Braum Build Guide by Bobertos

Introduction

Hey there, I am Bob or Bobertos ('Baardman' in game at the moment) and this is my first ever guide so prepare for the worst. :)

Since season 3 I've been playing alot of support, especially Lulu & Thresh.
When I heard about Braum I directly fell in love and I couldnt wait till he was released.
Since his release I've been a big fan of Braum, not only because he has a mustache but because he is very strong and viable champion aswell.

The main reason I am making this guide is because I want to share my knowledge about this champion since i've played Braum alot.

If you know any info about Braum that is not included in this guide, please let me know, but for now, enjoy the guide! :)

Pros & Cons

Here are a few pros/cons about Braum and as you can see, the pros heavely outweight the cons, so Braum's OP.

+Pros

• Insane multi-target CC.
• Good tank stats which he can share.
• Good engage & disengage.
• Very strong peel for the squishies in the team.
• Has a mustache.

-Cons

• Not the greatest laner and can be abused. Up to platinum Braum will most likely not get abused though.
• You're the person thats supposed to soak up alot of damage, so if Braum falls behind early he can be weak later in the game.
• Like nearly any other support, your team has to do well to be able to win, Braum can't really solo carry.
• Braum is really strong early/late game but since tank items (wich Braum builds) are quite expensive it takes a while to be able to tank all that damage, so thats why Braum is a bit weaker mid-game.

Runes

Marks.
As a support you're always laning against an ADC, and ADC's (most of them atleast, Corki is one of the exceptions) mainly deal Physical Damage so armor helps alot in lane, ALWAYS take Greater Mark of Armor over Greater Mark of Magic Resist.
Seals.
A few patches ago Greater Seal of Health got buffed and Greater Seal of Armor got nerfed. So nowadays its better to run the Health seals instead of the armour ones and in my opinion Health seals especially got better since some of the support deal quite alot of damage in patch 4.10 ( Sona, Nami & a few other got more populair since lifesteal got nerfed so sustain support are better and those supports deal quite alot of Magic Damage)
Glyphs.
For glyphs there are alot of options. I prefer to run Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist on Braum for the same reason you want to run Armour marks, you're fighting a heavy Physical Damage lane, so you dont need the high Magic resist early in the game. And if you actually do fight a heavy Magic Damage lane like Corki/ Sona then you still have enough health to tank them because of your Greater Seal of Health. This is the reason why Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist is the best so you have a little bit of Magic resist early game, and late game when you're going to face the AP mid/top laner you have enough Magic resist to tank them up with your shield. then again, if you feel like you need the Magic resist in lane, take full Greater Glyph of Magic Resist page or take 5 Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist and 4 Greater Glyph of Magic Resist for example.
Quintessences.
These ones are pretty straight forward. You dont need any Ability power, Attack damage or Crit, so Greater Quintessence of Armor is the best option here. If you want the mobility you can also run Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed but I highly prefer Armor quints since your main focus when playing Braum is to soak up damage and being a tank.
Some people might argue that Greater Quintessence of Health is good on Braum since his Q - Winter's Bite scales with health. The scaling is 2,5% and 3 Greater Quintessence of Health only give 78 health all together, so thats barely 2 extra damage on your Q - Winter's Bite. I'd stick with Greater Quintessence of Armor

Masteries

Yet again, I dont really know how to insert the big picture of the whole mastery page, but we I'll try to make this part of the guide as clear as possible. Just take a look at the mastery page on top of the page.

As a support I always run 0-9-21 masteries, the 21 points in utility help you out SO MUCH.
The 9 in defence are just a luxuary, they just help you with tanking minions for a while if you want to freeze the lane and trading with you lane opponent ofcourse.

In the next part I'll show a few masteries wich I find to be the best.

This mastery helps out quite a bit in lane, it will give you a Total Biscuit of Rejuvenation instead of a Health Potion and the cookie regens the normal amount of health that a Health Potion would regen but it also regens 20 mana.

& will give you alot of gold income in the laning phase, Greed will just increase your general gold income & Scavenger will grand you 1 gold everytime an ally kills a nearby lane minion.

Wealth will give you 40 extra starting gold on top of what you normally start with, this will grand you an extra potion wich in my opinion is really strong. You can also purchase 2 potions & a Stealth Ward if you're planning to do an invade.

