Introduction
Hi everyone, Yzreel here! This is my first guide ever (so do spare me from your torture please!), and I am going to make a guide about...
Bounty Hunter!!!
I am by no means a pro, and I can even be considered quite new in Dota 2
(around 500 hours + some years back in wc3) compared to you guys.
However, I will try my best to write what I have learned through
experience and watching tournaments, as well as from other people kind
enough to teach me. Do note that every video and image I use here belong
to their respective owner and I DO NOT claim each of them as mine. Bounty Hunter
is a really great (semi) carry hero that is extremely hurting in the
early phase of the game. He is a solid off-lane hero and is one of the
most-picked off lane heroes because he can effectively get last hits and
exp even in trilane off-lane with relative ease and safety. This is
caused by his trademark invisibility skill in the form of 
Shadow Walk and his passive 
Jinada that gives him a reliable critical every few seconds.However, in early game, his threat is not just that. His true threat in early game is his active skill,
Shuriken Toss that deals terrifying damage early phase and combined with 
Track, he can snowball himself and his team through mid game and late game.This guide is made because I personally think that there are just too many pub players that play this great hero wrongly (Rush
Battle Fury,
anyone?) As one of my favorite heroes, I cannot let this goes on, and I
want to provide a guide on how this hero is supposedly played in
tournament. Other than that, I will also throw in my own personal
gameplay and experience that does not follow the tournament build and is
played mostly in pub.Build : Proper Tournament Build (Solo Lane)
DotA2 Hero: Bounty Hunter
Build : Personal Build (Dual Lane Pub)
DotA2 Hero: Bounty Hunter
Summary
Before we begin the actual guide, I'll give you summary of the whole guide as a forewarning that the actual guide will be in-depth and too lengthy for casual reader. If you only want to read for a little while, read only this (alt-tab friendly.)What are you: You are semi-carry, not hard carry, not support (position 3 normally, can be 2 if really needed). It's not your job to farm or to buy wards. Your job is to roam as much as you can and get as much kill as you can. However, taking farm early on (in laning phase, before your hard carry goes around the map for farm) is pretty much essential to be a good semi-carry.
Which lane should you go: Take off-lane or mid-lane if possible, your combo of
Shadow Walk --> Jinada essentially lets you last hit in peace and safety. Keep in mind to not die, and roam whenever possible as soon as possible.
The off lane is also called hard lane, and for the radiant it is top lane, while for dire it is bottom lane (you can see in the image on top)
What not to do: Taking farms from your hard carry, staying in a single lane, not checking inventories for detection items, forgetting to use
Track in team fight, being a coward and misses lots of kills, and most of all... BUYING Battle FuryWhat to do: Go offlane, and NOT die. Continue this until someone is capable on taking your lane (preferably as soon as you are level 6) and start roaming and ganking. You should be able to get lots of kill early on. Remember to roam with permanent invisibility trick (casting a
Shadow Walk before the previous invisibility ran out), always cast Track, and use Shuriken Toss to prevent channeling / 
Town Portal Scroll.
Keep in mind that enemy can see you while you are fading out (meaning
that permanent invisibility can be seen for a brief moment.What items to buy: Starts with a durability early item, then take items that increase your burst damage output as soon as possible after a sustainability item that allow you to roam without going back to base. After that, get a durability item to allow you to last long enough in team fight to put in
Track to all heroes. Keep in mind that Track is very powerful and it allows your friends to snowball, while keeping your enemies scared. EXTREMELY SCARED. Pros and Cons
Pros
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Cons
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When To Be Bounty Hunter, or Not To Be
When to be:
- Your team needs a solo lane hero / roamer
- Your team already has a hard carry and durable
- Your team needs
- You know when you are detected
When not to be:
- Your team needs a support / initiator / durable hero
- Your team has too much melee hero
- Enemy team has
Slardar and
Zeus (after 6.81 update)
- You have a memory of goldfish and forget about
- Again, you have memory of goldfish and forget to check enemy inventories for
Sentry Ward,
Dust of Appearance, or
Gem of True Sight
Simple, the common rule is to not take
Bounty Hunter when there is a Slardar on enemy's team. It's common sense to evade extra detection that makes you even squishier. However, Bounty Hunter is much more player reliant than the condition, and can actually be used against Slardar if used properly. Therefore, if your team REALLY needs the an offlane hero, and also mid-game dominance and Track gold, taking Bounty Hunter is alright.Friends, Foes and Preys
Friends
These are heroes that synergize well with Bounty Hunter's kits as allied heroes, and can bring great damage to enemy if used properly.High Burst Damage Heroes
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This kind of heroes is great friends for Bounty Hunter, especially early on in the game because a combo of Shadow Walk --> Jinada --> Nuke Attack --> Shuriken Toss
usually ensure a kill early on. This is great whenever possible, but is
best when used early on while roaming mid because this ensures early
kill for your mid hero for bonus gold and experience. When used in pub,
it is great especially if you have a carry with at least one nuke
because it allows you to get easy early kills that will allow your carry
to snowball into late game, however, it can also be used with a nuking
support. This will be viable throughout the game even in teamfight
because the both of you can simply nuke down a glass cannon in split
second. |
Invisibility Profitable Heroes
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This kind of heroes are heroes that are very great to be combo with Bounty Hunter because they profit for having a hero that is unseen by their enemies. Dark Seer, Lifestealer and Omniknight are very great because Dark Seer can put in  Ion Shell while you are using Shadow Walk,
and you just dance around them merrily while they suffocate from
nothing (be wary that using this on experienced players might cause your
death). Omniknight can simply cast  Purification
when you are standing right next to them. They will get damaged by a
huge amount of damage when usually it's hard to land one, while Lifestealer
can simply infest you and do a 2v1 roaming gank. The others are heroes
that can be your combo simply due to the fact that you can provide them
with visions of heroes, while they use their hard-to-use skill shot to
land accurately (if this miss, blame your teammate lol) |
Slow Inducing Heroes
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This kind of heroes are great because combined with your Jinada,
their slow can pretty much allow no escape. This is relevant even until
late game, especially if it's done with one of the carries, and allows
them to snowball. However, if done with in dual lane or roaming, this
can pretty much ensure early kill. |
Invisible Heroes
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This kind of heroes gives the both of you double invisibility prowess. This causes the ganking and roaming to be EXTREMELY QUICK. It is like this (example with Nyx Assassin): Shadow Walk -->  Vendetta --> Bounty Hunter Hit --> Track --> Nyx Assassin Hit -->  Impale -->  Mana Burn --> Shuriken Toss --> Dead.It won't even be like 1 second, basically killing them off before they even realize what hits them (forget reinforcement). I also include some heroes that uses  Shadow Blade
commonly because of mid-late game potential of double invisible
ganking. If done properly, this will cause uncontrollable snowball
through the game. Be wary of good supports on enemy team putting Sentry Ward basically everywhere you go. It needs to be noted, however, that having 2 invisible heroes in a team is rarely a good option. |
Meddling Heroes
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This kind of heroes are are total scumbags for your enemies simply because they can meddle in your gank to kill heroes that are not supposed to die by you alone. For the Bloodseeker, he is different because he provides Bounty Hunter with more accurate roaming capability due to his  Thirst, not with bonus killing potential. |
Personal Best Friends
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Ooh, the early game trip to mid is just so cozy with this guy in your mid lane. "Oh, you want to TP? Eat my Shuriken Toss and his  Headshot". "Oh, you managed to escape? Think again! Track and  Assassinate escalates". Once he gets Shadow Blade... oh, the hunt IS ON! |
