ok. i have never done a guide before, but ill take a stab. if you hate it, fine. Be like that. mostly text though. if i can figure out the picture thing ill get on it.

The admiral excels at a few things, and of course has his weaknesses, but overall is a pretty good hero, and is great for newer players, due to his natural cleave, and his great final.

ToC

1 Skills
2 early Game
3 mid game
4 late game

Skills Order

1 Tidebringer
2 Torrent
3 Tidebringer
4 Torrent
5 Tidebringer
6 Ghost Ship
7 Tidebringer
8 Torrent
9 X Marks The Spot/Stats
10 X Marks The Spot/Stats
11 Ghost ship
12 X Marks The Spot/Stats
13 X Marks The Spot/Stats
14 X Marks The Spot/Stats
15 X Marks The Spot/Stats
16 Ghost ship
17-25 Stats Usually Stats

Now unlike other people who say that is a guide, in this case IT ISNT. if you deviate at all from this: you will lose. so just do what i say. with the X marks the spots/stats, well there you can make up your mind. depends who you are against, if you are against some pansies who run all the time, then get X if not, go stats, X can also be used to flee, by casting it runnin your ass outta there, and then putting that enemy homie 4 seconds behind. caution with that, because the spell takes time to cast, and i have seen many a good player get his ass beat down thanks to X, when he may have made it away otherwise.

Reasoning for order: Tidebringer owns at everything ever. first level, it isnt that powerful, however it allows you almost ranged attack, by hitting enemy heroes from a distance, harassing them. works great at start against melee, not so great against ranged, however, when ranged heroes are in lane, you just need to be a little smarter to stay out of range and still get them, and thanks to usually lower life, you get to do even more damage as a %. So just don't be dumb. while not super powerful at level 1 the chance to do your attack +60 to a 500 range group every 4 seconds for 0 mana is pretty hard to resist. now with torrent, that spell is your stun and does a good chunk of damage, going from 120 to 300 at level 4. not only that but the 1.53 second stun followed by 30% slow, is nothing to sneeze at. a couple of things about this spell, first off it isnt targeted, so dont worry about linkins, second, it hits a group of enemies, so use it often. the last thing about it is it has a 2 second wait before being cast, and the range is HUGE so use it to stun or kill fleeing enemies or units that are chasing you. takes some practice, but pretty quickly you can be using it in place of X marks the spot, which is why i advocate waiting on that spell. It is a great spell, but you can almost do it anyway with Torrent. now his final! his final takes some practice. it doesn't end where you cast it, it goes a little further, making it great for fleeing heroes (like all his spells it is good for killing pansies). in the worlds of playdota.com " Allies are doused in Captain CoCo's Rum, inebriating them for 10% bonus movespeed and numbness to incoming damage, causing them to feel only half of the pain now and half after the Rum wears off. Enemies, pirates and scurvy knaves are dashed on the rocks for damage and a brief stun when the ship crashes." so it helps all your allies kick more ass, stuns enemies and damages them. and it is a group spell too for 500 damage at level 3!! also keep in mind that ghost ships:
Damage type: magic
- Actual AoE of ship's collision is larger than the boat itself.
- Damage dealt after CoCo's rum wears off is non-lethal and can never kill a hero.

that is why this guy owns at group kills!!!


Early Game

Items basilius, boots of speed, ring of regen, mask of death

depends on who you're against, but if ranged i opt for boots of speed, because it helps you avoid ganks and ranged attacks, also he has a pretty slow attack speed so power treads are a huge help. if melee, i usually get a ring of regen and basilius, as hopefully you are using torrent a fair bit on those enemy heroes the regen is needed, and i find vladamirs offering to be great with this hero. Try to include the enemy heroes in your tidebringer attacks, using it to keep their health low and forcing them to eat up trees with tango or use their bottles of health. just try to keep them from last hitting or denying of course as well. as you get to level 6 hopefully if you haven't gotten a kill yet, you will soon use Ghost ship to finish off fleeing heroes, for a level 1 final it does a fair amount of damage. by level 6 hopefully you have most of what you need for vladamirs offering and/or powertreads.

Mid game

items vladamirs offering, powertreads, Battlefury, start on biriza-do-kyanon (or whatever the hell it is called)

just keep pluggin away at lanes, farm as much as you can, with cleave you should be doing a great job. try to assist allies when possible and farm as much as you can. try to finish your vlads and powertreads if you havent already. when rushing towers, attack creeps first, as this character destroys creeps, which puts your trees back to work against the tower probably doing more damage in the long run. With this character I find Battlefury to be quite useful. some people may not agree, and that is ok. they are stupid. with battlefury, you will soon 1 hit an entire lane of creeps. TRY NOT TO DIE; that is good advice throughout the whole game regardless of who you take

Late game

Items: battlefury, vladamirs offering, power treads, buriza-do-kyanon, assault cuirass, then an item to assist against whoever you are fighting, eg: linkins sphere or hood of defiance etc., heart of torrasque works great too!

once you are to this point, there shouldnt be too much that could touch you. you should be attacking like a crazy bastard and destroying lanes and towers wherever you go. enemy heroes should wet themselves and flee, only to be recalled by your x marks the spot, or stunned thanks to your torrent (combo those by the way...)pretty much giving your team the win. i havent found too many heroes that can do a hell of a lot against him when dealing with this hero fully powered up.

Good luck and kick some ass for me. see if im on garena and maybe we can play!

Garena- Sweatshopking