[REMAKE] Track

[Terresquall]

EDIT 231010: Greatly simplified the mechanics behind this skill and buffed its numbers.

Current Track

Tracks an enemy hero for 30 seconds or until it dies. Allied units near the tracked target gain 20% movement speed increase. If the target dies, Bounty Hunter gets bonus gold.

Level 1 - 75 extra gold, reduces target's armor by 1.
Level 2 - 150 extra gold, reduces target's armor by 3.
Level 3 - 225 extra gold, reduces target's armor by 5.

Cooldown: 10/7/5
Manacost: 70/60/50

New Track

Upon dealing targeted damage to an enemy unit, the Bounty Hunter is able to track it and gain vision of it for 4 seconds. Every allied unit within 800 range of the tracked unit gains a movement speed bonus. If a unit dies while tracked, the Bounty Hunter gains a large kill bounty bonus.

Level 1 - 20% movement speed bonus, 100 gold kill bounty.
Level 2 - 24% movement speed bonus, 200 gold kill bounty.
Level 3 - 28% movement speed bonus, 300 gold kill bounty.

Passive

* Any damage that is dealt from targetted orders (i.e. attacking or single target spells), as long as it is dealt by the Bounty Hunter, will Track its target. This means you can use Shuriken Toss and Dagon to Track a target.

Why the Change?

1. The current Track is uncreative.
Track is nothing more than a cheap, weakened version of Amplify Damage. It does everything Amplify Damage does for more mana and less results. Sure, it may have more effects to offer than Amplify Damage, but the only thing it offers that matters is the 20% MS bonus, and that really isn't enough to justify all its shortcomings. As an ultimate, when its only use is to clean off a fleeing, half-dead hero 1v1, you know it is in serious need of improvements.

2. The current Track is unsynergetic.
Track breaks Windwalk's invisibility and makes you lose its backstab damage. Against invisibility heroes (that BH counters), you often have to lose your backstab damage if you want to reliably Track them, and 120 bonus damage is quite alot to throw away.

Casting Track also wastes you precious time which you can otherwise spend attacking your prey; and it taxes BH's measley manapool, which might cost you an extra Toss or Windwalk (through backstab damage) you might need to kill your target).

3. The current Track is weak.
As said before, Track is a terrible ultimate. Its use in battle is severely limited to 1v1 battles where you are chasing a fleeing target, and even slows sometimes work better than Track in these scenarios. While it does have its uses for countering invisible heroes, it isn't particularly awesome at it, seeing as its the only thing it really does decently.

4. The current Track is merely a simple chasing spell.
I'm sure Track, in concept, was a spell that was designed to give the Bounty Hunter's allies vision of the enemy to help them gank the target. It's debuff, and the predictability of its duration, makes it next to useless as a spell that "tracks" its targets, seeing as to how the debuff and its predictability makes enemies stay at a safe spot until it wears off.

What Does This New Track Offer?

1. Hero synergy.
The new Track weaves an otherwise unharmonious skillset together. Wind Walk now works together with Track instead of against it, and Shuriken Toss finally serves a purpose beyond KSing.

2. A consolidation of the skill's defining features, tapered to BH's skillset.
In other words, it is a buff to Track. While the armor reduction component of the skill was removed, the skill now needs no mana to cast and wastes no casting time, gives you more movement speed, and is permanent (that is, if you don't want him to escape, he probably won't). It also, I believe, makes the skill more intuitive to use. Pointing at a target to Track him halfway through a battle always seemed awkward to me.

Miscellaneous Stuff

Why remove the armor debuff?
The armor debuff was simply a convenient byproduct of Track being based on Ladder Faerie Fire. It has little to do with the theme of the skill, which I believe to be bonus bounty and the extra movement speed with which you could chase down your target with.

[Bloody_Wolf]

Dont change old Track. Why?
If you track half dead heroes, then all your allies gangbanged him until die, you get gold even if you are not kill him.
except, while you windwalk can cast Track without break the invis i will 100% agree.

overall: T-Down

[Raxen 07]

This is worst suggestion because you was made track without extra gold and reduce armor

[Bloody_Wolf]

Originally Posted by Raxen 07

This is worst suggestion because you was made track without extra gold and reduce armor

This i agree

[Monsterlord]

As an ultimate, when its only use is to clean off a fleeing, half-dead hero 1v1

This is where you fall down on your face. Track's main use is to increase your teams gold pool by allowing you to collect bounty while your carry still gets the kill. It's very, very well suited to his gank role.

