What Would Tidehunter Eat?
If you have ever felt down in the dumps and famished by the inferior foodstuffs of the modern world, you may have asked yourself this question:
What Would Tidehunter Eat? In this guide, hopefully you will find the answer to this bewildering issue.
This guide was written with Dota 2 in mind, but it should be compatible with both versions of the game, for those of you who are unfortunate enough to be short of a beta key.
Tidehunter
Strength: 22 + 3
Agility: 15 + 1.5
Intelligence: 16 + 1.7
Affiliation: Scourge
Attack Animation: 0.6 / 0.56
Damage: 47 - 53
Casting Animation: 0.3 / 0.51
Armor: 3.1
Base Attack Time: 1.7
Movement Speed: 310
Attack Range: 128 (melee)
Sight Range: 1800 during the day / 800 during the night
Advantages of Tidehunter:- Is hungry enough to eat the following marine lifeforms: Plankton, diatom, krill, anchovy, sea cucumber, seagrape, seahorse, nautilus, eel, jellyfish, mullet, mackerel, giant isopod, tubeworm, porpoise, manatee, oarfish, walrus, manta ray, shark, whale shark, blue whale, colossal squid and plesiosaur.
- Arguably the best ultimate in the game - Ravage, which can singlehandedly turn the tide of battle in your team's favor (see what I did there?)
- It is very difficult to prevent him from casting Ravage because of the debuff removal of Kraken Shell.
- The combination of Kraken Shell and the damage reduction of Anchor Smash makes him very strong against physical damage.
- He is item-independent so he can still be useful even if he does not have much farm.
Disadvantages of Tidehunter:- Is melee, which means he sometimes has problems laning.
- A slow attack animation, so he often has trouble last-hitting.
- Weak against magical damage since it is not blocked by Kraken Shell or Anchor Smash.
- Low base Intelligence and high cost of spells means that he will have problems with mana early on.
What is the role of Tidehunter?
He is an initiator, which means that he should be the
first hero on your team to engage the enemy. He allows his team to control where and when they should fight. He is a powerful ally in physical battles because of his armor reduction, damage reduction and damage block.
When should you pick Tidehunter?- If your team needs an initiator! Tidehunter is one of the strongest initiators in the game and only needs a Blink Dagger to do his job.
- If you have some ranged heroes! Do not make the mistake of picking only melee, or else the laning phase will be a nightmare. If all else fails, Tidehunter can jungle, but remember that it will be hard for your solo hero to survive.
- Ideally, your team should contain the following things: A carry, at least one support hero, at least two ranged heroes, and at least two ganker heroes. Note that some heroes satisfy more than one of these roles. With this team, you should be able to safely pick Tidehunter.
Skill Overview and Comments
Gush
Deals magical damage to a single target, slows them and reduces their armor for 4 seconds.
Costs 120 mana
Cooldown: 12 seconds
Range: 700
Debuff Duration: 4
Movement Speed Slow: 40%
Level 1 - Deals 110 magical damage and reduces the target's armor by 2.
Level 2 - Deals 160 magical damage and reduces the target's armor by 3.
Level 3 - Deals 210 magical damage and reduces the target's armor by 4.
Level 4 - Deals 260 magical damage and reduces the target's armor by 5.
Comments: This is your main gap closer skill. Note that Gush slows the target by 40% for 4 seconds at all levels of the skill, which means it is effective even if you have only put one point into it. The base 110 damage is very high as well. Use this to chase, to escape and to increase the damage dealt by physical attacks - including your Anchor Smash.
Kraken Shell
Reduces the damage that Tidehunter takes from physical attacks. Also removes debuffs from Tidehunter if he takes more than 600 damage from any hero-based source.
Level 1 - Reduces physical damage by 7.
Level 2 - Reduces physical damage by 14.
Level 3 - Reduces physical damage by 21.
Level 4 - Reduces physical damage by 28.
