Brand Build Guide by TheDarkTongo

Introduction

Hi people, I'm TheDarkTongo, it's been a lot since I started playing LoL and I am starting to make guides for pratically every champion I own (I like changing them and I know the secrets of them all).

Brand is't a champion that has to be explained too much, I'm going to give you the basic tips and then you'll have to use these to learn how to dominate with him by playing.

This guide will let you learn how Brand can both nuke one single target and help A LOT in teamfights, and how you can survive using him.

Pros / Cons

Pros:

• Very good damage output
• Great AoE damage
• Can easily escape ganks thanks to his stun or turn them into a kill or even a double with correct use of ulti
• Very high dps thanks to passive and low cooldowns

Cons:

• Some mana problems early game (especially if you don't buy enough doran's / have right runes)
• Q and W are skillshots and E has short range
• Can be much harder to play when ulti is on cooldown as it's his only high range targetable spell

Runes and Masteries

Runes:

Pretty normal runes for a mage, I usually take

9x Greater Mark of Magic Penetration - Helps you pierce through Magic Resist (especially later in the game)

9x Greater Seal of Scaling Mana Regeneration - You aren't gonna buy any Mana or Mana regen. items other than doran's, these will help as the game goes on, you'll be able to spam spells lategame.
Greater Seal of Replenishment is a very good choice too as your spells cost alot of mana early, may need blue to keep mana up lategame tho

9x Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power - Simple AP, makes you deal more damage
Greater Glyph of Magic Resist is a good choice too if you are facing a dangerous champion, usually you'll be able to stay out of range anyways)

3x Greater Quintessence of Ability Power - Makes your damage dangerously high especially early.
Greater Quintessence of Health can be a good choice if you need that little more health to survive especially early, however I recommend picking only one or two if you want to

---

Masteries

Simple 21/0/9 thatworks well with any mage, gives you the mana regen, the increased Blue buff duration and all the damage you can get.

I take 1 point in Summoner's Wrath and only 3 in Mental Force as you gain 5 more ability power when Ignite is on cooldown instead of only 1.

Summoner Spells

Recommended summoner spells:

Nerfed but still op. Finish off people, flash out of range, flash over the walls, dodge skillshots and nuke that poor mage down.


Synergizes very well with your passive, this+passive will be a very high dmg DoT.
helps alot with nuking early and as the game goes on you might need it less since your damage will go high alot.

---

Other summoner's spells

Exhaust: No - Isn't that useful against AP casters as it reduces spell damage less than attack damage, also they will probably have flash to make the slow useless.
Ghost: Maybe - Not to replace flash, helps you chasing and escaping, if you're going for lategame utility this is good too, but earlygame it's very weak because of towers.
Heal: Maybe - In the laning phase you'll always have Ignite on you in dangerous situations, however when it comes to teamfights you may be able to use it effectively (I do not recommend it as your aim is to deal damage, not to survive too much)
Revive: Seriously, don't even think about it.
Smite: This isn't a jungling guide so I won't recommend it, if you're going to jungle this is a must (seriously, don't)
Clarity: No - Mana is just something you need to practice on, if you're experienced enough this spell will be as useful as revive.
Surge: Maybe - Never really liked it. It can help you with nuking but you should be able to be fine without it
Promote: No - Use promote -> push lane -> get ganked -> feed. Why did they create this one.
Teleport: No - You can stay on lane as much as you want with that range and those 2 or 3 doran's you got.
Clairvoyance: No - Your support has this.

Skills

• Blaze
  Very good passive, especially against high hp champions, when you go AoE on them they'll suffer a lot from this. Also helps with the harassment.
  This passive also empowers spells, if you cast a spell on an ablaze enemy it'll have an additional effect.
  
• Sear
  Skillshot, deals good damage but it's kinda hard to land and hits only 1 target. NEVER use this if the target isn't ablaze, you don't want to miss the 1.5 seconds stun. Use this spell freely only if you have blue buff and want to poke around.
  