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Early  Open Wounds + Jinada = I CRIPPLE YOU SO DAMN HARD YOU DON'T MOVE ANYMORE!! Mid game  Infest + Shadow Walk, 2v1 gank has never been so easy. Late game? Grab popcorn while watching Lifestealer rampaging throughout the map. |
Foes
The kind of enemies you wouldn't want to use Bounty Hunter against, or you can try and make your life a living hell. Invisibility Detection Heroes
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This kind of heroes is simply annoying. Slardar can just cast  Amplify Damage and you are practically useless. Zeus can accidentally cast  Lightning Bolt on ground and spots your attempt to gank him since 6.81 update. Oh, let's not forget how he can also simply deward the Sentry Ward you bought to destroy their Sentry Ward. Rubick, however, get an honorable mention here because he can simply  Spell Steal your Track if given the chance and kills you with your own medicine. |
Durable Heroes
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This kind of heroes is the bane of your existence. Why? Simple. They are hard to be killed but so easy to kill you. Try ganking one if you don't believe me. What I stated above are the worst of durable kind because they are durable AND has high burst damage. However, normal durable heroes like Axe or Bristleback are as annoying, even if they might not be able to kill you. |
Double Agents
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Basically some heroes I listed above in Friends section. These heroes are very good if they are allied, but a nightmare if as enemy units. They are heroes that are listed in High Burst Damage Heroes and Meddling Heroes because they can easily turn successful gank into a failed one. |
Personal Nemesis
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I HATE THIS GUY WITH MY WHOLE EXISTENCE!!! Or at least whenever I use Bounty Hunter. This guy is not only the bane of Bounty Hunter's existence, he CRUSHES IT TO SMITHEREENS ALONG WITH YOUR EGO! "Solo squishy hero I can gank.  Stampede!" "Let's try solo-ganking Centaur Warrunner -->  Hoof Stomp!  Double Edge!" "Teamfight: Why did I die? Oh, I was hitting myself..." |
Preys
The heroes that you can "eat" so deliciously. If you pick Bounty Hunter and meet these heroes, be very happy for you can essentially make them petrified of their own shadow and hug the precious Sentry Ward the whole game. Squishy Heroes with no Escape Skill
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These are the kind of heroes that will die from just some mere hits + Shuriken Toss from you. Even if they have slow or disable, it is invalid escape skill because you only need to land some hits, and Track
make them unable to run away even if you are slowed or disabled. No
matter how high their movement speed is, usually you can chase them with
Track and kill them so hard they will never do anything alone ever again. Heroes like Enigma, Enchantress and Chen are even better simply because they won't even be able to jungle early on without dying lots of time. |
Invisible Heroes
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These are basically the two heroes that shiver whenever they see a Bounty Hunter
pick in their enemy's team. Why? Simple! Your ultimate skill basically
nullifies their whole existence! These heroes are so squishy it's not
even funny if they don't have their invisibility.  Weaver deserves some mention, but is not quite a delicious sitting duck (or roach) simply because even if you Track him,  Shukuchi is still a huge pain because of the maximum movement speed. Heroes like Sniper, Drow Ranger, Shadow Fiend,  Slark, etc. that normally use Shadow Blade will also think twice before actually buying Shadow Blade, rendering them less effective. |
Channeling Heroes
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These heroes hate you because of your Shuriken Toss. Once you see them channeling something, use Shuriken Toss
ASAP and they are sitting duck for your whole team to finish off.
However, be wary that these "preys" are dangerous. The reason is because
if you are caught IN the spell, you are basically doomed. |
Gondar 404 - Common Mistakes and Tips
Like I stated before, this guide was primarily created because I see to much problems of pub players playing Bounty Hunter.
These are the big common mistakes that are done tremendously much in
pub and I hope these can help you not to do the mistakes like commonly
done.Hard Carry Bounty Hunter
Look, I know that Valve stated his role as a Carry, and to some degree, it's true (not as true as Semi-Carry though). However, you need to know that his main power is not in late game, but early-mid game to early-late game, when the game goes to late game, there are MANY carries that can outcarry
Bounty Hunter.As
Bounty Hunter, your main strength comes in your roaming/ganking capability in the early to mid game. With Track,
a successful ganking provides tenfold profit (okay, not ten) when
successfully killing enemy heroes, since it provides more golds for the
whole team and allow your team to snowball with great advantage to late
game. When you become a hard carry, your team loses the gold bonus from Track, and trust me; you would profit more from farming heroes than creeps. There is a reason why your name is BOUNTY HUNTER, and creeps' bounty are not the bounty you are supposed to be hunting for.I don't understand why you would go to empty lanes while your hard carry strive for creeps to eat, scavenging each and every bit of gold they can get, when you can actually just roam and profit so much from killing heroes, even with limited items. This talk about
Battle Fury on Bounty Hunter too... Let me just simulate a little bit: "NO!!
IT'S LATE GAME AND WITH MY 6-SLOT ITEMS I STILL LOSE TO ENEMY 5-SLOTTED
SPECTRE!! HOW COULD THIS BE???!!?" "THESE STUNS!! I HOPE I HAVE MY BKB
NOW!!" "NOOB BH! I CANNOT FARM!! - Teammate Carry". Yeah, you get the idea. Bounty Hunter is quite an item independent hero, it's ridiculous to farm for more items while you can do your most with just 
Black King Bar. Especially buying a 4350 gold Battle Fury for better farms while halting your own carry's growth. Just... don't.How to gank and roam effectively:
Really, I'm not kidding when I said
Bounty Hunter doesn't need that many items, with your 
Poor Man's Shield and 
Phase Boots
you are already such a scary threat for 1v1 situation, especially when
you are ahead by 2-3 levels from being in solo lane. As soon as you are
in level 6, you are ready to go.Coordinate with your teammates or just check the situation on mini map for potential hero kills, and while you are moving to gank, try to search for enemy jungling carry and kill them if possible. When you are ganking someone, you need to initiate the fight if there are no disabler/slower as your allies,
Jinada works as a wonderful slow early on and can potentially bag you a kill.However, what you really need to know before ganking someone are:
- Move from lane to lane with permanent
- Do not start the battle (in case you initiate) while the
- DO NOT FORGET to cast
- If enemy channels a channeling spell, or tries to TP to safety, forget about your low mana pool and cast
- Otherwise, don't use
Single Lane Bounty Hunter
Single lane is different from solo lane, single lane
Bounty Hunter means the kind of scumbag that is too lazy to go from his lane and roam or secure the jungle of enemy's jungling carries THE WHOLE GAME. Why is this such a big problem, you ask? Well, let me state it for you:- No
- Less kills from successful roam and gank
- Higher threat potential of detected by
- One less lane for your carry to farm
A single lane
Bounty Hunter
ruins the game because it will cause disadvantage the whole game. It
speaks for itself that without you; the early to mid game will be harder
for your team to dominate, since they lose their main source of damage
in mid game, as well as bonus gold from Track.In early game, you will feed so much because your lane is always covered with
Sentry Ward and Dust of Appearance
(especially in aggressive tri-lane). While in late game, your carry
will suffer from the farm not being enough because you are taking one of
the lane for yourself. I am asking you to please, don't be this kind of
Bounty Hunter.Coward Bounty Hunter
Now comes the king of pub games! Coward
Bounty Hunter!!
Oh, don't even get me started on this! Imagine how many kills run out
of hand by this and how much gold can I get if not by this kind of
player. A coward Bounty Hunter can be spotted by how he uses Shadow Walk, usually he uses it only for escape maneuver. Let me give you an advice: Shadow Walk is best used to ambush a solo hero, not for escaping.Now, what does coward
Bounty Hunter
do? They walk into battle without invisibility, tracking one enemy, and
then hitting them. Suddenly enemy teammates come, it's now 3 to 4 in
our advantage. Bounty Hunter was hit and stunned! His HP is now half! What does he do? Shadow Walk!!
