Hi, my name is Bizzleberry and I am a longtime League of Legends player, playing since before Season 1. Over the years I have achieved high ranking in solo queue, from Platinum in Season 1 (the highest at the time) to Challenger multiple times throughout the years. I used to stream in season 4-5 and stopped playing League for a year during season 6. I have now returned and am currently in Master as a support main. You can catch me on my stream or my Youtube channel. I try to explain what I am doing in most situations; feel free to ask any questions on stream or leave a comment on the guide!

Brand is a fun, skillshot based champion, which I believe is underused currently this season. His ability to melt tanks that disregard Magic Resist will always put you top in team damage AS A SUPPORT! and is by far the highest damage dealing support as his Blaze is very strong with little Ability Power & items. Brand is usually exceptionally good in Unranked to Gold ELO, but can perform well in higher rated brackets if picked correctly, such as your team needing more magic damage against high health targets.

Brand's Advantages are that he provides a stun with Sear and when combined with Rylai's Crystal Scepter will provide massive AoE slows that will keep ticking with your Blaze, and of course, his damage output. In lane if you catch someone with a combo it will usually take down any ADC from 100% to 40% and is damn right scary for the enemy to deal with. Also the option to run Morellonomicon can help immensely against the current popular, self-healing champions.

Brand's Weaknesses are his lack of mobility and being able to land skill shots. Positioning is always key, and don't be surprised if you die a lot, it's the price you pay for dealing a large amount of damage as a support. Missing Sear can cost you a kill and may even cause your death in some cases. Brand does not do well pairing with late game carries such as Vayne or Kog'Maw as not falling behind in lane is crucial for your team input mid-game.

DOMINATION

Dark Harvest provides a lot of damage and also procs off your passive, so even if you die if you have done all of your AoE you can potentially still do a decent amount of damage when dead.

I recommend the following minor runes -

Taste of Blood Will give you much needed sustain during the laning phase.

Eyeball Collection Provides more AP scaling for your spells and Dark Harvest. You are welcome to take other options here including Zombie Ward, but I prefer the damage.

Treasure Hunter is fantastic at getting your core items a bit quicker, however, will require you to potentially roam to grubs in order to take part in a fight in order to get more activations for gold sooner.

Precision

Presence of Mind as long as you deal damage you will generate mana. Get a takedown on a champion, and you get mana back! Luckily due to Brand's passive Blaze you will be damaging enemies a lot throughout the game!

Coup de Grace Allows the potential of executing targets that get low on health. Very good general damage increase rune.

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Take double adaptive AP runes for more damage and flat HP for laning phase.

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Bread and butter, use Ignite before they use Heal to prevent half of the healing on target. Use Flash to either engage with a burst followup or to disengage from an enemy play. Use these for very aggresive plays.

Blaze

Brand's Passive Blaze is what will do a lot of your damage in team fights, and give you that extra oomph in the laning phase. Blaze does a passive 2% max health damage per stack over 4 seconds.

Applying 3 stacks of Blaze causes the enemy to explode dealing massive damage to them and anyone around them.

3 stacks of Blaze is vital for the majority of Brand's Damage, and can cause teamfights to be hectic for the enemy if they are clumped up as you can cause multiple chain reactions, as the detonation AoE effect will also apply 1 stack of Blaze to any enemy it touches. If an enemy was already on 2 then they would also get the 3 Blaze stack AoE detonation debuff.

Blaze also does increased damage to large monsters such a Blue Buff, Drake and Baron. This allows you to do a lot of damage to objectives.

Sear

Skill shot similar to Ezreal Mystic Shot. Will apply one Blaze stack and stun the target if Blaze is present on the target.

Landing this skill shot is the difference between securing a kill and dying, in some cases you want to be patient if your target has a Blaze stack as they will try and zig-zag and dodge your Sear. Remember you have 4 seconds until Blaze falls off, so if they are playing the dodging game, wait 2-3 seconds and throw the Sear during this time. You should be landing auto hits while they are running around doing no damage! Max level Sear after Pillar of Flame as it reduces the cooldown per level.

You can start Sear as part of a damage combo, primarily used in lane. WARNING if used you are vulnerable as you will have no stun for the duration of the cooldown. ( Sear into Pillar of Flame into Conflagration)

You can also use Sear as part of a wave clear combo. Try and aim for the cannon minion first with 7 minions clumped around Brand. The combo is ( Sear into Conflagration into Pillar of Flame). However as support you will likely need to do another Pillar of Flame to clear the wave.

