The New Clinkz
Clinkz was reworked slightly over a month ago. The initial impression of the community on the hero was rather poor and this reaction was more than justified—much like Drow Ranger, Clinkz started his 7.20 career as an incredibly weak hero.
While the Drow buffs eventually led to her acceptance as a good and independent core in the current meta, Clinkz is still looked down on. Even despite statistics for the last month showing he is actually a game-winning hero in 4k+ games. So, what is up with Clinkz?
More or less niche hero?
Clinkz is a hero who starts the game with 416 base HP and doesn’t get much tankier with levels. His stats growth is also pretty underwhelming—his previous ultimate, Death Pact, made up for his shortcomings in durability and damage output departments and that made him a rather reliable and pretty straightforward core.
You used to hit hard, were decently tanky and could burst down a target in a matter of seconds. Typical core things by all accounts, with a small caveat of being at your best for only 3.5 (6.5) seconds—enough to kill one target, but generally not enough to win a teamfight.
That was the biggest problem with the viability of the hero in high level pubs and the professional scene. He could quickly burst most heroes down if they were alone, but better players always adapted with a buddy system making Clinkz’s power spikes less relevant and his late game close to impossible—the hero doesn’t farm creeps, he can only farm heroes.
Current Clinkz now has access to 
Burning Army, taking away his previous, situational ultimate enemies could play around and substituting it with a new, situational ultimate enemies can play around. Now with a teamfight twist.
Building for teamfights?
It naturally led to questions, whether the hero should now build for teamfight presence and played differently. At the beginning of the patch the answer was a definite “no”—not until the Burning Army skeletons got their damage essentially doubled did the hero truly become playable. In his current form Clinkz can be a teamfight hero and we believe it to be the correct approach.
Your skeletons scale with base damage only, meaning that all raw damage you get from items is going to be wasted. The hero needs stats and lots of them for the Burning Army to be a powerful zoning and damage-dealing tool. The only other things they benefit from are your [missing skill: clinkz-searing-arrows-5260] damage and attack range bonuses.
Better players definitely understand it, with most of them building the hero with stats in mind. Dragon Lance, Diffusal Blade and even an occasional Yasha derivative became staples on the hero, edging out Desolator and old-school Orchid Malevolence.
In their skill build they also generally ignore 
Skeleton Walk, instead maxing out Searing Arrows and [missing skill: clinkz-strafe-5259] as soon as possible. This doesn’t allow the hero to hunt enemies, but it makes his laning stage much stronger.
Instead of roaming around the map, finding kills, Clinkz instead occupies a lane and pressures the tower in the first 15 minutes of the game. The hero has to be answered, but very few heroes are actually capable of standing 1 on 1 with Clinkz after he gets his initial levels.
This solves his farming problem, since laning is more efficient unless you have ways of quickly dispatching the neutrals. It also sometimes allows him to score an occasional kill or create a ton of space—he demands an answer, but can rarely be answered with a single hero. And once the opponent realises it, Clinkz should generally have one core item, allowing his team to group up on him and start making things happen—level one Burning Army with maxed out Searing Arrows either deals a considerable amount of damage, distracts the opponent or forces them to abandon tower and lose map control.
Later in the game, given enough farm and lockdown from his teammates, Clinkz can become a very strong damage dealer. Having six copies of yourself that deal full base damage can stay relevant throughout the game, despite not scaling in terms of attack speed. With good Burning Army placement, that doesn’t allow the enemy to pick off Skeletons one by one, it can serve multiple purposes and even make highground breaching early one much easier. Generally speaking you still don’t want to go late with Clinkz.
Conclusion
Clinkz rework is among the most drastic reworks in Dota. With a change to a single spell, Clinkz turned from an assassin into a tempo, teamfight hero who can occasionally assassinate enemy supports. And we believe it made the hero overall more viable, at least in the higher levels of play, where better coordination and positioning didn’t allow previous Clinkz to fully spread his wings.
We are probably going to see more hero developments in the upcoming months. Clinkz is still very new and people might still cling to the old ways and be relatively effective. Let’s hope professional players are not going to sleep on the hero and showcase how his current toolkit might be utilized even better.
