Tychus seems to have become a little less popular lately. Not sure why because he is still not only a great assassin, but very effective in a meta where double tanks are pretty common-place. The above build is a standard that will suit you well vs. most comps. It let's you be an efficient tank-buster while also still giving you the tools to take on enemy assassins as well.
I am a GM/Master's assassin main. Basically I'm scum for not knowing how to support or tank.
Tier 1:
Press the Advantage: This talent is extremely good for sticking to enemies and finishing them off, especially early game where lots of small skirmishes are taking place. With minigun you beat almost everybody 1v1 and once they start running away you can dash and make use of the extra range to keep focusing them down before tossing out a grenade for the kill hopefully. Later on in teamfights this talent lets you play further back for a little bit and keep you safer.
Combat Tactician: Worth considering if enemy has multiple melee champions and you feel like you will need to be creating space between them often, however, Tychus can already kite well so this will be pretty situational/rare.
Tier 2:
The Bigger They Are: This talent is incredibly underrated in my opinion. Most people take In The Rhythm but I think this talent outperforms so much more. This talent lets you absolutely melt tanks (and anyone else actually). The 35% threshold isn't as bad as most people think because 1) Once a player gets down to 1/3 of their total HP they are usually looking to retreat at that point so you've done your job and 2) At 35% HP you can use Q and W to finish them off (especially once we get 16) so we don't even necessarily need minigun procing anymore.
Teamfights are all about burst and quickly eliminating threats. This talent effectively increases your damage by 60%!!! To do 40% of an enemy's max HP with minigun would usually take 16 attacks...you're cutting this down to 10 with this talent. That is flat out amazing and will quickly make tanks regret diving you.
The other 2 choices in this tier I feel are pretty obviously worse than the above 2 mentioned. 33% reduced cooldown is just a worse In The Rhythm pretty much and max stacks of attack speed bumps up your attacks from 4/s to 4.6/s...again not really that good and just outperformed by the other talents.
Tier 3:
Relentless Soldier: The go-to choice most games since our range is so short and we are prone to getting cc'd. In the rare case that the enemy has no stuns or snares you'll want to pick up Concussion Grenade for the playmaking potential with the increased knockback.
Tier 4:
Commandeer Odin: Pretty much almost every time. Odin is too good to not take and will be your primary tool in fighting the enemy backline. The best way to use Odin is to first burn a tank down with minigun and then hop into Odin to start focusing down the backline and/or possibly finish any overzealous enemy tanks. Note that you are unstoppable during the calling down of the Odin. Use this feature if necessary - for instance if you are out of position with dash on cooldown and you see a Stiches hook coming right for you. A super easy way to negate Chromie's Temporal Loop too.
Laser Drill is just bad. Nothing really to say here.
Tier 5:
That's the Stuff: This talent is great for some added self-sustain and survivability and it synergizes extremely well with The Bigger They Are at lv 4, since you're doing more damage in less time = a bigger heal sooner.
Neosteel Coating: Very viable option against characters like Chromie, Nova, and KT (especially if he took Pyro). I would almost certainly take it vs. any of the above.
Spray 'n' Pray: The range is nice but not really necessary to be honest. Minigun is our main source of damage which already puts us in close range and Odin also gives us more range and damage than Q to fight enemy backlines so this talent just ends up being wasted most of the time.
Tier 6:
Armor Piercing Rounds: This talent very nicely rounds out our damage potential vs. both tanks and squishies and makes for an effective way to finish targets below 35% HP and out of minigun range.
Titan Grenade: Also very good and worth considering vs. melee heavy teams where you can consistently hit multiple people with it. If you took Concussion Grenade at lv 7 then it will work even better with the increased explosion radius.
Lead Rain: Unnecessary. We pick Tychus for damage, not CC. Let others do the slowing.
Tier 7:
Sizzlin' Attacks: At this point you'll just absolutely melt the **** out of tanks. In 2s you will do 40% of an enemy's max HP with minigun alone. Just all around a nice boost to your attack, whether or not minigun is active.
Big Red Button: A very viable option but also somewhat "win-more" in my opinion. Odin's base 23s is already a freaking long-*** time. Most team-fights are decided before that. The nuke is also extremely avoidable too. This talent's main use is for pushing so it may be worth considering if you're trying to end the game with an immortal or boss that you just got.
Bob and Weave: Never even seen this picked.
Do you ever get sick of people telling you to "stop focusing tanks?" Well **** that noise, because Tychus lives to focus tanks and nobody does it better. Literally you WANT to be focusing tanks because you just get way too much value doing so. Unless there is an out of position squishy somewhere, you'll pretty much want to start off every team fight popping minigun and focusing down the closest guy to you (which will usually be a tank.) Once minigun expires you need to make a judgment call...either hop into Odin and shift your attention to the backline, or try to finish off your first target with Q and W if they are dropping low enough.
You need to always be mindful of your short attack range. Just because you can melt tanks doesn't mean you are immune to getting cc'd and melted down yourself. An Anub or ETC can still get the jump on you and set you up for some serious pain. You need to play very carefully if the enemy has strong initiators like those until they burn their cooldowns. Remember, if the tanks haven't initiated yet then the team fight hasn't really started yet either, so there is no rush to put yourself up too far and risk getting focused down. Be patient and wait them out. Once they dive on some of your other teammates (as selfish as that sounds) you can then bust in and lay down the pain.
Tychus does reasonably well in some solo lanes so it will be situational every game. You have absolutely no chance of beating some characters like Nazeebo and Alarak unless they screw up somehow. However, thanks to minigun and very good kiting, you do well vs. other characters who are traditionally strong solos, like Dehaka, Ragnaros, and Sonya. Against someone like Thrall it will come down to key moments like dodging the snare, but you should generally be able to out-push and bully him in lane.
Most of the time you won't be taking the solo though. You'll generally want to treat small skirmishes like team-fights in that you need to be mindful of your positioning vs. strong cc initiators. Don't over-commit and don't be impatient. Let the fight come to you and almost always save dash for escape or to finish off someone running away after the fight has already been won. Don't bother at all trying to merc camp without help, you're garbage at it. Instead just focus on hard pushing the wave and getting in harass with minigun when you can. Don't spam grenade just for damage...it's safer to save it for when you really need it in case of a gank. Besides it just wastes mana.
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