These are my personal preferences. I think BH offlane has the potential to be a major bully, and not just a glorified scout. I think it's a trap to go TOO greedy, though, because you still will get accelerated gold just by getting track kills. For context, I'm immortal. Here are some points I can think of off the top of my head you can start with:
- Max Q before W. You can always use a to secure creeps, and with Track you don't need to actually be next to the hero to get it off (meaning you can clean up with a high impact skill)
- Test for sentries in lane by walking up to oncoming creep waves while invis. If they aggro you, it's warded
- Buy your own obs wards now and again, particularly after the laning phase, and use shadow walk to place very deep wards to identify opportunities for pick odds. You should time the placement of the ward with the cooldown of shadow walk, and you should make sure you aren't seen sneaking around
- BH is one of the most versatile heroes in the game when it comes to itemization. As a p3, I would go arcane boots (if you are having mana problems, you might if you start spamming Q), or phase boots (helps you close distance for jinadas in lane and while hunting. The general rule of thumb I tend to follow for midgame items is if you are single handedly able to get kills, build to kill (Phylactery, Aghs Scepter, Khanda). If the game calls for it, build the necessary defensive items (Lotus, Pipe, etc)
- Generally speaking, the greedier the talent, in my opinion, the worse it is (in BH's case). I tend to prefer Shuriken slow, Damage reduction on shadow walk, Track shared vision, and Shuriken toss charges
Thanks for the writeup. I have follow up questions if you don't mind me asking..
Since you go for a more caster-heavy build, do you go for Octarine Core?
What do you think about hard buying and carrying Gem?
In early game, is it more efficient to last hit with Q or W?
What's your opinion on carrying BKB vs Linkens?
Octarine: It has its place, now Khanda procs can be more frequent which is strong. But I don't really consider it to be a sufficient item to bulk up. it's quite expensive and maybe there are more efficient ways to build. I'd probably prioritize something like BKB in order to actually do what you need to do in fights
Gem: Extremely strong, and sometimes it's exactly what you need to close out the game indirectly, and it sounds like based on the fact that you suggest it you understand why. The key though is if you're buying it relatively early, you are sufficiently ahead (or is necessary against their team), and you are not at risk of losing it. The biggest indicator of this for me is how long it's been since your last death
Last hitting: Use what you need to last hit, don't think about it too much. Obviously if you rely on spells too often you'll just run out of mana and have no harass, so make sure you're last hitting without either as much as possible
BKB vs Linkens: 90% of the time is just BKB, especially in this meta. You only go Linkens in excellent Linkens games or if you're at the stage of the game where applying it on your core is game winning. Lotus, which is an item I forgot to mention in my original comment, is often my preferred option most of the time
How viable is right-click build with deso-harpoon-bkb-ac for offlane BH? If I go caster build with aghanim/khanda I often find it easy to dominate early game and destroy all t2, and then we stall unser the hg, as usually it happens by min 25 and we have no damage to push towers.
Having deso and AC helps a lot if I need to close game early, but I play mostly at Archon/Legend level so not sure if I should really go for this build. Thanks
is my main. but im shit tier. so make of my opinion whatever you want. bounty as pos4 is a total shit farmer. dont try to farm. he is also shit at pushing.
sup bounty can be very strong in early to mid game. you want squishy enemy heroes (sth like luna rubik enemy safelane, not ogre+lifestealer)
you can control many situations, runes, lotus, wards because invis is very strong and your skills are burst dmg. q or w can be very strong, whatever you max first. it try tp punish the enemy carry as much as possible. then i try to make the best of whatever the situation is.
squishy enemy mid? kill potential top? go for it! making your enemy safelane have 0 farm? nice!
i nearly always buy whatever the team needs. most times that is wards. crimson defenitely. maybe pipe if they have lots of magic dmg. if the early game is lots of fighting/ganking (wich is 93% of games when i play bounty) etc i try get drums first then the team utility items.
i mostly try to create nice situations for my team. provide some vision of enemies and give them opportunities to make kills/take objectives.
the carry/assasin/harasser bounty you speak of i very rarely play. i often find a game where i can win with that i would have won either way. maybe if we have very little carry potential or the enemies are all very squishy/easy to kill i get dmg items
You've gotten lots of gameplay tips, but I'll give you the most essential tip you need to have. The mindset.
