The 3 role requires great versatility. Every hero plays out differently with unique goals, and in a 1v3 you are always at a disadvantage. Many times you either abandon the lane and start in the jungle or switch after a token few minutes in the lane.
Because the position is diverse in scope and broad in breadth, it is difficult to generalize. However, some points can be made:
- 3s are generally competent 1v1 heroes. Their presence threatens the naked and inexperienced carry and they occupy the attention of enemy supports. If you start in the jungle directly for your own development, the trade-off is the unhindered development of the enemy carry and free reign for the supports.
- The best 3s are able to jungle as a back-up plan. They should be somewhat more difficult to kill and useful without much farm.
- Eating experience without dying is the dream situation for an off-laner. Experience is just under 1150 range (blink dagger range). CS is a luxury.
Bounty Hunter
This hero is a bit of a paradox. Like QoP, he does not have a good time when the other team has many disables, does not relatively shine in teamfights, and can pick off squishy heroes.
However, the heroes which allow him to have an easier time, like KotL, Chen, Furion, also happen to be good at pushing, which gondar is unable to stop.
It is best to think of this hero's output as a burst of damage for quick pick-offs, along with the ability to pursue heroes caught alone. To think of Bounty Hunter as a carry who wants to sit there whacking people is a mistake. A discussion of abilities:
Shuriken Toss - a great nuke with mini-stun. Use it to break channeling such as teleports. Usually maxed first.
Jinada - the bonus crit. damage applies to any straight damage items you have, not just base stats. an example is phase boots. does not amplify damage from windwalk. Like all critical abilities, you see more benefit in the late game than early on. Usually max this second. However in a 1v1 situation, it is good to put early levels into Jinada and right-click your enemy when it's off cooldown.
Shadow Walk - start with one point in this. two points allow you to be permanently invisible, provided you have mana, but it's still advisable to spend points elsewhere.
Track - Provides vision of the enemy and a great speed bonus for allies, use liberally. Tracked heroes who are killed give reliabile gold.
Starting Items: tango, pot, 3 branches, observer wards.
Leave early and use one of the wards to block the pull and another to give you vision of the supports should they come and hunt you. It is also an option to start with a stout shield, but I like to let the opponents deward my wards, as they will have less sentries for me.
In general, stout shield is not as useful if you are not going to be tanking creeps. This is common in the safe-lane with supports pulling but the same hero played in the off-lane I usually opt to skip it and buy a poor man's in the lane later.
At the 0:00 min mark we check the rune, and this gives us time to weasel our way up to the lane between the two enemy towers and pull the creep wave between 0:12-0:15ish. It is then easiest to bring the wave through and up the river. Care must be made going up ramps as the enemy wave may lose vision of you and stop following. Timing-wise it is ideal to meet the second wave in front of your tower, but it does not always work out this way. If the opponents have not dewarded your camp blocking ward, their lane is at this point a mess and you should be able to leech levels.
Item Progression: Bottle, Phase boots, drums, desolator, black king bar, abyssal blade.
Bottle lets you bottle crow if necessary, have some sustain, and later help with rune control. Drums gives you much needed base stats and is the best team item. In a situation where someone else on the team is getting drums I would still not skip a bracer. Desolator allows you to quickly combo low hp heroes. Outside of divine rapier there is no better damage item:
Windwalk > right click > track > toss > windwalk > right click if needed or make your escape.
In situations without desolator where you may not be able to kill your target quickly, save shuriken toss to break tps.
After the laning phase, other than fixing the direction of lanes most of your energy should be spent in scouting and participating in kills.
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