Welcome to my guide. Brand is an awesome nuker, but he takes a little practice and skill to master effectively. All of his skills build off of each other, so knowing what order to use them in is crucial to your situation. That being said, he is a pretty fun champion to play, and in most situations, your 1-2-3 skill combo will always send your enemies running; if they're not dead yet.

I appreciate any feedback, but this is my first guide, so don't be too brutal. If I like your ideas better than mine, I'll change some things around. Please read all of this guide and try it out before you downvote, at least.

+1 to you if you get the Morrowind reference in the title. ~

For my runes, I take:

Magic Penetration Marks. (as almost all Caster DPSs should)

Mana Regeneration per Level Seals. The reason I don't take Replenishment Seals is because your Tear and eventually Morello's Tome and Arch Staff should have you covered early game. (Not to mention the incredible Mana stacks from Tear and Staff, if you max them). I kind of take a hit in Ability Points to have greater Mana Regen and lower Cooldowns in this build, because in an ideal situation, you will almost always be using all of your skills at once.

Flat Cooldown Reduction Glyphs. As I said above, having low Cooldowns is important for Brand, because you will normally be combo-ing your skills together, so once they're all used up, you're useless for a few seconds. Cooldown reduction helps with this a lot.

Ability Power per Level Quints. The Quints are really up to you, if you'd rather have Health Quints, that would also be acceptable, but note that this build already cuts AP for items with Cooldown, Regen, etc.

These are pretty standard caster Runes, but if you feel comfortable changing them to fit your play style, that's fine too.

My masteries are also standard Caster setup: 9/0/21.

There's not much to say here, except that I take a point from Utility Master and put it in Greed, since this build is kinda expensive. Never take Expanded Mind, because it only builds off of your base Mana. The Regen in this build will make up for it big time. If you feel like Utility Master is essential (which I do not), you could afford to take a point out of Meditation, but I would always recommend taking Greed. Some might say that 30% longer Neutral Monster buffs are more important than 1 gold per 10 seconds, and if you feel that way, go ahead and forget about Greed.

Here's where things get kinda iffy. I'm still experimenting with the order in which I purchase these items, but the core build is pretty much steady.

You do not have to take a Doran's Ring in the beginning. If you want to build your Tear first, do it. The Tear is essential in the beginning, however, as you'll want to max your Mana stacks on it, and that wouldn't really be helpful in the mid-late game. So the Tear comes first. After the Tear, you can start building Fiendish Codex, or you can take Boots of Speed. Either way, Build the Codex and the Sorcerer's Shoes. This will give you a nice combination of AP and Regen. What you build next is up to you, but you almost always want to go with a Blasting wand at this point. You could leave your Codex alone, and start building Rylai's Crystal Scepter if you find yourself being killed or damaged easily. Then come back and finish Fiendish Codex, upgrading to Morello's Tome.

Next, I would suggest building a Banshee's Veil. It gives a good amount of Mana, Health, and Magic Resist, and the very handy passive that blocks one negative spell every 30 seconds. If the other team has no Casters, or if you have a good tank on your team, you can probably skip the Veil and replace it with an AP item, such as Deathfire Grasp, or you can move on and complete your Archangel's Staff and a Deathcap.

Other good items for Brand would include:
Abysmal Scepter
Void Staff
Will of the Ancients.

I always take Flash for almost any champion I play. It is a very effective escape mechanism, as is Ghost. However, the 2 Spells I have selected are just a matter of preference. If you feel like Ghost is more effective, take it instead.

Summoner Spells you shouldn't use:

Clairvoyance - probably best left to support characters.
Smite - You aren't a jungler. At least not in this build.
Heal - Having a heal is nice, but there are better spells for Brand, and hopefully you won't need to heal.
Rally - No.
Fortify - Not really good for Brand. Best used for junglers and support champs.
Ignite - While it is a very good spell, even for Brand, you probably won't need it, with the damage you'll be doing. Especially with the DoT from your passive to add to your incredible nuke spells.

Other good spells to consider:
Exhaust - this is a good spell, primarily for chasing/escaping, but also good for weakening Melee DPSers who are chasing you down. With the stun from Sear, however, there are probably better spells to use, but don't rule it out completely.
Teleport - With your item build, you'll be busy at the shop. So when you b to collect your items, you can get right back out to your lane and pick back up. Also good for unexpected ganks, and to protect lanes in trouble.
Cleanse - With no other escape mechanisms aside from Flash/Ghost and the stun from Sear, Cleanse isn't a horrible spell either.

The skill sequence is also a matter of preference, but I believe the way I have listed it is an effective way to go. Take a point in each, starting with Sear, moving on to Pillar of Flame, and one in Conflagration at Level 3. This will give you your core 1-2-3 combo, ready to unleash. I try to max Pillar of Flame, then Sear, then Conflagration. The stun from Sear and the damage output (not to mention it's AoE) from Pillar of Flame are too good to pass up. Conflagration doesn't do much for you, so I always use it to start my combo (which I'll explain in the next section). As with all characters, you always want to put a point in the ultimate as soon as it's available.

I'm sure everyone who has played Brand has caught on to the array of combos that his abilities allow, but for those who haven't, allow me to detail them here.

Sear - Brand launches a ball of fire forward that deals 80/120/160/200/240 (+65% of Ability Power) magic damage. If the target is ablaze, the target will be stunned for 2 seconds.

Pillar of Flame- After a short delay, Brand creates a pillar of flame at a target area, dealing 80/125/170/215/260 (+60% of ability power) magic damage to enemy units within the area. Units that are ablaze take an additional 25% damage.

Conflagration- Brand conjures a powerful blast at his target, dealing 70/105/140/175/210 (+55% ability power) magic damage to them. If the target is ablaze the conflagration will damage nearby enemies as well.

Pyroclasm- Brand unleashes a devastating torrent of fire that bounces between enemies, 150/250/350(+50% ability power) magic damage each time it bounces. If a target is ablaze, Pyroclasm's missile speed increases. It will bounce five times, and can hit the same enemy up to three times.

Passive:
Blaze- Brand's spells light his target ablaze, dealing 2% of their maximum Health in magic damage per second for 4 seconds.


The possibilities are endless. Each ability has a different way of working with the other abilities.
The combo I always use to initiate an enemy is E->Q->W.
I start by lighting them with Conflagration, stunning and damaging them with Sear, and blowing them to hell with Pillar of Flame. With Blaze, this should bring a lot of champs close to death. Or at least enough to send them QQing back to their team/base. Most people who play Brand will probably tell you that this is the primary combo.

There are other possible combo sequences, but the one above is most effective.
Try all of the combo possibilities out. And make sure to finish the low-health champs off with Pyroclasm.

I'll save this section for Patch Notes, or updates I make based on feedback or experimentation.

Updates:
4/20/11 - I'll update the guide with pictures soon, but for now, it'll just be text. Be sure to read everything!



Patch Updates:

Thanks for reading my guide. As I said in the intro, this is my first guide, and I spent quite a bit of time on it, so please comment with your suggestions, praise, etc. If you leave a comment, please vote. I'll accept suggestions on how to improve this guide, but no trolls plz. n__n
Thanks again for reading.