Bounty Hunter chooses Carry position on very low rating in matchmaking for a very long time. But this strategy hasn’t been too effective. Even now, when the hero’s total winrate is more than 52%, on the easy lane it is just 46,9%. However, on a high rating the situation is absolutely different. Professional players more often chose Bounty Hunter for one of three core – roles.
How the style of the game changes because the hero is in the first position, how to move on the map with such a strange Carry and why it is better not to buy Desolator early you will learn in Cybersport.ru.
Bounty Hunter is really cool.
In DPC for CIS, viewers had seen Bounty Hunter only three times: twice NoTechies took it for Zayac (and lose both maps), and once the hero’s been taken against team Solo — Virtus. pro decided to use it in the third position. In the recent interview for Cybersport.ru, the offlaner of the AS Monaco Gambit Vasiliy AfterLife Shishkin has said that his team tried to play with Bounty Hunter as well. But the Gambit hero was not successful. As AfterLife has explained, around the hero it is difficult to build an effective strategy that is why Bounty Hunter’s choice seems a bit strange to him. Especially for the first stage of the draft.
Apparently, for a professional team, DOTA Bounty Hunter is not an obvious peak. However, on the high rating, the hero in the first position has a winrate now higher than 58%. So it means that with the right use it might become a formidable weapon in your pubs.
½ Statistics of BH on high MMR
Bounty Hunter builds lane steadily thanks to high starting armor (8 points), the ability to finish off creeps with the help of Jinada, and profitably exchange health with enemy’s offlaner, especially if a melee hero is opposing BH. Also, the hero does not need an extra farm to be dangerous. If it gets the advance in the level and at least one transferring slot, it’s capable of acting with the team. As a result, it will allow you to impose a high pace on your opponent. At the same time, in the lane, Bounty Hunter feels more comfortable because of two powerful talents on the 20th and 25th level, which give plus 50 to attack speed and plus 40 to the dodging ability. The hero can in one second destroy not only the enemy’s supporters but even core-roles if it gathers Abyssal Blade and Swift Blink by that time.
Desolator for the first slot is not the best choice.
Commonly the Desolator is the first slot to buy not only in Carry’s position but for all players on the low rating who wish to become the core-role. Professional cyber champions had never started from this subject. Nobody ignored the Desolator, obviously, but had purchased it only after one-two intermediate slots.
Of course, many players on BH about 12 minutes after the start wish to kill the enemy’s supporters and be dominant on the map from the one slam with Desolator under Track. However, this strategy got noticeable flaws. First of all, the timings of buying desirable objects might drag on. For example, up to 15-17 minutes. And all this time the hero usually just farms, losing its initial peak of strength, allowing the opponent’s supporters to weld up their jungles fully and to get ultimates. Such a passive start can become a fatal mistake for Bounty Hunter.
Second of all, the Desolator does not give bonus characteristics and any other survivals. And in the case when the hero after 15 minutes of farming an artifact could not use it or will be killed, it will interrupt the pace of its development a lot.
Bounty Hunter has great defenses against physical attack but it is vulnerable to magic due to modest health. That is why all professional players always tried to compensate for this weakness first. The first slot for Bounty Hunter usually, took Drum of Endurance, which gives a small bonus to speed characteristics. Sometimes instead of it, they chose Sange and Yasha, and more rarely — Battle Fury (but to be honest, it was made as an experiment mostly — matches with this starting artifact normally ended up badly for BH).
After that they went out in the Black King Bar straight away, as an alternative, it could be Hood of Defiance. And only after this cyber champions have purchased the Desolator and even then not always. The choice of the following artifacts for everyone varies, but the most popular are Abyssal Blade, Butterfly, Assault Cuirass, Bloodthorn, and Swift Blink.
½ Bounty Hunter of fn
Aghanim’s Scepter in Bounty Hunter is fully ignored because the betting is on actual physical damage. So most of the professional players choose the Aghanim’s Shard not earlier than in 35th minutes. This artifact is useful for the latest part of the game. When the single frag becomes a rare occasion and the match depends on vision and competitive positioning in mass fights. So the review of Aghanim’s Shard could become a useful addition but its purchase should not interfere with the acquisition of other more important subjects for survival and damage.
Got a Track — can go and kill.
Gameplay on Bounty Hunter’s first position can differ visibly from what you could get used to on other Carry. For example, fn started to move on the map straight after getting 6th level. In the 7th minute, it shifted to a team fight in the center, after what immediately took a part in another fight in the jungle. Plus, because fn made two frags under Track, and also more than ten times slammed the opponent with Jinada, on 10th minute he didn’t lag behind the enemy Anti-Mage in overall value, which all this time was left to himself on the easy lane.
Here we can return to the conversation about the fast purchase of Desolator, which forces BH to just fight the creeps for a long time period. Professional cyber champions almost straight away leave the lane and earn first of all in the fights. For example, the statistics of one of the Nightfall matches are indicative. In total after the game, he has earned only 22% of the overall value on the killing creeps, while for the heroes he got over 50%. To compare, his midder in this match got 44% of the value from creeps and 31% from enemies.
Nightfall leads in overall value but on the 20th minute he got only 78 killed creeps
Of course, it is not necessary to rush into the fight if you feel weak against the peak of opponents. Nightfall, for example, stayed on the lane till the purchase of Hood of Defiance, because the opponent had too many magic damages. However, he didn’t stay still: Bounty Hunter constantly strained the enemy’s Underlord. Made him go back to the base and ask for the help of the “quad” of Nyx Assassin. As soon as Nightfall bought the Hood of Defiance, he shifted to the center first and then on to the harder lane where he made the series of killings and demolished the tower.
An active and aggressive game, constant movements on the map with teammates are the foundation of gameplay as Carry Bounty Hunter. However, it is important to understand that it is teamwork. Solitary forays in invisibility are not working for a long time already not only on the high ratings but on 3-4 thousand MMR as well. If you die a few times under the enemy’s Sentry Ward, Bounty Hunter very quickly will lose relevance and roll down the total value. That is why, it is necessary to control teammates organizing forays into the enemy forest, the capture of the “three” and demolishing the towers.
Pumping skills and talents.
In getting knowledge the priority goes to Jinada because every new level cuts its recharge. Invisibility is pumping once or never till level seven or eight, because single frags in enemy jungle BH don’t want, and in mass battles this ability is not too useful. After pumping the Jinada has reached level four you must complete learning the other two skills, giving the priority to the Shuriken Toss.
Pumping from Nightfall
In talent selection on level ten players’ choices differ however more often professionals choose +40 of damage from Jinada instead of speed bonus. Especially if you have got (or planning to get) Drum of Endurance or Yasha. The rest of the talents mostly are the same for everyone: on level 15 they choose 275 to health, on the 20th level it is +50 to the attack speed, and on 25th – 40% to the dodging.
In the end, the couple world about contr – topics.
Carry Bounty Hunter doesn’t appear on the high ratings too often yet. So it is difficult to draw objective conclusions about convenient and inconvenient laneups for the hero. However, if you review total BH statistics you may see that between Meta Heroes he got a high winrate against Monkey King and Ember Spirit. And unsuccessful fights are usually with opponents who got Troll Warlord, Nyx Assassin, or Oracle.
½ Uncomfortable matches for BH in high MMR
Have you played as Carry Bounty Hunter? How would you rate the effectiveness of the hero in the first position?