Gondar, Bounty Hunter
Table of Contents
I. Foreword
II. Introduction
III. The Hunter's role
IV. Usage of Skills
V. Skill Builds
VI. Suggested Items
VII. Gameplay
VIII. Friend and Foes
IX. Further Tips
X. Replay Section
XI. Frequently asked Questions
XII. Conclusion and Credits
I. Foreword
I decided to create a guideline for Gondar as he is a hero I really enjoy but many people seem to play, in my personal opinion, wrong. He is in DotA for as long as I play it and grew quite a bad reputation over time. I felt that it is time to change that. Thus I want to introduce you to this aggressive hero who can be great fun to play. You might wanna prepare some of you favorite music as this could become a long read.
II. Introduction
Mostly called Gondar, BH or Bounty Hunter this hero can be a pain in the ass of your enemies. But in the hands of a bad player he often ends up being the feed for his enemies. But let`s just start with the actual hero!
This is his Story:
Quote:
| Gondar is a Draenei that is often called upon for his superior skills. Not much is known about his past, but his capabilities are extraordinary. Some believe he learned from a ninja clan while others say he was born with his amazing abilities. He is able to throw shurikens with extreme accuracy and has the strength to strike down any foe with his two swift blades. His agility is matched by none, and his stealth is inferior only to few. He is interested in the conflict for money alone, and is promised a large reward. |
17 + 1.8
21 + 3
19+1.4Affiliation: Sentinel
Damage: 45-59 (with a BAT (Base Attack time) of 1.7
Armor: 5.94
Movespeed: 315
Attack Range: Melee (128)
Information on Gondars Skillset:
 |
| The Bounty Hunter throws a shuriken at a target unit, dealing damage. |
| Manacost | Cooldown | Casting Range | Area of Effect | Duration | Effects | |
| 1 | 90 | 10 | 650 | N/A | N/A | Deals 100 magical damage and interrupts (ministun) the target. |
| 2 | 115 | 10 | 650 | N/A | N/A | Deals 200 magical damage and interrupts the target. |
| 3 | 135 | 10 | 650 | N/A | N/A | Deals 250 magical damage and interrupts the target. |
| 4 | 155 | 10 | 650 | N/A | N/A | Deals 325 magical damage and intereupts the target. |
- Can be dodged by blink and stealth as it is basically a stormbolt with a really short stun.
III. The Hunters role
Many believe that Gondar basically adds nothing to his team and play him like a sub-par carry. Even though in reality he scales quite well into lategame he does never become a full carry as his damage while being completely reliable is not frequent enough for the later stages in the game. He basically gains has no real carry abilitys and can never do more than a melee based semi carry. But over the course of nearly the whole game he is strong within one part of DotA. Except for an short laning period he is an excellent Ganker whose ganking potential keeps scaling as the game progresses.
His ability to keep vision over the enemy team as well as scout out for them using Wind Walk are great assets, while his burst damage allows him to quickly kill off weak targets or to help his teammates on tougher ones. Also after the initial laning phase he shouldn't require much farm allowing for a real carry to take it.
IV. Useage of Skills
The skills of Gondar are quite versatile but I do believe that one does not need images to understand how they work.
I am gonna start with probably his most infamous skill:
| Shuriken Toss |
This ability is a mixed bag. It has horrible scaling and the thing most people know it for is "killstealing" On the other hand it is quite versatile.
During the early game it can support your overall burst output, even though it comes at a high manacost. This is probably the most basic useage for it.
In the laning phase it can also be used to break enemies Healing Salves/Bottle Charges/regeneration runes/clarity potions.
It is also often used to finish of targets that got out of your melee range. Often works but sometimes item like magic wand will just screw your plan up.
The most important use is probably to break channelings or to reset the casting time of certain skills. It has quite a nice range too. You just got stunned by that sand king who now channels epicenter? Just cast shuriken on him. That furion is trying to teleport away? Dish out as much damage as you can until he is nearly gone, interrupt him and see him standing there for a while again. Of course you can also break teleportation scrolls and other things. The better you get the mor thing you will correctly stop. Even though the effect is sometimes small ( like interrupting a shadow fiend just to increase his casting time for his ultimate) it can be worthwhile.
 | Jinada |
Jinada of functions as a source of damage as well as a slow. It is mainly ment for hero killing.
During the early stages Jinada is also used to get really easy last hits.
There is not much to say about this skills useage except for that you shouldnt be using your phase boots together with it. Use the phase ability either directly after jinada triggered or cancel it with one of your spells right before you hit the target. If you don`t do this you will lose the bonus damage.
 | Wind Walk |
A simple but effective skill to have. Unlike the Wind Walk of Clinkz this one is mostly ment for offensive purposes.
You will also use this skill for escaping enemies without true sight, but most of the time you will use it to set up a gang, scout for your enemies and use the additional damage to assist in your burst. It also helps you to change your position during a fight.
