Bane/Guide

Support

 * Bane is a strong laner, thanks to the damage output and heal of Brain Sap, and the safety of Nightmare, as well as strong starting attributes and attack damage. Being an intelligence hero with great damage, Bane can spend his gold with survivability and/or mobility items, like, , or , to enhance usage abilities. At level 6, use Fiend's Grip to lock down an enemy target, making his ganks easier. Keep in mind that Bane's single-target nature means he has difficulty clearing creep waves to push.
 * In teamfights, Bane has 2 single-target abilities that can diminish an enemy's ability to fight. Nightmare puts the target to sleep and Fiend's Grip disables the target, while dealing huge damage and draining their mana. You can either cast it all on one hero and ensure his ultimate destruction or you can also cast them on 2 different heroes: use Nightmare against the hero who can cause you trouble in fight (like supports who can heal or disable Bane himself), and finally use Fiend's Grip on the target you and your team is aiming to kill. Seeing that Fiend's Grip pierces spell immunity, you should prioritize such targets to shut them down.
 * At level one, either take Nightmare to set up for allied abilities, or Brain Sap to trade hits with the enemies.

General

 * While Bane possesses strong disables, he suffers from a poor mana pool and no escape abilities, meaning that he can run out of mana quite often while casting his high-manacost low-cooldown abilities, 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 regeneration, as well as mobility items to give him initiation and escape ability.
 * All of Bane's abilities are single-target, which makes him quite easy to be countered by items such as and . 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. Also, Brain Sap can be a strong damage nuke to use in the event of ganking targets while also healing Bane.
 * Bane's 305 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 use 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 fragile and easy to kill if focused by enemies; 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. Also, he has slightly longer cast animation on his abilities, so it is necessary to plan ahead when using abilities.
 * Using all of Bane's abilities in combination allows him to disable and nuke down single targets, making him a powerful ganker. He can initiate on a lone enemy using Nightmare, then reposition 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 6 seconds of hard disable during which they can attack and cast damage nukes.


 * Enfeeble is a fairly straightforward ability. Cast it on carries to cripple their damage and health regeneration.
 * Due to Enfeeble decreasing cast range as well, it can be good against some cast range based spellcasters. Particularly, most disabling spellcasters such as and  will have their cast range hindered.
 * Unlike similar abilities (e.g ) Enfeeble reduces total damage rather than damage granted by attributes.
 * Enfeeble grievously cripples heroes who rely on healing, lifesteal and health-regeneration.
 * Enfeeble has a massive 1100 cast range at max level. Abuse this fact to cripple enemies from extremely far away, especially when combined with an.
 * You can chose to get Enfeeble before the level 10 talent, since the level 10 talent only boosts your Armor/Magic Resistance. If you find that you aren't being focused down or you can tank the damage, get skip the level 10 talent altogether and max out Enfeeble.


 * 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 ability in-lane, trading health with the enemy can allow Bane to be surprisingly resilient, which can catch the enemy off-guard. Given a source of mana regeneration, Bane can use the ability to harass and replenish health, rendering the enemy's lane untenable.
 * If Bane is the target of a gank, you can reserve Brain Sap until the very end, when Bane is at 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 HP 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.


 * Even at level 1, Nightmare puts target to sleep for a long duration, so his allies will have plenty of time to position and aim their abilities, while Bane can attack at will.
 * Despite this, you want to max this skill out alongside Brain Sap due to it scaling very well.
 * Use Nightmare to hold an enemy in position and allow allies to land their unreliable disables such as, , , 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.
 * Bane can use Nightmare in a defensive situation. If multiple enemies are attempting to gank Bane or an ally, using 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 teammates 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, do not initiate it with an ally's 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.
 * However, Bane can attack the nightmared target without waking them up or transferring Nightmare to Bane himself.
 * Nightmared target will wake up from physical attacks and the debuff transfers to the attacker. However, damage from abilities will go through, wake up the target without transferring the debuff. So, tell your teammates to follow with their abilities immediately once everyone is in position, lest buying time for enemy heroes to come for the rescue.
 * Nightmare will render its target invulnerable for the first second of its duration. When cast on himself or an ally, it allows Bane to effectively dodge projectiles and abilities for one second, potentially wasting enemy abilties.
 * Conversely, it can also backfire and dodge your allies' disables.
 * 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 teammates will have no information about your team's positions prior to the Nightmare being removed.
 * Nightmare End allows 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.
 * Bane cannot use Nightmare End when dead so watch out when using Nightmare to save allies when Bane is dying as it may put them in harm's way.
 * Bane can use Nightmare End to wake himself up during Nightmare.


