The REAL Way to play Tidehunter

Oh hey, why not 1v1 me? Oh wait dota is a 5v5 right? inb4udeletethispostandyourcomment

Dictatorforlife got it all right. however i feel like it should be mentioned that getting fast lvl 6 is a really important thing to achieve. so yes stack and pull but also get SOME exp from the lane your on.

Haha, it seems like I've been following you around for a couple of hours now and it seems we agree on most of the things wrong with these guides (THOSE URSA GUIDES, I was crying). +1 Rep my friend.

Couldn't agree more Dictator. I do agree with the fact it isn't completely necessary for you to max Kraken Shell and those skill points would be more suitable in Gush and Anchor Smash.

Tard, this quote is why "you suck at Dota XD" because it is not a good build and you subscribe to the misconception that excellence doesn't come from anywhere and everywhere. How long until you realize that this guy only posted a build, with no description of play? I can build anything and be successful in Dota, but that's not what matters. It's how we play that makes us any skilled.
Just from looking at the way this guy builds, I can tell a lot about how he plays. His aggression quickly comes to mind. This is a passsive what-if-noobs-jump-me approach to support Tide and it's apparent that besides warding and buying courier, this guy isn't being a support.

Additionally, you don't know how popular the MobaFire network is. Upon full release of Dota 2, as much as I like PlayDota, DotaFire is newer, better designed, and already has a huge base via its sister sites. PlayDota will still have its place among guides, but with enormous competition from this site. You will see, that I can guarantee.

DotaFire hardly has any quality guides in it at this point in time, there's hardly any guides on it at all! So I doubt you've read "a billion other" comments on here. Please, refill your prescription of Ritalin and let us try to count to ten once more. Your span of attention wears me down. Excellence comes from patience.

Tidehunter is a great support hero, you got that much right. The rest of this build is.. just flat out wrong or inconsistent.

Namely, the biggest problem with your build is the skill order. Your maxing of Kraken Shell without any points in anchor smash is a terrible, terrible decision. I don't know what you are doing horribly wrong that makes it so that you are more comfortable maxing Kraken Shell second after Gush with zero points into Anchor Smash, but it's stupid. Worst decision ever.

Let me explain amazing concepts to you because it seems like you are clueless as to your role as a support. As a support hero, you should be down in the easy lane with the hard carry. The easy lane is the lane with your team's jungle in it. Are you following so far? It gets more complicated from here. Your role as support in the easy lane: ward, stack the jungle pull creeps (pulling at 53 seconds, sometimes 51), pull the lane (at 15-17 or 45-47 seconds), STAY OUT OF THE LANE AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE so your hard carry can take solo experience and have good farm. In the meantime, you should prepare yourself to go in at a moments notice should your carry need help with the enemy hard laner(s).

That is what you should be doing as a support. Heck, since you are support Tidehunter, you can even leave the lane entirely if your carry is safe and doing well and go ganking. With that in mind, let us tear your horrible build to shreds.

Let's talk about maxing Kraken Shell. Let's talk about the obvious damage reduction from it. Your build is ******ed because it becomes quite evident that you are playing against ******s. Tidehunter is somewhat durable without levels, now think about it, is the enemy going to attack your squishy carry or attack a durable Tidehunter.. Hmmm I don't know. It's so hard to decide. Kill the carry that is going to maul late game or kill support Tidehunter.. Such a tough call, right? You shouldn't be taking any damage because your enemies shouldn't be that stupid. If they are attacking you, your carry is going to get stupid fed off stupid opponents. Besides this obvious fact, you SHOULD be playing a good support Tidehunter and shouldn't even be in exp range anyways. You should be lurking around in your jungle thinking about all the fun things you are going to do with the Mrs. on your next vacation holiday, just a cry away from your carry should he need you. The only time you will ever take damage is when you are stacking and pulling, and that damage is minimal at best. The only other time you might take damage is when the enemy gets unbearably mad at your awesome stacking and pulling that they are forced to go into your jungle to try to pick up some farm.

If you aren't doing these things, you aren't playing a support role at all.

Additionally, Anchor Smash is amazing and you are dumb for not picking it up as it synergizes so well with Gush. Gush reduces armor, allowing your Anchor Smash to do awesome early level damage. You don't know how many times an enemy would have gotten away if not for my Anchor Smash. You let the carry try to take the kill, but if they are too far away (as Tide you should be initiating and taking most of the damage should they choose to fight) Anchor Smash is an easy way to pick up running kills with its mana cost being significantly lower than Gush.

I don't like Power Treads on Tide. I can assist my team in so many early game kills with Mana Boots. At level six there is barely any room for you to cast Ravage if you've already used Anchor Smash and Gush. Mana Boots fix this problem. You should be ganking as soon as you hit level six anyways.

I downvoted this guide, you aren't playing support. You're playing some cowardly noob hero and you are costing your carry kills and potentially getting your carry killed (damage reduction on Anchor Smash) by skilling wrong. Figure it out and I may change my mind.

Yet the most standard and by far most effective build is maxing gush and smash before shell. Check pro games, or any higher tier game. And yeah, treads really aren't needed on tide.

Hades is a pretty cool guy.
Tard, there's no certain build for any one character. There's certain items you should get, but each match is different. It all really depends on what your circumstances are. If you think that there's a set item build every match then you're truly ******ed. These guides are merely outlines to help new players. I can't say I'm great or anything, but they've helped me before.

Please correct your grammar before acting smart, and also, this forum was made to learn people how to play, how to play in PUBLIC games, not how to rule in TOURNAMENT matches, do you hear me? This isn't a handbook for Na'Vi players, this is a community with nice members that try to help each other and play together. If you don't like teamwork and nice people, you don't belong here.

And also, there are more builds you can try, if you don't like other, search another, or just build up your own one.

For example, I got my own build I mentioned above, I don't really like the build that the OP posted, but I didn't say it's bad or whined about it, I gave it a positive vote since it seems effective.

Your a dota player, your good. Most of dotafires top guides have wrong builds.

If you're that good, add my steam, and let's play an one versus one.

I won an ESL tournament on DotA 1, I don't think you should talk that mean without knowing stuff.

Also, that's just the way I play Tidehunter and it's my point of view you should respect, not whine about.

Also, if you don't like DOTAFire's community what are you doing here?

Guides are made for people to learn and to discuss about, that was my point of view. I still gave this guide a positive vote.