Hero Tricks: Tiny the Stone Giant (November 30, 2012)

I don't know if I'm going to be doing this weekly or daily or even if I'm going to continue doing this as a series, but I really thought there should be a place where you can see all the useful tricks you can do with each hero in one place, so I'm going to try to go over some of the tricks you can do with each hero.

• Toss mechanics

Toss is a skill where you grab the closest random target (ally or enemy) and launches it at the selected target, doing damage in an AOE. The tossed unit will take 20% of the damage dealt to the target if it is a enemy unit. You can launch a unit even if the unit is under Magic Immunity, however tossed damage will not be dealt (The AOE damage will still be applied to the targeted unit). You can also toss to allied targets, which is useful when enemy heroes are trying to run away. The AOE landing of Toss will also clear trees. If the tossed unit is knocked back, the Toss will prematurely end, dealing no damage.

• Avalanche mechanics

Avalanche actually works in 4 different instances in 1 second, with each instance doing 1/4 of the damage. This effectively means that even though the skill itself is a 1 second stun, it will stun for 2 seconds. It can be used to take off 4 charges of Templar Assassin's Refraction as well as Visage's Gravekeeper's Cloak. Because of Avalanche's strange scaling (100/180/260/300), despite Avalanche + Toss Combo dealing the Avalanche damage twice, it is usually better to keep Avalanche at lvl 3 and put points into Toss instead.

• Toss damage

By getting close to an enemy unit and using Toss to target the same unit, you will Toss the target vertically dealing both Toss damage and tossed damage. By scaling your ultimate, your Toss damage will increase. Each level put into toss will also increase the tossed damage by 15%, with maximum of 65% tossed damage. Scepter will also increase tossed damage by 15%, with a maximum of 80% tossed damage. This is one of the few examples that actually alter spells without directly leveling up the skill itself (along with Death Prophet, Luna, Spirit Breaker, etc).

• Avalanche + Toss Combo

Avalanche Toss combo is where you get close to a target enemy and Avalanche, and quickly use Toss on the target. If there are no nearby units, the Toss should throw the target vertically, and land on the Avalanche. Depending on the timing delay between Avalanche and Toss, your damage output may vary, however it will do more damage than simply adding up Avalanche and Toss damage. Here is a link that goes over different damage outputs of the combo depending on the timing. According to testing, Tossing after a very slight delay (about after the sound starts) Avalanche will give you maximum damage with the combo.

• Toss damage against structures

You can deal damage to towers with the landing AOE damage of Toss.

• Toss interrupt

Tossing a unit will interrupt the unit's actions. This is effective against channeling skills, as well as certain skills such as Juggernaut's Bladefury. It will even interrupt the unit even if the unit is under the effects of Magic Immunity. Note that this will also interrupt allies.

• Tossing allies / Tossing to allies

By tossing a initiator like Tidehunter into the enemy team, you can get really good initiations before your initiators have enough money to buy Blink Dagger. Note that if you are going to do this combo with Sandking, you must wait for the full channeling duration or else you have risk of canceling his ulti. You can also throw allies with stun/slow at a fleeing or a lone target to catch up to them. Tossing enemy units to allies also has some uses, such as simply blinking in front of a fleeing hero's path, and throwing them back at your allies. You can also trap enemy units in terrains by throwing the enemy hero at a flying unit (Beastmaster hawk, Visage familiar) which is in the woods/cliffs.

EDIT: added a couple of things people mentioned in the comments