 * Bane can channel Fiend's Grip to disable an enemy through spell immunity.
 * Fiend's Grip is a powerful ganking ability, 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 ability and can also simply be focused down and killed by physical attacks. Be sure to position yourself prior to using this ability such that the enemy cannot reach you, or build countermeasures to prevent disables from affecting you. For example, you can try to cast at max range or among trees, so items like and  may prove useful for positioning.
 * Fiend's Grip will drain its target's mana, allowing Bane to replenish a portion of his mana during the disable, enough to use another ability 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 use another ability that would otherwise not be possible with a different ability order.
 * As Fiend's Grip is a channeled ability, other abilities and item abilities can be used 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.
 * You can use certain items during Fiend's Grip, like to make yourself invisble, adding a layer of protection against enemy interruptions.
 * In lategame Bane requires to make sure Fiend's Grip won't get interrupted.
 * Alternately Bane can buy if the enemy team lacks AoE disable abilities, which drastically reduces possibility of Fiend's Grip getting interrupted, as well as reducing the extremely long cooldown of Fiend's Grip.

Items
Starting items:
 * keeps Bane's health pool up in the early game. It also destroys trees to make chain pulling of neutral camps easier.
 * restores health to Bane or a teammate.
 * gives Bane mana replenishment, sustaining his abilities like Nightmare, allowing him to set up kills more frequently.
 * provides vision around the map to spot enemy movements, setting up ganks or avoiding them.
 * provides Bane with a small amount of passive health regeneration, allowing him to mitigate harass damage. More importantly, it gives him burst mana restoration in the early game, allowing him to get off one more ability for a key moment in ganks.

Early game:
 * increase the size of Bane's mana pool and gives him some additional movement speed, allowing him to get into position to use abilities more often. They also replenish mana to him and teammates.
 * provides even more burst health and mana than Magic Stick.
 * grants cheap mana regeneration and some protection against magical nukes.
 * allows Bane to deward or spot invisible foes, also use it to block enemy pull camps.

Mid game:
 * boosts mobility, allowing Bane to play with perfect position.
 * is completed from disassembling Arcane Boots, and provides mana regeneration for Bane to use abilities. It also increases Bane's cast range of his abilities and items, keeping him further away from enemy aggression.
 * provides intelligence and health regeneration to use abilities. The active can get Bane and allies to the right position, or break Linken's Sphere, opening up opportunities for disables.
 * will reduce the cooldown of Fiend's Grip and to summon two uncontrollable illusions that will also channel Fiend's Grip, allowing Bane to freely attack the affected enemy hero as long as his illusions are present.
 * adds AoE to his attacks and can later be upgraded into.
 * gives cheap stats and can later be upgraded into.

Late game:
 * will allow Brain Sap to damage multiple enemies at once, giving Bane much needed AoE capabilities.
 * will allow Bane to root multiple enemies at once while passively providing his attacks a chance to release a chain lightning that will bounce between the enemies.
 * provides bonus armor, intelligence, attack speed and true strike every 9 seconds. Active ability allows Bane's next five attacks to deal magical damage, attack ethereal units and to have true strike.
 * will give Bane both, escaping and chasing tool, and will also provide him with extra attack range.

Situational items:
 * and its upgrade gives  Bane more utility while also providing useful bonuses. As he is already a strong ganker, Bane can easily get charges that can then be used to heal teammates or add additional damage to ganks. Additionally, it stacks with Enfeeble's heal reduction.
 * gives Bane a way to shield himself from physical attacks for a short duration, gaining him time to use his abilities or to retreat. Use with Fiend's Grip to prevent the enemy from killing him with physical attacks.
 * brings invisibility and magic resistance to Bane and his allies, allowing them to initiate on enemies or escape from engagements. Use on Bane while channeling Fiend's Grip to conceal himself from enemies.
 * weakens the armor of target, including Roshan, allowing allies to deal more physical damage to them, and the passive mana regeneration helps Bane to maintain his mana pool.
 * grants strength, intelligence, and regeneration. The item's channel time benefits from Nightmare's long duration disable, ensuring the stun on targets. The item also applies damage to enemy buildings and creeps, helping Bane push and clear waves.
 * gives increased movement speed, allowing Bane to position for abilities, and the intelligence and strong scaling mana regeneration greatly help with his casting. The active provides yet another disable that Bane can use on the enemy to set up ganks or hinder them in teamfights, or use on Bane himself to provide a short duration of invulnerability while also dispelling debuffs such as silences.
 * grants armor, regeneration, and Echo Shell that can be used on Bane or allies to remove debuffs and reflect targeted abilities.
 * provides Bane with armor and attack speed slow aura, increasing his resilience against physical attacks. The added intelligence improves his damage and expands his mana pool; the active adds more damage in teamfights and slow movement speed of enemies.
 * provides a large intelligence bonus and mana regeneration that alleviates Bane's casting problems, while also providing all-around attributes to increase survivability. The active allows him to utilize an instant hex.
 * 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.

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