Durin's Bane (Adventure: Shadow and Flame)

* Portrait
* Ingame
* Ignite

"Moria. You fear to go into those mines. The dwarves delved too greedily and too deep. You know what they awoke in the darkness of Khazad-dûm. Shadow and Flame."
—Saruman

**Durin's Bane** was a Balrog, a Maia of fire coerced by the willpower of Morgoth. After his master's downfall, the demon survived the War of Wrath and crept at the roots of Middle-earth beneath the Misty Mountains.

In the Third Age, greedy Dwarf miners of Moria searching for mithril unwittingly unleashed this Balrog, awakening him from his slumber. The beast earned its monicker by slaying King Durin VI and forcing his people out of their ancestral home. The existence of the demon allowed for groups of Orcs to infest the depths of Moria, turning it into a place of evil and ensuring that none of the Free Peoples would dare enter the Black Pit. These would range from frail but agile Moria Goblins to fearsome Black Uruk Marauders sent by Sauron to ensure that the Dwarves would never reclaim their ancestral home. Over time, several of the Orcs who dwelled within Moria began to worship the Balrog as a dark and unholy god, and in exchange for their worship the Balrog would grant a few of them the ability to wield some of his deadly fire magic.

While **Durin's Bane** is typically a 25 PP (Tier 4) summon for the Misty Mountains faction in standard play, the Balrog also features as the faction leader and central focus of the "Adventure: Shadow and Flame" subfaction based on the Misty Mountains. Unlike the summoned version, this version of the Balrog is a permanent hero who can be used in battle indefinitely until he is killed. To balance this out, the "Shadow and Flame" version of the Balrog has less health, starts at level 1 (and will need to level up in order to unlock more of his skillset), and has an altered skillset.

Unique to this Adventure subfaction, the Balrog is also their Ring Hero. Should the Ring be found and delivered to him or the Misty Mountains fortress, the Balrog will be imbued with even more dark and terrible power, granting him a much stronger set of abilities.

*For the Tier 4 summon version of the Balrog, see the Durin's Bane page.*

## Abilities

### Default abilities

**Durin's Bane (W)** - Destroys targeted enemy Dwarven hero. Left click then left click target hero.

*(NOTE: Although not stated in-game, the exceptions list for which the attack will only deal 50% max health damage instead remains the same as Sauron's **Conflagration.)***

**Level 3: Ignite (R)** - Durin's Bane gains +50% damage, +50% armor for 30 seconds. Reduces recharge time of special powers. Causes enemy units to flee in terror. Left click to activate.

**Level 5: Shadow and Flame (T)** - Modifier type: Spell. Nearby allied units deal +125% damage, but lose -50% armour and do not gain experience for 20 seconds. Stuns nearby enemy units in fear for 15 seconds. Left click to activate.

**Level 7: Fire Whip (C)** - Durin's Bane attacks target enemy with flaming whip. Left click icon then left click on target.

**Level 10: Breathe Fire (V)** - Durin's Bane breathes fire to incinerate units and structures. Left click icon then left click on target area.

### Ring Form abilities

**Durin's Bane (W)** - Durin's Bane is permanently ignited and nearby enemy units suffer Fire damage. Passive ability.

When activated, destroys targeted enemy hero. Left click then left click target hero.

*(NOTE: Although not stated in-game, the exceptions list for which the attack will only deal 50% max health damage instead remains the same as Sauron's **Conflagration.)***

**Level 3: Immolation (R)** - Durin's Bane sends out a blastwave that knocks back enemy units. Durin's Bane gains +50% damage, +50% armor for 30 seconds. Reduces recharge time of special powers. Causes enemy units to flee in terror. Left click to activate.

**Level 5: Shadow and Flame (T)** - Modifier type: Spell. Nearby allied units deal +125% damage and gain +50% armour for 20 seconds. Stuns nearby enemy units in fear for 15 seconds. Left click to activate.

**Level 7: Fire Whip (C)** - Durin's Bane attacks target enemy with flaming whip. Deals increased damage with the One Ring. Left click icon then left click on target.

**Level 10: Breathe Fire (V)** - Durin's Bane breathes fire to incinerate units and structures. Left click icon then left click on target area.

## Strategy

Those who are familiar with the devastating power of Durin's Bane as a Tier 4 spell will be thrilled to realize that they now have a Balrog that is permanent instead of being limited to a timer. However, while this variant of the Balrog is unquestionably very powerful, one must be aware that this version of the Balrog isn't quite as powerful as the Tier 4 summon due to needing to manually level up to unlock all of his abilities, having his skillset changed, and starting with less (but still very respectable amount of) health. Even at max level, the Balrog is still slightly weaker than his Tier 4 variant and thus should not be used carelessly lest one risk his death. The Balrog can also hit his allies with his basic attacks, and thus might significantly damage to his own army in addition to his enemy if he is not careful. Thus, it is highly recommended that the Balrog fight separately from the rest of his forces unless the player is trying to take advantage of his **Shadow and Flame** skill, as he is more than capable of holding his own in a battle with minimal assistance. **Durin's Bane** is very specific in its use but is a free instant kill against Dwarven heroes, which is why it is generally encouraged that anybody who plays Adventure: Shadow and Flame do so against Erebor to make the most out of the Balrog. **Shadow and Flame** is a power unique to this variant of Balrog and functions essentially identically to Bolg's **Ruled by Fear**, giving a massive damage boost in exchange for reducing allied armor and negating friendly experience gain that is best utilized when trying to attack critical targets such as heroes and fortresses. **Ignite, Fire Whip,** and **Breathe Fire** function more or less identically to the Tier 4 variant of the Balrog, being a power boost, a heavy single-target damaging attack, and a destructive AoE attack respectively.

If the Balrog manages to obtain the Ring, he becomes even more of a dangerous force to be reckoned with and can utterly devastate both enemy army and heroes alike. With the Ring, **Durin's Bane** allows the Balrog to continually damage enemies around him with fire damage, meaning that armies will suffer from attrition just from being in his presence. The skill will also now target ANY hero from ANY faction, meaning that the Balrog can now instantly destroy a high-priority, high-value hero at any time with minimal effort (although he will still only do 50% damage to faction leaders, similarly to Sauron's **Conflagration**, despite this not being stated in-game). **Immolation** also becomes a powerful crowd control attack in its own right in addition to giving the benefits of **Ignite**, heavily disrupting enemies by blasting them back and giving your own army the opportunity to destroy them while they are still recovering. **Shadow and Flame** becomes one of the most powerful buff spells (if not THE most powerful buff spell) in the entire game, giving your entire army a free +50% armour BOOST instead of a -50% armour penalty and the +125% damage buff with no downside whatsoever, which can single-handedly turn the tide of battle in your favor even without taking other factors such as faction spells into account. Finally, **Fire Whip** becomes much more powerful and can deal devastating single-target damage to enemy buildings or heroes whenever **Durin's Bane** is on cooldown. A Rank 10 Durin's Bane with the Ring is arguably even more powerful than his Tier 4 summon variant without any time limit on his presence, and unless the Shadow and Flame player is suffering from a heavily disadvantageous position by the time the Balrog gets the Ring, a competently used Ring Balrog will likely swing the tide of the entire game decidedly in his favor in very short order.