Bane Guide

Items

Starting items:

• Tango   Item   Tango (Shared)   Changelogs     TangoB Forage to survive on the battlefield. Cost125 Bought FromConsumables Active Eat a Tree or Ward Charges 4 Disassemble? No Alert allies? No Recipe The Tango allows Bane to maintain his HPTechnology company pool in-lane to avoid being harassed away. As well, it can be used to destroy trees to create pathing for support functions such as chain-pulling jungle camps, revealing blocking wards, or instantly destroying enemy wards from a distance.
• Two Clarity   Item   Changelogs     ClarityB Clear water that enhances the ability to meditate. Cost50 Bought FromConsumables Active Regenerate Mana Charges 1 Disassemble? No Alert allies? No Recipe The Clarity is an item purchasable give Bane the ability to replenish his mediocre mana pool, allowing him to sustain casting his spells in the lane. Nightmare costs more than half of his early mana pool, so having the ability to cast it more than once in the early game allows Bane to set up ganks and kills more frequently.
• Mantle of Intelligence   Item   Changelogs     Mantle of IntelligenceB A beautiful sapphire mantle worn by generations of queens. Cost150 Bought FromAttributes Bonus +3 Intelligence Disassemble? No Alert allies? No Recipe The Mantle of Intelligence is increases Bane`s intelligence, reducing the strain that his costly spells put on his mana pool. The increased base damage also helps him to deny allied creeps more easily and apply more harass damage to the enemy with his physical attacks.
• Animal Courier should be purchased on Bane, as his laning phase does not rely heavily on needing items to be effective.

Early game:

• Boots of Speed is crucial to get on Bane, as he must get within range of enemies to cast Nightmare on them. As well, the increased movement speed allows him to escape ganks by the enemy more easily.
• Magic Stick is crucial to get on Bane in order to give him burst HP and mana regen. This can tremendously increase his effectiveness as a fully-charged Magic Stick can give him enough mana to cast his high-impact spells in a fight if he runs out.
• Soul Ring   Item   Changelogs     Soul RingB A ring that feeds on the souls of those who wear it. Cost750 Bought FromCommon Active Sacrifice Bonus +3 Health regeneration+50% Mana regeneration Disassemble? No Alert allies? is extremely important to get early on Bane in order to give him the mana to cast his spells more often, offsetting his abysmal intelligence growth. Its HP cost can be offset by casting Brain Sap.
• Null Talisman can be upgraded from a Mantle of Intelligence for a relatively cheap price. It gives Bane useful stats, particularly to his intelligence, giving him more mana and attack damage.

Core items:

Gameplay

Playstyle
Bane Not to be confused with Banehallow.   Hero   Strategy   Counters   Equipment   Gear   Responses   Sounds   Lore   Old Abilities   Changelogs   Known Bugs     Bane 22 + is a very powerful single-target disabler who possesses reasonable nuking power. His strongest suit is setting up kills for teammates with high damage output or unreliable stuns, making him a powerful roamer and ganker who can assist teammates in getting kills throughout a match. This can allow him to regularly obtain reliable gold through kills and assists, which in turn allows him to build items to suit his needs.
Pros	Cons
Powerful single-target disabler. Excellent starting stats, good at trading hits in the laning stage. Excellent damage. Great laning phase and ganking abilities, seeing that Nightmare can be used is many ways, be it to save or to set up combos and ganks.	Zero AoE capabilities, poor against early pushing line ups. Suffers with mana problems early game. Zero Mobility. Ultimate requires channeling.