Inspiration , I love this mastery because it gives you alot of experience if you fall behind, wich I think is really important on Braum, once you fall behind its quite hard to come back.

Skill set

Braum has a strong offensive and an insanely strong defensive kit.
I think Riot did a great job explaining Braum in the Champion Spotlight so please watch it before you're going to continue with the guide, they show alot of examples of combo's & playstyles.

Lets start with the abilities.

Passive - Concussive Blows

In my opinion this is one of the strongest passives in the game. It is so insanely strong that Braum can nearly 1v3 at level 1.
Concussive Blows is a stackable debuff that stuns your target when it reaches 4 stacks.
The stacks can be applies by your auto attacks, your Q ( Winter's Bite), means you need 3 auto attacks from you or your allie after aplying the Concussive Blows stacks untill the target is stunned, wich is OP!
This is why Graves/ Braum is quite an OP lane. Braum can apply his Concussive Blows by using his Q on an opponent and gravs can dash forward with his dash ( Quickdraw) to get closer to the opponent and quickly apply the 3 extra stacks with the attack speed buff his dash gives.

Q - Winter's Bite

Braum his Winter's Bite is a very strong CC ability that slows the target and applies a stack of Concussive Blows, Braum his passive.
This ability is really good for chasing & kiting. In teamfights try and hit Winter's Bite on their AP carry of AD carry since they will be far in the back and hard to hit with an auto attack, so try and get a stack of you passive on them with ur Q so the rest of you team can stun them. If you feel like playing aggresive in lane, using Stand Behind Me on an allied minion and then landing your Winter's Bite on the enemy ADC is a really good aggresive move to get your stun off.
Max Winter's Bite first.

W - Stand Behind Me

This ability has insanely good synergy with his E, Unbreakble.
When Braum uses Stand Behind Me he will leap to his targeted ally or allied minions. When done Braum will share a base amount of Armor and Magic resist + a percentage of his Armor and Magic resist to person he jumped on.
This skill has good synergy with his E, Unbreakable, because of its special mechanics.
If there is an enemy in a specific radius of the targeted ally or allied minion he will jump inbetween the the target and the enemy. This is great because then you're able to use Unbrekable to block the incoming damage that is targeted at your ally.
Max Stand Behind Me last.

E - Unbreakable

This is Braum his bread and butter ability, this is what divides Braum from the other supports.
Well, I just explained how Unbreakable has great synergy with his W, Stand Behind Me, those abilities are basicly ment to be used together.
When Braum uses his Unbreakable, he raises his shield and gains 10% Movement speed. The first projectile, wether its and auto attack, Ezreal's True Shot Barrage or Jinx her Super Mega Death Rocket, it will always totally block it just like Yasuo his Wind Wall. The next incoming projectiles will not be blocked and he will take damage from them, but 30-40% less then the actual damage it does. It also focusses and intercepts targeted CC abilities like the Gold card from Twisted Fate. This ability can normally not be intercepted but when Braum has his Unbreakable on he will intercept it and take the take the stun. This is why Mercury's Treads is a good buy on Braum since the tunacity will help you with all the CC you'll be taking.
Max Unbreakable second.

R - Glacial Fissure

This is a great ultimate, it is good for engaging but in my opnion its the best for disengaging.
When Braum casts this ability he will slam is shield on the ground and create a big line of fissurs wich knocks up anyone in the origional cast, and slows people who walk trough the line afterwards. People underestimate this slow alot in my opinion but a 60% slow is alot.
The ult is pretty straight forward. There are a few flaws in this ultimate though.
First of all, ealy game it has a very long cooldown, up to 121 seconds if I remember correctly. In competetive play this doesnt really matter because there isnt alot of fighting, but in my ELO people are fighting 24/7, so its quite usefull to have your ultimate up during all these engages but thats just not the case. The second this is that it takes quite alot of time to reach people with the knock-up if they are not standing next to you (it instantly knocks all people up in a small circle around you). So if i play with a Yasuo who really needs the knock-up, I am willing to secure the knock-up on the AP carry & AD carry to flash next to them and then ult, this works 9/10 times.
Get a point in Glacial Fissure at level 6, 11 and 16.

