Bane

Who picks Bane, and what they are really drafting

Bane is not a teamfight fighter. He is a map pressure tool that happens to carry a teamfight ultimate. Every Bane game is a bet that you can convert turret leads into win conditions faster than the enemy can convert kills.

Pick Bane when your team already has teamfight CC from the roam or jungle and needs sustained tower threat in the EXP lane. He pairs well with hard-engage supports (Atlas, Tigreal, Minotaur) who can force fights on the opposite side of the map while Bane pushes a lane in. Pick him when the enemy EXP laner is melee and immobile (Terizla, Minsitthar, Fredrinn), because his S1 bounce poke and Ale sustain win extended trades against heroes who cannot close the gap or disengage cleanly. Pick him into tank-heavy drafts: Shark Bite's percent-max-HP damage chunks Hylos, Belerick, and Grock harder than they expect from a fighter who looks like he should be doing less.

Avoid Bane when the enemy has multiple long-range burst mages. Vale and Xavier can delete him before he gets into Crab Claw Cannon range, and he has no dash to dodge their skill shots. Avoid him when the enemy has Franco (Bloody Hunt suppresses through everything and yanks him out of siege position) or mobility assassins (Lancelot, Ling, Hayabusa) who dodge Deadly Catch and burst him between skill casts. Avoid him when your team needs a frontliner who can absorb damage in prolonged teamfights, because Bane is durable for a pusher but fragile for a tank.

If your draft does not have someone else to initiate teamfights, Bane is the wrong pick. His ultimate starts fights, but he cannot survive standing at the front when they start.

The one thing that makes Bane work

Bane is a turret converter. He turns every skill he casts into a turret's worth of HP.

Every skill Bane uses charges a Shark Bite stack (up to 2). Each empowered basic attack consumes one stack to deal physical damage equal to 95% of his Total Physical Attack plus a percentage of the target's max HP as splash AoE. That percent-max-HP damage applies to turrets. Deadly Catch also deals 40% of its magic damage to turrets directly. No other fighter in the game combines percent-based passive turret damage with an ultimate that chips turret health from range.

The split-push pressure is not the passive alone. It is the passive plus Ale's sustain. Ale heals based on lost HP, which means Bane can trade tower shots for turret HP and heal back the damage before the next wave arrives. Other split-push fighters (Zilong, Sun, Masha) take turrets fast but take turret damage they cannot recover without recalling. Bane takes the turret and stays on the map.

Everything else in the kit exists to protect this loop. Crab Claw Cannon zones enemies trying to defend the turret. Deadly Catch's airborne creates a window where nobody can contest the tower hit. The movement speed boost from Ale's chug lets Bane reposition from a pushed wave to a jungle camp to a turret without wasting time walking.

Laning: the first four minutes

Bane's EXP lane is a ranged poke game disguised as a fighter lane. The goal is to chip the enemy's HP through S1 bounces and passive stacks while staying healthy off Ale's sustain.

1. Aim S1 at minions, not heroes. Crab Claw Cannon's bounce hits a random enemy behind the first target and prioritizes heroes. At higher skill levels the bounce deals 150% to 200% of the direct hit's damage. Hitting a minion near the enemy hero guarantees the hero takes the bounce (which hurts more than the direct hit), while also clearing the wave. Aiming directly at the hero means the bounce lands on a minion behind them for less damage.
2. Chug Ale before trading, not after. The heal scales off lost HP, so the raw healing is not the point of pre-chugging. The 50% movement speed boost (decaying over 2.5 seconds) is. It lets you walk into S1 range, fire the bounce, consume the passive stack with an empowered basic, and walk out before the enemy can trade back. Chug, auto, S1, auto is the early laning pattern that builds a CS lead without taking damage.
3. Do not all-in before level 4. Without Deadly Catch's airborne to lock the enemy in place, Bane has no way to guarantee his passive stacks connect against anyone with a dash. Play the poke game until the ult is online. If the enemy freezes the wave near their tower, let them. You are farming toward your first item, not toward a kill.

The power spike you are farming toward

The spike is Endless Battle plus level 4. Before Endless Battle, Bane's empowered basics hurt but do not kill. After it, every empowered auto also procs Divine Justice for 60% of his Physical Attack as extra true damage, and Chase Fate's movement speed lets him stick to targets or reposition to the turret after a trade.

The synergy is specific: Shark Bite deals 95% Total Physical Attack plus percent-max-HP. Divine Justice adds 60% Physical Attack as true damage on the next basic after a skill. Because Bane's entire combo is skill-basic-skill-basic, every empowered auto naturally triggers Divine Justice. The two passives stack on the same hit. Against a squishy at the 6-to-8 minute mark, one Ale chug into empowered basic with the Endless Battle proc takes a visible chunk of their HP before you even use S1 or ult.

Hunter Strike goes second for the +80 Physical Attack, 10% CDR, and 15 Physical Penetration that makes the percent-based passive hit harder. The CDR matters because of Crab Claw Cannon's unique scaling: every 100 Physical Attack reduces its cooldown by an additional 8%. With Endless Battle plus Hunter Strike, S1 approaches a 4-second effective cooldown, which turns the bounce from a laning tool into a constant harassment tool.