Videos

Info

Hero

Strategy

Counters Play “Many hands make light work.” This article is badly written or needs more information. Please help the community by updating it. Read this formatting guide first.   Hero   Strategy   Counters   Equipment

Equipment   Hero   Strategy   Counters   Equipment   Gear   Responses   Sounds   Lore   Old Abilities   Changelogs   Known Bugs     v • d • e Bane Equipment (collapse sets)Sets Heir of Terror Lucid TormentHead

Gear   Hero   Strategy   Counters   Equipment   Gear   Responses   Sounds   Lore   Old Abilities   Changelogs   Known Bugs     This is a list of cosmetic items that reflects

Responses   Hero   Strategy   Counters   Equipment   Gear   Responses   Sounds   Lore   Old Abilities   Changelogs   Known Bugs     v • d • e  Voice responses Hero responses Abaddon Alchemist Ancient Apparition Anti-Mage

Sounds   Hero   Strategy   Counters   Equipment   Gear   Responses   Sounds   Lore   Old Abilities   Changelogs   Known Bugs     v • d • e  Dota 2 Sounds Hero Sounds Abaddon Alchemist Ancient Apparition

Lore   Hero   Strategy   Counters   Equipment   Gear   Responses   Sounds   Lore   Old Abilities   Changelogs   Known Bugs     Atropos, the Bane When the gods have nightmares, it

Old Abilities   Hero   Strategy   Counters   Equipment   Gear   Responses   Sounds   Lore   Old Abilities   Changelogs   Known Bugs     Fiend s Grip (Pre 6.58) PlayRF AbilityTarget Unit / Channeled

Changelogs   Hero   Strategy   Counters   Equipment   Gear   Responses   Sounds   Lore   Old Abilities   Changelogs   Known Bugs     Contents 1 Version history 2 Patch history Version history

Known Bugs   Hero   Strategy   Counters   Equipment   Gear   Responses   Sounds   Lore   Old Abilities   Changelogs   Known Bugs     Contents 1 Nightmare 2 Fiend s Grip Nightmare edit] Nightmare

Support/Disabler

Bane is a strong laner, thanks to his Brain Sap and Nightmare. Whatever happens, you can quickly put your opponent to sleep or heal yourself by brainsapping someone. Also, if you get an early Soul Ring   Item   Changelogs     Soul RingB A ring that feeds on the souls of those who wear it. Cost750 Bought FromCommon Active Sacrifice Bonus +3 Health regeneration+50% Mana regeneration Disassemble? No Alert allies? , you can continuously cast Enfeeble to ensure the opponent misses their last hits or making it easy for being denied “ Play Denied! Click to listen— Juggernaut ” Denying is the act of preventing enemy heroes from getting the last hit on a friendly unit by last hitting the unit oneself. Enemies earn reduced experience if the . Being an intelligence Hero with great damage, Bane Not to be confused with Banehallow.   Hero   Strategy   Counters   Equipment   Gear   Responses   Sounds   Lore   Old Abilities   Changelogs   Known Bugs     Bane 22 + spends his gold with survivability and/or mobility items to cast a safe Fiend`s Grip without risk of interruptions (items such as Glimmer Cape   Item   Changelogs     Glimmer CapeB The stolen cape of a master illusionist. Cost1850 Bought FromCaster Active Glimmer Bonus +20 Attack speed+15% Magic resistance Disassemble? Yes Alert allies? No Recipe The Glimmer Cape , Force Staff For the cosmetic item equipped by Crystal Maiden, see Force Staff (Equipment)   Item   Changelogs     Force StaffB Allows you to manipulate others, for good or evil. Cost2250 (400) Bought FromCaster Active Force or Blink Dagger For the cosmetic item equipped by Axe, see Little Blink Dagger.   Item   Changelogs     Blink DaggerBL The fabled dagger used by the fastest assassin ever to walk the lands. Cost2250 Bought FromArcane ). At level 6, you can start ganking just fine, seeing that you have two single target disables, which will 90% of the times end up with a kill to you or your partner. Keep in mind that Bane Not to be confused with Banehallow.   Hero   Strategy   Counters   Equipment   Gear   Responses   Sounds   Lore   Old Abilities   Changelogs   Known Bugs     Bane 22 + is a single target Hero, so he sucks at defending against pushes and sucks at pushing.

