Baron should receive a gameplay update

Oakleaf Ranger·Aug 18, 2017·156 votes·3,791 views

Baron just doesn't feel as intimating or powerful as it used to be or should be. Doing baron isn't chaotic or disruptive as it should be. Instead its either you have a body to tank or someone who can straight up sustain through its damage.

Some things I think it needs

smarter AI, it should recognize the main damage threats and actively attempt to keep them away.
wards should expire faster in the Baron pit when it is up.
Baron is a dangerous and powerful monstrosity, it should lash out and attack those who foolishly decide to remain in its presence for too long.
no one should be able to 100 to 0 Baron solo. Baron is a raid boss, not something one person should be capable to solo

Edit: putting here because of how good the idea sounds from comments

Having Baron capable of inflicting grievous wounds

79 Comments

TurquoiseYoshiAug 18, 201757 votes

I disagree with giving him smarter AI to target damage threats. Having tanks to take Baron damage is should be a way to make killing Baron easier.

Probably the best way of updating Baron would be to give him Grievous Wounds on his attacks, so you can't drain-tank him.

Oakleaf RangerAug 18, 201733 votes

grievous wounds is a good idea, but when I say keep away I mean through abilities like knock ups and knock backs.

IPromiseTomorrowAug 19, 20173 votes

That'll be a Yasu buff fyi

But I'd like that.

dont look at my icon

lofi n chillhopAug 18, 20179 votes

I think more like, baron casts its abilities on the threats. tries to knockup the ADC while it DPS autos on the tanks ... makes sense right?

and most mele champions are more capable of solo or duo the baron --- so why not have him auto the higher dps if there are two targests within a certain range?

Sraeg2013Aug 18, 20173 votes

Well, he does have multiple heads.

KloqdqAug 18, 201726 votes

Just learn from Vile Maw. That is a terrifying Raid Boss that takes real commitment to take and if you fuck up it gets hellish.

FairyfleurAug 18, 201712 votes

It might be because I don't see it often, but it has much more interesting attacks and is a lot scarier.

What Is SmiteAug 19, 20174 votes

Then again there is: Warwick

Now I'm not sure about you but I'm pretty sure that doggo is more of a raid boss than Elder, Vile, and Baron

FaustavianAug 19, 20172 votes

Imagine baron attacking with a item 3748 , using it's active every 20 seconds.

5000000000000000Aug 19, 201711 votes

I mean, an AoE pull that's larger than even Ziggs ultimate is definitely scarier than a small AoE knockup

KloqdqAug 19, 20172 votes

It also attacks very violently. Such a cool mob.

5000000000000000Aug 20, 20172 votes

Baron needs more limbs/tentacles/tendrils, confirmed

Raven RedeemedAug 18, 201715 votes

I think his damaging abilities/skill-shots should be buffed up so that it's a no brainer to doge them. I don't like the idea of having wards die quicker in his pit because that would really painful for the red team, especially if they are behind when it is too dangerous to walk into the river to ward.

HachiraAug 18, 201710 votes

no one should be able to 100 to 0 Baron solo. Baron is a raid boss, not something one person should be capable to solo

laughs in Heimerdinger

ModKnightsKemplarAug 18, 20179 votes

It would help a lot if Baron inflicted Greivous Wounds, perhaps even an improved version of it.

Without that, Baron has the same problem as tanks without Thornmail; it's actually a health source for a lot of champs, which is the opposite of being dangerous. Maybe with that one change, many others won't be as necessary.

It Hertz When IPAug 19, 20177 votes

{quoted}

wards should expire faster in the Baron pit when it is up.

If you're worried about Baron being too easy to take, that's entirely the wrong direction. Making it harder to have vision in there makes it EASIER to take Baron. If anything, ward duration in the pit should be extended.

Oakleaf RangerAug 19, 20171 votes

I just want the vison game revolving baron to be more spicy.

You can have longer vison on areas around Baron or have eyes right on it for a shorter one.

It Hertz When IPAug 19, 20175 votes

That makes no sense. I don't need to stare at Baron, I just want to know when the enemy team's going for him. A ward in the river outside the entrance tells me almost as much as a ward in the pit itself. Hell, if the jungler's good he can put a ward behind the pit and keep killing the nearby scuttle crab, make the pit impossible to enter without being seen. And if all else fails, item 3363 wards are immortal.

Ego Sum RedemitAug 19, 20173 votes

did you just assume Baron's gender?

SociopathFriendAug 19, 20174 votes

Riot has multiple times used the male sex to describe Baron.

AnidanAug 19, 20173 votes

Also, y'know, Baron.. as opposed to Baroness.

Ego Sum RedemitAug 20, 20172 votes

So Riot assumed xer gender...did anyone ask them what they would like to be called?

holy crap that literally hurt my head to type that...how do trolls do it on a consistent basis...

Hello I am BirdAug 20, 20172 votes

tfw you got downvoted. C O N F U S E D

TiltyMacTiltFaceAug 18, 20176 votes

This isn't some PVE game. Baron is a contestable game changer. The difficulty is, and should, be how a team contests him. If someone can solo the baron, then the enemy did not have proper vision/baron control in the first place. He should be enough of a threat that a team can't just off him before a team can reasonably prepare/react for.

BoilTheOilAug 19, 20174 votes

but the buff is too strong for what it is, enhanced recall, 40 ad/ap, and broken minion buff

devdev463Aug 19, 20176 votes

Elder dragon is even more of a joke, and it spawns at a later time than baron.