- The damage block does not stack with Vanguard or other items that provide damage block.
- The debuff counter includes damage taken from all hero sources including physical and magical attacks.
- The debuff damage counter is reset if Tidehunter does not take damage from heroes for 6 seconds.
Comments: An incredible passive, this is what makes Tidehunter such a reliable initiator. It has two distinct components.
Firstly, it reduces damage taken from physical attacks by a flat amount. With a high enough level of Kraken Shell, you can
completely block the damage taken from creeps, summons and neutrals. However, note that many creeps only deal about 20 damage per attack. This means that the fourth level of Kraken Shell will make almost no difference against non-Hero units.
Secondly, it removes debuffs from Tidehunter after he takes more than 600 damage from heroes. What this effectively means is that it ensures that you will
always be able to cast Ravage even if you are chain-stunned by the enemy team. Note that the damage threshold is
the same at all levels of this skill. So if you only need the debuff removal, putting more points into this skill will make no difference.
Anchor Smash
Deals physical damage to nearby enemies and reduces their attack damage.
Radius: 400
Duration: 6
Damage Reduction: 40%
Level 1 - Deals 75 physical damage. Costs 30 mana. 7 seconds cooldown.
Level 2 - Deals 125 physical damage. Costs 40 mana. 6 seconds cooldown.
Level 3 - Deals 175 physical damage. Costs 50 mana. 5 seconds cooldown.
Level 4 - Deals 225 physical damage. Costs 60 mana. 4 seconds cooldown.
Comments: A nuke that deals decent damage with a very low cooldown. Note that it only has 4 seconds cooldown at max level, which means that the amount of damage it deals is deceptively strong in a long fight. With both skills maxed, you will be able to use Anchor Smash three times as often as Gush.
Anchor Smash has a relatively short range (400), which means that you often have to use Gush to close the gap between you and your opponent before using it. Also note that Gush reduces the enemy's armor, which will increase the physical damage dealt by Anchor Smash.
This skill was recently remade from a passive into an active skill, and in my opinion, the new Anchor Smash is much better. Why? Tidehunter is not a DPS hero. He is an initiator and a caster, and he should rarely purchase items that improve his physical attack. The old Anchor Smash needed attack speed to be effective, which is counterproductive when considering the role of Tidehunter on the team. Also, wouldn't you agree that active skills are more fun to use than passives that rely on luck?
Ravage
Deals magical damage and stuns all enemies in a huge area.
Cooldown: 150 seconds
Level 1 - Deals 250 damage and stuns for 1.5 seconds. 825 radius. Costs 150 mana.
Level 2 - Deals 350 damage and stuns for 1.8 seconds. 925 radius. Costs 225 mana.
Level 3 - Deals 450 damage and stuns for 2.25 seconds. 1025 radius. Costs 325 mana.
- The effect of this skill is not instant, but moves outwards from your position at a very high speed.
- Enemies will fly for 0.5 seconds before the actual stun is applied.
- Invisible units will also be damaged and stunned.
Comments: This skill is awesome. Use it to initiate on the enemy team and allow your allies to do their things. This will absolutely wreck opponents if you time it correctly - but remember that the cooldown is very long! Do not use it to stun
just one enemy unless that person is very important, because then you won't have it in those big fights against more than 3 enemies at the same time. However, in the early game, this doesn't matter as much because the fights are generally smaller and teamfights don't happen as frequently during laning.
Skill Build and Discussion
Before you start assigning points into your skills, you should consider what you are going to do for the first 20 minutes. Are you in a dual lane? Are you jungling? There are many viable skill builds for Tidehunter depending on the situation or team composition during the early game. I have divided these into three distinct builds that I feel are the most useful ones - the
Gush build, the
Anchor Smash build, and the
Jungler build. I will also try to explain my thoughts behind these skill choices.