Dodging projectiles(e.g. ranged attacks/hellfire Blast) and certain skills (e.g. Poison Nova) with it is also possible and certain abilitys have a reduced impact on invisble heros (e.g. Miranas arrow damaging you,while not stunning you)
Be carefull as this ability does break when you start your attack and not when you finish it.
If you want, you can use this skill 2 times in a fast succesion. While this leaves you without your Wind Walk for a short time, it can increase your burst damage.
 | Track |
Track his most powerful skill is quite easy to use. But often it is hard to decide on whom it is to use first.
Here I will be trying to describe the priorities of tracking.
First of all the number one Target for a level 2 or 3 track is almost always the target that is gonna die soon. The increase in gold is just too much to let it pass.
Casting it on a hero that is pretty close to most of your teammates can be usefull too as you want everyone to profit from the 20% ms boost.
Of course there are also those heros with invisibilty. Those are unlike common knowledge not the first target. On the other hand they still have a high priority.
Late in the game you want to track enemy initiators befor they initiate to keep track of them. Knowing where that enemy es, sand king or whaterver dagger user they have can be usefull.
It also allows you to effectivly follow juking enemies, especially those pesky mobile carries like anti-mage and weaver.
During later stages in the game you want to basically spam it on every target you see except if you don`t want to give away that you are nearby.
V. Skill Builds
Here I will present you two different skill builds. Most of the time i recommend using the first one.
| Hero Level | Skill | Guide Writer's Notes |
| 1 | | You almost always should learn Wind Walk on level one. I still suggest waiting for something to happen and than quickly learning the skill. |
| 2 | | |
| 3 | | Now you`ve got yourself a powerful 200 damage nuke on level 3. |
| 4 | | You want that slow. If you want you can also learn it on either level 2 if you think you need it before shuriken or on level 5 if you want level 2 Wind Walk as soon as possible. |
| 5 | | Now the Duration is longer than the Cooldown which allows for an easier useage. |
| 6 | | |
| 7 | | Now you can actually recast it while being invible allowing for beter management of the skill. |
| 8 | | You just want that skill maxed at the time you hit level 2 of Track. |
| 9 | | |
| 10 | | Now it is maxed. |
| 11 | | A no brainer I guess. |
| 12 | | Improvements without making any part of the skill worse(e.g. Manacost) are just worthwile. |
| 13-15 | They will help you much more than lousy 50 magical damage for 20 mana. | |
| 16 | | Now it`s maxed  |
| 17-25 | | A mixture of those based on your own decision. |
What build should I use?
It is quite simple: During the early game the burst damage of those two build is quite similar, but the recommended build is alot cheaper on Mana and offers a way better transition into mid game. For the second build to work you need some kind of Mana Regen(e.g. an Urn) and even then you will be out of mana quite often. This not only comes from the increased cost on shuriken but also from the fact that, if you want to do damage at all you HAVE to use it.
This is why you mostly choose the first build. In a few rare occasions the second build can be worthwile. One of them is if you are either laning with a pugna or doing much ganking together with a pugna or on the lane of that Pugna is on. Decrepify allows the Burst damage of the second build to surpass the damage of the first build. If there is a Ancient Apparition using ice vortex it can be also used like this even though most of the time AAs go for stats early in the game. Also if you have a Ezalor spamming Chakra magic on you can consider using this build as you can harass your enemies with Shuriken Toss without running out of mana.
VI. Suggested Items
Starting Items (for both builds):
| Usual Starting gold(603) |
    |
If you play normal or random Gondar you might wanna spend your gold in a different way. I suggest replacing one branch with a circlet. On the other hand you could just buy a chicken if needed (which I don`t suggest doing when you start with the normal gold) If you are going for the situational skillbuild you might wanna start with sobi mask when you have more starting gold then usual.
The core:
| Core Items (2908 gold + scrolls) |
   |
These Items give you: +52 whopping damage! And of course not only that. they also give you +10 to both strength and intellegence boosting your survival and offensive potential. On top of that you get some minor attack speed and armor and you allready have a upgraded pair of boots.
Sometimes you want to exchange one of the wraith bands for an Urn of Shadows. This is up to your personal choice but I recommend you doing so if you are following the situational Skillbuild.
