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.
 * 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 where 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 know that you are not 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 any available assistance 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 for fear of being found 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 more leeway to outstrip them.
 * While Bounty Hunter excels at killing lone targets by himself, his team is better served in assisting him whenever he initiates. Not only does this increase the chances of a successful kill, but Track will give reliable gold to all nearby allies in the kill, granting your team a powerful gold advantage.
 * In general, 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 kill 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.
 * Due to how its damage scales, Shuriken Toss is best left at level 2, as adding one additional level only increases its damage by 50. 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 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. Therefore, if time is short, try to aim the Shuriken at an un-Tracked hero as it will still bounce to the others within 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. This can help securing last hits 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, as running away faster is far more important than being invisible at that point.
 * 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 the movement speed bonus to all nearby allies, it is extremely powerful in preventing the enemy from easily initiating and gives valuable intelligence about the target's surroundings as well.
 * 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. 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 ).
 * 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.
 * Track is an extremely powerful ability against heroes that rely on invisibility, 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.
 * 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 pool you an to give you vision in the enemy's jungle and possibly block their pull camp. Doing so will alert you to any incoming rotations and ganks so that you can keep alive. As well, once past the laning stage you are encouraged to 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 and mana pool make it disparately effective on him. 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 rather 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.
 * 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.
 * 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 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 reference to the movie Ghostbusters.