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1. Hero's Introduction

This is my first guide

I decided to write it because Atropos is one of my favourite heroes in DotA and the only guide about him on this website is badly outdated. I hope you have fun reading it and that it will help you improve your skills. Please feel free to comment, rate, criticize and what not on this guide

Atropos the Bane Elemental is a disabler, whose role in team is centralized on ganking and supporting. Although being a powerful hero, he is unfortunately not very popular in neither public, nor competitive games. I'm not a competitive player myself, but I think there are three main reasons why Bane is seldom picked on tournaments: Firstly, bane sucks terrebly at pushing. No AOE skill, no physical damage output - nothing that will help clear a creepwave. Secondly, Radiance, a very popular item in competitive play, doesn't combine well with Nightmare. Finally, Atropos isn't very usefull in teamfights as all of his spells are single-target and ult tends to get interrupted fast when there are a lot of enemies around...
Anyway, Bane is really a very poferfull hero and in the right hands can do a lot of damage and contribute greatly to the team's success.
So, let's get started then!

2. Hero's Story

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Atropos is an elemental force personifying the nightmares and fear of this world. He manifests where there is promise of inflicting horror and feeding off dread. Sapping his foes' psyche heals him. Manifesting his enemies' fears, he greatly enfeebles their
ability to fight. He revels in disabling foes by sending them into dread slumber. When need be he can rip his soul and force it into his foes,
effectively immobilizing them with despair and pain. Atropos is, in one word, Fear.

Cool backstory, ain't it lads?

3. Pros/Cons & When (not) to pick

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Pros:
[+] A great support hero that all the teammates love
[+] A great disabler hero that all the opponents hate
[+] Strong early and mid game, (especially early-mid game)
[+] A strong ganker from level 6 on (and probably the best ganking partner in game)
[+] Not item-dependable
[+] Good Strength grow and starting Strength (for an Intelligence hero)
[+] Has a pure-damage nuke, which is a heal at the same time
[+] Ranged
[+] Cool backstory

Cons:
[-] Like most intelligence heroes, not that powerful in late game
[-] No AOE spells, thus sucks at pushing and at clearing creepwaves
[-] Relatively weak in large teamfights
[-] Mana problems early game
[-] Silencers are a pain in the ass
[-] Team-dependent

When to pick/not to pick Bane:

Find all the information about Bane Elemental and his skills here.

4. Hero's Skills

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Enfeeble
Description: This is a rather powerful skill. It has a long range of 1000, which is very nice, and it's duration (20) is longer than it's cooldown (12), so two enemies can Enfeebled at a time. If cast at a right time, it renders one of the enemy heroes absolutely useless. However, it doesn't scale too well into lategame, so don't overestimate it: a lvl 25 Drow Ranger with MKB, Buriza, Butterfly and some other nice items will still rape your team, even if Enfeebled.
Good targets of this spell are:

and other damage-dealing carrys/DPSer's, I'm not gonna name them all.
Be careful when casting Enfeeble on heroes like

as they can debuff themselves.

Brain Sap
Description: I dare to say, this is one of the best (if not the best) non-ultimate spells in the game.. but only at early levels. It simply works wonders: it heals you, it damages enemies. This spell often turns 'you die, enemy survives' situation into 'you survive, enemy dies' situation. You know Sunder? Terrorblade's ultimate? This is our mini-Sunder. It's simply priceless.
The damage type is pure, so no matter how much magic resistance the enemy has, 300 hp (at lvl 4) will be removed from him.
There are two problems with this spell though: first, it's high mana cost which is, coupled with Atropos' low INT gain, the main cause of our mana problems in early game. Second, it doesn't scale into late game, coz when both you and your opponent have 2500 hp, you will hardly notice a difference after casting Brain Sap.
Use this spell to lasthit an enemy hero, to heal yourself (feel free to cast it on a creep if your hp are low and no enemy heroes are in range) or just as a nuke. I wouldn't advice to use it during early game to harass, because it will eat your mana very fast.
The cooldown is relatively long (14), so keep an eye out on it!

Nightmare
Description: Another very useful spell. Simply put, it completely disables an enemy hero for 4-7 seconds. Don't be deceived by it's damage - it's symbolic (unless the hero level is very low).
The Nightmared hero generally shouldn't be attacked, because if he takes damage, he wakes up. This actually can be a problem, coz if you teammates are morons, they will often wake up a Nightmared enemy hero. Here I just wish you luck with your teammates.
About denying with Nightmare. It's very hard (as it requires perfect timing) and you have to be very lucky. Still it's worth a try, especially at early levels. Try to cast Nightmare on yourself(ally) when you(he) has below 20 hp. Otherwise it gives opponents time to react and to finish you(ally) off (and they will no doubt do so, unless they are complete idiots). Lasthitting with Nightmare is similar, but a bit easier. If there are no better options, cast Nightmare on a dying enemy hero. If possible, reposition so that if he wakes up alive you can finish him off with your basic attack (obvious things are obvious, lol).
Be careful when using Nightmare with guys like these on your team:

as their AOE skills are likely to wake up the Nightmared hero. Radiance is especially annoying *sigh*. Please note that I put Necrolyte on this list because of his Death Pulse. Heartstopper Aura does NOT remove Nightmare.

