Bounty Hunter

Gondar the Bounty Hunter is a melee agility Hero that excels at hunting, chasing down and killing single targets. His skill set allows him to roam and gank very effectively, as his Shadow Walk allows him to sneak up to unsuspecting targets to initiate. Shadow Walk is also an effective escape and mobility spell, as he can run from dangerous situations and roam invisibly around the map to keep the enemy guessing even if they have Observer Wards active. His ability to deal large amounts of damage with Jinada, interrupt their teleport scrolls with Shuriken Toss, and keep perfect track of their location and movements with Track all make him a powerful ganker who is all but impossible to escape once he has his sights locked in. While classified as a carry, Bounty Hunter is not one in the traditional sense in that he has little teamfight contribution. Rather, his ability to roam, scout and get important kills for his team while bolstering their gold gain with Track can secure his team a strong gold advantage while keeping the enemy on the back pedal.

Tips

 * Bounty Hunter should not be played as a traditional farming carry. Rather, he is a utility support hero who helps his team by picking off the enemy one by one and getting his gold via kills with Track, increasing gold gain for his team and giving them opportunities to take map objectives. Therefore, while Bounty Hunter does fit the definition of a carry in that he requires farm in order to be effective, he farms heroes rather than creeps, and as such his play style is very different from that of most other carries.
 * Bounty Hunter excels at tracking down and killing single targets. However, he is also very vulnerable since his low strength means that he can be easily killed if the enemy catches him while he approaches a target, particularly due to his reliance on Shadow Walk. As such, good judgment and map awareness are key when playing Bounty Hunter, as he must be able to successfully initiate on and kill his targets without the enemy retaliating.
 * One small advantage that Bounty Hunter possesses over other heroes is that he has 1000 night vision instead of the standard 800. This makes Bounty Hunter a powerful night hunter, as he can spot targets at night who cannot see him, and cast Track on them from the fog of war.
 * In general, it is wise to check the enemy's inventory any time they appear on the map, and be aware of all enemy players' positions on the map. Knowing if the enemy may place Sentry Wards to scout out your approach, as well as if they have Dust of Appearance or Gem of True Sight, can save your life as you can stop yourself from walking into a trap. As well, knowing that certain enemies are on another part of the map will allow you to kill your target in the knowledge that their allies cannot reach them in time.
 * When playing Bounty Hunter, it is important to stay off the map as much as possible once the laning stage ends. Keep the enemy guessing on where you are, so that they second-guess their decision to farm their own jungle, or push a lane too far forward, or go to any part of the map by themselves, for fear of being found and killed by you and your teammates. By doing so, you can destroy the enemy's economy as they will be too preoccupied worrying about you and not be spending time farming, giving your team space to outfarm them and get a gold and level advantage.
 * Bounty Hunter is best played as an off-laner or roamer.
 * As an off-laner, Bounty Hunter should attempt to block the enemy's pull camp so that he can get last-hits closer to his tower, and use Shadow Walk to sap experience if needed. As well, using an Observer Ward to block the enemy's pull camp can, depending on the ward's specific location, alert you to any incoming rotations by the enemy's supports, or let you see if the enemy is ferrying detection items to themselves with their courier in order to counter Shadow Walk.
 * As a roamer, Bounty Hunter should generally focus on helping out in ganks by using Shadow Walk to approach an enemy who gets out of position during laning, adding his damage output to gank attempts. While he lacks contribution besides his right-clicks and body-blocking at level 1, once he has a level or two he can add his skills to the mix.
 * Early play with Bounty Hunter can allow him to snipe the enemy's courier from invisibility, under optimal circumstances. As he can wait for the enemy's courier invisibly with Shadow Walk, he can choose to kill it as it approaches the enemy's mid to deliver their Bottle, or snipe it as it tries to ferry detection items to their safe lane supports. However, it requires good game sense and map awareness to know where the courier might appear, so this tactic is only viable at higher levels of gameplay.
 * is Bounty Hunter's ranged damage nuke. It has a myriad of uses, from getting last-hits from range in lane if it is too dangerous to approach the creep wave, to finishing off fleeing enemy targets.
 * In general, Shuriken Toss should only be used to last-hit creeps and interrupt channeling abilities and items in the early game, and as such only one or two levels should be spent on the ability in the laning stage. While the added damage is always beneficial, early skill points should be expended more profitably on your other abilities.
 * Remember that Shuriken Toss mini-stuns the target upon impact, so it's better to hold it in reserve until the enemy uses a channeling spell or activates their Town Portal Scroll. While it does have a short cooldown, the channeling time on a Town Portal Scroll is even shorter.
 * When using Shuriken Toss alongside Track to inflict damage to multiple enemy heroes in a teamfight, remember that the initial target does not have to be Tracked in order for it to bounce, so you can throw the shuriken at an un-Tracked target and it will bounce to any Tracked heroes within range. This can be useful for increasing your damage output if you don't have time to cast Track on all enemy heroes before using the shuriken, or for increasing the shuriken's maximum range to 1600 by tossing it at a creep and closing the remainder of the distance from the bounce.
