Salutations people with ocular globes! I'm Sr. Grimm and this strangedosity is going to take a closer look the aura on one of my favorite items, Banner of Command'!

Continue reading to see which champion, or should I say pets/minions, benefit the most from this wonderful aura!





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.





only modifies the pet’s AD stat, not the damage dealt by them

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,ghost) won’t be amplified by the Banner’s “damage modifier” (please notice the “ ”) because it only buff the stats.The Banner’s aura. 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.



th 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. Let’s take a look at the 6column, whenhas 240 AP. The Banner’s aura gives his turrets 17 damage…..that’s equivalent to 83 AP…..it’s like givingtwo 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 However

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.

Remember that you can also help both Elise’s spiders and your team by building a Runic Bulwark or a Will of the Ancients.





Yorick

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. Oh boy….ok let’s take a look at this graph.ghouls (Omen of War, Pestilence and Famine) have 35% ofcurrent AD as physical damage, but if they are affected by the Banner’s aura they get 40.25% ofcurrent 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!

While this Omen is a “revenant,” it is still affected by the Banner of Command. At max level, this ability gets 75% of your target AD and if the revenant is affected by the Banner it gets 86.25% of your target current AD, that’s really cool! You can actually get some real benefits if your target has high attack speed or on-hit effects.