Bane has 3 single target abilities that can diminish an enemy ability to fight. Nightmare puts the target to sleep for 7 seconds, Enfeeble weakens one`s attack damage, useful for heroes that depends on auto attacks and Fiend`s Grip disables the target for 5 seconds, while dealing huge damage and draining his mana. You can either cast it all on one Hero and ensure his ultimate destruction or you can also cast them on 3 different Heroes: use Enfeeble against their physical damage Hero, Nightmare against the Hero who can cause you trouble in fight (like supports who can heal or disable Bane Not to be confused with Banehallow.   Hero   Strategy   Counters   Equipment   Gear   Responses   Sounds   Lore   Old Abilities   Changelogs   Known Bugs     Bane 22 + himself) and finally cast Fiend`s Grip on the target you and your team is aiming to kill. Seeing that Fiend`s Grip pierces spell immunity   Spell Immunity   Ally Interactions   Enemy Interactions     Default buff iconPlay Error sound “ Play Magic shall not prevail! Click to listen— Anti-Mage ” Spell immunity (formerly known as magic immunity) is a modifier , you`re likely to target a target who possesses such buffs, like Sven   Hero   Strategy   Counters   Equipment   Gear   Responses   Sounds   Lore   Old Abilities   Changelogs   Known Bugs     Sven 23 + 3 21 + 2 16 + (via item), a Hero with Repel, Lifestealer   Hero   Strategy   Counters   Equipment   Gear   Responses   Sounds   Lore   Old Abilities   Changelogs     Lifestealer 25 + 3.3 18 + 1.9 15 + 1.75 Level Base (via Rage) and others.

Ability Builds

Talents

Hero Talents   Main   Table of Gained Bonuses     The Talent Selection interface. Talents are traits unique to each hero. They are chosen every 5th level starting at level 10, offering a permanent choice between
+200 Brain Sap Damage/Heal	25	+100 Movement Speed
+175 Cast Range	20	+90 Enfeeble Damage Reduction
+30% XP Gain	15	+250 Health
+200 Mana	10	+6 Armor

Notes:

• The armor is added as bonus armor, and therefore does not benefit illusions.

• Upgrading health and mana increases maximum health and maximum mana capacity and keeps the current health and mana percentage.

• Upgrading Enfeeble`s attack damage reduction does not update already placed Enfeeble debuffs.

General

• While he possesses strong disables, Bane suffers from a poor mana pool and no escape spells, meaning that he can run out of mana quite often while casting his high-cost low-cooldown spells, and can be easily killed if caught out of position. As such, Bane should focus on building items to increase the size of his mana pool and give himself mana regen, as well as mobility items to give him initiation and escape ability.
• Keep in mind, all of Bane`s spells are single-target, which makes him quite easy to be countered by items such as Linken`s Sphere   Item   Interactions   Old Abilities   Changelogs     Linken s Sphere This magical sphere once protected one of the most famous heroes in history. Cost4850 (1000) Bought FromArmor Active Transfer Spellblock Passive Spellblock and Lotus Orb   Item   Interactions   Changelogs     Lotus Orb The jewel at its center still reflects a pale image of its creator. Cost4000 Bought FromArmor Active Echo Shell Bonus +6 Health regeneration+10 Armor+250 Mana+125% . As well, his single-target nature means that he is unable to disable more than two enemies in an engagement unless additional disables can be obtained through farming items. Be sure to factor this into each game, as the enemy team`s lineup as well as that of your own can vary, and as a result drastically affect Bane`s effectiveness in that match.
• Bane can be played effectively as a side lane support due to his combination of disabling and nuking power. Nightmare can be used to set up kills against lane opponents or hinder them from pursuing in the event of rotations and ganks from either side, while Enfeeble provides a safe way to harass the enemy and prevent them from getting last-hits. As well, Brain Sap can be a strong damage nuke to cast in the event of ganking targets as it deals Pure damage to the enemy while also healing Bane.
• Bane`s high base movement speed and disabling potential also allows him to be played as a roamer, especially if combined with a teammate with an unreliable but strong disable. His movement speed allows him to quickly get within range to cast Nightmare on a gank target, holding them in position for up to four seconds and making them easy targets for a follow-up disable.
• Beware that while Bane is a strong disabler, he is also quite frail and easy to kill if focused by the enemy; as such, he is not a very strong first initiator in teamfights, but can be a strong second-wave disabler who casts his disables once the enemy`s attention is not focused on him. As well, he has a very long cast animation on his spells (0.5 seconds on most spells, compared to the standard 0.3 seconds on most heroes), so it is necessary to plan ahead when casting spells.

