DOTAFire is a community that lives to help every Dota 2 player take their game to the next level by having open access to all our tools and resources. Please consider supporting us by whitelisting us in your ad blocker!
Want to support DOTAFire with an ad-free experience? You can support us ad-free for less than $1 a month!
Go Ad-Free
Slippers of AgilitySlippers of Agility
Iron BranchIron BranchIron Branch
Magic Stick
Poor Man's Shield
Magic Wand
Phase Boots
Poor Man's Shield
Magic Wand
Phase Boots
Battle Fury
Sange and Yasha
Boots of Travel
Butterfly
Sange and Yasha
Desolator
Monkey King Bar
Linken's Sphere
Urn of Shadows
Orchid Malevolence
Divine Rapier
Heart of Tarrasque
Black King Bar
Vladmir's Offering
|
|
3 | 4 | 5 | 7 |  |
|
1 | 12 | 13 | 14 |  |
|
2 | 8 | 9 | 10 |  |
|
6 | 11 | 16 |  |
|
15 | 17 | 18 |
Howdy everyone, Thundermouse here. I'd like to start off by saying that this is infact my first guide and so I would really appreciate any constructive criticism, feedback or tips on the layout of the guide! :) Also this guide was written on the bases of an easy pub stomp, and not on competitive play, however it will work for both with the right amount of skill on both you and your supports part. I have been playing Dota since 2011 and made the transition to Dota 2 in 2013 so I have a reasonable amount of experience in the field, and I hope by the end of this guide I would have imparted all those years of Bounty Hunter wisdom onto you! <3
Pros
-Incredible nuking potential.
-Ability to remain permanently invisible.
-Incredible Global Presence.
-Very hard to focus.
-So annoying.
-Great base movement speed.
Cons
-Somewhat squishy.
-Truesight renders him next to useless.
-Needs farm to be a successful carry.
-Doesn't scale as well as a true carry would into late game.
Your first point should always be in Jinada, without fail. This is because the crit damage makes final hits much easier for that necessary early game gold, and if a level 1 gank is on, the slow is by far your best weapon to get First Blood. Your next point should be in Shadow Walk. This is to allow you to escape gank attempts, as well as providing some harassing power in the lane with more last hitting capability. Next you will be wanting to max out your Shuriken Toss as soon as possible, since this is at its most effective in the early stages of the game. At level 6 you pick up your ulti for the great chasing power it creates and obviously that beautiful early game gold boost you have wet dreams about. After maxing your Shuriken Toss at level 7, you will want to max out your Shadow Walk. This is because you will then have the power to remain permanently invisible, and the added backstab damage is far higher than more levels in Jinada since your base damage will still be relatively low. Finally after putting another point in Track at level 11, you will max out Jinada. At this stage, your items will have built up your damage sufficiently to cause the crits to start to do some proper damage and you will start becoming more reliant on your crits for kills than your Shuriken Toss.
Starting Items
The very first thing many of you will be wondering is "Where the hell are the consumables noob??" Well my dear friends your choice of early game items should really depend on the heroes you believe you will be laning against, and with. Although I generally prefer going for an early Magic Stick (due to the fact that the earlier you get it, the quicker you build up charges), in specific cases such as having a 
Crystal Maiden on your team, or a 
Keeper of the Light in your lane when you are fully supplied with mana, a 
Healing Salve may be preferable, and one may consider completely ignoring the Magic Wandin the build. All the Iron Branches are still however necessary as you are the carry of your team, and you need as much last hitting power as possible to grab all those early game items before the 11 minute mark. The Poorman's Shield is completely necessary to be able to stay in the lane until your 
Perseverance is built, or your 
Bottle is bought, depending on which build your going for.
Early Game Items
The Magic Wand and Poorman's Shield have already been explained, and since at this stage you will want to be looking at a kill and hopefully First Blood both the damage and phasing ability of the Phase Boots will be incredibly useful.
