Baron Samedi: Versatility Incarnate

Patch 7.7

Baron Samedi, Voodoo's Life of the Party, and likely one of the most versatile mages in the game in terms of roles he can fill. Buildwise, he can use abilities constantly with Cooldown Reduction, he can boost his power and use his first ability to snipe people from behind walls and teammates, or he can decide to build into healing, allowing his teammates to survive situations and take additional hits. Baron can play three of the five roles effectively, especially if you want to build him as an ability Bruiser for Solo Lane or a Healing Tank as a Support, and of course, Baron holds incredible value as a Midlane due to said versatility in building styles.

Explanation of Builds

Build Section

Notes

The Cooldown Build is what I would define as Baron Samedi's Primary Build, being able to use Vivid Gaze (1) around every 4 seconds and Consign Spirits (2) around every 7 seconds with a decent amount of cooldown being built into. This build is the prime example of how to get that kind of playstyle down with some room for variance to help counterbuild enemy opponents. Changing one of the Spears to a Divine Ruin to counter Chang'e, Anubis, Zhong Kui, or another character with a decent lifesteal built into their kit or building into lifesteal will allow you to keep a low cooldown timer on your two primary damaging abilities but will also allow for halting enemy healing effectively. You can substitute Sands of Time for Vampiric Shroud and buy Staff of Myrddin as your fifth item or get Relic Dagger to reduce the cooldowns of your Relics in a substitution to most items in this build. Whilst I wouldn't recommend selling of the Sands of Time, it would be understandable if you decided to sell that off to get more utility from Staff of Myrddin or another item

The Power Build focuses on getting Book of Thoth first and stacking it, allowing for Baron to benefit throughout the game from having a high mana pool as well as additional power from mana. Building into Spear of the Magus to mark enemies and deal additional damage to them, Soul Gem for additional healing, Rod of Tahuti to increase damage done to targets below 50% health, and Soul Reaver to combat high HP targets like the enemy Solo or Support. Soul Reaver can be replaced by Obsidian Shard as an easy substitute in games where the enemy isn't bulky but rather has a large amount of magical protections or you can forgo both and choose to use your second item slot to counterbuild then pick up Spear or Soul Gem from there to help deal with whomever you might be fighting, though Staff of Myrddin is also an excellent pick because 70% uncapped cooldown reduction is a powerful tool with high power and could be a viable alteration if you choose to subsitute that in place of Soul Reaver and opt for a Rod of Tahuti as your 6th item, rather then your 5th.

The Healing Build is a build for when you are wanting to have fun and turn your brain off. This build is entirely focusing on healing yourself and pumping out quite a bit of damage through abilities. A mix of Cooldown %, Magical Lifesteal, and Power, this build's main draw is the fact that you can effectively become a discount Chang'e when enemies are nearby, using your 2 as a way of healing everyone around you. Due to Rod of Asclepius, you gain additional healing from your lifesteal and heal your teammates for additional health as well. Stay towards the center of your team and everyone will get a sizable health gain, allowing you to hopefully win teamfights with more health or survive in them for longer.

Leveling for Midlane

Skills Section

Vivid Gaze

Consign Spirits

Wrap It Up

Life of the Party

Vivid Gaze

Consign Spirits

Wrap It Up

Life of the Party

Notes

When levelling Baron, you want to level him in one of two ways, either to use Vivid Gaze as your main damaging ability and be able to hit hard and quick with it, sniping people through walls or hitting the enemy backline in the early midlane fights around level 7-10 range or you want to use Consign Spirits as your main damaging ability due to the sustain it provides when hitting an enemy god. In either case, for clearing Red Buff before you manage to hit level 3 or so, Vivid Gaze is the better option in terms of waveclear and taking out your damage camp if the Jungler hasn't done so already.

Usage for each ability:
Vivid Gaze: Oftentimes will be your main damage, good wave clear, good poke, and can snipe people through walls, giving you a good offensive option to punish someone for trying to back from just behind a wall, attempt a gank, steal camps even. Probably the most versatile ability in your kit due to this feature.

Consign Spirits: High Damage, Healing when you hit enemy gods, and can easily be the start of a 2-1 combo which leaves the enemy hurt and at high Hysteria levels. this is a great AoE ability for teamfights, can be used to clear wave, and overall the ability you want to maxing first if you find yourself boxing your enemy in wave due to the fact that you get to heal and damage wave with the same ability.

Wrap It Up: Stuns the Opponent and allows you to combo off with your other three abilities easily, but can also be useful in forcing an opponent to burn their beads or waste an effect like Magi's Cloak. Solid Ability for handling gods, but I recommend not putting any points into it after you start it until you have nowhere else to invest points into.

Life of the Party: Hopefully you can pull the enemy backline in close with this to get a free stun and kill, but more often then not, you are going to catch a Solo or Support instead. This ability is great during your Laning phase due to the ability to get a stun, tick damage, and potentially a free kill or your opponent to waste beads. Don't be afraid to cancel out of this ability early should the enemy team not be anywhere near you, beads out to escape, or whomever you were pulling dies midpull.

