Dota 2: Bounty Hunter Guide in 7.21, Lessons from Zai

Bounty Hunter looked very strong at the last DreamLeague Season 11 Major. When controlled by Secret.Zai, Bounty Hunter quickly took control of the lane and became the hero with the highest networth at 8 minutes. Several other players have tried this hero but not with as much success as Zai.

Obviously, individual skill plays a big part in unlocking the potential of any hero and Zai is considered one of the best offlanes in the world right now. However, that was not the case with EG.s4, VP.9pasha and Fnatic.Iceiceice, all of which lost while playing Bounty Hunter. Perhaps the success of Bounty Hunter does not come from the way it plays, but from who the opponent is.

Why is Bounty Hunter so strong now?

The reaction to the 7.20 changes to Bounty Hunter has been mixed. On the one hand, this hero provides the team with fewer effects, and less ability to chase and escape. In general, BH is difficult to fit into the meta, when everything revolves around lane dominating. On the other hand, the remade Jinada holds more potential than people think.

Jinada was the reason that allowed Bounty Hunter to enter the pro scene in the slower patch. Speaking of laning, Bounty Hunter no longer deals much damage. BH’s starting damage is 52. However, BH is very strong with starting armor of 6.36, 600 HP and movement speed of 315.

That means, while not last hitting nor denying well in the early game, but in terms of health trading, BH is very strong: high armor allows the hero to take hits, plus fast movement speed early game for BH to reach most all heroes in the game.

That helps Bounty Hunter shine in high level games. Bounty Hunter going offlane often confronts carries that need levels and items, thereby constantly trading blood with him. Bounty Hunter will try to touch the enemy when Jinada is out of cooldown.

As a result, this active play offers two advantages: a 2v2 skill-level situation almost guarantees the BH side in HP and Mana benefits until the 5th minute, and BH also benefits in gold.

ALL DEPENDS ON THE EXACT TIMES

Before discussing in depth about Bounty Hunter, we need to understand the importance of accurate timing in Dota. When watching high-level games, especially those of fast-paced teams like Virtus.pro, one thing is most obvious: item build times are uniform.

For viewers, especially those who are new to Dota, it can be seen as a coincidence: multiple team members suddenly have BKB and push at the same time, or a hero goes to Mekansm at the same time as the hero. different to Manta Style, creating a smoke gank situation. They are not random!

Pro players fully understand what they’re doing and split the gold properly: game-changing items that are built at the same time have a greater impact than individual items. .

If your Razor is on BKB, but Phantom Lancer still needs two more minutes to finish Diffusal Blade, during these two minutes BKB is completely useless. You don’t want to fight the opponent at this point or push the turret – you want to complete your item, and that creates a 2 minute gap for the opponent, so they can create a deal, the advantage to gold or pre-adjust what you’re doing.

However, if Razor completed the BKB one minute later, enough time for the Phantom Lancer to finish the Diffusal Blade one minute earlier? All of a sudden, the whole team is ready a minute earlier and things can go the other way.

Therefore, timing the build is key here, and it’s often not just between two players: the better teams will take advantage of this extra 30-90 seconds, possibly taking a turret or taking a Roshan. But if the opponent doesn’t react in time, you’ve taken your goal and the team has the advantage in your favor.

This happens many times in the game: who gets to boot first in lane and can mine this item, gank mid, or put pressure on lane together? Which hero gets on the Drum and Rod of Atos first and can push the turret without difficulty? Which support should be level 6 to start pressuring the enemy or rotate?

JINADA IS NOT JUST EARN MORE GOLD

If you know how to play, Bounty Hunter completely shuffles the time on the opponent’s standard item. Many players assume that stealing gold and getting gold for the Bounty Hunter itself is to Jinada’s advantage, but that’s not the case. It also plays an important role, but this hero was picked by Secret mainly to break the enemy’s uniform item build time.

It can be said that, making sure one of the opponent’s cores is left behind means that the second core can’t be fully promoted, no matter how well the game plays out. You can create a situation where one core is lost, the other core has to work alone: ​​the hero core that is missing will have to try to farm for himself, limiting his teammates’ farm space and forcing everyone to scattered, making them good prey for ganking.

From there, if the team synergizes well enough, you can punish your opponents more, quickly gaining an economic advantage through destroying targets or getting kills from the track.

SO WHY IS BOUNTY HUNTER STILL FAILING?

There are two main reasons why this hero fails in pro games. The first is mainly due to the draft, the second is due to the implementation.

Virtus.pro adapted Bounty Hunter in game 3 with Evil Geniuses by placing a core that is very good against melee heroes and can withstand physical damage. Phantom Lancer was sometimes picked as mid in previous patches – the hero has good starting stats, good last-hits, and a strong escape move. With support from Phantom Rush, Phantom Lancer can catch up with BH in terms of trade hits.

Phantom Lancer accompanies Shadow Demon, the hero can continuously harass with magic damage, nullifying Bounty Hunter’s armor. According to the article, any hero with a lot of magic damage can be effective, ensuring Bounty Hunter can’t reach his core to harass the farm.

If you can’t harass the opponent, Bounty Hunter is almost useless. Luckily for most pub gamers, the pub laning phase isn’t usually about getting out of Bounty Hunter, however the laning hero against BH is often picked third or fourth, allowing your team to adapt.

Speaking of implementations, we don’t have much to talk about. Sometimes, you can win early 5v5 by using better spells, choosing a good defensive position to protect the life of your teammates, instead of damaging the opponent.

Buying back with core champions in the early game to join the fight has become popular with professional players, despite its disadvantages. It gives a lot of gold and XP advantages to the team and also helps the core farm catch up, aligns with the other heroes on the team, allowing for teamplay.

WHEN SHOULD YOU PLAY BOUNTY HUNTER?

Bounty Hunter is currently in the top 15 of the most successfully picked heroes from Divine rank and above, so this hero deserves to be considered in most of your games. This hero probably works best when facing cores that need to level up in time: Radiance, Battlefury or Blink Dagger.

Bounty Hunter is not strong against early teamfight cores, heroes that don’t need a lot of items to apply pressure and launch attacks, like Ursa, Juggernaut, Troll Warlord or Monkey King. These heroes, if in the hands of experienced players, often adapt to the lack of gold by rotating early and picking up some cheap items.

Overall, Bounty Hunter is currently very interesting. Evil Geniuses, PSG.LGD and Team Secret have a reason to test this hero. Squeeze the opponent, take advantage of the gold difference to gain an advantage and get a lot of teamfight items, end the match. That’s how Bounty Hunter works, in theory!

According to Dotabuff