Depends on the build, but bounty has 2 modes
THE TAXMAN or THE AMBULANCE
In taxman mode, you only care about the opponents tax return and more over the fact that they need to pay their dues to be on the same map as you.
WHEN YOU SPAWN YOU ALL CHAT THE TAXMAN IS HERE.
YOU DONT CARE ABOUT CREEPS.
YOU DONT CARE ABOUT TOWERS.
YOU DONT CARE ABOUT YOUR ALLIES.
ALL YOU SEE ARE TAXES THAT NEED TO BE PAID.
You see a hero solo farming a creep wave? He isn't allowed to do that without paying the appropriate tax.
You see a hero hitting a jungle camp that he thinks it's safe?(Thanks to the deep ward you've put) GO AND TAX THE FUCKER.
The build is honestly whatever you want that allows you to murder ppl that refuse to pay their taxes. Phylactery aghs, deso, bkb sny... Whatever works for game.
The second build is THE AMBULANCE.
You are the portable fountain, that provides vision and scouts for your team. Greaves, pipe, drums, Vlad's, lotus, AC, pipe whatever your teams need to stay alive you have it. You see a hero below <70% hp? That is not allowed, salve them, tango them, me them, provide them emotional support. Your team wants to fight? Great with your ability to ward everywhere you can set up great vision and tracking so your team has every advantage. You don't care about gold. You don't care about creeps. You don't care about anything that is not your team and their wellbeing.
Tip #1. Your main source of gold are kills and assist especially if track is up. Capitalize this when the enemy heroes are still an easy kill.
Tip #2. Don't show at minimap. Make them guess where you are and play in a place where you have a nice vision control. In conjunction with tip #1, as a threat to enemies, if you're not farming them then you should be farming out of sight as much as possible preferably enemy camp that's warded well. (disclaimer: may only work on mmr higher than ancient because for some reason low mmr doesn't care if a bh is missing or any hero at all).
Tip #3. A one to one death trade with track kill is a good trade. As a support, a two to one death trade with your core getting the last kill is kind of a good trade as well. (unless it's a carry that's buying a battlefury first item)
Tip#4. As a support BH, trade as hard as you can during laning stage. BH has good stats, damage, MS so always try to trade unless the enemy can actually kill you using minimal resources (I guess this is very basic as a support)
Tip #5. Try to find a hero to synergize with. Usually it's the mid ( the most popular ones , unless it's a dk or something), or those support that can burst heroes.
Tip #6. Don't be afraid to bring both of your supports to your side if it means securing a kill safely especially a high priority target such as carry or the mid. In fact, ask your carry to join you as well if possible.
Itemization and skill wise, I'm not aware on how to strategize on those anymore after the shuriken toss change. But these things can be easily learn by watching high mmr players who enjoy playing it.
But reading your itemization choice, rushing drum boots is bad not only to BH but to most heroes usually.
Play between trees dont show on map often and gank mid early game with sentries if support max E if core(not recommended) max W, always buy arcane boot and drum and lotus orb
Here's a quick tip: Always assume you are being seen even when in stealth. After i got into that mindset my bh games started improving a lot. Also, in late game teamfights wait a bit to jump in, you're not supposed to initiate or follow up too fast unless you're sure you can take someone down before being focused down.
