*WARNING* This build is very strong, guaranteeing screams and groans from your fleeing opponents. There is nothing they can do, they cannot run, they cannot hide for the ghosts will always find them. If they try to turn around and gun you down, all you do is stun them in their face, kite back and continue laying waste to their team.

The reason I made this was that no guide existed with an Ap offtank Brand build in it. Also because as it is, Dead Mans Plate is very underrated as an items for mages that deal their damage via spells so I wanted to bring some attention to that.

You can run this in build in any lane, though it is strongest as support. The build is quite good in the jungle though you might have trouble with counterjungling early before lvl 3. All you need to do is play it cool when you gank, walk into lane and wait for them to blow their escape and land your stun afterwards. You are so slippery it is like your enemies are trying to catch an oiled pig, while the pig is on fire, leaving an inferno behind.

In midlane laning phase goes almost as any other build for mid, though your goal is always to get Rylais ASAP.

Pros
- Strong in lane (quite a lane bully if you get a slight edge)
- Great cc
- Insane durability
- Terrifying kiting => Rylais makes you OP
- Ensured catch potential => frost queens claim makes you OP
- Potent damage output
- Carry potential in every lane and position
- Power spike once you get Rylais
- Great movespeed to dodge skillshots
- Team player, this Brand build is so OP when played with a good team.
- Extremely strong sieger and tower diver.
- Burning enemies gives you turret aggro, if used tactically can be extremely strong when diving. However this is a double edged sword.
- Serve up your enemies on a silver platter to your team once you get Rylais
- Rylais will makes your peel one of the best.

Cons
- Can be squishy early, and can be vulnerable to ganks pre 6, though at 6 you might be able to 2v3 as a good botlane.
- Slightly item dependant, you really need Rylais
- No dashes, so can be targeted with walls etc. However it is no worries once you get tanky and MS.
- Is a team player, functions best in teams, you can 1v1 easily but your full potential is with your allies.
- Manaproblems if you do not manage your mana well. Managing mana is crucial!
- Slightly skillshot based, if you miss your stun or other abilities it can hurt a lot.
- Burning enemies gives you turret aggro. A double edged sword, if used poorly it can really **** you up.

I usually run Flash and Exhaust as support, in top or in midlane.

Teleport is always an alternative in Mid and Top, however I prefer the straight up power of Exhaust or Ignite as your high MS + free homeguard will get you out of base so quickly.

I have yet to experiment with having no flash, as it is so useful when you want to stun, deal damage, catch someone, jump over terrain, dodge and escape etc.

Always start with spellthiefs and a refillable potion when playing support. Upgrade the spellthief once then try to get to Rylais + lucidity boots as fast as possible, as they are your main core. Then go for Dead Man's Plate and a fully upgraded Frost Queen's Claim. This is your full Core.

From here you go a penetration item, if they are tanky, go Liandrys Torment, if they have alot of MR go Void Staff, if they have alot of magic damage go Abyssal Sceptre.

Now if their team has a lot of damage and have kill pressure on you. Go another tank item, like Spirit visage for the CDR, MR and HP. CDR is key, always try to have 35% at about 40 minutes if the game goes on that long.

If their team does not have kill pressure on you, you can go a utility + damage item like Lichbane or Ludens (I always go for lichbane for the CDR and MS as I find this to be really good.

Once you have 6 items, aim to sell your boots to get either another penetration item, another MS item or another tank item (preferrably with CDR) so you can keep the perma CC up.

Morellonomicon is a good choice if the enemy team has a lot of healing based champions. (however if another team member has it already, it is better to stick to this build, as the 6 item finished build really is the strongest a Brand can get.

OhmWrecker might be very good as it has MS, CDR, HP and Armor. However this is only if their team has mostly AD damage. I have not tested this myself yet.

You probably will need a sightstone asap if you are needed to provide vision. However if you have a jungler with trackers knife or a sightstone, and a team that is good at warding, you might be able to focus on being the hellfire your enemies flee from. The steamroll of a 6 item Brand is almost better to have on your team than a little extra vision. And you will already have no problem checking brushes with your spells and Frost Queen's claim. I am anticipating the promised buff of the warding trinket Rito has promised for season 6, as this will heavily impact the neccesity of sightstone.