Fiend's Grip
Description: Ah, the lovley Fiend's Grip, Bane Elemental's signature skill. This it what makes him such a wonderful disabler. Nobody likes to be standing still for 5 (6 with Aghanim's Scepter) seconds, being raped by the spell itself and Atropos' teammates. And as if that is not enough - it also drains mana! Wonderful spell.
But then again, it has two drawbacks: first, the manacost is rather high, but that is compensated to some extent thanks to the mana drain. And the biggest, the most annoying drawback: Fiend's Grip is a chanelling spell. That means that you can do nothing while Fiend's Gripping, but the worst part is actually the fact that it can be interrupted via stuns and ministuns (and other stuff that interrupts channeling spells like silences and some spells like Vengeful Spirit's Nether Swap).
Before casting Fiend's Grip, if possible, try to make sure no one's gonna interrupt it. Because if you don't - well, have fun seeing how you held someone in Fiends Grip for one or two seconds. That means Fiend's Grip isn't as useful in teamfights as in ganks and other situations where you don't have to deal with an entire enemy team.
The cooldown is, I would say, not too long and not too short: 100 seconds. Don't be afraid to use the spell, but keep an eye out on the cooldown!

5. Hero's Skill Build

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Skill Build

Level 1: Nightmare
Level 2: Brain Sap
Level 3: Brain Sap
Level 4: Stats
Level 5: Brain Sap
Level 6: Fiend's Grip
Level 7: Brain Sap
Level 8: Nightmare
Level 9: Nightmare
Level 10: Nightmare
Level 11: Fiend's Grip
Level 12: Enfeeble
Level 13: Enfeeble
Level 14: Enfeeble
Level 15: Enfeeble
Level 16: Fiend's Grip
Level 17+: Stats

Skill Build Justification:
As you can see, there is no fixed skill build for Bane.
We always take Nightmare at level 1, because aside from the obvious first blood prevention, it is a nice skill to have. It doesn't benefit very much from leveling, but extra duration is quite useful in teamfights. Stats can be taken insted of Nightmare at levels 8-10 if no teamfight occur.
Brain Sap is maximized as fast as possible (at lvl 2,3,5,7) because it works wonders early and mid game.
Enfeeble can be taken as early as level 8 if there are a lot of DPS'ers in enemy team, but generally enemy dps starts to get dangerous around level 12. In an unlikely situation, it is possible not to skill Enfeeble until level 22 if there are no dps'ers at all in the enemy team (unlucky '-ar' for them, for example).
Fiend's Grip is taken whenever possible for obvious reasons.

6. Hero's Item Build

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this one is my personal favourite.

if no one gets a chicken, guess what? You get it.

x3 if you're in the mood to buy some wards.
Your starting build should look something like the above.

Make sure you get at least 2 of

, don't forget to buy some

. The rest you can spend on circletes, mantles, gauntlets, branches, it's up to you really.
Circlet and Mantle/Gauntlet can be later transformed into a Null Talisman/Bracer.
Don't forget that every team needs a

. You starting stats are quite high so you should really consider buying it!
Starting optional items are:

(get the last two if you are planning on getting a Soul Ring or buy a Soul Ring Recipe).

Final words about item build:

7.Hero's Strategy

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Bane is a strong laner, thanks to his Brain Sap and Nightmare. Whatever happens, you can quickly put your opponent to sleep or heal yourself by brainsapping someone. Manage your mana carefully. Your starting INT and INT growth are rather low, while your spells cost a lot of mp to cast. Bane can go solo or dual lane, but solo is of course more preferable.
Note: I'm not gonna mention triple lanes as they are very uncommon at casual level.
So, lets discuss in detail our options:
1. Solomid. Your best option if you are playing alone in a pub. Being a ganker, Bane is a very nice candidate for solomid, coz once he reaches level 6, enemy sidelaners are gonna be around lvl4, and Bane can just gank the shit out of them. So farm-farm-farm until you hit level 6. Now it's Gank time! Go gank someone, return back to mid and farm, then gank again 100 seconds later (Fiend's Grip cd) and keep the cycle running for the next few minutes until the laning stage of the game ends.
2. Solo short (easy) lane. This is your best bet if you are playing with a friend, if he is willing to take a jungling hero like Lycan or Naix. Once you hit level 6 (jungler being usually ~lvl5 at this point) you can easily kill 1 enemy, and often 2. Just call the jungler in for a gank on your lane, Nightmare one, take down via Ulti the other (often you can even do it alone). Remember to leave the lasthit to your carry if possible.
Caution! Be careful not to be too aggressive as laning alone versus 2 heroes can be very dangerous sometimes as early game deaths can be extremely costly on Atropos.
3. Dual lane. The least preferable scenerio, but still tolerable. If you go dual, remember that Atropos is a support hero, and thus you should focus on denying rather then lasthitting creeps, as your lane partner is likely to need gold more than you do. Try to harass enemy heroes, though Atropos' attack range is only 400, he still can do that if there are melee heroes laning against him.