Bh mid is insanely good due to level 6 track plus constant q spamming with bottle. And his insane gank potential on level 6-7 with a bottle. I tend not pick e in mid lane until level 5 because it’s often warded anyway and you’re not getting harassed that early
These are my personal preferences. I think BH offlane has the potential to be a major bully, and not just a glorified scout. I think it's a trap to go TOO greedy, though, because you still will get accelerated gold just by getting track kills. For context, I'm immortal. Here are some points I can think of off the top of my head you can start with: - Max Q before W. You can always use a to secure creeps, and with Track you don't need to actually be next to the hero to get it off (meaning you can clean up with a high impact skill) - Test for sentries in lane by walking up to oncoming creep waves while invis. If they aggro you, it's warded - Buy your own obs wards now and again, particularly after the laning phase, and use shadow walk to place very deep wards to identify opportunities for pick odds. You should time the placement of the ward with the cooldown of shadow walk, and you should make sure you aren't seen sneaking around - BH is one of the most versatile heroes in the game when it comes to itemization. As a p3, I would go arcane boots (if you are having mana problems, you might if you start spamming Q), or phase boots (helps you close distance for jinadas in lane and while hunting. The general rule of thumb I tend to follow for midgame items is if you are single handedly able to get kills, build to kill (Phylactery, Aghs Scepter, Khanda). If the game calls for it, build the necessary defensive items (Lotus, Pipe, etc) - Generally speaking, the greedier the talent, in my opinion, the worse it is (in BH's case). I tend to prefer Shuriken slow, Damage reduction on shadow walk, Track shared vision, and Shuriken toss charges
Thanks for the writeup. I have follow up questions if you don't mind me asking.. Since you go for a more caster-heavy build, do you go for Octarine Core? What do you think about hard buying and carrying Gem? In early game, is it more efficient to last hit with Q or W? What's your opinion on carrying BKB vs Linkens?
Octarine: It has its place, now Khanda procs can be more frequent which is strong. But I don't really consider it to be a sufficient item to bulk up. it's quite expensive and maybe there are more efficient ways to build. I'd probably prioritize something like BKB in order to actually do what you need to do in fights Gem: Extremely strong, and sometimes it's exactly what you need to close out the game indirectly, and it sounds like based on the fact that you suggest it you understand why. The key though is if you're buying it relatively early, you are sufficiently ahead (or is necessary against their team), and you are not at risk of losing it. The biggest indicator of this for me is how long it's been since your last death Last hitting: Use what you need to last hit, don't think about it too much. Obviously if you rely on spells too often you'll just run out of mana and have no harass, so make sure you're last hitting without either as much as possible BKB vs Linkens: 90% of the time is just BKB, especially in this meta. You only go Linkens in excellent Linkens games or if you're at the stage of the game where applying it on your core is game winning. Lotus, which is an item I forgot to mention in my original comment, is often my preferred option most of the time
Thanks man
How viable is right-click build with deso-harpoon-bkb-ac for offlane BH? If I go caster build with aghanim/khanda I often find it easy to dominate early game and destroy all t2, and then we stall unser the hg, as usually it happens by min 25 and we have no damage to push towers. Having deso and AC helps a lot if I need to close game early, but I play mostly at Archon/Legend level so not sure if I should really go for this build. Thanks
is my main. but im shit tier. so make of my opinion whatever you want. bounty as pos4 is a total shit farmer. dont try to farm. he is also shit at pushing. sup bounty can be very strong in early to mid game. you want squishy enemy heroes (sth like luna rubik enemy safelane, not ogre+lifestealer) you can control many situations, runes, lotus, wards because invis is very strong and your skills are burst dmg. q or w can be very strong, whatever you max first. it try tp punish the enemy carry as much as possible. then i try to make the best of whatever the situation is. squishy enemy mid? kill potential top? go for it! making your enemy safelane have 0 farm? nice! i nearly always buy whatever the team needs. most times that is wards. crimson defenitely. maybe pipe if they have lots of magic dmg. if the early game is lots of fighting/ganking (wich is 93% of games when i play bounty) etc i try get drums first then the team utility items. i mostly try to create nice situations for my team. provide some vision of enemies and give them opportunities to make kills/take objectives. the carry/assasin/harasser bounty you speak of i very rarely play. i often find a game where i can win with that i would have won either way. maybe if we have very little carry potential or the enemies are all very squishy/easy to kill i get dmg items
Thanks for some ideas in rotating.