Okay, it all seems sensible until here. But then, he runs to base
completely, disregarding the teamfight, while all the enemies are
stunned and has 20% HP less. This lead to his team dying, leaving only 2
survivors from enemy team and his team receiving no gold bonus from
track.Even more advanced:
Bounty Hunter uses Shadow Walk,
closes in to enemy units. Ping relentlessly, when the initiator of your
team initiate, he doesn't attack and run away instead. Someone give
this kind of player a medal of cowardice! Never play this kind of Bounty Hunter, because the void of Track
means less potential gold from the team. However, keep in mind that it
is always better to stay alive in team fight for it reduces enemy
profit, and boost your team DPS. Oh, did I mention that these people buy
Shadow Blade on Bounty Hunter?How to be effective in team fights and stay alive:
- If possible, do not initate the fight (outside from using
- Do not dive into the battleground (full melee) while you have your initial
Lina).
- When your health drops below 30% and there are still many enemy heroes, back away. Stay within
- Never forget that you have
- If you are going to die no matter what, prioritize getting at least one more
Explanation of Explanation (Explanaception)
Here, I will explain about what I shall explain to you later on, some glossaries and what each segments means, what it is about, and why I explain those parts.Proper Tournament Build
This is the build that I write based on the most popular and reasonable builds of
Bounty Hunter
by analyzing the competitive plays. This build is meant to be played
ONLY in solo lane, be it off-lane or mid lane, but preferably is
off-lane.The sole purpose of this build is to make
Bounty Hunter as good as possible competitively, as a solo off-laner
that roams around the map, giving allied heroes free farm while halting
enemies' growth and dominates the mid phase game, allowing the carries
to snowball uncontrollably.This build is recommended for pub players or even ranked players that are striving to learn how to play
Bounty Hunter properly. This build is basic for Bounty Hunter
and is the textbook build for him that is easy to pick up and has quite
a high skill ceiling due to many aspects and is effective in many tiers
of competitive plays. Inexperienced players can also read through this
build to evade the things that a lot of pub players like to play but is
considered very wrong in competitive plays.Personal Build
This build is based on my experience of playing
Bounty Hunter in pub, and as you expect, mostly is played as a dual lane hero. This build is a condensation of my games in Bounty Hunter as a dual lane hero that is created only to be played in pub, not competitively.This build emphasizes early killing potential of
Bounty Hunter, by maximizing Shuriken Toss
first, and net some early kills with a proper nuker support. Other than
that, this build also capitalizes on your lanemate to allow Bounty Hunter to roam faster than in proper tournament build (as soon as level 6, because you have another hero to protect the tower).Basically, this build is created for early killing potential of
Bounty Hunter,
to peak faster than usual and stay relevant until late game. However,
this build will be unlikely to work against experienced and
well-organized teams. Even if I have tried this several times in ranked
match and performs admirably, this build is supposed to be played in pub
only.Items Build
Early Game
This means that these items should be taken as soon as possible. However, in some instances, it is possible to skip these items entirely and go for bigger items. These items are supposed to be taken between 0-10 minutes into the game and be replaced later in game. These items are important in an aspect that without them, you might not survive the laning phase and early gank attempts and will peak too late in game.
Mid Game
These are the items that need to be taken around ~20 minutes into the game. These items are items to boost your damage potential or survivability so that you can transition into core items faster. Usually, these items will stay a long time, and replaced only when inventory is full of luxury items or items that can be upgraded in late game but is better to be taken in mid phase of the game for the effects it gives.
Core Items
In every game, there are always items that you must take (no, I'm not talking about
Boots of Speed or 
Healing Salve)
on a certain hero. That is called core items. Essentially, core items
are items that must be taken in most games simply because those are the
items that are "made for this hero". Usually these items must be taken
right after mid game items, however, you might skip the mid game items
and simply go to the core. In no situation, nonetheless, should you ever
skip a core item (except in extreme situations)Core Extensions
These are normally items that you have to take after core, however, being core extensions mean that these items are normally easier to purchase compared to luxury items and more useful in wider situations than situational items. This means that core extensions basically are items that need to be taken quickly, sometimes even BEFORE then core items. If the game doesn't go as it is supposed to go, however, you can skip the core extensions and go straight to a luxury/situational items that you think can change the flow of the game (right after your core item, of course)
Situational Core
You have heard about core items, but situational core are basically core items that you SHOULD NOT take IF, essentially different from situational items in a sense that you should normally take it. These items are usually items that provides great use, but is not always useful. Examples:
Ethereal Blade on 
Morphling if there are 3 or more nukers, 
Hood of Defiance on Centaur Warrunner if there are no magical damage dealer, and in this situation, Black King Bar on Bounty Hunter if there are no disabler/nuker. (which is very common in pub) or 
Vladmir's Offering
if you receive practically no damage from roaming. Of course, this
group of items still needs to be taken sooner or later, but situational
core means it could be either BEFORE OR AFTER core items according to
the situation.Luxury Items
Items that provides great bonus but expensive cost falls to this group, essentially, items for late game when you are already very rich. However, taking one of these items early usually make you a great threat, but be wary, farming it up is not some sweet little recreational park.
Situational Items
Okay, situational. You get the idea. Basically it is a group of items that are not usually needed, but in some instance you should take it.
Gameplay
How I recommend you to play this hero in different phases of game (early, mid and late) Of course, it is by no mean the "hard guideline" as how to play the hero, it is more like a textbook that I provide you to mold into your own playstyle. I also put in some tips and advise that you might need.
Abilities Explanation
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Shuriken Toss:
This skill is your only burst damage skill, and is best used for a last
hitting (kill securing) method that denies enemy's attempt to run away.
However, the huge early damage output, combined with relatively low
cool down time can also cause this skill to be used as a nuking skill,
especially with a lanemate (unlikely) that can deal great burst damage
nuke as well early.
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I generally am against using this skill pre-team fight or to initiate a team fight. Why? Because using this skill before team fight takes off your surprise ability with
Shadow Walk, and initiating a team fight with Bounty Hunter is just plain stupid without Shadow Walk. If you break invisibility with Shuriken Toss, it is a waste of good 120+2.25* damage.However, the most important thing to note about
Shuriken Toss is this part: "dealing damage AND mini-stunning the target". Shuriken Toss provides a tremendously useful side effect, a simple mini-stun.
This is very, very useful because mini-stun can often affect how a
gank/roam goes. Single enemy almost dead and trying to teleport away? Shuriken Toss!!! Enemy Witch Doctor cast 
Death Ward? Shuriken Toss!!!! 
Sand King preparing 
Epicenter? Shuriken Toss!!!!|
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Jinada:
This is your one and only passive skill, and arguably one of the best
last hitting methods in the laning phase. This, combined with Shadow Walk is the reason why you are such a solid off-laner. Jinada
is a simple critical strike passive, however, what makes it stands on
different ground from the other critical strike is that it gives an
absolutely certain critical strike/maim in the first attack after a
cooldown duration.
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In my opinion,
Jinada is better than other critical strikes for Bounty Hunter.
You might argue: "but Yzreel, that means it can only procs once every 6
seconds even in level 3! Surely, other critical strikes that can proc
multiple times have better DPS?" Yes, it's true that Jinada inarguably loses in DPS to other critical strike users, especially in late game (more the reason why you SHOULD NOT build Bounty Hunter to be a hard carry)However,
Jinada
has many utilities; it's not made to be a late-game usage skill (which
is why you level it relatively earlier than other critical strikes). Its
primary usage in the laning phase is to get last hit safely, why?
Because having a 100% critical chance that increases your damage output
to 150% basically increases your last hitting capability by A LOT.When you transition to mid-game,
Jinada is a very dependable ganking/roaming method, because of the 25% slow that it implies to the enemy on first hit. Combined with Shadow Walk, the damage output critical is also hurting very much. I've used Bounty Hunter quite a lot of time, and against squishy heroes, it can easily cut their HP to almost half instantly.|
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Shadow Walk: Here comes Bounty Hunter's trademark skill. This is the reason why you are an efficient off-laner (combined with Jinada),
because with this skill you can turn invisible, and without proper
detection items it will be near impossible to kill you. This skill
allows you to always be inside of exp range from creeps, even in heavy
aggressive tri-lane and can potentially net you a save few last hits.