  
• Pillar of flame
  This is the spell you can use for whatever you want:
  Best spell to harass as you can't Sear through minions or get too close for conflagration, has a good range and the pillar will come out very fast, making it easy to land.
  Best spell to farm as you can hit the whole creep wave if it's placed well, once you have a rabadon you should be able to clear the caster minions using it
  Best spell to deal damage in teamfights, ulti isn't really reliable (bounces randomly) and its cooldown is, well, kinda high. Also it keeps you safe thanks to its high range
  
  If the target is ablaze this spell will deal 25% more damage so if you're against a single target use E first to get the additional damage (in teamfights spreading E to many targets will help more than doing more damage with W so you might want to use W first anyways)
  
  
• Conflagration
  Deals good damage and can spread to nearby enemies, great spell when it comes to 1v1 as you can use it to initiate without worrying of anything but range.
  Spreads to nearby enemies if the target you hit is ablaze, so in teamfights you may want to use this when one is already ablaze to hit them all. Also you can use this to harass, simply hit a minion with any other spell and then spread the conflagration to the enemy.
  
• Pyroclasm
  Brand's "OP" spell with a badass animation.
  This is what makes enemies ragequit or call brand OP.
  Is someone ganking you? wait for them to get close to each other,use this and you'll probably be able to get away with 1 kill too if you manage to nuke down the low hp one with the other spells you have
  In 1v1 you might use minions to hit multiple times, in teamfights you can simply throw it in the mix and wait for the announcer to say you just got some.
  
  If the target is ablaze this spell moves faster... what is it for? Basically when you're in a teamfight your enemies will be close to each other but can also flash away to avoid bounces, if this goes faster the destruction will send them in a confusion state "dafuq just happened 2 much dmg everywhere"

---

Some example of combos:

1v1: E > Q > W > R > Ignite if needed
teamfight: W > E > Q (try to pick the most dangerous) > R
ganked (1 melee 1 ranged): Wait for the melee to get close > R > Q > W > E > Ignite = kill and escape Yay
ganked (2 ranged): Flash to the low defense one > E > Q > W > R > Ignite -> You'll probably scare the other one or have enough time to finish him too (if he's AD) or to escape

Skill Sequence

I always start with W, then it's up to you to decide.
I usually continue with E and then Q but if the enemy jungler is very likely to gank you early or if you can't play defensively you might want to take Q at level 2.

Basic skilling order:

Lvl 2 gank order (both if the enemy ganks you or if you gank the enemy): Basically the same but E and Q swapped at the start

Sometimes if you really have to keep the range you might want to prefer Q over E as the damage is still very nice, however if you miss it you miss a great portion of damage and in teamfights you're not as useful as you could be.

Items

Start with:

and 3 if you need to dodge skillshots or if you need higher mobility and want to stay in lane more (you will miss the 100hp bonus but have alot more of HP in the potions

if you don't need to be fast (to dodge skillshots etc) and/or if you need one of the bonuses it gives.

I recommend the boots+3

Now you want your inventory to look like this

A Third doran's ring may be useful if you really want to dominate the lane, if you have to (I don't recommend you if you're not yet experienced with brand) you can also skip the doran's if you want extra mobility early or directly a powerful rabadon
With Sorcerer's shoes (if you have mpen marks) you will pratically completely ignore a carry's Magic resist (unless he has some more than base 30 for some reason)

Now it is time for the most important item

Gives you insane amounts of damage and will contribute to making your next items even better (If you already have some doran's with you, you will notice your dmg going up insanely, big surprise for the enemies)

Now read carefully, the items you are going to buy next depend on the situation

Another item most mages benefit from, 40% magic penetration is very nice (with your masteries it's gonna go up to 50/60%), however it may also not be very useful at this point. The magic penetration applies at the end, so count your enemies' magic resist. If 2 or more enemies have it over 100/120 then this item might be the right choice, however this is just pure dmg, so read on.



