Tidehunter, or as he is called – “watermelon”, is a fairly frequent guest in competitive games. He is taken from patch to patch, since the hero is quite good and useful. Even a child can play him, since everyone can press two buttons. Despite the fact that the hero’s abilities are very simple to understand, it still takes a lot of skill to move and act correctly in a given situation. Since he is most often taken on the offlane, we will analyze him in this role. Let’s start with the pros and cons of Tide.
Tidehunter Dota 2 Character Review
Advantages:
- 1) Pairs well with almost all Dota characters. No matter what your or your opponent’s pick is, Tide fits into any hero lineup with flying colors.
- 2) Has a huge potential in any fight. Thanks to his powerful ult, which can safely be called one of the strongest, he and his team have a huge chance to kill enemies in a sudden attack, or vice versa, during a counter-attack.
- 3) If the lane is bad, Tide is a great jungle farmer. Using his passive ability and 3rd skill, he can easily farm any creep camps from the first levels.
Flaws:
- 1) Despite the fact that the ult is very strong, it has a very long cooldown. Because of this, it is impossible to play actively all the time, since the team is forced to wait out the time without the Ravage ability.
- 2) Extremely low mobility. Tide has a fairly low base movement speed, and there is no talk of any fast movement at all. The only way out of this situation is to buy the necessary artifacts.
- 3) Very low mana pool. Players who play Tide know that this character always lacks mana, compensating for this by buying some items.
Tidehunter Gameplay Tactics
Initial stage of the game
Since We are going offlane, it means we will be standing against a character with the role of carry in the opposing team. Most often, carries deal damage with their hands, which Tide is incredibly happy about, because all of his abilities neutralize this damage. It is worth standing brazenly, because it is quite difficult to break through Us. We finish off all the creeps, both allied and enemy, if necessary, we farm the nearest stacks of forest units. It is worth maxing out the 3rd ability, taking the rest in one. This skill allows us to cut off the lion’s share of damage from the enemy’s hand, so farming under the effect of it will be quite difficult. With the first money, we buy ourselves a Soul Ring, which will add density and compensate for problems with mana. In addition to the soul ring, we take Bracer, Magic Wand and Phase Boots. After buying the initial artifacts, our goal is to quickly pick up a Blink Dagger for ourselves, with which the game will acquire new colors.
Mid-game
Now Tide is still difficult to kill, taking advantage of this, do not hesitate to attack. As soon as the ult rolls back, run with allies to force a fight. Always go ahead to absorb as much damage as possible while the team is behind you. In your free time, farm creeps to get to the necessary items faster. Initially, max out the 2nd and 3rd abilities, only after them do we start pumping the 1st, since it will be needed soon. Often, after buying Blink Dagger, players choose Hood of Deriance, which gives an additional percentage of resistance to magical damage. After this, the best solution would be to buy Aghanim’s Scepter, since additional damage and reduced enemy armor will not be superfluous.
Late game
Here, some problems with survivability may already appear, but still, the role of the tank even in this situation will belong to Tide. We move with the team, trying to go ahead to take the hit. If there is an opportunity to press your ultimate well, then you should not miss it, but you need to do it thoughtfully, since the cooldown of this ability is very long. You should not go alone, and you should not hit creeps either. At this stage, it remains to buy only one item, which is considered the main one on this hero. This item will be Refresher Orb. It has almost the same CD as Tide’s ult, so often in fights two Ravage abilities will be used in a row. In addition to this artifact, you can also buy Overwhelming Blink, Pipe of Insight and Shiva’s Guard. But the emphasis should be on the refresher, as mentioned earlier, this is a key artifact on this hero. From neutral items, we choose those that increase armor or increase the amount of maximum heal
Since Aghanim is bought, you should take those talents that buff Gush. Accordingly, at level 10 – +10% to slowdown from this ability, at level 15 – +120 to damage from it, and at level 20 we take +4 to reduce armor of opponents. If you take all these talents, then the first skill will be extremely useful both when attacking and when defending your own base. Do not forget about the talents at level 25, here we take +1 second to the stun time from Ravage. Since every second is important in the late game, this talent can turn the outcome of the fight in a winning direction.
What heroes are best to take with Tide?
In general, Tide does not have any famous combos, so we will draw our own conclusions. For Tide, very good allies will be those who can inflict a large amount of damage in the shortest possible time, for example, Phantom Assassin will be an excellent option. But it is not necessary for the damage to be physical, magical damage will also do. For example, Zeus or Leshrac will be able to inflict a sufficient amount of damage during the action of Tide’s ult.
Conclusion
Tidehunter is a fairly strong and simple hero in the current meta. He often appears in games, as he has one of the strongest ultimates in the game. With the right movement and timing, Tide can become a real thorn in the enemy team. On top of all this, he has a lot of potential throughout the game, so he will not lose his relevance over time.