Bane Overview

Lore & Bio

"I dreamt a field of war…and woke to find myself upon it."

The Bane Elemental (or Bane), also known as Atropos, is brought to life by goddess Nyctasha’s nightmare. He somehow manages to get out of her sleep, gets fed by her immortality and becomes a vaporous entity. He is the fear embodiment. Bane lulls his enemies to sleep and disables their abilities. No one can’t hide their darkest deepest fear from him as with only his voice whispering in your ear, everything will be revealed. 

When they think of wakefulness as the last resort to protection, they can’t even get away from him because Bane’s black dripping blood works as a tar to keep them in the nightmares. When any heroes encounter Bane, they will remember how frightening the dark can be.

Attribute & Stats

• Strength: 22 + 2.6 each level;

• Agility: 22 + 2.6 each level;

• Intelligence: 22 + 2.6 each level;

• Health: 640;

• Health regeneration: + 2.2 each second;

• Mana: 339;

• Mana regeneration: + 1.1 each second;

• Damage: 57 - 63;

• Amor: 4.7;

• Magic Resistance: 25%;

• Turn Rate: 0.6;

• Attack Range: 400;

• Projectile speed: 900;

• Attack Animation: 0.3+0.7;

• Movement: 305;

• Sight Range: 1800/1200;

• Base Attack time: 1.7 seconds per attack;

• Damage Block: 0.

Abilities & Talents

Notes:

• The Magic Resistance can be stacked with other sources of magic resistance.

• The amor talent does not apply to illusions.

Skills building guide

With this skill set, Bane can be a good supporter to secure the free farm for the carry. The Brain Sap needs to be maxed out first as It helps Bane to stay at the lane longer with the healing effect. Also for better roaming or securing kills, Nightmare and Enfeeble are the essential skills as you can put the enemy into sleep and wait for your allies to come and get the kill. 

And remember don’t forget to add a point on Bane’s ultimate when you reach level 6 because with Fiend’s Grip, your presence at the lane can be a big threat to enemy heroes.

Abilities

Enfeeble

Enfeeble (Unit Target, Magical)

Effect: Bane instills the tendrils of fear into his victims causing the reduction in total attack damage, cast speed and generation.

Mana cost: 40/50/60/70

Cooldown: 28.0/21.0/14.0/7.0

Cast Range: 800/900/1000/1100

Attack Damage Reduction: 45%/50%/55%/60%

Health Restoration Reduction: 45%/50%/55%/60%

Cast Speed reduction: 30%

Duration: 8.0/9.0/10.0/11.0

Cast Animation: 0.2+0.57

Notes:

The attack damage reduction effect includes the raw attack damage bonuses.

Healing, health regen, lifesteal and spell lifesteal are also affected by Enfeeble.

The cast time increase affects the cast point of spells except channeling times.

The debuff does not stack when this ability is casted several times on the same target, It only refreshes the duration.

Brain Sap

Brain Sap ( Unit Target, Pure)

Effect: Bane releases a beam to harvest the fear he creates from the target to heal himself and deal damage.

Mana cost: 120/140/160/180

Cooldown: 14.0/13.0/12.0/11.0

Cast Range: 600

Damage: 45%/50%/55%/60%

Damage as Heal: 100%

Cast Animation: 0.2+0.5

Upgradable by Aghanim’s Shard:

• Radius: 550
• Secondary Damage as Heal: 25%

Note:

The heal will happen immediately after the damage is dealt without delay regardless of visual effect.

The more damage the target took from the Brain Sap the more heal amount Bane receives.

• It means if the damage changes, it also affects the heal value.

• The heal value can not exceed  the heal manipulation limit.

With Aghanim’s Shard update, Brain Sap becomes a 550 AoE spell and it must be centered over a unit still.

• Even the invisible units or the units inside Fog of War can be targeted.

• The healing effect will be reduced to 18.75/37.5/56.25/75 from secondary targets.

Nightmare

Nightmare (Unit Target)

Effect: This ability puts the target into sleep mode for several seconds and it can be casted on both enemy and friendly heroes. When the sleeping units are damaged, they will awake. Besides, the sleep mode passes to the attacking units if they attack the target directly. Bane can freely attack nightmared targets without waking them.

Mana cost: 165

Cooldown: 22.0 / 19.0 / 16.0 / 13.0

Cast Range: 425 / 500 / 575 / 650

Duration: 4.0 / 5.0 / 6.0 / 7.0

Cast Animation: 0.4+0.57

Invulnerability Duration: 1

Note:

↓↓ Double-tapping automatically targets self.

Applies a sleep on affected units, preventing them from acting.