For more advanced users, you throw out Sear and while the projectile is still in the air, you can cast Conflagration which, if fast enough, will stun the enemy just before the Sear projectile lands.

Pillar of Flame

Pillar of Flame is your primary poke in the laning phase and the most damaging ability in your kit. It will do more damage if Blaze is present on the target. It has a decent range, but the delay on the explosion is a tad slow. It is easiest to land this when the enemy ADC is about to last hit a minion.

You can use Pillar of Flame to start a stun combo ( Pillar of Flame into Sear into Conflagration).

Conflagration

Conflagration is an easy way for you to get one Blaze stack on the target and is primarily used to start a stun combo with Sear.

Conflagration is an AoE without requiring a Blaze stack and the AoE range is increased if there is a Blaze stack. Use on a minion to apply 1 stack of Blaze on an enemy to easily apply the debuff to both the enemy ADC & Support.

Pyroclasm

Pyroclasm will bounce from Brand / Enemy champions / Minions and monsters. If you are lacking targets then use your own champion as a bounce source in order to increase the damage output of Pyroclasm

Pyroclasm will slow the enemy ONLY if they have a Blaze so doing a Conflagration beforehand is a good way for them to stop running away and preventing bounces.

Pyroclasm damage potential is greatly increased per level, (more so than most ultimates). Level 6 Pyroclasm gives you 100 damage per bounce with 30% slow if there is Blaze on, and at level 11 Pyroclasm damage is DOUBLED to a potential 1000 damage and 15% more slow. Getting to level 16 is not common as support unless it's a long game, but 1500 damage and the 60% slow is very nice.

In a few rare cases, I have used Pyroclasm to bluff it's a Sear. If you are at the same running straight angle and the enemy is flustered they will Flash thinking it's a Sear. This then enables you to Flash Sear and land a stun!

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World Atlas

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World Atlas has now changed to auto-upgrade to Runic Compass (400 gold collected) and Bounty of Worlds (800g collected) from the Tribute gold quest. Every support player will also be taking World Atlas. If you played in previous seasons of League of Legends it acts as a Spelltheifs and a Relic Shield combined. In two parts: 1) If you attack an enemy champion or turret and have a 'charge' it will consume 1 charge to generate gold for you and towards your 'item quest'. 2) If you kill a minion with a charge you will get a flat amount of gold for killing the minion. The nearest ally will get the full minion gold amount. For example, if you kill a cannon minion, you will get X gold but your ADC will get the full amount, you are not denying your ADC full cannon minion gold. Ideally you want to harrass the enemy to get charges for more golds and quicker 'quest completion' to get to Bounty of Worlds. When you get to Bounty of Worlds you will get to choose an item to 'replace' Bounty of worlds. I recommend you take Zaz'Zak's Realmspike as it will greatly increase your damage.

Zaz'Zak's Realmspike

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The final Support Quest upgrade item. When you deal ability damage (including your passive) and you will do a slight delayed extra damage circle on the enemy. Quite similar to Arcane Comet. Really good generic extra damage for free!

Sorcerer's Shoes

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Finishing Sorcerer's Shoes before mid game not only gives Brand some much needed mobility, but increases magic penetration. NOTE: Magic Penetration cannot exceed the amount of magic resist on the enemy.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter

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You will want to buy this item if you want to increase your self-tankiness and/or to increase your utility in the game. I highly recommend new Brand players buy this item first as it will help you land follow-up skillshots easier, keep you alive, and kite enemy champions easier.

Liandry's Torment

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Is your best damaging item as Brand, especially fights that last over a longer period of time. Liandry's Torment allows you to kill dragons and barons much faster!

Blackfire Torch

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The build path is nice as you will have better mana regeneration, however the damage output is not comparable to Liandry's Torment. Try to avoid buying this item.

Malignance

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Malignance is a decent option as a late game damage item, and will further reduce the cooldown of your ultimate enabling it to be ready in more teamfights in the mid to late game.

Stormsurge

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Stormsurge The description seems overwhelming but generally if you do at least % Max HP damage to a target in 2.5 seconds then you will do an extra burst of damage on them. Currently would not recommend to buy, focus on having DoT damage items first.

