Table of Contents

Introduction Pros & Cons Preparation Abilities Matchups Ending

Introduction

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Greetings, Summoner - welcome to my short guide about Braum, the Heart of the Freljord.


Braum is a tanky support champion with a very unique and fun-to-play-kit. Note that this guide is meant for people who know the game, it's not an in-depth-guide and will therefore lack any general information about how to play the game. Further note that this guide only covers support Braum, not other roles.

Now, without further add-on, let's start our journey to the icy mountains and valleys of the Freljord:

Pros & Cons - Why play Braum?

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Pros + Very tanky for a support + Strong level 1 with Q and Passive + Great at peeling + Very mobile + Unique tanking potential with E + Scales on tank stats + Good base damage values + Has a mustache

Cons - Melee ranged, can get poked easily - Q can be blocked easily - Relies on allies for a perfect use of his W - Doesn't do much damage without his team - No heal or shield to prevent damage - No Poro companion

Just like every other champion, Braum has his strengths and his weaknesses. He has great tankiness and peeling potential, but suffers a lack of range and damage. You can generally pick him in any comp built mainly around keeping your carries alive so they deal the damage. In best case, you have autoattacking carries and junglers to proc your passive fast in fights.
Braum may struggle a bit in lane, especially if he is matched against poke-heavy champs like Caitlyn, Karma, Zyra etc. However he excels at counterattacking once enemies decide to engage on you as he is insanely strong if you get to proc his passive. With the enemies overextending a little and your jungler incoming, you can get some easy kills.
Once it gets to teamfighting, Braum starts to dominate. Or rather, his carries do so. Given the strong disengage and peeling potential you have, your carries will love you if you do your job correctly. The only thing you have to do is stick to your carries, cc anything close and block everything enemies throw at them.

Preparation - Runes, Masteries & Summoner Spells

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My Masteries:

Braums abilities benefit greatly from a variety of tank stats. His Q and the damage reduction on E greatly favor health and his W scales well with bonus resistances. As such, I recommend a 0/21/9 mastery setup, giving him tanky stats aswell as mana regeneration, trinket range, summoner cooldown and omnom-cookies. In the carry-survival build, we go 0/9/21, mainly because we got loads of active items and the CDR mastery alone is worth going down the tree, not to mention the speed and gold-boosts you get from it.



For runes, I recommend the following:

Greater Mark of Magic Penetration seals to improve his Passive, Q and R damage.
Greater Seal of Health for early laning, also scales well with his abilities.
Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist to reduce the damage taken from blocking hits for your team later in the game.
Greater Quintessence of Health for the same reason we take tanky seals.




Summoner Spells:

For your summoner spells, take Flash for obvious reasons and either Ignite or Exhaust, depending on your playstyle and your matchup. While Exhaust is a great tool for peeling and for stopping enemy assassins from killing your carry, I really feel you should take Ignite if the enemy team isn't provoking Exhaust by taking multiple assassins. My reasoning is fairly simple: Braum already has loads of peel and protection for his carry, but he lacks damage. Ignite helps out a TON with that. It is very useful in lane, especially as Heal no longer removes the reduction effect, and it gives you significant impact in teamfights or skirmishes.

Abilities - Using Skills & Skill Order

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SPACE

SPACE

Concussive Blows is your passive ability. It applies a stack to any enemy you hit with a Q or an autoattack. Once an enemy has a stack on him, all allied autoattacks will add stacks aswell. If any enemy gets 4 stacks, he takes a fair amount of damage and is stunned. For 8 seconds, he can't get new stacks but takes bonus magic damage if attacked by Braum. Tips and Tricks: Getting a stack of this on assassins or bruisers during fights greatly helps out your carries' kiting. In lane, try to trigger the effect often for great harass and kill opportunities. Usually you get a stack or 2 on an enemy, and your carry does the remaining autoattacks. Constantly putting stacks of this on your enemies is great for zoning, as they will be afraid to come close until the stacks wear out.

