Bounty Hunter vs Riki

I don't get the point of this thread...

I've yet to see a skilled Riki player, so I can't provide an informed decision to your question. I only tend to see players who use Riki sit there in the middle of 4 v 5 team fights and pick off the other team's heroes when they're just about to keel over anyway. Bounty Hunter players on the other hand do aid the team with Track and so on, saving you the time, effort and farm to buy Gems, Wards and Dust. Furthermore with the extra gold reward Bounty Hunter's Track provides to the team, what's not to like?

I assume you a referring to which hero is better, in that case, I say Bounty Hunter. Riki requires a lot more farm, and will struggle to contribute to teams sometimes when faced with teams who know how to counter him. Bounty Hunter on the other hand can deal a heck of a lot of damage in a sudden burst with a few well timed attacks. (Shadow walk, Jinada, Shuriken Toss)

Also, with Bounty Hunter's Track ability he can easily benefit the whole team rather than just finishing weak heroes like Riki does. I have yet to see a skilled Riki player who can offer a lot to the team other than sneaking through team fights in pubs.

rikimaru = better teamfight with proper smoke. Stand far away in case of dust, sentry, and gem. Blink strike when the fight start and smoke those annoying support.

BH = more gold for the team IF they win the teamfight. Can only track when riki shows himself, but track does give bonus MS for the whole team.

contrary to what people say, riki does not need that much farm, he can gank early mid game with only PT and 2 wrath band, the smoke is a huge asset to the team.

But i'll say, it depends on the lineup to say which 1 is better. Riki can blink strike, BH can track and boost MS. Riki can silence, BH can slow with his passive. Riki can backstab, BH can toss and cancel the channeling. though, BH invis i'd say is better than riki's ulti. lvl 2 BH inis = perma-invis + damage anyway.

i really like Riki in combination with Dark Seer. Vacuum+smoke is a pretty decent combo. :)

riki is great for early ganks and preventing counter ganks with his smoke, and using that he snowballs very hard, as soon as riki is 6 and has his treads he can gank all lanes, bounty can do the same, but bounty counters invis heroes as well as earn a lot of gold for his team. all in all both are situational and need to be picked when ganks are easier to pull of, because that is their source of gold.

the probelm i have with those statements is, that Bounty-Hunter is a top tier offlaner (escape pre lvl 6) and riki is a medicore carry, who gets outclassed by most other carries.

Secondly, the assumption that riki is a better chaser due to his blink strike is wrong, as BHs Track gives him AND his whole team a wooping 20% ms-boost.

Smoke Screen is quite underrated - that i will agree on - but countered by a mere BKB or MKB, which good players always will get, when they are annoyed by it.

This is a pretty old thread. As a team asset, BH comes online sooner in most cases, thus why he often plays on the solo offlane for the early levels.

They've got very different jobs (aside from the stabbing people in the back thing):

Riki

- Carry, sustained DPS (he kicks out a hell of a lot more damage than BH, once farmed)
- Goes for easy kills to increase farm
- Squishy as hell
- More teamfight with Smoke Screen

Bounty Hunter

- Semi-Carry/ganker (he's not a proper carry, should get farm with ganks)
- Better survivability due to higher HP and earlier Invis
- Helps team with bonus gold from Track
- Good off-laner

I dont feel like you can't really compare them like that as bounty hunter sort of a roaming semi-carry/support (becasue "HEY! free gold") while rikimaru is more of a carry who excells at roaming.

however if you had to choose either i would choose bounty hunter as an off-laner, with a carry in an agrresive tri-lane, over a riki, as a roamer with a hard carry or as a carry himself, any day.