Weapon Baron: A Comprehensive Guide to Success

posted in the original Vainglory Forums 17 Sept 2016 by @TConn, archived by @HipsterSkaarf

Hello everyone! I’ve had so much fun with Baron so far that I thought I’d make a guide on how to play his weapon side. So, let’s jump right in and talk about how to play Red Baron, shall we?

ABILITIES

HEROIC PERK

Baron’s perk, called Rocket Launcher, enable his basic attacks to deal 130% weapon damage to both his target and nearby enemies. Rocket Launcher synergies incredibly well with Breaking Point; just a few basic attacks, combined with the weapon splash damage onto other enemies, can send BP stacks skyrocketing.

This clip features Baron using his heroic perk to its fullest. While initially focusing Celeste, he also lands splash damage onto Lyra, gaining quick breaking point stacks. Then, after Celeste is dead, Baron focuses down Lyra, utilizing the splash damage to hit Kestrel, which leads to an easy ace.

PORCUPINE MORTAR [A]

Baron’s A launches a mortar that, when built weapon, applies a slow to a targeted area. The mortar is most useful against melee heroes who must stick to Baron in order to deal damage (Krul, Blackfeather, etc). Because the enemy melee hero is so close to Baron, and must stay that way in order to be effective in a fight, Baron can place the mortar on top of himself, almost guaranteeing that the slow will be applied. This allows Baron to kite away from melee heroes, and continue doing damage while keeping his range.

Here, the game has just begun. Because Baron is quite weak early on, Kestrel can out-damage him in lane. Baron uses his A to force Kestrel up towards the top of the lane, allowing him to farm up at the bottom of the lane without having to worry about being poked.

JUMP JETS [B]

Baron’s B ability, called Jump Jets, launches him to a targeted area after a short windup, and then grants him a small burst of movement speed. After landing, the next basic attack he launches fires quickly and reloads immediately, granting him a two-shot basic attack burst right after landing. Baron’s basic attacks lower the cooldown of this ability. Most of Baron’s kit centers around the mobility granted by his jump jets, which helps make up for his low movement speed. Late game, Baron can spam this ability due to the already short cooldown being lowered by his basic attacks.

In the gif above, Fortress and the enemy Kestrel kill each other down below the wall, but before that happens, Baron jumps over the wall, landing in between the enemy Celeste and Lyra, and flanking the Kestrel. Because Baron separated Lyra and Celeste, Lyra is forced to portal away to prevent the ace, which allows for an easy kill on Celeste, with Baron auto-attacking enough to have his jump jets back up to pursue Celeste when she attempts to escape.

In this gif, the enemy Baron has been poking from afar, using his A to build up broken myth stacks. When the sound appears signifying that the enemy Baron has used his ultimate, a correct placement prediction and timing allow the friendly Baron to use the burst of mobility he gets from his jump jets to escape the enemy Baron’s ultimate.

Again, with a correct prediction and timing, Baron not only dodges the enemy CP Baron’s mortar, but he baits the two enemies down into his own ultimate and follows up with an instantly reloaded basic attack granted by his jump jets.

ION CANNON [C]

Baron’s ultimate is an orbital strike that decimates a targeted area. Weapon Baron is incentivized to max out this ability because each point put into it passively increases his basic attack range. When overdriven, Baron has the longest basic attack range in the game.

In this clip Baron is being pursued by the enemy team after his team was caught out. He places his ultimate a bit too far behind, but on the minimap, the enemy Baron can be seen giving up the pursuit, to go back to lane. As a result, Baron can use the last bit of extra movement speed granted by his jump jets to move back towards the ultimate, so that the enemy Kestrel, while trying to kill him over the wall, stays in the ultimate range and is killed as a result.

POWER SPIKE

Baron is a late game hero; early on, his low attack speed and lack of mobility cripple him, but once he gets his items and all of the advantages that come with leveling up his abilities and building weapon power, he has his jump up more often and can afford to be more aggressive in fights. He tends to spike around 14-15 minutes, when you finish your first Tyrant’s Monacle, and from there on, he only ramps up even further.

BUILD

BP, TM, TM, DEF, DEF, BOOTS

ITEMIZATION BREAKDOWN

Beginning of the game: buy a weapon blade and two potions
First shop: T2 boots (the mobility really comes in handy, given how slow he is)
Second shop: Blazing salvo, heavy steel
Third shop: Breaking point, reflex block
From then on is situational. Get defense as need be, and counterbuild. Enemies are double weapon? Forgo the reflex block (I’ll talk more about this in a bit) and buy a metal jacket and Atlas Pauldron.

WHAT ABILITIES TO UPGRADE

Porcupine Mortar: Upgrade at level 1, don’t overdrive
Jump Jets: Upgrade at level 2, overdrive at level 8
Ion Cannon: Upgrade at level 6, overdrive at level 12

PLAYSTYLE

Baron is a late game hero; it’s best to play him cautiously early on, using his A to zone the enemy laner away from him so that he can farm safely. In the mid game, Baron can afford to be a bit more aggressive, but really only has an impact if a fight lasts for quite a while, because he hasn’t finished both of his Monacles, and can’t stack breaking point that quickly as a result. As the laning/farming phase of the game wraps up, Baron can really start harassing in lane, using the splash damage from hitting minions to poke the enemy laner. In the late game, Baron can afford to play aggressive, but not overly so. Feel free to engage in fights at will, but bear in mind that his strength relies on stacking breaking point, and then ramping up his damage five to six seconds into the fight.

TEAMMATE SYNERGY

The best supports to pair with Baron are Phinn, who excels at keeping enemies grouped together so that Baron can maximize his splash damage, and Ardan, who can give Baron extra movement speed with his Vanguard, as well as group enemies together with his Gauntlet. The best jungle carries to pair with weapon Baron are CP Fortress and CP Taka, who both both have a significant bleed effect that Baron’s basic attacks and splash damage procs. CP Skye also pairs well with Baron, as she scales quite well into the late game, around the time that Baron really starts ramping up his damage.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

In this clip, Catherine was caught out by the shop, and as a result, Baron and Koshka are left in a 2v3 scenario with an exposed vain crystal. Rona jumps over the wall and immediately focuses Koshka, allowing Baron to build up several BP stacks, so that when Taka comes around the wall, the splash damage from just two basic attacks chunks down 3/4 of his health, allowing Koshka to easily finish him off. Baron then sees from an expertly placed scout trap that Lance is about to join the fight, so he uses his jump jets to maneuver back and be further away from Lance’s root, then uses the two-shot burst after the jump to finish off Rona as she attempts to escape, successfully defending his exposed vain crystal.

Baron and his team are pushing with the Kraken when the enemy Krul jumps onto the backline to build stacks on Baron. Baron places his ult behind him and allows Krul to chase him right into the ultimate, while hitting him with basic attacks, building BP stacks, and quickly finding the kill.

After killing Krul and building 16 BP stacks, Baron jumps over the wall and surprises SAW with a burst of damage, using his A to slow him and then making use of his incredible range to find the kill right as SAW enters his base.

So there you have it! Thanks for Baron with me heh! Hopefully this guide helps you realize the power of Baron’s weapon path, and shows you several techniques that you can use to secure your victory on the Fold. Hope to see you there!

Much thanks to @Vincitoria and @HipsterSkaarf for partying up with me and helping me get some incredible gameplay, and to @HipsterSkaarf for adding the Tyrant’s Monacle and Breaking Point items to my Red Baron picture. Also much thanks to @Phrog for the Red Baron Pizza idea. You guys are awesome!

Also, I had to add a blooper reel of sorts, so enjoy me juking the living daylights out of this Taka:

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