Dread Banner

Dread Banner is a banner aura skill. While the banner is active, it grants the user and nearby allies a chance to impale on attack and causes nearby enemies to have decreased accuracy. When placed, the Banner provides a Fortify effect to nearby allies.

Aura Effects

 * and are both aura effects that can be modified by.


 * Aura effects are always active whether the banner is placed or not.


 * Players and monsters must be inside the banners radius to receive the aura effects when the banner is placed on the ground.


 * Because dread banner has an aura that affects you and allies, it can be supported by generosity support. Generosity support will increase all aura effects, including those that affect enemies like less accuracy rating.

Buff effects

 * Fortify is a buff that can be modified by and.


 * Increased Fortify effect per Stage: The increased Fortify effect only affects the Fortify granted by the banner itself.


 * Buffs are temporary effects that only occur after placing the banner with stages.
 * Destroying the placed banner early by creating a new carried banner will end the Fortify buff early if it has duration remaining.

Effect of gem level and quality on Impale bonuses
The bonuses to chance and effect of Impale granted by raising the quality of Dread Banner are a little counterintuitive due to the aggressive rounding which isn't immediately obvious from the gem description. The table below is intended to help understanding the value of various combinations of gem level and quality and figuring out what combination to aim for.

Notes and explanations
 * The values provided for gem level and quality are theoretical, with some only achievable using highly impractical or exquisitely rare gear, and are only there for reference. For most intents and purposes the practical values are limited to gem level 26 and quality 54%. Higher values can still be achieved using corrupted or a specifically crafted and double-corrupted pair of gloves in conjunction with level 4  and  gems. Bold font indicates that the quality breakpoint can be achieved using only the gem's own quality bonus.
 * Assuming there are no other sources of aura effect on the passive tree and gear, a corrupted Dread Banner at level 20 with 22–23% quality will always outperform the gem at level 21 with sub-20% quality. The reason for this is that both round down to 21% increased Impale effect while 20% quality also provides an extra percent point of chance to Impale. Having a level 21 gem with 20% quality is, of course, superior to both, as it hits the breakpoints for both the chance and effect of Impale.
 * In terms of a DPS increase, hitting the next breakpoint on the chance to Impale is generally more worthwhile than Impale effect. Thus, since the chance is flat at all levels and is only raised by gem quality, it's more practical to support Dread Banner with Enhance rather than with Empower if given an opportunity, unless the latter can serve a double purpose by supporting another DPS-increasing gem. A level 21 Dread Banner with 20% quality supported by a level 4 Enhance will be able to reach a 24% increase on both chance and effect of Impale; whereas if supported by level 4 Empower it would only have 22% increased chance and 25% increased effect, which works out to a significantly lower DPS increase as well as increased mana reservation due to Empower's higher mana multiplier.

Related unique items
The following unique items are related to Dread Banner:

Version history

 * Dread Banner has been added to the game.
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