Nightmare turns affected targets invulnerable for 1 second, preventing affected units from waking up.

Nightmare reduces affected enemy unit's vision to 200.

The target wakes up when a unit starts attacking it (including manual casting of active attack modifiers), or when the target takes damage.

The target does not wake up when taking damage from certain sources and under a few rare conditions:

• Damage dealt by Sleight of Fist, Side Gunner, or Stifling Dagger.
• Any damage from active attack modifiers, be it a debuff (e.g. Burning Spear), or direct damage (e.g. Tidebringer).
• Any damage from already launched ranged attacks if the projectiles hit after the invulnerability period.

When waking up with an attack, the Nightmare is transferred to the attacking unit at the start of an attack, not when the attack hits.

When Nightmare is transferred, its duration is refreshed, including the 1 second invulnerability.

The Nightmare cannot be transferred to spell immune units, or to wards and buildings. So their attacks only wake up nightmared units.

Bane and illusions of him (be it his own, enemy or allied illusions) can attack nightmared units without waking the target up, and without the Nightmare transfering to them.

This is innate to Bane, and does not apply to other heroes who use this ability (Rubick and Morphling).

In Ability Draft, Bane keeps this innate ability. However, the hero and illusions of the player who drafts Nightmare gain this ability as well.

Sleeping units are never automatically attacked, regardless of auto attack settings.

• This means that sleeping units are never attacked by lane creeps, neutral creeps, towers and fountains.
• Players can still force an attack order on the target (Keyboard White Mouse Right.png Right Click or A).
• Units can force an attack on an allied nightmared unit to transfer the Nightmare to themselves.

As long as a unit is affected by Nightmare from Bane, Nightmare is replaced by the  Nightmare End sub-ability which allows Bane to wake the unit up.

Nightmare's invulnerability status effect uses the default invulnerability icon, instead of its own ability icon.

Nightmare End

Nightmare End

Replaces Nightmare until there is no Nightmare debuff from Bane active.

Can wake a unit up at any time during a Nightmare, even during the 1 second invulnerability.

Wakes up all units which were put asleep by Nightmare, no matter who put them asleep.

Can be used while stunned, cycloned, slept, taunted, hidden, or during Forced Movement.

Cannot be used while silenced, hexed or prevented from acting.

Bane is unable to ⇧ Shift-queue this ability.

Fiend's Grip

Fiend’s Grip (Unit Target, Pure)

Effect: A channelled spell that disables and deals damage to the target for a certain period. While the ability is affecting, the enemy unit’s mana is stolen every 0.5 seconds  based on the unit’s maximum mana.

Mana cost: 200/300/400

Cooldown: 120/110/100

Cast Range: 625

Duration: 6.0/6.0/6.0

Damage per Second: 80/120/160

Max Mana Drain per Second 5%

Cast Animation: 0.4+0.0

Upgradable by Aghanim’s Scepter:

• Number of Illusion: 2
• Illusion Damage Taken: 700%
• Illusion Duration: 20
• Cooldown: 75/65/55

Notes:

Fiend’s Grip will cause the damage first on each tick then drain the mana from the target unit.

With the upgrade from Aghanim’s Scepter, two uncontrollable illusions are summoned that also cast Fiend’s Grip on the target unit. Illusions take 700% incoming damage and they die instantly if the ability is interrupted.

Effective items guides

Early game

Tango

Tango: will keep Bane’s health pool up in the early game.

Healing Salve

Healing Salve: restores health.

Enchanted Mango

Enchanted Mango: provides passive health regen.

Clarity

Clarity: can help Bane cast spells more frequently.

Observer Ward

Observer Ward: As a support, providing vision for setting up the ganks or spotting enemy positions is the must. Therefore, Observer Ward is another item that you should buy.

Mid game

Boots of Speed

Boots of Speed: Bane needs to roam to support other lanes so Boots of Speed is important.

Magic Stick

As leveling up, the spells cost more mana to cast so instantly or steadily regenerate mana like Magic Stick 

Infused Raindrops

Infused Raindrops: also grants Bane cheap mana regen and some protection against magical nukes.

Sentry Ward

Sentry Ward: To win the vision war and take advantage in any combat, Sentry Ward is the best option.

Late game

Arcane Boots

Arcane Boost: will increase Bane’s mana pool and gives him additional movement speed, allowing him to get into better position to use abilities.

Magic Wand

Magic Wand: gives more burst health and mana than Magic Stick.

Blink Dagger

Blink Dagger: boosts mobility, allowing Bane to play with better positioning.

Aether Lens

Aether Lens: completed from Arcane Boots, providing mana regen and increases cast range.

