Leviathan the Tidehunter Guide, Build & Strategy

Leviathan Guide & Build, the Tidehunter Strategy. Leviathan is one of the great tanker who has good self-defend mechanism and also can be a good initiator in a big war using his ultimate skill: Ravage. This post contains Leviathan the Tidehunter guide, item build, skill build and strategy.


Greatest of the sea giants, Leviathan was sealed away in the aftermath of the war between the Old Gods and the Titans in ancient times. Now released by the Lich King to aid in his crusade against the Sentinel, he cleaves through waves of enemies with his mighty anchor, breaking enemy sieges before they even begin. As terrible a foe on land as he is in water, those who stand before the Tidehunter are swept away in a sea of spikes, eviscerated as he closes in to pulverize those left to receive his wrath.




Strength - 22 + 3 (Primary)
Agility - 15 + 1.5
Intelligence- 16 + 1.7

Base damage 47-53
Attack range of 100 (melee)
Base Armor 3.1
Movement speed of 310



Tidehunter Skill Descriptions

Gush (G)



Summons a spirit of the tides to damage an enemy unit. Reduces the movement speed by 40% and armor of the enemy unit. Lasts 4 seconds.

Level 1 - Reduces armor by 2, deals 110 damage
Level 2 - Reduces armor by 3, deals 160 damage
Level 3 - Reduces armor by 4, deals 210 damage
Level 4 - Reduces armor by 5, deals 260 damage

Mana Cost: 120
Cooldown: 12

Take the advantages of this skill in early minutes: short cooldown, movement speed reduction, high damage and armor reduction which gonna deal more physical damage with your mate. In late game, this skill is still useful with its short cooldown and movement speed reduction.

Kraken Shell



Creates a thick armor shell around Leviathan that protects him against attacks. Whenever he loses 600 hitpoints from player based damage, it removes negative buffs. Damage counter gets reset if no damage taken in 6 seconds. Damage block doesn't stack with Stout Shield, Poor Man's Shield or Vanguard.

Level 1 - Reduces attack damage by 7
Level 2 - Reduces attack damage by 14
Level 3 - Reduces attack damage by 21
Level 4 - Reduces attack damage by 28

This skill is similar to free Vanguard, make leviathan can alive in early minutes since it has attack damage reduction. With this skill, leviathan can't killed by his enemy using negative buff skill like Shadow Strike and others.


Anchor Smash



Leviathan swings his mighty anchor with a vengeance. Gives a 20% chance to deal bonus damage to nearby enemies.

Level 1 - Deals 75 damage in a small radius
Level 2 - Deals 115 damage in a small radius
Level 3 - Deals 155 damage in a small radius
Level 4 - Deals 200 damage in a small radius

This skill almost works like a free Battlefury, but instead it's percentage-based. It is more useful when he has high attack speed, his DPS will increase.

Ravage (V)



Slams the ground, causing waves of spikes to ring the hero in all directions. Deals damage and stuns. Area increases per level.

Level 1 - Deals 250 damage. 1.5 seconds stun. 850 AoE
Level 2 - Deals 350 damage. 1.8 seconds stun. 950 AoE
Level 3 - Deals 450 damage. 2.25 seconds stun. 1050 AoE

Cooldown: 150
Mana Cost: 150/225/325

This skill is used to initiate team battles. With big Area of Effect, it is easy to land and will cause every enemy around him stunned.

Tidehunter Skill Build

Level 1: Gush
Level 2: Kraken Shell
Level 3: Gush
Level 4: Kraken Shell
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: Anchor Smash
Level 15: Stats
Level 16: Ravage
Levels 17-25: Stats

Gush is his main nuke, so it is important to take early. Kraken Shell helps him with its survivability early on so he can avoid going back to the fountain. When he has reached level 10 and has high enough attack speed, Anchor smash will be useful to increase DPS. Ravage is his ultimate skill, so it is important to take whenever possible.

Tidehunter Item Build

1. Gauntlet of Strength, 3x Ironwood Branch, 1 set of Tangos, 1 set of Observer Wards
2. Optional: Quelling Blade
3. Finish Magic Wand, Bracer
4. Boots of Speed
5. Finish Power Tread
6. Kelen's Dagger

Your core item should be like this:



Quelling Blade is necessary for farming since it can increase Leviathan's damage to non-hero units by 32%. Energy Charge from Magic Wand can be casted when he is lack of mana to succeed landing his ultimate or to give a gush to an enemy.

Power Thread make him farming more effective together with Anchor Smash to increase his DPS. As alternative, it can be used to help his friend by gank enemies: visiting enemies faster and landing high DPS to them.

Dagger is very useful for perfectly landing Ravage to initiate a team battle.

Tidehunter Luxury Items



Refresher is very mana-intensive for him, however a double ultimate is game-breaking. Make sure that if he get this, he has enough mana to landing double ultimate.Guinsoo's Scythe of Vyse is an extra disable. It also solves his mana problems, so this is a good item for Tide to have.

Heart of Tarrasque is an obvious choice for any tank especially for Tide. It gives him some much needed survivability and improves his tankiness by a lot. Assault Cuirass adds some massive survivability and IAS. Even though it is quite expensive, it helps his DPS and survivability a lot.

Dying a lot because of nukes? Khadgard's Pipe of Insight is for him. Those all out nukers will find it much harder to kill him and his team know.

Tidehunter Strategy

You can pick this hero whenever you want. In early minutes, you should put him in the top or bottom lane. Conserve your mana first, farm as good as possible and keep survive. If you and your teammate are confident to kill enemy, cast a gush to an enemy then your allies can follow up and proceed to take out the enemy.
Sometimes, you need to gank. Leave your lane and help another friend. Cast a gush and do the same to kill enemy, cast ravage too if possible and if you want.

In a big war, the most important role is initiating team battles. Here are some 'rules' to think about whenever getting ready to initiate:
1) Make sure your team is ready and fully behind you on this. You don't want to go in and then have your team back off, leaving you to die.
2) If you are blinking into the enemies (which you probably will), then always blink into the very middle of them. The reason is that you want to catch all of them in your ultimate, by initiating at the edge of the enemies, you will probably only catch a few.

Also know the AOE of Ravage. This is important because you want your positioning to be good so that when you Ravage you catch the most enemies possible. Gush the weakest hero after ravaging; most of the time this is their disabler or carry hero.

Based on: Playdota Guide

This post contain Leviathan Guide & Build - The Tidehunter Strategy. If you have different build or strategy, you can give your comments or make your own guide on the Tidehunter Forum.