Dota 2 Tiny Guide: Items Build | Game Plan | Abilities

Dota 2 Tiny is one of the best initiators in Dota and can be used in the position 2 and position 4 roles. He excels at both as long as you play him correctly. From time to time, people even play Tiny in the carry role, but that’s not his standard position in the current meta.

If you want to become a Tiny specialist, our Dota 2 Tiny guide will offer you a strong foundation.

Dota 2 Tiny

Tiny’s Pros and Cons

These are the pros and cons of playing Tiny in Dota 2.

Pros:

  • He can initiate a fight with ease and guarantee a favorable trade 
  • He can compromise the position of enemy heroes
  • He deals a lot of damage
  • He is tanky at level 1
  • He can farm very efficiently
  • He has excellent HP regen: 1.5

Cons:

  • He’s slow in every way: movement and attack speed
  • He starts with 0 agility and gains no skill throughout the game
  • He is weak against heroes that can easily maintain their distance or blink away
  • He needs a Blink Dagger or a Shadow Blade to be effective

Lore

Tiny is a Stone Giant who doesn’t know his origins. He travels the world seeking his parentage and his people, growing continuously. This is reflected in the game as well. You start as a tiny rock and become a gigantic one.

Dota 2 Tiny

Attributes and Stats

These are Tiny’s general stats:

Win Rate46.7%
Level1 – 30
Health875 (at level 1)
Health regeneration1.5
Mana279 (at level 1) 
Mana regeneration0
DMG61 – 67
Armor0
DMG Blocknone
Magic Resistance25%
Attack Rate1.7
Status Resistance0%
Movement Speed285
Attack Speed90
Attack Animation0.4 + 0.7
Projectile SpeedInstant
Attack Range150
Turn Rate0.5
Collision Size24
Vision Range1800 / 800
Gib Type:

Ability Upgrades: 

His 8 talents upgrade tiny’s abilities.

  • Level 10 talents: +10 strength / +20 movement speed
  • Level 15 talents: +80 Avalanche damage / +10% status resistance
  • Level 20 talents: Toss does not require a target / +40% Grow bonus damage with a tree
  • Level 25 talents: +2 Toss charges / -8s Avalanche cooldown

These talents make Tiny an excellent Support hero, but if you’re willing to wait until the later levels, you can think of him as a Mid too.

Roles Tiny Can Take On

Tiny is a natural Support hero. He will usually go in, Avalance a few targets, and Toss one of them toward his team. This will result in an instant kill and an easy fight. This is the basic plan for Tiny players, regardless of the situation.

Dota 2 Tiny

Tiny Item Builds

These are the most critical items that you should consider purchasing when picking Tiny. The build changes based on the role you are playing. But it doesn’t change much based on the heroes you are playing against.

Early Game

For the early game, consider buying these items:

  • Magic Wand
  • Mangoes
  • Arcane Boots / Power Treads / Phase Boots
  • Wind Lace
  • Blink Dagger

Mid Game

During the mid-game, you will usually purchase several of these items:

  • Force Staff
  • Shadow Blade
  • Glimmer Cape
  • Aghanim’s Shard
  • Echo Sabre
  • Aghanim’s Scepter
  • Black King Bar

Late Game

In the late game, this hero thrives if you have one of these items:

  • Silver Edge
  • Daedalus
  • Moon Shard

Abilities

Tiny has 4 abilities and can gain a 5th if you buy an Aghanim’s Scepter. These abilities are described below:

Avalanche

This is Tiny’s crowd-control ability, and it deals quite a bit of damage: 75 – 300. Enemies trapped by it receive bonus damage if they are also Tossed. The duration of the mini-stuns is 1.4s.

Mana cost: 120

Cooldown: 26s – 14s

Toss

This is Tiny’s most crucial skill, especially when you play him in the Support role. It deals 75 – 300 damage and throws the nearest unit in a radius around Tiny at a target location. The grab radius is 300, and the Toss range is 800 – 1100. The target stays in the air for 1.4s and takes 200% Avalanche damage.

