Bounty Hunter Offlane/Suicide/hard lane-solo

Introduction

I'll start off by saying this is my first guide (Smartyr gets a shout out as my DotA tactics confidant).

Bounty Hunter is one of the few heroes that can take a team that is underhanded and allow them to gain the upper hand through his unique ultimate ( Track). That being said, never underestimate the power of an early gold advantage. At lvl 6 within a team fight you could potentially achieve 2-4 hero kills by the team with Track affecting the hero (4 is a bit extreme as the team fight would have to last about 30 seconds or more) and that would equal 300-600 extra gold for Bounty Hunter and 100-200 extra bounty gold for heroes within the bonus gold radius (this radius is estimated at 1200 units, though I have not found this anywhere).

Conversely, Bounty Hunter is easily countered by many different aspects of the game from Slardar's ult to Sentry Wards and Dust of Appearance. His ganking ability can quickly fade after the laning phase as the other team begins traveling in packs or playing 5-man DotA.

Bounty Hunter can be a semi-carry quickly snowballing into a monster 1-hitting supports at the 30 min mark (or before in pubs); or he can be a soft-carry/ganking-support allowing the rest of his team to succeed with the bonus gold from track. All he really needs to be successful is experience early in a match.

Pros / Cons

Pros-

*He's extremely flexible regarding items, laning, and skill builds
*Huge burst damage that scales with lvl and damage items with Jinada
*Stealth/scouting/mobility
*He's your team's Sugar Daddy ( Track gold)
*Strong offlane (he can also farm as a melee in offlane with Shadow Walk/ Jinada combo)


Cons-

*Pretty much an Int hero without the extra mana (he's that squishy)
*Pitiful mana pool for most of the game (luckily shadow and track are cheap)
*Only has a mini stun with Shuriken Toss (though Jinada slow on MS and AS is extremely powerful)
*Has no AoE without the aid of Battle Fury
*Invisibility easily countered
*Easy target in team fights for hard carries

Ranked Play/when to pick him

You need to understand when to play Bounty Hunter and how the chosen play style for that mach will effect its outcome. Bounty Hunter works in most situations as long as you aren't stacking multiple heroes who heavily rely on invisibility like Bounty Hunter, Clinkz, Shadow Blade heroes, etc... His strength is that he can do well with low farm and mediocre farm and still dominate early/mid game as long as ganks are coordinated with your team and thought through before jumping in. Many solo ganks by Bounty Hunter have been thwarted by a seemingly vulnerable support hero actually having a full team backing them up.

Pick Bounty Hunter if:
*Your team already has support heroes that are actually going to support (none of that Chen carry crazyness)
*You understand the limitations of invisibility and naturally check the other team's inventories for items that will reveal you
*Your team will benefit from bonus tracking gold (what team wouldn't?) and strong mid game ganking
*Your team can support a offensive tri-lane;
*Your team has 2 safe-lane and 1 jungle (this is still technically a tri-lane)
*Your team is planning on pushing the other tower (usually the long/off lane) quickly and you will be roaming from lvl 6-7 on



Don't pick Bounty Hunter if:

*Your team needs a support or an initiator (this is owing to the fact that Bounty Hunter is a picker/ganker
*Your team is melee heavy
*You easily forget to use/lvl Track
*You are unable, forget to, or don't like to monitor the other team's inventories for items that will reveal your invisibility

Jinada vs Shuriken Toss/skill choices

This section for Bounty Hunter is extremely controversial. This is owing to the fact that his skill build is extremely flexible and relies HEAVILY on situational factors throughout the game.

The two true constants for Bounty Hunter's skill progression is you always, ALWAYS lvl and spam Track whenever you can; and you always want at least one level in Shadow Walk and often two levels to offset the cool-down equaling the duration at lvl 1.

Past that, before I go into situational skill progression, I want to cover the hard numbers between Jinada and Shuriken Toss. The bottom line is that lvl 4 Jinada is significantly more powerful (damage wise) early game than lvl 4 Shuriken Toss is, and here's why:

lvl 4 Shuriken Toss is 325 magical damage every 10 seconds with a mini stun
lvl 4 Jinada is 225% extra (x3.25) physical attack damage every 6 seconds with 25% MS/AS slow

I'll run this example off of a lvl 8 Bounty Hunter with 69-83 (naked) attack dmg (averaging 76dmg/hit) and having Phase Boots making it 93-107 averaging 100 physical dmg/hit
[*] note, that dmg range is between lvl 1 and 16, I haven't gone into a game to see the hard dmg in the game.
Here is the dmg you will be doing on average every 6 seconds with lvl 4 Jinada: 100*3.25=325 physical dmg, the exact same as Shuriken Toss.
Now, you must consider the dps over the same span of time (10 seconds).
Shuriken Toss over 10 seconds does 325 magic dmg or 32.5 dps
Jinada over 12 seconds does 650 physical dmg-> translate to 10 seconds--(650/12)*10=542 physical dmg or 54.2 dps
This is not even considering the extra auto attacks that are able to be achieved by Bounty Hunter and his teammates for the considerably "longer"/more often slow
Then you need to consider resistances, starting from level 1 magic resistance is 25%. When Bounty Hunter is lvl 8 every support hero should be lvl 6 or less translating to an average of 3 or below armor or (15% physical DR).
Shuriken Toss 325*.75= 243.75 dmg delivered or 24.375 actual dps
Jinada 325*.85= 276.25 dmg delivered or 46.042 actual dps


Now that the math doesn't lie, Jinada is clearly the more efficient and higher burst dmg option for early game ganks.

