Baron Nashor in League of Legends can make or break a match. While it brings many buffs to the team that gives it the killing blow, those won’t mean much if the enemy team arrives just in time to decimate your allies. As such, this ‘mid-to-late game’ objective often requires skill, patience, knowledge, and determination. Here’s everything about Baron Nashor explained!
Baron Nashor is the strongest neutral monster of Summoner’s Rift in League of Legends. Killing it grants a buff that gets your team halfway the way to victory, but it takes several teammates to take it down.
The Baron spawns in the pit of the topside river at 25:00, as of Season 2025. With over 11000 HP, it takes 20 to 30 seconds for a team to kill it.
Baron Nashor’s attacks deal a good amount of damage to the champion who stands closest to it, while also damaging every enemy around and reducing their resistances.
Due to this, a team is at its most vulnerable while fighting this monster. So teams will usually wait until their opponents are dead – or at least busy elsewhere – to challenge it.
Slaying the Baron awards 300 gold and around 760 experience to each member of the team that took it down. Additionally, they all receive the Hand of Baron buff, and the Nashor will respawn 6 minutes later.
Note: The buff is granted to the team that lands the killing blow, regardless of how much damage they’ve done. This means that sneaking in one precise hit at the end while the enemy team is fighting Baron Nashor will result in snatching all of the benefits and leaving them with none. This is called stealing Baron.
For this reason, having your jungler present is crucial, as they can use Smite to finish Nash (slang/shortened version of Nashor) off with more damage than almost any other ability can deal.
Each living member of the team slaying the Baron receives the Hand of Baron buff. Essentially, this buff awards a sizable amount of AD and AP, grants Empowered Recall (halving the duration of Recall and increasing the bonus movement speed of the subsequent Homeguard buff by 50%), and enhances all nearby minions (and Voidmites!).
Hand of Baron expires after 3 minutes and is lost upon death.
The main appeal of this buff is that it makes pushing much easier. Melee and caster minions become significantly tankier, making it impossible for any one champion to immediately clear them and open a window to damage a turret even against defenders.
Additionally, siege minions receive 250% extra range, allowing them to shoot turrets from beyond their range (and also outside the range of most champions’ abilities). Their damage is also significantly higher.
With the enhanced minions, the empowered Recall to get on and around the map faster, and the extra gold and stats, the Baron buff is used to create a significant lead, or to turn one into a near-certain victory.
Credit: Riot Games
Hand of Baron awards 17 to 40 AD, as well as 30 to 80 AP. Both scale with game time (with the maximum amount reached at 40 minutes), and are based on when Baron Nashor was killed.
If a champion with Hand of Baron is within 600 units of an allied minion, they will empower all allied minions within 1450 units (this essentially means that they have to be within 600 units of a wave to trigger the buff, but that they’ll immediately spread it to most or all of the wave). The buff is then lost by minions who move more than 1500 units away from that champion.
Minions are buffed in the following way (this does not stack if several champions have Hand of Baron):
Melee minions and Voidmites:
Caster minions:
Siege minions:
Super minions:
Baron Nashor in League of Legends is a formidable foe that requires a careful, planned approach. There are certain elements to defeating it that must be understood to achieve success. While the primary process is largely the same (bringing lots of champions to win the fight), the nuances surrounding each fight make the process unique based on the champions used, the number of players assaulting it, and more.
Credit: Riot Games
As of Season 2025, Baron Nashor spawns at 25:00, up from 20:00 (and 15:00 prior to season 2015). By this time, a team is always strong enough to fight him. And the longer the game goes, the easier it will be to kill – while it gets stronger over time, champions get much more power from their levels and items.
So the relevant questions are how many champions do you need, how fast can you kill the Nashor (essentially, can you kill it fast enough), and how much damage will it get to deal in return.
The rule of thumb is to engage Baron Nashor when the enemy team is dead and you have at least 3 healthy champions alive and in the fight.
This is a safe way to look at it, though this can be loosened a bit based on a ton of parameters. Champions, how far ahead or behind you are, health, and what risks you are willing to take.
The whole point is that if the opponents catch you while you’re fighting the Baron, they will get an advantage if they try to fight you, and might even be able to attempt to steal it.
In most cases, Baron Nashor can be attempted even if the enemy team has one or two champions alive. Being 2 or 3 champions up should mean that the disadvantage from fighting Baron shouldn’t be enough for the opponents to turn the tide.
This is assuming that the enemy jungler is dead, or unable to join. Fighting Baron with the enemy jungler around is extremely risky. Their chances of stealing the buff are surprisingly high, and this alone can turn the tides of the game. The same applies for fighting Baron without your jungler.
Provided that the enemy team cannot interfere, 3 champions should be enough to take on Baron Nashor.
It can go down to 2 as long as one of them can deal sufficient damage, and the other one is healthy enough to tank the monster.
Note that the Baron’s single-target damage is high, and an enchanter or a similarly squishy champion will die deceptively quickly to him. It also deals moderate damage to every enemy around, meaning that someone under 300 HP cannot be involved in a Baron fight, or they’ll die even without taking aggro.
Credit: League of Legends (In-Game Screenshot)
While the most common way to get that monster is to do it after a successful teamfight, the other option is to sneak it when the opponents won’t be able to notice it or react in time.
For that, three parameters matter.
Some champions are better or worse at slaying Baron. Obviously, junglers are high up there, dealing more damage to monsters and having Smite. But aside from them, the best ones are:
Similarly, there are champions that make it extremely risky to take Baron against, as they can burst down either the monster or the team fighting it.
Avoid attempting Baron if you’re facing Orianna, Syndra, or Heimerdinger, whose combos can outdamage a Smite (or Nunu or Cho’gath), or Rumble or Karthus, who can wipe out an entire team alongside Baron Nashor’s damage and shred.
Credit: Riot Games
Baron Nashor halves the damage of its last target. This, combined with his damage and ramping resistances shred, makes it nearly impossible for one player to kill it alone, and the strategy is to have a champion tank it while the others deal their damage unaffected by the debuff.
But there are exceptions. An incredibly fed ADC (or melee equivalent, such as Master Yi or Tryndamere), can obtain enough damage and lifesteal to slay Baron Nashor alone. It will, however, take twice as long as doing it with a teammate.
Them aside, Nunu and Heimerdinger are the two champions who can solo Baron Nashor in 2025. This has the ability to catch the enemy team off guard.
Nunu is safe and straightforward: His Consume deals high amounts of true damage (thus not reduced by the debuff) while giving him a massive heal.
Heimerdinger, on the other hand, relies on his turrets to take the Nashor’s aggro for him. This requires knowing how to set it up, however, and shouldn’t be attempted without knowing how to do it.
Credit: League of Legends (In-Game Screenshots; stitched)
Baron Nashor can take three different forms – Hunting, Territorial, and All-Seeing – getting slightly different abilities. Upon spawning for the first time, his area of the map will be altered for the rest of the game based on his type (and only one type of Baron will spawn per game).
Baron Nashor’s Stats:
Baron Nashor’s Passives:
Baron Nashor’s Attacks and Abilities:
The Baron attacks the nearest enemy around him, sometimes performing an AoE attack, hitting nearby targets for 50% of his AD. Each of his attacks also fires a projectile at the enemy with the lowest number of Void Corruption stacks, dealing 70 + 20% AD damage.
For every 6th basic attack, he will also use one of his abilities:
Each of his forms also gets one additional ability:
Now that you know all there is to know about Baron Nashor in League of Legends, get out there and claim that buff! I am not liable for any steals that may ensue.
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