Still playable, but need to change 10 lvl tallents
Something like +3 mana regen would be nice
The thing I really recommend is casting Burning Army perpendicular and slightly behind the fight you are starting, as opposed to parallel. The range is HUGE cast them from a good distance away and chase your enemy into them, or their team. If you take him mid you can bait them towards your tower and then cut off their retreat towards their t1 with your army between their ramp and t1. It is an easy kill at 6. The army is EXTREMELY strong if positioned well, it is your skill of choice.
Personally I think Clinkz counters PA. I am not a good player by any means so take this with a grain of salt, but if your Army is up then PA can't fight you. The sheer number of arrows going at her from your army means she can dodge a good amount but still be taking hefty damage. She is forced to commit fully to try and kill you, and even then your army still might kill her, and if anyone else is around she likely dies.
I think a PA that keeps up her tempo will shrug off the damage of Clinkz army at almost any stage, aside from early game.
I don't know about the supports or blink initiators though.
you guys have no idea . author too
Лучше бы сделали ему как Джаге ульту. Где тычки зависят от АС героя. Было бы идеально. Все бы собирали клинкзу муншард или брали под него траксу.
He is a glass cannon that isnt very reliable in both solo kills and teamfight. A simple ghost sceptor counters him. His ulti has a very long cooldown that should be buffed to something like 40sec.
Burning army scales with only base damage, and range from Clinkz. Sadly enough the only method to combo is either lockdown such as hex or diffusal to make the ultimate works. Simply one glimmer nor ghost scepter totally rip off clinkz ultimate and yet wasted the heavily long cooldown. His ultimate either needs unblock vision, apply strafe when clinkz is using it, or lowered cooldown for more effecient use of this ultimate. Other than that, just make the ultimate able to proc items such as Mjlonir, deso or even mkb to make it better. Your choice Icefrog.
there is actually someone who said its cd should be buffed to 40 sec because a simple ghost scepter could counter it... with his new ult, although solo kills isn't that reliable again, Clinks are now reliable in teamfight.
if it actually does happen, I suggest Death Ward got 20 scnds CD since a simple ghost scepter could counter it, requires channeling, and got only 8 scnds duration and less area
Thanks to this post, now I at last understand why suddenly Clinks become picked again after Pierce -> Hero dmg buff. Although, I still haven't truly understand how impactful the new clinks with stats build, I want to consider trying it with PT + 2 WB + Dragon lance + diffu
@Pawley Lequa you're a 3k scrub telling the 5k author that he has no idea... if only we were all as good as you!
hero has a 50+% win rate in all brackets including divine why are people asking for the hero to be buffed lmao. just because youre too shit to play the new clinkz doesnt mean its a bad hero, not every hero needs to be strong enough for braindead players to be able to carry on it
@Failing_Yak you forgot to say 3K scrub with a sub-50% winrate. Haha
weird clink fuk
3k friends have no idea how insanely strong the hero is right now
Если бы герой был убит, то вряд ли у него было бы 52% винрейта
His Burning Army is like a poor mans Wukong Command, and a much worst.
Clinkz ulti should be reworked.
Ok stats, range and searing arrow upgrade will help your ultimate but I still think an orchid is basically a must against most lineups you'll play against (rubbish my rating please)
I dont see the new Clinkz ult make him more viable in higher rank. Enemy team just need to get out of the range or disengage the new ult to make new Ult useless. Moreover, Clink is so squishy without Death Pact, even a support can kill him
Clinkz very top hero. My main
U guys have no idea how OP clinkz is right now :) EZ Winstreak for me. No need for orchid and squishy is no problem anymore with this brilliant ult
I can play any hero at your ancient 4 and have a win streak, and I'll make any hero look op.
That being said, clinkz IS a team fight hero now, best coupled with an aoe stunner. Army forces people to destroy it or evade it which puts opponents in an awkward spot where some stay, some run, so your team can capitalize on that moment of disarray.
boosts with 2k-3k mmr like a god
clinkz with diffusal is OP like hes army have mana burn too