Itemization

Items

The next chapter is about itemization, but in my opinion there is not that much to talk about.
Since you're playing support, you always build a sighstone and since you're melee, I prefer to build the Face of the Mountain for the execute on minions + its just an insanely strong item.
Lets just start from the beginning of the game.

Start

When you spawn you have about 515 gold, with that you want to buy a Relic Shield, 3 Total Biscuit of Rejuvenation, 1 Mana Potion & the Warding Totem. Your Relic Shield will be your main gold income, so be sure to use it wisely. Try and only use it on the cannon creeps, and if thats not possible use it on the melee creeps. Sometimes its hard to co-ordinate with your ADC but since Braum is a melee chamoion the Relic Shield gives you a ~200 damage execute so you should be able to out-damage your ADC to get the cannon creep, be sure to not miss it because then your adc wont really like you anymore.

First Back

I wasnt really able to divide these items in your first/second back, since they're all really really strong. Your first Boots of Speed are always good, nice momvement speed and it helps you to roam/ward the map once you get your Sightstone. The upgrade from the Relic Shield, the Targon's Brace, is much better then the Relic Shield. You now get 3 stacks to last-hit creeps and they also come up much quicker. Just try and get these items ASAP. (as soon as possible)
Also, be sure to swap to a Sweeping Lens once you get a Sightstone since you then have your own wards and you wont need the trinket one anymore.

After laning phase

You want to be leaving the lane with upgraded Boots (I'll talk about that later) and your Face of the Mountain. Keep your Sightstone this way and dont upgrade it untill later in the game, also, there is no need to upgrade your Sweeping Lens already unless your against a Teemo or if you want alot of vision controll.

From here on becomes situational, look at your enemies and dicide what you want to build.

Tank Items

Randuin's Omen

The Randuin's Omen is a strong item overall, it gives you health & armor.
It got hit in the 4.10 patch but it's still a very strong item, build thuis against a full/ nearly full AD team. It gives a nice AOE slow, but Braum is not Thresh so you wont really be in the middle of the enemy team so you wont be able to slow alot of people, still useful though.


Locket of the Iron Solari

Just an overall great item on Braum. Health, Cooldown reduction and Magic resist. It gives your whole team an aura that gives extra Magic resist and on top of that, the activation gives all the allies around you a shield! The Locket of the Iron Solari is a great by for Braum, it just makes you more support-like.


Banshee's Veil

The [Banshee's Veil] is the best Magic resist item on Braum besides the Locket of the Iron Solari in my opinion.
Not only does it give great Magic resist and Health it also gives you that spell shield every 25 second out of combat. Thats especially great because Braum already has 1 spell shield with his Unbreakable and now you get another one, it helps so much while tanking heavy damage spells for your allies.


Frozen Heart

The Frozen Heart quite a good item for Braum. The Cooldown reduction, Armour & Mana is nice.
The mana isnt really needed because Braum his spells have a low mana cost.
The only problem I have with full Armour items (without Health) is that youre the tank of the whole team, so you actually have to tank their whole team, and 90% of the time a team had 1-2 AP champions so they will still do alot of damage to you.
Buy this against fed attack-speed reliant carries like Jax, Jinx and Vayne since it slows the enemy's attack speed.


Thornmail

I'ts the same story with the Thornmail, full Armor. Against fed auto-attack reliant champions like Yasuo and Caitlyn. If you just want armor always buy a Randuin's Omen aswell. this item synergizes well with Braum his kit because he can intercept auto-attacks which will make the passive of the Thornmail very useful.


Sunfire Cape

The Sunfire Cape is situational item. If you're ahead and you're team is lacking alot oh Magic damage then this might be a possible buy. The tank stats it gives for the price it costs isnt really good, so if you dont need the Magic damage, stay away from this item.


Mikael's Crucible

This item got nerfed in patch 4.10 and now its costs quite a bit more.
Nowadays its only worth buying the Mikael's Crucible if they really have alot of CC and your ADC does not want a Quicksilver Sash, in this case buy it. It also gives a nice chunk of Magic resist.


Zeke's Herald

The Zeke's Herald is quite an un-populair item. In patch 4.10 lifesteal on items got nerfed but Zeke's herald didnt get hit. It grands quite a bit of nice Cooldown reduction & Health and it gives the allies around you 20 AD & 10% lifesteal. I dont really suggest building this unless you're running a team comp with 3 ADC's or something similair.