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This skill is immensely useful and has many utilities. It is most commonly recommended to level this skill twice early game because it can provide you with permanent invisibility (using this skill again before the duration has ended). I did say that this skill has many utilities, and let me list those:
- Laning phase last-hitting and EXP farming tool (staying near creep without having any real threat)
- Permanent Invisibility = roaming / ganking without being spotted by wards (of course, except if the wards are
- Great initial damage combined with
- Great positioning skill in team fight (mostly used to kill squishy glass cannons first to reduce damage input to team)
- Decent escape method (provided there are no detection items)
These are just some of the utilities that I remember on top of my head, I believe
Shadow Walk can be used in much more situations, making Bounty Hunter even much more scarier. Here are some things that you need to remember about using Shadow Walk:- Do not use
- When you are being invisible, SCOUT. Scouting increases the opportunity of being success in winning ganking by tenfolds because it evades those ridiculous
Meat Hook and 5 men team ambush
- Don't forget to check for enemies' inventories (mostly supports) for detection items. If there are
- Never, ever, ever ping an enemy hero in
- Even when you are channeling, you can still use
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Track:
ARE YOU READY FOR THISSS?!? HERE COMES TRACK!!!! This is your ultimate
ability and your trademark, most inarguably valuable skill. Track
is the reason why ALL invisible heroes are scared of you, and also the
reason why your teammates don't seem to want to start a team fight
without you. If there is any reason for Bounty Hunter to be taken in professional scenes, Track outweights it by God-knows-how-much.
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Track
is a skill that provides vision and true sight to the target (Ha! Who
needs dust now?), and hard counter every single invisible-depending hero
(actually, this includes himself. Beware of Spell Steal) Do you need any other reason to pick this skill? Hang on! I'm not even close to the good part. Track
also grants you 20% bonus movement speed if the tracked unit is 900
units radius from allied units. What does it mean? It means: Friends
chasing fast moving enemy --> Track --> enemy dies. Friends being chased by enemy hero --> Track --> Too fast to be caught. Even if Track
receives quite a major nerf in 6.77 (doesn't reduce armor anymore),
this move speed boost is quite major and important in ganking.Now comes the good part!
Track GIVES MONEY!
It is, IMO, on of the most OP skills in the game. Think about it like
this: "wow, I killed a hero and got 325 gold, cool enough I guess" WITH TRACK ON:
"I killed a hero and got 325 gold AND 250 bonus gold for me AND 150
gold for my allies! OP PLEASE FIX!" let's calculate the situation: there
are 4 allied heroes on 1 enemy hero (level 15, no streak), you gank
successfully and kills the unit: you get (200+15*9) = 335 gold, while
the rest of the team get (6*15) = 90 gold. The whole team gets a total
of 335+90*4 = 695 gold. With Track
(lvl 3) on: you get 335+250 gold = 585 gold and the rest of the team
get 90+150 gold = 240 gold. This means the whole team gets 585+240*4 = 1445 gold. Look at the difference and weep!! With Track on your team profit sky jumps to more than twice (or 250+150*4 = 850 gold). See why I said don't pick Bounty Hunter if you forget to Track in team fight? (Everybody loves math doto)If you have seen the utility of
Track, you should have realized how important it is to land Track on all enemy heroes if possible. Because a successful 5v5 teamfight with Track on all enemies will give a profit of 850*5 = 4250 gold for your whole team, and it's just... Well, you get the idea. Here are tips and advise of how to use Track properly;- If a teamfight is going to happen (while both party positioning), land as many
- Note that if enemy units have
- ALWAYS aim to land
- Do not track a single target repeatedly, it has 30 seconds duration and 5 seconds cool down in lvl 3. It is potentially possible to get all 5 heroes tracked before the first tracked hero duration wears off
- While you are scouting before a gank, and you think that you will lose in teamfight, don't be afraid to use
- When you / your teammate is ganked, don't forget to use
Sange and Yasha bonus)
- If you are going to die anyway, fight. You should be able to deal
quite a hefty damage (and even kill) because of your huge burst damage (
I suppose that's all I can give you for his abilities. I believe that learning it by yourself in-games will provide a much more personalized and comfortable gameplay. Note that what I just stated are not always fixed rule, sometimes, people prefer one over the other (I prefer only 1 level of
Shadow Walk than two levels for a game in pub, even if I know it's supposed to be otherwise)Tournament Item Build Explanation
Starting Items
They speak for themselves; you are going to be expecting a degree of
harasses, and these items keep you up and alive. However, if you think
you are up to safe tri-lane, or probably dual lane, take the double Slippers of Agility rather than Stout Shield because it helps you take last hits.
Slippers of Agility rather than Stout Shield because it helps you take last hits.Early Game
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This item grants Bounty Hunter higher defense potential via 100% 20
damage block. Combined with his very high base armor (5.94), he can
soaks up a lot of damage early on. Starts the game with basic items to
build this item ( Slippers of Agility or Stout Shield) and finish up the item in secret shop because you might fight an aggressive tri-lane, and this help to survive A LOT.
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You can get this item as early as you need if you need additional HP, this item will later become a component of  Drum of Endurance that you will inevitably need in mid-game, while increasing survivability early on.
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I suggest getting this item quite early since this item has saved my
life / secure my kill dozens of time. The faster you finish this item,
the better it is, since it empties the inventory slot that the Iron Branch was taking.
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Getting this item early on is quite crucial as well, the mana regen provides you with enough mana for the permanent Shadow Walk trick, and a little bit more of armor is never bad (don't forget to turn the aura off)
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Boots... Yeah, this item is a must for everybody. At the very least, you would want to get this item before you start roaming, simply because you wouldn't want to miss the roaming kills due to lack of speed. Oh, let's not forget that moving through the lake in the speed of a snail is not the wisest thing to do. |
Mid Game
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This item provides a substantial boost of damage in early game (24 damage. Why should you get this boots? You need to finish your gank as soon as possible, especially a single man ganking since you don't want to extend the gank and potentially getting their team mate to help them. |
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If there is one item that increases a hero's survivability, escape / killing potential and mana pool at the same time in mid game, it is this item. You will probably need all of those things to roam and gank successfully and thus this item is quite crucial to get in mid game. |
Core Items
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If there is an item on Bounty Hunter that is a must for him, it would be this item. In team fight, enemy heroes will most likely prioritize on killing Bounty Hunter
because of his high burst damage, and you cannot afford taking disables
and nukes, considering your pretty low HP pool. Black King Bar provides
you with magic immunity to survive a teamfight and put Track on everybody, as well as bonus damage and HP.
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This item is primarily bought for its utilities and cheap price. You can
even get this item bit by bit even if your laning phase is so bad, keep
in mind that Ring of Basilius
should have been built from early stage. This item provides enormous
global presence and forces your enemies to be more passive because you
can just go jungling whenever you need to go home, giving your late
carry some sort of free farm and reducing their farming phase. The
damage aura and lifesteal aura also grants him a higher team presence.
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Core Extension
Usually, you would like to take one of these items. Desolator if your roaming/ganking is going well and you have enough money, Yasha if your laning phase is poor, and Orchid Malevolence if there are a lot of heroes with escape abilities in enemy's team. Note that Yasha has the versatility that the rest don't, and can be build to Sange and Yasha, that can also be 
Heaven's Halberd and 
Manta Style late in game.
Desolator if your roaming/ganking is going well and you have enough money, Yasha if your laning phase is poor, and Orchid Malevolence if there are a lot of heroes with escape abilities in enemy's team. Note that Yasha has the versatility that the rest don't, and can be build to Sange and Yasha, that can also be Heaven's Halberd and Manta Style late in game.
Luxury (Offensive)
In late game, getting Monkey King Bar can help a lot if your enemies are evasive or Butterfly carrier (like 
Phantom Assassin or Brewmaster). If not, be one! Getting Butterfly boost your EHP by more than 25% and is also very deadly offensively, Take Abyssal Blade only if there are magic immune units that are very annoying and your carries are not good Abyssal Blade carriers.