 * Be careful about approaching targets to cast Shuriken Toss on them, as its short cast range may put you in unnecessary danger. If possible, try to Track the target first, and use a nearby creep as a target to bounce the shuriken from a safer range. As well, remember that you can use the bounce to catch a fleeing enemy hero who would otherwise be outside of its 400 cast range.
 * is a powerful damage ability that gives Bounty Hunter the ability to inflict critical strikes at will. Due to the way it works, Bounty Hunter is best served building raw damage items, as attack speed does not help Jinada to proc more frequently.
 * Aside from the guaranteed critical strike, another important facet of Jinada is that it inflicts a slow on its target for some time. This makes it a powerful initiating ability as attacking a target will inflict large amounts of damage and slow them, preventing them from easily escaping.
 * Remember that you can stack slows on top of Jinada in order to further debilitate the target. As such, items such as Orb of Venom can give you further disabling ability as the slow can be applied simultaneously.
 * is Bounty Hunter's go-to spell for mobility, escape and initiations, and as such it should generally be leveled first. At level 1, it provides 20 seconds of invisibility on a 15 second cooldown, allowing Bounty Hunter to remain invisible so long as he as the mana to back it up.
 * As Shadow Walk applies the bonus damage buff right at the start of the spell, it is possible to attack a target during the fade time and still inflict the bonus damage while retaining the buff. This can help with last hitting or harassing as you will be able to use the bonus damage twice (once during the fade time and once when breaking invisibility), however it becomes less feasible as the spell is leveled due to the fade time shortening.
 * Shadow Walk has an instant cast time, and does not interrupt channeling. As such, it can be cast without breaking your stride while escaping, and can be activated after beginning to channel a Town Portal Scroll, whether the aim is to become invisible while escaping or to become invisible prior to reaching your destination.
 * Be wary that using items will break Shadow Walk. Therefore, things such as changing attributes on Power Treads or activating the movement speed boost of Phase Boots will break invisibility, so be extremely careful about item usage while under the effects of Shadow Walk. Conversely though, if you have been hit by Dust of Appearance you can instantly break invisibility using the above two methods in order to negate the slow that it inflicts on invisible heroes.
 * Keep in mind, Shadow Walk's duration is always longer than its cooldown. At higher levels, it is possible to strike a target out of invisibility, become invisible again immediately afterward, and then hit them again for large amounts of bonus damage. However, this also leaves Bounty Hunter vulnerable since he will be visible and with Shadow Walk on cooldown, making escaping difficult if the enemy finds him before he can turn invisible again.
 * is a powerful vision spell in any situation, and is a great boon to any team. As it provides True Sight on the target and basic vision in a radius around them, as well as increasing the movement speed of all nearby allies, it is extremely powerful in preventing the enemy from easily initiating and gives valuable intelligence as well.
 * Track is an extremely powerful ability against heroes that rely on invisibility to escape, as the True Sight reveals their location through invisibility. It is also very powerful against heroes with blink abilities, as they often rely not only on quickly putting distance between themselves and their pursuers, but also on jumping in an unknown direction to make their opponents guess.
 * While Bounty Hunter excels at killing lone targets by himself, his team is better served in assisting him whenever he ganks targets. This not only increases the chances of a successful kill, but awards bonus reliable gold to nearby allies. The allied bonus gold exists for a reason, and rewards a team that coordinates kills with Bounty Hunter rather than letting him try to kill enemies by himself.
 * In a teamfight, try to cast Track on as many enemies as possible first, as it will give all teammates a movement speed advantage and mark them all as potential targets for a bounced Shuriken Toss. As well, any successful kills will greatly increase the gold bounty received, which can lead to buying more core items faster. However, when ganking a solo target, it is generally advisable to reserve Track until after you initiate on the target with a Shadow Walk and Jinada combo, in order to avoid alerting them until the last possible second.
 * In general, it is wise to Track as many enemy heroes as possible in order to gather intelligence on their locations and spot out any of their allies that wander too close to them. This gives your team a powerful strategic advantage since they will not only know the location of the Tracked target, but may also spot any of their teammates and give advance warning to their intentions (such as if they cast ).
 * Keep in mind, Track allows you to discern how much gold the target has, and as such lets you know how close they may be to getting one of their core items. After tracking an enemy (especially one of their carries), be sure to alert teammates to the debuff (Ctrl + left click on the debuff in the enemy player's status bar). This also serves to log the event in the chat log for later reference. This allows your team to make the decision based on the amount of farm the enemy has: if they are close to getting another major item, quickly rotating and ganking the target can set them back tremendously, however if they are farming poorly you can choose to engage a different enemy or take the time to continue farming on your side.
