Riot announced last week that it would be completely removing the Banner of Command item from League of Legends, at least until the design team can give it the attention it deserves and finally figure out a way to balance it.
Deciding to chop a very prominent meta item out of the game completely has very obvious implications. There are champions that relied on the item to remain powerful who will now feel noticeably weaker. And on the flipside, there are champions that were countered by it who will now have more freedom to carry games.
Unfortunately, it’s likely that most champions benefiting from the Banner’s removal will surge into the meta, which means that the meta will again be heavily affected in the midst of an already ludicrous time where Yasuo bot lanes and Mordekaiser mid lanes roam free. These champions gain the most from the change.
Singed
Singed is, for all intents and purposes, a split-pusher, but he doesn’t have as much dueling prowess as other splitters. For instance, he has trouble fighting an all-out one-on-one against Fiora, Camille, or Irelia, who are all split-pushers, too. He excels at small skirmishes and baiting the enemy into chasing him through poison trails, a mechanic completely unique to him.
Singed was extremely powerful in the meta, but he was knocked out by the rise of the Banner of Command. His split-pushing power of slow, constant damage is thwarted almost entirely by a souped up minion from the Banner active. It just takes him too darn long to kill it, and tanks can simply rush the item to match his lane dominance and then eventually pass him as the game drags on.
With the removal of the Banner, his primary counter is gone. Singed will undoubtedly see more playtime, maybe even on the pro stage, too, and we wouldn’t be surprised if there were nerfs coming for him in the near future to compensate.
Zyra, Brand, and other damage supports
Zyra and Brand were made much stronger first with the new runes introduced at the start of the season and then again when major item changes were made to the Sightstone and AP items later on. They were just starting to see more play time when the Banner rose up, and that’s when they were halted in their tracks.
Essentially, at the highest level, tanky supports began to rush Banners, and formerly passive bot lane duos would suddenly be able to outpush high damage and wave-clear lanes with high-damage mages. With the removal of the Banner, those tanky champions now have less tools to deal with the rapid push of those damage-heavy supports.
Of course, there’s a stipulation here. The bot lane meta is different than ever before, with bruiser-tank duos like Yasuo and Alistar or Irelia and Ornn as actual, viable options. Squishy mages have a very difficult time dealing with that sort of aggression. So if those new bruisers and high-damage fighters don’t leave the bot lane meta anytime soon, those like Zyra and Brand will have a hard time with or without the Banner.
Syndra, Orianna, Ahri, and other control mages
The other archetype of champions that couldn’t deal with the Banner well were control mage mid laners. Control mages are packed full of AoE damage, and were once able to match high mobility mid laners by clearing waves with their AoE and then roaming to help their jungler or bot lane.
When the Banner rose to meta, those AoE abilities that could once clear waves fast enough to open up some breathing room suddenly couldn’t stop a wave very quickly. In the face of a beefy Banner minion, it would take more than one full ability combo followed by several minutes of sitting and waiting to kill it with countless basic attacks. If it reached your turret, it would take even longer to push your lane far enough to escape for even a moment.
It’s worth mentioning, however, that before the Banner meta, these mages had almost too much power, and its removal might give them enough gas to push past the other mid lane meta champions. It was still considered uncommon for mid laners to take the Banner, though, which means its removal won’t give them too much noticeable power, at least in the early game.
The high presence of Banner’s mid-game was really what stalled these champs, and that’s where they’ll feel the most power after its removal this week.
