Hey guys here's a little background on Brand,The Burning Vengeance:

"In a faraway place known as Lokfar there was a seafaring marauder called Kegan Rodhe. As was his people's way, Kegan sailed far and wide with his fellows, stealing treasures from those unlucky enough to catch their attention. To some, he was a monster; to others, just a man. One night, as they sailed through the arctic waters, strange lights danced over the frozen wastes. There was something hypnotic about them; it was something that drew them to it like moths to a flame. Trekking across the frozen waste, they came to a cave covered in ancient runes. The meaning of the runes long lost to them, Kegan led the way inside. There, inside a perfect cage of ice floated a dancing column of flame. There was no way such a thing should be burning, especially not in this place. However, its movement was as hypnotic as a siren's song, captivating and seductive. While the others stayed back, Kegan could not help but approach it while holding out his hand...

That is the last thing Kegan Rodhe remembers, for now his body belongs to Brand. It is a creature of olden times, perhaps even a casualty of the Rune Wars. It is known in ancient texts as the Burning Vengeance. It is a creature of pure fiery hate that exists for no other reason than to lay waste the world of men and yordles. No one is quite sure how Brand found his way to Valoran, but he began his predations at once. Overcome by Demacian forces, he was given a choice: fight within the confines of the League or die. Naturally, he chose to use his destructive powers in the League, for now..."

So why Brand? I've asked myself this question a lot during the past 2 days since I bought him. I usually play Nocturne, and he is my favorite champ by far but when it came to mages no one seemed to be to my liking, that's until i found Brand. I can promise you guys he is definitely worth a try. One thing i must mention though, Brand is not the easiest hero out there and can take some time to master and to learn how to use your combos properly so please try him out for a few games before criticising the hero or the build. In the following chapters i'll walk you through my way of playing him. Please keep in mind that feedback is more than welcome,so if you guys have any suggestions or ideas please feel free to post them. Ok so here we go....

PROS:
-Right from the start you'll find that he's an excellent harrasser.
-Capable of dealing constant damage as well as nuking.
-Is good mid hero as well as a good lane hero.
-A fairly good farmer once you have these 2 spells: Pillar of Flame and Conflagration.


CONS:
-Quite squishy early-game.
-You need a fair ammount of mana early-game to keep harrassing.
-In order to use your ulti ( Pyroclasm) to it's full potential you need at least 2 enemies standing near each other.
-Lacks any form of croud-control (except his first spell Sear, but this is only useful when you use it in combo with another spell).

-Rune-wise i found that it is a lot better to play him with Magic Penetration runes such as : Greater Mark of Magic Penetration and Greater Quintessence of Magic Penetration simply because your passive Blaze does not benefit from your Ability Power, only from your Magic Pen. percentage, and you will find that Brand's passive is a ***** against heroes with a lot of hp, it's pretty much like an ignite.

-The reason i went with Greater Seal of Replenishment is because, like i mentioned above in the Pros/Cons chapter, Brand is quite mana hungry early-game so you need as much mana as you can get.

-Also i found that Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power is the best choice as far as glyphs go simply because you need as much Ability towards the end of the game as you can get.

-As far as items go, the build posted above is what i usually play with. Of course, like with every hero, your item build may differ depending on the heroes you are fighting against.

-The reason i suggest starting out with Catalyst the Protector is because this item offers great survivability with increased hp and mana pools as well as replenishes your mana and hp each time you level up.

-In some cases i use Catalyst the Protector and turn it into Rod of the Ages. I found that playing against heroes such as Dr. Mundo or Katarina can be quite stressful because of their abilities Infected Bonesaw and Bouncing Blades that have a small cool-down and that can take down your veil buff, rendering it useless. This item is also useful because it increases your survivability with that extra hp.

-If you find that you are having a hard time laning due to enemy harrass i suggest buying a Hextech Revolver early on, this allowing you to repeatedly fill-up your hp pool.

- Abyssal Mask is another item i find quite useful when fighting against a team made up of mostly Ap based heroes. It increases your magic resistance while giving you extra ability power.

- Mejai's Soulstealer is another great item you can get depending on how good your team is. If your teammates do a good job keeping enemies of your back and keep you alive i strongly suggest you get this item since it gives a huge ammount of ability power as well as a nice cooldown reduction when stacks are full.