From a fair few other points in your suggestion, I don't think you understand this. You seem to think that BH is meant to get all the kills, as if he can use them more efficiently than another hero on your team. He's meant to be played the same as NA, except his skills are better suited but overall worse than Nerub's.

[dominator02]

return back the bonus gold which fits his name Bounty Hunter because bounty hunter means one who pursues a criminal or fugitive for whom a reward is offered..

[Terresquall]

From a fair few other points in your suggestion, I don't think you understand this.

First off, please do not automatically assume that I am a moron just because we have different ideas of what BH should be.

You seem to think that BH is meant to get all the kills, as if he can use them more efficiently than another hero on your team. He's meant to be played the same as NA, except his skills are better suited but overall worse than Nerub's.

What I'm doing here is not to improve how BH plays, but changing how he plays. A bounty hunter is supposed to get in there and get his bounty--his namesake--by killing heroes himself and getting their bounty. He's not supposed to sit his ass around behind, pointing his finger and pulling gold out of his ass if his team kills the hero who just got his literal finger. Balance-wise having Track in its current state is fine, but gameplay-wise do you feel like a bounty hunter if all you do is the occasional shuriken KS and lots of finger pointing?

That he plays the same as NA is a big problem, because every hero should have a theme and a playstyle that is distinctly different from each other. Sven got his recent remakes partially because he played too similarly to Skeleton King; PA and CK got their Blink Strikes remade because that made them too similar to SA and to each other; Razor got remade because he was practically a cheap Viper minus the Poison Attack.

No offense, but perhaps you should try and understand my paradigm too before making a judgment so quickly.

[Monsterlord]

First off, please do not automatically assume that I am a moron just because we have different ideas of what BH should be.

I wasn't assuming you were a moron, I can tell you aren't from the suggestion itself.

A bounty hunter is supposed to get in there and get his bounty--his namesake--by killing heroes himself and getting their bounty. He's not supposed to sit his ass around behind, pointing his finger and pulling gold out of his ass if his team kills the hero who

Your suggestion is taking away from that flavour as much as it is adding it. The additional bounty is a fundamental part of his theme, role and background, and you're removing it.

That he plays the same as NA is a big problem, because every hero should have a theme and a playstyle that is distinctly different from each other.

This is only half true. He fills the same role and style as NA, yes, but he does it in a different way. NA is reliant on spell damage, and his items will reflect that, while Bounty is focused far more on physical damage. It's not limited to these two either. Tide and Magnus play fairly similarly, or Trax and Viper.

I do like the idea of a passive track, but it detracts from BH's theme as much as it adds to it, encourages ksing which is already a problem on him, and could be considered a nerf by some.

[Terresquall]

I wasn't assuming you were a moron, I can tell you aren't from the suggestion itself.

Then I apologise for jumping into a conclusion.

Your suggestion is taking away from that flavour as much as it is adding it. The additional bounty is a fundamental part of his theme, role and background, and you're removing it.

I think that there can be better ways to enforce his role as a Bounty Hunter. Tacking gold onto the skill is really a cheap way of enforcing his namesake, because getting gold is a result of his actions. He should be defined by his actions, and his skills are supposed to help him act out in ways that result in him getting the gold and not part of the mechanism that rewards him. His skills should be part of the mechanism that helps him get his reward while being totally unrelated to the reward itself. The current Track is part action and part reward, and this logical fallacy is glaring. Sure, DotA isn't supposed to be 100% realistic, but Track is pushing it in an absurd way.

I do like the idea of a passive track, but it detracts from BH's theme as much as it adds to it, encourages ksing which is already a problem on him, and could be considered a nerf by some.

KS-ing should be the core of the Bounty Hunter. He's a selfish man, and its defined by his skills and his actions. He only cares about the kill and the gold--that's why Shuriken Toss is designed to only be used for the KS. His weakness now is that can only mostly KS now--what I want to do is make him an independent killer, much like NA, Bloodseeker, or to an extent, NS is, but in a different way.