Monkey King Bar can help a lot if your enemies are evasive or Butterfly carrier (like Phantom Assassin or Brewmaster). If not, be one! Getting Butterfly boost your EHP by more than 25% and is also very deadly offensively, Take Abyssal Blade only if there are magic immune units that are very annoying and your carries are not good Abyssal Blade carriers.Luxury (Defensive)
Heart of Tarrasque is simply the best late game survivability item, however, if there are lots of single target burst damage dealer ( Lina, Lion, etc.), take Linken's Sphere. Manta Style
is an utility item that is more of a pusher/escape item material, while
sometimes also killing and durable potential. Consider buying this if
you bought Yasha earlier, because the active can disperse Dust of Appearance or Amplify Damage and make you survive. As of Assault Cuirass, it is great option to increase your team presence, if no carry want to build it.Situational Items
These items are generally taken if your laning phase / ganking / roaming doesn't go as well as you expected. Making Medallion of Courage, Orb of Venom or Urn of Shadows can be a cost-effective insurance to safe your roaming kills. Ring of Aquila and Medallion of Courage are both items that can be made from Ring of Basilius, and provide you with more armor if your laning phase is bad. Bottle should be taken if you are in mid lane, but if you are not, taking Bottle has the same reason as taking Urn of Shadows, to have as long effective time as possible to increase global presence. Sentry Ward is needed in some laning situation if you meet dificult opponents to deward.
Medallion of Courage, Orb of Venom or Urn of Shadows can be a cost-effective insurance to safe your roaming kills. Ring of Aquila and Medallion of Courage are both items that can be made from Ring of Basilius, and provide you with more armor if your laning phase is bad. Bottle should be taken if you are in mid lane, but if you are not, taking Bottle has the same reason as taking Urn of Shadows, to have as long effective time as possible to increase global presence. Sentry Ward is needed in some laning situation if you meet dificult opponents to deward.
Only get Sange and Yasha if you have already bought Yasha, and are expecting your enemy right clicker will be a burden later on. In late game, break Sange and Yasha to build Heaven's Halberd to disable the right clicker, and change the leftover Yasha to Manta Style for better defensive/offensive capacity
Sange and Yasha if you have already bought Yasha, and are expecting your enemy right clicker will be a burden later on. In late game, break Sange and Yasha to build Heaven's Halberd to disable the right clicker, and change the leftover Yasha to Manta Style for better defensive/offensive capacityDO NOT BUILD
Damage boost is great, but Desolator gives more
Farming potential SHOULD NOT be taken for Bounty Hunter
Regeneration is great, but agility boost / armor reduction is better
You are not meant to be a hard carry
Cleave is wasted on Bounty Hunter. You ARE NOT 
Kunkka
Desolator gives moreFarming potential SHOULD NOT be taken for
Bounty HunterRegeneration is great, but agility boost / armor reduction is better
You are not meant to be a hard carry
Cleave is wasted on
Bounty Hunter. You ARE NOT Kunkka
Any person creating Radiance on Bounty Hunter deserves a place in LPQ. First of all, like stated about Battle Fury, Radiance
is also a farming item and you are not meant to be hard carry. You do
not want to take the farms of your team's carry. One thing I don't
understand most is... Roaming invisibly is your most powerful ability. WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU SPEND 5150 GOLD JUST TO TELL YOUR ENEMY THAT YOU ARE THERE???
Radiance on Bounty Hunter deserves a place in LPQ. First of all, like stated about Battle Fury, Radiance
is also a farming item and you are not meant to be hard carry. You do
not want to take the farms of your team's carry. One thing I don't
understand most is... Roaming invisibly is your most powerful ability. WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU SPEND 5150 GOLD JUST TO TELL YOUR ENEMY THAT YOU ARE THERE???
Oh, hey, did you know that Volvo just created a new skill on Bounty Hunter called Shadow Walk? Oh, wait! IT'S ALWAYS BEEN THERE! Why would you need another invisibility then???
Bounty Hunter called Shadow Walk? Oh, wait! IT'S ALWAYS BEEN THERE! Why would you need another invisibility then???
Tournament Skill Build Explanation
Shuriken Toss:
This skill is essential to be taken at least twice before level 6
(alas, the reason why it's taken in level 4 and 5) because it boost your
roaming / ganking success rate by a whole lot. The reason why you do
not take 3 levels in this skill before Track is because level 2 Shadow Walk simply gives better utility (permanent invisibility), and the scaling of Shuriken Toss from level 2 to 3 is HORRIBLE
compared to level 1 to 2. This is due the mana increase is the same
(+20 / level), while the damage increase is different (100/200/250/325).
This is also why some people prefer to finish leveling these 2 levels
last and proceed to finish Jinada and Shadow Walk
first. However, I believe that it is necessary to finish this in level 8
because 325 damage last hitting skill is better than 200 damage (even
if at the expense of higher mana cost) Jinada:
There is no way around it, take this skill at level 2 in tournament
build. It is VERY essential to take this skill if you are going to the
offlane because it boosts your last hitting damage by half the amount
(you can kill the creep much earlier than enemy's attempt to deny). You
can max this skill later in game, though, because the slow stays the
same (same gank capability), and the damage increase is barely
noticeable in early stage of game (unlike Shuriken Toss) Shadow Walk:
In tournament build, you take this skill at level 1,3,13 and 14. The
reason behind it is because that you only need 2 levels in it to get the
most of it, considering how the duration becomes a duration that allows
you to get permanent invisibility (15 cooldown and 20 duration at level
two). This is why you need to take two level of this skill as soon as
possible. Now the question is why do you need to take it in first level?
Simple, because it allows you to evade killing attempt right away that
is highly probable in aggressive tri-lane as well as having no gap in
staying within exp range of creeps. Track: If someone says to delay taking this skill, DON'T listen to them, there is not a single skill that Bounty Hunter
has that is more valuable than this (of course, it all depends on the
situation, but this is most of the time). If some ultimate skills are
good to be delayed (such as 
Weave, 
Time Lapse, 
True Form, etc.), Track
is not one of those and it you should take it as early as you can. Why?
In those instances of ultimate skills, the reason why they are good to
be delayed is simply that at that stage of level, the hero's other
skills are more valuable (
Shallow Grave, Shukuchi, 
Synergy, etc.) However, for Bounty Hunter, all his skills are nowhere near as valuable as Track in this stage of game. Two points in Shadow Walk and one point in Jinada is all you need in this stage of game. The only thing worth upgrading in this stage is Shuriken Toss, however the bad scaling make it a lot worse to upgrade compared to Track.Tournament Build Gameplay
Early:
Focus on getting levels and not being killed, then start to roam- Purchase one of the two starting item build according to how you expect your lane enemy to behave (
- Play safe, just be passive and stay in exp range. Note that the
point of playing off-lane is to get as high level as possible, NOT as
much money as possible. However, with your
- Do not try to harass. I know, it's tough to see those hopelessly squishy supports unwary of your presence. However, they can quickly turn the harassment to their kill, especially if it's a tri-lane.
- When there are
- If they do have
- Once you reach level 6, you should at least have gotten
- DO NOT be hasty and leave your lane without anyone to back it up, good enemies can often use this space to destroy your tower.
- If someone can take care of your lane, start your roam immediately,
go around their jungle and hope to find a farming carry because you can
solo-kill them at this early stage and halt their farming items to be
bought. If none is at sight, just go to other lane and help get the kill
(don't forget to bring
Mid:
Focus on getting as many roam/gank kills and item as soon as possible- This is marked by ~20 minutes mark, and you were already supposed to
bag some kills from your roam. Now, this is when you get scary. You
should have already gotten at least
- Roam the whole map searching for farming "late-bloomers" or simple extremely squishy alone supports that just happen to be alone (what I would love to call hare-hunt), and kill them miserably. This will cause your team to have more places to farm and your enemies to weep in their sleep and jump at the slightest voice in the map.