Situation items

Tranquil Boots

Tranquil Boots: gives movement speed for mobility, in addition to passive health.

Urn of Shadows

Urn of Shadows: gives Bane more utility while also providing useful bonuses.

Force Staff

Force Staff: equips Bane with intelligence and health regeneration. The active can get Bane and his allies in the right position, or break Linken’s Sphere and in turn opening up opportunities for disables.

Ghost Scepter

Ghost Scepter: helps shield Bane from physical attacks.

Glimmer Cape

Glimmer Cape: can bring invisibility and magic resistance to Bane and his allies, allowing them to initiate on enemies or escape engagements.

Solar Crest

Solar Crest: weakens the armor of target, allowing allies to deal more physical damage to them, and the passive mana regeneration helps Bane to maintain his mana.

Meteor Hammer

Meteor Hammer: grants strength, intelligence, and regen.

Eul's Scepter of Divinity

Eul's Scepter of Divinity: gives increased movement speed, allowing Bane to position for abilities, and the intelligence and strong scaling mana regen greatly help with his casting. The active provides yet another disable that Bane can use on the enemy for ganks or teamfights.

Rod of Atos

Rod of Atos: gives Bane more health and a larger mana pool. It also provides a root disable.

Lotus Orb

Lotus Orb: grants armor, regeneration, and Echo Shell that can be used on Bane or allies to remove debuffs and reflect. targeted abilities.

Shiva's Guard

Shiva's Guard: provides Bane with armor and attack speed slow aura, increasing his resilience against physical attacks.

Scythe of Vyse

Scythe of Vyse: provides a large intelligence bonus and mana regeneration that alleviates Bane's casting problems, while also providing all-around attributes to increase survivability.

Guardian Greaves

Guardian Greaves: restores mana and health to team while removing debuffs from Bane. The armor and health regenerating aura works better on heroes at low HP, potentially saving them from deaths.

Aghanim's Scepter

Aghanim's Scepter: drastically reduces cooldown of Fiend's Grip and makes it harder for enemy team to interrupt.

Enemies & Allies

Allies

Grimstroke

Soulbind allows Bane to use abilities on two targets at once, doubling the nuking and disabling powers.

Kunkka

Nightmare and Fiend’s Grip will render targets helpless for a Torrent and Ghostship combo.

Mirana

Nightmare into Sacred Arrow is a combo commonly used for near guaranteed long stuns, to set up easy ganks. The combined nuking power of Fiend’s Grip, Brain Sap and Starstorm can annihilate heroes with low health.

Omniknight

Purification is a pure damage nuke which can be combined with Nightmare and Brainsap.

Pudge

Nightmare and Meat Hook is a simple combo to pick off heroes in the early game. Enfeeble can make Dismember longer.

Skywrath Mage

Fiend’s Grip is a great setup for his Ancient Seal and Mystic Flare combo to deal insane magic burst damage.

Counters

Abaddon

Aphotic Shield will apply a strong dispel on the allied target and can be used to remove Fiend’s Grip and Nightmare. Borrowed Time is a strong dispel on Abaddon and can remove Nightmare as well as Fiend’s Grip. Bane when caught by Curse of Avernus also struggles a lot.

Pudge

Meat Hook can be targeted on nightmares units, or to break Fiend’s Grip’s channel. Dismember can also disable Bane while channeling Fiend’s Grip if Pudge isn’t targeted. His high health and health regen allow him to survive Bane’s abilities.

Luna

Lucent Beam can disable Bane when he is channeling Fiend’s Grip.

Rubick

Telekinesis can interrupt Fiend’s Grip via Spell Steal, and stolen Fiend’s Grip or Nightmare when combined with Arcane Supremacy can allow Rubick to disable Bane’s allies for a longer period of time.

Slark

Dark Pact can dispel Enfeeble, Nightmare and Fiend’s Grip if timed correctly.

Items Counter

Linken's Sphere

Linken's Sphere blocks any of Bane's targeted abilities, which are all single-target.

Abyssal Blade

Abyssal Blade can disable the channelling of Fiend's Grip even through spell immunity.

Black King Bar

Black King Bar's spell immunity protects the user from all of Bane's abilities except Fiend's Grip and Brain Sap with Aghanim's Scepter.

Lotus Orb

Lotus Orb reflects all of Bane's single target abilities, and can disable him instead.

Favorable Matchups

Faceless Void

Faceless Void: If Bane is outside Chronosphere, he can use Nightmare or Fiend's Grip to cripple Faceless Void inside. Nightmare and Fiend's Grip are long duration disables and can render Time Walk's mobility very unreliable.

