Baron Fights: When to Hold 'Em and When to Fold 'Em

The largest neutral monster in the game, the Baron Nashor demands attention in any serious team strategy. With a 300 gold and 900 experience bonus granted to each member of the team who slays him, his importance comes as no surprise. Apart from the instant bonus, the “Exalted with Baron Nashor” buff also aids the team members over time for four minutes or until the individual dies. The buff provides 40 attack damage, 40 ability power, and health and mana regeneration.

The bonuses to attack and ability power are a flat aid to the team, while the regeneration helps greatly in the poke and harass that happens before a full initiation into a team fight. After Baron’s first spawn at the fifteen minute mark, he becomes a keystone in forcing team fights and gaining or losing advantages.

 

Baron fights typically come in one of two flavors: contested or uncontested. If your team fights uncontested, this means that you have the opportunity to kill baron without any enemy interference or attempts to steal. Contested of course means that the enemy team either pushes you into a teamfight while you take damage from baron, or they simply try to steal the buff from you by securing the last hit or smite. This being said, it is very important for your jungler to take smite and to have it up during the baron fight if at all possible. Doing this can avoid disastrous situations and steals.

 

Ideal times to fight Baron:

1) After your team wins a fight
If you have won a fight, then several or even all of the enemy champions might have been slain or at least forced to go back to base. If your team sees a greater weight in taking baron then pushing objectives, you can likely do so uncontested.

2) When you have good map control
Map control usually means your team’s minions should be pushed up far into the enemy lanes or base. This decreases the chances of the enemy intercepting you unexpectedly, and prevents the enemy team from easily pushing down your turrets and inhibitors without dealing with your minions.  If at all possible, try to use a vision ward or oracle's elixir to eliminate enemy wards and prevent steals.

3) When you know where the enemy team is

For example, if the enemy team makes the mistake of all heading to dragon together to avoid getting caught alone, take advantage of their distance and preoccupation to counter with baron. Baron is, of course, much more valuable, and will give you a much better advantage than dragon’s gold bonus. This doesn’t only apply to dragon, simply consider how long it will take their team to reach you if they have wards at baron.

While baron timing is important, we must also discuss what to do if the enemy does catch your team trying to kill baron. Although the ideal situations listed above are great, they aren’t always achievable. Sometimes a team may wish to risk fighting baron even if the team is missing to avoid the chance that the enemy will take the buff instead.

Think through the following questions if you find yourself with more than one target in the river pit:

 

1) How close is baron to death?
As baron gets closer to death, disengaging from the fight runs a higher risk of an easy pick up for the enemy team. If you fight his health down to 1/3 or ¼ and back off to play it safe, you have handed the opposing team an easy advantage. On the other hand, if you have no chance of winning, are outnumbered and low health, or are severely out of position, it may be worth it to try and preserve your life. In such cases, it isn’t worth losing baron and team members. Otherwise, try to finish off the fight with the jungler’s smite, and deal the enemies afterward.

2) Can we easily stop fighting baron?
If the baron isn’t low health (roughly over one half health), then consider disengaging from the fight into the jungle, or into a team fight with the arriving enemies. This tactic works best if your team can see how the enemy approaches due to wards or minion vision. The choice between these two options depends on whether you have time to set up a good position outside of baron’s range, and how well your team is matching up to the enemy.

3) Do I have effective zoning skills?
If you have area of effect skills, stuns, slows, walls, or anything of that nature, make sure you use them to try to push the enemy team away from baron to prevent steals. If your crowd control abilities are single-target, try to push away the carries who provide the main sources of damage, and the jungler who is likely looking to steal with smite. If you are a bruiser, support, or tank, try to buy your carries a bit more time to finish off baron, but don’t attempt a full engage without the whole team to back you up.

When to Challenge the Enemy’s Baron:

Now that you have an idea of how to handle a defensive baron, let’s talk about an offensive baron with a forced team fight or attempted steal.

Forcing Team Fights - A forced team fight can go very poorly if your coordination or positioning are off.  The ideal time to force is when your team has a reasonable advantage in levels, builds, composition, or health.  A combination of these, of course, would be even better.  Fights such as this typically occur before either team has started fighting baron, when each team tries to stand their ground in the river outside the pit.

If your team doesn't have the advantage, try retreating and regrouping to fight after the enemy has started baron, which should give you a better chance with the added damage and de-buffs to the opposition.  If you do have the advantage and your entire team is willing to commit, try to eliminate their carries (and hopefully their entire team) before attempting baron.  If you can hurt them enough to force them back to base, you should also have enough time for a successful baron.

         

Attempting Baron Steals - If your team isn't in a good situation to fully engage in a fight, entering the pit when baron gets low could allow your burst champions or jungler's smite to secure the kill steal.  As mentioned earlier, this strategy is extremely high-risk, high-reward, and should be attempted only when you stand a fighting chance.  Acts of desperation in such situations often result in unnecessary deaths and the loss of baron.

All of these instructions are situational, but should give you a reasonable knowledge base to decide which course of action suits you and your team the best.  The most decisive factor in how successful your baron fight is will likely prove to be your team cohesion, so make sure that whatever plan is chosen can be universally agreed upon and understood.  A partial commitment fight almost always ends poorly.  Use common sense in engaging, but don't be afraid to stand your ground for the most important neutral objective in the game.