FOREWORD: I don't intend on copying and pasting everything from the hero page into this guide, just open this link in another tab if you want to look at the hero's statistics while you read the guide.

Overview:
Tide is a strength hero, with great tanking potential, however, most of his offensive power comes from spell-casting. This means that you have to find a balance of items and play-style which will allow you to be an effective tank while also having the ability to spam your spells effectively. As with all guides, this is a general layout for how the hero should be played in a broad sense, many times, however, you may have to change things depending on how the game is going. Keep an open mind and do your best to use the knowledge from this guide while adapting it to the specific game that is being played. Now, lets get into it!

Alt-Tab Mini-Guide:


Skillbuild:

1. Gush
2. Kraken Shell
3. Anchor Smash
4. Anchor Smash
5. Anchor Smash
6. Ravage
7. Anchor Smash
8. Gush
9. Gush
10. Gush
11. Ravage
12. Kraken Shell
13. Kraken Shell
14. Kraken Shell
15. Stats
16. Ravage
17. Stats

Before tide was changed this would be an absolutely stupid build, but, for those who haven't noticed, his anchor smash has been remade! If you want to see how the new one works, just go to the hero page that I linked at the top of the guide.

Now, into the justifications. Gush is taken at level 1 for fairly obvious reasons, if you are going to try any sort of gank, or escape, at level 1, Kraken Shell and Anchor Smash are fairly worthless, gush gives you a 40% slow for 4 seconds. That slow and duration are constant, as are the cooldown and manacost, which is why Gush is left at level 1 for now.

Next comes Kraken Shell, it is great to get 1 point into Kraken Shell early, because even that tiny 7 damage reduction is quite useful in lane, and the 600 damage cap for the debuff removal is constant at all levels, so that is also left at level 1 for now.

And now it's time to pump points into that anchor smash, once you hit level 7 and have it maxed out, you get a 225 damage AOE spell with a 4 second cooldown. This is wonderful for farming in your lane, or scaring back enemy heroes if you are laning with your carry.

Past that the build can change a bit depending on how the game is going, if you are getting easy kills but also dying, max shell, if you are having no trouble staying alive but enemies keep escaping with a tiny bit of HP, max gush. If anyone asks why you need to take ravage whenever you can, I will punch them in the face.

Items:
Starting Items:

Total Cost = 559, 44 gold left over. Wait for 2 seconds and have the courier bring you another clarity potion as soon as possible.

These items will give you a little of everything you need to start out, a little tank, a little mana, and some regen for HP and Mana.

Core Items:

Total Cost = 4834

This is pretty much everything you need for the game, those mana boots will let you spam anchor smash to your heart's content, and you are primarily a ganker, so the bottle is great, and is a must if you are soloing middle. Vanguard makes you a beast along with Kraken Shell, and the wand combines 3 branches into one item, so you know you're going to have a GG!

Situational:

In most games, you really shouldn't need a blink dagger on Tide, the AOE on ravage is so ridiculous that in most cases it just isn't necessary. However, if for some reason you just can't seem to get into range for a Ravage, go ahead and pick one of these up.


If your team needs one, Tide is actually a very good candidate to get it, he can farm it fairly quickly with anchor smash and it gives him the 2 things he needs most, HP and Mana.

Luxury:

Shiva's gives you both of the things you need, tank and mana, and is also a great follow-up for your ravage.


Straight-up beastly tank, you will be pretty damn hard to kill with one of these!


Great armor for more tank, and an excellent way to support your team if no one else has one of these!


This should only be purchased after Shiva's, or you won't have the mana to use it. If the game has gone on this long, I pity you, but if you are still playing, go ahead and double up on that ultimate!

Rejected Items:

This was garbage even with the old anchor smash, it is absolutely useless with the new one, you aren't a DPS and this ruins your tank ability.


Again, you aren't a DPS, go for heart instead.


You already have Kraken Shell, waste of money.


You already have Anchor Smash to farm, you don't need a battlefury, and the regen from it isn't nearly as useful as other items that give you a larger pool.

Gameplay:
In the early game your role is pretty much purely ganking. Tide should be placed in the tri-lane, dual-lane, or mid-solo. He should NEVER be a long-lane solo. If you are in the middle, farm to 6 as quick as you can, run in and use anchor smash to CS if you are being harassed and can't hang around for normal attacks. Make sure you grab as many runes as possible and use that mana to gush and anchor smash whoever you are laning against. If you aren't the solo, your bottle will come a little later, so just use the threat of your anchor smash to scare enemies back so your carry can farm, and if you see an opportunity gush and go.

Once you hit level 6 it is really time to start roaming a lot, if you manage to sneak up on someone with a team-mate your ultimate should nearly guarantee a kill. When you are level seven your anchor smash has the same cooldown as the slow duration on your gush, so with 1 gush you should be able to land 2 anchor smashes. CS wherever you can, as you do need some items, but don't fight your carry for creeps.

On into mid-game is team-fight and pushing time, you can run behind undefended towers and use your anchor smash to quickly kill creep-waves so your allies can push the tower. If some enemies show up and things are looking good for a team fight, use your ultimate to initiate so your allies can get in good position and focus down a few enemy heroes.

Late-game your job is to initiate, and then tank as much as possible. Be aggressive in fights so that the enemies focus on you, you are very hard to take down with a vanguard and your kraken shell, and the enemies focusing on you will give your carry time to get back into the enemy supports. DO NOT waste your ultimate at this stage in the game, a general rule would be DON'T use it unless it is going to hit at least 3 people. It has a fairly long cooldown and you don't want to waste it on one person just to have the other 4 successfully push while your ultimate is on cooldown.

Conclusion:
Tide is a great hero that sees a lot of use in the competitive DotA scene, especially since his anchor smash was changed. Again I say that this guide is a general outline of how tide should be played, and things will change from game to game depending on how the game is going.