Bane

Bane 22 + 2.5 22 + 2.5 22 + 2.5
	+20HP and +0.1HP regeneration/point.
	+0.17 armor and 1 attack speed/point.
	+12MP and +0.05MP regeneration/point.; +1 main attack damage/point.
L0	Base Hero Values
L1	⤷ + Base Attributes
L15	⤷ + Attribute Gain
L25	⤷ + 6 levels of Attribute Bonus
L30	⤷ + 7 levels of Attribute Bonus
	All values shown are without talent bonuses.

Hero

Strategy

Counters

Not to be confused with Banehallow.

Atropos, the Bane Elemental (or simply Bane), is a ranged intelligence hero whose dark and nightmarish abilities give him prowess as a disabler, ganker, and nuker. Mostly played as a support, his high starting stats make him a menace in lane. Bane possesses four potent single-target spells, which must be used well to make up for his lack of pushing power or area of effect presence. Bane's first spell, Enfeeble, reduces the target's attack damage, health regeneration, and the speed they cast spells, crippling physical damage dealers, tanky brawlers, and spellcasters alike. Brain Sap deals hefty damage to the target and heals Atropos for the same amount, giving Bane a massive presence in small skirmishes. Nightmare puts a unit to sleep, completely disabling it for several seconds. The unit awakes when it is attacked or takes damage, though Bane can freely attack nightmared targets without waking them. Finally, Bane's Fiend's Grip is a channeled spell that completely disables the target, drains its mana and deals high damage over time. Bane's aptitude for incapacitating and debilitating enemies make him an invaluable support to allies—and a nightmare for enemies.

Bio[]

Atropos, the Bane

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

Lore:

When the gods have nightmares, it is Bane Elemental who brings them. Also known as Atropos, Bane was born from the midnight terrors of the goddess Nyctasha. A force of terror too powerful to be contained by sleep, he surfaced from her slumbers, fed upon her immortality, and stole his vaporous form from her inky blood. He is the essence of fear. Mortals who hear his voice hear their darkest secrets whispered in their ear. He calls to the hidden fear in every Hero's heart. Wakefulness is no protection, for Bane's black blood, continuously dripping, is a tar that traps his enemies in nightmare. In the presence of Bane, every Hero remembers to fear the dark.

Voice:

David Scully (Responses)

Abilities[]

Enfeeble

▶️QT

Ability
Target Unit

Affects
Enemies

Lowers the enemy's total attack damage, cast speed, and regeneration.

Cast Animation: +

Cast Range: 800/900/1000/1100

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

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

Cast Time Increase: 30%

Duration: 8/9/10/11

28/21/14/7

40/50/60/70

Modifiers

modifier_bane_enfeeble_effect: Dispellable with any dispel.

Each tendril of fear that Atropos weaves increases the vulnerability of his victims to arcane and unknown arts.

Notes:

Reduces the target's total attack damage, including attack damage bonuses.

Applies heal reduction, health regen reduction, lifesteal reduction, and spell lifesteal reduction on the target.

The cast time increase affects abilities' cast point. Channeling times are unaffected.

Multiple casts on the same target do not stack the debuff, but only refreshes the duration.

Brain Sap

▶️WB

Ability
Target Unit

Affects
Enemies / Self

Damage
Pure

Feasts on the vital energies of an enemy unit, healing Bane and dealing damage.

Cast Animation: +

Cast Range: 625

Damage: 75/150/225/300 (

225/300/375/450)

Damage as Heal: 100%

Radius: 550

Secondary Damage as Heal: 25%

17/15/13/11 (

14/12/10/8)

100/120/140/160

Causes Brain Sap to become a 550 AoE spell. Secondary targets only heal for 25%.

Atropos finds no greater pleasure than to harvest the fear he creates.

Notes:

Despite the visual effects, the heal happens instantly after the damage is dealt, there is no travel time.

The heal amount is based on how much damage the target took from Brain Sap.
- This means amplifying or reducing the damage affects the heal value.
- The heal value itself is still subjected to heal manipulation.

Aghanim's Shard adds a 550 radius to this ability. The ability must be centered over a unit still.
- Can target invisible units and units inside the Fog of War.
- From secondary targets, it can only heal for 18.75/37.5/56.25/75 ( 56.25/75/93.75/112.5) health.

Nightmare

▶️EE

Ability
Target Unit

Affects
Enemies / Allies

Damage
Pure

Puts the target enemy or friendly Hero to sleep. Sleeping units are awakened when damaged. If the target was directly attacked, the Nightmare passes to the attacking unit. Bane can attack nightmared targets freely. Enemy Units take Pure Damage Per Second while in Nightmare.