Matchups

Gods Section

Notes

Ah Puch - Soft Counter: His kit allows him to stun you if you heal through an ability, forcing you to not use your 2 when he has that effect on you. Antiheal just hurts terribly because of Ah Puch's built in synergy with it. Overall, this only affects your 2, so just be mindful of when you have the effect of Ah Puch's 3 on you or nearby teammates.

Janus - Hard Counter: Janus is the definition of Safety. If you are fighting a competent Janus player, be expecting to go back to base and by the time you are finished buying items, Solo Lane is calling out "Enemy Missing Middle!" and by the time you arrive back to your own lane, Janus has finished clearing wave like nothing happened. High Mobility through his portals along with an Aegis effect should he fall into his own portal, he can drop you through the portal and deal great damage, and if you use your ultimate and he happens to be anywhere near a wall, expect him to use his portal to escape to safety. Your best bet is to rely upon a Jungler to help you take him down, utilize your Ultimate and your 3 to hopefully catch him by surprise and quickly use burst damage to kill him.

Chang'e - Soft Counter: Divine Ruin and Chang'e 3 reduces your healing by a massive amount, fighting a Chang'e like this is effectively a death sentence if you are relying upon healing to keep yourself alive. Build Divine Ruin yourself and focus on ensuring Chang'e 3 doesn't connect if you plan on trying to use your 2 to sustain through a fight.

Zeus - Soft Counter: High Damage on his 1 and his 3 allows Zeus to hit you in the backline and take you from 100-0 really quick. Be careful with your engagements with Zeus because getting hit with one charge is bad, getting hit multiple times when he can detonate? You better have Aegis or Alternative Timeline to handle the fact you are about to eat a lightning bolt to the face and there is nothing you can do about it.

Notes

Vulcan: Whilst Vulcan can sit back and relax using his turret, many Vulcans will use their dash to clear wave, which sets them farther back. Be aware of when he uses this and aim to hit a 3 right before he does. Once a Vulcan is stunned, you can easily hit an ult on them and they are as good as dead from there.

Sol: Disapparate is your main cause for concern against Sol in Midlane. Once she uses that ability, she can get out of your ultimate easily, this however does allow you to test the waters for how competent the Sol is. If they don't disapparate once you use your ult and they allow themselves to get stuck in it, you have a relatively free kill on ulting them. If they do, you can cancel your ult and use that time that they disapparated to gain pressure on their tower or force them to cancel, allowing you to hit them with your other abilities.

Agni: Agni is an Ultimate Machine, able to bomb people from behind walls and such. Should your Agni be trying to hide and use his ultimate as a ganking tool, you have three things to help counteract this. Wards, Vivid Gaze, and a Jungler. Use Wards to get sightline on Agni, use Vivid Gaze to initiate against him, and have your Jungler gank the Agni to cut him off and secure a kill if need be.

Hades: A god who effectively has no range against someone who can bring them in close and stun them. Just watch for Hades' dash and be quick to punish him with your 1, your 3, or your Ult and don't think about fighting him in wave because that just makes him more powerful since he can heal off of you and the minions around you. Clear his wave as fast as possible then fall back to force him to engage your minions without you there before engaging him yourself. Also don't forget that you have CC Immunity in your ult and he has CC immunity in his, so using an ultimate to escape Hades Ult isn't a bad idea or ulting right before his wears off might allow you to get a kill.

Solo Lane Play

Build Section

Notes

This is something I'm only now becoming well versed in, so these builds are a lot more experimental then the other ones where it roughly has legs already under it.

We have one major thing to account for: Are you fighting a Physical or a Magical Damaging God?

Physical Gods are a lot more likely to be versatile in what they are able to do, so play safe until you hit level 5 and predict how they are going to act accordingly. If you notice they are playing aggressively, get them into tower using your Ult then use your 3 to keep them there. If they are playing defensively, use the 1 to poke them. If they are fighting in wave, use the 2+1 to clear wave and poke or the 1 to clear wave and poke. If you are fighting someone like Hercules or Gilgamesh, remember to pick up an item like Stone of Gaia to counteract some of the issues they can cause.

If you are against a Magical Solo, such as a guardian or occasionally a mage like Hades or Ao Kuang? Build Void Stone first then build around their weakness. Someone like Hel or Hades will feel the negative effects of Pestilence a lot more then someone like Fafnir or Khepri and building something such as Tyrannical Plate Helm can make fighting during a way a lot better for you while also helping you push tower.

A lot of playing Baron Samedi in Solo Lane is learning how to play fast and loose with what you buy. If you have a good lead against your opponent or can outfarm them without an issue, maybe slotting a Warlock's Staff into the second slot after you pick up protections with your first item is a good idea. If you are potentially fighting an ability based character like Ullr, Arthur, or Tyr who can spam abilities out, get Warding Sigil. Someone playing an auto attack focused character like Amaterasu? Get Asgardian Mail to slow their attack speed down so they apply less procs of Manakin Mace, Frostbound or whatever they might be building. Learn your options and when to buy them and you will be successful as any god, but it really does help a lot on Baron Samedi just of what this all ties back to... Versatility.