PL and.... EBlade? Surely, you jest!

But, alas, I do not jest.  In this edition of the Ultimate Theorycrafted Guide, I will propose what no DotA player has ever proposed before: that not only is EBlade viable on Phantom Lancer, but that it is a good item choice in some situations.

Notice, there, that I say some situations.  This is not an argument that EBlade is core on PL.  It is not even an argument that you should rush EBlade in most games.  Instead, this is a discussion of EBlade's viability on PL either as a first item or as a late-game luxury item.  Consider the data below before you make a judgement about my sanity.

Section One: EBlade is Good Because Stats

That is correct, you've heard it here first: EBlade gives fantastic stats.  Not only does it give +40 Agility, it also gives +10 to Intelligence and Strength.  It's like a Butterfly combined with an Ultimate Orb.  Fantastic, right?  Let's take a look at how EBlade's stats compare to other items PL frequently gets first:

 As you can see, EBlade gives the highest Hero damage and DPS, as well as the highest illusion damage and DPS.  Further, although not pictured in chart form, it gives the highest HP, armor, mana, and mana and hp regen values.  It is a stat monster.  Because PL is a hero whose illusions require raw stats to increase in power, EBlade works extremely effectively with this hero.  With just an EBlade, PL illusions push harder and deal more damage than any other initial item.  Even without the active ability, EBlade is a good item for what our favorite Lancer needs to do.

But why is this?  The answer is in gold efficiency.  Ethereal Blade gives the highest bonus to Agility of any item in the game, with 10 more than Butterfly and Diffusal 2, and 14 more than Manta.  Further, it is also relatively inexpensive, at only 4900 gold.  This means that EBlade gives the most Agility per gold spent of any item costing more than 1k gold.  Let me illustrate this below in graph form:

As you can see, cheap items like GG Branches and PMS provide a very high stat gain for their inexpensive cost.  This means they are very good for early game.  However, they only give a small boost, and need to eventually be replaced by bigger items which, although less efficient, give higher overall boosts.  Of these items, EBlade has stellar efficiency.  If you wanted to give a hero the highest possible Agility, you would stack EBlades.

Section Two: EBlade's Active

This is where I typically receive objections.  "But Kingdom," they say, "EBlade's active renders PL useless in a teamfight.  Once you're ethereal, you can't attack and spawn illusions!  And, on top of that, it's not like Morphling where it does ridiculous damage."  This is a fair argument, but it does not include all the relevant data.  Let's start off with the second point: EBlade's damage on PL.

As you can see, PL's damage with EBlade is approximately half of Morphling's.  However, this graph assumes that Morphling has completely morphed to Agility, leaving him with 1 Strength.  If a Morph with just EBlade does this, he's left with little HP to deal with incoming magic damage amplified by 40%.  This isn't to say that EBlade is bad on Morphling, but it does point out that it has cons as well as pros.  PL, on the other hand, has his ordinary 2 str gain to tank after going ethereal, while still doing significant damage.  I have included some other EBlade carriers, for comparison.  QoP's damage includes her ult, and thus has a long cooldown.  Pugna is actually similar to PL: his high stat gain makes EBlade a decent choice.  When the rubber hits the floor, PL does a large chunk of damage with an EBlade + Spirit Lance combo, and can do so sneakily from invis.

"But, that's not enough to justify a 4900 gold item," you say.  Well, that's only the first part of the equation.  PL also frequently buys another item which immeasurably increases EBlade's efficiency: Diffusal.  By using a Purge from Diffusal Blade, PL can remove the Ethereal state either from his target or himself.  Each of those options is useful in different scendarios.  When ganking a solo target, PL can purge his target and let his illusions finish it off.  In a teamfight, PL can nuke a low HP support, purge himself of the Ethereal buff, and then attack a different target.  Because of the synergy with Diffusal blade, EBlade has more utility on PL than on other similar heroes who might buy it.