Enfeeble

• Enfeeble can reduce its target`s attack damage by a tremendous amount, making their physical attacks much less effective. Its extremely long cast range also allows the debuff to be placed on targets from long range and complete safety.
• Enfeeble has a very long cast range, and its cooldown allows it to be simultaneously active on two enemies at a time, making it a powerful laning spell for preventing the enemy from farming or trading attacks. Be that as it may, keep in mind Bane`s small base mana pool, and be conservative with its casting as spamming the spell can render Bane unable to use his other spells if they are needed.
• Enfeeble generally has two uses in the laning stage: preventing the enemy carry from getting last-hits and shutting down their farming, or hindering their ability to output physical damage when harassing or attempting to gank. In both cases, only one or two points in the ability are needed, as Bane should expend skill points on other important spells.
  • Although it is generally not recommended, it`s part of what makes Bane such a fearsome mid-laner. You can trade hits and deny farm very effectively with Enfeeble and spam Brain Sap to heal you back up; and you can set-up any support rotation easily with Nightmare (or while you gank the side-lanes).
  • Be that as it may, Bane`s damage scales pretty poorly and good opponents will quickly nullify your contribution by cancelling Nightmare and Fiend`s Grip, therefore wasting most of the farm your team granted you in the middle lane.
• One very powerful aspect of Enfeeble is that it cannot be dispelled, neither by regular dispels nor strong dispels. While it can be blocked from being cast on spell immune targets, it cannot be removed once placed, which means that heroes with spell immunity will still suffer from greatly reduced attack damage. This means that placing the debuff on the enemy`s strongest physical damage carry at the start of a fight will greatly hinder their damage output. As well, the debuff will remain visible on the enemy through Mirror Image-type abilities such as Manta Style   Item   Old Abilities   Changelogs     Manta Style An axe made of reflective materials that causes confusion amongst enemy ranks. Cost5000 (900) Bought FromArmor Active Mirror Image Bonus +10 Strength+26 Agility+10 Intelligence+15 and Doppelganger, making the real hero easy to identify among the illusions.

Brain Sap

• Brain Sap acts as both a heal and a nuke, allowing Bane to deal Pure damage to enemies and heal himself simultaneously.
• Due to its high damage output, Brain Sap is the first ability that Bane should max out, as its nuking power gives Bane strong team-fight contribution. Its low cooldown also allows it to be used to maintain Bane`s health pool once he has secured a source of mana regeneration.
• While its high mana cost relative to Bane`s mana pool does not allow him to spam this spell in-lane, trading @@@#@@@HP(hp.com)###@### with the enemy can allow Bane to be surprisingly resilient, which can catch the enemy off-guard. Given a source of mana regen, Bane can use the spell to harass and replenish HP, rendering the enemy`s lane untenable.
• Remember that unlike most damage nukes in the game, Brain Sap deals Pure damage rather than Magical. This can be used to your advantage to damage or even finish off enemies that have strong magic resistance, as it can cut through abilities like Berserker`s Blood and Flame Guard.
• If Bane is the target of a gank, it can be wise to reserve Brain Sap until the very end, when Bane is at very low HP, in order to lure the enemy into a false sense of security and bait them into committing to a gank. As Brain Sap creates an HPTechnology company shift double what is listed (Bane is healed at the same time that the enemy is damaged), this can be used to turn the tables on enemy ganks if allies are already rushing to your aid.

