Banshee's Veil and Defensive Mids

Remember Season 2? It really wasn’t so long ago. But a lot has changed. New dominant teams, new champions and new strategies. But, just as with all games, just because something has stopped being used in LoL does not necessarily mean that it is not good. There has been plenty of rediscovery in LoL, most recently in the expanded use of AP champions top lane. That and the contemplation of bruisers returning bot look new to some, but they’re old news for many older players.

One very interesting change has taken place midlane: though there are rarely any more Deathcap rushes, people don’t play as defensively as in the end of Season 2.

Season 2, especially before the MR rune nerfs, was full of defensive itemization. Henrik ‘Froggen’ Hansen revolutionized the use of a large amount of flat MR runes, including marks (and sometimes a full page!), shaking the foundations of mid play and itemization. And that Abyssal Scepter rush people still do? He made that popular, as well. In the Season 2 World Championships, Jung ‘RapidStar’ Min-sung of then-Azubu Frost (now CJ Entus Frost) won high praise for his Anivia build where he would rush Athene’s and Banshee’s Veil -- a build that our own William ‘scarra’ Li called both incredibly powerful and incredibly annoying to play against.

Example

I’m here to tell you something pretty simple: the defensive mid is not dead and, in particular, Banshee’s Veil is a neglected item that is still powerful.

But you shouldn’t just take my word for it. This article was given some extra fuel by Froggen, himself. On March 20th, Froggen streamed a solo queue Anivia game where he faced off against Carlos ‘ocelote’ Santiago, who was playing Fizz. The enemy team consisted of Fizz, Malphite, Rumble, Vayne and Janna. While rushing his Athene’s and Banshee’s Veil (and eventually Abyssal), Froggen noted that the build was so good because his spell shield could really only be popped by Janna’s tornado and Rumble’s Electro-Harpoon.

All of a sudden, Froggen had an ironclad defense against a predominantly AP team that depends on hard initiation like Malphite’s ult. Another thing that most players would not consider is that it actually gave him a far better chance to be able to duel Vayne. Vayne can only pop a spell shield with her Condemn, meaning that a Banshee’s stops her from stunning you against a wall, robbing her of significant dueling power.

Needless to say, Froggen won the game handily and the other team always had an incredibly hard time of it whenever they tried to kill him.

Theory

Here is the quick rundown on what makes this combination so good. An Athene’s and Banshee’s Veil gives you 85 MR. Combined with your base value, runes and masteries, this easily puts any character above 100 MR. Combined with a spell shield that refreshes every 25 seconds (though only out of combat; it should be up at the start of every engagement), this can completely shut down your mid lane opponent -- you simply will not die. Not only do you have tons of MR and some HP from Banshee’s, but your spell shield is an extra line of defense that can save you from a mistake or bad positioning. Know how frustrating it can be to gank a Morgana because of her Black Shield? That’s the kind of defense a Banshee’s gives you by cancelling out powerful crowd control from initiation abilities.

A spell shield also helps to shut down characters that rely on combos and resets. This includes the incredibly popular assassin characters like Akali and Katarina, who will find it a lot harder to pop the marks from their Qs for extra damage on you. So if you regularly have trouble with that kind of champion, this type of build could be an easy way to shore up your play.

Athene’s and Banshee’s both have decent build paths to rush, too. Athene’s has been a popular rush item for quite some time, so no explanation is required there. Banshee’s builds from a Catalyst, so you can get a lot of extra sustain in your laning phase. The main downside to Banshee’s, however, is that you lose Catalyst’s regeneration passive once you upgrade it. This is a large part of why the item isn’t built all the time; Rod of Ages gets to keep the passive and that’s what makes it a very strong rush item. You can always buy an early Catalyst and then finish Athene’s before upgrading to Banshee’s to take full advantage of the regeneration effect in lane. Regardless, you’ll almost always want to finish your Athene’s before Banshee’s.

Application

            

The only issue left is exactly who you can build these items on and still remain effective with lower AP values. As you might guess from the Anivia example, this kind of item rush works best on characters with sustained DPS as well as high base damage, like Galio, Swain and Ryze. These champions have to wade into enemies and can really benefit from rushed defense. Combined with Swain’s ultimate, for example, this build can make a champion incredibly hard to kill and a real pain for the opposing mid laner.

Don’t forget the past. Sometimes people get so fixated on new things that they forget just how good the old things were. Played correctly, a mid with a defensive build can be supremely frustrating and shutdown characters that want to snowball. Even if you’re not playing mid, Banshee’s Veil can be a very strong pickup to stonewall a team that depends completely on a few hard initiation skills. So give it a whirl and enjoy the enemy team’s frustration when they can never kill you.