Welcome to my first guide here on Mobafire! i am LegendStar, XxLegendStarxX on LoL and Brand has been my main for a while so Ima show you how I play as him. Now before you down-vote this guide, please try the build first, ty! :D Now for those of you who haven't played Brand there are a few things you should get to know about him:

Brand is squishy thru the entire game. Don't pretend to be a tank, cuz ur not
In every team fight I have been in with Brand, I am the first target, so expect to be targeted first.
If played right, Brand can dominate a team fight with little effort
His abilities (if wanted to be used at max) must be used in certain orders.

Here are some of the Pros and Cons of Brand

Pros

+Extremely High Burst
+Best. Farmer. Ever.
+Passive is amazing

Cons

-Squishy entire game
-Focused Easily
-Cooldown dependent

Each of Brand's skills work in a special way, and you can accomplish different things by using them in a certain order. All of his skills has special effects that trigger if the target is affected by Blaze. If they are affected with Blaze, your Q has a stun, your W deals 25% more damage, your E spreads Blaze to other nearby enemies, and your ulti will bounce off of them quicker. Keep all of this in mind while fighting enemies.
Sear (Active): Brand launches a fireball forward that deals magic damage to the first enemy it hits. If the target is ablaze, the target will be stunned for 2 seconds.

Cost: 50 mana
Range: 900



Cooldown: 8 / 7.5 / 7 / 6.5 / 6 seconds

Magic Damage: 80 / 120 / 160 / 200 / 240 (+0.65 per ability power)

I usually pick up this ability at level 2 and max it second for it gives you more aggression against enemy champions. If you land Pillar of Flame on the champion then land this, not only do they lose quite a bit of health but they are stunned! You can easily land a few Auto Attacks while they can't move.
Pillar of Flame (Active): After a short delay, Brand blasts a target area, dealing magic damage to enemy units within the area. Units that are ablaze take an additional 25% damage.

Cooldown: 10 seconds.
Range to Center of AoE: 900
Radius of AoE: 175



Cost: 70 / 80 / 90 / 100 / 110 mana

Magic Damage: 75 / 120 / 165 / 210 / 255 (+0.6 per ability power)

This ability is what makes Brand who he is, a bursty AP Flaming Death. This move late game can deal sooooo much damage if used correctly. I get this move at level one and max it out first. Once you have your first 3 abilities, Brand can nuke his opponents. First you land Configuration, then Sear for the stun, and drop Pillar of Flame on them while they are unable to move! That is Brand's main rotation against enemy champions. E-Q-W for attacking an enemy champion.
Configuration (Active): Brand conjures an instant blast at his target, dealing magic damage to it. If the target is ablaze the conflagration will also damage nearby enemies, as well as setting the units ablaze.

Range: 625
Spread Radius: 200



Cost: 60 / 65 / 70 / 75 / 80 mana

Cooldown: 12 / 11 / 10 / 9 / 8 seconds

Magic Damage: 70 / 105 / 140 / 175 / 210 (+0.55 per ability power)

This ability is the start of most of your v.s. enemy champion combos and is also used for farming quickly. I pick up this ability at level 3 and max it last because I like to play Brand for killing champs, not farming most of the match. With this ability, if you use it on anything that is affected by Brand's passive Blaze they take damage and enemies around it get affected my his passive and take damage. This is an easy way to sneak Blaze onto an enemy champion. To farm with this ability, use Pillar of Flame on the casters in a minion wave, then use Configuration to blow them all up! Quick, simple, easy. W-E for minion farming.
Pyroclasm (Active): Brand unleashes a devastating torrent of fire to a target that will bounce between enemies, dealing damage each time it bounces. If a target is ablaze, Pyroclasm's missile speed increases. It will bounce up to four times for a total of five hits, and can hit the same enemy up to three times.

Range: 750
Bounce Range:



Cost: 100 / 150 / 200 mana

Cooldown: 105 / 90 / 75 seconds

Magic Damage: 150 / 250 / 350 (+0.5 per ability power)

This is Brand's Ultimate. This ability is EXTREMELY affective in team fights, for it bounces 5 times off of enemy champions and marks them all with Brand's passive so you can deal even more damage. At the start of a team fight I usually fire this right off the bat, then I can burst anyone who comes near because now all enemy champions take more damage from my Pillar of Flame, can be stunned by Sear, and i can deal damage to all of them if they are close enough with Configuration. I go R-W-E to burst the enemy team in a team fight. If one of their melee champs gets too close I just use Sear on the and let my team beat them up!
Blaze (Innate): Brand's spells light his targets ablaze, dealing 2% of their maximum health as magic damage per second for 4 seconds.(Max: 80 damage vs. Monsters)

This is Brand's absolutely amazing passive. This is basically an ignite that triggers with every ability you land, and once it's triggered all your abilities gain special effects!

