- Tittle: Learn the ways of the depths
- Author: Piejonk
Tidehunter is known for his excellent all-around skills. He can initiate with Ravage, tank with Kraken Shell and even DPS with his Anchor Smash. He has excellent strength growth, however he becomes weaker later game. He is an easy hero to use, but a rewarding one to master.
When to pick:
- Your team needs a solid initiator
- Your team needs a solid DPSer
- Your team is using a turtle strategy
- Your team already has an initiator
- Your team does not need another tank
Pros
- Can initiate
- Great tank
- Has potentially good DPS
- Has an ability that automatically removes debuffs
- Easy to use
- Item independent
Cons
- Weak late game
- Ravage's stun isn't very long
- Huge size, making him a 'bigger' target
- Rather low mana pool
Skills
Gush
Summons a spirit of the tides to damage an enemy unit. Reduces the movement speed by 40% and armor of the enemy unit. Lasts 4 seconds.
- 1. Mana 120 / Cooldown 12 / 4 seconds / Deals 110 damage, slows movement speed by 40% and reduces armor by 2
- 2. Mana 120 / Cooldown 12 / 4 seconds / Deals 160 damage, slows movement speed by 40% and reduces armor by 3
- 3. Mana 120 / Cooldown 12 / 4 seconds / Deals 210 damage, slows movement speed by 40% and reduces armor by 4
- 4. Mana 120 / Cooldown 12 / 4 seconds / Deals 260 damage, slows movement speed by 40% and reduces armor by 5
- Damage type: magical
- This skill is our basic nuke, slow and killing ability. Even though the damage isn't amazing, a 4 second disable and the armor reduction is. This is also your primary ganking skill, and it will help you net kills.
Kraken Shell
Creates a thick armor shell around Leviathan that protects him against attacks. Additionally, this ability removes negative buffs when he has taken significant damage.
- 1. Reduces damage received by 7 and removes negative buffs every time 600 damage is taken.
- 2. Reduces damage received by 14 and removes negative buffs every time 600 damage is taken.
- 3. Reduces damage received by 21 and removes negative buffs every time 600 damage is taken.
- 4. Reduces damage received by 28 and removes negative buffs every time 600 damage is taken.
- Does not prevent magical damage
- Only damage from player owned sources is counted towards buff removal.
- Damage counter for buff removal resets when you don't take player based damage for 6 seconds.
- This skill is great, and it's what makes Tide such a powerful tank. It works like Bristleback's Bristleback ability however: You can be recieve damage from all directions and it will still proc, and instead of releasing a Quill Spray it removes a debuff. For example if you have been Shadow Worded, and then you take 600 damage, the Shadow Word debuff will be removed.
Anchor Smash
Leviathan swings his mighty anchor with a vengeance. Deals physical damage to nearby enemy units and reduces their base attack damage by 40% for 6 seconds.
- 1. Mana 30 / Cooldown 7 / Duration 6 seconds / 75 damage, 40% attack damage reduction
- 2. Mana 40 / Cooldown 6 / Duration 6 seconds / 125 damage, 40% attack damage reduction
- 3. Mana 50 / Cooldown 5 / Duration 6 seconds / 175 damage, 40% attack damage reduction
- 4. Mana 60 / Cooldown 4 / Duration 6 seconds / 225 damage, 40% attack damage reduction
- Damage type: physical
- This skill almost works like a free Battlefury, but instead it's percentage-based. So once you get a higher attack speed, this skill comes into play and gives Tide quite significant DPS and farming ability.
Ravage
Slams the ground, causing waves of spikes to ring the hero in all directions. Deals damage and stuns.
- 1. Mana 150 / Cooldown 150 / Duration 1.5 seconds / Deals 200 damage and stuns for 1.5 seconds
- 2. Mana 225 / Cooldown 150 / Duration 1.8 seconds / Deals 325 damage and stuns for 1.8 seconds
- 3. Mana 325 / Cooldown 150 / Duration 2.25 seconds / Deals 450 damage and stuns for 2.25 seconds
- Damage type: magical
- Hit units will fly for 0.52 seconds before the real stun is applied.
- Full damage and stun are dealt to invisible units.
- Ravage waves move outwards at a speed of 775.
- This is the skill that you use to initiate team battles. The stun may seem minimal, however the range and the damage of this skill are quite significant and make up for the small stun duration. This skills buys your team the time to get in position and setup those harder to land disables. However the cooldown is quite long, so leave it for team battles or key ganks.
Skill Builds
Regular Skill Build
- 1. Gush
- 2. Kraken Shell
- 3. Gush
- 4. Kraken Shell
- 5. Gush
- 6. Ravage
- 7. Gush
- 8. Kraken Shell
- 9. Kraken Shell
- 10. Stats
- 11. Ravage
- 12. Anchor Smash
- 13. Anchor Smash
- 14. Anchor Smash
- 15. Anchor Smash
- 16. Ravage
- 17 - 25. Stats
Reasoning: Gush is our main nuke, so it is important to take early. Kraken Shell helps with our survivability early on so we take it to avoid going back to the fountain. However it is possible to take one level of stats early on. Take Anchor Smash levels 12-14 when your DPS will actually start to come into play. Take your ultimate whenever possible of course. Finish with stats.
