History of Banes

Overview

Banes are enemy-buffing modifiers. Per Destinypedia they were introduced in Episode: Revenant and grant a special ability to random combatants except Champions and bosses; affected enemies show a colored orb or arc above their head and lose their shields. Examples: Meteors, Shock, Slow (Stasis field), Healing and Drain.

In Ops

With activity customization in The Edge of Fate, Ops let you pick Banes alongside Boons (player boosts). TheGamer says you can select two Banes on Advanced difficulty, and examples include enemies spawning mini-Screebs under sustained damage. Banes raise difficulty and thus your activity score, which determines reward tier. The older Nightfall usage was limited to Legend difficulty; sources differ on how many Banes later difficulties allow.