Why is bane not viable?

Why is bane not viable in this patch and most previous patches? His skill tree really isn't bad at all. The +200 mana early on is always nice, and from there you can get +250 or 25% exp gain if you are behind on levels. Not to mention 175+ cast range at level 20, and -120 enfeeble damage reduction at level 25 (assuming you don't want the +200 brain sap, which I wouldn't because of the high cd unless you were really looking to nuke hard). That enfeeble means -240 damage on their carry once bkb is out.

You can disable a hero with nightmare, enfeeble a carry that has had bkb run out (or used manta), and then use fiend's grip to disable yet another hero. Seems decent enough to me, especially when you get an aether and can just chill in the back like you are suppose to (used to be way harder to do). Seems like he has been buffed practically in recent patches, so why am I not seeing any results from it?

Bane is viable currently. The main problem he has is that he is completely single target, which proves to be quite the issue in the current meta. However, picking a bane into certain heroes can screw up the enemy hard. one of the biggest strengths Bane has is to disrupt last hitting and trading with the enemy. He can make laning a total nightmare for heroes reliant on right clicks, like QoP and SF in mid, or bristleback in top. he has reallgood roaming potential with any stun, and can also save heroes by using nightmare on chasing enemies, or just to straight up make your ally invincible for a moment.

Strong given right matchups, but no AoE

He makes laning an absolute nightmare...but well.
That won't put someone that far behind nowadays, will it?
Most offlaners farm the jungle with ease and even if they can't they can still somehow survive the lane with the shrine.

He can be amazing if coupled with someone like a Mirana to give momentum to your team but outside of this he can't really shine (a role which can also be covered by a Shadow Demon.

He is not flat out bad but it's like usually:
Everything he can do someone else can do better.

Lots of illusions this meta even after considering new damage reductions

I am testing something's that actually increase your problems with illusions. You see how illusions are squishy so that they don't push towers, what if I give tower an ability that does increased damage to illusions and make illusions tankier to creep and hero. Think of it. That way illusion rat becomes something like a tinker spinoff that does less than 50 percent damage to towers and wreaks havoc in team fight.

Now coming to bane. I think he should get a lion treatment. Brain sap instantly kills illusions. That's one buff I want to give but he goes out of control with that.
Furthermore, I disagree that bane is a single target.

If you have high APM and a blink dagger(you should purchase it just to listen bane break into a rock song) you use enfeeble on carry, nightmare on initiator and ulti the mid or support. That's around 2.5 people disabled.

.couple of things about bane to keep in mind while you draft him is that he can never be your sole initiator. He is a greedy 4 and that's how you need to play him rather than an initiator. In a tempo meta he is slot hungry rather than farm hungry. He needs a lane to go absolutely well.

And i don't know why but people are just not playing bane Mirana enough. They basically wreck a lane and dual gank the hell out of enemy jungle