Main Tree

Inspiration

First Strike



As the most important rune, there are several important things to remember when taking First Strike

You have to damage an enemy champion within 0.25 seconds of starting combat. Basically if you get hit you hit straight back.

You have 3 seconds after the first hit to pump any and all champions you see. These 3 seconds will give you a 10% damage buff, use it whilst you can.

After the 3 seconds 70% of the increased damage you did is turned into gold. This stacks up quickly. I've gotten an extra 400 gold off of teamfights before just from hitting all my abilities.

You have to change your playstyle from the old Dark Harvest constant poke into a more burst central role. This doesn't mean you can't poke at all, early game you definitely should try to keep the rune on cooldown as each hit is at least 6-7 gold, depending on your passive. It does mean you should watch for jungle ganks, if your jungler is coming in, hold off on using First Strike until you can burst going for the kill.

Perfect Timing is a free 650g item, which counts as 250g towards your Zhonya's, the only other rune on this row you could consider is Magical Footwear however since we're farming gold rather than kills we don't want our shoes coming out 12 minutes in

Biscuit Delivery is another strong rune, restoring 10% of your MISSING hp and mana with another 50 mana on top. It's good to know that when you eat the biscuit you gain 50 flat mana straight away as well as the 10% regeneration, so you can multiple of them mid fight for a quick mana buff. Future's Market is the only other possible rune but I don't like the 50g lending fee, and with First Strike you should have gold for days anyway.

Cosmic Insight item haste for more Zhonya's, summoner spell haste for more ignites. Not much more to say. Approach Velocity has a 1000 active range and your Q is 1100 so you don't need this as they'll already be in range and Time Warp Tonic is only a 5% buff, the lower cooldown Zhonya's will have much more impact.

SECONDARY TREE

SORCERY

Manaflow Band is just free mana and mana regen letting you stay in fights longer, I take this every single time as a 1hp Brand can solo most champs if he has the mana and the vision.

Scorch works really well with First Strike as it's an extra 15-35 damage, translating to an extra 11-25 gold. You could take Gathering Storm if you believe your early game is enough and you won't need the extra damage or gold however I prefer having the more lane control.

DOMINATION

Taste of Blood gives a decent amount of sustain, if you hit it on cooldown it'll give roughly 1HP regen. Take this if you're struggling more with HP than mana in lane on Brand.

Cheap Shot has a very nice damage buff, stronger than Scorch, but the drawback is it only works if the enemy is impaired. The 4 second cooldown might seem tasty but it's brought back by the 8 second cooldown of your Q. If your ADC has a stun/root this can be a bit more worth, the true damage makes it do a lot of damage.

Ghost Poro comes online VERY quickly when you're playing Brand, as any ability hit will proc 2 charges of your spellthief's so you get your wards up quickly giving a nice chunk of 30AP.

Ultimate Hunter one of the most picked ARAM runes. This bad boy can give you 31 ability haste on your ultimate once fully stacked, the problem comes with stacking it. You need 1 takedown on each enemy champion which means you have to go top or bring the top laner to you, also sometimes the enemy jungle argues the botlane and never ganks. Overall I like this rune but you can easily swap it out for something else if you're more comfortable, we build a lot of Ability Haste anyway getting our ultimate down really low naturally.

Spellthief's Edge

Assuming you have the charges, every time you hit an ability you gain 40 gold. 20g off your casted ability and 20g off your passive. This means not only do you get insane gold but you can start warding for your team earlier, and stacking up that valuable HP

Health Potion

Riot haven't broken the game enough to have spell lifesteal yet so you're going to need these for sustain, you can only start dying in the mid game.

Control Ward

If you're smurfing or really confident you can skip the double HP pot, I'd recommend going Taste of Blood secondary if you do for some sustain but the majority of the time you won't buy this starting.

Liandry's Anguish

Whenever you hit an ability on an enemy Liandry's starts to tick for (15 + 1.5% AP) + 1% Max Health damage, this already makes you strong vs tanks but when you consider your passive also counts as an ability, it turns any ability hit from 4 seconds to 7. Nearly doubling the damage, that makes it the go to every game. There are no other Mythics in the game. Just Liandry's Anguish.

Sorcerer's Shoes

They make you fast, they give cheap magic pen, they're perfect. These are standard for most games you'll play as every champ in the game has some magic resistance. And with First Strike you'll be able to afford the extra 150g

Ionian Boots of Lucidity

Lets pretend, it'll never happened but lets pretend, you lost lane and you're behind. You can't proc First Strike so you're poor and have 0 items. These are 150g cheaper than Sorcerer's Shoes and give Ability Haste, so they can be a valuable pickup but I know you won't lose lane.

