Guide to Clockwerk Goblin

RattleTrap the Clockwerk Goblin
Detailed Information on Clockwerk Goblin's Skills: Here

I've been playing this hero since he was first introduced. He underwent a series of nerfs eg lowered str gain, lowered duration for Battery Assault, and nerfed cooldown on hookshot. Even then I still considered him as an amazing hero. Now that his Hookshot Ultimate has been buffed with the introduction of Aghanim's Scepter, I'm liking this hero even more.
He is seeing much use competitively as well.


Hero Type: Pure Ganker (Roamer)
Strong Against: Mostly every hero
Weak Against: Heroes with escape mechanisms (eg Windwalk, Blink), Healers (eg Omniknight, Warlock), High HP heroes (especially those that stacks bracers early), Summoners (Lycan, Visage, as they render his battery assault ineffective)

Skill Build:
1 - Rocket Flare
2 - Battery Assault
3 - Battery Assault
4 - Cogs
5 - Battery Assault
6 - Hook Shot
7 - Battery Assault

Reasoning: Get Rocket Flare first for scouting and harrasing. But just 1 point in it. Next we max out Battery Assault and learn 1 level of Cogs. It is a very useful spell early game. After level 7, Max out Rocket Flare first for the lower cooldown and higher damage and max out Cogs last. You don't need to raise stats so early.
This is by far the best skill build Clockwork can have.

Item Build:


Reasoning: You can get a bottle first if your team doesn't have a chicken. Alternatively you can have a mixture of Gauntlets, Branches, Clarities and Tangos. Magic stick can work too but it really depends on the type of game you are playing. Higher level games usually means more charges due to constant early-game ganks. But in Pub games where players are mostly passive last-hitting farmers, you might not need it at all. The charges however, are valuable when it comes to escaping with a sliver of health, or when you need that 50 or so mana to cast your rockets. Upgrade to Wand if after you bought branches.

Note that Clockwerk is a pure ganker hero and relies on very little items to be effective. For that reason, we mass stack him with survivability items. I get naked gauntlets (non-upgraded since I only need the +HP) are very cheap, Point booster is a very cost-efficient item which grants massive HP/Mana (and is a recipe component for scepter as well). Clockwerk needs a big mana pool instead of Mana regen items due to his low Int gain. Even though his spells have low manacost, you will quickly run out of mana if you gank aggresively. Bottle and rune-refilling may be insufficient. Phase boots are excellent on him once you have a decent HP. It helps alot in chasing.


Other Items:


The biggest mistake often made is trying to make Clockwerk into a DPS hero. I know it is a pub-game but do trust your allies to carry. Even a mediocre Luna or Troll will do an even more effective job than you in carrying the team. Avoid making Battlefuries, Sange & Yashas, etc on him. He has very low Agi gank and hence attack speed. You need a lot of items to make him a formiddable carry.




Increasing Survivability
-- It is advisable that you complete Aghanim's scepter or you will suffer from mana problems. Scepter grants decent boost to survivability as well.
-- You have a choice between Hood or BKB, choose one to minimize damage from spells and AoE nukes. I go for hood usually, as BKB is usually reserved for DPS glass cannons who needs the priceless 8 secs magic immunity. Hood is better early game as well, due it the hp regen.
(note: you may upgrade Hood to Pipe to help your entire team against spell nukes.)
-- Heart is excellent if game drags and you need a tanker. Heart is most effective in long drawn out battles with chases and counter-ganks. That period of time will allow you to regenerate back your lost hp (1%/sec is alot!). Coupled with Scepter (for 20sec hook cooldown), it allows you to chase/counter-gank endlessly.




-- Observer Wards are great for map control. When placed in enemy forests, lone heroes become easy pickings for you if you could land a proper hookshot. Clockwerk doesn't need much items anyways, so if there is a need for wards for your team, you should be the one who provides them.
-- Going Phase boots means no Travels, so you need to stack on TP scrolls. Do carry loads of them to enhance your ganking mobility.



Going Support and Alternative builds
At times, your Clockwerk might need a different set of items to achieve that win
-- Shivas is great because of the Armor bonus (High HP + High Armor = High EHP) and the freezing blast. The extra mana comes in handy as well, though with Scepter, you won't be facing that much of a mana problems.
(I used to make Shivas in the past, before Scepter was buffed to counter the mana problem)
-- Necronomicon is great against Invisible opponents. The summons provides good damage against towers and raxes as well but its effectiveness drops as game progresses. Best to be rushed and if your team is planning on an early push. Going this means you need to forgo the usual items like Aghanim's Scepter and Hood.
-- Guinsoo. Lack of strong disables, then get it.


Playstyle Concept:
You are the prime ganker in your team. Clockwerk is like Nerubian Assasin (NA). He ganks permanently early game to allow his allies to farm up safely and at the same time, shut down the opponents' Carries. Unlike NA, Clockwork can gank as early as level 3 with level 2 Battery Assault (40dmg/0.75sec). Remember your role clearly. Do not stick too long in lanes to farm and rob the precious creeps from your carries, that is not your job. At level 4, you will be learning Cogs. A difficult spell to master but for early games, they are primarily used to trap your opponents. If need be, it can be used to save your precious carry from ganks too.