That, however is not all you must consider. Depending on how the game is going for you as Bounty Hunter you must consider that Shuriken Toss has a 650 range and is a considerably longer amount than the 128 range of a melee Jinada attack. This is beneficial when your only goal within the ganks (as you are extremely squishy) is to get in, throw your Track, throw your Shuriken Toss burst dmg, and get out allowing the rest of your team to clean up and achieve the kill then by all means max Shuriken Toss first. This is usually your goal when the other team is spending significant funding on countering your invisibility. It's better to help your team get a kill, achieve Track gold and get out with your life early game than having the added danger to your person of kissing your enemy with Jinada.

As for skill progression, lvl 1 you should usually play it safe and lvl Shadow Walk to avoid any easy first bloods by the other team. However, you should always save your skill point until you get into your lane and see the situation. You can always pop that point into Shadow Walk and run away if you have to but you can also put it into Jinada if there is little to no threat for some early easy last hits or harassing the melee character by slapping them with it.

For lvl 2 you should always get Shadow Walk if you got Jinada at lvl 1 and vice versa.

Lvl 3 should again be a choice between Jinada or Shadow Walk. If you are having an easy time in lane and they aren't harassing you horribly then you can get away with the extra last hit potential/harassment potential of lvl 2 Jinada. If you need to play it safe and just absorb experience and only last hit when Shadow Walk is coming off of cool-down, then put your third skill point into Shadow Walk.

Lvl 4 you should put a point into Shuriken Toss so that you can cancel channeling spells and Town Portal Scrolls should your mid have an opportunity to gank your lane or even for if you notice that one of the enemies in your lane are using a Town Portal Scroll to assist another lane being ganked.

Lvl 5 is when all skill builds should diverge depending on how your game is going, the heroes you are up against, and the other team's willingness to spend money on countering your Shadow Walk. At this point you should be any one of these combinations 1/3/1/0, 1/2/2/0, 2/1/2/0, 2/2/1/0. Again this all depends. Getting Shuriken Toss maxed depends on if you are going to be playing it safe in team fights or not and the level of Shadow Walk depends on if you are OK with the duration ending the exact same time as the skill comes off of cool-down or not. The level of Jinada here depends heavily on both those factors. I enjoy 1/3/1/0 myself at lvl 5 as it allows me to do some significant harassment to melee enemies in my lane and possibly getting a kill when I pop lvl 6 and achieve Track.

Beyond lvl 6 the skill build that you take should fall in line with the path that you have already committed to based on the style of play that you have to use within the match still leveling Jinada and Shuriken Toss over Shadow Walk and Shadow Walk over stats (you don't want to throw away the extra 60 or so dmg lvls 3 and 4 grab you on Shadow Walk.

Items

This is another difficult section to consider. You could rush a Desolator if you are doing really well (without forgetting your boots) which could potentially multiply your dmg done to enemy heroes if you get it before they have at least 7 armor. This item is dependent on if you are focusing Jinada over Shuriken Toss but helpful in the long run either way. With Phase Boots, Desolator, and Vladmir's Offering you can solo roshan at the 15 minute mark or even before. Of course that is some heavy farming and a large number of tracked kills.

If early in the laning phase you are having issues staying within experience range you can always use Quelling Blade to cut into the trees and sit where they cannot see you within experience range.

Bottle is also an option when it comes to sustaining your mana in the offlane. The three bottle charges pretty much guarantees unlimited Shadow Walk.

Bounty Hunter's core items are most likely Medallion of Courage (this allows you and your team to do significantly more physical dmg, especially early game... just remember to USE it on whomever you are attacking)(

If your farm isn't going as well but you are still following the Jinada first path then you should consider the Medallion of Courage as this item is almost a fourth of the cost of Desolator and is only 1 less armor reduced, it also synergize extremely well if you are building a Desolator but would suggest not getting the Medallion of Courage if you are going the Shuriken Toss route as that is magical dmg and wont benefit. If you are saying 'wow! What is he talking about? The mana regen is totally worth getting that item if you are going Shuriken Toss'... that mana regen is only 50% (thats only like 0.5 mana/sec if you are lucky), it's not a flat rate like Ring of Basilius and you would do better to get that ring early and it builds into Vladmir's Offering.

