build a good Tiny that can survive every stage of a game, be it mana support for early game, attack speed for mid, or getting tanky by late game. Here are some alternate builds that separate the three main made-for-tiny items: Cuirass, Shiva, and Orchid.

  1. Assault Cuirass Build (mine as well)

  — — ———– * / * — **

  Mana: Arcane Ring
  AS: Assault Cuirass —*Butterfly*
  MS: Boots of Travel
  Armor: Assault Cuirass

  2. Orchid Malevolence Build

  — — / ———– ** — **

  Mana: Orchid Malevolence
  AS: Orchid Malevolence —*Butterfly*
  MS: Boots of Travel
  Armor: Nathrezim Buckler

  3. Shiva’s Guard Build

  Lil insight to how Shiva’s guard works:
  

  — — ———– **

  Mana: Shiva’s Guard
  AS: Treads/Butterfly
  MS: Treads
  Armor: Shiva’s Guard

  4. My Ideal Build

  This is a little crazy, huge IAS, great mana, great health, great armor, everyting…Its a combination of all good items i like to have on tiny. I took buriza for crits instead of butterfly, the IAS is massive already.

  — — — — —

  Mana: Shiva’s Guard/Orchid Malevolence
  AS: Assault Cuirass/Orchid Malevolece/Butterfly
  MS: BoT
  Armor: Shiva’s Guard/Assault Cuirass

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Tiny isn’t a very good early game hero, and also being melee has a hard time farming. But with a few well timed avalanches and a Null or two to support the spell, he can do some harassing. It’s not common to get a kill before level 6 or 7 for Tiny, but it is possible, most effectively with a partner. This will be explained in the HERO KILLING TIPS section.

So basically in the first six levels, try to get last hits, because Tiny, with huge damage, is a great last hitter. Try to farm a Null or Two, Boots of Speed, and in my case, a RoB by lvl 7. It might not always happen, but it’s not that difficult. Well that’s pretty much it I guess for early game. Oh, tip: Try not to die.

This is the time when you can start going crazy. Now that you upgrade at least one, if not two, levels of Grow, you have way more damage than any other hero – without items! Now is the time to purchase that Hyperstone, Gloves of Haste, or something that takes your attack speed up. Kills are fairly easy in this section, because, hopefully, early-mid-game you got some sort of mana item, and can support at least 4 spells (since all are 120, there’s no difference if you use Toss or Avalanche, mana-wise), so you should have around 500 mana, MINIMUM. Always strive for more.

So again, keep getting last hits, farm, and try to get few kills. By late-mid-game, try to engage in gankings, where, along with a few heroes you team up on a hero or two. You’ll see, you are fantastic.

But before you do, try to get kills in this part. This is YOUR time, from levels 10 to 20, get kills, as much as you can. Late Game will be based on gankings, where there’s little chance of you getting kills. So strive for getting as many as possible. But don’t try too hard, you’re not invincible. Again, try not to die that much, but there is a big chance that you will get a death or two.

This is your monster-time. Hopefully you have a luxury item by level 20, so you are pooning. With massive damage, you can get anyone, and contribute TONS to ganking.

Late-game is not your time…you’re glory is now over. Most heroes will be able to tank your pathetic 800 damage combo, so perhaps a dagon can come in handy. But no, don’t. Hero killing isn’t your job now. Now you should have BoT, so teleport aroound and push. Yes, ganking can be part of your job, depending on how good gankers your allies are. But once you hit around 20, don’t be a carry. Push, and finish the game ASAP. You’re not worth anything now: you’re not a tank with over 2500 HP, your not one with great hero killing spells now. So just push, finish the game, and try to use your AoE spells to their fullest.

One hard thing in this part of the game is controlling this monster. The only deaths you’ll get will be because you get stuck. So be VERY aware of where you walk. That’s a big con of Tiny. But you can survive, with good avalanche placing, you can stun-and-run.

Well that’s about it, that’s all I can say. Play safe, farm (Because you can!) and get kills. Good luck.