Baron and Dragon Timers: Public Information
So, it's preseason and changes are flying everywhere. One of the big changes that I'm sure some of you have noticed is that all enemy team members now glow brightly as their team slays the Dragon, and there is now a counter to show how many Dragons a team has claimed. As always, an enemy with Baron Buff has a visible timer to indicate how much purple juice they have left; this also shows how long the team has had the buff, which is coincidentally exactly the time since Baron was slain.
What this sums up to is that it is now extremely easy for a skilled player to infer -- even to the exact second on many occasions -- the timers for both Dragon and Baron (to clarify, this has always been possible for Baron; it's just now also possible for Dragon). At this point, keeping track of these "unknown" timers is essentially intellectual bookkeeping for all but the lowest levels of play. It's outdated. I would suggest that teams who "clear" the Dragon or Baron pits by gaining vision of them also be provided with their respawn timer. The current system already shows on the minimap when the monsters respawn; this would not be a big change, but it would help inexperienced players without also giving more information to veterans.
As a side-note: this logic does not apply to red buff and blue buff in the same way, because it's possible to gain those buffs without killing the associated monster. Those timers are also just less important in general.
TL;DR: Baron and Dragon respawn timers should be granted to teams who gain vision of the pit after the inhabitant has been killed even if they did not see the monster die, because that information is basically public anyway. Projected Result: Insignificant impact at higher levels, increased clarity at lower levels.