This is a post I read awhile ago when I first started Bounty Hunting. It's just a guide I found to be quite helpfull and in my OPINION was written by one of the best BHs in the game.
How To Be A Successful Bounty Hunter
This guide is intended for the full-time bounty hunter intent on climbing up the top 250 league however many aspects of this guide can be adopted by the more casual hunter to improve their chances of successfully winning more bounties and avoiding counter-bounties.
Firstly and most importantly is the cost, An FSP will buy you 100 bounty tickets and depending on your level they may not last long so it's fair to say you will have a huge financial advantage if you can get into bounty hunting at a low level. For example, I am currently level 104 and the bounties on the board today are:
level 10 costing 19 bounty tickets
level 35 costing 14 bounty tickets
level 65 costing 8 bounty tickets
level 90 costing 3 bounty tickets
Now go and have a look at the bounty board and see how these costs compare to the costs at your level.
I did the bulk of my bounties at level 50-55 and found it an ideal level to be as their are some extremely powerful equipment combinations which allow you to tackle bounties of some players over twice your level—a great accomplishment ;-}. I was also very successful around the 30-35 level.
I found that 100 bounty tickets could last me several days at level 50-55 but at level 100-105 I go through 300+ tickets a day and my biggest rival at the moment giantepeen (level 202) will spend about 10 fsp a day when he is hunting, so as you can see it does get expensive to chase the top 250 league at higher levels.
Stamina is the next hurdle you need to get over and I would strongly recommend that you invest in maximizing your stamina gain per hour, this is very expensive (625 fsp) however will pay for itself many times over when compared to the 1FSP=25 stamina ratio. If your guild has the Endurance structure fully upgraded then you will now be gaining 90 stamina per hour (possibly more depending on relic control ;-}. Increasing your Max stamina to over 2,500 is also advisable to enable you to only have to carry out one hunt run a day and having spent all that fsp on stamina the last thing you want to do is waste it on overflow.
Equipment is vital and you cannot consider yourself a serious bounty hunter without wearing the best equipment available at your level, Without it you will have to pick and chose targets much more carefully and still face losing hits much more often which in turn loses you bounties and is a waste of stamina, High damage can be achieved without heavy FSP costs by shopping around and being patient. This website can help you choose the best equipment for your level:- http://stats.rubicksman.com/best.php but also consult http://forum.fallensword.com/viewtopic.php?t=33380 for suitable sets.
Before starting a bounty hunt run get as many buffs as you're able to. These are the buffs that may help you while hunting:-
Offensive buffs:
Rage, +0.2% base attack per point. (Only useful if you have spent level-up points on attack)
Stun, +0.1% chance per point to half opponents chance to hit.
Fury, +0.1% base Attack and +0.1% base Damage per point.(only useful if you have spent level-up points on damage &/or attack)
Bloodthirst, +0.2% chance per point to drain 5% of your opponents current HP per combat turn from your opponent.
Enchant Weapon, +0.1% per point stat bonus increase to your equipped weapon. (Excludes 'Gain' bonuses).
Berserk, +0.2% base Damage per point. (only useful if you have spent level-up points on damage)
Dark Curse, +0.2% reduction of opponents defence per point.
Shockwave, +0.1% per point chance per point that your opponent will forfeit their next combat turn.
Ignite, +0.1% per point chance per point that your opponent will be set on fire. Each successful hit thereafter will inflict between 5% and 10% extra damage.
Wither, +0.2% per point chance of a 50% reduction of your opponents HP at the start of combat.
Spell Breaker, +0.1% per point chance to remove a random buff from PvP target upon a successful attack.(handy against deflect)
Defensive buffs:-
Great Vigor, +0.2% base HP per point. (only useful if you have spent level-up points on HP’s)
Fortify, +0.1% base Armor per point. .(only useful if you have spent level-up points on armor)
Evade, +0.1% base Defence per point. .(only useful if you have spent level-up points on defence)
Absorb, +0.1% chance per point that you will absorb 25% of the damage inflicted on you.
Rock Skin, +0.1% base Defence and +0.1 base Armor per point. .(only useful if you have spent level-up points on armor &/or defence)
Enchanted Armor, +0.1% per point stat bonus increase to your equipped armor. (Excludes 'Gain' bonuses).
Aura of Protection, +0.1% base Defence, +0.1% base Armor and +0.1% base HP per point. .(only useful if you have spent level-up points on defence &/or armor &/or HP’s)
Force Shield, +0.1% per point chance to reduce damage done to you to 1.
