Should People Pick Bane More Often?

http://www.dotabuff.com/matches/1398999243
this game

it was an amazing Bane game. they cant really do much against me in fights. i really own two meta heroes i this game. teamfight blink Nightmare Axe then Fiend's Grip Juggernaut.

not meaning to be arrogant but.. i won many fights for us!

so guys... why aren't people pick him more in competitive scene?

storm jugg troll axe sniper.. Bane should have been popular here!
why aren't people picking him, guys? i need answers.

Bane is really played in two ways: either a set up hero for a stun, or spamming level 1 enfeeble mid against SF or something to get an early lead.

Enfeeble is great in team fights and in the lane (not against an off lane obviously). So that's a solid spell that bane has. Once enemies get BKB or its purged off (slark, etc) it's not great. If their carry is not a natural BKB carrier you're in good shape. Enfeeble IS honestly just incredibly strong.

Sap isn't that great. It's okay for ganks since it's pure, but it's not a high impact spell. A hero loses some life, you gain some... It doesn't matter because you lose it all again in 3 auto attacks anyway... So it's basically a pure damage nuke. It's meh.

Sleep is GREAT for setting up ganks, but it won't always be good in team fights. Heroes that blow all of their spells at once can't easily take it off (skywrath, tide, lion) and they've already committed a ton to the team fight so the sleep isn't effective. Also with the introduction of chen back into the meta, sleep is especially worthless. I've recently been playing chen almost every game (all very high skill) and I honestly am never scared of a bane. It's a great counter pick (chen for bane, that is). Take off sleep with any creep and it's incredibly easy to interrupt ult with a stunning creep. Or at least send the fiends grip target back home... Or heal them up during the grip. Even without a chen, just a hotd wolf can take it off and still apply aura.

Banes ult is great if you can pull it off. The only problem is that it makes you immobile... So any sort of secondary core that you are not gripping will focus you and probably kill you. There are a lot of ways to counter it unfortunately and its especially vulnerable to mobile heroes. Rubick with blink for example... Grip is probably the easiest GOOD ult to steal in the game. Wait for bane to sleep one, then grip one. Lift, steal, apply grip.

If you need disable, grab lion. He has received NON STOP buffs for the past year. He's incredibly powerful right now. Hex has an insane duration when maxed, and unlike grip it has a low CD and you can remain mobile during it. Speaking of popular heroes right now, that are strong versus Bane... There's a dude named silencer, and oh dear god does that champ love to 5 man and make bane worthless.

Edit: Like I said, bane is great for a set up during a gank but his team fight is lackluster when BKBs come online (or... Again... Slark purges, jugg spins, etc...). What I think the best order for banes spells are in a fight are enfeeble the second core, sleep the second core, grip the first core. Sleep will be removed and the core will probably jump you. Use brain sap at the last second and run. Usually heroes have to commit space to kill bane because he's in the back. If they're focused while you grip (and grip should last because the second core is enfeebled), then you brain sap, you usually survive a fight and have a good impact.

Lastly, in your game the jugg and axe were the only players with positive scores. I think your victory had less to do with the bane pick, and more with the 6-14 middle, or the 0-17 kotl. Or the lion going Dagon aghs. It's hard say exactly why you won. I'm sure you had a big impact... You had a friggin sheep! Haha. Great farm, btw. I think bane is just countered a bit too easily and he's very one dimensional.

I'm a big Bane fan, but he's kinda limited at present as he has very little to offer late game apart from a BKB-piercing stun...and even that's channelled. He has pretty much the worst pushing and farming ability in the game, doesn't particularly scale well with extra equipment either.

It comes into some perspective when Morphling has a 4.25 second stun on a 10 second cooldown while Bane's can be countered pretty easily. Nightmare can be easily taken off by allies/minions if the player has any sense (quite often they dont), never mind abilities like Dark Pact and Aphotic Shield. It can make a great setup otherwise.

Fiend's Grip relies on opponents not being present with at least a mini-stun to break it, or a BKB - which is a pretty hefty investment for a support hero. Needs very careful use in teamfights, almost counting out those stuns before use.

Brain Sap can be great as a harassment tool if you can get an early Soul Ring, it's a handy pure damage nuke. The big problem I have with it is the ridiculously long cast time:

- Cast
- Hmm, says Bane, leaning forwards...
- That looks like a tasty bit...
- Oh wait, no, that bit's better...
- I'll just...
- Bane died to RandomN00b17

The range isn't great either.

Enfeeble I do think is unrated. If you end up in the mid or offlanes especially (unusual for a support) then there are particular heroes you can massively screw over. Anyone with poor base damage like Sniper or Mirana will effectively get nothing - even if they have allies to keep you away from the creep line it's still extremely hard for them to last hit.

Still helps later on, but becomes easier and easier for people to deal with, avoid, or just stops scaling to the point of being genuinely useful.

What you end up with is a hero who:

+ Can be extremely powerful in lane, especially with a bit of early farm/kills/assists
+ Is extremely good in small (2v2) engagements
+ Offers great setup against heroes who are alone

- Drops off hard mid-late
- Is heavily mana dependent
- Offers no push/anti-push at all

I just don't think the current meta suits him very much, it's too passive early on generally, and he struggles to make much impact later unless the situations really suit him. He's in the bad situation of being too greedy/level-dependent to make a great support, and not enough impact with farm to make a great mid. So you either end up missing his best period (early) due to lack of stuff, or dropping off later and depriving your team of a proper #2. Maybe he could work as a mid if you had a transistioning support and they cross-over mid game.

I do enjoy playing him, and have had some good results, especially offlane with an ally who benefits a lot from good setup (e.g. Pudge), but these are pubs.