Mana cost: 110 – 140

Cooldown: 17s – 11s

Tree Grab

This ability dramatically increases Tiny’s damage and causes him to deal bonus building damage: 40% – 85%. It also increases his attack range to 350. Once a tree is grabbed, you can hit it five times with it before it disappears. The tree can also be thrown at a target from afar. If you buy Aghanim’s Shard, you have infinite charges.

When you throw the tree, you’re using Tree Throw. This ability gives you 20% bonus damage and 40% – 100% splash damage and slows the target’s movement speed and attack speed by 20% for 2 seconds. The cast range is vast: 1200 units. This means you can help your team with a powerful nuke in any situation.

Mana cost: 40

Cooldown: 19s – 10s

Grow

This passive ability gives Tiny 50 – 150 bonus attack damage, 100 – 300 Toss bonus damage, 20% – 40% tree bonus damage, and 10 – 20 armor. But it also reduces your attack speed by 30%. This reduction is one of the main reasons why people stopped playing Tiny in a core position and prefer to play him as Support.

Tree Volley

You can gain This potent ability by purchasing an Aghanim’s Scepter. It will quickly throw multiple trees at an enemy and deal massive Dota 2 damage in a 400 radius area. The power can be channeled up to 2.5s and throws 1 tree per 0.5s.

Mana cost: 200

Cooldown: 17s.

Ability Build Guide

When you play Tiny in Dota 2, you should try to follow this ability build order:

  1. Avalanche: levels 2, 3, 5, 7
  2. Toss: levels 4, 8, 9, 10
  3. Tree Grab: levels 1, 13, 14, 16
  4. Grow: levels 6, 12, 18

This is a skill-build that you will rarely change. But you might make small modifications to it based on the matchup.

Combo

When playing Tiny, your basic combo is to blink in, Avalanche one or more targets, Toss one of them, and then use your basic attacks to get the job done. Sometimes you will Toss a mark into the Avalanche itself. Other times you will Toss it toward your team.

Game Plan

This is what good Tiny players do in terms of tactics and strategy.

Early Game

In the early game, your goal is to roam around the map and create opportunities for your team. If you can Toss an enemy hero into your tier 1 tower, the odds of getting the kill are high. Because of that, you should try to keep the creep wave as close to your tower as possible and then harass the enemy team.

Tiny can also stack camps in the early game for himself or one of his teammates. The goal is to farm enough to buy your essential items and save enough gold to buy yourself a Blink Dagger. Once you have your Dagger, you can make a big difference by orchestrating smoke swindles and team fights.

Mid Game

During the mid game, you will be the most crucial initiator for your team. You should always be where the action is and not waste too much time farming. 

Leave the safe farming areas to your cores and focus instead on hunting down the enemy team. If you have good wards on the other side of the map, you should be able to spot many opportunities.

Late Game

In the late game, Tiny goes from being a pure initiator to a solid damage dealer. You can do a lot to help your team when it comes to sieging enemy buildings. By the 35-minute mark, you should have a Black King Bar in many cases, but you could also go for an Aghanim’s Scepter.

Counters

Dota 2 best heroes with excellent movement speed and magic damage naturally counter Tiny. Examples include Leshrac, Necrophos, Viper, and Venomancer.

Advantageous Matchups

Tiny is good against heroes who can’t escape easily once their position has been compromised. He’s also good against heroes that can be killed quickly with a burst of physical damage. Examples include Slark, Pugna, and others.

Most Used Skins

There are numerous Dota 2 skins that you can utilize when playing Tiny. Three of them are presented below:

Frostmoot

This is the perfect Christmas set for Tiny. The artist did a phenomenal job here, and you are guaranteed to enjoy yourself playing the hero on a cold winter day.

Astral Origins

If you love epic sets full of powerful visual effects, this one is for you.

Large Scarlet Quarry

This cheap Tiny set will turn you into a rock and crystal monster.

Posted by
William Westerlund

William is an author, editor, and an avid gamer with over 10.000 hours in CS:GO. He also enjoys playing Rust, Dota 2, and TF2 but never became a top 1% player in any of those games.