Level 1 - Gush
Level 2 - Kraken Shell
Level 3 - Gush
Level 4 - Anchor Smash
Level 5 - Gush
Level 6 - Ravage
Level 7 - Gush
Level 8 - Kraken Shell
Level 9 - Kraken Shell
Level 10 - Anchor Smash
Level 11 - Ravage
Level 12 - Anchor Smash
Level 13 - Anchor Smash
Level 14 - Kraken Shell
Level 15 - Stats
Level 16 - Ravage
Level 17-25 - Stats
The Gush build is probably the most popular because it is close to what Tidehunter was doing before the remake of Anchor Smash. With this build, Gush will be your primary source of damage. You will deal high damage to single targets as a long range, but your area-of-effect damage will be weak.
Even though Gush will do more damage, you should still put at least one point in Anchor Smash to gain the damage reduction effect, since it is very useful in physical fights and costs only 30 mana.
Level 1 - Gush
Level 2 - Anchor Smash
Level 3 - Anchor Smash
Level 4 - Kraken Shell
Level 5 - Anchor Smash
Level 6 - Ravage
Level 7 - Anchor Smash
Level 8 - Kraken Shell
Level 9 - Kraken Shell
Level 10 - Gush
Level 11 - Ravage
Level 12 - Gush
Level 13 - Gush
Level 14 - Kraken Shell
Level 15 - Stats
Level 16 - Ravage
Level 17-25 - Stats
The Anchor Smash build is a modern build that includes the new active Anchor Smash as its primary component. With this build, you will deal high physical damage to multiple targets, which allows you to get farm easily and have a good presence in teamfights. However, positioning will be a little more difficult since the range of this skill is lower than Gush.
Even though Anchor Smash is the focus of this build, you must still have at least one level in Gush to gain the slowing effect. This is very important, because without Gush, you will often not be able to use Anchor Smash simply because you are not in range! The full slow is gained with only one point in Gush, so you do not need to max it until you have maxed Anchor Smash and put 2-3 levels in Kraken Shell.
Level 1 - Anchor Smash
Level 2 - Kraken Shell
Level 3 - Gush
Level 4 - Anchor Smash
Level 5 - Kraken Shell
Level 6 - Ravage
Level 7 - Anchor Smash
Level 8 - Anchor Smash
Level 9 - Kraken Shell
Level 10 - Gush
Level 11 - Ravage
Level 12 - Gush
Level 13 - Gush
Level 14 - Kraken Shell
Level 15 - Stats
Level 16 - Ravage
Level 17-25 - Stats
The Jungler build is (obviously) for those times when you are in the jungle instead of in the lane. Anchor Smash is taken immediately at level 1 because it is very useful for killing neutrals quickly. It will also reduce the damage you take from them, making it twice as important. Kraken Shell is taken second because the damage block also helps greatly when fighting neutrals; it allows you to survive while consuming less healing items, thus allowing you to farm more easily.
Just like in the Anchor Smash build, even though Gush is not your primary skill you must still put one point in it to get the slowing effect. The importance of this cannot be overstated! Without Gush, your ganks will be much less effective, so be sure to have it at the very latest when you are level 3.
As I've said, there is no single skill build for Tidehunter that is the best to use in every situation. I would recommend that you consider the situation and the teams before choosing what skill to max first in your game.
Anchor Smash is more useful for pushing and killing creeps/neutrals than Gush. If pushing is a concern in your strategy, you will want to put more points in Anchor Smash to kill creeps faster.
Gush provides more armor reduction at high levels of the skill. So if your team contains heroes with significant physical damage such as Drow Ranger or Sniper, you may want to put more points in Gush to improve their physical attack. However, keep in mind that the armor reduction lasts for only 4 seconds and has a cooldown of 12 seconds, so it is situational as an armor reduction tool.
Kraken Shell only needs two or three levels to effectively protect you from any damage by creeps and neutrals. I do not recommend maxing Kraken Shell before either Gush or Anchor Smash. The fourth level will make almost no difference except in specific situations and a high-level Gush/Smash is better to have in a battle between heroes.
