DotA 2 Overview : Bounty Hunter

While there are a lot of heroes who are focused on ganking, there aren't many that are focused in the ways that Bounty Hunter is. Ganking is about the only thing Bounty Hunter is good for, but fortunately, he is very good at it. Bounty Hunter fills the role of a mostly physical damage based ganker and semi-carry. While he can make use of extra levels or gold, unlike a hard carry he doesn't need either and will never make as good of use of the those advantages as a full-fledged carry would.

Stats & Skills

Bounty Hunter has a very strong laning presence. His Shadow Walk make him a hard target to kill, his high base armor lets him take a decent amount of punishment, and his Jinada ability allows him to get almost guaranteed gold in hard lanes. For these reasons Bounty Hunter is a natural solo off laner.

Once he hits level 6 and gains access to the excellent Track ability, he becomes a much more capable ganker and can easily slip out of the lane unnoticed to go set up a kill in a completely different lane. An opportunity which is both entirely worth it due to the extra gold given from Track, and made much easier with the guaranteed vision and speed buff given in regards to tracked opponents.

Once he reaches this stage of the game – the stage at which he can easily roam the map and set up kills, Bounty Hunter will develop in one of two ways. Either he will do exceedingly well, assisting in multiple kills, and develop into a more damage dealing carry role, or he will perform moderately and fulfill a more supportive function. As a primary damage dealer, Bounty Hunter becomes very scary for the opposition, capable of being almost anywhere on the map and providing not only the obvious damage for his team, but also giving a great deal of map control. Even if Bounty hunter does not get this ball rolling however, he is still incredibly useful as a scout for kills, guaranteed vision on key targets (Pudge for example), or by simply providing bonus gold for every kill his team gets through Track.

Bounty Hunter’s first items focus around making him a more capable ganker. Phase Boots are the accepted choice due to the efficient damage and additional chasing capability it gives, while some sort of second item is picked up to account for his slight regen issues. Popular choices include a Drum of Endurance which provides more chasing, a Medallion for the armor reduction and mana, or simply a bottle to provide both regen as well as a better control over runes such as the precious Double Damage. Once at this stage your build will diverge depending on how well you’re doing. A particularly rich Gondar will go for a big damage item like a Desolator or Monkey King Bar, while a more supportive item like a Vladimir’s Offering or Drum (if you haven’t built one yet) for a less rich Gondar are good options. In either situation a Black King Bar can be useful for especially CC heavy teams to keep Bounty Hunter safe in the middle of the action.

The skill build for Bounty Hunter I wouldn’t say is all over the place, but is built in such a way to suit one’s needs. In almost every case a Gondar should start out by getting Shadow Walk for the escapability, followed by Jinada for the slow/burst, and then Shuriken Toss for more burst potential. From there, what to get next comes down to your current situation. Most people would level Jinada primarily as it’s free harassment and last hitting tool. Leveling Shuriken Toss can be good if for whatever reason mana is no issue, while putting 1 or 2 more additional points into Shadow Walk can be useful for a very dangerous lane as its duration increases with levels. While there is some variation, getting a single point in each ability is almost always a good idea, and getting Track when possible is always preferred above his other three abilities. The most typical build would be Invisibility-Jinada-Shuriken Toss and then Track > Jinada > Shuriken Toss > Shadow Walk > stats. I should note very often people only put two points into Shuriken Toss early as Bounty Hunter is very mana starved in the beginning phases, and it scales most efficiently from level 1->2.

Playing Bounty Hunter well is reasonably difficult and requires some good decision making as well as patience. That said however, none of his abilities are difficult to grasp, and due to having high survivability he is easy to play on at least a base level. (4/10)

Bounty Hunter Tip of the Day

Track is an often underestimated ability, but the gold advantages it gives can be incredibly significant for a team with a Bounty Hunter. Be sure and try to land it on any target that will die for the extra gold for your team. Even teleporting to an allied tower just to do nothing else but track a dying opponent is absolutely worth it.