Legion Commander

Legion Commander: Bane has powerful single-target abilities that can help his allies win  Duels, or at least cripple Legion Commander for the duration. Nightmare can waste Duel's entire duration as the dueled units transfer the Nightmare back and forth. This may be prevented if a non-Dueling unit attacks the Nightmared Dueler.

Medusa

Medusa: Fiend's Grip provides mana drain, which can heavily damage Mana Shield and prevent Medusa from using Stone Gaze. Even if she does use Stone Gaze, Nightmare can buy enough time to protect allies and reset the fight.

Phantom Assassin

Phantom Assassin: Enfeeble greatly reduces Phantom Assassin's burst damage. Nightmare and Fiend's Grip can ground Phantom Assassin, who normally blinks around with  Phantom Strike, and stop her from outputting damage, even with Black King Bar. Phantom Assassin's low health pool early on makes her susceptible to Brain Sap and Fiend's Grip's heavy nuke damage.

Phantom Lancer

Phantom Lancer: Brain Sap used on Phantom Lancer's illusion effectively heal Bane to max HP.

Game plan

Early game

Bane is a great laner with the support to the damage output and heal of Brain Sap as well as the safety of Nightmare, including strong attributes and attack damage. This is an intelligence hero with great damage, so he can spend his gold on survivability and/or mobility items, such as Glimmer Cape, Force Staff or Blink Dagger in order to enhance his usage abilities. 

At level 6, it’s recommended that you use Fiend’s Grip to lock down enemy targets, making ganks easier. Bane’s single-target nature is less effective for clearing waves and pushing.

In teamfights, there are two single-target abilities in his repertoire that can render enemy’s abilities ineffective: Nightmare and Fiend’s Grip. Nightmare will put the target to sleep while the other will disable the target, additionally dealing huge damage and drain mana. 

Cast it on one hero only to ensure that he’s killed, or you can use them on two different heroes. Depending on how the fight goes it’s up to you to make quick decisions. Fiend’s Grip pierces spell immunity, so you should prioritize those targets to shut them down. Take Nightmare to set up allied abilities, or Brain Sap to trade hits better.

At the beginning of the game, you should take advantage of Brain Sap to secure the Bounty Rune for your team. If you and your ally are the underdog in this lane, try to hold your position and harass the enemy carefully. Then wait for the help from the jungle to get the kill. If the opponents are a weaker dou-lane, you can pressure the enemies and make them use up their regen, if their HP gets low, you can try to kill them with the help from Nightmare.

With the good night vision, you can roam to place the ward during the first night to have a leg up in controlling the map.

Mid game

As Bane’s abilities are not built to farm, you need to stick to the most farmed ally in your team to get the kills and gold needed for buying items. If engaging in any teamfights, don’t be the initiator or tanker, just position yourself behind the core heroes of your team.

You can roam to other lanes and defend the towers from split pushing. With the help of Nightmare and Fiend’s Grip, you can hold the enemy long enough for your team to teleport and claim the kill.

Don’t forget to place the ward when roaming.

Late game

When the game has been dragged to the late, the objectives on the map like Towers, Roshan and Bounty Runes are what you and your team should focus on. Try to defend your towers and destroy the opponent’s tower to get more vision and push the creeps higher so you and your team will have enough time and space to finish Roshan.

Extra Tips

To balance Bane’s strong disables, he has a poor mana pool with no escapes. So he can easily be killed if out of position and also casting high-cost low-cooldown abilities can present a risk. As such, it’s recommended to build items that help to increase his mana pool as well as his mana regeneration. 

Bane’s single-target abilities can be countered by items such as Linken’s Sphere and Lotus Orb, and he can’t disable more than two enemies in an engagement so this is something that must be taken into consideration. Team’s lineup is very important and results can significantly affected just from this, so pick Bane only in good matchups.

Bane can be played as a side lane support due to his disabling and nuking powers that lie within Nightmare and Brain Sap. On the other hand, he can also be played as a roamer due to his high base movement speed and disabling potential, especially if paired with a teammate who has strong disables. His movement speed allows him to get within range quicker and gank effectively.

Be aware at all times that tho Bane possesses strong ganking abilities in his disables, he’s fragile and can be killed easily if focused on. Position Bane in teamfights well so that he’s not caught out of position. But all and all if you use him for ganking then he’s great, as Bane’s abilities effectively combine to get single target kills. A lone enemy who’s out of position can get tied up for a while and receive high damage before being finished off. 

All and all, this hero requires substantial timing and knowledge of positioning before being played effectively. Once mastered, he will give your team a strong ally since his skillset is very versatile and has a lot of utilities.