Cast Animation: +

Cast Range: 425/500/575/650

Damage per Second: 5/15/25/35

Sleep Duration: 4/5/6/7

Invulnerability Duration: 1

24/21/18/15 (

21/18/15/12)

165

Sleep and invulnerability debuffs persist if placed before spell immunity and when not dispelled.

Blocked when primary target. Blocked upon attacking a unit affected by an enemy Nightmare.

Modifiers

modifier_bane_nightmare_invulnerable: Dispellable with death only.

modifier_bane_nightmare: Dispellable with any dispel.

Ability Draft Notes:

Bane keeps his innate ability to attack Nightmared units.
The drafting hero and their illusions can attack Nightmared units as well.

A stolen prowess from the goddess Nyctasha is to put his prey into forever sleep.

Notes:

↓↓ 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.

Deals damage in 1-second intervals, starting 1 second after cast, resulting in up to 4/5/6/7 instances.
- Can deal up to 20/75/150/245 damage to enemy targets, considering the default duration (before reductions).

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.

Enemy targets do not wake up from Nightmare's own damage per second.

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.

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 (acquired via Spell Steal or Morph).

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.
- Player-controlled units can still force an attack order on the target ( Right Click or A) 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

EE

Ability
Toggle

Ends all ongoing Nightmares.

Cast Animation: +

0

Notes:

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

▶️RF

Ability
Target Unit / Channeled

Affects
Enemies / Self

Damage
Pure
(

Magical)

Grips an enemy unit, disabling it and causing heavy damage over time, while stealing mana every 0.5 second based on the unit's maximum mana.

Cast Animation: +

Cast Range: 625

Max Channel Time: 6 (

11)

Damage per Second: 80/120/160

Max Mana Drain per Second: 5% (

10%)

Number of Illusions: 2

Illusion Damage Taken: 700%

Illusion Duration: 20

120/110/100 (

75/65/55)

200/300/400

Reduces Fiend's Grip cooldown by 45 seconds. Fiend's Grip now creates two uncontrollable illusions that are also channeling Fiend's Grip on the target. Illusions takes 700% incoming damage and immediately die if they are interrupted. Damage does not stack.

Modifiers

modifier_bane_fiends_grip_illusion: Dispellable with death only.

modifier_bane_fiends_grip_illusion_can_only_channel: Undispellable. Persists death.

modifier_illusion: Dispellable with death only.

modifier_invulnerable: Dispellable with death only.

modifier_bane_fiends_grip: Dispellable with strong dispels.

modifier_bane_fiends_grip_cast_illusion: Dispellable with strong dispels.

Victims of Atropos are frequently torn apart by vivid conjurations of their own nightmares.

Notes:

Fiend's Grip fully disables and provides True Sight over the target until the channeling ends.
- If the target turns invulnerable or hidden, the channeling stops instantly.

Deals 40/60/80 damage and drains 2.5% mana in 0.5-second intervals, starting immediately as the channeling begins, resulting in up to 12 ( 22) instances.
- Can deal up to 480/720/960 ( 880/1320/1760) damage (before reductions).
- Can drain up to 30% ( 55%) of the target's maximum mana.

Applies the damage first on each interval, and then the mana loss.

Unlike other targeted abilities, the caster vision of Fiend's Grip lasts for the entire channel duration (even if it gets canceled), instead of just 2 seconds.

With Aghanim's Scepter, 2 illusions spawn 400 range towards Bane's right and left side, facing towards the target whenever casting Fiend's Grip.
- The illusions are able to cast abilities, and are automatically ordered to cast Fiend's Grip on the same target, with an instant cast time.
- The illusions can be given any orders normally, except for item cast orders. Doing so cancels the channeling and kills the illusion.
- The illusions' Fiend's Grip places a different modifier than the real hero does. This modifier only stuns the target if the real hero's modifier is present.
- However, as soon as the real hero's modifier disappears, the illusions' modifier continues dealing damage and draining mana in its place.
- In this case, the damage and mana drain is sourced to the illusion, not to Bane.
- The illusions have a maximum duration of 20 seconds, hard-capping the maximum time they can spend channeling.
- Since the illusions are actually casting Fiend's Grip as well, this upgrade does not work for heroes who do not have Fiend's Grip by default (e.g. when acquired via Spell Steal or with Spell Reflection).

Talents[]

Hero Talents
+5s Fiend's Grip Duration	25	+150 Brain Sap Damage/Heal
+30 Movement Speed	20	-3s Nightmare Cooldown
+5% Fiend's Grip Max Mana Drain	15	-3s Brain Sap Cooldown
+12% Magic Resistance	10	+5 Armor

Notes:

The magic resistance talent stacks multiplicatively with other sources of magic resistance.
- Increases Bane's magic resistance to 34%.

