Support and Destroy: The Ultimate Guide to Bane (Updated for 6.87)

Great guide !! This has motivate me to play bane now . whahaha time to annoy dafaq outta my friends :v

You added what was suggested so I give you my +1 for the guide.
I like your writing style and the effort you put into it.
Keep it up!

Good idea. Added. I also added Bounty Hunter for the gold-giving potential.

As friends, I would suggest adding the obvious set-up-needed kinda of people, such as Mirana, Lina and Pudge.

Right. Bot matches are really just to figure out how your spells work. They're terrible at teaching actual support gameplay. The computer just isn't smart enough to make your skills useful.

So i tried a bot match guess what happened once i spawned somebody already bought a courier and wards and when i went to secure one of the runes our mid laner went to a different lane and forced me to go mid maybe i'll try playing in an actual pub so i can experience actually supporting cuz there are no supports in pubs

Woah, you're right. Still, with this build I don't have bad mana problems. Maybe the clarities and ordinary sage mask boost are enough for my play-style. You're points are nonetheless well taken. I do have an alternate build that I sometimes do where instead of the sage's mask I buy two enchanted mangos a few clarities and the courier. Maybe I'll update it later.

I would except I'm not quite sure how to make videos from a game. At least not good ones. In terms of the duel with LC, though, you don't want to use Nightmare, rather, you need to use Fiend's Grip on the opponent to shut them down. (Alternately, if LC on the other team, you Fiend's Grip her.

My advice is that you just try Bane in a bot match, and then once you have a feel for the skills, go to a pub. Bane is super strong and after a few terrible games you will get the hand of him. I'd suggest that you start by skipping Enfeeble until later and focus on Brain Sap since the skill is far more straightforward.

Good luck. Tell me how it goes.

I know it sounds silly but can you please add like a video in which you nightmare lc in a duel when she gets aghs and add some videos of you playing bane i would like to try this hero out because i want to try supports because i suck with carries

Thanks, but we're not quite on the same page here - Clarity doesn't stack with Sage's Mask bonus - it only stacks with itself and your base mana regen. So you don't get +50% regen on that clarity!

See here for details.

Sage's Mask is basically very uneconomical early game, at least until you can turn it into a Soul Ring - I'm not saying you should never do it, only that when you're very sure the lane will be easy and you'll get a Soul Ring early.

Brain Sap. 0.9 dam/heal per mana at level 1, 1.28 at level 2. When you have a limited supply of mana, it's better to make it efficient. Use it heavily at level 3, have the kill power/security of Nightmare until then - playing support is about making the most of limited resources. Bane's major problem is how mana intensive his spells are, so you really need to make them count.

Tango's can be useful for allies as well as yourself...but yes Bane does have useful ways of keeping himself topped up after a few levels...it depends on the lane. I'd at least consider an Enchanted Mango so you have both reliable health restore, and some burst mana when you need it.

Anyway, ultimately it's your guide and I'll say no more, but I wanted you to be aware of some flaws, and maybe that you should test out the suggestions in game and see how they play out...

The Sage's Mask doesn't give much mana on its own, but when paired with a clarity it is actually really good in the early game. I chose that combo instead of getting tangos so you can heal yourself with Brain Sap. This is also why I don't go the Nightmare starting build. Brain Sap is just a little more utilitarian, I think. So in general I respectfully disagree with your suggestion.

Good points on the allies. I can build out that section more.

I added to your rep.

Overall I like the guide, but some points to consider:

- Starting Sage's Mask is pretty sucky. It boosts your base mana regen by 50%, which sounds like a lot, but isn't once you do the maths. 22 (base int) * 0.04 (mana regen per int point) * 60 (seconds) gives you a measly 26.4 mana per minute. I know you're using it towards your Soul Ring, but you'd be better off with more consumables or basic stats items.

- Skill build is a bit sucky. First point should always be in Nightmare except for very rare circumstances where you may want a first point in Enfeeble to mess up enemy last hitting (e.g. against heroes with very low base damage like Mirana or Sniper).

Generally the build should be either Q-E-W-W-W-R or E-W-W-. Brain Sap isn't good at all until you get at least 2 points in it, and you can only do that at level 3, so you'd be better off with a point in Nightmare, which does 80 damage and can disable for 4 seconds...

- Allies. Bane is fantastic for allies with unreliable stuns - e.g. Meat Hook, Sacred Arrow, Torrent, Split Earth etc. Even sucky pub Pudge struggles to miss a target that's stationary for 4+ seconds.

Sorry if this comes across as harsh, overall I like the way you've written and presented the guide, just need to tighten up a few areas.