Conclusion

So, there you have it.  PL can buy EBlade in a competitive game, and have a chance to win with the item.  I recommend this item against enemy teams which have supports with low HP pools and high-impact spells.  Bane, CM, and Witch Doctor are all examples of this.  Nuke these down quickly, and their impact in teamfights sharply declines.

I hope you enjoyed the guide.  As a reminder, the purpose of these guides is not to give basic instructions on how to play.  Instead, I'm trying to give you more information that you can use to make good decisions in important games (and troll games, I guess).  With that in mind, once again, I'm not trying to shift PL's core build or anything crazy.  This is just food for thought the next time you random PL, or have to draft him.

As usual, here is a link to the spreadsheet with all the data.

Spectre and Items

Way back in ages gone past, I promised someone a Spectre guide.  I am now delivering on that promise a year and six months late.  So, Honshouldbefree over on PlayDota forums, this is for you.  Sorry it took so long.

Spectre is typically considered a hard-farmer, given a quelling blade, and told to not stop ricing until the second coming of Christ.  This can work - Spectre's global presence, decent stat growth, and steroid skills allow her to carry pretty late into the game.  However, this sometimes results in a closed-minded attitude towards her item build, which may not be justified.  Have you ever seen someone still saving for Relic 30 minutes into the game?  This guide is for them.

Section One: Introduction

First, though, let's talk about Spectre as a whole and her intended purpose as a hero.  She is an Agility melee hero.  Her skillset gives her an escape and chasing mechanism, a pure damage bonus to attacks, a tanking skill which reflects damage, and a global ultimate which also spawns illusions to attack every enemy hero.  Her stats are mediocre - average of 19.33 base stats, and 2.03 gain per level.  With these stats and skills, Spectre is best suited to attack damage builds which also permit her to be up close and personal, often in the center of fights.

Next, let's talk about farm priority.  Spectre has decent scaling with items, especially in her two passive skills and her ultimate.  Desolate does increasing dps as attack speed increases.  Dispersion does more damage around Spectre as her HP pool increases.  Haunt does more damage as her illusions gain damage and attack speed (only from stat gain, Feedback, and Radiance burn - other sources of bonus IAS or damage will not benefit illusions).  Further, her weak intelligence, and therefore weak mana pool and regen, make it difficult for her to effectively utilize typical support items like Mek and Force Staff.  As a result, it seems like Spectre deserves a higher farming priority in any given team composition.

How you go about building items with the farm your team allots you, however, can be different depending on how Spectre is laned.  Because she has a strong escape mechanism, Spectre can do decently well in solo lanes, so long as there is another carry-oriented hero in another lane in case Spectre gets shut down.  For instance, Spectre does well in one-on-one matchups against offlaners like Centaur, Nature's Prophet, or Doom.  She will not get protected farm, but will get enough gold and levels to have a strong impact with more midgame-oriented items.

For example, imagine a lineup like so: Tidehunter, Spectre, Lifestealer, Jakiro, and Undying.   The presence of early-midgame heroes like Jakiro, Tide, and Undying means that Spectre may not get enough farm before these heroes pass their peak.  However, by putting Lifestealer in an aggressive trilane with Jakiro and Undying, Tide mid, and Spectre in the safelane solo, Spectre can build up a few mid-game items like Drums and Diffusal to use her ultimate in conjunction with Ravage and Tombstone to do huge damage during a deathball push around level 10-11.  This way, a hero that is normally considered viable only after the 30 minute mark can become a force to be reckoned with much earlier on, increasing her viability in different team compositions.  This also gives your drafter the flexibility to get hero synergies he may not have been able to, and also gives your opponents a surprise when the lanes aren't what they think they were going to be.

As a result, it makes sense to change your Spectre item build depending upon your team's overall strategy.  For example, if you have a lineup of midgame gankers, Spectre should choose items which help net kills in the midgame (Diffusal or Medallion, for example).  If you have a lineup prioritizing a deathball push, Spectre should get some early-game pushing items (Vlads into SnY, for example).  Or, if you are looking for a lategame teamfight, Spectre should focus on items which increase her physical damage as well as her Haunt damage (Radiance or Diffusal into Refresher, for example).  With that method for choosing item builds in mind, let's take a look at how specific items work with Spectre.

