The New Slardar: Support Clockwerk
Warcog loading screen by Chemical Alia & DrySocket
Clockwerk has been in and out of the meta for years now, without many significant buffs or nerfs. While he has been a dedicated offlaner for most of the time, there have been instances where Clockwerk was played as mid or even as a support. The current meta sees a resurgence in such a positional shift with numerous 4 position Clockwerks. But what allows the hero to be played as a 4 position support? Before we can answer that though, it is important to figure out what makes him strong in the meta in general.
Patch History
The last significant direct nerf against Clockwerk dates back to 6.78 when Power Cogs stopped affecting spell immune units--this was 4 years ago. Ever since, all abilities have received buffs, mostly small ones, but buffs nonetheless. Significant buffs to the hero occurred in the form of increased base strength (24->26) and strength gain (2.7->3.2) and then the recent buffs towards the strength attribute in 6.87 and 7.06, which increased the health gained per strength and the health regeneration respectively.
Despite this rich history of smaller, incremental buffs over a long period of time, Clockwerk has not been a dominant pick, especially during a time when offlaners largely relied on farming the jungle to get back into the game. At The International 2016, Clockwerk was picked only once and remained unpicked at the Shanghai Major. While he has gained in popularity since, he’s still only been picked a total of 26 times at both the Boston and Kiev Major, both times with a rather lackluster win rate (39% and 23% respectively). Now, at the Manila Masters, Clockwerk wound up being the most picked hero at the event. Pub players also only recently picked up on this trend of buffs and Clock's pub win rate has steadily increased for a while now (currently 52%) and especially in 5k+ MMR games he's picked up a lot of steam. Here, he's the 17th most picked hero this month and musters a 54% win rate, which is the 5th highest in the bracket.
So why now, what makes him good in the meta right now?
An emphasis on laning
For a while now, the meta has emphasized the laning stage quite a bit. Virtus.pro is a stellar example of a team that is able to snowball off of a strong laning stage. While previously, teams have focused on heavy roamers, such as Earth Spirit or Monkey King, the focus has shifted towards lane stability. Every line-up has a strong laning support that can ensure the success of the safelane by zoning out the opponent’s offlaner.
With 720 HP at level 1 and almost 2 armor, Clock can trade hits with just about anyone and will likely come out on top. With a base MS of 315 and early Boots, it’ll be difficult for most heroes to not be trapped inside Power Cogs. Even running down an opponent with Battery Assault is an effective method to zone out an opponent. The new Tranquil Boots also add to this, as they provide more movement speed and are built out of a Wind Lace. Because of the early Boots build, Clock can effectively roam between lanes and rune spots, more so than most other supports in the current meta. Right now, Clockwerk is the ultimate nuisance in the pro meta.
Ever since 7.06, denying creeps provides XP to the denying team. As an traditional offlaner, Clockwerk doesn’t need many items to be successful, but he needs experience and levels. This XP change in 7.06 allows a support Clock to be much more effective than he would’ve been before.
A lot of these changes however also encourage an offlane Clockwerk, so why support?
Drafting Flexbility & Mid game threat
6/13 Clockwerk picks at the Manila Masters were support Clockwerks with the remaining picks resulting in an offlane Clockwerk. Very reminiscent of Slardar in the past year, Clockwerk has become the newest “flex”- pick (more on that here). Picking a Clockwerk early isn’t easily punished, as he could be either support or offlane. There are also numerous combo options for Clockwerk, as he can set up skill shots or at the very least obstruct an opponent’s escape path. There’s also a unique interaction with Shadow Fiend which teams have started to optimize. Denying Power Cogs inside the fountain can allow a Shadow Fiend to start the laning stage with around 15-18 souls.
Apart from a solid laning stage and the flexibility he provides during drafting, a support Clockwerk also offers most of the benefits a core Clockwerk would in the mid game. Strictly speaking, Clockwerk doesn’t need many items or any to be effective. Though if he can farm some, he can be a utility hero/core, as no utility item is necessarily bad on him. One could argue that 
Blade Mail is one of the best items to get, but support items such as 
Force Staff, Lotus Orb, Glimmer Cape or even a Mekansm are all good on him. What helps with this flexible itemization is one of his level 10 talents which grants him 4 extra armor. As a result, he isn’t reliant on becoming tankier through items and it makes him more difficult to kill, which can make a huge difference for a support, certainly for an initiating one.