- Some other items that are worth trying are cooldown reducing items such as Morello's Evil Tome but i personally do not use them simply because Brand's cooldowns aren't that big in the first place.

Personally I like to use:
- Flash for escaping those ugly gangs or for getting closer to a fleeing enemy to land in that killing blow.
and
- Ignite because it's like having 2 passives. I would like to mention that i have landed in a lot more killing blows using ignite simply because we all know how some people are just that lucky and get away with 50-60 hp or less, so i find it being very useful.
- Teleport, is another spell that i play with and comes in handy all the time. Whether you need to quickly get from one end of the map to the other, to defend a tower or join in on a gang, or just to go to base and buy some items and return back to your lane in a flash.

Of course there are other good combos that one can use, such as:
- Flash and Ghost, which are great for escaping from a gang or getting to a place quicker to help your team gang someone.
- Flash or Ghost with Clarity, increases your harrassing potential by quite a lot.
- Cleanse another summoner spell that is quite useful, might get you out of trouble though i personally have never used it on casters.

Keep in mind that there are some summoer spells that you should never use on Brand, such as:
- Revive, in my opinion one of the most useless summoner spells, play with your head and i guarantee you won't need it.
- Fortify, this spell is mostly for tanks or support heroes, your job is to deal damage and not repaint the towers.
- Clairvoyance, another spell for support heroes, you do not need it for Brand.
- The last 2 spells that i do not suggest you use on Brand are: Heal and Rally.

I would like to point out that this is just my 2 cents on what summoner spells work and don't work on Brand, in the end it is up to each and every one of us what we chose to use.

The reason I suggest maxing out Conflagration first is because this is a one-click-hit spell, there is no casting time or no delay on it.Also i find it being very useful for farming, you just open up with Pillar of Flame and then click Conflagration on the creep standing in the middle of the pile so to deal as much AoE damage as possible.

During team-fights i usually open with Pillar of Flame, followed by Conflagration and in the end Sear to stun the opponent making sure he does not run away. In case the enemies are standing near each other, after the W-E-Q combo i throw in the ulti Pyroclasm and watch them burn to cinders :D.

During 1v1 fights i usually open with Conflagration and Ignite followed by Sear and end with Pillar of Flame to deal the maximum damage and in the end , if it's a must you can throw in your ultimate Pyroclasm. Keep in mind that once your abilities are on cooldown you are helpless so i suggest keep some distance between you and your opponent in the case that it is a melee champion.

Early-Game:
-Brand is an excellent early-game champ. Your ability to harrass mean that you can keep enemy champs away while his decent attack damage and quick animation makes it easy to land in those last hits on creeps.
-Depending on who your laning partner is you can use different styles of game-play. For example if you are laning with a harrasser let's say like Katarina you can adopt an aggressive play style and harrass the enemy as often as you can. This will leave them with low hps making it easy to swoop in for a quick kill.
-In case your laning partner is a carry like Nocturne or Tryndamere for example i usually concentrate on harrassing the enemy and keeping them away so that my laning partner can get all the last hits on creeps allowing him to farm early on. I do this because we all know that in 70-80% of games a good carry can change the outcome of the match.

Mid-Game and Late-Game:
-By now things should be going quite well for you , and this is where you start to burn your opponents to ashes.I strongly suggest doing as many gangs as possible as well as pushing towers in 5 man teams.
-Also by now during team-fights you are probably the focus of the entire enemy team so i suggest you stay at the back of the pack and only pop in to drop your ulti and combos once the enemy team uses up some of their abilities and summoner spells.

In this section i just wanted to show you guys some games that i have had using this build and how they came out:

All in all to me Brand is a very funny and pleasant to play hero and he is by far my favorite mage so i strongly recommend you guys give him a couple of tries and see how he is, who knows he might just end up being your fav.
I would like to thank all of you for taking the time to read this build, I hope you will enjoy it, once again i urge you to post any thoughts you might have, all forms of criticism are welcome.

So that's about it, i hope you guys enjoy Brand and most importantly i hope you have fun playing him and i hope to see you guys out on the Field of Justice.

PS: Linkin Park rulz :P ....

I'm planning to add an entire chapter with game-play videos showing you guys how to handle being mid, laning, ganging, as well as how to use your spell combos depending on which situation you're in.
Also i'm planning to add some photos showing victories and defeats and the scores obtained during those matches.