Section Two: Boots and Low-Cost Items

The Boots question for Spectre is relatively straightforward.  Here are some stats to demonstrate:

The two best boots for Spectre's purposes are Tranquil (for a farming Spec) and Phase (for everything else).  Spectre's low base damage and low movespeed (base 295) make Phase excellent for farming and chasing.  Tranquil boots' sole purpose is to give Spectre regen while she farms.  It does this rather well, at a slight cost - you cannot farm and regen at the same time, as Spectre's only farming mechanism is right clicks.  The armor and higher movespeed are also welcome.

The other boots all have some uses.  BoT's are useful for opening up that fifth item slot in the late game, and for global farming.  Threads can provide tankiness and a bit of attack speed, but the attribute switching isn't as useful as on other heroes, and the IAS is wasted on Haunt illusions.  Arcane might be useful if you want to build supportive items like Mek and Force Staff, or you want to buy Dagon for some reason, because you like suffering.  In this case, the only way to have enough mana is Arcane Boots.  Of course, if you are rushing xyz item, it is possible to keep brown boots until you have your rad/diffusal/dagon 5/abyssal blade.

Now, for low-cost items.  In games where mid-game presence is important, brown boots and the 2.7k gold you're saving for Radiance aren't going to help your team, or save you in a gank.  Depending on how your team wants to play during the first 15-20 minutes of the game, they may need more out of you than a walking sack of coin.  In these cases, a small 500-2500 gold item can help you transition into bigger items.  I've picked a set of items which I think can pack quite a bit of punch on Spectre in this price range.  Here is their stat breakdown:

Of these, a few are excellent on Spectre.  Drums deserves a special mention.  It increases her abysmal mana pool, allowing her to cast her ult and her dagger more often.  It increases her HP pool, meaning that Dispersion will deal more AOE damage around you before you die.  It also increases attack and movespeed of both the main hero and any illusions, for synergy with haunt.

Ring of Aquila is another excellent item for its price.  It provides +18 damage and +9 IAS for damage.  It gives a decent-sized nugget of stats for utility.  It gives an armor and mana regen aura for your creeps and team.  And, it costs less than 1k gold.  Further, you can disassemble it to make a Vlads later on.  Great item.

The other items here are all decent picks, depending on the game.  Poor Man's Shield is mainly to mitigate harass when you have a lot of opposition in lane.  Medallion gives armor and mana regen, and can increase your DPS on a single target.  Midas helps you farm, and makes you attack faster.  Vlads helps you push, helps you farm, gives you mana regen, and gives you lifesteal while leaving open your orb effect.

Now, Vanguard.  A lot of people like it, since it greatly increases your tankability.  I, however, am not fond of it.  First, it has the largest cost of any item in this price range, while also not increasing damage or utility.  Second, it actually decreases Dispersion's DPS because the damage blocked by Vanguard is not reflected.  Finally, it doesn't scale with levels like other items do (for instance, Vlad's percentage-based damage bonus, or Drums' attack speed).  Get it if you need to survive at all costs, and if you really want to, but I'm not a fan.

Section Three: Mid-Cost Items

The next section of items to consider are mid-cost items, between 2.5k and 4.5k.  These items provide cost-effective power for a Spectre who needs to do something before the 40 minute mark.  These would not be on a short-list for every game of Spectre.  Instead, these are items which permit her to take a more early-game ganking or teamfighting role, rather than some kind of escatological fulfillment for the lategame.  I selected these items based on cost-efficiency and their synergy with Spectre's skillsets and needs.

The most important item here is Diffusal Blade.  This item works wonders on Spectre.  It gives attack speed, damage, a bit of intelligence for spell casting, and buffs her Haunt illusions immensely.  The Feedback orb damage stacks with Desolate damage, and is added to Spectre's physical damage.  The Purge allows Spectre to slow a target during a gank, or cleanse an unwanted summon or buff.  Good stats, excellent abilities...  This is an excellent Spectre item.  More on its synergy with Haunt later.