SPACE

SPACE

Winter's Bite is your Q ability. It's a ranged skillshot that damages and slows the first enemy hit and gives them a stack of Concussive Blows. It's a great tool to apply your passive from range and grants Braum some much needed chase and disengage potential. Max it first to lower its cooldown and increase the damage. Tips and Tricks: If you can't get close to your enemies to apply your passive, use this to setup some harass or a kill. Care about your aim as it gets blocked by any enemy minion or champion. You can also use it just to force enemies away from some creeps, it is fairly spammable and the passive proc is a huge threat for enemies.

SPACE

SPACE

Stand Behind Me is your W skill. It is a single target ability that can be aimed on any allied champion or minion (Not wards, though). It makes Braum jump between the target and the nearest enemy champion and grants both Braum and his target bonus resistances for a short time. Max it last because the bonus from leveling it is fairly small compared with Q or E. Tips and Tricks: Using Minions as jump target can set up surprise attacks and can also be used to chase or escape. Braum jumps between the target and the nearest enemy, so it is a perfect setup for a good use of Unbreakable. Jumping to an ally while he dashes makes you jump with him. This can make for some really great plays if you got champions such as Shyvana or Malphite in your team. This requires perfect timing, though. The resistance bonus is nothing to be underestimated. You can use it in small fights just to get the upper hand over your enemy damage wise. You can also cast it just on yourself if you need to.

SPACE

SPACE

Unbreakable is your E skill and the defining skill in Braums kit. He puts up his shield in target direction, blocks the damage from the first incoming enemy ability and intercepts all following attacks so he takes the hits instead of the targets behind him. It also gives a 10% Movement speed bonus. Max it second because of the greatly reduced cooldown and the increased damage reduction. Tips and Tricks: This ability can make up for some hilarious escapes and saves, especially when combined with your W. You can also use it to prevent the enemy from disengaging while you charge at them. In teamfights, save it to block key skillshots for your team or your carries (e.g. Bullet Time, Trueshot Barrage, Rat-ta-tat-tat). You can move, attack and use skills while your shield is up. Be careful which direction you are aiming at when using the shield, you can not turn around while casting, comparable to The Culling.

SPACE

SPACE

Glacial Fissure is your ultimate. It is an AoE skillshot that knocks up all enemies around Braum and in a line in front of him, deals magic damage and leaves behind a slow field. It is a great disengage or disruption tool for skirmishes and teamfights. Max it whenever possible. Tips and Tricks: The enemy champion immediately around Braum are knocked up higher. If there is no such enemy, the first champion hit will be knocked up higher. Strategic placement of the slow will make any chase or escape almost impossible for the enemy team, especially if you are fighting in the jungle. Tough its best use is disengaging, it can also be used as engage or followup-engage if it is needed. Repositioning with your W before you ult can make it much easier to land a good ult. You can also jump directly on an ally in danger and ult for the devastating knockup on all enemies sticking to him. This should usually allow him to escape, especially if you chain your E afterwards.

Matchups & Synergies

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Synergies - The best ADC's to go with

There are many ADC's that can do well with Braum. Basically anyone who can either proc the passive easily or follow up on it, or both, will do well with Braum. Below are the best ADC's for Braum to go with, but don't think the others are trash with him, they just don't synergise as well as these do.

Matchups

Braum is a strong laner against almost any melee support. His passive allows him to win trades with ease and the enemy can't deal a lot of damage without eating your passive. Braums problem are supports that can keep their distance easily and poke him down. He can still get the upper hand in these matchups if the opponent makes errors in their positioning, so be sure to abuse these. The following list contains all common supports, the difficulty of the matchup for Braum aswell as some tips how to fight them.

Ending

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That's it so far about this guide. If you are looking for item explanations, they can be found in the Cheat Sheet Notes (hover over the +Notes to see them). Items that are not listed there are not viable for support Braum on a consistent level.
Note once again that this is just meant as an introduction to the champion, not a fully in-depth guide. If any questions are left unanswered by this guide, that's what the comment section is for. Questions as well as constructive feedback are appreciated.

Have a nice day and enjoy the beautiful Freljord moustache!

Isolanporzellator