If you now are asking yourself why I don`t suggest power treads instead of phase boots, here is my reasoning:
 | VS | |
Possible Extensions:
 | The best choice most of the time. It provides you the best damage you can get for your burst combo as wella s helping your allies with the armor reduction. Once you have this you`ll kill squishy supports in seconds. |
 | A good alternative for desolator when you face heroes with inherit evasion or believe that somebody is building a buterfly soon. |
 | Can be awesome after your first damage items if you face alot of stuns and disables that can be stopped by BKB. |
 | If the enemies don`t have that many disables or their disables would pierce through BKB you can consider this as an alternative. Especially since it is no orb anymore. |
 | This Item makes for a good damage item, but it should never be bought before having at least MKB or Desolator. With this your physical defense skyrockets. Immense Armor and evasion. |
Other Items worth mentioning are
and 
. Even though they are completely situational you might consider getting Diffusial first if you find yourself against a Warlock (as it will pay for it self) and you are the only possible carrier. Battlefury can be bought if for some reason ganking is just not possible or to support the Mana needs of the second Skill Build. But in general you shouldn`t touch them.Items you like to see on your teammates:
 | This is like a free desolator and it even stacks with it. Due to the fact that Gondar would cancel his windwalk using it he cannot really use it himself. |
  | Those two aura items have awesome effects. Sadly you can't really use them since the aura would be deactivated while you are invisble, which is a huge drawback. On an ally on the other hand they are immensly helpful. |
 | What is better than two extremely powerful demons? Two extremely powerful demons with perma haste. They also help you to get rid of those pesky sentry wards. Sadly they provide stats you can`t really use. |
Of course those Items are not necassary. Also you will benefit from many other Items too. These are just some special mentions.
VII. Gameplay
Early Game:
During the laning phase you`ll be quite passive for a while. You`ll play like a carry trying to last hit as much as you can. Once you reach the second level of Shuriken Toss you can start an attack on your enemies togetehr with an ally. If it won`t work just continue farming. You should often use a courier to deliver yourself soem Items, so you benefit from a constant growth. Once you got to level 6 and got your Core Items the ganking should start. Someone else should take over the lane and use the farm. During this phase you`ll mostly be the only one ganking from lane to lane without getting spotted by wards due to your invisibility. When you try to kill an enemy you should eitehr try to burst him down as fast as you can, kill him step by step or wait until he sued one of his skills. If the enemies have a jungler you should sometimes scout their jungle.
Mid Game:
The Mid Game starts when most heroes in the game stop laning. Now you`ll more often be accompanied by allied heroes, mainly being in the front giving the needed vision and providing a surprise effect that often makes even fights uneven in your favor. You`ll be slowly working on your desolator. If you have noone to gang or you really need some tiny amounts of gold to finish an item (so the gold is save and cannot be lost) you can also consider one or two neutral camps. If you and your teammates manage to take out enough foes at the right time you also should always take the chance to push a tower.
Late Game:
During the Late Game when big teamfights happen mroe frequently you should always try to stay out of the thick of it (unless you got a bkb) and backstab the support heroes. You should have no mana problems anymore and try to apply Track on your enemies as much as possible. Sadly your damage will pale compared to full carries, but you are still strong in instanly killing supports or assisting with a bit of damage.
VIII. Friends and Foes
Friends:
 | This hero is an amazing asset throughout the whole game. Magic Missile helps you killing your target in lane and gank later on, The Armor reduction and the Command Aura allows your damage to grow and swap allows for easy kills, which will even be worth it if Venge dies thanks to track. |
 | Having an early alacrity on you can be damn amazing. And after you leave the lane for ganking he can easily take it over. |
 | Featuring killing potential, the ability to take over the lane once you go ganking and an ultimate that allows you to follow up every succesfull gank with a push is a great asset too. |
  | Even more heroes fall into the catogory of providing harass and nuke support and being able to take over the lane once you leave it. |
  | Those heroes shouldn`t lane with Gondar even though Luna might work out as a caster support for the first 10 minutes and then take over farming. Their flat damage bonus(Howl/LunarBlessing) will increase your burst by heavy amounts early game. |
   | Carries in general tend to work well with Gondar. Wether it is a carry adding burst or another form of ganking potential or are a melee carry whose positioning and target switching will be way easier due to the movement boost of track. |
Foes:
    | Basically everything that counters invisibility is slightly annoying. You should always watch out for enemy dusts and gems. |
    | Just alot of unspecific heroes that basically screw evrybody over. Good thing is you can screw them too. |
IX. Further Tips
- Always check your enemy inventories for any kind of true sight.
- You shouldn`t bother with staying invisble once you are dusted. Use your phaseboots and get the fuck out of there. You Wind Walk will be ready soon enough.
- If you met one of those poeple who either makes videos or tries to immitate one of those you should abuse their "cool moves". Just let them waste some stuff and kill them.
- More later.
X. Replay Section
Game Link
XI. Frequently asked Questions
None right now.
XII. Conclusion and Credits
Without many words I`ll conclude this guide. I hope it was of help for you.
My thank goes to the people I regulary play with, dommed2die for his BBCode guide and Icefrog and his team for DotA.
Goodbye,
Cocofang
Gondar the Bounty HunterAuthor: Cocofang
Map Vers.: 6.72f
Bounty Hunters Compendium
Killing for money instead of Glory
Last Comment:13/09/2011
Total Votes: 0
Current Rating: 0.00
Views: 1554