Gameplay:
Usually, I start off with Bottle. Go to the river and wait for a rune to spawn at 0:00 min. Bottle it. If it is not on your side, ping the other side and tell your allies to pick it up. An early Haste, Double Damage, or Invisibility Rune can help alot in getting a first blood at level 2 (You need 1 level of battery assault to kill).
If there isn't any runes, wait for level 3 for a kill. If the enemy pushes too far in, get into the jungle and gank him from the back.
Once you killed off that lane, check for runes to refill your bottle and proceed to gank other lanes. Avoid trying to kill those heroes you are weak against (mentioned on top of this guide). They are likely to escape. Pick on easy targets first for easy money. Most carry type heroes falls prey to Clockwork very easily. Sniper, Shadow Fiend, Razor are mostly Agi heroes with low HP. If you can shut them down early, they will pose a lesser threat late-game.
Farming isn't the thing for Clockwerk. You will rarely have the time for that. You can get a few last-hits here and there after successful ganks or while waiting for your ally to take over the empty lane.

Using Battery Assault

• Start casting before moving in to gank. The spell has a casting time ( ~0.3secs). The duration is long, so do not worry of it finishing before opponent is dead.
• Battery Assault is like a psedo-slow. It has ministuns that interrupts the hero's movement. Simply trail the enemy hero and let the spell do the damage. Hit him only when your hero is nearly touching his hero, or you might lose him.
• Avoid ganking the enemy when he is surrounded by creeps.
• To isolate your targets when faced with 2 heroes, use in conjunction with Cogs, so that the battery assault will focus on the trapped hero only.
• Since it is has a ministun, it cancels TP channeling.

Using Rocket Flare

• You learn this at level 1. Quite a useful spell for harrasing as well as getting last hits on creeps during the laning phase. Works great dispelling Clarities and Flasks too.
• You can rocket pullable camps to prevent spawn in the area. Do it at around 0:26-0:29 when game starts.
• During ganks, use it when enemy is about to juke you so as to gain vision.
• Use it to scout for runes, enemy position (for you to land hookshot), top of hills etc.
• A single rocket can be used to scout for both rune spots. You need to fire in a such a way the trajectory passes over one of the rune spots and lands at the further rune spot (eg Shooting to top rune spot from bottom lane, rocket passes over btm rune spot). Do remember to check the runespot as the rocket flies over before the vision dissapears.
• Late game, you can use it to farm creeps. When a lane pushes too far, you get alot of Necromancers/Druids bunching up on a single lane. 2 hits from Rocket Flare will give you good money.

Using Cogs

• This is a very tricky spell which can be a double-edged sword. It may work against or for you.
• Placement estimation is very important. To ensure the enemy always goes inside your Cog, make sure your hero is touching is hero (like 0 distance). If you want the enemy hero to fall outside of your cogs, it should be 1 Cog's distance in between you and the enemy. (1 Cog's distance is approximately 1.5 times Clockworks' model size)
• Battery Assault and Cogs are good combo. A level 1 cog is like a 3secs disable. Use it so he can't run into towers' safety or link up with the next creep wave.
• Knockback from Cogs lasts about 1 secs. The Damage + Mana burn is minimal but this is a very useful spell for escaping and blocking. Each Cog has 1 charge. Once enemy touches, it unleashes an AoE type of knockback (meaning 2-3 heroes can be pushed by just 1 charge). It expires once it has released its charge.
• Cogs can cancel TP channeling as well, useful when your battery assault has run out. Remember the 1-cog placement rule, the knockback will cancel the TP. This tactic is useful against Sandking (in sandstorm) and Lanaya (in meld) as well.
• Cogs knockback passes through magic immunity. You can cancel TP on a baldefurying Jugg, BKBed hero and Repelled heroes as well using the method above.
• You can destroy your Cog with just one hit whearas enemy heroes requires three hits. Rhasta's Wards and Luna's Glaives can destroy the whole Ring within seconds. Once the enemy is about to die, break open one cog so you can escape immediately. His allies are very likely to come soon to counter-gank.
• Most ramps can be blocked completely from Cogs. Larger ramps like Base entrances can be blocked too if the placement of the Cogs is in the near centre. It doesn't blocks fully, but passing enemies will get knockbacked.
  Use it for escaping.
• Cogs during teambattles are very useful. Avoid trapping heroes inside unless you have allies' backup or you will end up a sitting duck. Remember the 1-Cog placement rule. Land them just close enough so the enemies are stucked outside and suffer from the knockbacks. They work really well against melee heroes, especially Lycan.
• If trapping 2 or more heroes allows you allies to focus-fire on them, by all means do so.

Using Hookshot

• Very simple spell. Remember not to have non-enemy units (or Neutral Creeps) be in your way or the hook will not come out. The hook speed is near instantaneous, but do give a small buffer by aiming slightly ahead of the enemy hero.
• Rocket Flare to confirm enemy position if you have no vision, then hookshot him.
• Against Heroes with Blink, Blinkstrike, Leap, Timewalk attack them normally first and save the hookshot to catch them after they blink/leap.
• Hookshot has a decent Stun duration as well as an Area Effect. You can stun heroes if they stand side by side.
• It can hit Invisbible Units too.
• To use it as an escape tool, look for nearby enemy creeps and hook towards them. With Ahfganims Scepter, you can hook towards allied units as well.