The other items here are more situational.  Sange and Yasha gives IAS, stats, damage, and tankiness, for the highest HP and MS, and second-highest DPS in this price range.  This item helps her chase more effectively with Maim and movespeed.  It also adds a good chunk of HP so that she can deal more Dispersion damage before passing away.  BKB is for games where magic is ruining your day.  Orchid helps when ganking a hero with a spell-based escape mechanism, or where you need the silence on somebody because of a pesky enemy Invoker or something.  It also gives solid IAS, clocking in at 3rd in this price range for DPS.  Halberd increases Spectre's tankiness and EHP by a good bit, while also providing the utility to shut down a right-clicking enemy carry.  Keep in mind, however, that missed attacks won't splash dispersion damage around.  Pipe is here for two reasons, but is not very high priority.  First, if your team desperately needs a pipe, it won't kill Spectre to buy it.  Second, magic resistance makes Spectre much tankier, and Hood at least is recommended in a good few other guides.  Keep in mind, again, that reducing incoming damage also reduces Dispersion reflected damage.

Section Four: High-Cost Items

We've finally made it.  These are the items that will define your Spectre game.  These are the items that will cause your enemies to cower, in awe of your mighty DPS.

There are different approaches to buying big items on Spectre.  Some, like Radiance or Manta, may be worth rushing from the get-go.  In these cases, how quickly you can farm these items determines how your game will proceed.  In other games, you may need to build smaller items first before transitioning into the bigger ones.  In these cases, you need to take into account the various synergies between these items.  For instance, the Feedback damage from Diffusal Blade will be greatly increased by the IAS from Butterfly.

Below are my selections for high-cost items for Spectre.  I chose items that maximize her DPS or ability to teamfight, as those are most suited to Spectre's playstyle.  However, if you want to build Dagon 5 or Sheepstick, go ahead.  I can't stop you.

First, let's talk about raw DPS.  In the case of the hero alone, without any illusions, Daedelus is clearly on top, followed closely by Butterfly, MKB, and Radiance.  However, it's important to keep in mind that a decent portion of Spectre's damage, as well as almost all of her teamfight presence, comes from Haunt illusion damage.  And so, if you want to build a teamfighting Spectre, Refresh in addition to Radiance or Diffusal 2 kicks Haunt damage into the stratosphere (more on this later).

For utility, MKB counters enemy evasion heroes; Abyssal provides a BKB-piercing stun and solid DPS (illusions cannot bash, though); Skadi provides a slow (only from the main hero, not illusions); Manta provides extra illusions, a split to get out of nets, silences, or other negative buffs, Butterfly provides excellent evasion; and Heart provides insane regen.  Get these items for those reasons whenever they are relevant.

Finally, tankiness to be reflected as damage through Dispersion.  Heart gives the most HP, followed by Skadi, Manta, and then a negligible bit from Abyssal.  Bloodstone also gives a bunch of HP, and the shorter respawn time can allow you to Haunt back into a teamfight in some cases, but the mana and mana regen is wasted, making a high-cost item lest efficient for it price.

Section Five: On the Refreshing of Haunt

A lot of times, players use Haunt like some kind of global teleportation spell.  They frequently forget that once Spectre gets buff, her illusions do all kinds of damage.  As a result, some theorycrafters on PlayDota forums, most notably GodlyKha, tried out Refresh Orb on Spectre to great success.  The general idea:

1. Farm Radiance or Diffusal 2
2. Farm Refresh Orb
3. Ult
4. Ult Again
5. Teamwipe

Does this seem incredible to you?  It shouldn't.  Here's a chart showing how much damage a double Spectre ult can do to a single target with average armor and magic resistance in ideal situations:

As you can see, Diffusal deals the most damage of the two in an ideal situation.  By "ideal situation," I mean where the enemy hero stands still so that the Haunt illusion can attack as many times as possible.  A lot of times, your illusion swill not be able to attack that frequently, because the enemy heroes are moving.  As the average number of attacks your illusions get each second decreases, your damage decreases as well.  Here is a chart illustrating this effect:

This chart also shows the relative value of Radiance and Diffusal Blade in your Haunt damage.  As you can see, if you are able to get off a lot of attacks, Diffusal will always do more damage.  This is especially true if the enemy is locked down during the entire duration, as illusions with Radiance are unable to do more than .92 attacks/second, effectively capping their damage at that point.  However, as the number of attacks your illusions get off decreases, the constant Radiance burn stays the same.  In most cases, however, Diffusal 2 does more damage during Haunt than Radiance.