After two items, Bane starts actively splitting. Before two items, he farms and pokes.

Teamfight positioning and target priority

The instinct is to open with Deadly Catch into the largest group of enemies. That instinct is correct in exactly one scenario: when your team is already collapsing and needs the airborne to chain CC. In every other situation, it wastes the ultimate on targets who scatter after the airborne ends, and you have nothing left for 30 seconds.

Three positioning rules:

1. Split-push is the default teamfight contribution. If your team can stall a 4v5, you should be in a side lane taking a turret. The threat of Bane on a tower forces the enemy to send someone to answer, which turns a 4v5 into a 4v4 with turret advantage. Only rotate to the teamfight when Deadly Catch will secure an objective (Lord, Turtle) or when you are defending a base tower.
2. When you do teamfight, stay at S1 range, not melee range. Crab Claw Cannon has enough range to bounce off a frontline target and hit their backline. Throw S1, consume the passive stack with an empowered basic on whoever is closest, then reposition. You are not Thamuz. You do not walk into five people and sustain through it. You poke, stack, auto, and back out.
3. Deadly Catch is a follow-up, not an opener. Wait for your initiator to group the enemy or force a commit, then fire the sharks through the clustered targets. The airborne plus 75% decaying slow creates a window for your team to collapse while you walk forward for empowered basics. Using it as an opener gives the enemy time to scatter after the short airborne ends.

If your roam is Tigreal or Atlas and they land a multi-man CC, that is when you fire Deadly Catch. If your roam is Estes or Rafaela with no hard engage, hold the ult for counterengage when the enemy dives in.

Itemization: defaults vs flex slots

The build has two locked slots and four situational choices.

Endless Battle is non-negotiable. Divine Justice procs on every empowered basic, and the passive synergy with Shark Bite is the reason Bane's damage spikes at one item. Every game, first item.

Hunter Strike second. The combination of +80 Physical Attack, 15 Physical Penetration, 10% CDR, and the Retribution movement speed passive makes it the most efficient second item. The Physical Attack also reduces S1's cooldown through the CDR scaling mechanic.

Boots are matchup-dependent. Warrior Boots into physical EXP laners (Chou, Thamuz, Yu Zhong). Tough Boots against magic damage or heavy CC compositions. Magic Shoes if the game is going long and you need CDR for ult cycling in late splits.

Third slot is the first real conversation:

• War Axe for games where you are constantly fighting. Fighting Spirit stacks grant up to 72 extra Physical Attack at full stacks, and the true damage at max stacks multiplies with Shark Bite's percent output. The +8% Spell Vamp also synergizes with Ale's sustain pattern.
• Sea Halberd against sustain-heavy enemies (Estes, Uranus, Yu Zhong). Lifebane applies on all damage, and Bane's multi-hit pattern (S1 plus empowered basic plus S2 plus empowered basic) refreshes the anti-heal constantly.
• Malefic Roar when two or more enemies have stacked armor. The 30% Physical Penetration plus up to 30% more from Breaker passive makes your percent-based passive cut through Antique Cuirass and Blade Armor.

Fifth and sixth slots:

• Blade of Despair as the raw-damage option. Despair passive (25% extra Physical Attack against targets below 50% HP) pairs well with finishing off targets Shark Bite already chunked.
• Immortality if you are getting picked before completing a split. The resurrection gives you a second chance to finish the turret push.
• Rose Gold Meteor against burst mage comps. Magic shield keeps you alive through one rotation.

Mistakes that lose Bane games

Aiming Crab Claw Cannon directly at the enemy hero. The bounce deals more damage than the direct hit at higher skill levels (150-200% of direct damage). Hitting a minion in front of the hero guarantees the hero takes the bounce for full damage. Aiming at the hero means the bounce hits whatever is behind them, usually empty space or a minion worth less damage. This is the single most common Bane mechanical error and it costs roughly 40% of S1's total output every time.

Releasing Ale venom at zero charge. The venom spit scales up to 200% damage with charging time. Tapping S2 twice for an instant spit deals the minimum. Holding until the charge indicator fills (roughly 1 second) nearly doubles the output. In a poke trade, the difference between zero-charge and full-charge venom is the difference between scratching them and forcing a recall.

Casting two skills back-to-back without auto-attacking between them. Shark Bite caps at 2 stacks. If you press S1 and then immediately press S2 without auto-attacking, you load 2 stacks but waste the first. The correct sequence is skill, empowered basic, skill, empowered basic. Three skill casts (S1 plus both parts of S2), three empowered basics. Stacking without consuming throws away a third of your combo damage.

Using Deadly Catch to clear waves. The ult has a 30-to-40 second cooldown depending on level. Spending it on minions means you have no teamfight contribution and no turret siege pressure for half a minute. Use S1 and empowered basics for wave clear. Save Deadly Catch for objectives, dives, or counterengage. The only exception is when you are pushing into an inhibitor and need the 40% turret damage to close the game.

Teamfighting when you should be splitting. Bane's win condition in most games is not killing heroes. It is taking turrets while the enemy fights your team elsewhere. If your team has enough waveclear and CC to stall without you, be in a side lane pushing with passive stacks. The worst Bane games are the ones where he groups for every fight and never touches a turret after the 8-minute mark.

Key tips