Runes for Brand are fairly simple, I take:


Greater Mark of Insight x9
+0.95 Magic Penetration

Reason: You are using an AP Caster, Magic Penetration will make your abilities hurt even more through the entire game

Greater Seal of Clarity x9
+0.065 mana regain/5 sec.(1.17 at champion level 18)

Reason: Seems like a small number, but once you start hitting higher levels you will most likely never run out of mana. With these runes and your items, mana cost won't be a problem for you

Greater Glyph of Focus x9
-0.65% cooldowns

Reason: Brand is cooldown dependent, if his cooldowns are up, he is useless. These runes will make the time of you being vulnerable shorten quite a bit. Just a few seconds can save your life

Greater Quint of Potency
+4.95 Ability Power

Reason: Plain and Simple, you are an AP caster with a lot of burst damage, the more AP the better

The masteries are pretty simple as well. I go 21 0 9 getting mainly Ability Power for more burst damage with your rotations.
In offense I go mainly for boosts in AP and Magic Penetration, increasing the amount of burst damage I deal through the game while getting Sorcery to reduce my cooldowns even more. I put one on Summoner's Wrath so I get the AP gain while Ignite is on cooldown.


In Utility I go for an increased mana pool and more mana regain. I also put a point on Good Hands to reduce my time spent dead by just a bit. You can take the point off of Good Hands for Improved Recall or even Summoner's Insight if you would like to.

The items I build up for Brand are good mainly for late game burst, but if you can farm your gold quickly you should have no problem ripping apart enemies mid game with your bursty combos.

The build you are aiming to achieve with Brand is quite expensive, but you don't need all of it to deal tons of damage with your ability rotations.

These are the boots you should normally get with Brand. More magic penetration on an AP burst champ? Why not?


Now Rod of Ages is a very important item for Brand, and the earlier you get it the better, but don't rush to get this item. For every minute you have Rod of Ages, your HP, Mana, and AP go up and every time you level up you restore HP and Mana. So yea the earlier you get this, the earlier you get the bonuses for each minute and from leveling up!


Archangels Staff and Rod of Ages work really good together, and thats exactly why I use them both. Rod of Ages increases your maximum mana, while Archangels does the same with every ability you use. Not only that but Archangels converts 3% of your maximum mana into AP for Brand. More AP = More Damage output.


Deathcap is just a HUGE boost in AP but don't get it early on. It is better to get the items that take time to get their maximum ability like Archangels Staff and Rod of Ages, so it's not a good thing to try to rush this.


Rylia's Is just amazing late game, especially in teamfights with Brand. You burst them all to low HP and with this slow they won't get away from your team so easily. Plus if you're good with skill shots, your Q becomes a slow! :D Plus another boost in AP will never hurt! Well...won't hurt you anyways >:D


Will of the Ancients for me is an EXTREMELY late game item, and it helps quite a bit late game too. It gives you 80 AP and spell vamp while giving allies around you 30 AP and spell vamp as well!

Situational Items

I usually just use the build above for any situation, but you can replace a few of them for some others depending on how you would like to play Brand.
Evil Time is a good boost in AP and mana regain while lowering your cooldowns by quite a bit, but I dont pick it over Will of the Ancients because of 2 reasons.
1. It doesn't support your allies with any bonus effects.
2. No Spell Vamp, which can be a bit helpful..

I see some Brand players every now and then pick this item up early game to seem kinda "tanky". It provides more Magic Resistance, more HP regain, more HP, and Cooldown reduction. Kinda helpful, but getting this will not make Brand a tank. Only get this when the enemy team is loaded with casters, which usually doesn't happen that much.

If you are a constant ability spammer and are sick and tired of being vulnerable with your cooldowns up, then these boots are right for you! I would prefer the Magic Penetration over cooldowns though but that's just me.

Abyssal Scepter is pretty good and I use it every now and then. It raises your AP, magic resistance, and lowers the Magic Resistance of nearby enemies. Pretty helpful, but I don't get Abyssal Scepter until team fights are a more frequent thing and I have at least 2 or 3 AP casters on my team.

Hextech Gunblade isnt too bad either, comes with a build in slow and small damage along with boosting your spell vamp, Attack damage, AP, and Lifesteal. Pretty good item, but I never use it in game, I would burst them too hard before I have the chance to use this item to stop them from running ;)

For Summoner Spells I normally take:
Flash Flash for obvious reasons. You can use it for a chase or a get-away tool. Hop over walls, get out of traps, this spell is just so helpful!
Ignite Ignite is what most people get their kills with. This is that little push to finish off an enemy with low health. Now if you Blaze a target then use Ignite they are gonna burn hard while trying to get away :D

Other Choices for Summoner Spells

Sure Surge gives you a boost in Ability Power, but I don't really use it at all. Flash and Ignite are much more helpful to me, but if you want that little extra burst then by all means use this :P

Towards the end of the game, Clarity won't really help you. This summoner spell will only be helpful early game when you don't have as much mana regain.

Exhaust for me is more for DPS champions, not burst champions like Brand, so I don't use this either. But if you want to ensure that you will land your burst combo then this might be helpful to you.

Again, Ghost is another DPS summoner spell I don't use for Brand, but if I am playing Dominion I might just use this instead of Flash for the extra mobility around the map, but other than that I don't use it.

Remember that this is my first guide up on Mobafire and I would be happy if you guys posted some feedback about this guide. Whether I have to improve it (which I know I do), whether it changed your life, just any feedback would be great!