In the mid game, Clock provides a lot of vision and map control through his roaming and positioning, as well as his Rocket Flare. Through his long range of initiation, he also applies a lot of pressure onto the enemy by not showing on the map. While the same can be said about any core position offlaner, a support Clockwerk isn’t punished as much by falling behind on farm.
In teamfights, Clockwerk has always been able to change the flow by positioning himself appropriately and zoning out heroes through Power Cogs. Rocket Flare provides a vision advantage and Hookshot can be a key (re-)initiation tool. To add to all of this, he also counters a variety of currently popular heroes. Cores such as Bristleback or Troll Warlord are best dealt with by kiting them around or singling them out.
Tournament trend or new meta?
The recent rise of Clockwerk could easily be written off as a tournament occurrence. Every LAN event has its own meta and some heroes or playstyles often come and go with those tournaments. Ratteltrap could be in that category, certainly since 7.06 is a rather new patch. That said, one can still expect to see more of him in the upcoming events. With a lot of focus on supports in the first pick and ban phases, Clockwerk becomes an incredible weapon in the drafting tool of any captain right now.
good article
two yeah
хуй хуй да
4th xaxaxaxa
Stop ruining my pub games with these articles please
clock pos4 can do the things clock offlane does
first.
ха нет пендосы сосите хуец
Clock is one of the most fun heroes to play with. 10/10 hero.
The only thing that you might have trouble with on clock by putting him in the support position is the aghs timing, but all he has to do is be part of a lot of kills, something he has a greater chance of now that he can get wind laces and focus on getting kills and assists early on rather than just surviving the offlane until six.
Вы чё блять мутите суки
eredar > clock
His DPS is unbelievably high.
nice strat
add to this it can at least slow down some split pusher
*dies to jugg arcana*
how is it possible to get the 15 souls on sf?, i feel like theres not enough time to deny that many cogs pre-creep launch
one of my fav offlane :) it is very fun to play with.
@Barista_Senpai
U need someone else hitting the cogs once, then sf gets the lasthit. If you don't have that help, you can still get ~10 souls if you buy and sell a glove of haste each time the cogs are placed
It depends if the moon is blue
It depends if the moon is blue
@barista_senpai
https://www.dotabuff.com/matches/3139052266
Check the replay of this game.
Or the theory here:
You can do 3 cogs per cycle (a teammate that is not Clockwerk needs to pre-hit every Cog once for you)
Cogs have 15secs cooldown
You have 90 seconds from spawn to creep spawn = you can use it 6x (so ideally 18)
Ana does get 17 in this game, but I think 15-18 is a more reasonable estimate because you can mess up the timing quite easily if you dont practice it at least a few times.
Good one, countering most popular picks; -I want to vs, a slark and riki with him;
Clock makes contesting roshan easier with the constant vision advantage.
@Skim
Do you think this is an interaction that will be left in? I feel like it isn't OP because you can't get souls by denying, say, NP Treants in your fountain, so it is such a specific set of requirements for the draft to allow. Even more specific considering counters and bans and block picks etc.
I mean, this isn't fountain hooking we're talking about.
@brock hall
maybe, though this interaction has been in-game for so long I doubt it.
It's possible they remove the soul aspect, but I think pros would have to heavily abuse it at first - and you don't always wanna pick SF so I don't think that'll happen anytime soon.
ДА БЛ"ТЬ САПП КЛОК,КОГДА ХАРДУ НА ИЗИ ОТСТОИТ ЭТО ГГ УДАЛЯЮ ДОТА
хотите научиться играть на клоке, чекайте мой гайд
все остальные гайды и способы игры на клоке нелегитимны и должны преследоваться по закону
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=860478161
Ratteltrap, that's a name I hadn't heard in a very long time.
Thanks for the write back, that totally makes sense, didn't think about other people helping deny.
Would we really think thats worth it to have 3 people in fountain that long? I guess the souls would probably outweigh the creep block and possible rune loss.
Чел пишет гайды имея 49% винрейт на нормал скилле...
I just found tons of free Steam Wallet Codes at http://steamkeygiveaway.com/ You can choose any game you want for free!
cogs doesnt have souls lol.. now seriously, i think that it feels like a game bug, like fountain hook specifically, should be removed in my opinion, just like earthshaker creeps block or fountain hook in the past
fun with this clock
The coggs deny thing isn't a bug they just overlooked it. Souls are calced by cs therefore anything that gives cs gives a soul. It'll be patched I think because it makes most matchups vs sf unwinnable and especially now with increased popularity of strong 2/1/2 matchups and emphasis on winning lanes. Also take goblin techies out of this videogame please.