[1.51] Tychus. Findley: Squash Them Like Bugs.

[taznkid]

NOTE: This is my first guide, plus the forums post/thread options do not like me, so I have to type this on Microsoft Word separately then paste it in, otherwise it does not come out right, so do not hate on the format too much. As much as I want to: No pictures! Sorry!

I have seen many people claim singular "main" heroes and was very confused what they were talking about: however, after mastering this hero, I think I know, as I do so well with this hero like no other (yes, that includes those easy A-move heroes like Shadow and Nova).

 

Talents: 2/3/1

 

Might, Fury

Fitness, Discipline, Integrity

Swiftness

 

Skills:

Max Q First

Balance W and E, priority on W (preference though IMO)

Get R whenever you can

 

Final Item Build:

Cerebros/Explosive Retrofit

Shadowmourne

Contamination Shard

Isomorphic Pyre

Darksteel Titan

Galactic Defender

 

General Build Order:

Duran's Buckler-->Lightning Rod-->Newtonian Armor (or w/e it's called)-->Isomorphic Pyre-->Force of Entropy-->Darksteel Titan-->Contamination Shard/Galactic Defender--> Contamination Shard/Galactic Defender-->Sell Force of Entropy for Shadowmourne-->Finish Cerebros or sell Lightning Rod for Explosive Retrofit

Explanation: Tychus is one of those heroes that are fairly weak early, but get stronger as the game progresses. Start with Buckler for survivability, plus the strength gives you some weapon damage. Focus a lot on last hitting, as Tychus REALLY needs the cash. Lightning Rod gives you nice burst and weapon speed, and you want some more survivability to balance the damage item so grab a DST component. While you are building Isomorphic Pyre you are at the weakest stage of this build; play conservative, but once you have it, you can suddenly engage heroes much more easily; the unique gives nice damage, plus add in your passive, you should now start to have around 0.5-0.7 weapon speed. Force of Entropy gives health, damage, and slow; what more could you want? Finish Darksteel Titan since you are a tank after all. Now at this point, either grab Defender for more survivability if you need it (especially if you need the spell resist) or Contamination Shard for more damage if you need it. Shadowmourne provides strength, so it's great on Tychus who is a strength AA-carry, especially since you want those Contamination Shard stacks. Now if you need a bit more burst for killing others, keep Cerebros, but if you want to quickly clear waves and push/disrupt enemy formation (or let them risk the spell damage) get Explosive Retrofit.

In the late game, you will have:

around 300-400 weapon damage, with Isomorphic Pyre, Cerebros/Explosive Retrofit, Contamination Shard, Shadowmourne procs

Around 0.53 final weapon speed

around 3000-4000 health

around 50% physical and spell resist (around 80% with ulti)

 

Laning Phase: Tychus will generally need a partner to babysit him in the early stages. Focus on making money rather than ganking (but of course be smart enough to decide when to gank anyway), since most heroes can kill you 1v1 at this stage. W is great to help you stay in lane for a long time, as you really need the experience and cash more than other heroes.

 

Soloing Other Heroes:

You can generally do this with some success once you have Lightning Rod, but works much better once you are at the Isomorphic Pyre/Force of Entropy Stage. If you intend to kill someone, get some preliminary damage in if you can. Call for some help if you need it. In the current meta, many players see Tychus as food, since not many people play him (except new noobs). Bait them into attacking you, and once they do, pop your ulti. It is deceptively powerful. Use W, but save your Q to finish them (once you use it a few times, you will know when to use it) Always hilarious that the other guy thinks he will win because he has a bit more hp, then you pull out Q and BAM: suddenly they exploded in a horrible fiery death while you walk away with some nice cash . If they run, use E and your stutter-step micro to finish them off.

During the midgame and onwards (this is usually when you buy Isomorphic Pyre), you are extremely dangerous. As long as your ultimate is off of cooldown, you are able to 1v1 any hero in the entire game (after Force of Entropy, as you need that health first). I really mean it (assuming no feed of course). WITH ULTI UP (that is the condition), you get something like around 80% resist, so burst spells tickle, then you run in and kill them. Zeratul will bubble combo you, you tank it, then kill the guy in 2-3 seconds. Leo runs into you with Yamato, reflect and ulti, the whole package: wait for the reflect to pass, then kill the guy. Shadow or Nova? Once you are built up, they are feed (I've had games with a fed leaver bonus Shadow, and with ultimate, I could still fight him on equal ground). Just make sure you time your ultimate correctly, as you want it off of cooldown whenever a fight occurs, and it has a very short cooldown, so usually (at least for me) it is off of cooldown. Here is usually how my encounters work:

 

Burst Casters: I run in (sometimes without ulti), tank the tower (your call on this, play safe though) (with Defender if I have it), kill them as you see fit.

 

DPS: I let them attack me, pop ulti once they start, we AA for a bit, they are losing so they run, I chase with E and stutterstep, finish them off with Q.

For DPS heroes, the thing is: they actually deal more damage to you than you to them, but they can't take anywhere near as much as you can, while you can almost deal as much damage as they can.

 

Tanks: Poke at them. If they are too stupid to run and get low on health, I do the same thing I do with Burst Casters.

 

Female Heroes: Knock her out with Tychus' raw sex appeal (WoL campaign reference for those not in the know)

 

Teamfights:

Tychus very fittingly fits the title of tank more than any hero IMO. Why?

1. Like a tank, he is very well armored and takes alot of damage very well.

2. Like a tank, he is armed with a machine gun that deals alot of damage.

3. Like a tank, he makes things explode (quite literally with the Q).

So stand at the front, take and deal the damage, and when the enemy runs, run them down with that grenade. The fact that you deal so much ranged damage forces a engagement on you, but when that happens, your team can take advantage of your tankiness and punish the other team.