- Help in as many gank attempt as possible (which is why you need to ALWAYS have
- This is also the stage when you get as many luxury items as possible as you see fit. Never be scared because you can mostly solo kill every single hero in this stage, but don't be overconfident because I doubt you can go 1v5 (most likely if all is missing and there is only 1 carry farming visible), if you do want to ambush a farming carry, scout the entire area first for potential gank
Early Late:
Focus on getting as many kills against glass cannons in team fight and halt the growth of enemies carry.- This is the time when your efficiency wears down (most likely 5-6
slotted already) while the enemy carries are starting to bloom. This is
probably around ~30 minutes mark, and you have just few minutes more to
dominate the game until their carries are going to outcarry you. If you
do not have
- Mostly, go with your teammates in this stage. This is because you
are not as strong anymore and most likely unable to solo-kill
(especially because in this time, your enemy will also sticks a lot).
Other than that,
- If possible, get your teammates (1 or 2 should suffice, but even all 4 is good) to gank on their 4-slotted carries before your efficiency wears off and thus unable to gank anymore. This will also allow your carries to snowball better while their carries' progress halted.
- If there are team fights going in, it's your job to finish off the glass cannons as fast as possible. Especially in this stage of the game when they really hits HARD, the sooner you kill them off, the better chance of the team fights to be won by your team.
- In team fights, don't forget to pop your
Late:
Focus on getting as many Tracks as possible and as much DPS as you can in team fights. This will make you viable and effective in late game.- Most likely, you will be outcarried by any carry enemy has in this stage of game, even the ones that you have been killing all over the game
- Don't be overconfident and try to solo kill, even if the enemy is alone. This is the stage where every death can mean your defeat.
- In team fights, stay in a relatively save distance and use Track all the time until the fight breaks in. In this stage,
Necronomicon or
- In team fights, pop your
What About Mid Lane?
Things to remember in mid lane:
- Unlike off-lane, playing mid lane makes you much more flexible in
roaming because of the lack of firepower from a single mid hero. This
will allow you to roam without fear of getting your tower destroyed,
however, you need to note that in mid lane, you are getting free farm,
and roaming around without any result will make you lose the farm.
Decide for yourself when to efficiently roam and get the kills. If not,
just stay in lane until opportunity to roam presents itself (always keep
a
- It is essential to take
- In mid lane, the free farm will allow you to get one of your core extensions faster. Whether it be
- However, when you get the
Personal Item Build Explanation
Mostly the same as tournament build, I will
only write the explanation of those that has different role / unused in
tournament build, and you can check in Tournament Item Build Explanation
section for the rest
Starting Items
These starting items aim is to make them become Ring of Aquila and Magic Wand ASAP. Ring of Protection and Slippers of Agility are both items to make Ring of Aquila, which provides good early protection and last hitting bonus. Ring of Protection can be made to Ring of Basilus from side shop early and also you can get 
Magic Stick there. First courier you use will finish your 
Wraith Band and Magic Wand.
Ring of Aquila and Magic Wand ASAP. Ring of Protection and Slippers of Agility are both items to make Ring of Aquila, which provides good early protection and last hitting bonus. Ring of Protection can be made to Ring of Basilus from side shop early and also you can get Magic Stick there. First courier you use will finish your Wraith Band and Magic Wand.
Different Items From Tournament Build
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This item is very useful in laning phase because it provides you with
better stats, mana regeneration and armor. In my personal build, I
prefer this rather than the Poor Man's Shield
because it allows me to spam my skills with the boost in mana (from
stats boost) and mana regeneration. This also increase survivability
with increase in armor and HP, and can be disassembled to get Vladmir's Offering later on if needed.
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In my personal build, this item is more important than in tournament
build. You do not take this only if your laning phase is bad; take this
because Sange and Yasha
is a core item (check below to see why it is core item.) This item will
provide a lot of killing potential and additional global presence. |
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The reason why this item is a mid game necessity is simple, because in
my personal build, I aim to get my core items ASAP and this item is an
ingredient of both Black King Bar and Desolator. Additionally, this item also grants bonus damage and is useful for ganking in mid game. |
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This item is also a mid game item with same reason as Mithril Hammer, that this item is an ingredient of  Sange and Black King Bar.
You need to choose what you want to create first, and finish the whole
item based on the situation. This item also grants quite some boost of
survivability. |
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Some people don't like this item on Bounty Hunter, but I love this item.
Why? Simple, this item grants bonus movement speed (global presence),
damage output, attack speed, maim, and durability. This item basically
acts like drum, but is much better and scale to late game because it can
be made into Heaven's Halberd and Manta Style.
I recommend getting this item as soon as possible, considering the low
price of each ingredient making it easy to buy. However, if you have
enough gold, getting Desolator first is a better option.
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This item is very needed if there are a lot of disabler/supports capable
of dishing out huge damage. Sometimes, in pub the team consists of 4
carry and 1 support, thus reducing the importance of this item. I myself
usually buy Black King Bar after I get Desolator and Sange and Yasha, however, being in core extensions means that this item can be taken first according to situation.
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This item is pretty much needed for the same reason (global presence),
but due to different gameplay of tournament and pub build, sometimes it
is best not to take this item at all and take Urn of Shadows instead |
Personal Skill Build Explanation
Shuriken Toss:
In a dual lane, this skill is much more important than in solo lane
because it can get you huge potential burst damage, especially combined
with a good support that can nuke/slow. Take this skill at level 2,3,5,7
because you can spam it as soon as you reach level 3 for maximum
damage/mana cost efficiency with Ring of Aquila.
However, you take this skill at level 5 because even 50 damage is
capable to decide whether the target dies or not, thus same reason for
maxing this in level 7. With Ring of Aquila you won't even notice the 20 mana difference. However, do not forget to save at least 50 mana to Shadow Walk Jinada:
I take this in level 4 simply because this skill is not as useful in
dual lane as in solo lane. Main reason to take this skill early is to
last hit efficiently, however, in dual lane you usually have a
"babysitter" and thus allowing you to farm even without this early on.
It is better to get a 200 damage nuke in level 3 to get early kills
easily rather than this skill in level 2. Shadow Walk: This skill is taken in level 8 rather than level 3 is because the three levels in Shuriken Toss
is more useful in early dual lane stage, and having permanent
invisibility is not that important considering how in laning phase it is
easy to farm with a support. However, I take this skill twice in level 8
(rather than maxing Jinada before level 11) is because the permanent invisibility help for moving around the map undetectable at all. Track: Take it in every level possible with the same reason as the other buildPersonal Build Gameplay
I will only explain about the early and mid phase of game in this part, because the late part of the game for Bounty Hunter is almost always the same and you can check it in Tournament Build Gameplay section
Bounty Hunter is almost always the same and you can check it in Tournament Build Gameplay sectionEarly:
Focus on getting last hit and early kills (starting lvl 3) and roam as soon as you reach lvl 6 and try to get early roam/gank kills- Purchase the starting item set. The reason why you take
- Focus on last hitting until you reach at least level 3, use
- Once you reach level 3, you are supposed to have
- Use
- If all goes well, you should be able to bag yourself a few kills in the laning phase. First item to buy after
- When you reach level 6, you should already have the
- Secure their jungle from jungling heroes and roam to unwary enemies, at this stage your
- Roam through the jungles in hope of ward-putting supports / jungling heroes on your way to different lanes. Don't be afraid to fight 2-3 enemies, considering the lane you are trying to gank should have around 2-3 heroes as well, and with you as additional, you should be able to win and bag kills
- If you think that you are losing too much HP after each gank, you can proceed to buy
Mid:
Focus on getting as many roam/gank kills as possible- In this phase (~20 minutes mark) you should have already had either
- Roam all the time and gank any hero that is farming solo, even if there are no nearby allied hero. You should be able to quickly dispose of the hero even before any reinforcement comes, and you won't lose too much HP.
