The Baron Nashor objective has remained largely unchanged in League of Legends for years, but that’s all about to change with the major updates coming in Season 14. Riot’s design team has completely overhauled the Baron pit area and the Epic Monster himself to shake up late-game strategy and add more excitement around taking down this powerful boss.
From replacing Rift Herald with a new early-game objective called Voidgrub to transforming the terrain and abilities of Baron Nashor, Season 14 brings some of the biggest updates ever to this iconic part of Summoner’s Rift. Read on to learn about Riot’s goals behind these changes, the iterative design process, and all the new variable mechanics being introduced around the Baron pit. Whether you’re an ADC, jungler, or support, the way you approach Baron fights is about to change in dramatic ways once Season 14 arrives.
Voidgrub, Mecha Herald, and New Improved Baron
The early, mid, and late-game PvE objectives on Summoner’s Rift are receiving major overhauls in Season 14, from the new Voidgrub spawning in Baron pit as an early skirmish reward, to the Rift Herald rework enabling champions to control its charge, all the way to Baron Nashor himself rising as a variable and enhanced foe in one of three new pit configurations. Riot set out to revolutionize objective pacing and excitement, and these updates aim to deliver constant fresh decision-making and map events from start to finish.
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New Early Game Objective: Voidgrubs
One of Riot’s main goals with the Season 14 updates was to improve the flow of objectives in the early and mid-game. To accomplish this, they’ve replaced the Rift Herald that previously spawned at 10 minutes with a new objective called the Voidgrub.
The Voidgrub is a writhing horde of Voidborn creatures that will begin spawning in the Baron pit around the 5-minute mark. Every minute, more Voidgrubs and their parasitic Voidmite offspring will emerge, increasing the size of the horde.
Taking down the Voidgrub horde will eventually free the imprisoned Rift Herald at around 10 minutes into the game. The rewarding part of this objective comes from whittling down the horde over time. The more Voidgrubs you kill before Herald spawns, the more buffs your team will receive.
This provides incentives for organized early invades to fight over the objective. Riot found in playtesting that a horde-style monster was much better suited as an early-game objective compared to the Rift Herald. Unlike Herald, the Voidgrub rewards teams for forcing early skirmishes rather than destroying lane dynamics.
The evolution of the Voidgrub objective went through several iterations before ending up in its current form. Riot wanted to add more points of interest in the early game and find a thematically cohesive narrative, leading to the idea of a Void creature hive absorbing Herald’s power.
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Mecha Herald Charges onto the Rift
Once the Rift Herald is freed from imprisonment by the Voidgrub, it will spawn on the map as usual around 10 minutes into the match. However, the way you interact with Herald has also completely changed in Season 14.
Now, one player can channel Herald’s power and directly control its charge toward enemy structures. Instead of relying on Herald’s AI, champions will vault onto Herald’s back and steer the charge themselves, crashing through towers with the brute force of the Voidborn beast.
The idea of “jacking in” to the Rift Herald came from Riot’s desire to create an exciting new way for players to interact with neutral objectives. At first, players could fully possess Herald and gain tanky new abilities, but this caused too much frustration and took away from the core champion experiences.
The newer Mecha Herald iteration serves the best of both worlds – the fun of hijacking Herald’s charge combined with playing your own chosen champion. This reimagining of Herald fixed many of the problems with the objective feeling lackluster or destroying early game lane dynamics.
Now junglers have an incredibly powerful tool to break open the map when they secure Herald. The risk-reward dynamics of when to channel Mecha Herald’s charge will make taking the shelled monster a pivotal moment in the mid-game.
The New and Terrifying Baron Nashor
Last but certainly not least, Season 14 will also include a huge Baron Nashor rework, from the terrain of his pit to his character model and abilities. Riot set out to make Baron feel like a properly epic boss battle again, evolving with the times after remaining static for so many years.
The first change you’ll notice is three possible configurations for Baron’s pit each game. The pits include the classic base version, a wall-filled maze, and a snaking tube-like terrain. With random pits in each game, the terrain around Baron will always feel fresh and challenging to master.
Each pit also comes with a specialized version of Baron Nashor designed for that particular environment. Baron’s abilities range from rift explosions in the tube pit to centered void pools in the walled maze pit. Adaptability will be key no matter the pit you face off in against the Baron.
Baron’s model and animations have also been updated to match modern Champion standards and truly capture the terror of a Void Leviathan. Whether its appearance oozing menace or its variable spells unleashing chaos, Baron finally lives up to his billing as the lord of Baron pit.
Between the early, mid, and late-game objective changes, Riot has completely reimagined the flow of PvE objectives in League. The strategic diversity and moment-to-moment excitement around dragons and barons promise to make Season 14 one of the most impactful seasons ever. Brace yourself for epic monster showdowns and unexpected terrain when you next queue up for Summoner’s Rift!
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Conclusion
The scope of LoL Baron updates in Season 14 proves Riot’s commitment to keeping the game feeling fresh. By reworking the pacing and incentives around neutral objectives, they are injecting new strategic considerations and hype into every stage of the game. The creativity evident in these changes shows the design team’s continued ability to surprise, delight, and terrify players with PvE encounters.
While the new Voidgrub, Mecha Herald, and Baron Nashor will take time to master, they promise to reward teams willing to adapt to the chaos. One thing is certain – with these impactful updates, the race to slay the Baron will never be the same again.
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