Finally I want to say I that I have not tested out all of the tank item combinations, so please discuss in the comments if you have any insights. Experimentation is good, that is why I made this Guide and I recommend trying out other items and situational items. I will expand this section a great deal when I find the time. (As an engineering student I sadly do not find it often.)

Justifying Dead Man's Plate: Significally underrated on spellcasters, just run around your enemies and soak all the damages and skillshots they got. Cast your spells and go in and out of combat with ease, kite like a BOSS. I even run it on AP Kog'maw midlane.

I mostly up q first, as it has high damage, long range and low CD. It really synergizes well with spellthief's if you take it first, as you can go with your adc and poke the enemy jungler early and gain 40 or so gold before laning even starts.

With high CDR you can almost permastun an opponent, and stunning consecutively in fights is easier if you max q. It also does not increase the mana cost when scaled. IF you are having trouble hitting q, then up w more, but beware of the increased manacost.

E is really great for clearing waves, securing your stun and spreading your blaze to the whole enemy team. Thus slowing them and making it really hard for them to do anything at all.

Always keep a lookout for how much mana you have. If you miss too many spells you will become very vulnerable in lane with a low manapool.

Always use penetration marks. Penetration is such an effective stat on Brand it is basically overpowered. With high base damage on all his spells and his passive hitting fr 8% of max health it just is not justifiable to run anything else. I have considered experimenting running penetration in my quints as well, even though my go to quint is always MS. (I may update this later as I experiment with it.)

Poke and gold collection: Being Brand, you generate an insane amount of gold from your AP support item. Your passive procs spellthiefs every single tic, so hitting a single spell generates you 28 gold at level 1. I love using q early in the jungle to harass the enemy botlane or jungler before laning phase. In the end I usually always enter lane with about 32-48 gold from early trades and can possibly even ruin the enemy junglers clear. However you must always beware of getting caught, but with the long range poke of your q and the burn it is relatively save.

In lane you should avoid using too many spells earlygame while you do not have stacks of spellthiefs unless you are sure the damage you deal is worth the lack of mana in crucial situations later. Managing your mana on support brand is highly crucial to your laning success.



Pure annoyance with zoning in lane: As Brand it is always very tempting to go greedy for kills, but a lot of the time your team will benefit more from you just annoying and zoning your lane opponents. If you provide your ADC with free farm, without having to worry about being poked or harassed it is a huge win for your team. If you always keep the pressure high on the enemy ADC, he will be missing so much CS and you will have won another great victory for your team.



Clearing a wave: In certain situations it can be highly beneficial to be able to clear waves efficiently. As a support Brand you will not have as much brute force damage as a pure AP midlane Brand would, so you need to be smart. Land a q on the tank minion, then e him so your passive spreads to the whole wave and finally w the whole wave and it should always completely clear the wave, even with no major AP items.

In certain situations a simple w into an e should clear the whole wave.

Get lichbane when you sell boots, it may be good to get an Ohmwrecker instead to really empower that sweet sweet tower dive.

The Spirit visage is great because you need some mr and cdr.

My new favorite position to play as Brand is the Jungle. As the new AP jungle item is very strong on him, and it procs the sweet, sweet Rylais passive. I have carried quite a few games with this.

AS a jungler providing vision for your team is of utmost importance, and I try to never leave base without a fresh pink ward unless my enemies have not cleared my older ward. I also always run the Tracker's Knife upgrade while burning down the jungle as I value the extra vision it provides the team with.

Clearing the jungle is done quite quickly, and safely as you rarely take much damage because of the great kite you have in your kit.(Beware of gromp, he is very difficult to kite efficiently)

when going against teams heavily reliant on magic damage.

Fj

Seriously. I have spent hours writing this guide, and somehow all my chapters have been changed or deleted and changed into what i wrote in my notes on items. This was a waste of time i guess, I will not be completing this guide anymore. This **** is just too much of a time drain, especially if my saved texts just disappear.

I am not happy with this ****.

My texts have ****ing mixed with my notes. Hell this **** is going to take time to fix.