Mid Game Items
At this stage of the game, you will be carrying your team, and therefore a trip to the fountain is completely unacceptable. This is where your Battlefury comes in. There are many who place the Battlefury in Gods Forsaken Item List for Bounty Hunter due to the reason that he is built for hero killing, and they believe that the cleave is wasted. This may be true, but it is not the cleave we are looking for. The Battlefury is the only item that provides good damage, as well as great hp and mana regen. So, as the carry for the team, the only way we can stay in the game, while still having some killing power, is by going for the Battlefury. PLEASE NOTE instead of going for a Battlefury, a Desolator and Bottle may be preferable. The Desolator grants even more damage due to its armour reduction, and the Bottle should keep you topped up on hp and mana. Only use this build if you will be roaming more without tp scrolls and are not competing for runes with your mid laner. Our next item, a Sange and Yasha provides some more damage through the agility, as well as an hp boost, but our main reason for buying these two delightful daggers is the incredible chasing power they grant. With the boost in movement speed and the maim, a tracked target has a hopeless chance of escape. An alternative to getting a Sange and Yasha and Battlefury is instead going for an Orchid Malevolence for damage increase and mana, an Urn of Shadows for the heal, and a 
Drum of Endurance for the chasing ability. An 
Orb of Venom could also be included in place of your Poorman's Shield if you feel as though they are getting away too often. (The Orchid build is explained in detail in the last paragraph of this section.
Final Build
You would be extremely surprised how often this final build is actually achieved. Replacing your Phase Boots with Boots of Travel, should happen after all your items have been bought because obviously you already have extremely high movement speed due to your Sange and Yasha. The Desolator and Monkey King Bar are to add to your damage, hopefully contributing to those one hit wonder crits that can kill a pesky support or sniper, before they can do too much damage. The Linkens Sphere is just personal preference, however if the opposing team has decent invisibility detection, a Heart of Tarrasque would be a better pickup since the extra seconds a Linkens can buy you to allow for a Shadow Walk are not necessary. A Butterfly should replace your Battlefury if you went for Build 1 since you shouldn't have any mana issues at this stage, and Butterfly adds to your damage, attack speed and provides you with evasion.
Situational Items/Alternate Build
The Orchid of Malevolence provides a suitable substitute for the Battlefury, and since the prices are very similar, this item should only be picked in certain situations. When the opposing team consists of a large number of disablers and nukers, this item can prove to be very effective in dealing with them due to the active silence. It provides excellent mana regen however it doesnt make up for the hp regen a Battlefury provides, so it would be advisable to use in conjunction with an Urn of Shadows to keep you in top shape. You should not run out of charges as you should be constantly ganking and during your ganks it is not likely that you will take lots of damage due to the way you execute your ganks. Also since buying both an Orchid Malevolence and an Urn of Shadows is more expensive than a Battlefury, it may be more viable to instead go for a Drum of Endurance to help with chasing as opposed to Sange and Yasha. It will also obviously benefit the team more with its passive aura and active ability.
Preferably you will want to get the safe lane, with a support that wont steal you farm, and will effectively harass the enemy heroes down to gankable hp. You want the safe lane because it is the longest run back to the tower for the enemy heroes, and your method of killing early game and even mid game, consists of chasing the enemy down with track, and finishing them off with a Shuriken Toss. Always beware of slows and stuns from enemy heroes, and never attempt a solo kill when the enemy is on higher than half hitpoints. Also dont forget to use and abuse your Phase Boots, whenever they are off cooldown use them just to help you get up to the creep wave for those last hits, or get in range of a low hp hero for a Shuriken Toss, however keep in mind these will cancel your Shadow Walk unless you use them during the fade delay. Throughout this stage, you will be focussing on getting as much farm as possible to build up your early game items, and your Perseverance to allow you to start leaving your lane. Once your Perseverance is up you can start getting a little braver, as you will quickly regenerate your hp and mana. Also whenever you are on full hp and mana Shadow Walk up to an enemy hero and when it is 2 seconds from being off cooldown, hit the hero once, use Shuriken Toss and then Shadow Walk again to get out. This is just to harass your opponent, and since it should do about 400-500 damage, it will set you up for a kill when your Shuriken Toss is back up, however when going for the kill, dont forget to Track the enemy after you deal your backstab damage from breaking invisibility, but before your Shuriken Toss, to avoid wasting damage, and avoid killing the enemy before he has been Tracked.
