Tiny

Three roles. One hero. And all three work — which is exactly what makes Tiny simultaneously one of the most valuable heroes in the right draft and one of the most useless heroes in the wrong one. "Situational" is the perfect word, and I want to break down each role honestly so you understand what "situational" actually means for a hero that can be picked first, fourth, or last depending on what the enemy draft gives you.

The core of every Tiny game, regardless of role, is the same combo that has defined the hero for over a decade—Avalanche into Toss. Avalanche hits an area for magical damage in intervals and stuns for 1.5 seconds. A unit being tossed takes double the Avalanche damage throughout the entire duration of the stun. Cast Avalanche on a hero and toss them into it within the first 0.75 seconds, and they receive the full doubled damage of every interval simultaneously—up to 800 magical damage at max level before any spell amplification. Against a squishy support with 900 HP at level six, this one combo is the entire kill. Against a fragile mid who overextended for a rune, this is a lane-winning sequence from level four that pushes a kill advantage no other hero in the game can replicate at that timing. The Craggy Exterior innate now stacks attack damage reduction on every enemy who attacks Tiny—applying a 2/3/4/5% damage reduction per stack scaling with Grow level—which means in the laning phase any hero that tries to right-click Tiny down gradually weakens their own attack damage with every hit. Melee offlaners who stand in front of Tiny and auto-attack are literally reducing their own effectiveness over time.

As a mid, Tiny is the classic rune-dependent burst threat. A power rune at the two-minute mark followed by a bottle-stored rune at the four-minute mark sets up two consecutive Avalanche-Toss kills on an enemy support who did not respect the threat properly. The current patch's aggressive early laning meta is actually good for this—supports are more active and therefore more exposed to ganks. Slow resistance from Grow means Tiny resists the kiting and slows that would otherwise prevent him from closing the gap after the combo. As a carry, Tree Grab's Aghanim's Shard upgrade removes the attack limit—Tiny holds the tree permanently until he throws it—and Tree Throw applies Tiny's attack as a proc on the target plus 20% bonus AOE damage with a slow. A carry Tiny with Aghanim's Shard and Grow maxed swings a tree that procs on impact for his massive base damage, deals area splash, and slows everything nearby for 2.5 seconds with every swing. As pos 4, Tiny requires zero farm to be threatening—Avalanche and Toss at level two from the fog ends the laning stage for any support that overextends, and Tossing an allied hero into a fight is one of the most unique support mechanics in the game. Toss Tidehunter into a grouped enemy team, and he lands with an instant Ravage already casting. Toss Earthshaker and he arrives in the middle of five heroes with Echo Slam ready. He is terrible against multiple BKB buyers—Avalanche is magical, toss damage is reduced by debuff immunity, and a five-hero team with BKBs active simply ignores his entire spell combo. Avoid him in anti-magic burst lineups and in fights in open areas with no trees nearby for Tree Grab.