I’ve played Tinker 1st hero for Night Elf for 100+ games against all races , heroes & strategies (fast expand, harass & tech, max creep). Here is where the Tinker REALLY needs a buff.
His Pocket Factory is the only expensive stationary melee summon in the game. The stationary aspect really kills it against strong players, because you can’t always perfectly pick or enforce the exact location of the fight. The fact that it is stationary completely kills PF utility vs harass strategies or vs kiting because after spending 125 mana per PF, you’re out of mana, and the opponent simply moves away.
Here is an idea how to address this:
The Tinker should be able to “retract” or “take back” the pocket factory, and get back the amount of mana that is proportional to the % amount of time that PF has remaining to expiration, and the cast timer is immediately reset as well, allowing PF to be immediately cast again.
For example, suppose that Pocket Factory has 20 seconds remaining out of total 45 seconds. If the Tinker “retracts” the factory, he gets back (20/45) * 125 mana = 56 mana, and can re-cast the factory again. This allows the Tinker to “move” the factory with some mana penalty, but not with the full 125 mana penalty like it is now.
The only other stationary summon is the serpent ward, but it is ranged, and inexpensive.
pfffffff the time it would take to program that on this spaghetti codebase is way too much, theyll never do that [Blizzard, please prove me wrong, as this guy’s idea sounds fun, if even just for use in the World Editor on custom maps.]
Actually if you take a look at the CASC files for W3 using a CASC Viewer, you will see that they are well structured. Implementing this should be easy, because it is ismply a mana gaining effect (similar to Mana Burn or Mana Drain) together with the Pocket Factory disappearing , and resetting the cooldown timer. Easy.
Hi WitchCraft. It will be a bit hard to realize your idea. What if I focus your factory and the last second your retract it? I could lose a few units doing that. So the amount of hp left in the factory should be also taken into account and it becomes complicated. It is a nice idea though!
I also think Tinker factory needs a small buff. Patch 1.30 nerfed Tinker a bit too hard.
The duration of the factory is 40 seconds. Currently, Engineering upgrade improves the spawn interval as follows: 5 / 4.5 / 3.5 / 3 seconds.
Suggestion. Change the number of goblins spawn from 7/8/11/13 per duration of the factory to 7/9/11/13 which will correspond to 5 / 4.4 / 3.5 / 3 spawning intervals.
The description of the ability in the game can be changed too, to display the number of goblins spawned. This info is much clearer for players to understand.
SaveOrcas - the amount of hp absolutely must be taken into account.
The suggestions you’re making do not address the primary problem of Pocket Factory - it is not portable, and it is not a ranged ability either.