Yet Another EXP Mage Bane Guide
EDIT: THIS POST IS CURRENTLY OUTDATED DUE TO THE NEW ITEMS
EDIT2: the new items actually dont change much, just build Starlium first item and ditch COD (you will be less tanky tho unfort)
hello people of reddit, this is my first post on reddit so if its terrible don't keep the bullying to a minimum ok? and yes i know u/0kills made a mage bane guide a while ago, he is my goat, he is the one that put me on to mage bane, but considering the holy crystal and blood wings changes that were done after the guide, and the fact that i play a bit differently than him, i thought why not make a guide?
Overview
Bane, depending on how he's built, can be a tank cc'ing everyone and dealing decent true damage, a backline sniper, or an late-game scaling, alcoholic maniac, drinking and spitting the nastiest beer ever invented. On this guide, we will only be covering the latter, which is Mage Bane.
Mage bane has 2 things that differentiate it from the other builds:
- Un-situational burst damage - Physical Bane needs a stepping stone to deal the max burst, but Mage Bane can just hide in a bush, burst the mm, and leave unscathed
- Healing - Speaking of leaving unscathed, Mage Bane probably has one of nuttiest healing out of any character ever. His S2 can heal half of his health while he's low and it has a friggin 2s cooldown
Although he is considered to be not very good in the EXP lane and the current tier list by u/hmmsucks doesn't even list him as a viable EXP laner, i firmly believe that he is one of the better EXP laners for SoloQ. Why? Because so long that you don't lose lane badly, you basically can carry even the most "special folk"
Skill Analysis
Passive: Shark Bite
Bane infuses his weapon with a stack of Tidal Energy each time he uses a skill (up to 2 stacks. Each of his subsequent Basic Attacks consumes a stack to deal) Physical Damage equal to (+100% Total Physical Attack) plus 3.5 (+0.3 × Hero Level of the target's Max HP to nearby enemies.)
For Mage Bane, his passive doesn't do anything crazy for him, but is a very handy tool for early game laning as it will be your main damage source until you get Holy Crystal, and it has very potent Tower Pushing capabilities, which is one of the factors that makes Bane good
S1: Crab Claw Cannon
Bane fires his Crab Claw Cannon in the target direction, dealing 150–350 (+160% Total Physical Attack) Physical Damage to the first enemy hit and then 150%–200% damage to a random enemy behind them (prioritizes enemy heroes. Enemies hit are) slowed by 10 (+10% Total Magic Power)% for 1 second.
Every 100 Physical Attack that Bane possesses reduces this skill's cooldown by an additional 8%.
Very useful to poke enemies, as even without any Physical Attack investment, the bounce does a frankly pretty decently goodly amount of damage, for the same reason, its also the first skill you should level up, as in Laning Phase, the bounce does a decent amount of damage and allows you to play around the enemy zoning you out from your minions. Also the extra slow that you get from the Magic Power investment is quite noticeable and allows you to chase down enemies
S2: Ale
Bane chugs his ale, recovering 200 (+150% Total Magic Power) plus 5–10 (+1.5% Total Magic Power)% of his lost HP and gaining 50% extra Movement Speed that decays over 2.5 seconds.
Use Again: Bane spits venom in the target direction, dealing 250–450 (+180% Total Magic Power) Magic Damage Magic Damage (scales up to 150% with charging time to enemies in a fan-shaped area.)
Every 100 Magic Power Bane possesses additionally reduces this skill's cooldown by 7%.
This is it. The greatest tool in Mage Bane's arsenal. The single skill that makes Mage Bane viable in the first place. The mobility increase, the crazy Magic Power scaling on this skill that makes Mage Bane heal so much, and deal so much (damage). The only problem is, this skill doesn't do shit until you get your first core item, and the range on it isn't the greatest so you do have to space it and time it carefully, so you don't get dunked on while its on cooldown
Ultimate: Shark Bite
Bane summons a school of sharks to charge in a target direction, dealing 600–1000 (+100% Total Physical Attack) (+170% Total Magic Power) Magic Damage, knocking them airborne for 0.8 seconds, and slowing them by 65% (decays over 3 seconds).
This skill deals 40% of damage to turrets.
