Tidehunter, Amphibious Assault!

We enter uncharted waters ! [Introduction]

I am Tidehunter. [About Tiddy]

Role:
Lore:The Tidehunter known as Leviathan was once the champion of the Sunken Isles, but his motives are as mysterious as those of his people. We all know the importance of the Drylanders' shipping lanes, how empires may rise and fall according to who controls the open water. Far less is known of the submarine lanes, and how the warring tribes of the Meranthic Diaspora have carved out habitations through endless undersea skirmishes. In the fragile treaties between the Mer and Men, we can glimpse the extent of the drowned empires, but their politics appear complex and opaque. It would seem that Leviathan tired of such petty strife, and set off on his own, loyal only to his abyssal god, Maelrawn the Tentacular. He stalks the shallows now in search of men or meranths who stray into his path, and with a particular loathing for Admiral Kunkka, who has long been his nemesis for reasons lost in the deepest trenches of the sea.

P.S - He also hates the living **** out of Kunkka, no one knows why. This hate is so present in Tidehunter's responses that almost everything he says has to do with Kunkka and his hatred of him.

I bring sad tidings: You're dead! [Hero Skills]

This is your main nuke during the course of the match, tidehunter vomits an amazing 40% slow !! while also reducing physical armour as if being tiddy's personal spit bucket isn't bad enough. Early to mid game this is an invaluable tool to gank, pop low health enemies in the distance or just allowing your carry to catch up to a fleeing target. However bear in mind that this ability comes with a high mana cost and you don't have that much mana early game so it's best that you refrain from spamming it. You should only use it if one of the following situations occur:


#1 Your team mate(s) are ganking your lane, if so, you should try to cast it on the squishiest enemy hero since 8/10 it's a guaranteed kill.
#2 A low hp enemy hero escaping (most people don't realize that tidehunter's Gush can reach a very long distance)
#3 Slow an enemy so that your carry\team can catch up to him.
#4 To save your sorry *** or that of your teammate by slowing a pursuing enemy.





This is what makes Tidehunter an exceptional Tank, think of it as a Stout Shield that after a certain threshold of damage is reached removes all negative buffs. This is great early game if you're being constantly harassed (invest in it if you are), and later on creeps will do almost 0 damage to you , this in conjunction with Anchor Smash turns you into a farming machine provided you have enough mana to spam Anchor Smash. This also means you can pull enemy creep waves when your team is attacking a tower without suffering much damage or if your pulling and stacking creeps as well as tank towers. Late game however it's only useful for the debuff removal since the amount of damage it shrugs off is minimal compared to the damage enemy heroes can dish out at that time.





Tidehunter's other debuff, your bread and butter. Right-Clickers beware! You should always try to Anchor Smash the enemy's team carry since this will lower his attack damage (keep in mind that it does not affect items that provide damage). This + Gush = He's screwed because your team will trash him to kingdom come (provided you have a good team D:). It's also a great farming skill since you can spam it and it has a low mana cost even for Tidehunter. The damage coming out of Anchor Smash may seem insignificant at first sight but like Gush people don't realize how far it can reach and since it's an aoe it applies the debuff to several enemies. If you manage to survive the chaos of a team clash and you find 2-3 heroes with low hp just blink in and smash for a rewarding triple kill D: but you should always allow your carry to get them but sometimes it feels so good.





Ravage... This skill is what makes Tidehunter one of the most infamous dire heroes( Enigma's Black Hole being another amazing ulti), how you use this skill is what defines whether you're a good or bad Tidehunter. It has the power to disrupt the other team's careful planning and cause utter chaos, add a Blink Dagger to it and by the time your enemies say -OH SNAP- they are practically dead. At its highest level it has a stun duration of 2.77 (+ the time they spent in air) and boasts a damage of 450, but what makes it really scary is its radius of 1025 o__o ! You simply can't escape it (well you can...), keep in mind that Black King Bar will go through your ultimate though or any kind of magical immunity such as Lifestealer's Rage. So you have to be careful and decide whether you use it before they pop their magic immunity or after their immunity wear off.

**Pro tips**

*Buy that Blink Dagger as soon as you can since - and I can't stress this enough - it's indispensable for Tidehunter to surprise the other the team and helps a lot with landing a perfect ravage as well as catch up with fleeing enemies.

*Warn your team or alert them when you want to ravage\initiate and make sure they are willing to go in and support you, I can't remember how many times I went in and my team just ran away leaving me to die. In pubs sometimes it's hard to find a reliable team that commits to a fight.

*Hold on to your Ravage, and by this I mean don't use it unless you really have to. Don't use it to escape because you might need it at any time. Yes even if you die don't use it to escape because it has such a long cooldown. If you really have to use it to escape death make sure your team is nearby or that you can kill your pursuer with a Ravage+ Gush+anchor combo.