As far as boots, your end-goal is most likely Phase Boots as it makes you faster and gives a nice boost of dmg; though you should understand that using Shadow Walk removes the phase boost buff prematurely, this can be mitigated by using Shadow Walk first and then using Phase Boots during the fade period. In the early laning phase you can quickly build into Tranquil Boots to assist you in maintaining your presence in the suicide lane and it can be broken down when you are ready to upgrade to Power Treads or Phase Boots and the two items are components in Vladmir's Offering. Power Treads are an option for more survivability and make early jungling possible for Bounty Hunter once you have Vladmir's Offering and I'm talking level early jungling like lvl 5 with Power Treads and Vladmir's Offering; this is usually only an option if you plan on farming a bunch and acting as the team's hard carry, it can be done but it's not the best route for Bounty Hunter.

An early Bottle is advantageous for almost every hero so long as you do not steal the runes from the hero that truly needs it.

If you are up against a Riki and/or the other team is being liberal with the sentry wards I suggest buying a Gem of True Sight or having one of your supports do so and give it to you. It reveals Sentry Wards before the wards reveal you so you could save yourself from walking into a trap. BUT don't go out of your way to kill the wards you walk buy while invis, this gives away your position and lets you fall into the trap you were supposed to avoid, let the ranged heroes... in fact let anyone else but yourself destroy them unless you are already visible.

Beyond those must have items you can build towards anything that ups your raw dmg, further lowers the enemy's armor, and is situational for the match such as Monkey King Bar if you are against heroes with evasion, Black King Bar if you are against heavy nukers and stuners (though I personally hate it when I need to build Black King Bar on Bounty Hunter as it is an expensive item drawing funds away from bigger dmg items.

What not to get:
Eye of Skadi-you'd do better with a Desolator orb effect and it is heavier towards the survivability spectrum than the dmg spectrum... also you already have Jinada isn't that enough slow???

Don't scream... Orchid Malevolence-this item isn't an absolute "do not get" on Bounty Hunter. This is because I often find myself getting it on multiple heroes that it is unconventional on as a more supporty or CYA (cover your ***) item for ganking. The main reason not to get it is the item focuses on mana regen and attack speed... this is not exactly what Bounty Hunter is all about, sure the 25% bonus dmg is pretty damn nice but at that point you could have spent that 4125 gold on a 4100 gold Desolator and got exponentially more dmg in reduced Damage Reduction and Desolator is +60 dmg compared to Orchid Malevolence's pitiful +30 dmg. Another damning aspect of Orchid Malevolence is the fact that the 25% amplified dmg is done as magical dmg which is always reduced by 25% or more depending on the enemy's items. Bottom line on Orchid Malevolence, get it if you have to for that super annoying caster/stunner but know that you are sacrificing a lot for that. (P.s. Bounty Hunter isn't Scout from Heroes of Newerth, he needs big dmg for Jinada not attack speed for Disarm) leave this item to Broodmother, windrunner, and heroes of the like.

Don't get either critical hit item... do I even have to say? It doesn't work with Jinada you are wasting money that could have been spent on items with FAR more use to you and your team.

Don't get Mjollnir-again you aren't based on attack speed and it doesn't give much dmg, only +24... that's like buying a 5400 gold Phase Boots... not a wise use of your funds.

Don't get Sange and Yasha-probably one of the most worthless items in the game for the cost

Don't get Shadow Blade-the bug isn't there anymore and it doesn't add the bonus dmg to any crit which includes Jinada... (P.s., Shadow Walk has the same issue. Its 120 bonus dmg is additive, not multiplicative which means it's added after the Jinada crit)

Creeping / Jungling

Bounty Hunter's main source of income are hero kills and Track bonus gold. You should spend most of your time ganking with your teammates. But if you are forced into the hard carry roll rather than a ganker/picker roll, as mentioned above, you can grab Power Treads and Vladmir's Offering and jungle pretty readily. Once you achieve Desolator you can then solo roshan at pretty much any level.

Team Work

COMMUNICATE, COMMUNICATE, COMMUNICATE... Have a mic and use it with your team. Let them know when you are going to gank, give them advanced notice so they can set it up. Watch inventories for revelation items and watch out for areas with Sentry Wards. Unless you are going the more risky Jinada route you shouldn't be dying at all. See the above gem mention in the item section.

Ultimately don't worry about getting the last hit on hero kills, in fact I would say if at all possible let your real hard carry get them, you still get 250 gold (after level 16) from your Track and more from assist dmg. Unless you are your team's hard carry your sole purpose in team fights are to nuke down casters in the back and to Track EVERYONE on the other team during the team fight... it has a 5 second cool-down, use it. The only issue I run into with this is your team not waiting to let you get track on the heroes. Communicate with your team and make sure they know if you have mana to Track or not should the kill not have a chance of getting away.

Summary

Track EVERYONE
leveling Jinada vs Shuriken Toss is completely situational
Don't die/feed
Communicate with your team
Don't fall into a set item build, change it up depending on the match
Don't JUST do what the pro's do... you have a brain (well at least I hope) get to exercising it yourself and start thinking of different ways of playing.
Bounty Hunter IS NOT based on attack speed... Raw dmg makes him better... not attack speed
Track EVERYTHING