Nightmare

• Nightmare is one of Bane`s signature abilities, and what makes him one of the most powerful level 1 disablers in the game. With just one point in the ability, it can lock down an enemy for up to 4 seconds, rendering them helpless and giving teammates plenty of time to re-position and set up for the kill.
• The best use of Nightmare is to hold an enemy in position and allow allies to land their unreliable stuns with ease. This is best done when combined with abilities such as Sacred Arrow, Split Earth, Torrent, and so on.
• Remember that Nightmare does not always have to be cast on the primary target. If attempting to get kills on two enemies, casting Nightmare on a secondary target can prevent them from acting, allowing your team to focus fully on the first target without interruption.
• Nightmare can also be used in a defensive situation. If multiple enemies are attempting to gank Bane or an ally, casting Nightmare on one of them will remove them from the fight, reducing the numbers that the enemy are able to bring to bear.
• One of Nightmare`s greatest weaknesses when used offensively is that it can be transferred via physical attacks, even by other enemies. This means that enemy players can save their team-mates by ordering an attack on an ally afflicted with Nightmare to remove the debuff from them and allow them to act; this can be repeated over time and even done at range with ranged heroes. As such, it is best to use Nightmare in situations where there are no other enemies who can interrupt it, such as when ganking the enemy`s mid, or to use an additional disable on other nearby enemies.
• In tandem to the above, make sure that when setting up for a kill, not to initiate it with a physical attack. This will not only wake up the target prematurely, but will also transfer the Nightmare to an ally, rendering them unable to act unless awoken.
• Keep in mind that Nightmare will render its target invulnerable for the first second of its duration. When cast on himself or an ally, it can allow Bane to effectively dodge projectiles and spells for one second, potentially wasting enemy spells.
• While active on an enemy, Nightmare will eliminate any vision that they might otherwise have. This can be used to mask allied movement while setting up on a lone enemy, as they and their team-mates will have no information about your team`s positions prior to the Nightmare being removed.
• Nightmare End can allow Bane to immediately end all active instances of Nightmare. This can be useful for removing the debuff from an ally without ordering an attack on them, which requires Bane to get within attack range and take the Nightmare debuff.

Fiend`s Grip

• Fiend`s Grip is one of the most powerful channeled disables in the game, allowing Bane to lock down an enemy for up to 5 seconds through spell immunity.
• Fiend`s Grip is a very powerful ganking spell, as it can lock down an enemy and deal tremendous damage to them while Bane`s allies also throw their damage nukes and attacks into the mix. Unlike Nightmare, the enemy can still be attacked and damaged during the disable, making it much more powerful.
• Because it is a channeled ability, Fiend`s Grip can be interrupted by disables such as stuns and silences, more-so since Bane himself is immobile for the duration of the spell and can also simply be focused down and killed by physical attacks. Be sure to position yourself prior to casting this spell such that the enemy cannot reach you, or build countermeasures to prevent disables from affecting you.
• Remember that Fiend`s Grip will drain its target`s mana, not simply disable them while dealing damage. This can allow Bane to replenish a portion of his mana during the disable, enough to cast another spell at the end. As such, if you are low on mana then it can be beneficial to use Fiend`s Grip first, as Bane can recover some mana during its duration, potentially enough to cast another spell that would otherwise not be possible with a different spell order.
• Using all of Bane`s spells in combination can allow him to disable and nuke down single targets, making him a very powerful ganker. He can initiate on a lone enemy using Nightmare, then re-position to set up for the kill, interrupt Nightmare by casting Fiend`s Grip, then finish off the target with a Brain Sap at the end. Used to set up kills with team-mates, it can provide a 7 second setup time, then 5 seconds of hard disable during which they can attack and cast damage nukes.
• As Fiend`s Grip is a channeled spell, spells and item abilities can be cast immediately afterwards by shift-queuing them during the channel. This will allow Bane to immediately use those abilities once Fiend`s Grip ends, preventing it from being ended prematurely.