Shadowflame

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Shadowflame Allows your spells to crit the enemy if below a certain % of max hp for increased damage. Also works with Liandry's Torment and Blackfire Torch DoT.

Morellonomicon

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Morellonomicon can be a powerful item if against superb healing team comps, such as Soraka Vladimir Nami Fiora Dr. Mundo Tryndamere Aatrox Warwick etc. There is a long list. If you feel that the enemy has a lot of healing on their side, take Oblivion Orb and focus on completing other items first.

Zhonya's Hourglass

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Zhonya's Hourglass An Important item if you care about staying alive. Ideally do a spell rotation before you get jumped, use Zhonya's Hourglass to buy some time and then repeat!

Void Staff

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Void Staff will need to be taken as a 3rd item if there is a substancial tank on the other team. Without %magic pen you will do very little damage to tanks and bruisers.

Vigilant Wardstone

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Vigilant Wardstone Absolute garbage in Season 2024, do not buy.

You want to take Pillar of Flame level 1. This ability will help you poke safely from a distance and help partially push the lane towards level 2. Getting level 2 before your enemy will allow you to get Sear and enable you land a stun on the enemy. Most of the time however it will be a protective stun, particularly against heavy level 2 engages, such as Alistar, Leona and Thresh.

At level 3 you can start to shine and have access to Blaze combo. Conflagration (preferably their ADC), then Sear into Pillar of Flame. I would always use Ignite at this point, hoping to blow Heal and Flash at the very least. This will give you lane control and put you in an easier position if the enemy jungler is intending to gank your lane soon.

Feel free to use Conflagration to on an enemy minion that has a Blaze debuff to help harassment if your mana allows it.

Level 4 and 5 will give you nice damage output on Pillar of Flame but be aware of your mana and make sure you always have around 200 mana to be able to use all 3 of your spells (300 mana including Pyroclasm). Try not to misuse Sear too much. When it's on cool down you and your ADC are vulnerable as you will have no CC, so bear that in mind before throwing it out. Also don't be afraid to use mana on the support, even if it's a tanky one, as your 3 combo is usually easier to land on those types of target and will still do decent damage due to how Blaze works.

Try and use Pyroclasm as a gank deterrent (when you are 2v3) or as an opportunity when you stun combo someone and their partner / minions are nearby. Should get a kill or at the very least burn a few summoners.

On your first buy try and get at least a Amplifying Tome and a Control Ward (maybe also a couple of Health Potion and Boots when possible).

If you do destroy your bot tower first, try and pick up grubs/herald for your team as the tower pushing power of herald is immense. If used in a lane with no enemy champions, expect to kill the Tier 1 tower and quite possibly a Tier 2.

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If you are winning Bot lane, encourage your Jungler to do Drake. Have a Control Ward ready for it and once you have the enemy low on HP, start sprinting for Drake, even if it's a Cloud Drake, it could prove useful later on in the game. Infernal Dragon will hurt, so make sure your Jungler has a decent amount of health before he tanks it.

Do your best to keep brushes warded, but most importantly keep a ward in the mid lane, just in front of the Tier 1 tower; this in my opinion, one of the most important wards (apart from Baron).

Don't be afraid to sacrifice yourself for your team to get kills, you can deal a lot of damage, but you are also the support. You dying for one or more kills (as long as the one isn't their support) will always be worth it! You die for their Jungle? Great! You team can do Drake / Baron. You die for their mid laner? Great! Your team can now push down a tower.

Brand has low mobility and is squishy, you will die. A lot. However you will always be bringing someone down with you and if you get all four of your spells off, you have done your job.

In teamfights still try and support your ADC, focus on stunning assassins or tanks coming in to take out your ADC. If your ADC is behind, by a lot, then it could be better to assist your next fed person, protecting them, ensuring they are also doing a lot of damage and protect the ADC later in the game when he has more items.

Against teams cowering behind towers, if split pushing is not working, focus on pulling them out with Baron and Drakes. Do one combo on the Baron, Sear or Conflagration first so your Pillar of Flame does more damage, then save your spells for the engage to come. If you can stun the jungler, great, do so, otherwise hurling spells into the middle of their team and trying for multiple Blaze procs will do wonders and cause panic too.

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This guide has been updated for Season 2024.

Thanks for reading my Brand guide, I hope you give it a try in ranked and I wish you the best of luck! For more guides and fun videos please visit my stream or my Youtube Channel