This article features a brief overview of the Bounty Hunter class in BioWare’s new up and coming MMO, Star Wars The Old Republic; brought to you by Legions of Lettow.

The Bounty Hunter is a heavy armor-wearing, rocket-shooting, laser-gun-wielding character whose main motivation is killing for credits. Usually when most people think of bounty hunters in Star Wars, Boba Fett comes to mind. He was one of a large number of, though, in a universe where criminals can earn good money, people hunting those criminals can too. In the Star Wars universe, the more famous a Bounty Hunter is, the more they can charge for their services, and the fastest path to fame is winning The Great Hunt, an annual contest for the best hunters out there.

The Bounty Hunter relies entirely on his kit. Arm-mounted rocket-launchers allow a variety of functions, from simple attacks that knock down opponents and deal good damage to darts that stun. By running up close on my enemy (which, at the early stages of The Old Republic require me to simply run over to my foe), my rockets can help supercharge a punching attack for huge damage. At that range, though, I can just as easily utilize my flamethrower to deal damage over an area and stun weaker enemies. Using these abilities generates “Heat,” the Bounty Hunter’s resource. The simplest explanation of Heat is that it works like reverse Force for the Jedi Consular or Energy for rogue classes in other games, where skills use a rapidly regaining resource with a very small overall cap. As I use skills my Heat builds up to a maximum of 100, and once it’s too high I am unable to use any more until it drops lower. There currently doesn’t seem to be an obvious difference between Heat and Energy/Force, although the Bounty Hunter can use an ability to vent his Heat to rapidly lower the gauge.

One of the bonuses about the Bounty Hunter is his versatility in the early game. His heavy armor means that I don’t often find myself having to be especially careful about how I kill my foes, and his mixture of long- and short-range attacks means that regardless of the environment I’ll be able to perform admirably. My crowd-control abilities let me pick and choose exactly who dies first, and should things get too hairy, they give Bounty Hunters a better chance of living if by fleeing.

Many of my crowd control abilities also only work on weaker foes, which just as easily die thanks to my stronger area-of-effect attacks. The Bounty Hunter’s iconic ability, Death From Above, seems a little out of place too. It causes the Hunter to jetpack into the air and hover as he rains down rockets on enemies in a targeted area. As most enemies use ranged attacks, it doesn’t seem to protect too much from enemy fire. The few enemies who aren’t ranged are too close to use the ability on, and any movement while hovering cancels the attack. It’s flashy looking to be sure, but its exact purpose seems vague.

As the Bounty Hunter reaches level 10 an advanced class can be selected. You can choose to become either the Mercenary or the Powertech. Both of which I will feature in further detail in a future article.

While the skills feel a little mixed at the moment, the BH’s story is very solid. It goes without saying that this is an amazing class and all swtor guilds will be recruiting BH’s. I can’t wait to view this class in action against another pvp guild!