Hero Discussion #8 - Bane

I will be in every hero post like these and try to do a new meta

After defensive itens and Aghs, what about Bloodthorn ? it synergy because you have a 5 seconds lookdown so enemy cant dispell it, and your Carry or your Necromicon will atack enemy and critic him to death, also **** up evasion, thoughs ?

I did ask how would you do Bane if you wanted to play him core and no one answered yet :)

Possible 6 slotted Bane (how or why you'd do this is a different question)

- Blink Dagger - mobility
- Black King Bar - almost ensure channelling
- Necronomicon - ward/invis detection, minions can hit people while you disable them
- Octarine Core - reduce cooldowns, increase hp/mana
- Scythe of Vyse - even more disable, stats
- Boots of Travel

It's a bit meh still, obviously you'd have a lot more impact than a support Bane here, but how much better is he with all that stuff piled on top at great expense? Massively better than just with Arcane Boots, Urn of Shadows and a Glimmer Cape?

If you do end up playing core Bane, I'd suggest winning the game early, or even transistioning to a more supportive role. I've been mid before, got a few key items, had good early impact, and then concentrated more on helping warding etc, as you just can't farm effectively.

The Blink Dagger / Black King Bar combo is *really* freaking good on Bane. Just like it is on Crystal Maiden, Enigma, Witch Doctor and similar.

So yes playing a Bane that is middle of the road in terms of farming position, either as a greedy #4 who goes to farm empty lanes when his ult is on cooldown (like Warlock for example), or as a dual offlane #3 farmer (which has been done in competitive, several times even) is completely legit. But that's a #3 Bane at best, there's no reason to play him higher in farming position.

The thing is, outside of blink and BKB...Bane doesn't really scale with items at all. His Aghanim's Scepter, while it got buffed, is still pretty underwhelming. Aghs allows him to solo kill isolated heroes, and is semi-useful in teamfights once you have BKB because of the auto-nightmare (pretty useless before BKB because enemies will just stun you)...still not that good.

So dual offlane #3 Bane is great, greedy #4 initiator Bane who rushes blink is amazing (I always played him like that), but mid Bane is just not worth it.

Do however play mid Bane in 1v1 mid, I consider him the second best hero in that mode after Brood. Just unfair lane dominance and free kill when you get 6.

But just like playing Lich or Kotl mid, in a real dota game it's the classic "win lane lose game".

If his aghs gets buffed he could be a viable mid hero IMO, but not now. Make it reduce ult cooldown to 60-70 seconds or something and why not.

3 position Bane is the most "feasible" core role for him IMO, mid Bane is purely dependent on who he's laning against (he does well against squishy heroes with sub par damage since he can go with the "spoiler" build to screw up their last hits and when he hits level 6, he can score free kills). The point of core Bane to me isn't so much the cs part (poor attack range and animation can make last hitting quite the task if your opponent knows what they're doing) it's getting that quick level 6 and hitting your timing window.

@Michi
Keyword is SOLO kill, yes Bane can solo kill like a champ in the early game, but it's all about finding isolated targets and depending upon enemy team composition, those opportunities can be few and far between (Tanky lineups, teams with plenty of disables and/or reset button abilities). My problem is when I DO find those opportunities ie, I nightmare an enemy Lion so I can take down his squishy friend Terrorblade, an ally decides to attack the Lion letting him stop my Fiend's Grip and proceed to nuke me down. You'd figure by now people would understand how Nightmare works.

How good is Aether Lens on Bane? I've been personally picking it up to help stay far far away, especially when I can't afford a Blink or Glimmer or Ghost or something.

I think it fits him amazingly, one of the heroes that can almost always get it as a second item and doesn't go wrong. But I would like to hear other people's opinion.

It's handy positionally, but there are some issues:

1) Unless you're mr moneybags support, that's your Arcane Boots lost to the team for a while
2) He's not actually that good a nuker so the bonus is a bit meh
3) He's not really a hero who needs health sustain, as you have Brain Sap (provided you have mana sustain)

So really all you get is the cast range bonus. I wouldn't say "never" or "it's awful" as that can be really handy, but I wouldn't call it core either, personally.

BTW on the subject of Lane Dominance - he can be SO evil. Enfeeble to neuter enemy farm, harassment - grab all the last hits. Buy fast Soul Ring. Proceed to spam them with Brain Sap every time it's off cooldown. Doesn't work against everyone though...and as Hamster said...sometimes it's win lane, lose game

Please run Bane against safelane greed lineups.

Get an enfeeble and proceed to denying farm- meanwhile you fellow offlaner uses lane pushing abilities. Watch the carry abuse you in all chat because he cant last hit under tower even with a quelling blade. Proceed to win game because enemy carry has no farm and the idiot support in safelane actually thought pulling was good nowadays.

Moving on-

Bane is a hero that doesn't require farm. You specialize in being that stepping stone your carry wins manfights. Nightmare an enemy. Enfeeble another and ulti your carries archenemy watch the whole team focus you out of spite. That's how you play bane. His speciality is disabling two heroes for extended periods of time and that is something which comes without any items on his person.
Okay so all that beating on you while you ulti may need BKB or Aghs depending how big a fool your enemy is. All he needs is mana sustain. Your good last hit damage is for denying creeps and not for last hitting.



And why is no one talking of the possibilities in the aggro trilane?

Bane + mirana + any Hard carry.

Bane + slark?


Where are the Bane and LC memes?


Where is the justice?

I usually run Bane as a babysitting lane support, or in a roaming pair with heroes that have powerful disables that are hard to land such as Mirana and Kunkka. Like you said in the original post ChiChi I usually prioritize Brain Sap and Nightmare over Enfeeble. It simply doesn't have the same power that Bane's other abilities have in the early game for ganking or disabling enemies. Yes you can make the argument that Enfeeble makes last hitting harder for the opponent, but I would rather have the ability to kill an enemy over the ability to make it harder for them to farm. Because with Brain Sap and Nightmare you can still zone the enemy offlane and increase your carry's farm through kills.

In almost all cases I put my first point into Nightmare for that disable. My skill build usually goes.

E, W, W, E, W, R, W, E, E, Q, R, Q, Q, Q, Stats, R, And stats until max.

Makes us a very powerful zoning and roaming hero.