Blood Hunter

Blood Hunter in HoN is identical to Bloodseeker in Dota and should be played the same way for best results.  Blood Hunter is a powerful solo hero that can be completely sustainable in lane without any regeneration items, since it recovers hit points for every last hit.  This should lead to unchecked farm and you carrying the game.  Here is a look at the abilities:

Blood Crazy

Silences a hero while amplifying damage.  An essential silence that can completely disable casters like Thunder Bringer or Torturer, and is equally as effective late game as a damage booster for allied players.

Feast

Blood Hunter regains health every time it kills a creep.  This single ability is what makes Blood Hunter so good.  Early game you can ignore regeneration items completely and focus 100% on last hitting creeps.

Blood Sense

Gives Minimap vision of low-hp heroes and adds movement speed to Blood Hunter.  Allows BH to chase down weak heroes with ease.

Hemorrhage (ultimate)

Deals initial damage to a hero and drains health if the hero runs.  This ability forces heroes to hold position and fight, or to run and die.

Strategy

Early Game

Items: I like to start with a Logger’s Hatchet (Quelling Blade), two Duck Boots (Slippers of Agility) and a Mana Potion (Clarity) early.  Remember that you regain hit points by getting last hits, which is why this build is aimed at making it as easy as possible to get kills and denies and doesn’t waste any money on health consumables.  The two Duck Boots may be upgraded quickly via courier to Soulscream Rings (Wraith Bands) or an Iron Shield (Poor Man’s Shield), depending on whether you need more hit points or to survive harass more.  The Mana Potion is there to allow you to spam Blood Crazy on your opponent, which will drain their hit points and prevent them from spamming you too much early.  Once you hit level six you also want to have enough mana left to use your ultimate to get a quick kill.

Abilities: If your lane seems very easy, you only need to put one point into Feast before maxing out Blood Sense or Blood Crazy.  I like to learn Feast level 1, Blood Crazy level 2, and then get Blood Sense at levels 3, 4, and 5, so that as soon as I get to level 6 I can easily find and kill low-hp heroes with my ultimate.  If your lane is more challenging at the start, you will need to put an additional level into Feast early to improve your sustainability, and one or more levels into Blood Crazy to prevent your opponent from spamming you out of the lane with spells.  Leveling up Blood Sense early is a luxury, not a necessity.  The most important thing to remember in picking skills is to make sure you are capable of staying in the lane and continuing to get last hits.  If you are bad at last-hitting, don’t pick this hero because you will fail.

Mid Game

Decide whether you want to gank or just rice in your lane:

Ganking:  Get Enhanced Marchers (Phase Boots) to boost your damage and chasing speed and a Bottle or Sustainer (Perseverance) to provide mana and start hitting the side lanes hard.  You want to put your opponents in positions where they are outnumbered and need to run to survive, but can’t because they are Hemorrhaged.  Hemorrhage has a very short cooldown (about a minute), so you’ll need a lot of mana supply to gank efficiently every time it is up (and of course you’ll also be using Blood Crazy to silence).

Ricing: I prefer to farm with Blood Hunter and get an early Sword of the High (Relic) by taking complete control of the lane by last hitting every creep, which is pretty easy with Logger’s Hatchet.  You can generally complete a Mock of Brilliance (Radiance) around 20 minutes, at which point you can then start ganking and easily mop up any lightweights on the other team.

Late Game

After you have your Mock of Brilliance, it is time to tank up with a Behemoth’s Heart (Heart of Tarrasque) or even Shrunken Head (BKB), so you can dive into the center of team battles and deal as much damage as possible without being killed.  Remember that you regain hit points for kills (and a LOT of hit points for heroes), so focus on getting these last hits, as they will fuel your continued rampage and allow you to carry the game.

Tags: Blood Crazy, blood hunter, Blood Sense, Feast, Hemorrhage, hero guide, HoN, HoN beta

This entry was posted on Monday, November 16th, 2009 at 2:49 PM by daggius and is filed under Guides: HoN. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.