There are many advantages of jungling compared to being in a lane. Firstly, you are always considered "MIA", which means that it is harder for enemies to predict when you are going to gank. Second, the jungle is generally safer for melee heroes because it allows them to farm without being harassed by ranged attacks and ranged spells. Third, having a jungler gives your team another solo lane, which could result in more gold and experience gained in total.
The disadvantage of jungling is that it puts more pressure on the solo lane. Usually having a jungler results in a 1v2 lane and a lot of heroes are not well-suited to soloing against two opponents. Keep this in mind and make sure you have a good solo before jungling! If the solo hero loses his lane, you will probably lose a tower. And when the tower is destroyed, it becomes much more dangerous to jungle since it increases the risk of enemy ganks.
Starting Items
I recommend three different starting item builds depending on the situation: Magic Stick, Quelling or Courier.
1x Magic Stick
3x Ironwood Branch
2x Tangos
The Magic Stick in this build helps with your mana problem. When enemies cast spells, it will automatically charge and give you "free" mana, so you can more often cast Gush.
Keep in mind that not all enemy heroes have spells that charge the Magic Stick. For example, Skeleton King only has Hellfire Blast and he doesn't use it very often. If you are laning against such opponents, getting a Magic Stick is mostly a waste of money.
The disadvantage of this build is that it lacks damage. It will be more difficult to last-hit so make sure you have practiced the attack point of Tidehunter before going for this build. Also, the Magic Stick is useless if you are jungling since you will not be nearby enemy heroes in the jungle.
1x Quelling Blade
3x Ironwood Branch
2x Tangos
This build is most useful if you already have a method of generating mana (for example, a Crystal Maiden on your team). It will allow you to last-hit more easily with the increased damage from Quelling Blade. It also increases jungling speed.
Remember that Tidehunter's attack animation is one of the WORST in the game. His attack point is very slow, which means that many other heroes will be able to deny your last-hits. If enemies are denying, a Quelling Blade will be very useful and it easily pays for itself if you can get at least 4-5 more last hits with it.
The disadvantage of this build is that it lacks mana. You will have to be more careful with your use of Gush and only use it when going for a kill instead of as a harassment tool.
1x Animal Courier
3x Ironwood Branch
2x Tangos
1x Healing Salve
This build provides your team with a courier. It will help everyone on your team since a courier makes it much easier to purchase items.
Take a look at your allies and see if they are buying a courier at the start of the game. If no one else is getting it, I highly recommend that you buy the Animal Courier. It is very annoying to play without a courier since you will then have to go back to base just to buy some new items.
With the recent change to the cost of a courier (150 gold), it is now possible to get 3 branches, 2 tangos and 1 salve, which I highly recommend. This gives you stats and enough health to survive your lane in most situations.
If your team has already purchased a courier, but you want to upgrade it into a Flying Courier, you could also do so with a similar build. However, the Flying Courier is more expensive now so I suggest waiting with the upgrade until later when more gold is available.
Bottle
If you get this as a starting item, you will not have any gold for stats, so you will easily be killed in a fight. You also have to actually grab runes to get the best effect out of this item, which is difficult on a melee hero who lacks mobility spells and goes to a side lane. I would suggest that the Bottle is purchased by your middle hero, not by Tidehunter.
Stout Shield
This is a controversial item, but personally I reject it because it does not stack with Kraken Shell, which I put at least one level into early in the game. If you don't take Kraken Shell it could work, but I'm not a fan of getting items that reduce the effect of your hero's skills.
Boots of Speed
Never get this as a starting item, unless you randomed and you are playing Juggernaut. Tidehunter is not Juggernaut, so you should not purchase Boots on him as a starting item.
Clarity Potions
I feel that these are better used by ranged heroes who can stay away from enemy units. If Tide drinks a clarity he won't be able to farm or help his team much since getting hit by anything will disable this potion.
