[Preseason 2015] Baron: Some Suggestions

I wanted to discuss the dichotomy between Dragon and Baron in the preseason 2015 changes, because I think the current iteration is missing something critical in terms of the attempted goal (strategic diversity).

First: I like the idea of the new Dragon buff in the 2015 preseason. It maintains something of the old Dragon's purpose (gradually accumulating an advantage over your opponents) without being as difficult to balance (getting the gold value "right"), as well as giving a potential "comeback" mechanic by making Dragon progressively harder to fight for the team that's been killing him. It really cements his purpose as being a "soft" game-ender for late-game compositions by gradually increasing the teamfighting prowess of the first team to get to 5 stacks to the point that they can make clean sweeps of the opposing side. But what about Baron?

Baron's purpose seems to be more on the splitpush/fast push side of things: send a bunch of powerful minions into the turret, protecting you as you move forwards, until you can finally force a turret down and move towards the inhibitor. The issues I have with the current iteration are:

1. It favors splitpushing comps more than it does fast pushing compositions. Since the buff, in its current iteration, is only dependent on a single person having it, you only need two people alive with Baron buff to effectively take down towers. While I suspect the numbers will be gradually toned down after testing, the mechanic of the buff means that splitpushing is always a more meaningful option than grouping up and fast pushing with Baron buff, since the amount you gain by having one other person there likely isn't comparable to the pressure you apply with someone off in a side lane doing their push.

2. Obtaining the power of Baron buff only becomes an option when your team is strong enough to take Baron after he's spawned, which is closer to around the mid-game mark. It is, overall, much easier to contest by this point, since the laning phase has ended and vision control is stronger. Comps which depend more on Baron will find themselves at a disadvantage, especially given that the sort of comps that favor it (splitpush/fast push comps) are the sort of comps that don't want a pitched 5v5 in the Baron pit.

There's a few things I want to discuss and propose:

First, Baron should be comparable in strength to Dragon, and should spawn sooner. There are compelling reasons for making Baron spawn later in the game than Dragon (Dragon requires time to stack up, whereas Baron's power comes all at once). However, the current time (15 minutes) makes it difficult for more splitpush/fast push comps to gain a foothold in the game. Dragon is still the buff of choice, as a result (if only to deny it from your opponents). This draws a lot of the actual game away from toplane and nearly necessitates teleport on the top laner, which leads to the dreaded "Top Lane Island" effect that often gets discussed.

Second, if the current Baron buff remains, it should scale more depending on the number of people present. The effect of the Baron buff should still apply if only one person is around, but its overall effect is much weaker. It gives you bonus pressure if you're splitpushing, but not to an overpowering extent. The more people by the buff, however, the larger the effect becomes, perhaps increasingly exponentially (with diminishing returns past 3-4 people). Alternatively, the effects of the buff could simply have more additions as more people are present. Only having a single person might increase the damage of minions, while having three makes them take less damage, and five makes them more resistant against AoE effects. The idea is to make both 5-man push comps and splitpushing comps effective by ensuring that there's an effective tradeoff between the two. Splitpushing is good if you have a splitpusher who can take advantage of the limited version of the buff, while fast pushing is better if your team is oriented around that.

Third, I want to discuss an alternative. Rather than having a straight buff, killing Baron should spawn a "Baronling" for your side as a special pushing-oriented minion. The Baronling has several unique features:

-Highly resistant to AoE damage, with a large health pool and high base Armor/MR. The only damage it will really take is from single-target spells or attacks, and it can take quite a beating as a consequence.

-Does not directly engage other minions or players. It has a special ranged attack that fires automatically (like a mini-tower mounted on its back that constantly travels with it) that assists it with pushing up minion waves, but the Baronling itself will never fight champions, minions, or monsters. It is only capable of attacking towers. It will still stop if it encounters a minion wave, but will continue moving on after that minion wave is dead.

-Though the Baronling's attacks deals damage, its main purpose is shredding the armor/MR of towers, making them easier for players or allied minions to damage.

-Provides a large hitbox that can be used to absorb skillshots and restrict enemy movement.

The idea behind the Baronling is that it serves as a "battering ram," providing additional pushing/sieging power that complements that of your team. It provides an anti-waveclear tactic that doesn't rely on making regular minions very powerful, instead serving as a force multiplier versus towers and a damage sponge that forces enemies to redirect their attacks towards it. This has several effects:

-Teams with a lack of a solid tower-dive tank can instead rely on the power of the Baronling to serve as their effective "frontline." Having a strong engage along the lines of Malphite isn't as necessary to crack the nut of a particularly stubborn defense.

-The Baronling's limited lifespan and unrelenting drive (it won't stop until either it or the towers in its lane are dead!) means that it's also less effective for poke comps, who will likely want to control Dragon instead (due to the outlast potential from its buff). It's excellent for fast push and splitpush comps, however, since it creates an immediate threat that needs to be dealt with, which is what both those comps are about.

-The Baronling becomes overall less effective as the game goes on, in comparison to the increasing effectiveness of a team that focuses on controlling Dragon buff and building for the lategame. It doesn't scale well, since it's dependent on (largely static) Armor/MR for most of its defenses. It will eventually get to the point that, with enough penetration, it will go down quite fast to a late game comp. As opposed to the positive relation of Dragon buff to game time (as game time and Dragon kills increase, its effectiveness increases), Baron has a negative relation to game time (as game time and Baron kills increase, its effectiveness decreases).

The idea here is to try and create differing objectives with each of the buffs, which would lead to more strategic diversity. A team that's focused on controlling Baron early wants to use its pushing power to end the game before the enemy team gets too monstrous, or to nullify a mid-game advantage. A team that's focused on controlling Dragon early either wants to build up its power for the mid/lategame, or deny the enemy team from doing the same. Both of these objectives have some overlapping characteristics (Dragon buff is still good on a splitpush comp, Baron buff/Baronling is still good on a lategame comp), but they're differentiated enough to make choosing which one you want to focus your efforts on a real choice, rather than everyone wanting to control Dragon early -> late, and then control Baron mid -> late as well.

Sorry for all the words. Let me know what you think, and share your thoughts about the buff as well!