No other shoes exist

Zhonya's Hourglass

If you've never seen this item, you've probably heard of it. Everyone hates it from Irons to Challengers to pros. It's easily the worst item in the game, which is why you should buy it. It enables you to 1v1 anyone who doesn't have this item, you just pop EQRW then when the stun wears off you click your Zhonya's hotkey and boom. They're dead and literally can't touch you. It can also save you from many ultimates like Karthus ulti that'll chunk 50% of your HP. Not only that but you get it 250g cheaper because of a rune??? I don't know why Riot thought that was balanced but hey if we're OP it's fair. Buy it

Demonic Embrace

Demonic Embrace, also known as Liandry's 2 Boogaloo, shreds anyone from ADCs to tanks. But especially tanks. It works with your passive just like Liandry's so instead of burning for 4.8% over 4 seconds they burn for 8.4% over 7 seconds. 8.4% of their max health, not including the damage you've done with your abilities, that's just off the item itself. It gives you everything you need on Brand, damage and hp. The passive is also nice if you want to go Warmogs last item.

Oblivion Orb

Now you can grab this early if it's absolutely necessary but let your ADC get the anti heal if you can. Tell them they're getting the last hits so they have more money, you're just a poor support. Don't tell them you've gained 300g 10 minutes in just from your rune, you want your Liandry's as fast as possible. I didn't put Morellonomicon on here because you're Brand, you don't need 60% healing reduction. Unless they have a Soraka you will have enough damage to overcome the extra 20%, that being said if your team doesn't have any full anti heal items or are crying then pick up the full Morellonomicon. Team mental comes first!

This is the fun part of the build where you can grab any item you want. If you've got 5 items you should be able to burst any of their cores and 70-90% any tanks you see in a 1v1. So lets get started on the mountain of things you can buy.

Rabadon's Deathcap

Rabadon's Deathcap, the first and most obvious last item for an AP champion, the ultimate glass cannon. You don't want to wait 3 seconds for ADCs to die, you don't want to chunk a tank, you want to KILL and kill fast. By now this item will give you a bunch of AP but you have to remember that pure AP doesn't win games, look at Veigar and how many times he gets stomped. Keep that in mind when you're thinking about this.

Void Staff

This is a really easy choice. Did the enemy try and counter you with only Merc Treads? Is nobody buying MR? Then get this and set them down to 0 Magic Resistance, increasing your damage by a bunch. I wouldn't get this if they're stacking MR as it's better to play around your Liandry's/Demonic Embrace at that point.

Banshee's Veil

Is this you? -> "Damn we'd win this game if I didn't get stunned/bursted/ulti'd at the start of every fight?" Yes? Then buy Banshee's, it works nicely with Zhonya's basically making you invincible. Generally I'll avoid it personally and rely just on Zhonya's but you're Brand, everyone hates you and will focus you. Sometimes you have to play defensive to be offensive

Anathema's Chains

This is my favourite item when the enemy team have a 1v5er. I'll buy it mainly against Zoe's or LeBlanc's to stop them from destroying me in 0.5 seconds. It also reduces their tenacity whilst you're within 700 range of them, making your stun last longer if they jump on you. Not that you need it as 1 stun is all it takes for you to shred anyone.

Axiom Arc

Okay this one is a little bit meme so I'd only get it if you're far ahead. It works really well on paper but I haven't been able to test it for myself yet. Any time someone dies within 3 seconds of you damaging them you gain 25% of your total, not current, total cooldown off your ultimate. This means 4 kills and you get your ultimate back, when you add that after you hit 1 ability you are damaging the enemy for 7 seconds, you get 10 seconds where the enemy can die and you can proc the item. Sounds good, will update with findings later.

Warmog's Armor

Get this if you're surviving fights on low HP or are just ticking out, it'll also come with a bonus 16AP from your Demonic Embrace passive as a nice bonus.

Elixir of Sorcery

More AP, more mana regen, and some cheeky true damage. Oof that's a nice potion. You can also buy this if you're defending/ending the game and don't have the money or room to buy a component

Should I sell my shoes for a 6th item?

I'm not a huge fan of doing this, I think a lot of Brand is about positioning and getting in sweaty areas to flank and get an insane ultimate off. Therefore I never sell my boots, however the ball is in your court here with how you play. You can be a sacrifical lamb and just run in with R and try to do as much damage as possible before dying. It's more of a playstyle thing than anything else.

If you have any questions or tips, feel free to leave a comment below or join my Discord where I'm constantly available :) https://discord.gg/HK3P8gvKsr