Tiny in 7.41f: how the hero weathered the changes and what the stats say

Hi! Today I’m looking at Tiny in the context of 7.41f, and this is exactly the kind of case where a hero has been getting targeted tweaks patch after patch, and the final picture has become a little less straightforward. By feel, this is still a hero about tempo, burst damage, and map pressure, but now he depends much more on the details: when to press Grow, how to use Tree Grab, and how comfortably he gets to his midgame.

Role and abilities

Tiny is an Agility hero? No — a Strength, melee hero with a complexity rating of 2 out of 3. His roles look like this:

• Carry — 3
• Nuker — 2
• Disabler — 1
• Durable — 2
• Pusher — 2
• Initiator — 2

If you look at his kit without any unnecessary romance, the hero’s logic is very recognizable: he gets on top of a target, blows it up with damage and control, and then, thanks to Grow and Tree Grab, starts pressuring lanes and buildings harder. His innate Insurmountable also makes him Strength-dependent, because every point of attribute grants status resistance and slow resistance, which is always useful for Tiny. Overall, that explains why the hero can be a fighter, pusher, and initiator all at once if the game is moving at his pace.

His abilities look like this:

• Avalanche — an area of rocks that stuns and deals damage several times.
• Toss — tosses the target into the air; damage is dealt where they land.
• Tree Grab — rips out a tree, gives attack range, damage, and cleave, then lets you throw that tree.
• Tree Throw — throws the tree at a target with an attack and area damage.
• Grow — increases damage, armor, and movement speed, but reduces attack speed; also buffs Toss.
• Tree Volley — with Aghanim’s Scepter, the hero throws random trees into an area.

For me, the key thing about Tiny is not just the buttons themselves, but how they come together into one short but very heavy commit. If there’s an opening to close the gap, the hero can start the fight himself. If there isn’t, he still brings value through push and pressure under cover of trees.

Changes in the latest patches

Looking from newer versions to older ones, you can clearly see that Tiny in 7.41 was adjusted several times in different directions rather than just one.

• 7.41e — base health regeneration reduced by 1.
• 7.41d — Insurmountable reduced slow resistance from Strength; Toss projectile time reduced; Tree Grab cooldown increased; Tree Throw cast range reduced; Grow with Aghanim’s Shard now slows more and for longer; Tree Volley mana cost reduced.
• 7.41c — base attack speed reduced; Grow’s bonus Toss damage increased; the level 10 Strength talent was replaced with a bonus to Tree Grab attacks; the level 15 attack slow reduction from Grow was replaced with a Strength bonus.
• 7.41b — Intelligence gain slightly increased; Tree Volley no longer grants cleave from thrown trees.
• 7.41a — number of attacks for Tree Grab increased; additional damage and movement speed from Grow increased.
• 7.41 — Craggy Exterior removed, Insurmountable added; mana cost and damage of Avalanche changed; Toss mana cost changed; Tree Grab cooldown lowered, cast range increased, number of attacks changed, and the old Aghanim’s Shard upgrade removed; Tree Throw no longer applies a slow by default; Grow got a new Aghanim’s Shard upgrade; Tree Volley began to inherit bonuses from Tree Throw and shard; and the level 10 and 15 talents were reworked toward less range bonus and less Avalanche damage.

In short, the latest patches didn’t make the hero radically different, but they did noticeably reshape how comfortable he is to play. On one hand, he gained more flexibility through Tree Grab and Grow. On the other, some of the old stability is gone: slows were trimmed in places, Tree Throw became less convenient, and his sustain and attack tempo became a little harder to manage. I’d say Tiny is now a bit less about mindless trading and a bit more about proper timing.

Statistics

According to OpenDota, over the last 7 days Tiny has played 226,877 public matches, and his win rate is 44.6%. That puts him in 124th place out of 127 heroes by win rate and 67th by number of games. By the numbers, he doesn’t look especially comfortable for the average pub player right now, and that matters: the hero is clearly not absent, but he’s winning below average.

Looking by rank, the picture is a little more even:

• Herald — 46.4%
• Guardian — 44.7%
• Crusader — 44.3%
• Archon — 43.8%
• Legend — 43.9%
• Ancient — 44.3%
• Divine — 45.3%

What interests me most here is that Tiny doesn’t get any noticeable spike in higher ranks. That usually means the hero requires a very clear understanding of when to jump in and what the current tempo of the game is: if you don’t build around that, he loses some of his value.

In professional matches, OpenDota shows a modest picture: 38 picks, 16 wins, which is 42.1%, and 45 bans. With numbers like that, I wouldn’t expect the hero to suddenly become a must-pick on his own, but the potential is still there — especially if the meta gives him room for early pressure and fast conversion of an advantage.

Items and opponents

Looking at the most popular items in professional matches, you can see a pretty clear development pattern. In the early game Tiny is usually built toward stats and simple comfort, then toward movement speed and key components, and later into tools for jumping in and finishing targets off. Overall, that lines up well with how the hero plays in practice: he needs to close the distance quickly and turn a short window into results.

• Starting items: Iron Branch, Gauntlets of Strength, Magic Stick, Tango, Quelling Blade, Circlet
• Early game: Boots of Speed, Power Treads, Ogre Axe, Void Stone, Broadsword, Bottle
• Mid game: Blink Dagger, Echo Sabre, Ogre Axe, Broadsword, Mithril Hammer, Blitz Knuckles
• Late game: Demon Edge, Black King Bar, Harpoon, Crystalys, Hyperstone, Eaglesong

Tiny also has a pretty clear pattern against opponents. He looks best against heroes he can quickly catch and run over, and worse against heroes that either disrupt the fight’s tempo or are too awkward for his direct style of entry.

• Best against: Anti-Mage — 35 games, 71.4% win rate; Meepo — 23 games, 69.6% win rate; Weaver — 109 games, 64.2% win rate.
• Worst against: Enigma — 45 games, 31.1% win rate; Lycan — 43 games, 37.2% win rate; Sniper — 83 games, 37.3% win rate.

This is where, in my opinion, Tiny’s limitation shows up really clearly: if he can’t force his own scenario quickly, his value starts to drop. Against awkward opponents, that becomes especially noticeable, because the hero has a hard time simply “outplaying” the situation without tempo, position, and a proper jump.

Conclusion

Tiny in 7.41f gives me the impression of a hero that keeps getting carefully tuned, but not broken. He can still hit extremely hard in terms of damage, pressure, and push, but the latest patches have nudged him toward a more demanding and less universal version. Stat-wise, he isn’t shining right now, so his value clearly depends on how well the team and the player can use that short power window. I’d look at Tiny not as a simple initiator, but as a hero that punishes mistakes well and can rapidly tear through the map if you let him get going.

Source: official Dota 2 and OpenDota data.

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