In the past, the tinker held almost no value. The cooldown on his Cogs of Time was so long that it wasn't worth using and his tank form was so weak that it was almost worthless even on Very Easy difficulty. His damage type was magic, meaning that he couldn't damage the final bosses. He couldn't even stand up to air bosses coming into his base, and if he was in tank form, he couldn't even attack them.
So, we decided to make him a little better. We reduced the cooldown of his Cogs of Time so that it's actually worth having, his damage type has been changed to hero so that he can attack final bosses, and he has been given a single build menu. In comparison to his old self, he may seem overpowered, but the truth is that he's actually just a viable option with advantages and drawbacks now... like every other hero.
The build menu that you are concerned with provides one real bonus; it's now possible to set up your base much faster than ever before. This makes starting out much easier, and lets your builder focus on gathering resources and building utility buildings. Most people in die early in nightmare mode for two reasons. One, the lack of offense clearing mobs off of their walls, or two, a lack of resources to keep their defenses and offenses upgraded. The tinker's build menu allows these two things to be balanced a little more easily. The downside to this ability is that you need to have decent towering knowledge to implement it properly, and you MUST use a large base in order to benefit from it.
As far as damage goes, he's actually one of the least effective heroes. Even though he can damage the final bosses now, his damage is easily outdone by the shadow sniper, commander, rocketeer, marine, and astronomer throughout the entire game. Intellect heroes DO gain stats faster than other heroes, but that only results in a higher base damage. Without skills to complement the base damage, the tinker is easily outclassed by the other heroes.
His support ability, Reconstruction, is an excellent way to help support your walls... but, while using it, he cannot attack. This isn't an issue if you have upgraded towers and tower mechanics researched, but this ability alone isn't enough to keep your walls alive whenever a strong boss comes in and your towers are not up to the task of killing it.
Finally, his tank form. It has not been changed since the last version. Using it runs the very high risk of losing your hero. In the first half of the game, he might be able to hold out for a bit... but you would be wasting time that could be spent on building towers. In the second half, it's almost suicide to use him in melee. And he still can't attack air with it, which leaves him in his much more vulnerable ranged form to fend off air attacks. Other heroes are still better suited to actual combat than the tinker.
In short, it all boils down to one thing; he's better at helping you build a base, and that's pretty much it. In my opinion, he isn't broken, but he is reviving a play style that hasn't been around for a while... actually towering. He has his own advantages and disadvantages, like every other hero, but his strategy centers around creating a solid base instead of a superhero.
Another important fact that I havn't given out is that when you build unfinished building, Tinker can take over the job quite easily, but infact tinker can only build towers and wall.
To be honest, having a huge amount of WPS is also a bad idea.
Rocking towers = 10 of them is enough to infinity stun the boss
Assassin towers = 5-9 can literally have enough damage hero with 6 cursed larency
The three things I'd like to discuss from your last post. The first one, starting a building and letting him take over... it's not very efficient. It would be far more beneficial to just powerbuild with repairs, the way people do now, or use the tinkers Cogs of Time ability on the builder.
And having a high amount of WPS isn't necessarily a bad thing. Having a high WPS allows you to get all of the upgrades you need AND buy some nice goodies for your hero. Usually when a player aims for high WPS, they plan on using their hero for damage in the end game, which runs the risk of them dying early in the game.
I'm somewhat disappointed that you didn't mention flame towers (perhaps the most damaging single target tower. And they turn into dragons. How can you not like dragons?!) As far as Earth towers go, they have always been pretty powerful. But the part about 9 Assassin towers being equivalent to a hero with 6 CL is something I strongly disagree with. They ARE useful now, but they are nowhere near powerful enough to compare to a hero with 6 CL. With 6 CL, even the alchemist and the tinker become very powerful.