This is Mage Bane's main way of contributing to team fights, and his only CC skill. Its a potent Knockup skill and is his main tool for bursting down squishies so fast that they wont have a chance to react. Its also a great reactionary tool if things get a little dangerous and you need things to slow down so you can escape. Given all that, do not try to be Mr. Main Character if its on cooldown or you will die a horrible death (in-game). Also, if you're trying to push, but don't want to commit going in and potentially dying, you can just send a Shark Bite the Tower's way. This is also useful for chipping the last little bit of hp a tower has
COMBOS: Generally in terms of combos, you should just spam every skill that's not on cooldown, but in case you need combos for whatever reason:
Insta-Kill: S2 > ULT > S2 > Enhanced Basic Attack > S1
Surprise Knockup: S2 > Flicker > ULT > S2> Enhanced Basic Attack
Chasing: S2 (charge for like 1.5 seconds) > S2 (doesnt have to hit the enemy, just for resetting S2 cooldown) > S1 (does have to hit the enemy)
Build
Now for this one, people have tons of different ways to build Bane. Hell even the other subclasses of Tank Bane, Phys Bane, and Mage Bane don't have an agreed upon build, but from my 150 games-ish of testing on Mage Bane, i feel that this build is the most consistent
Let's do a breakdown of this build
CORE ITEMS:
Clock of Destiny: A lot of people who build Mage Bane that i've seen (who isnt inspired by u/0kills) dont build this which i find kinda confusing cause this item is a double threat. At max stacks it gives you a very decently good amount of Magic Power, and 800 HP which is very noticeable and makes Bane alot more tanky. All that just for 1950 Gold?
Starlium Scythe: Incredible value also for the price. Makes Mage Bane do a decent bit of damage Mid Game, and increases the damage Mage Bane does post-Holy Crystal by a TON. Not to mention the little bit of Hybrid Lifesteal that it gives which might be subtle but sure does help
Holy Crystal: This is the item that makes Mage Bane go online. It turns Mage Bane from a guy who does alright damage and heals a decent amount, to the Mage Bane that you see in clips. No doubt you NEVER want to not build this item
SUPPLEMENTARY ITEMS:
Blood Wings: I love building this item because of the new attribute they gave it.
The Shield also grants 30 Movement Speed while it lasts and 150 Movement Speed for 1 second after it breaks.
This is very good for people who like to play Mage Bane like one would play Argus or Zilong, as it makes him really fuckin fast and capable of doing Hit n Runs. also the shield is good for survivability or whatever
Oracle: Gives Bane a noticeable amount of bulk and pairs very well with his heals
Divine Glaive: more big damage. nuff said
Winter Truncheon: Being able to reset your cooldowns as a Mage Bane is a very big deal and can be the difference between dying a horrible death, and getting a Maniac. replace boots with this in super late game
Arcane Boots: Very nice for the extra Magic Pen. Can also be changed to Rapid Boots (against slow and/or for split pushing), Magic Boots, or the defense Boots
Necklace of Durance: anti heal and some hp idk
EMBLEMS:
Now personally i don't have every Emblem max levelled and my only high levelled emblem is the Common Emblem, and because of that, the Common Emblem gaps every other Emblem in terms of stats BUT assuming you had max levelled Emblems, you could go the Assassin Emblem route against squishies, or the Support Emblem route for the extra healing and movement speed. As for the talents:
T1: Agility (4r da split pushers), Rupture (general damage), or Inspire (CDR)
T2: Bargain Hunter (for faster items), or Tenacity (for better bulk)
T3: Lethan Ignition (for damage), or Brave Smite (sustain)
SPELLS:
The spell depends on lineup but you pretty much want to bring either Flicker or Purify.