Boots

There are a options for boots upgrades as Braum. These 3 are the best.

Boots of Mobility

This upgrade has always been good on supports, your warding becomes more easy and you can roam mid alot. If I see my mid-laner is having quite alot of trouble and the enemy mid-laner is pushing quite alot, I purchase these to roam between bot and mid quicker. Theyre quite cheap aswell.

Ionian Boots of Lucidity

This is a good boots upgrade for Braum since your spell based support (besides your passive with auto-attacks) and with the Cooldown reduction from these boots you can cast those support-spells more often so youre more useful, i take these boots if the enemy team have alot of CC i have to block and I have no need to roam.

Mercury's Treads

Great buy on Braum, Either if the enemy team has alot of CC you can intercept or they're full AP, these boots are good on Braum, I still prefer Ionian Boots of Lucidity but these are great.

Enchantments

Alacrity is a great enchantment on Braum. As a support you want to be running around the map saving all your allies and giving everyone vision to not get caught out. the 15% extra momvement speed is nice for this.

Buy the Homeguard enchantment when you have to rush out of base. This could be when you have to rush to Baron because the enemy is rushing it or when your inhibitor is going down, there are lots of reasons to add this enchantment to your boots.

Lane matchups & Counters

Here are a few lanes Braum goes well with and where Braum struggles with.

Support matchups

The difficulty of the lane matchup can be seen by the colour of the names;
Green = easy Orange = even Red = hard

Alistar

Alistar is a rare support. I've only played against him 2 or 3 times but its a pretty easy lane. He wont touch you and you wont touch him. You both are "peel" supports so you're not ment to engage. Just be careful for a flash Pulverize + Headbutt combo because it can give you a hard time if you get knocked back under his turret.

Annie

Annie is not really populair anymore nowadays but this match-up shoudl not be a problem for Braum. If Annie tries to stun your ADC with her Q then you can interupt it with a quick Stand Behind Me + Unbreakable. When she hits level 6 Summon: Tibbers can do quite alot of damage and its not blockable, just be careful for that strong ultimate.

Blitzcrank

Blitzcrank will always be an annoying and frustrating support to play against. Your Unbreakable does actually block the damage his Rocket Grab does but it does not block CC so you'll get pulled. Just stay in the back, dont get pulled. Though once his pull is down he loses all his pressure so you can go aggresive and maybe land a Winter's Bite.

Braum

Too much mustache. You'll have a bigger mustache though since you've read this awesome Braum guide!

Gragas

I've seen quite alot of Gragas play the last couple of months, and he actually is a decent support. He has a displacement, knock-up and quite decent harass in lane, though, you outclass him by alot. First of all, you can block his Ultimate, Explosive Cask with a well times Unbreakable wich really makes Gragas a useless support. He will still be very tanky and will probably be able to out damage you so be sure to pick the right fights.

Janna

Janna her popularity has grown once again in patch 4.10 with the addition of the new support item Ardent Censer. This item grands attack speed to people that get shielded or healed, wich Janna is really good at. The match-up itself is quite easy, but can be hard. Janna has alot of disengage and peel for her ADC wich can be hard to deal with as Braum, but once you eventually get a good stun of on her she will for sure be dead because she is one of the squishiest champions (together with Sona) in the game.

Karma

Karma is one of those really annoying strong early-game champions that you just dont want to face in the laning phase. She gets her ultimate ( Mantra) at level 1 and this ability empowers all het other abilities. If she wishes to use Mantra on her Q Inner Flame it can deal ALOT of damage early game. Try and block these attacks with your Unbreakable and you will deny alot of damage. She doesnt really have an escape so once you hit your Winter's Bite you'll most likely be able to chase and stun her. Karma is just a decently hard lane.

Leona

Leona and Braum are similar and different in a few ways. they both have alot of tankyness and stuns, but Leona has more engage and Braum has more disengage and peel. The match-up against Leona is not really hard, altough her level 2 is insanely strong and since Braum his level 2 is not because you'll most likely have Winter's Bite and Unbreakable you should be careful. You can interupt Leona her combo of Zenith Blade into Shield of Daybreak by having really quick reactions. Since Braum his unbreakable forces all CC to be hit on him, and Leona her Zenith Blade has a short root effect, you can interrupt it. Just be prepared in lane and when you see her go for a combo use Stand Behind Me and Unbreakable on your adc and you'll force her to engage on you. When she use Solar Flare from a distance, directly do the same combo and shield your ADC from all the damage.