Gives good AP, a VERY good aura (auras of these stack, so your support may buy it too) and, most of all, Spell vamp. Spell vamp will help you survive in dangerous situation and keep your health up. This is a good item if your health is damaged constantly but not too quickly.



This item is useful in different ways:
It gives you a slow on every spell, this can be good when you want to chase/escape more easily or when your team has low or no CC
Also it gives you a very high amount of HP. If you have high damage nukers in the enemy team (for example Leblanc) this item may save your life. The HP can let you be more efficient in teamfights aswell, as you won't have to worry too much about damage coming from everywhere



Very high amount of AP and one epic passive, it'll help you escape all the most dangerous situations, for example if you're caught in an intense fight, you have everything on cd and they're coming for you, pop this and wait safely, when you'll come back they probably will have changed target or your cooldowns will be over.
Also gives a good amount of armor. This is useful when there's some annoying AD always jumping on you (Irelia for example)

---

Other good items:

- If you need some defense against AP nukers or if their AP is fed (hope it wasn't you feeding him mid, hehe) this is the item for you. You really don't want to have your damage reduced just cause you have to survive, right? (You can use this item in replacement of Void Staff, it's not the same but it's still very good)


- Sometimes defense may be the most important thing, this is the best defensive item for mages in my opinion. This and Rylai's Crystal Scepter should give you enough survivability, however you may end up having less damage output, which is the most important thing with brand


- I don't really recommend taking this item, but if you really want to get HIGH damage replacing Rylai's Crystal Scepter with this will make you like one real inferno

Gameplay

Early game:

Try to get as many last hits as you can, you won't deal much damage at the start anyways.
Try not to use Pillar of Flame if the target isn't ablaze before you are level 4: Your damage won't be that high at level 1, the mana cost is high too.

Always try to keep your mana up and avoid overextending.
Also keep an eye on the enemy's items, if they're worse than yours (he decided not to buy any doran's) you can start being more aggressive (depends on the champion too)

Once you get to lvl 6 you should start going around to gank or you should try to bait the enemy mid:
Go out of the lane and a little, he'll probably follow you. Wait for him in a bush and as soon as he comes close go E > Q > W > R > Ignite on him. He'll be dead in no time.

Mid game:

Laning phase should be over and you should have at least a part of your Rabadon's Deathcap
You deal a lot of damage now, and are very good in 1v1 and sometimes even in 1v2

Simply try to get as many kills as possible but most of all don't die. Always keep an eye on the minion wave to get your farm

Late game:

You are a killing machine, but you might still have some problems with surviving if you don't have Rylai's Crystal Scepter.
If you have Will of the Ancients try to use it as much as possible to keep your HP up.

As soon as a teamfights starts simply stay in the back and throw AoE at them. If you don't have Rylai's Crystal Scepter remember that you may be very vulnerable, so going too near to hit the carries can be dangerous.

Once their Mage has enough items it'll be mostly about "who hits first", hitting your Sear will change the sorts of a 1v1

Farming

Farming with brand is very easy

Early: Try to simply autoattack the minions when they're low on hp, if the enemy gets close to a low hp minion you can use Pillar of Flame to hit both your enemy and the minion.
Always try not to use spells to farm early or you'll end up overextending, use them only at your tower.

Once you get Rabadon's Deathcap you should be able to kill the caster minions with a single Pillar of Flame.

Whole minion wave clearing (having blue buff is recommended):
Sear the central melee minion and then use Conflagration on it. Then hit them all with Pillar of Flame and you're done.

Harassing

Use Pillar of Flame to hit enemies. The pillar will come out VERY quickly and without boots it's pratically impossible to dodge it.

If you have Boots of Speed you'll be able to hit more frequently as yit won't be obvious when you cast it.

Try not to hit too many minions as you could start to overextend and then open ganking opportunities on you

If you set a minion ablaze you can use Conflagration on it to spread the spell to your enemy (awarning: this may lead to pushing the lane)