Hello there! And welcome to my first guide on Brand! Brand is a great AoE damage burner, but is very squishy early in the game. Here's a build to help combat the squishy, while still boosting your stats for maximum DPS.

Here, you want to focus as much on mana regen, AP, magic pen, and -CD's as possible. Here, the obvious choice is Mark of Insight. Those are the only Magic pen runes you'll need, seeing as your item build will give you all the pen you need to have. Seal of clarity is extremely important here because of how easy it is to go oom on brand, especially when solo laning or while in a team fight. The reason we split on glyph's is to obtain the best of both worlds: CD reduction with AP bonuses. Brand is a large, slow ship, not armed with a single cannon when his CD's are all up. Therefore, the extra 3.83% CD reduction just from runes is extremely helpful. The reason we go with 4.95 ability Quints as opposed to the .42 per level, is because early on Brand is an easy target. But right out of the gate, having an extra 14.85 AP at level 1 is extremely useful.

On a side note, if you feel that splitting glyph's doesn't really accomplish enough one way or the other for you, I recommend you go with CD reduction before AP. The more CD reduction you can get at the beginning of the game, the better. Your item build will take care of the AP you need without a problem.

The mastery build as far as the offensive tree goes is pretty standard and doesn't require much explanation. The reason I choose the way I do on the Utility tree is as follows:

1. You want to build Brand to be as available, maneuverable, and as ready to fight as possible. The reduction in time spent dead makes the most sense, and allows you to move on to the next part of the tree. Perseverance is an absolute, and if you decide to go with the Ghost/Ignite combo I've recommended, then you want to build on haste to make it last longer.
-SIDE NOTE: The reason you go with Ghost as opposed to Flash here, is because Flash gets you out of a situation, yes, but only for one instant. You use it, and your gone and thats the only benefit you get. When chasing down an enemy, you want as much speed as possible. So popping Ghost and having it last longer helps you run down enemy champs low on health. As well as when you're in trouble, you don't just want to burst away and then slowly get overrun by champions who are faster than you and can slow you. Ghost is just the better option in my opinion.
2. Awareness is a great talent to stack, because Brand's success is largely dependent on how many abilities he has at his disposal, and how powerful they are. So getting leveled quicker is just about a necessity.
3. You want as much mana as possible, so of course, going with regen is the best bet. And since you should be jungling any chance you get, monster duration buffs being increased is extremely helpful, especially when you get the dragon buff.
4. Brand is naturally a slow toon, so building quickness helps keep you alive.
6. Like I said earlier, you want Brand's CDs up as often as possible, so the last two rows shouldn't require explanation.

Here, as much as I don't like starting with Doran's ring, it has proven itself very useful time and time again. The only reason I don't like it is because it builds into nothing, but that shouldn't be too much of a problem. The reason you want to build the tome before the boots here is because Brand needs as much AP early on as possible to keep his lane at bay. Sorcerer's Shoes are the next item to build, so that you're are not extremely slow. Next, rush Rylai's as fast as possible. The added health makes you less squishy, the AP will help you burn champs, and the slow effect comes in very handy when they try to run. Rabadon's is your next item, and this is the staple of brand's build. It takes a while to get to, but once you have grabbed this, there should be nothing in your way that you can't burn down by yourself. The last two items, hextech and Void staff, are interchangeable. Personally, I like going hextech first for the added spell vamp so that I'm not b'ing as much late game, and loosing valuable lane stance. However, some people do prefer to get Void Staff for the extra Magic Pen. The choice is up to you, but either way is a safe bet for success :D

You want to build Pillar of Flame right away. Granted, its an easy move to avoid, but it easily deals the most damage you have. Sear is only good for its stun, so you want to build it only once and never worry about it again until the end. Your main focus after getting PoF first, is conflagration. You want to build this move every chance you get. Its what helps spread your Passive around, as well as dealing a lot of damage when it hits its target. Not only that, but upgrading Conflag the quickest helps you to burn large areas of minions/champs quickly because you can continually spread your burn over and over.
If you think I need to explain why you choose combo Ghost/Ignite... -_- don't play Brand.

In all, Brand is a burner, and is excellent at farming, pushing the lane, and adding the extra "umpf" to a team fight. You should be jungling every chance you get, both top and bottom lanes. The more gold you can build, the faster your item build comes into play. And since Brand is so good at AoE and Mass target damage, his jungling skills are unparalleled. I hope you find this guide useful. Please leave me comments, questions, concerns and be sure to vote for this guide! Thank you very much!

And here's just a taste of what Brand can do just in 3's: