Bad against...[]
- Mana Break quickly burns Tidehunter's mana pool, preventing him from spamming his abilities, and Kraken Shell does not mitigate the bonus damage component.
- Blink allows Anti-Mage to enter combat quickly and safely after Ravage.
- A well-timed Counterspell can reflect Gush back at Tidehunter.
- Ravage's travel time allows Nyx Assassin to easily stun Tidehunter with Spiked Carapace.
- Vendetta can instantly deplete Tidehunter's low mana pool, especially in the early game, potentially preventing Tidehunter from casting Ravage.
- Kraken Shell neither dispels nor provides damage reduction against Spirit Siphon. This ability also drains health based on percentage damage, making Tidehunter's large healthpool a very appealing target. Furthermore, the health gained from the Siphon is independent from the amount of damage dealt, so Death Prophet will always heal a large amount of from Tidehunter's pool even if Tidehunter has magic reduction items or abilities on him, which makes her an untargetable enemy for you as this easily outweights any damage output you can provide.
- Exorcism is yet another ability from which Kraken Shell provides no useful protection, as the spirits completely ignore the damage block and are unaffected by the dispel. This ability also creates an unfriendly area where your blink will be constantly cancelled, reducing your ability to land a good Ravage.
- Ravage does not stop neither Spirit Siphon nor Exorcism, making the ability mostly ineffective against her. Additionally, Death Prophet usually builds Eul's Scepter of Divinity, which can be used to dodge the stun entirely.
- Luna often builds Black King Bar, and none of Tidehunter's spells can bypass spell immunity.
- Though Anchor Smash can weaken Luna's physical damage, it does not weaken her magical damage, which means that Lucent Beam and Eclipse deal a lot of magic damage in the early and mid-game, which can bypass Tidehunter's Kraken Shell.
- Kraken Shell's dispel does not restore mana lost through Astral Imprisonment, and the stolen mana can really hurt Tidehunter's ability to initiate
- Arcane Orb high pure damage ignores Tidehunter's Armor, and is barely affected by his Kraken Shell's damage block
- It is also completely unaffected by Anchor Smash, due to it relying on Outworlds Mana pool
- Sanity's Eclipse is effective on Tidehunter's poor mana pool, While it is reduced by Kraken Shell, the damage reduction is negligible.
- Kraken Shell's dispel does not restore damage stolen by Static Link, and the stolen damage easily offsets Anchor Smash's damage reduction. Razor can keep attacking Tidehunter from afar, denying his chance to use Anchor Smash.
- Eye of the Storm melts Tidehunter's armor and makes him much less tanky.
- Razor can chase Tidehunter by himself without relying on actual crowd control ability, so the strong dispel from Kraken Shell is less useful.
- Kraken Shell provides no protection against Omnislash or Swiftslash.
- If timed correctly, Omnislash, Swiftslash and Blade Fury are all capable of dodging Ravage, giving Juggernaut several tools to render your strongest ability moot.
- Blade Fury is an effective way to harass Tidehunter in the laning stage as Tidehunter has no means of getting Juggernaut away from him. Healing Ward also greatly minimizes Tidehunter's ability to harass Juggernaut.
- Blade Dance minimizes the effectiveness of Anchor Smash's damage reduction.
- Fade Bolt reduces damage output of Anchor Smash.
- Ravage is an easy target to Spell Steal, so always be sure to use Anchor Smash immediately after Ravage when playing against a Rubick.
- Spells stolen by Rubick are potentially stronger due to the lack of cast animations, his talents, and his passive, Arcane Supremacy.
- Dark Pact dispels debuffs from Gush, Anchor Smash and even Ravage if timed correctly.
- Kraken Shell cannot restore attributes stolen by Essence Shift or dispel the leash if he gets Pounced.
- Fury Swipes will keep stacking on Tidehunter since it cannot be dispelled by Kraken Shell and its bonus damage cannot be reduced by Anchor Smash.
- Enrage dispels the slow from Gush, and if upgraded with Aghanim's Scepter, can even dispel Ravage's stun.
Others[]
- Kraken Shell offers no help against aura-like or constantly ticking disables: Static Storm, Black Hole, Avalanche, Nethertoxin (especially with Viper's level 25 talent), Smoke Screen, Chronosphere, Degen Aura
- Skills that provides spell immunity allows users to counter an ill-timed Ravage: Blade Fury, Rage. Always try to cast Ravage near these heroes so they have less time to react.
- Many skills cannot be dispelled even with the strong dispel provided by Kraken Shell: Rupture, Winter's Curse, Doom, Soulbind, Poison Nova, Maledict
- Percentage-based damage, such as Infernal Blade, Midnight Pulse is effective on Tidehunter's high health pool.
Items[]
- Black King Bar prevents nearly all of Tidehunter's spells for its entire duration.
- Silver Edge's break can disable Kraken Shell.
- Diffusal Blade burns Tidehunter's mana pool, although the slow can be dispelled by Kraken Shell.
- Linken's Sphere blocks Gush on impact.
- Lotus Orb reflects Gush back at Tidehunter if he impulsively uses it on a hero affected by it.
- It should be noted though that Gush can be upgraded with Aghanim's Scepter so that it is no longer affected by Spell Reflection.
Good against...[]
- Kraken Shell dispels Fiend's Grip, wasting it easily.
- Kraken Shell is very useful against Sticky Napalm and Flamebreak, easily dispelling them regularly.
- Tidehunter is probably the worst hero to target with Flaming Lasso, as Kraken Shell will remove it and Tidehunter often survives long enough to cast Ravage in the middle of Batrider's team. At the same time, if Batrider initiates on his teammate, Tidehunter will have the perfect opportunity to counter-initiate.
- Kraken Shell dispels Dual Breath, Ice Path, Liquid Frost, Liquid Fire and even Macropyre's Burn.
- It also completely negates the damage from Liquid Fire and Ice path, while heavily reducing the damage from all of his other abilities
- Jakiro is a naturally slow hero, Gush will allow you to easily catch him, while also reducing his Armor
- Kraken Shell dispels the damage amplification stacks of Shadowraze as well as the damage reduction from Requiem of Souls (provided he has taken enough damage).
- Anchor Smash reduces Shadow Fiend's large attack damage, Kraken Shell makes Tidehunter the last target Shadow Fiend wants to attack.
- Ravage can easily cancel Requiem of Souls if Shadow Fiend isn't protected by Black King Bar.
- A dozen of Phantom Lancer's illusions with all their might can barely hurt Tidehunter at all thanks to Kraken Shell and Anchor Smash. The only way Phantom Lancer can hurt Tidehunter is through the mana burn provided by Diffusal Blade.
- Even with high chasing power from Spirit Lance and Phantom Rush (and even Diffusal Blade), Tide Hunter can shrug it all off with Kraken Shell and escape by using a Town Portal Scroll or just moving away.
- The AoE nukes from Ravage, Anchor Smash, and an Aghanim's Scepter-upgraded Gush can clear Phantom Lancer's illusions easily.
- Kraken Shell easily dispels the lengthy stun from Shackleshot.
- Kraken Shell (and possibly Anchor Smash) blocks huge amount of damage from Focus Fire.
- Anchor Smash is one of the few sources of True Strike, which means Tidehunter can deal significant damage through Windrun, while also reducing Windranger's damage output.
Others[]
- Skills that can be easily interrupted during combat by Ravage, creating a counter-initiate:
- Skill that requires channeling: Freezing Field, Upheaval, Death Ward, Fiend's Grip, Black Hole, Shackles, Mortimer Kisses.
- Skills with considerable cast time, especially if they must be cast in the middle of the fight: Echo Stomp, Rolling Thunder, Requiem of Souls, Epicenter.
- Most summons and illusions can barely hurt Tidehunter at all, after their attacks get reduced by Anchor Smash and blocked by Kraken Shell: Nature's Prophet, Enigma
- Also Ravage's large area of effect and damage can easily damage all those units at once, or just straight up clear them.
- Heroes that rely on base damage: Luna, Phantom Lancer are easily countered with Anchor Smash.
Works well with...[]
- Pit of Malice and Firestorm are two good spells to combine with Ravage.
- Atrophy Aura combined with Kraken Shell will make you near immune to physical damage before the enemy carries build up some considerable damage.
- Ravage can be a good setup for Echo Slam.
- Ravage allows Elder Titan to follow up with an Echo Stomp and Earth Splitter combo.
- Ravage is the perfect setup for Sun Strike, and it also allows the Aghanim's Scepter effect to be fully utilized.
- Ravage is a good setup for Requiem of Souls.
Others[]
- Since Kraken Shell blocks a fixed amount of damage, it becomes proportionately more effective the less damage enemy heroes deal through right clicks. Therefore, any ally that can reduce their right click damage though a spell or an aura (such as Breathe Fire or Fade Bolt) will turn you progressively tankier and harder to kill.
- Tidehunter is a dedicated teamfighter thanks to Ravage and will benefit from other big team fight spells to combine with Ravage ( Black Hole or Macropyre to name a couple). The triumvirate of dota (5-man beats ganks beats split-push beats 5-man) holds quite true with Tidehunter : he is somewhat ill-suited to deal with split-push, but very hard to take down in a gank by one or two people.
