Advice On Using Tech Mechs

Tech Mech
Gold Cost 350
Hit Points 2000 + 200 x Force Armor Upgrades
Repair Heals 90 hp / sec on Buildings. 2% of max hp / sec on Tanks.
Control Point Teleport Teleports the Tech Mech between Control Points or the base.

Autocast:

With Auto-Repair your Tech Mech runs towards damaged tanks/structures to repair them. This has the drawback that the Tech Mech follows damaged tanks straight into the battle if you’re not careful. Tech Mechs are fragile, and hence will die quickly in battle, losing you the invested 350 gold. To prevent your Mech from running straight into death turn off automatic use of the repair ability as soon as possible.

Shift Key Orders:

I can be helpful to use the shift key for issueing more than 1 consecutive order. By shift clicking you can give any unit a couple of orders the unit will follow in sequence. For example: “Shift click repair tower + shift click move to the Headquarter + shift click repair factory” gives the following order: First the Tech Mech repairs the tower (to full hitpoints), then it moves to the Headquarter, and then repairs the factory (to full hitpoints). You can use this technique to repair a couple of towers, or repair one structure and retreat to main base afterwards without having to look at your Tech Mech constantly.

Control groups:

The most important tool to control Tech Mechs are control goups. Binding the Tank with ctrl + <number> and the Tech Mech with ctrl + <another number> is essential for faster control. Pressing the number assigned to the unit will select it, pressing it twice will jump the camera to the unit.

Carrying Items

The Tech Mech can buy and pick up/drop items and carry them. It can combine items with blueprints and buy Batteries. The Mech can only use a small group of active items (see above). Moreover, it can’t upgrade items, nor buy Updates. Tech Mechs are also unable to set up Factories or Troop Command Centers.

Tech Mechs can use Control Point Teleport for free, making them excellent in transporting items from the main base to the tank without spending additional gold on control point teleport. As getting a single item with Control Point Teleport costs 150 gold for tanks, the Tech Mech will be profitable when it saves you from shopping at the main base 3 times.

In addition to saving gold, shopping by Tech Mech will save you time as well. You might farm creeps in the time the opponent needs to buy weapons at the main base, giving you a gold and experience advantage.

Repairing Tanks

The Tech Mech repairs Tanks at a rate of 2% of their maximum hitpoints sec. You can use the repair to heal tanks safely: 1) at the allied control point: and 2) in the early game on the open field.

  1.  You can shorten the healing time at the Control Point by using the Tech Mech to repair. It is important to retreat the Tech Mech after healing at the Control Point to prevent it from being killed.
  2. In the early game you might use the Tech Mech to heal your tank on the field, in order to farm consistently without the need to return to the Control Point.. This is only viable in the early game, as higher level tanks (and more expensive tanks) will kill it too quickly.

Even in the early game it is not a wise decision to keep the Tech Mech in the front line. It should always stay in the back, but still close enough to repair when needed.

Repairing Structures

The Tech Mech repairs buildings at 90 hp / sec, which is as much as a level 3 Tinker Repair. Repairing structures is especially viable to keep the tower at the side lane control points in good health (most important in 1v1/2v2 play, where the side lanes are not occupied) and to repair damaged factories. Keep in mind that repairing should only be done when the opponent isn’t close to the repaired structure and the repairing Tech Mech, becaues the Mech will be easily destroyed.

Repairing Tinker Towers

The Tech Mech can be used to repair and help building the Tinker’s Towers. As the Tech Mech repair equals level 3 Tinker repair you can save skill points using a Tech Mech. Be careful to keep it alive when repairing or building close to the opponent.

 

Advanced Tech Mech Strategies

 

Active Items

Tech Mechs can use a restricted set of active items. These are: Teleport Breaker, Detector, and Net Launcher. To use these the Tech Mech needs to have the respective item in the inventory. You can then activate the spells in order to use the items. Clicking on the item directly will not work.

Capturing Control Points

Tech Mechs are able to buy towers and barricades at ruins. Those can capture Control Points the same way regular tanks can. The most common technique to use this, is to hide a Tech Mech close to the control point, for example under trees, buildings, bushes, etc.

As soon as there is no opponent close enough to reach a control point in time (look for teleporters!) the Tech Mech can run to the tower ruin at the Control Point, set up a barricade and capture the Control Point.

You might combine this with attacking another Control Point, especially by using Teleporter yourself: Start capturing 2 or more control points at the same time. Even if you die, in most cases the opponents won’t be able to save both control points. This is especially viable in 1v1 play.

The best response to an opponent who is known for using Tech Mechs to capture Control Points is to keep an eye on the minimap and check the most common hiding spots regularly. Here are some of them:

Defending Control Points

The capability of building towers and barricades of the Tech Mech can be used defensivly as well. If an opponent starts capturing a control point and builds no barricade/tower there you can use Control Point Teleport with your Tech Mech to get to the Control Point. As soon as the Mech arrives, you build a barricade or tower. Barricades are cheaper, but will only slow the capturing process. Towers completely stop the capture, until the tower is destroyed. Hence, if you need more time (especially if your Tech Mech comes in quite late) it is more appropriate to build a Rocket or Laser Tower.

The best response for the attacker is to get a barricade at the attacked Control Point to prevent the Tech Mech from building one.

Access to Upgrades and Troop Command Center

Having one Tech Mech at the main base is a good idea if you use a Troop Command Center and/or plan to do upgrades, as you can do both without moving your tank back to the main base (saving gold and time). It’s a good idea to assign a control group to the Troop Command Center to provide easier access.