League of Legends Patch 9.23 breakdown: The preseason patch

Elder Dragon

"Removed: Elder Dragon’s buff no longer increases the effects of Elemental Drake buffs by 50%. Burn Damage: 45 (+45 per Elemental Drake stack) true damage over 3 seconds ⇒ 90-270 true damage over 3 seconds (at 25:00-45:00 game time). Removed: Elder Dragon’s burn no longer reveals enemies. Removed: Taking Elder Dragon a second time no longer increases the Elemental buff multiplier to 100% or the burn damage to 135 (+90 per Elemental Drake stack)."

Elder Dragon has now completely changed and is no longer affected by the number of Elemental Dragons a team has picked up before slaying Elder. Instead killing Elder Dragon grants Elder Immolation:

"Damaging an enemy at less than 20% health causes them to die in an Elder Immolation after 0.5 seconds (no cooldown). Elder Immolation can’t execute enemies through invulnerability effects like Zhonya’s Hourglass or undying effects like Kindred’s R – Lamb’s Respite. Buff Duration: 150 seconds; lost on death ⇒ 180 seconds; still lost on death."

In short, what this means is, enemy champions have 80% effective health while you have the Elder buff. A dragon’s breath animation will appear whenever you damage an enemy below 20% health, executing them instantly, putting you in a position to win a team fight and win the game.

This huge change could make Elder Dragon even more powerful than before, keeping opponents on their toes and worried about the massive execute damage that they could face if they fall too low. The added duration makes this change even more exciting/scary depending on which team picks up the buff.

Baron Buff

"Duration: 210 seconds ⇒ 180 seconds."

To match Elder Dragon and to bring both epic buffs in line, Baron’s buff duration has been reduced by 30 seconds to exactly 3 minutes. This gives teams a large opening to break down the enemy base, but not too large that they can delay and dawdle while waiting for items or minion waves to crash.