By this stage, the enemies in your lane will have definitely bought wards and called for a gank, so it is time to switch lanes. Buy a few tp scrolls and whenever you see an enemy on about half health, tp in and kill him with your Shadow Walk, Track, Shuriken Toss combo. Before attacking, always make sure your Shadow Walk is almost on cooldown to ensure a getaway should the situation go sour. Also you should learn to quickly count your mana to determine whether you have enough for your combo, and enough to get out again with Shadow Walk. NOTE: If you went for the Desolator Bottle build, you should not be harassing enemies with Shuriken Toss since it is not worth wasting a charge from your Bottle to regenerate the used mana.
Now your job is to roam the map, and pick off any squishy heroes in sight. Your crits will start to play a significant role now, and in a team fight you should always go in invisible to avoid focus since you are still squishy, and pick off the supports, casters and carries. This includes heroes like Outworld Devourer, 
Sniper and 
Drow Ranger who have crazy ranged dps. Remember to Track as many heroes as you can throughout team fights and always Track enemies that will be likely to use invisibility as an escape method first.
By this stage, you should have farmed at least 4 of your late game items, and you will be able to one shot the majority of agility and intelligence heroes, and if not one shot then 2 and a Shuriken Toss should do the trick. Note that although you should be dominating, if the enemy do have a hard carry like 
Faceless Void it would be advisable to finish the game quickly because by nature you are not a hard carry, and you will be out carried in the end if you let the game last too long.
Friends:
- Keeper of the Light
- Crystal Maiden
-Soul Keeper due to insane early game synergy with slows.
-
Vengeful Spirit
-
Shadow Shaman
-
Lion
Foes:
-
Slardar NEVER PICK BOUNTY WITH SLARDAR </3
-
Bloodseeker That damn truesight :(
- Lion Too much disable for viable chasing.
-
Zeus He has spells for truesight and can easily nuke you down :(
-Any really tanky hero.
Note: Bounty Hunter makes a great counter to any heroes who use invisibility as their primary escape system ie. 
Riki, 
Weaver, 
Clinkz, Sniper, Drow etc.
In conclusion, I'd just like to say that this is not the only way to play Bounty Hunter, it is just a way that can be extremely successful, especially in public games. But as usual, the success of your play always depends on how well you play, I just created this guide to push you in the right direction <3 I'll gladly accept (and endorse) CONSTRUCTIVE criticism, and would appreciate it more than a downvote with no explanation of what I've done wrong :'( </3
Anyway good luck and I hope I've contributed to the success of your future Dota playing endeavours! <3
-26 Feb: Corrected some spelling errors.
-26 Feb: Added 'Situational Items' section (Credits to eeon for some ideas)
-26 Feb: Added an Alternate Item Build for Mid Game.
-27 Feb: Cheers to porygon361 for 3rd build suggestion <3.
-27 Feb: Added alternate builds into item explanation
-27 Feb: Added more friends and foes as well as an end note. Thanks Raging King and FleetAU for suggestions.
-27 Feb: Added the Bottle Desolator build to explanations throughout the guide :)
-28 Feb: Added a few more items in Situational Items category. Thanks F.E.A.R.0 for some ideas.
DOTAFire is the place to find the perfect build guide to take your game to the next level. Learn how to play a new hero, or fine tune your favorite DotA hero’s build and strategy.
Copyright © 2019 DOTAFire | All Rights Reserved
Quick Comment (23) View Comments
You need to log in before commenting.