Morgana

Morgana is a real pain in the mustache to play against as Braum. Your only reliable CC with Concussive Blows is really easy to predict so Morgana can just use her Black Shield on whoever has 3 stack of Concussive Blows on him. She also has alot of reliable roots and stuns wich are really easy to hit. Just play save and shield your ADC once he gets rooted. Late-game she can only Black Shield one person but most of the time there are multiple priority targets so you'll be able to stun someone else.

Nami

Nami has a strong early game, but you can kind of shut her down. Her Aqua Prisons are not projectiles so you'll just have to juke those and she also out sustains you with her Ebb and Flow so they will most likely have higher health if they decide to start an engage. There is a silver lining though. Her ultimate, Tidal Wave, can be totally denied with your Unbreakable. If you manage to do this your most likely able to win the engage and come out on top. Just pay close attention to what Nami is up to since Tidal Wave has an obvious cast animation.

Sona

Sona is kind of the combination on Janna and Nami. Sona has great poke, sustain and a great AoE stun with her Crescendo, so ye, its a hard lane. She will outsustian and outpoke you, but once again, if you catch up to her with your Winter's Bite you have great change at killing her. You can block her ultimate with a well timed Unbreakable so try and do that because otherwise you will most likely lose the engagement. Quite a hard lane.

Thresh

There we go, we arrived at the Chain Warden. A well played Thresh is still better than Braum in my opinion, he is just insanely strong. His Death Sentence gives him alot of zone-controll and its not blockable with your Unbreakable. Once he levels up Flay he gets alot more damage on his auto-attacks so he can start harassing you aswell. In a straight up fight you will probably out-damage him and win the engage, especially if you land a stun on their ADC with Concussive Blows. Just a really hard lane match-up for Braum if Thresh is played to his highest potential.

Zyra

Zyra is also one of the harder lanes for Braum. Her harass is insanely high if Zyra plays aggresive and you wont be able to block anything (not even het Grasping Roots) since only her ultimate Stranglethorns counts as a projectile (if you face towards the centre of the ultimate you'll block the damage). Just really stay in the back and only if you ADC gets caught jump in for the resque, other then that, this match-up just sucks.

Good ADC's with Braum

All ADC's mash quite good with Braum but there are a few that really go well paired with the mustache man.

Graves

Graves goes really well with Braum. You can hit a target with Winter's Bite and Graves can dash in with Quickdraw and then quickly apply 3 more stacks of Concussive Blows with the attack speed buffs he get after using Quickdraw. Once the target gets stunned he can unleash a great Buckshot while hitting the enemy with all 3 shots, just a great combo with Braum.

Lucian

Once again in patch 4.10 Lucian is just as dominant as he was before. Because of the The Bloodthirster nerf his Piercing Light wont do as much damage as it did before, so his lane dominance will be reduced. He still is the strongest ADC out there. He can apply Concussive Blows quickly with his Lightslinger passive and his overall damage is just outrages. Best ADC to pair with Braum, but this counts for any support.

Twitch

Twitch is still a very strong pick even after his nerfs in 4.10. He can quickly apply Concussive Blows when he pops out of stealth and deal alot of burst damage. Great pick paired with Braum

Ezreal

I'm not a great fan of Ezreal, I think is damage his quite low late game, he has that great escape though. People argue that Ezreal is a very strong pick together in a lane with Braum since his long range Mystic Shot applies on-hit effects such as Concussive Blows. I just dont like Ezreal as an overall pick, but he is decent paired with Braum.

How to play in different phases of the game

Laning phase

Braum is not the strongest support in the laning phase. Pre-level 6 he gets outclassed by most supports, especially range supports. Morgana, Zyra and Thresh are the hardest lane's for Braum. Read the chapter about lane match-ups if you want to know more about the counters etc. As I said, you're quite weak early game especially because your stun has to "charge up" before it actually stuns your target, and besides that Braum has no direct CC pre-6. Most of the other supports have direct CC wich is strong in small engages and for poking so you really dont want to fight people like Thresh and Morgana in the early game. So for this phase of the game, just stay in the back, use your charges from your Relic Shield or Targon's Brace and jump in if your ADC nees you with your Stand Behind Me and Unbreakable.