Stats Skill Build
- 1. Gush
- 2. Stats
- 3. Gush
- 4. Stats
- 5. Gush
- 6. Ravage
- 7. Gush
- 8. Kraken Shell
- 9. Kraken Shell
- 10. Stats
- 11. Ravage
- 12. Anchor Smash
- 13. Anchor Smash
- 14. Anchor Smash
- 15. Anchor Smash
- 16. Ravage
- 17. Kraken Shell
- 18. Kraken Shell
- 19 - 25. Stats
Reasoning: Gush is our main nuke, so it is important to take early. Stats are nice to have early, and they improve our poor mana pool. After maxing Gush take 2 levels of Kraken Shell. Take Anchor Smash after that when your DPS will actually start to come into play. Take your ultimate whenever possible of course. Finish with another 2 levels of Kraken Shell and the rest of stats.
Item Build
Core Build
Early Game
- Grab a gauntlet, circlet, 3 branches, one set of tangoes, possibly a healing salve if you think that you will need one and get observer wards(not necessary for pubs). One of the great things about Tide is that he doesn't need many items to contribute to the game, so it is a good idea to buy wards with him. Turn the gauntlet into a bracer and the branches into a magic wand. This should be enough to get you through the laning phase.
Mid Game
- During the mid game you should be able to rack up enough money to buy boots and finish you basic laning build. After that you can start working on your next two core items: Treads and Dagger. We get treads because it gives us some survivability and IAS which helps with Anchor Smash. Dagger is obvious, it helps us initiate and setup that perfect Ravage.
Core Item Build
- This is what your core build should look like each game. Of course this can and probably will be different because you will choose from a number of optional items.
Optional Core
As I have said before, since Tide's core is very cheap it is possible for you to get a courier for your team. However just remember that if you do, then always upgrade it into a flying one.
Dying a lot because of nukes? This item is for you. Those all out nukers will find it much harder to kill you know. If your team wants you to upgrade to pipe, than do so.
Phase boots is good for chasing, but the downside is that it doesn't help with Anchor Smash like treads do. If you are ganking a lot for some reason that it is reasonable to get this item.
Bottle is good for added survivability and ganking. Get this item if you will be ganking a lot or you find yourself going back to base way too often.
When you activate this after initiating, the sign which says 'Please kill me' turns into 'Attack me and die', and enemies will think twice about targeting you.
Luxury Items
Shivas is a good choice for Tide because it increases his AOE burst damage and gives him some extra armor, which adds to his overall survivability.
Assault Cuirass adds some massive survivability and IAS. Even though it is quite expensive, it helps our DPS and survivability a LOT.
Heart is an obvious choice for any tank especially for Tide. It gives us some much needed survivability and imrpoves our tankiness by a lot.
Radiance is good for improving our DPS, but really the main purpose is it's AOE DoT.
Refresher is very mana-intensive for Tide, however a double ultimate is game-breaking. Make sure that if you get this, you have enough mana to pull off a double ultimate.
If you are having a really great game, then it is possible to get an extra disable. It also solves our mana problems, so this is a good item for Tide to have.
Rejected Items
Pure DPS items are completely not needed on Tide and are a waste. They might work in pubs, but whenever you finish initiating you receive a big sign over your head saying 'Please kill me'. So most of the time if you go for DPS items, you will lack in survivability and you will die rather quickly in team fights.
There is no need for Tide to have invisibility. It may seem cool for ganks and escaping, but that's why we have dagger, which is much cheaper.
This item may increase Tide's overall DPS potential, but most of the time it just kills him too quickly.
Gameplay and Strategies
Using Gush
Using Gush properly is rather simple most of the time, however sometimes you must know which hero to Gush and when to Gush a hero. There are a couple of 'rules' that you should always keep in mind about Gush:
- 1) Whenever ganking, almost always Gush first. Then your allies can follow up and proceed to take out the enemy.
- 2) In team battles, Gush the weakest hero after ravaging; most of the time this is their disabler or carry hero.
- 3) Know when to use Gush. Since Tide has a rather low mana pool, dont just use Gush on someone or spam it randomly and expect something to happen. If you are going in for a gank always ask your teammate whether he is ready or not.
By following these 'rules' your overall skill with Tide will improve; it is important to know how to use Gush well.
Initiating Team Fights
Since this is the most important role that Tide plays, this is the section where I will go into the deepest. A Tide that doesn't know how to initiate properly is a very bad Tide. Here are some 'rules' to think about whenever getting ready to initiate:
- 1) Make sure your team is ready and fully behind you on this. You don't want to go in and then have your team back off, leaving you to die.
- 2) If you are blinking into the enemies (which you probably will), then always blink into the very middle of them. The reason is that you want to catch all of them in your ultimate, by initiating at the edge of the enemies, you will probably only catch a few.
Also know the AOE of Ravage. This is important because you want your positioning to be good so that when you Ravage you catch the most enemies possible.
Farming with Anchor Smash
There is nothing awfully special about farming with Tide, but it is important to know the AOE of Anchor Smash. It is important that when you are attacking creeps, that you are catching all of them in each 'Smash'.
Warding
If you are using this guide for pub games, then you can pretty much ignore this section. However it might be a good idea to learn how to place wards in pubs. If you play competitive dota then it is important to know how to place wards. Because Tide's core item build is so cheap, it is a good idea to buy wards for your team. So that's why it is a very good idea to learn how to use wards.
Edited by basicdotaguide.blogspot.com