Clunk v2

Clunk guide by DreadPirateJabu:

Tank Clunk guide - Advanced - Last Upgrade: Level 30ish

This is the Advanced Tank Clunk guide. Fair warning, it is indeed a very advanced playstyle and not easy to succeed with, especially since it is reliant on teammates to make good use of the advantages you're giving them.
Important skills to have when using this build
- Player blocking
- Consistent Bites
The reasons for this are that the advantage for this build is that you take a long time to die, you can get in there and disrupt enemies by doing things like blocking their shots on nearby dying teammates, keep enemies from fleeing through narrow passageways, (clunk's big hitbox is finally useful!) separating enemy healers from their team, and so on. But be warned, if you can not consistently land your bites your upgrades will be wasted, as you are sacrificing a lot for that 88 heal per bite. (specifically your + HP and snare upgrades) Don't waste it! Bite droids if you have to, but it's important to consistently land that life steal to keep your health up.

Key Abilities
Bite
- Quick'n Cleaner: Damage +6: 155 Solar: 2 levels
- Power Converter: Damage -10; Lifesteal +100%: 165 Solar
- The suckanator power 9000 cleaner: Damage +12: 250 solar

Explode
- Grease Lightning Snail: Slow +20%: 180 Solar: 2 levels
Most Explode and missle upgrades are flavor, whatever you like will fit here, generally you don't upgrade explode further than the initial purchase. The lightning snail is just in case your team is lacking in Crowd Control.

Utility
- Power Pills Turbo: +30 HP: 135 Solar: 3 levels
- Power Pills: +40 HP
- Boots are optional.
This build is all about soaking up damage, you don't need to move fast, I personally use boots, but you could easily replace it with a piggy bank or solar tree if you feel you're having trouble early or keeping up in farming.

How to upgrade
I'm a firm believer that you should never strictly adhere to one build path when playing a game. You need to adapt to what your enemies have bought and buy accordingly. Example, their enemy Leon has stealth, health, regen, and boots. You likely don't need to buy HP quite yet and should instead focus on finishing your bite. Always try to buy upgrades that will help you out against the enemy team, rather than follow a blind build order.

1. Bite
You should always start with Bite on this build, you've yet to achieve the supreme survivability you'll get later, but the enemy damage is lower as well. Bite lets you stay in lane and heal a bit more, and allows you to be the meat shield even at this early stage. You should be focusing on getting as much money as you can during this phase however, as you'll fall behind quickly if not. Don't ignore helping teammates if you can help secure a kill or secure their escape, but for the most part you're working solo for now.

2. First Back/Early Game (Start-5 minutes)
There are only a few reasons you should go back when first you do, and that reason dictates what's best to buy. If you're getting bursted hard, grab some health. If you're spending a lot of time low on health, grab some of your damage or lifesteal bite upgrades. If you're feeling slow and can afford 1-2 other upgrades as well as boots, grab them too. And finally, if your team's damage output is feeling pithy, grab an early explode.

3. Mid game (6-10 minutes)
Your priority should be to max your bite asap, the reasons listed in step 2 shouldn't be ignored, but in an ideal game you should have all your bite upgrades by around level 6-7. This gives you massive amounts of sustain and allows you to stay in the field indefinitely (a bit jungle bot now heals you for 118 health!). The upgrade path is a rather cheap one, and only costs 725 solar for the whole suite, get it asap! The other priority is your health and boots if you have them. Don't be afraid to ignore explode completely if your team's damage is up to par. You're not here to get kills, you're here to facilitate your teammate's kills.

4. Late game (12-End)
By now you should have all of your health and bite upgrades done, so now it's hard to go wrong in what you buy. If you want more burst damage, upgrade your explosion, but be warned that without the slow you're going to have a hard time catching people in it. I find missiles to be a much better fit with this build, as you can more consistently whittle away at people while being generally annoying to their efforts. If your team is having trouble with damage or CC, focus on Explode with Snail upgrade more than missiles, but I find it rare that you have no CC options.

Pros/Cons
Pros
- Very hard to kill: With the combination of your 350 HP (220 base + 90 pills + 40 pills) and your 88 heal every 5 seconds, it takes a lot to finish you off.
-Works well in teams: Competent players can make excellent use of your meatshield capabilities in a variety of ways, and anytime you're all 3 grouped together you'll be a force to be reckoned with.
- Good at distractions: Due to his high survivability, he can do a good job holding positions while teams push another lane or are walking back to the tower. Don't overestimate how much damage you can take, but realize that you can sit in the middle of most teams for a fair time safely.

Cons
- Very low burst, Average dps: This is NOT a damage build, and as such you will likely not get many kills. If you're hoping to carry your team to victory then this is not the place to look. You are in a primarily tank/support role.
- Doesn't do much alone: If you're on your own, you'll likely escape ganks, and keep the lane from pushing, but you'll not do much else, try to make sure you always have a teammate with you when you're going aggressive.