 

Things to Watch Out For:

Know when to disengage. Tychus is very weak if not played well through all stages, especially the early game. What I have found works very well if you cannot take someone on by yourself initially (you can later though) is to abuse Tychus' range and sustainability (W) to keep yourself at relatively high health while wittling down your opponents. This either forces them to leave your lane, or risk dying.

 

Summary: Due to the low cooldown of his ultimate, Tychus has incredibly high resist with less items. With more item slots free, he can use them to build sustained damage, and Q provides extra burst to surprise opponents and finish them off. Tychus is not the best tank or the best DPS, but IMO, he is the best combination of the two.

 

Extra Pro Tips:

1. Use fruits (I think 5) too look like a dodgeball of death

2. Make sure to squash them like bugs

3. Use Q to kill steal alot

4. I feel the heat from the flame already...

Edited December 29, 2013 by taznkid

[taznkid]

Oh gosh I meant to put version 1.151 not 1.51....how embarrassing....

[jamescossey]

one thing I have to tell u to change is the 2nd item make it the full cerebro right away. when ever you use an ability it resets the proc on cerebro. where it doesn't do it on the tier 1 lighting rod. bacially u run in auto attack it procs cerebro. toss your slow after your first proc so it procs it again. 4 stack passive then Q, procs cerebro again. cast heal. procs it again. cast ulti procs it again. and so on. I build CDR with tycus when doing that build uc an get ur Q down to almost a 2 sec cd.

[taznkid]

Cerebro can be procced everytime you use an ability???!!!

"face palm"

....how come I never knew this before?

Having said that though....I've tried rushing Cerebro: Yes, you deal a lot of damage, but considering that you farm slower than a dps, you just die too quickly...I'm going to try the Cerebro proc thing you mentioned though...been playing for 5 months and I didn't know this....wtf is wrong with me....

[KDawgKilla]

when i play tychus i usually go

 

talents: weapon speed / health / health regen / zeal / fortify / move speed

 

items: machette / culling / buckler / battery / cerebro / pulse hammer / buckler - DST / culling - arcbound / darwins / Force of entrophy / Galactic

 

basically i jungle. max healing first. once you get cerebro you can pretty much start really doing the damage but the build is strait forward. if you activate ulti + fortify + galactic + darwins there is no reason why you couldnt take a full team doing no damage but true damage. damn good support / tank / dps

[Burn]

No AtomSmasher? *gasp*

[Spooky]

There are some flaws in your build, especially for laning faze. Basically u have no energy regen - therefore rly bad sustain. U may use your healing twice and u are out of mana. That's why I think Duran's Pendant is the best opening item for Tychus. It doesn't require wealth talent and it gives Tychus everything he needs early game. Your weapon damage is low with that item though, but u can last hit with your low cooldown Q as well. Ability with which u should harass enemies as often as possible - with max stacks of course. There is also lack of Duran's Machete in your build which helps Tychus sustain even more.

 

Speaking about final build - Atom Smasher isn't 'must have'. Force of Entropy is good as well. Its cheaper item with better stats. Basically if u are ahead get Atom Smasher as it is snowball item. Otherwise get Force of Entropy. Cerebro is great for Tychus, nothing to add here. However the problem I see is lack of mobility. Tychus is slow and he has low weapon range. To be effective u need additional mobility. Phantom Menace or Hand of Mengsk is really great to fill that gap.

 

Tychus can't really 1v1 AGI carries mid-late game. They always would be ahead in farm and damage output. If u build more dps then u will melt very fast, if u build more tanky then u can't kill anything. U can 1v1 AGI carries early-mid game when your Q is still doing noticeable amount/of damage.

[Grantypoo]

IS there any visual indication on your screen or on Tychus hero model itself as to how many stacks he has? He is one of the few characters I rarely ever play, I just dont enjoy him that much?

 

And I guess as another question, if you shoot twice at a target and switch to another target for two more shots... do you have four stacks now or does it lose stacks when you switch target?

[Jaysi]

IS there any visual indication on your screen or on Tychus hero model itself as to how many stacks he has? He is one of the few characters I rarely ever play, I just dont enjoy him that much?

 

And I guess as another question, if you shoot twice at a target and switch to another target for two more shots... do you have four stacks now or does it lose stacks when you switch target?

 

Your chain gun starts to flame, but as your weapon speed gets faster/late game the animation is slower than what it actually takes. It could definitely use an improvement.

 

The stacks are on Tychus so switching targets doesn't matter.

[Grantypoo]

Alright, thanks. I really should play him for a week or so just to know exactly how he works.

[Spooky]

Besides his ulti works this way it gives u all stacks after one AA. So u don't have to care about animation during ulti. Basically u one-hit sth and use ability, one-hit again and another ability. Full combo may look like this:

R + AA + Q + AA + W + AA + Q + AA + E + AA +Q

[Clandestine]

Durans Pendant works soooo good on ty

http://aeonofstorms.wikia.com/wiki/Duran%27s_Pendant

[Grantypoo]

Besides his ulti works this way it gives u all stacks after one AA. So u don't have to care about animation during ulti. Basically u one-hit sth and use ability, one-hit again and another ability. Full combo may look like this:

R + AA + Q + AA + W + AA + Q + AA + E + AA +Q

Ah. I thought I read something about it adding an additional stack with R or something like that, not just full stacks every attack. That is good to know as well.

[Jaysi]

I looked and I'm pretty sure it says it only adds an extra stack each AA, so it should take two AA's...

[Grantypoo]

I looked and I'm pretty sure it says it only adds an extra stack each AA, so it should take two AA's...

Yep, I played him again and read the tooltip, it definitely says adds an extra stack each AA, I agree with you on that.