The armor talent does not benefit illusions.

Recent Changes[]

Main Article: Bane/Changelogs

Version

Description

7.30e

Reduced base attack damage from 35‒41 to 33‒39.
Increased Nightmare cooldown from 22/19/16/13 to 24/21/18/15.
Talents:

Level 10 right talent: +6 armor reduced to +5.

7.30d

Rescaled Nightmare damage per second from 15/20/25/30 to 5/15/25/35.
Increased Brain Sap cooldown from 14/13/12/11 to 17/15/13/11.

7.30c

Reduced strength gain from 2.6 to 2.5.
Reduced agility gain from 2.6 to 2.5.
Reduced intelligence gain from 2.6 to 2.5.
Talents:

Level 10 left talent: +15% magic resistance reduced to +12%.

Level 25 left talent: +5.5s

Fiend's Grip duration reduced to +5s.

Recommended Items[]

Starting items:

Tango keeps Bane's health pool up in the early game. It also destroys trees to make chain pulling of neutral camps easier.
Healing Salve restores health to Bane or a teammate.
Clarity gives Bane mana replenishment, sustaining his abilities like Nightmare, allowing him to set up kills more frequently.
Observer Ward provides vision around the map to spot enemy movements, setting up ganks or avoiding them.
Enchanted Mango 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:

Boots of Speed gives movement speed for Bane to position.
Magic Stick gives Bane burst health and mana to use abilities in fights.
Infused Raindrops grants cheap mana regeneration and some protection against magical nukes.
Sentry Ward allows Bane to deward or spot invisible foes.

Core items:

Arcane Boots 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.
Magic Wand provides even more burst health and mana than Magic Stick.
Blink Dagger boosts mobility, allowing Bane to play with perfect position.
Aether Lens 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.

Situational items:

Tranquil Boots give movement speed for mobility. The passive health regeneration also helps to offset Soul Ring's health cost.
Urn of Shadows 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.
Force Staff 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.
Ghost Scepter 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.
Glimmer Cape 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.
Solar Crest 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.
Meteor Hammer 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.
Eul's Scepter of Divinity 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.
Rod of Atos gives Bane more health and a larger mana pool. It also provides a root disable, giving Bane and allies time to pin down the target.
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 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.
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. The active allows him to utilize an instant hex.
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 drastically reduces cooldown of Fiend's Grip and makes it harder for enemy team to interrupt channeling.

Gameplay[]


Roles:	Support Disabler Nuker Durable
Complexity:	★★☆
Playstyle:	Formed from the ichor of Nyctasha, Atropos is the vaporous embodiment of pure fear. Sheer terror Enfeebles his enemies, diminishing their attacks. The Bane Elemental puts heroes to sleep, sending them into a restless Nightmare as he feeds on their vital energies through Brain Sap. Some will never wake. Caught in the Fiend's Grip, Bane's victims can only swing at imagined phantoms as fear chokes the life from their bodies.

Strategy & Tips

Counters &
Matchups

Audio[]

Responses

Sounds

History[]

Lore

Old Abilities

Changelogs

Equipment[]

Trivia[]

The origin of the name "Atropos" comes from Greek mythology. One of the Moirai Sisters (commonly referred to as the Sisters of Fate), Atropos was the sister in charge of cutting the "Life Thread" of those who were going to die. Her name literally means 'the no-Turning One' (> α 'no, without' + τρέπειν 'to turn'), referring to the irreversible and inevitable destiny of death.
Bane's rival line towards Tinker ▶️ "Do Tinkers dream of electric sheepsticks?" is a reference to the book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. "Sheepstick" is also a commonly used name for the Scythe of Vyse.
The theme and abilities of Bane are based on the game Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis. In this game, there is a Bane "element" which provides spells that are named Enfeeble, Brain Sap, Nightmare and Fiend's Grip, with a similar theme of Bane in Dota 2.
Bane's move line ▶️ "Sleep no more!" is a reference to Shakespeare's play Hamlet, in particular, his famous "To be or not to be" soliloquy. Hamlet reasons over whether to take his own life or carry on: "To die, to sleep-. No more-and by a sleep we say to end..."
Fiend's Grip sound effect makes use of one of Bane's lines ("▶️ The bane of your existence").
Bane's Last hit Response "▶️ The wages of fear" is a reference to the film of the same name.
Bane is the only hero in Dota that has both the same base value as well as the same growth value on all 3 attributes. Even when general attribute value adjustments have been made on other heroes through different versions, Bane has still kept this peculiarity in every version, intentionally.