In the Pre-season Patch, the Summoner spell “Promote” was removed. To keep it
as a game mechanic Riot decided to transform it into an item, and the Banner of Command is the result. Included in this new item was an aura that gives increased damage to all nearby minions and pets. This strange little item piqued my interest from first sight and I have been a Banner of Command lover ever since!
But first let me warn you about something - the fact that you can build a Banner of Command doesn't mean you have to. Before buying it
think about “OK, my pets will do more damage….but what am I sacrificing?” or if
you are the support “I have an Elise on my team, if I help her to deal more
damage…will she carry? Would it be better to buy a Locket of the Iron Solari to shield the rest of my team instead?” You should always consider these things before purchasing support items!
Dmg Modifier vs Stat Modifier Dilemma!
Take a look at the tooltip for Banner of Command's Valor aura , it
states that "nearby allied minions deal 15% increased damage.”While testing Tibbers I realized that the banner’s aura is not a damage
modifier but a stat modifier, and that brings some logical troubles.
How so? Well, a maxed out Tibbers ult will have a base attack damage of 130 and an aura which deals 35 (+ 20% AP) continuous magic damage. When Tibbers is in the Banner’s aura radius, his physical damage becomes 150. This means his “AD” has been buffed by 15%, and the aura still does the same damage….so what’s the issue? In Dominion there is a buff called “Mark of the Conqueror,” and this buff gives a 10% increase in damage. This buff is clearly a damage modifier because Tibbers will still have 130 physical damage (which means that his stats remain the same) while Annie have the buff - BUT! In reality he deals 143 damage (because of the buff) and the aura also deals more damage.
How so? Well, a maxed out Tibbers ult will have a base attack damage of 130 and an aura which deals 35 (+ 20% AP) continuous magic damage. When Tibbers is in the Banner’s aura radius, his physical damage becomes 150. This means his “AD” has been buffed by 15%, and the aura still does the same damage….so what’s the issue? In Dominion there is a buff called “Mark of the Conqueror,” and this buff gives a 10% increase in damage. This buff is clearly a damage modifier because Tibbers will still have 130 physical damage (which means that his stats remain the same) while Annie have the buff - BUT! In reality he deals 143 damage (because of the buff) and the aura also deals more damage.
That means that the Banner’s aura does not work as described in the tooltip, because any effects that a pet has (example: Tibber’s aura, Mordekaiser’s ghost) won’t be amplified by the Banner’s “damage modifier” (please notice the “ ”) because it only buff the stats.
TL;DR: The Banner’s aura only modifies the pet’s AD stat, not the damage dealt by them. The item description should say “increases the AD of nearby minions and pets by 15%” or the item should be reworked to suit his actual description.
As you scroll down, we'll take a gander at how the Banner of Command aura benefits Heimerdinger, Zyra, Elise, Yorick, Annie, Malzahar, Mordekaiser, and Shaco!
Heimerdinger
Let’s start with Heimerdinger
shall we?
In this graph you can
see the amount of damage that LVL 5 Heimerdinger’s turrets deal against a 0MR
target with no Banner aura (the blue line) and the damage dealt with the Banner’s
aura (orange line).
Heimer’s AP stat is on the bottom, and the
points on the graph will show the damage done relative to how much AP he has.
So, when you have 0 AP, your turrets will deal 62 damage without the Banner,
and with the Banner the turret will deal 71 damage. At the bottom of the graph, I show that there
is a gain of 9 damage, and that amount of damage is worth a stat boost of 47
AP.
Let’s take a look at the 6th column, when Heimer has 240 AP. The Banner’s aura gives his turrets 17 damage…..that’s equivalent to 83 AP…..it’s like giving Heimer two invisible Blasting Wands but only to his turrets. I know 17 damage isn’t the HUGE change you wanted to see BUT! When you think about it, 17 extra damage per-shot sounds moderately good.
Zyra
Banner of Command's Aura does provide it's buff to Zyra's plants, increasing their ability power. However they do NOT actually do more damage despite their tool tip showing an increase - there isn't actually any benefit to building Banner of Command on her.
Elise
OK fellas, this graph
shows the damage that each of Elise's spiderlings will deal with your R maxed out against a 0MR target (blue) and of course the
damage when the spiderlings are affected by the banners aura (orange).
The bonus may look
small but remember you have 5 spiderlings and “Skittering Frenzy,” a skill which
boosts your spiderling attack speed for 3 seconds. Notice that with 120 AP you
are actually get about “40 extra damage” (5 spiders x 8 dmg gained) if each
spiderling attacks once.
Below is a graph so you don’t have to do any of that pesky math to see your 5 spiderlingers damage according to the AP you have.
Yorick
Oh boy….ok let’s take
a look at this graph. Yorick’s ghouls (Omen of War, Pestilence and Famine) have
35% of Yorick’s current AD as physical damage, but if they are affected by the
Banner’s aura they get 40.25% of Yorick’s current AD…sounds neat right? Well, unfortunately
the ghouls have a 5 second lifetime and if you are lucky they can attack a
maximum of 3 times during their lifespan.
The banners aura doesn't have a huge impact on Yorick’s “small ghouls” …..But he has one special ghoul - the one created by using this ultimate!
Annie
Not much to say, as I
stated at the beginning of the post his fire DoT aura doesn’t proc with the Banner’s aura. Tibbers’ AD it’s the only
stat that the banner can buff... but his damage doesn't actually increase! Maybe if the item ever gets reworked to buff his fire damage aura it might be very beneficial for Tibbers.
Malzahar
This graph shows the damage dealt by a Voidling against a 0 Armor target (blue) and the damage dealt when affected by the Banner’s aura (orange). Simply for each 100 AD that Malzahar builds, his Voidling will gain 115 AD…..15 extra AD for each 100 AD… I’ll let you decide if you find it worth it because I’m still suffering from “Post-Traumantic-AD Malzahar-Stress-Disorder.”
Mordekaiser
I did not make a graph
to show the damage when Mordekaiser’s Children of the Grave ghost is under the Banner of Command aura because this time…HIS DAMAGE IS SO INSANE
THAT NOBODY KNOWS WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT!….just
kidding, nothing happens because his pet is treated as like “ a champion” and
not as a “minion or pet”…THE MORE YOU KNOW FELLA!
Shaco
Same as Mordekaiser, Shaco’s Hallucinate his pet is treated as a “decoy”……..I must say I was very disappointed, because
I thought about Shaco’s clone double banner’s aura (it was beautiful in my
mind...). Shaco's Jack in the Box also receives no benefit from the Banner of Command aura.
Conclusion!
I really enjoyed doing
this article, and as a “Banner Lover,” I hope it gives you better insight about
the impact of this item in the game. Keep in mind that the fact that you can
build a Banner doesn't mean you have to, here is a list for those who didn't read the whole article:
Champs who benefit the most from the Banner: Heimerdinger, Elise
Champs who do not really benefit from the Banner: Annie, Malzahar, Mordekaiser,
Shaco, Zyra
Champ who can benefit from the Banner during certain situations: Yorick
Champs who benefit the most from the Banner: Heimerdinger, Elise
As a bonus, I've also prepared charts showing the damage increases of caster and melee minions while under the effects of Banner of Command. They are quite large so I'd recommend you open them in a new window, fella!
Caster Minion
Melee Minion
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