*Most Tidehunter's I've seen don't do this however you should inform your team mates when your ulti is ready or how much time it's left until it's ready.

Welcome to the abyssal pain. [Gameplay]

- Early game you should either purchase a courier or observer wards depending on what your team needs (I always go courier :$ since it's cheaper than Observer but you should ward since you can take a pounding and live) you are above all a support when you're not initiating. Literally babysit your carry or try to divide gold\exp with if you're laning with a non-carry partner. You now should do some typical support stuff like pulling creeps\stacking, pinging those runes, and take the bulk of the damage. If you lane with a carry it's your main priority to keep him alive and make everything in your power to make him survive your opponents and make his last hitting easier, you'll probably rely on the neutral creeps for gold and exp, since you're a tank you're more likely to live through an ambush in the woods rather than your carry. Since Tidehunter has a low mana pool you should invest in a Magic Wand and to help both you and your partner, a Urn of Shadows is always handy since it has mana regen and strength and it's useful to urn your opponent if he's fleeing with low health and after you really need those Arcane Boots to start spamming.

As for skills remember what I said above, 1# use your Gush only when needed (your clarity potion will help after your first gush), harass your opponents with Anchor Smash but be careful not to overextend. And if your opponents make a mistake punish them with Gush + anchor and your carry\partner should be able to seal the deal.






- By now you should have Arcane Boots\ Power Treads (depending on what you prefer), Urn of Shadows and Magic Wand. Your top priority now is to farm that Blink Dagger whenever you can, I say this because you'll be busy initiating fights and warding most likely but when you can swoop down to the woods and farm even if it's just one creep camp and then go to your lane or roam ( Urn of Shadows, Arcane Boots and TP Scrolls will help you a lot) or support your team if they need anything such as help to push a lane (use Anchor Smash) or bait the other team into fighting. You need that Blink Dagger more than anything, also buy Sentry Wards if you feel like dewarding or Dust of Appearance if the other team has invisible heroes. If you're laning with invisible heroes in the first place buy dust as soon as they start going invisible. One example was this pub match I played and I laned against a Bounty Hunter and he wasn't expecting me to have Dust of Appearance so early and we basically destroyed his early game since I kept buying that dust. (dust is better than sentry wards imo)

>> Special mention to Medallion since it's kind of an awkward item on Tidehunter but very useful since it provides mana regen and lowers the enemy's armour. So Medallion+ Gush means negative armour which will make killing so much easier.







By now you should have everything you need to roam safely, optionally you can buy Smoke of Deceit to improve your team's ganks, if you had a good game you should have plenty of gold from those assists\kills, so what do you do now you ask ?


>>> If your team has more than one hero that relies on attack speed consider purchasing a Drum of Endurance since it gives you nice stats and an overall great aura for your team.
A Veil of Discord is also very useful but it's often an overlooked item for tidehunter. The stats it provides work very well with Tidehunter while the aura improves tidehunter's ulti damage since it lowers the other team's magic resist as well as the damage your team can do to them.

>>> If you want to go as tanky as possible, Blade Mail, Shiva's Guard or if your game was really good a Heart of Tarrasque will do wonders for you. But in my opinion me Assault Cuirass is the best option for Tidehunter, the negative armour will do wonders for your team's raping capability.

>>> If your team needs it consider either Pipe of Insight, or Meknsm but don't buy them both since if you die early in a team fight your team will lose 100% of those support items, you should ask first if anyone's going mek or pipe and then decide.

>>> Some people go Radiance, I personally don't like it.

>>> If your team needs, buy a gem of insight. Since you're tough to kill you're the right person to carry it

>>> Or... you can buy a Refresher Orb and make the other team suffer your ulti...twice. Just make sure you have enough mana to do it, also the stats are really good.

Let's catch this tide and catch them in it ! [Buddies & Kunkkas]

- Any carry will love laning with you since your debuffs help a lot when it's killing time. Other really good buddies of Tidehunter are Enigma, Invoker, Shadow Fiend and... Warlock. I say Warlock because of this one match where me and the Warlock agreed to deploy our ultis one after the other expired. Needless to say we raped...hard. My only regret was not telling him to go Aghanim's Scepter, Refresher Orb since I would buy a Refresher Orb as well. Perma stun.



Well Kunkkas Tidehunter hates are Kunkka, Kunkka and Kunkka. In all honesty any hero that mana burns and does percentile health damage as well as heroes that silence. So Anti-Mage, Riki with diffusal, Necrolyte, Lifestealer, Drow Ranger, Silencer, Death Prophet, Doom Bringer are some examples.

You're sunk! Pros/Cons

I'm grateful to you. [Thanks]