Collecting a Bounty

Introduction

Howdy! I'm Manatikik and this is my Bounty Hunter. This is my first guide on the Dotafire website, I have, however, written many guides for the original DotA, HoN, and LoL. This guide will go in depth on the playstyle I feel Bounty Hunter excels at. Some people feel Bounty Hunter cannot carry a game, while i feel he cannot 'hard carry' he can semi-carry and if played correctly shutdown the enemies carry. He takes some getting used to, and when you get his playstyle down you can become the most efficient assassin and win games with ease. I hope you enjoy my guide!

Items

Bounty Hunter has a much different item build than most assassins or carries. He is based off of early game sustain and late game burst. He is also different because he can do great damage without damage items and cut people down.

Starting Items

I like to start off with a basic Carry build with some options for last hitting, hp/mp, and health regen. You pick upa Quelling Blade for the last hitting and tree clearer, the iron branches for the early stat boost and base for your Magic Wand.

First item you want to grab is your Boots of Speed for obvious reasons. Next up is your Ring of Basilius for your mana engine. This is what gives you the ability to use Shuriken Toss to not only poke but always have your finisher, it is also what lets you Shadow Walk for as long as you need to be it for escape or to gank. Next pick up your Power Treads and switch em over to Agility (Remember to pop em to strength if you need an extra boost in a fight). Finish off your Magic Wand to give you an easy save so you can escape with Shadow Walk

Start moving for your core items now. Pick up vladimir's offering to complete your mana and health engines. This is what gives you the ability to roam non-stop and stay up with your farm by knocking out jungle creeps with ease. To round out your core items pick up your Monkey King Bar starting off with your two Javelins to keep up your sustained damage and to keep up some burst.

Your next item choices depend on how the game is going and your team composition. You will almost always grab a Desolator for your Orb Effect and for the damage and the stacking of armor it provides you, stack it with Track and you get to have a -11 on the enemy.

Black King Bar is clearly your choice if the enemy team is magic damage and/or has a high amount of CC. It is a bread and butter item for all hard carries and should be bought in 80% of all Bounty Hunter games. The reason it is not 100% is because Bounty Hunter can shut down games pretty early on and can bypass most CC by assassinating their casters from the back using Shadow Walk.

Your choice to grab a Manta Style or not is dependent on whether you are playing more as an assassin or a straight up carry. Manta Style is great for having to battle your way through enemies in fights, but lets say you have someone who can do that and you can focus on taking out high value targets think of bypassing a Manta Style for something like a Daedalus.

Daedalus is an option that should almost always be picked up, it gives you great burst and high sustain damage. As previously stated you can bypass some defensive items for it, but you need to almost always pick one up regardless of the enemy team.

Butterfly is another item great for being a hard carry. Its evasion lets you go toe to toe with most other hard carries. I would only suggest grabbing this if you need to go toe to toe and stealth and assassinations doesn't cut it for striking down the other team. One of the best carry items, but not the greatest on Bounty Hunter.

Sange and Yasha is another iffy item on Bounty Hunter. Its great if you already have a hard carry and you are more of an assassin/chaser/finisher. Some would argue that the health is an advantage to it, but in reality it doesn't justify getting the entire item.

Skill Set

Bounty Hunter has a unique set of skills that sets him up to be an early/mid game ganker and a late game hard carry. With this in mind you need to use his spells in certain ways to benefit the entire team.

Shuriken Toss

Shuriken Toss is Bounty Hunter's bread and butter for early kills and to stop any channeling. It is what allows him to grab a kill at Level 3 and continuously securing his kills for the majority of middle game. Many people think of it as a away for him to come in at the last second and kill steal, but in reality its what gives him some viability in team fights to be able to stop a channeler's main damage spell and to cut down a mage from 25% HP. You need to use this spell sparingly early game saving it only for last hits on heroes until you can get you Ring of Basilius or vladimir's offering as your mana engine. I max this first because it is your bread and butter damage for a lot of the game.

Jinada

Jinada is Bounty Hunter's way of keeping up with enemies and being able to burst people down from the moment he ganks them. It becomes your gateway into hard carry by being able to do up to 2k damage late game if you get the right items and procs off. I max this second to get higher burst damage early and to ease last hitting for those games against a hard lane.

Shadow Walk

Shadow Walk is what gives Bounty Hunter his mobility and ganking potential. This is also Bounty Hunter's escape tool so he can get out of those sticky situations. I grab this at Level 1 for all of its use throughout the game, though I max it last because I feel like Shuriken Toss and Jinada are more important for your damage potential.

Track

Bounty Hunter is usually known for his Shadow Walk, but in reality it is his Track that sets him apart from other carries. This move is gives you the most money for your kills, this also makes up for the fact of you getting the kills, giving your team money for assists. This is also how you burst people down so much, can catch up with them, and follow your prey to the ends of the earth for that extra bounty!

Playstyle

Bounty Hunter has a unique playstyle unlike any other hard carry or semi-carry in the game. Due to his Shadow Walk and high burst damage he is played like a ganker early game, but due to his Jinada and Track he turns into an unstoppable hard carry late game.

Early Game

Lane him like a typical carry until level 3; your lane mate as a carry should always be a babysitter, but with Bounty Hunter they should also have some decent early game damage or nukes. Once you hit Level 3 your Shuriken Toss coupled with your lanemate should be able to nab you First Blood. Simply Shadow Walk behind your enemy, wait for you lanemate to pop em with their nuke it em, auto attack them, and finish em off with a good ol' Shuriken Toss. From here on out just farm until about Level 7, grabbing any lane kills that you can.

Ganking Time

By Level 7 you should have both your Power Treads and Ring of Basilius, you may have more build of your vladimir's offering and that's great. Start roaming and grabbing any kills you can get, hitting up their jungle for any easy kills. While in their jungle hit up their jungle creeps for your main farm. Remember to use Track on every hero you go for so you and your allies can grab the extra gold. As a great fish once said: "Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming." ~ Doiri . But in this instance swimming means ganking. Just keep on shutting them down and building you up.

Latish Game

By now you should be rolling with your Monkey King Bar and your Desolator and just be wrecking fools. The majority of their team should be shut down by now and you should be a fear that stays with them every time the see a Bounty Hunter for a month. At this point you should be farming or ganking their carry/his farm 24/7. Just grab your items roll them and kill their ancient.

Conclusion

That is my entire Bounty Hunter Guide, i hope you enjoyed it and helps you grab that Bounty we all deserve. Please feel free to give me feedback here or on steam at: |Fever| Manatikik.

Please check out: Fever Clan's Official Website we are a fun loving and mature Clan that plays more than just Dota 2.

~Manatikik