8. Hero's Hero Synergy

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Bane is everyone's good ally. That's really it. Every hero benefits a lot from him. But let's try to name some of the most notable Bane's allies:

Mana batteries

As I've mentioned before, Atropos has got mana problems in early game. If someone helps him to deal with it - it's very nice.

Fellow disablers/Semi-disablers

Even more disables=even less problem to deal with for the rest of your team! And it also reduces the chances of your Fiend's Grip being interrupted by some ~~motherfuckin~~ stunner.

Babysitters

Who doesn't love them?.. Omniknight is especially usefull as he provides us with free BKB. But generally these heroes should focus on babysitting the carries, not Bane.

Special mention

Those guys have one thing in common: some of their skills are hard to place well. Nightmare and/or Fiend's Grip will help them a lot!

9. Hero's Screens and Additional Strategy

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Using Brain Sap after Fiend's Grip

1. Cast Fiend's Grip (F+left click on your target)
2. Hold Shift. Press B (Brain Sap hotkey) and left-click on the Fiend's Gripped target.
3. Release Shift. Now Atropos will cast his Brain Sap right after he finishes casting Fiend' Grip.
It's an easy technique that I'm sure most of you know, but still it's better to make sure.
Note! Fiend's Grip range is 625, while Brain Sap's is 600. That means that you have to get closer to your target before casting your ult to make sure that it has no time to escape before you finish him off with Brain Sap.
Reminder! You shouldn't killsteal. If after your Fiend's Grip the enemy can be quickly finished by one of your more item-dependable teammate (a carry), then it's better not to use Brain Sap and let your carry get the kill.
Some numbers:

Using Necronomicon to good effect

1. Position yourself carefully: get close (200-500 units) to an enemy hero
2. Activate Necronomicon.
3. Cast Fiend's Grip (F+left click on your target).
4. Select your Necronomicon-dudes and order them to attack your target (it is possible to select all 3 of you (including Atropos) and order to attack. That way the necro-dudes will attack the target and Bane will still be Fiendsgripping).
5. Order Necro-dude (the red one) to manaburn your target. You can do it right after you ordered the necro-dudes to attack your target by R+left click on the target. (If you have Atropos and the 2 dudes selected you should press Tab to switch to the ranged necro-dude and then press R+left click on the target).
6. Finish off the target using Brain Sap if necessary.
An example:

Some numbers:

Last but not least! The most important thing when using Necronomicon is...

10. Conclusion

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Bane Elemental is one of the most feared enemies and one of the most valued allies in DotA for a reason. So make a good use of him and be your enemy's WORST NIGHTMARE!!!

11. Replays

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HT vs GGnet (v 1.26, map 6.72f)

12. Additional

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A quite good Dota 2 videoguide by SUNSfan. Although not exactly perfect in my opinion, provides a lot of useful information and playstyle tips.

FAQ
OMG I'm feeding! What do I do!?
Well, first of all, stop feeding (quite obviously). Play as careful as you can, and if it means tower-hugging and not getting exp or gold - so be it.
It's best not to go for expensive items like Necronomicon in this case - get something cheaper instead. Wards, Bracers and Null Talismans are probably your best friends at the moment as they are cheap and efficient. Force Staff and Eul's Scepter are also quite cheep and if you manage to get them and use them efficiently afterwards it will be very nice.
You are no carry, so even underleveled and without much items you should be useful. Adjust your gameplay to a supporting style and hope for the best.

Is early Enfeeble such a bad idea? Rockha
Yes, it is. The only place when you can squize a level of Enfeeble is when you hit level 4 (1 is for Nightmare, 2,3,5,7 are for Brain Sap and it is set in stone). Your Manapool in early game will take a huge blow if you cast Enfeeble every 20 seconds. Denying an opponent a few lasthits won't be worth spending all your mana and not being able to cast Nightmare/Brain Sap when you need it. Besides, -25 dmg isn't that big of a problem. While -95 mana is.

13. Credits

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Thanks to:
IceFrog and other guys who have developed DotA for developing such a wonderful game
MP for the cool artwork
All previous guidewriters for inspiration and for helping me to learn how to play dota
The whole dota community for creating such a friendly atmosphere, especially TobiWan, SUNSfan and Purge.
You for reading

THANKS FOR READING, GOOD LUCK AND HAVE FUN!!!

Atropos the Bane Elemental
Author: UnsereRettung
Map Vers.: 6.74с

Bane of your existence

Be your enemy's worst Nightmare!

Date Posted: 09/30/11
Last Comment:12/04/2012
Total Votes: 35
Current Rating: 8.93
Views: 67487