Hello!

I made this guide to show you my way of playing Brand... I like him cause he is one of the best mid chars, AP carries and has lots of magical damage output in 1v2 fights (i score many double kills with him, when enemy jungler tries to gank me ;) ) and thats the reason why he is banned in many ranked games ;/

Hope you like it and be so succesfully like me with Brand ;D

Pros:

- good AP carry
- high damage burst
- can win 1v2 easily, if you know how to play him
- good passive, so your enemy will not be full life often
- good farmer
- hard to kill, cause of your stun

Cons:

- often focussed in team fights
- in 1v1s, very dependent on his Q hitting the enemy
- often banned in ranked games

Sorry, but i really do not know more Cons ^^

Blaze:
Good passive to harrass your enemies. If you hit with any spell, he will burn, and loose a nice amount of health. Your enemy should hardly be full-life. In addition you get a nice extra with any of your other spells.

Sear:
A very important skill for 1v1 or to run away if you are chased. The only bad thing: you need to hit your enemy with another spell before you can stun him.

Pillar of Flame:
Your highest damage output. Try to hit your enemies as often as possible with it.
Also good for farming. Together with your E it will clear the minion wizards when you are lvl 5 (or even before, if you get kills in lane).

Conflagration:
Good AOE spell, if the first target burns already. In 1v1 i use it to set the enemy on fire, so that I can stun him and get a secure hit with my W.
Some Brand-Players try the combo W-Q-E, but I think, this is useless because in my way (E-Q-W) you have 25% more damage with the W, what is great. :)

Pyroclasm:
One of the best Ultis for an AP carry ingame.
In the lower levels you can easily score a double kill with it. Enemy jungler tries to gank, you run away, and the enemy jungler and mid char chase you. Then you turn around, make your combo on one of them, cast your ult if they stand near together and no enemy minions are in range, so you hit the first target three times, and the other one two times. One of him will be dead now, and the other one will die if you attack him again with your combo, auto-hit or ignite him.

I max Pillar of Flame first, this Spell does most Damage, and 25% more if you attack your enemy with another spell before you cast it. After W i max Conflagration, to get lower Cooldown on it, and to do more AOE.
You can do E instead of W on lvl 5 if you want, you have to see how often you hit your enemy with your W. Sear I max last, cause you just need to stun your enemies.

In lane phase cast your Pillar of Flame on the small minion wards, and, if the enemy champion is near, your Conflagration to burn him so that he loses 8% of his max life.

I go 21/0/9, because you need the Bonus AP from Offensive Tree in th early game, and some masterie points are spent there good for end game, e.g. Havoc and Arcane Knowledge .

You need the extra mana to stay longer in lane, harrass your enemy and spam your W to farm and try to geht enemy life lower and lower.

Greater Mark of Magic Penetration - The Armor pen is just great.
Greater Seal of Scaling Mana Regeneration - You need the Mana regeneration, there are some people thinking you need with Brand, but this Runes give you enough Mana back to farm and spam skills.
Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power - I like this extra AP, but you might love more survivability, then you can take Greater Glyph of Warding as well... Your choice.
Greater Quintessence of Ability Power - 15 AP more at lvl 1, you need it... and your enemy will notice, if you hit him with your W.

Skills I chose:

Flash - a must have, great to chase, or to run away, whatever you need in the situation.
Ignite - I like it, it's good to have a spell which deals over 100 damage in the low levels, when you start a gank; or you use it, if your enemy is low and does not want to go back - flash in range, ignite, sear, enemy dead :)

Optional:

Teleport - it's good if you play against harrassing champs like Cassiopeia, Veigar, Karthus, ... you can go home and be back on lane in 15 seconds, so you want miss any XP.
Exhaust - If an AD is chasing you in late game, a great skill to escape.
Ghost - Just if you think you have to chase enemies often, but with Brand you have a high burst damage and a stun, so I think Ghost is redundant.
Cleanse - I never used it, but if enemy have high CC, it would be nice to not be stunned while a whole teamfight; but Cleanse with APs is not as good as with melee AD carrys.

Needless Skills:

Surge - you have a bit more AP, but it is not worth it.. In low levels the bonus is not enough, and since mid game you will have , and have enough AP so or so.
Heal - Dodge enemy spells, and you want miss health.
Clarity - You have mana regeneration runes, so you do not need it; if you run out of mana, stop spamming your skill and play a bit more defensive.
Clearvoyance - Please do not even think about taking this spell with you. It is for the support!

Start Item:

I buy first because his additional mana regeneration is good to spam skills, his 15 bonus AP are great for such a low price and the live give you a bit more survivability.

and 3 are good if you have an enemy with many skill shots, you can dodge easy. With the healt pots you have in summary 500 health more than with doran's (ring=100 health, pots=3*200).

Core:

You have a bit survivability, will not run out of mana, have enough AP to burst your enemy easily, and the additional magic pen is great against squishies.
If you like you could take Ionian Boots, but I do not prefer them.

Rest Build:

Gives AP, lowers enemy magic resist and gives you magic resist. I like this item, but if your tank/support has it, you do not need it, because the aura does not stack.
100 AP are quite nice, gives 50 armor against the ADs of your enemies, and if a fight get hard or the enemy team focusses you, just tune the passive ON:)
In the end game good. Enemy tank has high magic resistance, and with void staff he feels your spells, without, it would be possible, that he just notice your stun.

Optional:

If you feel that your spells have to much CD, buy it... But I do not thinks it's necessary.
A bit spell vamp is never bad, but the other items are better, if you have a good, balanced enemy team. If the enemies have for example one underfed and underfarmed AP, feel free to buy [Will of the Ancients] instead of [Abyssal scepter].

Early game:

Concentrate on farming; make your W and E on the 3 smaller minions, from lvl 5 you will kill them. Try to hit your enemy with your W whenever it works, and to set him on fire if he is near a burning minion (cast W on it).

Mid game:

Try to gank as often as possible, every time the enemy mid char goes back and you do not have to do so, and other enemies are pushing hard, just go top or bot. With your ulti, you can easily kill two champions, when they try to escape.

Late game:

Try to stay behind your allies, try not to be focussed out. Stun the AD carry and burst him down.
Do your ulti whenever you see some enemies standing near together without enemy minions there. It will be a nice damage output, which will help to win the team fight.