Unbreakable, +0.5% per point chance per point of equipment not taking durability loss during combat.(handy if using crystalline items)
Constitution, +0.1% per point increase to your defense.
Special buffs:-
Last Ditch, +0.2% per point chance to survive death in combat (once per combat).
Empower, +0.1% per point increase to all currently active enhancements.
Conserve, +0.05% per point chance that combat (vs. players and vs. creatures) will use no stamina. (Excludes group/relic combat)
When I'm on a hunt-run I tend to build it up until I have about 8 bounties on the go at the same time as this gets me into a nice rhythm whereby I can go straight from one to the next and to the next following the order listed in your loga yellow short cut will pop up after each hit which helps the process ;-}with one or two gaps of 20-30 seconds where I am able to repair my armour and look at the BB for fresh targets. I find that doing it this way the bounties time themselves and I usually win 60-70% of the bounties I take.That said it is not unheard of for me to have as many as 12 on the go but that does get hectic and I wouldn’t recommend it ;-}
Building up to the ideal 8 takes a bit of time and effort as you need to scout the backlog on the BB to find players on-line who are worth asking and the off-line targets who's equipment is undamaged plus checking for new bounties to be listed, Again I tend to ask on-line players as I get an 80% ratio of "Yes Please take it" and then know that I have effectively already won that bounty and that you won't face a counter bounty later ;-}
Take care when you're on your run as most guilds have Alliances and NAP'S in place and it is very easy to start a bounty on someone without realizing the trouble it can cause your guild so make a list of these guilds and pin it up near the screen so you can avoid any political upsets. That said a simple message may well still get you permission if not now then for future bounties placed on that person.
Targets with buffs can prove problematic and if stamina is an issue with you then try to avoid anyone with deflect as this is by far the most frustrating buff out there, not only does it slow down a bounty and cost you more stamina trying to clear it but it also messes up your log order and you need to remember when to try hitting them again
Don't forget to start winding down when you have less than 1000 stamina left as their is nothing professional about a hunter running out of stamina mid hunt and this may well earn you some deserved counter-bounty ;-}
By following this regime you should comfortably clear 10 or more bounties in a session which should earn you 100+ bounty points a day and you could potentially achieve the crystal medal in less than 100 days ;-}
Counter-bounties are inevitable and not really worth stressing over however there are ways of reducing them and lessening their impact.
If you want to avoid being counter-bountied as much as possible then you need to explain to the targets exactly what and why you are doing their bounty and offer to return stolen gold, pay for repairs and potentially offer to share the reward (how far you want to go is up to you). This can be done in your bio or by sending a message to the targets. If you wish to use the message method then I would recommend that you write a message in your notebook so that you can easily cut'n'paste it when needed. Here is an example:
"I'm clearing your bounty using only 10 stamina. Sorry you were not on-line to ask however I have checked your equipment and it is not damaged so hope and presume that I am the only one on it. I will be happy to return any stolen gold plus up to 1,000 to enable you to repair your armour all you need to do is let me know how much I owe you ;-}."
This won't always work but combined with asking permission of on-line players and avoiding Bios that are hostile, threatening, claiming designated bounty hunters & insisting that hunters have a large PvP score you are doing everything within your powers to cut down on counter bounties.
Not avoiding counter-bounties is much more fun and will make your rise up the top 250 easier as it gives you a free hand to take on all targets. Obviously this means that you will be getting a lot of bounties yourself and the best way of lessening the impact of these is to give your self some leveling room whereby you wear optimum equipment set at level 50 (example) but you level up to level 55. This gives you a five level cushion whereby you can focus all your energy on the BB and won't even need to consider leveling again until you drop to level 50 whereby you spend a day or two getting back to 55 and start again.
Having an offline defensive equipment set-up "turtle suit" is advisable whereby you try to get at least 10*level in defense, and then 5-6*level in attack and 4-5*level in damage. This will earn you more victories when being bountied and keep the lower level hunters off your back, which is important as they will take more XP from you forcing your leveling regime to kick in more often. I frequently gain PvP while being bountied thanks to my turtle suit ;-}
Threats of de-levelling and large fsp bounties are just that threats and very rarely amount to anything. I have done over 1000 successful bounties now and have never suffered a de-levelling bounty although I have been threatened with dozens ;-}
_____
Deleveled is nothing but a palindrome ;-} (by Araldite)