Mid-game

Once the laning phase is over you will probably end up having your Face of the Mountain, Sightstone, Ionian Boots of Lucidity (or any other type of boots) and 1/2 Vision Wards. Also replace your Warding Totem with a Sweeping Lens. In this phase of the game there are quite alot of fights and you want to be ready for those, this is why you get those Vision Wards. Denying vision from your enemy is a really good way to win games, and the best part is, its not even hard to do. Be sure to always use your Sweeping Lens or Vision Wards when your team is going to do Dragon or an invade. Think about it, whenever people walk into the fog of war, who will win the fight, the person who had vision over the enemy and was able to prepare for the fight, or the person who walked into the brush and got jumped on? Vision is really important. For the rest of the mid-game you want to be with your team, Braum is nothing alone. Just stick to your ADC and soak up Exp from the farm he gets, unless he is really behind, then let him have the solo Exp. Just stick to your team's squishies and protect them, you don't have that big shield for nothing. When a teamfight actually breaks out, be sure to use your Glacial Fissure for disengage and to peel for your squishies, because as I already talked about in the skill set part of the guide, your ult is too slow for a really good engage. Try and lay it down so you create a nice area of slow that the enemy actually has to past trough, kinda like The Equalizer from Rumble.

Late-game

This is where Braum is at his strongest. You should have about 2-3 tank items by now and you can soak up all that damage from the enemy team. The point of Braum will stll be the same, PROTECT EVERYONE:D just keep peeling and using your Glacial Fissure correctly and also use your Winter's Bite on their ADC/APC. baron nashor is becoming a contested objective at this point, once again buy 1-2 Vision Wards and maybe upgrade your Sweeping Lens to an Oracle's Lens and keep denying that vision from your opponents.

Few little tips on Supporting in general.

Here are just a few tips in general on supporting:

Vision.

On your first back, always try to get a Stealth Ward or 2 if you dont have your Sightstone yet. In the laning phase vision is importent to protect you and your ADC from the enemy jungler.

Peeling.

This and warding is your main goal. This is pretty easy to do as Braum. Use your Stand Behind Me and Unbreakable to block ton of damage for your teammates. If you feel there is nothing else you can do, feel free to use your Glacial Fissure to protect your allies.

Warding.

Blue side: On the blue side your the one next to the "tri-brush". As a support you should be the one that keeps vision over this brush since this is a very populair ganking path for junglers. I see alot of support only warding the little brush in the river but why would a jungler gank trough that path if they can come from behind. Only ward the river brush if you're pushing really hard past the river. Other then that, blue side is my favourite side for bot-lane, the camera angle is just better for hitting skill-shots and dodging them.

Red/Purple side: This side is quite similair to the blue side but the Stealth Ward controll is a little bit different. There is no "tri-brush" on this side but you're more likely to push part the river bush so you have to ward that one quite often. You dont really have to ward the bush near your outer-turret but if you feel like your getting dived then ward it ofcourse.

Dragon: Dragon is quite and important early-game objective. In patch 4.10 the gold has been inscreased in the early game so its really attrective. try and have your Sightstone and Sweeping Lens ready for those fights so you can deny vision and maybe sneak it quickly while the enemy team does not know your on it yet.

Baron Nashor: Baron is a real late-game objective. You want to have the Oracle's Lens and maybe a Ruby Sightstone. A Ruby Sightstone is useful near Baron because your Stealth Wards will get cleared by the enemy team, and with the Ruby Sightstone you'll have 1 more Stealth Ward in comparison to the Sightstone. There are a few tricks while warding baron, I always try to put 1 Stealth Ward inside the pit, and one outside the pit. Some teams only purchase 1 Sweeping Lens or 1 Vision Ward, so when they swepp/place the ward outside the pit they will only be able to sweep out the one outside the pit, and the other way around. This way you'll always keep sight on Baron.

Closing words

This was my first guide on Mobafire and I hope it was understandable ;)
Whenever I find another champion I enjoy as much as Braum I'll make another guide, but for now, See ya :)