It's not limited to these two either. Tide and Magnus play fairly similarly, or Trax and Viper.

Magmus and Tide play similarly only in terms of initiating clashes with their ulti. Tide is more tanky and is more useful in small skirmishes due to Gush and Kraken Shell. Magmus doesn't take part in alot of ganks--he rices at least enough to get his Blink and wreck large battles with RP and cleave. Magmus defines only clashes, while Tide is much more versatile, handling big and small battles equally well.

Trax and Viper used to be similar--until Trax got the Marksmanship change. Trax is more of a mid-late hard DPSer, while Viper is a hard early-mid ganker. Where Trax performs well, Viper doesn't. I admit that it may not be a big change, but the difference is definitely there.

I see Bounty alot like a trashy NA, kind of like how the old Razor was a trashy Viper. He comes out with this big backstab damage (240 if you Windwalk twice), followed by a crit and a big fat nuke. Except NA has more utility in ganks too because of his mana burn and AoE stun, and his combo hurts alot more.

[Torchic Maniac]

I have one question. So pretty much when you hit a track, do you gain sight of the foe too?

[joebh]

reduce some of the MS it gives in exchange for extra gold reward, and its PERFECT.

i dont know what some of these ppl are smoking but current track on gondar is definitely SHIT.

[Torchic Maniac]

i dont know what some of these ppl are smoking but current track on gondar is definitely SHIT.

If you mean "shit" as in weak, it isn't that bad since it gives you chasing or escape on the enemy that you track. It is a very nice skill that could use some tweaks (like allow you to stay invisible when casting or a bit more armor reduction). If you mean "shit" as in a horrible themed skill,... yeah, you are right.

[Semper.Fi]

i know this may seem off topic, but i've seen lots of BH tweaks and changes in order to go around the WW break problem.

Why don't we just get rid of WW on BH anyway? First of all, it's a lame skill that is wayyyyyy overused. Also, i understand he's a ninja but he should have some other ninja-like skill that doesn't involve invis.

anyway, this track is a good concept, however the MS bonus should be scaled down to like 15%/20%/25%
AND
to stop all the cry babies about the gold bonus, if a hero with track dies, then BH should receive 50/100/150 gold (a slight nerf to the original track bonuses)

In terms of armor, the armor reduction really isnt needed. Thats waht Slar's Amp is for.

[twoplay]

T-Down, if he is low he should still be able to help his team.
Also the old track gives him more gold when ganging even when he is not the killer, which results in semi-carrying even if he gangs quite often.
(Now don´t tell me that effects can be added.)

[kyokunchan]

T-Down, I like to run after low hp hero's and getting kills with more gold.

[Lord_Talron]

this will completely nerf track in several ways. for example you can no longer track people during a seige

tdown without some sort of meld of both old and new

[Linism]

The only thing unique about the old Track was the bonus gold, which honestly, I am sad to see gone. But I do like this being a passive and not screwing up your WW.

Maybe you can have the gold still included, but reduced. And cap it so that only one target may be tracked at one time.

T-Null. I really like the gold lol. Personally the change I'd like to see on Track is making it NOT break WW when casted and removing/reducing its cast animation, but your idea has potential which I think should be explored.

[Lord_Talron]

the reason track gives bonus gold is to encourage teamplay with gondar while not taking away from his farm (remember hes a semi-itemdependent ganker). he doesnt always get the hero kill and he doesnt really farm so this is how he can manage to get items.

i agree with linkyaw about not breaking invis

[canhden]

Originally Posted by Bloody_Wolf

while you windwalk can cast Track without break the invis i will 100% agree.

T-up this.

[Kanashimi]

What about changing it to:

Track

Upon dealing damage to an enemy Hero, the Bounty Hunter gains vision of it until the target goes out of his tracking range. Any allied units within tracking range of the tracked unit gains a bonus to their movement speeds.

Level 1 - 600 tracking range, 18% movement speed bonus.
Level 2 - 900 tracking range, 26% movement speed bonus.
Level 3 - 1200 tracking range, 34% movement speed bonus.

Passive

* Any damage, as long as it is dealt by the Bounty Hunter, will Track its target. This means you can use Shuriken Toss, Dagon, or even Blademail to Track a target.
* All effects of Track ends when the enemy hero gets out of tracking range.