Views: 1756 IceCreamy's Item Insights #2: Banner of Command!
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Hey everyone, welcome back for another blog article in my series, Item Insights. This time I want to talk to you about yet another incredibly impopular item, namely 
Banner of Command. With a
popularity of 0 %, rarely anyone buys this item. If we look more closely, we see this item is almost exclusively bought on supports. Let's see why exactly that is:
As you can see, this item grants AP, so works best on champions that have affinity with that, mainly supports and mid laners.
The Active, Promote, is practically a rework of the (former) Summoner Spell Promote. This SS was also underused as far as I remember, coincidence? :P
The Aura, Valor, is mostly interesting for the increased damage that nearby allied minions deal. This means that whatever lane you are in, will automatically push. A more interesting aspect to this item, is that "allied minions" also include pets, such as Yorick's ghouls, Zyra's plants, Malzahar's Voidlings, etc.
Now, after analyzing this, we can conclude this item might be good for champions who have pets and/or like pushing. I think this rules out supports, but maybe that's just me. A small list of champions that might be good with Banner of Command:
Elise, Heimerdinger, Malzahar, Mordekaiser, Yorick and Zyra. Note that the Aura does not apply on clones, such as Morde's ult and Shaco's ult. Even his Jack In The Boxes are unaffected...
Now, 5 out of 6 of the above listed champions are AP Carries. One might think that's logical, and it is since Banner of Command grants AP, but don't APCs have other and more important items they will want to rush? Consider Rabadon's Deathcap, Athene's Unholy Grail or Rylai's Crystal Scepter.
That essentially leaves us with only 2 champions it might be viable on; Elise and Zyra, when played as support. That's not a lot, seeing as there are 114 champions available. And even on them, there are other items that are more needed: Philosopher's Stone, Ruby Sightstone and plain wards. And to make matters worse; the active grants the holder of the item all the gold gained by the siege minion, and supports are not made to farm.
"But wait! Generally pushing in early game will leave you open to jungle ganks! So you don't want to buy this early, you'll want to buy this in late game!" While this makes sense in a way, and I often see teams struggling to finish games, it's still a bit of a measly item. It doesn't really give all THAT much stats, especially when looking at late game, where having 500 AP on an APC or 250 Armor on a tanky champ is not unusual at all.
<side note>
There are other items that improve minion stats, namely Enchantment: Captain and Aegis of the Legion/ Runic Bulwark. Maybe combining all of them will have an effect, because you essentially create a superior race of minions compared to the enemy's and even your own other lane's minions. They will walk faster, be tankier, regain health and deal more damage. The siege minions get even better with Banner of Command's active!
Still, as mentioned before, regardless of whatever champion you are, there are probably other better items you should focus on.
</side note>
Another important issue this item has, are it's components. Emblem of Valor can also build into an Aegis of the Legion (which is a great and very cost efficient item to have on any team) whereas Fiendish Codex can build into an Athene's Unholy Grail, a Deathfire Grasp or a Morellonomicon (which are all situational, yet great AP/CDR items).
So that really leaves us with one conclusion; this item sucks, and it makes sense no one buys it. What I want to hear from you guys, is a possible solution to fix the problem this item has. Do the stats need to increase? Do the components have to be changed? Or maybe you think this item can not be fixed, since the Aura and Active are simply too useless to bother with. Let me know in the comments down below!
Thanks so much for reading, and until next week.
~Icy
Useful Source
Banner of Command. With a popularity of 0 %, rarely anyone buys this item. If we look more closely, we see this item is almost exclusively bought on supports. Let's see why exactly that is:
- Costs 2360 gold
- Builds out of an Emblem of Valor and a Fiendish Codex
- 40 Ability Power, 30 Armor, 10 % Cooldown Reduction.
- UNIQUE Aura: Valor: Nearby allies gain 10 health regen and nearby allied minions deal 15% increased damage.
- UNIQUE Active: Promote: Transforms a nearby siege minion to a more powerful unit. You gain all the gold this unit earns. 180 second cooldown.
As you can see, this item grants AP, so works best on champions that have affinity with that, mainly supports and mid laners.
The Active, Promote, is practically a rework of the (former) Summoner Spell
Promote. This SS was also underused as far as I remember, coincidence? :PThe Aura, Valor, is mostly interesting for the increased damage that nearby allied minions deal. This means that whatever lane you are in, will automatically push. A more interesting aspect to this item, is that "allied minions" also include pets, such as
Yorick's ghouls, Zyra's plants, Malzahar's Voidlings, etc.Now, after analyzing this, we can conclude this item might be good for champions who have pets and/or like pushing. I think this rules out supports, but maybe that's just me. A small list of champions that might be good with
Banner of Command: Elise, Heimerdinger, Malzahar, Mordekaiser, Yorick and Zyra. Note that the Aura does not apply on clones, such as Morde's ult and Shaco's ult. Even his Jack In The Boxes are unaffected...Now, 5 out of 6 of the above listed champions are AP Carries. One might think that's logical, and it is since
Banner of Command grants AP, but don't APCs have other and more important items they will want to rush? Consider Rabadon's Deathcap, Athene's Unholy Grail or Rylai's Crystal Scepter.That essentially leaves us with only 2 champions it might be viable on;
Elise and Zyra, when played as support. That's not a lot, seeing as there are 114 champions available. And even on them, there are other items that are more needed: Philosopher's Stone, Ruby Sightstone and plain wards. And to make matters worse; the active grants the holder of the item all the gold gained by the siege minion, and supports are not made to farm."But wait! Generally pushing in early game will leave you open to jungle ganks! So you don't want to buy this early, you'll want to buy this in late game!" While this makes sense in a way, and I often see teams struggling to finish games, it's still a bit of a measly item. It doesn't really give all THAT much stats, especially when looking at late game, where having 500 AP on an APC or 250 Armor on a tanky champ is not unusual at all.
<side note>
There are other items that improve minion stats, namely
Enchantment: Captain and Aegis of the Legion/ Runic Bulwark. Maybe combining all of them will have an effect, because you essentially create a superior race of minions compared to the enemy's and even your own other lane's minions. They will walk faster, be tankier, regain health and deal more damage. The siege minions get even better with Banner of Command's active!Still, as mentioned before, regardless of whatever champion you are, there are probably other better items you should focus on.
</side note>
Another important issue this item has, are it's components. Emblem of Valor can also build into an
Aegis of the Legion (which is a great and very cost efficient item to have on any team) whereas Fiendish Codex can build into an Athene's Unholy Grail, a Deathfire Grasp or a Morellonomicon (which are all situational, yet great AP/CDR items).So that really leaves us with one conclusion; this item sucks, and it makes sense no one buys it. What I want to hear from you guys, is a possible solution to fix the problem this item has. Do the stats need to increase? Do the components have to be changed? Or maybe you think this item can not be fixed, since the Aura and Active are simply too useless to bother with. Let me know in the comments down below!
Thanks so much for reading, and until next week.
~Icy
Useful Source
Thanks so much for reading and commenting, means a lot to me :)
I loooooove building my
But the whole point of this item is that it's a niche item. Maybe if they added something that boosted AoE damage or attack speed, it would appeal to splitpushers.