Flicker for lineups with little to no CC, Purify for lineups with alot of CC. Pretty self-explanatory
Relevant Matchups
i will be ordering the matchups from Worst to Best
Dyrroth: Do not fight this man solo unless you're very ahead. Even in late game Dyrroth can S2 Petrify Ult and you die. You do have a better chance with Purify though so definitely keep that in mind
Cici: Cici is an incredibly annoying hero, early game she wins every exchange by quite a large margin, and even in late game you cant always win the 1v1 against Cici. This is even worsened by the fact that Cici's S1 outranges Bane's S2 (i think i havent checked tbh) and she's such an agile girl that even your Enhanced Basic Attack wont reliably hit her
X.Borg: X.Borg is a very oppressive laning opponent because he has way more lethal poke than Bane and his healing is brazy. When he gets level 4, make sure to be extra careful as if your hp starts dropping too low, X.Borg's just gonna Ult you and boom, ya dead. In Mid-Late game though, X.Borg does get a bit easier to 1v1 but hes still tanky as hell and heals so much, but because your healing at this point should be pretty good, he can't really use his ult to execute you as reliably (unless you're super low). Late game though you can reliably win vs X.Borg because X.Borg's Ult will and cannot execute you if your cooldown management is decent
Arlott: Arlott early game isnt a big Lane Bully or anything, but he does reliably win lane most of the time against Bane. What makes Arlott threatening though, is the fact that he does decent damage, is relatively tanky, and has the STUPID FUCKIN 16s COOLDOWN ULT. In teamfights he can just CC you and poof you're gone. Definitely use Purity against him
Paquito: Paquito is surprisingly bulky and does quite a lot of burst damage AND he has a number of tools to close the gap. Play very carefully in laning phase, but in late game you can easily kill him 1v1
Esmeralda: Generally, if Esme's using Tank build, Bane wins against her. She doesnt do that much damage as a tank and you generally outsustain her and outdamage her. But if she's using Mage build, you lose pretty bad. Mage build Esme does alot of fukin damage and is incredibly tanky if her shield is at half HP, and that means you cant easily burst her, and she outsustains you. However, if Esme's shield isn't fully built up yet, you can burst her down and win 1v1
Edith: Without her ult, Edith pretty much loses 1v1 against you as you have alot of poke and Edith's approach options are pretty predictable. But with her ult, she suddenly turns into a Raid Boss with crazy amounts of damage and sustain and your best course of action is to just run away. Her CC chain is also pretty crazy but you can just purify it and run away after she uses her Ult. I personally like to use Rapid Boots vs Edith as it also reduces the amount of slow i get from her Ult.
Yu Zhong: In theory, YZ should be a terrible matchup for Bane. In practice however, Bane wins most of the time. Bane can just heal Yu Zhong's chip damage and Yu Zhong cant reliably heal Bane's chip damage. He has a doesn't have incredible approach options, Bane can just Purify Yu Zhong's entire combo and even if Purify isn't available, Bane wins 1v1 most of the time in mid-late game
Terizla: You can lane against Terizla without too much trouble if you just dont get overconfident as you have more healing than Terizla. His Ult is pretty good CC and is annoying but it doesn't inhibit your S2-using ability so its not that bad
ANY HERO I HAVENT MENTIONED: Just assume that you lose lane and win late game because thats how it usually is
Gameplan
Generally, your job as Mage Bane is to do big damage, tank for the squishies, and do big set with Ult sometimes.
Early Game
In Early game your jobs are as follows
- Don't Die
- Get to Level 4 and help your team in the turtle fight
- Don't Die
- Don't Die
- Don't Die
Early-Mid Game
In Early-Mid game you probably have CoD but your main objectives are still Farm, Farm, Farm, and Don't Die.
At this point, you can help your teammates if they need some help in teamfights or whatever but don't help TOO much or you're gonna be behind in farming
Mid Game
Now that you have CoD, Starlium, and some Magic Wands, its time to actually make a difference. Help your team in teamfights or whatever type of shit that they're trying to do but don't roam without Ult or try to ambush a full HP MM yet, you're still not the Main Character yet. If you're losing, you should split push and keep an eye out for enemy mistakes. If a fed squishy is out of position, take that kill and if you keep doing that, you'll be rich very quickly
Late Game
Now that you have all of your core items, you can play more recklessly and split push more, as you heal a lot more now, and from now on you can One-Combo reckless squishies and do a pretty good amount of damage to tanks. You should still not roam without Ult as its a big part of your damage output but you can roam more aggressively now. Don't try a 1v3 though, you're definitely gonna lose as you're not Him™. If you're losing and defending a push, try to stay alive as Bane is a great base defender with his AoE CC big damage Ult and his Minion clear is amazing
Synergies
Carmilla: Carmilla + Mage Bane is a nasty combo as her Ult can make Bane's Ult hit 3 times per enemy, which is just insane
Any Early Game Carry Junglers: Pretty self explanatory. The Junglers carry early game and you carry mid-late game
Any Set Tanks: again pretty self explanatory. bane has aoe skills. tank make enemy clump. bane big damage
Wow! You made it to the end!
i spent way too many man-hours writing this up so i hope you guys found this guide helpful.
and yes theres no counters section, this is intentional
oh and for my credentials, i am currently 27 star mythical honor although it does fluctuate as i do not play very well on certain times. i have 160 games with bane with 65% winrate and i have about 2800 hero power on him rn