The LexerAug 18, 20175 votes

Maybe to stop the ability to solo it, we could make it's AOE damage a base number that splits evenly between the people doing it (so if you have more people, each person takes less AOE damage). idk, could be a bad idea

I do like the the idea of having it apply grievous wounds (that TurquoiseYoshi mentioned). We could also have it reflect damage, kind of like thornmail.

Ego Sum RedemitAug 19, 20174 votes

Thats actually brilliant. +1

Squidward DabAug 19, 20174 votes

Often the times the people soloing it are AD champs who have a lot of lifesteal so yea I agree with adding grievious wounds to its attacks or the longer u fight it the less healing ur life steal does?

Sun Wu RyuumokuAug 18, 20173 votes

no one should be able to 100 to 0 Baron solo. Baron is a raid boss, not something one person should be capable to solo

I don't agree... But the baron shouldn't just aa... it would be better to add some skillshot on his side.

Ashen RiderAug 18, 201715 votes

He does have skillshots and things to dodge. Have you never fought it?

Sun Wu RyuumokuAug 18, 20175 votes

i say add.

Ashen RiderAug 18, 201718 votes

[{quoted}](name=Ryuumoku no koke,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=EvYNMJ6Q,comment-id=000000000000,timestamp=2017-08-18T18:33:04.766+0000)

But the baron shouldn't just aa

AirKingNeoAug 18, 20172 votes

I don't understand what you're saying.

He said the baron should not just auto attack, but have other attacks instead, like a skillshot.

FairyfleurAug 18, 20179 votes

Like the giant tentacle that knocks you up?

Ashen RiderAug 19, 20177 votes

Or the acid attack that he sprays on the ground?

VelvetCrotchAug 19, 20173 votes

dragon (at least the elder one) should be stronger too. but baron AI etc. should ve priority.

supported!

SteelflameAug 19, 20171 votes

Infernal Dragon should be stronger, the others are fine IMO. But Infernal, with the most direct power, is the weakest of the 4 elementals dps wise shy of Mountain, which is fine because Mountain is significantly more durable than the other 3 and so runs the risk of the fight dragging out longer making it easier to engage on the team doing Mountain as you get more response time.

VelvetCrotchAug 20, 20171 votes

{quoted}

Infernal Dragon should be stronger, the others are fine IMO. But Infernal, with the most direct power, is the weakest of the 4 elementals dps wise shy of Mountain, which is fine because Mountain is significantly more durable than the other 3 and so runs the risk of the fight dragging out longer making it easier to engage on the team doing Mountain as you get more response time.

My Waifu VanillaAug 19, 20173 votes

{quoted}

wards should expire faster in the Baron pit when it is up.

That is a terrible idea since you can already take baron the second a ward expires in the pit anyway. Having wards expire in 1 minute or whatever when near the pit will basically force the losing team to give up every baron since SOMEONE will have to go bot at some point to deal with the innate slow push the winning team's minions do. Shorter wards means that me personally warding baron gives me enough time to go down to bot lane, get ONE creep wave, and barely make it back to baron before my ward expires.

EeyoreAug 19, 20173 votes

In my opinion:

Dodging its abilities should be required. At the moment, a lot of people don't even bother. Getting hit by it's acid spit, acid barrage or surprise buttsex attacks should be seriously damaged.
It needs attacks that affect the entire arena, but not instantaneously - something like it spines around spitting balls in all directions.

The Invasion boss is so epic, but there's also a limit on what you can implement in a PVP side-objective.

I would almost go as far as to say entering Baron's pit should transport you to an instance that's larger, but oh well. Vilemaw just has so much more playground space.

RainbowIceeAug 18, 20172 votes

I think dragon needs a buff too. Considering how good the buff it gives are it should get one.

Dr PoroAug 18, 20172 votes

I'd really like Baron to have more impactful skillshot abilities, but on the other hand, that would increase the gap between low ladder and LCS plays. (I can already imagine people in silver saying "let's do baron, I saw a streamer do it in a similar situation, it should be easy" and then get slaughtered because they couldn't dodge the skillshot abilities.)

What if Baron spawned some healers or other minions that you have to focus or distract by hitting once first? The tank's job would be to hit all the minions once.

Zone of EndlessAug 18, 20172 votes

make the baron scale faster. Games are ending a lot faster than they used to so unless riot do something about make baron scaling faster is a good start.

Kats PajamasAug 19, 20172 votes

The baron does have skillshots, and Wounds

At 100 baron stacks you have reduced healing.

TerraMortemAug 19, 20172 votes

I would be down to see some new mechanics at least he is a dusty old man .

SociopathFriendAug 19, 20172 votes

Some things I think it needs -smarter AI, it should recognize the main damage threats and actively attempt to keep them away. -wards should expire faster in the Baron pit when it is up. -Baron is a dangerous and powerful monstrosity, it should lash out and attack those who foolishly decide to remain in its presence for too long. -no one should be able to 100 to 0 Baron solo. Baron is a raid boss, not something one person should be capable to solo

Fairly sure it already does something like the first.

Absolutely not to the second. Support players already have to walk across half the map to ward the damn thing- you want the wards to expire even faster? In addition, people usually ward outside the baron pit, not in it.

As in- in the pit? Under what circumstances do you hunker down in baron pit for more than a few seconds and you're not doing baron? This sounds like an extremely niche situation.

Of the very few champions that can solo 100 to 0 baron without being obscenely fed- AFAIK none of them do it all that quickly and leave an extreme potential for the enemy to find them and pick them off. There's a reason Riot was not okay with Devourer junglers soloing Baron at 3 items.

I'll give you that grievous wounds might be okay- but it should be on an ability not just something baron gets for being attacked. Even baron needs counterplay.

IpressbuttonAug 20, 20171 votes

But muh 20 min games!