Hello, this is my first submission of a build to Mobafire, so please excuse any inexperience!

In this guide I am going to be outlaying the methods I use to build Brand. My build differs from other more popular builds because I put a focus on stacking AP and leaving most mana concerns to runes and masteries. I have had incredible success with this build, and for me it makes Brand a force to be reckoned with.

This is kind of a response to the many Brand's I have seen since his release, and more of just an alternate playstyle suggestion for those who have tried him and have become interested in him.

This is by no means the be all and end all of guides, but I hope someone may find it useful!

For my runes I generally run Magic Penetration Marks, Mana Regen per Level Seals and Cooldown Reduction glyphs. This is my standard caster rune page, but you may wish to adjust your rune page according to your preferred playstyle. Because Brand has no built in escapes, I play him with Move Speed quints so that I can run in and out a little more safely and possibly even escape ganks. This is purely personal preference for me though, and for other people Magic Penetration quints or flat health quints may be the better choice.

For masteries, I go a standard 9/0/21, grabbing full ranks of both and . Combined with the mana regen per level seals, this will take care of most of my mana issues.

For summoner skills I take and . I suppose other skills could be used, but Flash provides an excellent escape (and distance closer) for Brand, while Ignite provides good synergy with his skill set.

While I have outlined my ideal build in the beginning, you should always build defensively. Never stick to one build and consider it law!

Generally I start out with because the health, ability power and mana regen are excellent starting stats for Brand. If I am laning against someone with an easy harass like , , , or anyone else of that nature, I'll grab a instead. It may seem counter intuitive, but being able to stay in your lane longer and keep your creep farm going is very important.

If the enemy team doesn't have too many cc's, I will get on my first return and a few , sometimes a Sight Ward if I am running the risk of ganks, or have been threatened by ganks. If the team has heavy CC, always always get . You lose out on MPen, but you do way more damage when you are alive rather then dead or focused.

Next is where things become pretty dependent on how things are going; if things are well grab a before you start working on your . If they are not going as well, skip the rod and focus on the Rylai's first. If you are getting heavily focused, replace with a , especially if they have an AD heavy team. Even if you can get the Deathcap, you should probably grab a early just incase.

If CC is still a huge problem, grab a . They have a lot of AP but you're not to worried about being disabled? Get an

Are they building heavy MR early on? Get a before your Rabadon's.

Etc, etc. I can't go over every situational build, but one of the easiest tricks to being an excellent player is being willing to sacrifice your ideal build for the sake of survivability. With your ideal build you may do sweet damage, but as I mentioned before: You can't do any damage when you are dead or focused.

"But guide maker, you have like no mana items in your build! I keep going OOM!"
Do not spam your skills during lane phase. I cannot stress this enough. You do NOT need to spam your skills to get creep kills, Brand's last hit animation and damage is fantastic and so easy to farm with. Generally you will not want to push your lane so hard in laning phase either. Stick to last hitting, use your skills to farm creeps later in game once your mana pool is larger and your team is working on keeping lanes pushed.

The general idea is > > > . But as I have already been preaching: don't just blindly follow your usual build! This goes with skills also, skill reactively!

For instance, if you have a team with excellent AOE disables you may want to level over . I generally choose Sear because I can usually hit it reliably and it does wonderful single target damage. In a fight where you are trying to nuke down the enemy team's carry as quick as possible, wins out over .

If you are not as confident in hitting your , level instead.

"But guide maker, does incredibly damage! Why don't I level that first for early harass?"
It is also easy to dodge. Sure, you can hit it 80% of the time, but that other 20% is wasted mana. is guaranteed to hit and still does excellent damage. Plus, once you get your at level 2, it's much easier to land a stun when they don't have two skill shots they can dodge.

I open with , follow up with for the stun and if it hit's successfully, finish with .

Doing this ensures that they get hit by the full , and against many champions this combo can take off an incredible chunk of health. Even if it doesn't kill the enemy champion, it may force them back and dampen their CS, or it may leave them very easy to gank if you have a jungler. Remember, it's not all about the kills!

At level 6 in one on one fights, after harassing a bit, I'll do a > > > combo, finishing up with and a few Melee hits. This will kill most non tanky champions pretty easily, and if it doesn't finish them off just hit them with another or .