Precious Footwear
There are two different types of boots that I consider viable on Tidehunter: Arcane Boots and Power Treads.
These boots are amazing on mana-starved heroes such as Tidehunter. They will rather obviously let you use your spells a lot more often than you could without them. Arcane Boots are one of the best ways to generate mana cheaply, so if mana is a problem for you, I highly recommend these boots.
Remember that the effect of Arcane Boots generates mana for nearby allied heroes as well. Whenever possible, try to use Arcane in such a way that as many allies as possible get the mana boost.
These are the best boots to use in a pushing strategy, and when dual laning together with another hero that requires additional mana. They are the fuel that keeps you and your team going, and with them you'll rarely have to run back to base just because you don't have any mana left.
These boots increase your health and your attack speed, making it easier for you to kill creeps and also slightly helping you in fights against enemy heroes.
I would recommend these boots if you are jungling or if you have a hero that generates mana on your team. You might also consider these boots if you chose the Magic Stick item build, since the Stick helps you with mana.
The disadvantage of these boots is that it is mainly designed for physical DPS heroes. Tidehunter is a caster and an initiator, so in most battles his physical attack will not be very useful. I think Tidehunter has more in common with Earthshaker than someone such as Spiritbreaker who uses their physical hits as their most important combat tool.
Phase Boots
I suppose you could get these boots if you like to run really fast. Phase Boots let you move faster and ignore unit collisions, but remember that using other items or abilities will interrupt the phase effect. I also think that the damage component of Phase is wasted on Tidehunter since he is not a DPS hero.
Tranquil Boots
These boots increase your health regeneration, and give you additional armor and a minor healing ability. However, if you take damage too many times, you'll lose most of the effects that these boots offer. Since Tidehunter is a melee hero, I think it'll be difficult to properly use these boots since they are easily disabled by enemy heroes. Another disadvantage is that the Tranquil Boots provide no mana, and in fact consume your mana for the healing effect, exacerbating Tidehunter's mana problems.
Boots of Travel
These boots are useful, but I would only recommend them in very lengthy games. In 95% of games you will not have enough money to purchase BoT because you should not steal farm from the carries on your team. It's a useful item, but very expensive and there are many other things that have higher priority than this, such as Blink Dagger and items that provide mana.
Core Items
There are really only two items that I consider to be "core" (almost always purchased) items: Blink Dagger and Hood of Defiance.
The Blink Dagger is known as the perfect initiating tool. Simply put, it is the best item that any initiator could get. It lets you jump straight into the enemy team where you can use your Ravage to the best effect.
The use of this item when initiating is pretty self-explanatory, but you can also use it to chase and escape from enemy heroes. If you must flee, try to juke the enemies by walking into trees and other things that prevent vision. If you manage to hide from enemy attacks for a few seconds, the Blink Dagger can then be used to jump away from them into safety.
This item is the solution to your biggest weakness: Magical damage. Neither Kraken Shell nor Anchor Smash protect you from spells, so without a Hood you are a prime target for enemy casters. Get this to protect yourself and allow you to play more aggressively against enemies who could cast spells on you.
In some rare situations, you may want to skip the Hood. This is if your enemy team contains little or no magical damage. I think that this rarely happens in a skilled game. There is almost always magical damage on the enemy team, and if they don't have it, then their team composition is probably bad.
Aside from the magic resistance, this item also provides a massive amount of health regeneration, which is useful in nearly any situation. Tidehunter lacks healing and often takes harassment from enemies, so regeneration will improve his ability to fight. To top it all off, this item comes cheaply and in small components. For these reasons, I highly recommend Hood of Defiance.
I guess we'll start with trying to define what a "Core Item" is. My definition of a "core item" is something that a hero needs to do their job on the team. Something that MUST be purchased, and is an extremely high priority.
That's where the role of Tidehunter comes into play. In reality, Tidehunter does not need very many items at all. Many people think of Tide as a "walking ultimate", and in some ways they're right. As long as Tide can cast Ravage in a teamfight he will be useful and valuable. And the only thing you need to cast a good Ravage is Blink Dagger.