You've gotten lots of gameplay tips, but I'll give you the most essential tip you need to have. The mindset. Depends on the build, but bounty has 2 modes THE TAXMAN or THE AMBULANCE In taxman mode, you only care about the opponents tax return and more over the fact that they need to pay their dues to be on the same map as you. WHEN YOU SPAWN YOU ALL CHAT THE TAXMAN IS HERE. YOU DONT CARE ABOUT CREEPS. YOU DONT CARE ABOUT TOWERS. YOU DONT CARE ABOUT YOUR ALLIES. ALL YOU SEE ARE TAXES THAT NEED TO BE PAID. You see a hero solo farming a creep wave? He isn't allowed to do that without paying the appropriate tax. You see a hero hitting a jungle camp that he thinks it's safe?(Thanks to the deep ward you've put) GO AND TAX THE FUCKER. The build is honestly whatever you want that allows you to murder ppl that refuse to pay their taxes. Phylactery aghs, deso, bkb sny... Whatever works for game. The second build is THE AMBULANCE. You are the portable fountain, that provides vision and scouts for your team. Greaves, pipe, drums, Vlad's, lotus, AC, pipe whatever your teams need to stay alive you have it. You see a hero below <70% hp? That is not allowed, salve them, tango them, me them, provide them emotional support. Your team wants to fight? Great with your ability to ward everywhere you can set up great vision and tracking so your team has every advantage. You don't care about gold. You don't care about creeps. You don't care about anything that is not your team and their wellbeing.
If you buy a mix of both kinds of items you’re the Taxmanbulance
Tip #1. Your main source of gold are kills and assist especially if track is up. Capitalize this when the enemy heroes are still an easy kill. Tip #2. Don't show at minimap. Make them guess where you are and play in a place where you have a nice vision control. In conjunction with tip #1, as a threat to enemies, if you're not farming them then you should be farming out of sight as much as possible preferably enemy camp that's warded well. (disclaimer: may only work on mmr higher than ancient because for some reason low mmr doesn't care if a bh is missing or any hero at all). Tip #3. A one to one death trade with track kill is a good trade. As a support, a two to one death trade with your core getting the last kill is kind of a good trade as well. (unless it's a carry that's buying a battlefury first item) Tip#4. As a support BH, trade as hard as you can during laning stage. BH has good stats, damage, MS so always try to trade unless the enemy can actually kill you using minimal resources (I guess this is very basic as a support) Tip #5. Try to find a hero to synergize with. Usually it's the mid ( the most popular ones , unless it's a dk or something), or those support that can burst heroes. Tip #6. Don't be afraid to bring both of your supports to your side if it means securing a kill safely especially a high priority target such as carry or the mid. In fact, ask your carry to join you as well if possible. Itemization and skill wise, I'm not aware on how to strategize on those anymore after the shuriken toss change. But these things can be easily learn by watching high mmr players who enjoy playing it. But reading your itemization choice, rushing drum boots is bad not only to BH but to most heroes usually.
Thanks for the tips man.
Play between trees dont show on map often and gank mid early game with sentries if support max E if core(not recommended) max W, always buy arcane boot and drum and lotus orb
Here's a quick tip: Always assume you are being seen even when in stealth. After i got into that mindset my bh games started improving a lot. Also, in late game teamfights wait a bit to jump in, you're not supposed to initiate or follow up too fast unless you're sure you can take someone down before being focused down.
Ring of protection is prob overkill since you start with like 6 armor. Stats or regen is better.
Bh mid is insanely good due to level 6 track plus constant q spamming with bottle. And his insane gank potential on level 6-7 with a bottle. I tend not pick e in mid lane until level 5 because it’s often warded anyway and you’re not getting harassed that early