Conclusion

Well, there you have it.  A Spectre guide that is late, but hopefully still useful.  If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments below.  As usual, here is a link to the spreadsheet with all of the data.  I hope this helps!

Techies Skills, Item Build, and a few Tricks

Now that operation: giff techies has ultimately proven successful, I think a guide is in order.  For those of you who have not seen my video guides (link in sidebar), I'll briefly explain how my guides work:

• This is not a basic introduction.  This guide is intended for higher-level players who understand the core mechanics of game.
• This is not a step-by-step or a how-to.  Rather, I will give you a bunch of information, and help show you how to make informed choices in different situations.
• This guide is a more user-friendly version, which condenses the math and statistics into easy-to-understand graphs.  I also include a link to the data behind the graphs, which is linked at the bottom of the article.

Also, I wrote this guide prior to the Techies patch.  As such, this guide uses images from Dota 1.  As per usual with my guide, I include stats and suggestions that are equally relevant to both games.  Where something differs between the two, I will make note of it.

With that stuff in mind, let's move on with the guide.

Section One: Skills

 Techies skills are mostly straightforward.  The most common skillbuilds are to max either Land Mines or Suicide Squad, with one point in Stasis Trap if you have a set-up stun early.  These common builds are reinforced by the data:

There is very little variation in the ability scaling here.  A major point of interest is that.  Suicide Squad gains 200 damage from level 1 to 2, and then gains 300 damage from 2 to 3, and then gains 400 from 3 to 4.  This means that levels into Suicide Squad in the early game ramp up damage significantly more quickly than any other nuke.  It is also extremely potent at lvl 1, doing 650 damage.  Land Mines also scale relatively steeply, gaining 100 damage per level with 600 at level 4.  As a result, it makes sense to max either one of these skills.  Stasis Trap, on the other hand, is fine at level one, even though it also has excellent scaling.  It does double its stun duration at level 4 for six seconds, but the three seconds at level one are completely sufficient for most of the early game.  As a result, it seems to me that maxing either Land Mines or Suicide Squad, with a single point into both other abilities is the most versatile build.  An alternative, where no points are taken into Stasis Trap until both other skills are maxed, can work if the rest of the team has plenty of disables and merely requires damage, but this also loses out on any potential synergy with other long-lockdown abilities like Black Hole or Reverse Polarity.

So, then, should you max Land Mines or Suicide Squad?  Honestly, it depends upon the game and your team composition.  Both do the same type of damage, mixed, meaning that they effect magic immune units and are reduced by both armor and hero magic resistance.  This is good in that nobody is safe, but bad in that they are doubly reduced.  Suicide Squad is better against heroes unlikely to roam (and thus unlikely to walk into mines), and when you have a way into the battle like an allied Tiny or Tusk, or maybe a force staff.  Land Mines are better in that you will be alive more often, can stay farther away from fights, and work especially well in conjunction with high-mobility teams that can move around the map ganking while you mine (as the cooldown on Suicide would prevent you from ganking with your team).  In terms of raw damage, the two are actually relatively similar:

Hitting a given enemy with two mines is a fairly reasonable expectation - the cooldown is only 25 at level 1.  As you can see, with either ability maxed, it is relatively easy to instantly kill just about any hero around levels 5-7.  Suicide does more damage, but he tradeoff here is mostly in cooldowns, and in you being dead.

That wraps up skill builds.  Techies, in terms of skill building, is relatively straightforward.  Moving on, then, to the fun part: items.