I consider Hood to be a core item because it's cheap, it helps Tidehunter overcome his weakness against magical damage, and it comes in small useful components that you can purchase from the side shop while you are laning. It's just too practical to pass up in almost all cases. Another great thing about Hood is that it can be upgraded into Pipe, which I will explain more about below, in the Situational Items section.
Situational Items
Here are some of the items you could purchase as Tidehunter depending on the situation. They're called situational because they're not always useful - so keep in mind what you are doing and consider if the item is what you really need.
(to be added)
Game Strategy (Early, Mid, Late)
(to be added)
Best Allies of Tidehunter
Crystal Maiden - Being one of the most well-known support heroes, Rylai goes well with just about anyone. However, she is especially useful with heroes such as Tidehunter who have mana problems. Her regeneration aura will make sure you have mana to cast Gush a lot more often, and in addition to that, she makes a good lane partner because she is ranged and has ranged harassing spells. Later on, Rylai will also benefit from Tidehunter's presence because a good Ravage will make it much easier to cast Freezing Field in the right position.
Twin Head Dragon - A support/ganker type, Jakiro is known for his tremendous area-of-effect damage. However, he usually requires some positioning to use Macropyre correctly since it has a delay and the damage is dealt over time. Tidehunter's Ravage will stun the enemies so that Jakiro can follow-up with his ultimate as well.
Worst Allies of Tidehunter
Other melee heroes - It goes without saying that being melee is a disadvantage; this is especially noticeable when you have many melee heroes on the team. Try to make sure you don't get into the unfortunate situation of laning with an allied melee hero - if your opponents have any sort of harassment spells or ranged attacks they can and will make sure you don't get any experience or gold!
Other initiators - Can there be too much of a good thing? Of course - if you see your allies pick heroes such as
Axe or
Earthshaker who are also known for their initiating skills, think twice about picking Tidehunter! In those games it would be much better to pick an additional
support hero or a
hard carry.
Best Enemies of Tidehunter
Broodmother, Prophet - Tidehunter is a strong counter against summoning heroes such as Broodmother and Nature Prophet because his Kraken Shell is able to
block all damage from their minions. Furthermore, his Anchor Smash will quickly destroy any summoned units in the area, giving him heaps of gold.
Pudge - Pudge is known for his Meat Hook, which can drag a hero to him and place that hero in the middle of Pudge's team for an easy kill. However, if Tidehunter is hit by Meat Hook it essentially means that Pudge has given him a free initiation as Tidehunter can easily follow-up by casting Ravage and turning the fight in his favor. If you play as Tidehunter against Pudge, try to grab his hook if you can, because the best thing that can happen to you is being put in the middle of the enemies where you can use Ravage to its full potential!
Venomancer - With Kraken Shell, Tidehunter will automatically remove Damage-Over-Time effects before they kill him, making those attacks less useful against him. It also easily blocks the damage from Venomancer's Plague Wards and Shadow Shaman's Serpent Wards.
Worst Enemies of Tidehunter
Radiance - This item is an effective counter against heroes who use Blink Dagger because it easily disables the item. Watch out for heroes on the enemy team who commonly purchase Radiance such as
Phantom Lancer,
Weaver and
Spectre. If they disable your Blink Dagger you will not be able to initiate from the correct position, and you cannot escape from them because they will continuously disable your Blink Dagger simply by being near you.
Mana burn - Because Tidehunter is a Strength hero with low mana pool, a heavy mana-burning spell such as
Invoker's EMP can completely shut him down and prevent him from being useful in a teamfight. When fighting heroes who can burn your mana, you must make sure that they are never in range to use their mana burn before you cast Ravage; if you are accidentally hit by such a spell you can just go back to base because you're not going to do anything in that fight.
Leviathan the Tidehunter
