I am writing this guide because, well out of 20 games as Brand I have lost a whole 3. . . so I figured, why not share my build and strategies for him so that I may help others who are having trouble playing as Brand. This is primarily an item build, with a guide for the first few levels of laning, and how to dominate your lane. The rest really falls on the player, and how well your team is or isn't doing.

Pros:
-Very nice damage, especially early game
-Scales well with AP
-Completely dominates the lane

Cons:
-High mana dependency until you get Tear
-Combo based, so if you miss one spell, it severely hurts your damage
-Spells aren't hard to dodge

I have chosen the runes that I have for two reasons, and two reasons only. The first reason being that Magic Penetration greatly improves the damage of any caster. The second reason is because as explained in the champion spotlight for Brand, your passive scales off of Magic Penetration only, not off of Ability Power.

So, the reason I have taken 10 points into offense, is well, if you are going to use ignite, why not take the mastery for it? Increased AP when it is on CD, okay... no brainer right there. Also, you are already using the mastery for Flash as well, so why bother getting the reduced CD on your summoner spells when you already have the masteries for those spells. To be honest the 10-15 seconds you get taken off of Flash/Ignite from that 21st point into the utility tree is just not worth it.

Okay, now for my item build. Obviously you get Tear of the Goddess to help with your early game mana issue, and well, seens how you get it, you might as well finish it up with an Archangel's Staff for the AP boost you will get out of it. Second, you will want to get Sorcerer's Shoes to help you hit a lot harder early game. I will explain the strategy for doing insane damage in a later section. Third, you will finish your Archangel's Staff for reasons mentioned above. NOTE: You could also get a Catalyst instead of the Tear, and build it into a Rod of Ages, but I find that you end up getting more AP and better mana regen from the Tear than you will the Catalyst early game. Your next item should be Will of the Ancients, it will help keep you alive in fights, as well as give you and your team AP. Then build Rabadon's Deathcap, need I really say more? Archangel's + Deathcap combo give you about the most AP you can get early game on any champion, plus, any AP you get post Deathcap will also benefit from it's passive 30% increase. Next will be Rylai's Crystal Scepter, why? Because the slow effect on it will help keep enemy champs from escaping your Pillar of Flame, as well as your ultimate, not to mention the AP it gives, and the HP that will help with your survivability mid game. Now, the last 3 items listed are the items that will be your selection for your final item. These items are chosen based on the situation you are faced with. For instance, do you find yourself getting focused a lot in team fights, unable to do anything after your opening combo? If so, Zhonya's Hourglass is your best friend. Pop the active on it after your opening combo and watch in amusement as your frustrated enemies cannot kill you. Or, perhaps the enemy team is fearful of you, and they are stacking Magic Resist? Well, then you best get a Void Staff, and just melt them... no pun intended I promise. Also, the Mpen on the Void Staff will increase the damage your passive does, win, win situation if you ask me. If you want a little bit of help pushing towers, or doing a bit more damage in fights, then pick up a Lich Bane, and every 3 seconds you will pretty much hit the the turrets for about 1/8 of their HP. Finally, if you find yourself getting a lot of kills/assists, and the other team just cannot seem to bring you down, then by all means, grab a Mejai's and watch as the stacks build up and effectively give you so much extra AP that your opponents won't be able to hold you off any longer. You can also get Mejai's earlier in the game if you are doing well.

OKAY, THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THE GUIDE, PLEASE READ IT CAREFULLY AS IT EXPLAINS THE STRATEGIES USED TO COMPLETELY DOMINATE YOUR LANE!

Okay, so at level one you pick up your Pillar... please, please, please do NOT use it to farm minions, not yet at least. Because Brand excels at dominating his lane, you need to do just that. At level 1, your Pillar does not do that much damage, so try to do as little harassment as possible, and save your mana for when you can actually hit hard. At level 2 pick up your skill-shot, and only use your Pillar for harassment if you can land your skill-shot first, or if the enemy champions happen to be grouped up with some minions and you can simultaneously farm and harass. By level 3 you will have two points into your Pillar, and will be able to do insane damage. Let the dominance begin. Start off by landing your skill-shot, and then follow up with a Pillar, if you successfully land both, you will just giggle when you see their HP drop! Keep this up, and zone as much as you can. In between your bouts of harassment, be sure to last hit minions using auto attacks. At level 4, grab your conflagration. Once you get a bit of AP, such as your Archangel's staff, you shouldn't have too much of a mana issue anymore, and you can start to use your spells to farm and harass. To farm using your spells, start by using your skill-shot on a minion that is in the center of the group or as close to as possible. Follow up with a Conflagration on the minion you hit with your skill-shot. This will cause your Conflagration to spread to every unit within the range of the aoe, the more you can get it to spread to the better, finally, follow up with a Pillar on as many of the minions as you can hit at once. This combo should easily clear the whole minion wave if you manage to get all of the minions with Conflagration. This is as far as my guide goes, the rest is up to you. I hope this helps you to play Brand more effectively. Please vote, and comment to let me know what you think.