- Keep on roaming, and if there are a lane that has 3 enemy heroes and 3 allied heroes, don't hesitate to join the fray. In fact, initiate if there are no initiator in your team by doing normal combo to the squishiest hero in the lane. This should be able to turn the tide of battle and snowball your carry into a vicious monster. Of course, you need to consider the situation before initiating by scouting and rough consideration of what each unit can do.
- In this phase, you also need to start to think about survivability, start building
- If possible, start building luxury items and get as much kills as you can. Remember that this phase is when you reach your peak, and supposedly you reach it as fast as you can to halt the growth of enemy carries
Advanced Gameplay and Techniques
In this chapter, I will explain about some of the gameplay normally done by advanced players. Note that most of these are supposedly use in solo offlane by Bounty Hunter, but if the situation is right other offlane heroes can also use it. There is nothing more important in solo offlane than to soak exp and maximize the occasional last hits, which is why this chapter will focus mostly in that, rather than the whole gameplay of Bounty Hunter. However, I also put in some advanced techniques/gameplay for roaming and ganking.
Creep Blocking
This technique is commonly mistaken. Most people think that this can only be done when the starting horn blares, however, it has more usages than only that. In solo offlane the creep equilibrium is common to be pulled too far into enemies' tower. Of course, you can try and stop that from happening (which is better), but if that has happened and you can do nothing about it, creep blocking is a risk-proof way to pull the equilibrium nearer to your tower.
Compared to other techniques, this is the simplest and actually, least effective. However, this one also has the least risk, and can sometimes be good in offlane because it accomplish your goal of not dying. Run this technique if you think that your situation requires low-risk, low-return rather than high-risk high return techniques (usually when you cannot actually get close to enemy creeps).
This technique is done by blocking your own creep with your hero's body to slow the creeps' movement and thus dragging the creep equilibrium closer to your tower. There are several ways of doing this effectively, and usually varies upon players. Some people use right-clicking while rapidly pressing stop, some right-clicking near the ground where the creep will move, and some moves from left to right in timed interval. Important thing to note about this technique is that even if the creeps spawn at xx:30 or x:00, it is usually more efficient when done in xx:33-35 (xx:03-05) a few distance away from the tier 3 tower (where the land goes down), especially in Radiant since the creeps spawn in two groups (thus making it harder to block efficiently), until they reunite in front of the tower.
When to use:
- You are to meet aggressive tri-lane and are going to die if you attempt higher risk strategies
- Creep equilibrium is too near to enemies' tower and there are
- You do not understand how to use more complicated techniques
Spawn Blocking
Sentry Ward CONTINUALLY.The technique itself consists of a simple idea: to negate the usage of an advanced strategy of opposing team, which is Creep Pulling (there is another section of this below). Of course, theoretically, this DOES NOT pull the creep equilibrium closer to your tower. What it does, however, is stopping the most efficient way for your enemy to pull the equilibrium closer to their tower, thus pulling the equilibrium closer to your tower POTENTIALLY. This is the reason why it is always done in competitive scene, but is situational in pub
The question is how do you actually negate Creep Pulling? Since it is an act of pulling own creep to the easy camp, Spawn Blocking, like the name suggests, block the spawn of the easy camp. Neutral creep spawns can be blocked in a way: To have vision is certain spots around the camp when the creeps are supposed to spawn (xx:30) Because of that, this can be done in several ways, which are:
- Observer Block: This is the act of putting
Observer Ward on the spots where it would halt the spawn of the neutral creeps. This is the most common used technique in pub because it requires no further gold other than the initial wards purchase. However, this is not a good way of doing this because
- Sentry Block: This is a technique where you put
- Body Block: Body Blocking is a
technique where a unit is set to be present on the spawn-blocker spots
in the spawning time (xx:30). This skill is different compared to the
rest because it DOES NOT require any gold and is hardest to counter, but
is less consistent. Other heroes can use their minions, but
Spawn Blocking is more efficient if you can combine the techniques and outwit your enemies in a mind game. Great players can use this technique more efficiently because they know when to use which version of the block, thus maximizing the efficiency and bait the enemy supports to waste their money on
Sentry Ward. Example to combine Spawn Blocking:"
Bounty Hunter went to enemy easy camp with Shadow Walk, going through the river and there he puts his pooled Sentry Ward
from his support at the spot farther away from his lane. Right away, he
went to his lane the same time as the creeps reach the tower. When
enemy support (say, 
Shadow Demon) tries to pull the creep, to his astonishment, the neutral creeps don't spawn! Quickly, he ordered his courier to bring him Sentry Ward. This provides Bounty Hunter with 1-2 minutes of free soak in exp. Once the Sentry Ward has arrived, Shadow Demon
puts it in the ground closer to the lane because he thinks that it will
cost him too long to put it farther. However, he didn't manage to see
the ward, and he was forced to put the next ward further away from the
lane, and there he found the Sentry Ward. Thus, his first pair of Sentry Ward
is finished for a single pooled ward. That didn't put him down, and he
was determined to get first blood by going back to the lane and set a
combo with farming Mirana and babysitting Lina. However, he was let down by the fact that Bounty Hunter is only seen by a split seconds everytime before he vanishes. Determined to get first blood, he got another set of Sentry Ward. While waiting, he noticed the clock is now 1:30, and he went to pull the creep, only to find nothing, again. As soon as the Sentry Ward came in, he put it near the secret shop in hope to get the first blood. However, Bounty Hunter plays way too careful to even step within Sentry Ward radius. Shadow Demon
was furious and indecisive. Should I put it to deward? Should I put it
in lane? He finally decide to deward in the other spot, and the ward is
unfound because what he didn't know was that Bounty Hunter was body
blocking. Wasting his second pair of Sentry Ward, he was underleveled and underfarmed, and cannot contribute enough to the team."From above example, the
Bounty Hunter manages to outwit the Shadow Demon, and forces him to waste 4 pieces of Sentry Ward by using only a single pooled Sentry Ward. This is done by properly combining the Spawn Blocking technique, and is extremely important to be played properly.Single Ward Double Block: This is a dire-offlaner-only spawn-blocker spot that is rarely known, but is very useful to know since it block TWO jungle camps in a single spot. This is especially effective if there is a jungler in enemy team because this can cripple both the support and the jungler if done properly. Because this is a rarely known spot, it can also be capitalized to block creep spawns.
- If you can get free exp, but only have the chance to body block
- If you do not understand enemy mindsets, and will instead risk dying
- If you do not understand how to use the technique efficiently, and will waste level trying to execute this technique
Creep Pulling
Creep Pulling is commonly seen by supports to pull their creep to their easy camp in an attempt to get the creep equilibrium much closer to their tower, but on an off-laner, it is also an act of using Creep Aggro (baiting enemy creeps to hit you) while they are still between first and second tier of their tower, then pulling them to your tier one tower through the jungle. This will pull the whole wave (if done properly) into your first tier because the creeps will not clash, letting you last hit safely behind your tower (and probably denying some of next wave's creeps.) This technique will also force your enemy carry to tank some damage if he wants to get last hits, thus actually harassing him.
This technique can be done repeatedly in around xx:20, but is most notably and best used in the first wave because you will waste experience points by moving around and pulling creeps on other waves. This is extremely effective, and can give you one of the leading creep kill, however, is very risky especially against aggressive tri-lane with 2/3 disables. This is more efficient if used by
Bounty Hunter because his Shadow Walk allows him to evade kill attempts.When to use:
- You are confident that you will not die by performing this technique
- There is no chance for you to take exp because the equilibrium is too close to their tower or it is first wave
- There is no
Creep Wave Stacking: This technique is done the exact way as Creep Pulling, with the only difference being that you simply move around with the creeps instead of pulling them to your tower. Once you are being targeted/feel endangered, use
Shadow Walk and escape from sight. To maximize the effectiveness of this skill, wait until their next wave is on sight. DO NOT stack more than 2 waves because it will eradicate your tower really quick (remember old 
Earthshaker creep blocking?)You might be wandering now: "Yzreel! What the hell? Are you dimwit? This will cause the equilibrium to be closer to THEIR tower instead! You are giving them free creep pull!" No, you're the dimwit if you do think so. True, it does pull the equilibrium closer to their tower, but the double wave mean double pushing power (imagine active
Vladmir's Offering + Ring of Aquila), and will push the creep equilibrium to your tower in no time.This technique is particularly useful if you think pulling to your tower is more dangerous and the creep is too near to their tower. However, you need to keep in mind that this will QUICKLY reduce your tower's HP if done improperly, especially against pushing trilane. This technique also makes it harder for enemy carry to last hit since the creep damage output is doubled.
When not to use:
- You are fighting aggressive pushing trilane or aggressive disabling trilane
- You can still take free exp from creep equilibrium
Hard Camp Pulling: This technique is only usable by radiant offlaner (top lane) because of the position of neutral creep hard camp. To execute this technique you will need to use a
Quelling Blade or Tango, I am against using Quelling Blade on Bounty Hunter and thus recommending you to use Tango (you can buy another set of Tango, get a 
Tango (Shared) from your supports or just borrow your carry's Quelling Blade)
You benefit less from this technique compared to the other two Creep Pulling techniques, but you will be much less likely to die compared to the other two. This technique is similar to the other two in term that it should not be used except if the creeps are too near to enemy tower.
You can benefit from this technique because you might actually reduce enemy's exp and gold gain (compared to the other two which gives them free farm), and potentially getting neutral creep last hits. However, this technique is easier to counter in term that enemy supports can simply use Creep Aggro and pull your creep to their carry. In that case, do not try to continue this technique with this wave, but use the same technique for the next wave.
When to use:
- The creep equilibrium is too close to enemy tower
- You need to deny gold and exp from enemy heroes
- You fear enemy early lane-killing potential
Alternative Starting Items
(For purpose of initiating advanced strategy)
Additional:
Tango (Shared) and Sentry Ward (pooled as well)Situational: Second set of
Tango
This three core-starting items (
Stout Shield, Tango and Healing Salve) are the bare minimum Bounty Hunter
(if played off-lane) to reduce incoming damage and staying alive in
lane. This starting set is the bare minimum that you need, while keeping
your inventory empty for additional items to run the strategy.If you want to pull the creep, you might want to get
Tango (Shared) and additional sets of Tango. If you want to block the creeps, getting pooled Sentry Ward is the answer, but if your supports are to selfish and don't want to provide you with Sentry Ward, you can even buy Ring of Protection instead of Stout Shield for additional Sentry Ward. If you get Ring of Protection rather than Stout Shield, and can survive well enough without it, you can actually skip the Poor Man's Shield for a straight rush to Vladmir's Offering after Phase Boots.Sometimes, you need to combine the strategies, thus combining the needed additional and situational items. One thing to note is that
Bounty Hunter excels in taking minor items to benefit teams quickly, so it might be wise to provide empty spaces in inventory.
Invisible Double Last Hit
Have you seen some games when you saw
Bounty Hunter hitting after Shadow Walk, then using it again right away but land another hit without breaking invisibility? I believe you might go "Was it a bug?"
I assure you, it is not. This is a commonly used technique that
capitalizes the fade time. I did state about fade time, and you should
have known that it is the phase where you have "reduced opacity", or in
other words are going invisible.During fade time, you are not counted as being in invisible state. What does this mean? It means those "bugs' that you see. What is the advantage of using this you ask? It provides more efficient last hitting capability in laning phase. Compared to usual "invisible --> hit --> invisible" that capitalizes on only one hit and going invisible to avoid disable/silence, this can actually have the same safety amount but provides twice creep kill amount.
Although it doesn't seem much, this technique is unbelievably useful in laning phase of the game to evade early kills while maximizing last hit potentials. Throughout the game, it can also be used to maximize burst damage. One thing to note about fade time is that it actually reduces by the level you put into this skill. This is also another reason why putting only one or two of this skill early is good, because the "gap" between your attacks are usually around 1 second, and at level 3 it is 0.5 seconds, while level 1 it is a full one second. This means that you can attack a creep to break invisibility, goes invisible and then delivering your second hit right away without accidentally breaking the invisibility off.
Although that the idea is simple, and it is not necessarily an "advanced" trick, but this technique, if done properly can potentially double your last hit amounts in laning phase (which is much more precious in offlane). This technique is often overlooked and underestimated, but you need a good amount of timing to actually get 2 creep kills with this technique.
When to use:
- You can actually land the second hit properly, otherwise you might actually die instead because you waste your invisibility
- Your enemy cannot capitalizes on a little increase on visible state
- Any time possible
Slingshot Tracking
This technique is a common sense actually, but is commonly overlooked and can get you to lose some kills. Although called an advanced trick, this is pretty simple. This technique is used as a chasing tool, for killing down dying enemies that has become a bit too far from your
Track range.If you have experienced some "almost kill" moments because somehow, you fail to finish off a hero with 100 HP left and he has gone from 900 area radius of Track bonus speed. One of his friend comes and you are forced to escape, losing a chance to get your team bonus gold. This moment is one of the most irritating moments in the game, and this technique reduces that moment by quite a lot.
This skill is done by casting
Track to a hero other than the actual target that is closer to you, therefore giving the speed boost bonus even if you cannot Track your actual target. This is very simple and useful, but is commonly overlooked.
When to use:
- You are chasing a hero that is farther than your speed boost range
- There are other hero nearer to you
- You are not going to die from over-chasing
Update
6.81b: In this gameplay change, Bounty Hunter receives what is quite possibly the biggest change in his gameplay since 6.77 update ( Track doesn't reduce armor anymore). In this change (6.81b), Shadow Walk receives a minor buff on duration from 15/20/25/30 to 20/25/30/35. This may not seems much, but trust me when I say that it's A LOT.The most notable difference is not really of the duration, but more to the impact of the game. 20 seconds duration in level 1 is the same as the old level 2, and this means that there is no necessity in which you need to level this to level 2 because you can still do the permanent invisibility trick. If you get what I mean, this mean that you can get permanent invisibility trick since level 1, making you that much more useful.
Because of this, I change my personal build (I don't take it at level 8 anymore for
Jinada instead). However, this gives an option instead for competitive build. I have yet to see a professional scene where Bounty Hunter is used since 6.81b update, so I will analyze this part instead.We will go with standard skill build (E-W-E-Q-Q), with 2 levels of
Shadow Walk, one Jinada and two Shuriken Toss. In level 5, assuming that his damage is 70 and he attacks a hero once with bonus damage from Jinada and Shadow Walk, then use Shuriken Toss (disregarding any armor and resistance.) This build will deal around (1.5*70)+60+200 = 365 damage.However, if we go with another build (E-W-W-Q-Q), 2 levels on
Jinada instead and one in Shadow Walk, with all the same situation as before, we can deal around (1.75*70)+30+200 = 352.5 damage.This concludes only a difference of 12.5 damage with an easier chance to last hit due to
Jinada cool down reduction and damage increrase. Not to mention that Jinada damage will continue to increase with his own damage, thus reducing the difference of damage compared to Shadow Walk usage and even out powering it.Therefore, I assume that it is a better option overall to go with the second build rather than usual build, and thus I changed the skill build. Of course, if situation dictates it can be done differently and getting 3 points in
Shuriken Toss (like in my personal build) can also be a much more viable option compared to before.Conclusion
This concludes my first guide ever, and I hope that it helps you guys to some extend. Moreover, I wish that you like this guide, and if you do I might post another guide soon enough. Any feedback/critic/comment is much appreciated, and I highly encourage you to do so, even if it is quite harsh. I assure you, I don't mind it and won't hold it against you.
As my parting gift, here is how I aim to make all your enemies to become
by using this guide, good luck in your games and remember to hunt the
puny heroes' head. The chase is on!
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Yzreel
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Yzreel
by Yzreel - DotaFire.com
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