Section Two: Items

Let's begin by talking about Techies' stats in general.  For his attributes, he has decent initial int and above average growth, with 2.9 gained per level.  This permits him to be efficient casting his spells, with man problems early, but increasingly less so as the game progresses.  His other two stats take a hit, however - he starts with 14 agi and only gains 1.3 per level, and he starts with 17 str with a gain of 2 per level.  These stats effectively prevent him from having any potential in a right-click oriented carry role.  He is too squishy because of low str, and unable to attack fast enough or hard enough because of low base damage and low agi.  However, he has a lot to contribute to the team either as a high-leveled mid or safelane, or I think perhaps in a position-4 farming support.  With levels and a bit of mana regeneration, he becomes increasingly difficult for supports to counter with wards or gem.  His high base armor (7!) allows him to take harass in lane decently well, and his massive 700 attack range keeps him in a safe position while last hitting or harassing himself.  However, he has abysmal movespeed (270, the worst in the game).

So, his strengths:

• High Int and mana
• High armor
• High attack range

And his weaknesses:

• Low attack damage and speed
• Low Agi and Str
• Low MS

As a result, his item build should help him take advantage of his strengths, while minimizing his weaknesses.  To begin with, let's look at boots.

Boots

 Techies has several viable options for boots.  Of the selection, Power Treads help him the least, as attack speed is not one of our goals.  The stats can be nice, especially when toggled to maximize bottle regen, but otherwise these are sub-par.  The next choice is Phase.  These actually help Techies abysmal damage by a good bit, making them a potential good choice when sitting behind a carry in lane if you're looking to harass.  They also provide a nice movespeed boost.  However, Techies was built to explode, not attack, and so these are still a bit sub-par.  The next choice is Tranquils.  These give excellent movespeed for units who do not attack much, helping Techies out quite a bit.  Further, the regen can help while moving around, stacking the jungle, or between fights.  The final boots to be considered for early game are Arcane.  These provide extra mana, and as a result suit Techies' rogue, extremist casting style very nicely.  However, they force Techies into a purely casting role, and provide little benefit outside helping him plant bombs.  Once Techies has a few items after completed boots, I think that an upgrade to Travels is almost always useful.  Techies benefits greatly from mobility around the map, as it is a bunch of freedom to place mines.  However, he needs the added benefits of other early boots, and so I think they are generally a good investment.  A BoT rush is not recommended, but holding on to brown boots while working on some early game items can be effective.

Here are the stats:

 Low-Cost Items

The next category of items are low-cost items.  In this category, I include items costing less than 3000 gold, but above simple items like bottle, consumables, or magic wand.  Building any one of these items first may be a good idea, depending on the game.  I consider each of these viable options.  Here are the stats:

The first two items are the two I see most commonly on Techies.  Eul's Scepter gives the best mana regeneration for the price, a bit of damage, and some much needed movespeed.  The Cyclone ability also brings utility.  Force Staff adds some Int for damage, mana pool, and regeneration, and additionally brings a good bit of HP regen.  It is mostly useful for the active Force, which can both be used defensively, on yourself or a team mate, and to force opponents on to mines (do not count on this for higher-level matches, however).

The next several items are others that I thought might be useful in fewer cases, but did not seem as perfectly suited to Techies.  I will discuss them in no particular order.  Dagon adds burst damage, increases stats, and gives a good chunk (16!) int.  The stats here are for a level 1 Dagon.  Vlads can help Techies push, as the auras help his creeps while he bombs towers (more on this later).  Further, a support Techies can lend the auras to his teammates.  Necro is actually a pretty good item for Techies, giving him much-needed str and a good bit of int.  Moreover, the units with Archer's aura and attacks can help him push, and he benefits from true sight from lvl 3 units in order to deward and better set up his mines.  Again, this assumes stats from lvl 1 Necronomicon.  Mek is another decent item.  Although it does not help Techies be Techies, it gives him some survivability, and gives him the opportunity to contribute more in a teamfight before blowing himself up.  And, finally, Veil can increase the damage of all three of his damaging abilities, provided he is close enough to use it.  This is especially good when Techies is included in a teamfighting lineup.

