Underused Items: Banner of Command

Hello all,

In this new series of posts, I will be discussing some of the most underused items in League of Legends. I will cover why I think they are underused, and if I think there are any simple changes for making them more useful.

In this, my first post in the series, I will be discussing Banner of Command. First, let us look at it's stats to refresh everyone's memory.

Builds from Emblem of Valor and Fiendish Codex.
+40 ability power
+30 armor
+10% cooldown reduction
Aura Unique - Valor: Nearby allies gain 10 health regen per 5 seconds and nearby allied minions have 15% increased attack damage and ability power.
Active Unique - Promote: Transforms a nearby siege minion to a more powerful unit. You gain all the gold this unit earns. 180 second cooldown.
Item cost 2360g (890g combine cost)

Also I would like to note the following from the League of Legends Wikia. "The aura applies to pets, but not clones (e.g.  Mordekaiser's  Children of the Grave)." and "Contrary to the in-game description, Banner of Command does not increase a minion's total damage. Instead, it increases their attack damage or ability power stats. As such, Banner Of Command only increases the damage dealt by the minion's basic attacks and has no effect on other damaging effects the pet has (such as Tibber's aura)."

Problems With the Item:
So, the only champion I can see this item actually being useful for it Yorick, but he does not want AP.  A support could use AP, but they wouldn't be building an item just to support a Yorick, who you would want to be your team's tank.

Also, supports are already starved for gold, so they really don't have a way to obtain this item. And even if they did have the gold, would it be worth a slot over boots, wards, sightstone, philostone/upgrades, and other support items? My guess is that unless you have a siege team composition, then probably not. Even then, by the time you are actually able to buy this item, while still properly warding for your team, you will be sieging so little that it really just isn't worth it.

Tanks also wouldn't want this item because they need to get tanky, and 30 armor and 10% cdr isn't enough to justify the cost. a tanky mage might could get this item, but again is it worth the tradeoffs of other items? Any AD champion will of course not want this.

So the only one who could really get this item is gold starved, and this item has high opportunity costs. These problems put the item in a place to where no one in their right mind would really buy one.


Potential Solutions: 
My attempt to fix this item will focus on making it more gold effecient for it's users. There are two directions that this could go. It could either be made cheaper with less stats and be targeted at supports, or it could be made tankier and used by tanks. Either way, we are dropping all of the AP from the item, as neither tanks nor supports really want to spend too much gold value on AP, with the exception of Kage's pick and potentially it's upgrades.

First, making it into a support item. Keep the passive aura and active the same. Make the item build out of only emblem of valor. Combine cost can stay about the same, or perhaps be lowered. The only passive stat outside of the aura will be the armor, which may need to be lowered. These changes will take away the AP that supports don't really need, and therefore make it more cost efficient for supports, and allow them to buy it earlier on in the game, so it will be more useful to them.

Next, let's make the item into a tank item. First of all, replace fiendish codex from the recipe with kindlegem (yes I know this will give it the same recipie as locket of the iron solari, but does that really matter?). Next, remove the part of the passive aura that affects minions, or at least make it not affect Yorick's minions to avoid that problematic case. Now we have an item similar in stats to Locket of the Iron Solari, but that serves a different purpose. Locket is used for early turret dives, and late game team fights. This item will be designed for Siege compositions. While this may make the item more of a niche item, at least it will be a cost effective (for the stats you want) niche item. So, you will have more options with what to build and how to play, which is something I like in games.

Out of these two options, I like the making it into a tank item better, since because of it's recipe it just seems to fit better on a tanky champion.

These are my solutions to fixing Banner of Command. What do you think of them? Let me know in the comments below!



Until Next Time!
"Another claimed for the Shadow Isles"
-Rikukun

edit: One thing that was brought up to me about this post and another by some friends is that some of them disagree about the viability of AP on support champions, in that it is much more viable than I give it credit for, especially on Janna. From what I have seen in the LCS, the only AP items ever bought are ones that build from Kage's (usually twin shadows, sometimes morellonomicon) and haunting guise on aggressive supports like elise, which is more for the magic penetration that the ap.

Don't get me wrong, AP is still a very useful stat on support's. However, when you are starved for gold, which is often the case in evenly matched games, you generally won't have the gold to afford it because you need to be building other support items. That being said, in solo queue if you are able to take a lead on your opponent, and you are a champion like Janna that scales well with AP, then by all means feel free to buy AP, as long as you aren't sacrificing the wards and other support items that you should also be buying. Just make sure that if you don't have the gold for it and your support stuff, get the support stuff instead of AP.