 * Since Track has such a low cooldown, it is a very good ability to use in order to break an enemy's Linken's Sphere, whether in a teamfight or during a gank. In teamfights, it can render their Linken's Sphere useless ahead of time, and in ganks it can be used as a leader prior to a stronger targeted disable.
 * It is important to note that if Bounty Hunter is in the enemy's fog of war and casts Track on an enemy, his position is not revealed to them, thereby allowing him to stealthily mark targets for his team. However, the debuff status indicator still appears in enemy players' HUDs, and the movement speed bonus is easily visible on all nearby creeps. Regardless, it is a useful feature in that it allows Bounty Hunter to Track targets without revealing his location.
 * Given his role, Bounty Hunter has a myriad of items he can build to assist in getting kills against targets.
 * As an off-laner, it is wise to request your team's supports to buy you an to give you vision in the enemy's jungle and possibly block their pull camp (although don't be afraid to buy one for yourself if you must move immediately to lane upon connecting to battle). Doing so will alert you to any incoming rotations and ganks so that you can keep alive. Once past the laning stage you are encouraged to regularly buy Observer Wards yourself, as you can traverse the map with Shadow Walk and place them for your team, giving you map vision to spot potential ganks.
 * is highly recommended on Bounty Hunter, as his small HP pool makes it disparately effective on him and his spells have low cooldowns (as well as a high mana cost in the case of Shuriken Toss). A full charge Magic Stick can replenish a large fraction of Bounty Hunter's health, and give him enough mana to cast multiple spells. is powerful for all the same reasons, giving Bounty Hunter additional stats as well as larger charge storage.
 * is a powerful early-game complement to Jinada, as the combination of slows can reduce a target's movement speed by 37%. As it is a Unique Attack Modifier though, it should generally be sold once you are close to getting a Desolator.
 * can be a useful laning item to build, as Bounty Hunter's spells cost very little mana and his base intelligence is somewhat low. The additional armor and damage also help him to survive, and it can be disassembled later and the Sage's Mask recycled for another item, since Bounty Hunter's intelligence growth makes the Sage's Mask better for mana regen once he hits level 6.
 * is very effective on Bounty Hunter both as an off-laner and roamer. The low mana cost of his spells and his small HP pool mean that he gets a lot of benefits from the regen, and his mobility with Shadow Walk allows him to bottle runes as needed.
 * greatly extends Bounty Hunter's already strong mobility, as he can chase and escape over impassable terrain, especially when combined with Track. It can be used in conjunction with Shadow Walk to allow for powerful initiations and chasing, preventing targets from running away under even the best of circumstances.
 * can be upgraded from a purchased Medallion of Courage, and tremendously improves Bounty Hunter's survivability against physical attacks as well as giving him increased mana regen. Using the active on a gank target reduces their armor by a tremendous amount, and reduces their ability to fight back due to the induced miss chance.
 * give Bounty Hunter more mobility, along with freeing up inventory space due to not needing a Town Portal Scroll anymore. As such, more powerful damage or initiating items can be built, and targets can be chased more easily, as well as the global repositioning giving Bounty Hunter far more opportunities to execute ganks due to being able to teleport to allied creeps instead of just towers.
 * is a very situational purchase, as the doubled invisibility can seem redundant. However, the item gives Bounty Hunter increased HP and better damage output, and the special properties of Silver Edge's Shadow Walk allows him to apply a Break to gank targets, which can disable survivability passives and make them easier to kill. Using both Shadow Walk abilities can inflict almost 350 burst physical damage (and almost 500 if doubling up on Bounty Hunter's Shadow Walk by allowing it to come off cooldown before a gank for a second use), on top of Jinada, a possible Lesser Maim proc and any other additional modifiers such as Desolator.
 * is a very expensive item, however it gives Bounty Hunter the second-most amount of raw damage possible from a single item (Divine Rapier is the most), drastically increasing the damage from a Jinada strike, and gives him some strength as well to increase his survivability. While the passive bash is better used on a hero with enough attack speed to proc the stun reliably, Abyssal Blade is an exception for Bounty Hunter since he can use the active to instantly stun a gank target, and disable targets through spell immunity as well.
 * is extremely situational and extremely risky, particularly since Bounty Hunter is quite frail and easy to kill if caught, giving the enemy team a free Rapier. However, as a last-resort weapon it can be quite powerful, as Jinada's guaranteed crit allows Bounty Hunter to inflict upwards of 1,000 physical damage when striking a target from Shadow Walk, not including any other damage items or armor reductions on the target. In dire situations, this may be enough to kill a critical target and give your team a major advantage.

Trivia

 * In DotA, Gondar shared the same hero model and dialogue as Akama, a playable Broken Draenei hero in the campaign of Warcraft III: Frozen Throne, and later an NPC in World of Warcraft.
 * Gondar's line, bount battlebegins 01.mp3 "No job is too big, no fee is too big." is a direct quote from the movie Ghostbusters.
 * Gondar's line, bount cast 02.mp3 "Dead or Alive you're coming with me." is the same line used multiple times by the main protagonist of the movie "Robocop".