These tips will give you greater insight into how you can execute your abilities differently in the given scenario and also how to play against Clockwerk with an understanding of both his strengths and weaknesses. There is a video at the end to help give you a clearer perspective on some of these tip.

(Last updated: 7.06d)

The typical Clockwerk player just hooks and instantly cogs. However the hooked target is stunned for 1/1.5/2 seconds. This will give you the opportunity to either trap the enemy within the cogs or walk behind them and push them back with cogs. The second choice not only makes your combo stun them for the maximum duration but, it also knocks them back into an undesired position and drains some of their mana.

If you use force staff and instantly cast cogs after you will land at the outside of your cogs at the other side. This is often the ultimate escape mechanic can be hard to pull off consistently so make sure you practice it a few times in demo mode.

A well positioned Power Cogs can sometimes be the difference between winning and losing a team fight and I will explain why. Melee heroes will have to get a blink and either commit to blinking over the cogs and fighting or waiting until the cogs are destroyed. This will not only hinder the enemy’s decision but help protect allies who want to stand at the back and deal massive amounts of damage e.g. Sniper or Lina. However a bad Cogs can work in favour of the enemy team by blocking your allies away from enemy. To sum this up Cogs can be very impactful against melee heroes or heroes who need to commit to a certain position in team fights.

If the enemy have the ability to kill Roshan it is often best to keep vision on the Roshan Pit rather than using Rocket Flare to farm. This is even more important after Roshan has spawned for the second time as he will have Cheese.

Generally you will see Clockwerk players pushing creep waves with flare from the other side of the map, but this not always a good idea. When pushing waves with Flare you apply pressure to the enemy’s lanes but, if the enemy has multiple heroes with strong creep wave clearing abilities this pressure only makes a safer space for them to farm and rarely lowers their towers’ health. The idea of pushing waves like this is supposed to occupy the enemy and make them spend their time defending their towers rather than playing aggressive. So doing this Rocket Flare pushing dependent on the enemy’s draft and itemization.

Mistakes can happen to the best of players but if you accidentally trap your allies in your Cogs, make sure you destroy the Cogs for them. It takes you only 1 hit to kill a Cog but your allies will have to hit them 2 or 3 times depending on the level (2/2/2/3).

Using fog of war can be a great gap closer to get early kills on supports. Once you are level 3 you can kill the vast majority of supports with a sneaky Power Cogs and level 2 of Battery Assault but the problem closing the distance on the enemy. One of the best ways to do this is to wait in the trees for the support to come and harass you and then trap them in the cogs once the run around the corner.

You can also run down the tree line and come from behind, which can catch them off guard too. If you are a support against Clockwerk in this scenario and unable to zone him, it is best to either focus on pulling, ganking another lane with a smoke or getting the bounty runes.

Buy a Magic Wand!!! This is one of the best heroes in the game to buy a Magic Wand on, mainly because of Clockwerk’s durability. Also Raindrops is a great item increase your durability further while providing mana regen. Here is an impressive play by Admiral Bulldog showing what a Magic Wand and Raindrops can do.

The enemy will buy Force Staffs to counter your Power Cogs. This mean you should also buy a Force Staff. This will give you more ways to execute your combo depending on the scenario. After hooking if you use Cogs to traps an enemy they will force themselves out, this is your opportunity to chase them with your own Force Staff and Battery Assault. However if this play is too aggressive and won’t achieve a kill then it might be better to go for the max duration stun combo described above. Also if you hook an enemy with no Force Staff or the wrong target you might instantly melt to that hero such as Ursa. It is usually best to just trap them and then force staff away.

In the laning stage heroes such as Lifestealer and Juggernaut have abilities which grant them Magic Immunity which is a hard counter to Clockwerk. One of the best ways to counter this is to burn their mana or bait their skills out to force mana usage.

Later in the game your initiations have to be smarter as your combo won’t get kills anymore because of BKB , Glimmer Cape or Force Staff. If the enemy have a BKB hero who has a devastating combo, it is often best can save hook for stunning the BKB hero to interrupting them in the middle of their combo e.g. Sven > BKB > blink > >Stun > Cleave > Crit. After you stun them you should run, use Cogs and force away. If the enemy already used their mobility item or ability they won’t be able to chase you around the Cogs which can provide an elegant disengagement for your team.

Blocking Camps

If the Rocket Flare projectile give vision over a neutral creep camp while in motion it blocks the camp but it is not blocked if the flare has stopped moving and reached its targeted position. The easiest way to do this is to stand near the camp and use flare at x:59 secs at the far side of the camp.

Invisibility

Battery Assault doesn’t hit invisible enemies but Cogs does, so beware of invisible heroes. However Power Cogs can cancel the channeling but only if you push them away.

You can farm surprisingly aggressive with Clockwerk while your Hookshot is off cooldown. Just make sure you always leave a nearby creep camp alive so you can hook the neutral creep and escape.

Although its not a good idea to do this repetitively if your Hookshot is always on cooldown your team may never be able to initiate a fight. But this tip is still important to use this as your teammates may need to farm up a crucial item rather than fight over and over again. This will not only make space but allow you to farm in a place your your allies can’t farm safely because of their skill set.

This video will showcase all the tips mentioned in this guide

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