Some other considerations which are very fringe, but potentially viable are Medallion and Blink.  Medallion gives mana regen and an active to use in teamfights, but Techies does not really need the armor and rarely right-clicks himself.  However, reducing enemy armor will increase damage from Suicide or Land Mines, as these, once again, do mixed damage.  Blink can be good for maneuverability and, if you must, blink suicide, but is not as useful as Force Staff and does not provide stats.

High-Cost Items

The next tier of items to be discussed are high-cost items.  In most games, Techies does not get the farm priority to immediately rush one of these.  Instead, it is generally better to get one or maybe two smaller items before building up to one or two of these for ultra-late game.  However, Techies does tend to stall games out, and so it is important to think about these items as the minutes push on towards 40, 50, 60, and beyond.  Again, here are stats of some items I thought might be useful for comparison.

Of these, Aghanim and Sheepstick are by far the most useful and most frequently purchased.  Aghanim increases the cast range, detonation range, and damage of his ultimate, significantly increasing his utility as well as his damage output, all while providing good stats, hp, and mana.  Sheepstick solves his mana problems with the highest int gain of any item, and also gives him further utility with the active.  Of the two, Aghanim is cheaper, but Sheepstick is always an excellent choice.

The other items here are all potentially useful, but do not suit Techies quite as well.  I will, again, discuss them in no particular order.  Orchid gives excellent mana regen, and also makes his attack moderately worthwhile, and also grants him the ability to silence and increase the damage of his mines.  However, it grants no survivability, and the attack speed and damage are a bit wasted.  Shiva gives a lot of int, further AOE presence, and a good aura to help your team, but Techies' high base armor makes that component not as helpful as on other heroes.  Atos gives excellent stats, but the active doesn't really help unless you're trying to catch up to someone to suicide, or keeping them in Stasis Trap AOE.  Bloodstone gives excellent HP, mana, and regeneration.  However, you can already suicide, and you generally aren't close enough to gain charges.  The stats listed above do not factor in the HP regeneration gained with bloodstone charges.  Finally, Linken is an option, because the stats and regeneration are excellent (15 all stats?  Yes, please), and survivability is also always welcome.  Also, since you can now defer the Linken buff to a teammate, this is even more viable when a carry would like the buff but doesn't have the inventory space.  However, this does not contribute quite as much to Techies reign of explosive terror like Sheep or Agh would.

If you wish to build expensive right-clicking items like Daedelus or Butterfly, be my guest.  Techies has good range and good armor.  However, I think that in a competitive setting, a casting-oriented Techies will be more successful.  As such, you can figure out what DPS items you like for Techies on your own.

Section Three: Tips and Tricks

I will only put a couple things here. First, camp stacking.

Techies benefits immensely from camp stacking, and can farm stacked camps efficiently similar to heroes like Sand King, Shadow Friend, or Meepo.  Here is the process:

Simple enough!  Keep in mind that a Wildwing (Wildkin) will add armor to the creeps, making your mines deal less damage.

Second, Remote Mines can be used to gain vision of high ground, which is useful for dewarding (this is especially useful if you have a gem or Necro 3).

And, finally, keep in mind that both Suicide and Land Mines do affect towers.  However, Tier 2 towers will take less damage than Tier 1, as they have more armor, and higher-tier towers will similarly take less damage.  Further, an organic enemy unit (a creep, for instance) will need to go near the mine to detonate it.

Conclusions

Thank you for reading my guide.  Hopefully, this helps you be a more intelligent Techies player once you join the rabble rushing to play him upon release.  I believe that Techies can be a viable hero in a competitive scene, and could perhaps bring back a longer, more farm-oriented playstyle every once in a while if used properly.  Have fun with the Squee, Spleen, and Spoon!

If you would like to see the original spreadsheet of data, it can be seen here.

Hero and item information used here comes from http://playdota.com.