Baron Buff needs to be nerfed, and here's why.

TL;DR, Hand of Nashor (Baron Buff) lasts to long and seems like as soon as a team gets baron, they basically win the game out right from gold advantages and team fight advantages.

This has been a discussion I've been thinking of for abit now, but it became VERY present recently, and I personally hate it SO MUCH.

I will be using 2 Pro Games for Reference, Game 1 of IMT vs C9 of the Summer Split Semi-Finals and Game 5 of the LCK Finals of KT vs ROX tigers.

I am a C9 fan, so there maybe some bias... but in Game 1 of the IMT vs C9 game, Baron Nashor was slain at 23 ish minutes after 3 kills bot lane for IMT. This is all well and good. But you're telling me, with quite literally no dedicated tank... you can 5 man the baron with blinking red health bars and still be able to fight afterward... Really. You can take the most powerful buff in the game with BLINKING.... RED....HEALTH BARS.... And Still fight afterward. No. This is not right. There should be no possible way that this happens.

Thats only one problem though. Baron Buff discourages fighting. Especially in LCS/Pro play. Don't believe me? here... let me elaborate. KT vs Rox Tigers, game 5 of the LCK Finals. Kt has a small lead and decides to go for baron 5 man after getting a pick onto the (if I'm not mistaken) Hecarim. It was either Hecarim or Taric. This leads into the whole 2 HP meme thats been going around where Score's Kindred misses the smite by 2 hp and gets stolen by Smebs Gangplank. ok it gets stolen. But There was no fight following that until ROX took like 4 towers and KT was forced to fight.

Back to the C9 example. IMT takes baron, Kills meteos as he goes for the steal, and fends off C9 and goes mid. They take down 2 inhibs before C9 even Fights them again. (minus getting a pick on pobelter)

And here is why. Hand of Nashor gives to much gold and stats. (Dont agree?)

Directly from the League of Legends Wiki: http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Baron_Nashor "Killing Baron Nashor grants Hand of Baron to all living teammates for 210 seconds (242 with Runic Affinity mastery Runic Affinity). The buff gives bonus attack damage and ability power, as well as an aura that greatly increases the power of nearby minions and a massively-empowered Recall. When Baron Nashor is killed, each living player on the killer's team is also granted the following: 600 Global Experience, 800 Local Experience (Shared), 300 Gold to each member, Plus 25 gold to the slayer of baron."

• Hand of Baron for 3 and a half minutes
• Or just over 4 with Runic Affinity
• Bonus AP and AD (up to 40 AD and AP)
• Minion Buff (not going to explain the minion buffs, theres like 20 of them for each minion)
• Empowered Recall

(Reading the history pages, it used to be 180 seconds, but was buffed on patch 6.9 with the mid season update. )

Why am I so mad if baron hasn't been touched in Patches, and before 6.9 was tweaked on 4.21, basically 1 and a half seasons later... why am I caring now? because the gold it gives. Effectively, Hand of Baron can give up to a bullshit amount of gold lead. in the KT vs ROX example, after losing baron, KT went from having a half k gold disadvantage, to about 5 mins later being down a lovely 6 k gold and 2 inhibs. Really. This isn't even the worst offender of baron losses. C9 vs IMT game again. 1k gold lead for IMT, 5 mins later, 8K plus 2 inhibs. This doesn't even feel fair. Legit, as soon as baron goes down, that's game over. This is bad gameplay flat out. It becomes a 50/50 steal to who wins the games sometimes. That's not right. The buff should be something less.

Lets add more insult to injury. Elder Dragon buff (Aspect of the Dragon) Lasts 120 seconds and grants (45 x The amount of elder dragons slain + 45 for each elemental dragon slain). Also Granting double the bonuses for your elemental dragons. Elder dragon is strong for a fight or 2, Baron is strong for 3 and a half minutes. often times 2 inhibitors. Whats going to win you more games, 1 team fight, or 2 downed inhibs? id take 2 downed inhibs anyday.

So as far as proof that this needs to be changed, there are ALOT more then 2 games worth of proof. Just have a look at pro play. it happens alot.

What would i do to fix this? Simple. Make it so you can only get 1 inhib. Reduce the time down to 150 seconds. 2 and a half minutes. enough time to recall, get out, siege a lane and maybe, maybe an inner in a second lane. thats it. Reduce the global gold to 250 for everyone and up the killer gold to 50 because players with OCD, and baron is a nexus cosplay. Thats it. Simple. reduce the power and make it last less time.

The other thing I was thinking, was having the baron scale in time. for example, 20:00-24:59 baron has a time of 2 mins. and add 30 seconds of time to baron up to a cap of 4 mins. This would stop games from getting snowballed just barely at 25 minutes and make the game end off of you base being destroyed. And later on it would make the game end faster because you have the buff for longer. Simple. This is just to stop the snowballing of even games, because honestly that is the big problem here.

Before I end off, I have one comment to make before i end this. I really love watching Season 4 worlds. No Joke, I've watched the Season 4 worlds playlist On LOL ESports youtube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvqRdlKsE5Q8mf8YXbdIJLw) 3 times over. the entire playlist. I'm trying to debunk the whole "the player base is dying" comment. Do i agree, no, but i understand why people feel that way. Dragon buff used to just give gold and baron buff used to just give combat stats. Simple, easy, but they actually cause fights. I didnt see a single baron or dragon that wasn't contested unless the enemy team was dead already. It made fights. For perspective, i started playing in late season 3, but Ironically, i didnt get hardcore into league until patch 4.20. I never heard the "League is dying" argument until half way though season 5. Baron nashor and the jungle, aswell as dragon were changed in patch 4.20... its starting to add up slowly.

This whole baron nashor and dragon debate is for a different discussion, but i dont think it should be ignored.

Id love to hear everyone elses opinion so please post them below.

Thanks for taking your time to read what i have to say. Enjoy your day - MrKatanaNinja