Guide to Leviathan the Tidehunter
======================Disclaime (07/31)===================
I’ve realized that most of the forum doesn’t need my beginner-friendly wall of text, so I’m going to remove obvious bits and hide mechanics and skill usage in a corner. It’s basically the same context, but two pages shorter.
Also, I changed the item build.
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What does Tidehunter do?
Tidehunter has respectable strength gain coupled with a slowing nuke and a smack passive that makes him a tank that nobody can ignore. Ravage doesn’t stun for too long but is excellent in setting up smaller AoEs from your other teammates. The problem is that his lategame tank capability shrinks, and his only staple disable comes from Ravage which has an unreasonably long cooldown.
1 Gush
2 Kraken Shell
3 Gush
4 Kraken Shell
5 Gush
6 Ravage
7 Gush
8 Kraken Shell
9 Kraken Shell
10 Anchor Smash
11 Ravage
12 Anchor Smash
13 Anchor Smash
14 Anchor Smash
15 Stats
16 Ravage
17+ Stats
Kraken Shell and Anchor Smash is interchangeable, Kraken Shell against obvious debuffs or when early game physical damage is dominant, anchor smash otherwise.
Tidehunter’s performance will start to drop as dps heroes out-damage your durability.
This is the cookie cutter build, focusing on his ganking aspect and early/mid tankage to succeed in skirmishes. Bottle for lane survival and roaming, bracer/str treads for fast tankage, and hood for obvious purposes. Exchange hood for another bracer if magic is not dominant.
With that cheap setup you’re already ready for the entire midgame ganking and tanking. You get to choose between the two cookiecutters: Assault Cuirass against those dps who happened to arm several hammers and have +100 damage at this stage, or Sange & Yasha if you need that extra strength and movespeed, coupled with a maim in the face right after your initial setup.
Alternate builds such as shiva-refresher or arcane-refresher works, I’ll give you that. Though I won’t be covering those controversies in this cookie cutter guide. Caster tide build offers something completely different and we won’t tread into that.
Yes you can stay back and have some success with ricefarm Tide wearing cuirass, wielding bfury and choking on HoT, but that comes at the expense your teammate’s wealth and your opponent not getting harassed the same way. Simply put, tide is not lategame, he’s an early/mid tank and his only lategame contribution is ravage.
Lineups
Tidehunter can setup things, though another source of damage is needed to fully utilize what ravage can do. Heroes like Lina or THD are great buddies who compliments your every contribution. Clean-up crews such as Zeus or Lycan are also much needed after successful ravages and the like. Basically, most heroes who requires a meatshield compliments you nicely.
Melee teammates will probably hate you though, they’d spend the majority of the time being pushed behind your ass while chasing a gushed hero.
Laning
Tidehunter’s best partner would be those with a staple stun like VS. Second best would be those AoE stunners who needs some flank to aim that stun. Otherwise a preferred setup would be a ranged+melee(being tide) combo, so nobody gets in another’s way during a gush chase. Finally and obviously, laning with another weak melee is a one-way ticket to feeder hell.
I’m new to this and I need help Bob, how do I control lane?
If you have the aforementioned stunning butt buddy, aim gush after the stun, and focus on the isolated target.
If you have AoE nukers like lina or leshrac, use gush to suppress the opponent for a clear aim.
As a melee you should pick side lanes, preferably the long lane so you can creep pull.
When laning, use your bottle and trade nukes. Load an earlier RoR if they pose a problem. Right click on enemy hero then immediately draw back so their creeps come closer for you to last hit. Take turns creep pulling or run off to whore a rune when opportunity arises.
When you’re lv5 or above, putting an enemy down below 400 will scare the piss out of them
it 3 times then it becomes trash lul
Bottle sips should be taken in cover, behind tree or while the enemies are all dizzy from your recent ravage. Even if your lv4 kraken shell neglects all creep damage, they can still knock off your healing status, so don’t drink one next to a creep.
it’s simple, really.
Ganking
You’re good to go after lv5 or above. You don’t have Sven’s imba hammer, but you do have gush, movespeed, and a shitload of health. Creep diving, tower diving and frontline skirmishes are all part of your responsibilities. You should absolutely go gank when when ravage is up, it’s almost a guaranteed kill. Otherwise, when you see messages like “goddamn mid needs a gank” or “that SF is getting buff”, you should be on the move.
Skirmishes
When I say skirmish, I’m talking about cluster-fucks happening in the forest including you, several teammates, and several victims from the other team.
Your role is to be in the front, and hopefully they will toss spells at you in hopes of you backing off. This allows your teammates behind you to stand up and start shooting.When you spot an enemy, you should open up with Gush. Gush’s range is amazing and its 4 second snare is enough for other nukes to catch up to him. Ravage should be reserved until either side goes “oh fuck FUCK FUCK RETREAT RETREAT!!!!11″, which is when you activate that asshole of an ult and make the best out of it.
Group Fight during tower raid
At one point of the game there will be a 5v5 fight by the tower. Both sides will stare over the hill, hurl some long range nukes if available, and eventually get down and beat the living shit out of each other.
Reckless charging this time will result in your 3 seconds death which isn’t enough time for your teammates. You should still be in the front but at least be close enough for your teammates to catch up.
If you have ravage, that’s a sick amount of disruption you have in your hands. If you don’t, then it’s not too wise to fight.You should initiate with ravage if you have teammates who can follow up with other close range AoEs, otherwise Ravage is best done in the middle of action. Mark a primary target with Gush, right click enemy, watch as they awe before your mighty beard, blah blah blah.
what kind of combos could be done?
Specifically, it combos well with chronosphere (thanks to impale’s goddamn recode), every stomp in the game, and isolate-kill skills like eclipse and barrage.
Honorable mention goes to Enigma, who, without ravage, will never pull off midnight pulse+blackhole effectively.
Final push into the racks
The outcome really isn’t decided here, but rather how you fared in skirmishes during those early/mid game eras. Dps heroes will wear you down easily regardless of your 1800 health, and you’re really down to a ravage as your only contribution to the team.
What to I buy after the core?
Whatever you get after lv18 won’t stop that opposing troll from punching you to the ground - unless you are the best lategame-hero out of the 10 heroes in the game, which hardly ever happens. If you really farmed beyond core+cuirass+s&y then you’re either spending too much time farming, killing over 20 heroes, or the game has dragged miserably long. Neither of those situations should be put into a scenario, so make your own judgement.
Tidehunter is not a top tier hero for his obvious flaws, but if you’re reading this you probably aren’t consulting for serious match tips, but what to do when you end up with him in an -rd/sd/ar/lolwut. Or maybe you’re doing it just for the beard, cause regardless of being a tourny material or not, bearded heroes are so fun to play with.
Frankly I don’t know what I’m trying to accomplish here. This is a simple guide with cookie cutter build filled with somewhat “lol duh” informations. Try it if you got him and just want to go up with something regular, though I won’t blame you if you scream for something more unique.
