> ABILITY COMBOS

* (> R) means only use it if necessary. If you won't get the kill by burning ult or if you can get the kill without it, just don't use it.

Combo 1: Short range combo




Combo 2: Standard initiation


*only use Q if W hits, otherwise save it in case you get initiated after burning W


Combo 3: Waveclear combo


*Make sure to have the minions clumped up before doing this


Combo 4.: Teamfight combo


*Try to Q their highest damage champion if possible

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>Early game playstyle
- Try to use your Pillar of Flame whenever you have a clear hit. Don't force yourself to hit a Sear after it, but try to do it if you have a clear hit.
- You can stay inside the bush if it's not warded to lure the enemies close for a short range combo.
- Counter their initiation with a short range combo on the closest target.

>Late game objective
- Go around the jungle and flank the enemy team in teamfights or catch squishies alone and kill them. To do this properly you have to:
1) Ward the jungle and don't overextend, YOU are the support after all.
2) Use your Oracle Lens to make sure you're unseen in the jungle.

Hi! My name is Ekki, and I'm a player from the LAS server. I've been Platinum for the last 2 seasons and I'm currently unranked.

This guide is meant to be a quick read and the first chapter should be enough to get going, but I'll add some more in-depth stuff in the following chapters for those needing more explanations.

-MOST CHAPTERS ARE CURRENTLY UNDER CONSTRUCTION; FEEL FREE TO ASK FOR ANYTHING IN THE COMMENT SECTION-

If you have any further questions/suggestions please ask in the comment section!

While Brand is a pretty nukey mage with great area of effect (AoE) damage, he can be played more on an "ambient damage" playstyle, looking to wear down tanks and squishies alike and dealing lots of damage to a whole team. This playstyle is the one enhanced by Deathfire Touch , lots of early teamfight participation and the burn from Liandry's Torment.

In this guide I'll recommend a more nuke-centric approach. Your objective is to catch a squishy alone (two squishies together is optimal) and kill it or leave it about to die before your team comes to back you up. Being a support, you can take advantage of your vision control responsabilities to catch enemies alone or focus any assassin foolish enough to get close to your adc. To achieve this you'll want to amass magic penetration, use Thunderlord's Decree and flank teamfights if they happen while you're roaming. Liandry's Torment is still into the build, but only because of the magic penetration (hence you should hold on to an early Haunting Guise instead of finishing your Liandry's Torment right away).

Example all-around rune page:
- Greater Mark of Magic Penetration and Greater Quintessence of Magic Penetration because Brand deals a LOT of magic damage. His Blaze deals %hp magic damage so it's useful even if you're behind and with few items.

- Greater Glyph of Magic Resist because lane mages might nuke you if you're unlucky early on. You can run Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist if you know the enemy bot lane doesn't have significant magic damage.

- Greater Seal of Armor is pretty standard. You're in bot lane, against an AD carry, so unless you know you're against a mage you should get these.

- Greater Quintessence of Magic Penetration can be changed for a Greater Quintessence of Ability Power if you want a cheaper alternative. Also the resulting page is the standard AP mage page.




These are great rune pages if you can dedicate a slot to them, but you can always use a standard cheap generic AP rune page and it'll work too.

Standard masteries:

Thunderlord's decree VS Deathfire touch:

While most players agree that Deathfire Touch is better on Brand because of the constant burn, I prefer Thunderlord's Decree because of the playstyle I recommend with this build (i.e. run through the bushes and kill squishies 1v1). It's also easy to proc with basic attacks even before you have your three skills.

Feel free to swap to Deathfire Touch though, it's perfectly viable too. Also, the 7% penetration from Piercing Thoughts is very useful against tanks. You might want to play the "standard" build on that keystone mastery though.

Flash is standard in 100% of champions without mobility. If you're not using it you should start doing so ASAP.

Exhaust is preferred to Ignite because you're the support, so you might need to defend the adc with more than a simple stun.

Ignite is good if you're afraid of the enemy healing. You should probably only pick it if you know you're against heavy healing in lane (like a Soraka). Otherwise you can buy a Morellonomicon and be fine.

Blaze:
A great damage tool and the reason why Brand's combos can't consist of only 2 abilities. You should almost always try to hit that third spell after connecting the first two (especially if your enemy is stunned by Sear).

Its max hp scaling means it's always great to build magic penetration for Brand, since he'll deal decent damage to everyone even if low on ability power.

Also do note that all of Brand's abilities interact with targets affected by Blaze and gain bonus effects.



Sear:
A simple line skillshot that would be boring if it wasn't your only hard CC. Targets affected by Blaze will get stunned for 1.5 seconds if hit by Sear. If you mindlessly waste this spell in lane, the enemy may be able to go all in on you without fear of its stun.



Pillar of flame:
Brand's main damage ability. It's the one that scales the most with AP, that deals the most base damage and if it hits a target affected by Blaze it deals even MORE damage. Do notice that it has a medium-sized circle AoE that can be avoided if the enemy has some mobility and good reaction times. Try to cast it with the enemy as close to the center as possible and while their mobility tools are on cooldown.



Conflagration:
Brand's shortest range, lowest damage spell. Since its effect on targets affected by Blaze doesn't increase your damage to them, it's a great first spell on any combo that can afford it (hence the "short range combo" is the best one for 1v1 situations).

Other than that it can be used to spread Blaze stacks across minions, for good waveclear with Pillar of Flame, or across clustered enemy champions, for the best of Pyroclasms.



Pyroclasm:
The main reason why Brand excels at group fights. Pyroclasm jumps from champion to champion 5 times, prioritizing those closer to 3 Blaze stacks and slowing those who have them by a good amount. This can lead to complete mayhem on the enemy team, who has to spread out or receive a good bunch of damage.

Optimization of Pyroclasm targets and knowing which fights are worth using it in is the second most important skill for a Brand player, the first one being knowing all the basic combos and when to use them.

A Brand player's most valuable skill is knowing his best combos and when to use them.

Given how his Blaze works, you'll always want to:
A) Make sure you hit at least 3 spells.
B) Minimize the loss of Blaze special effects on the spells you use.

B stems from the fact that for each one of Brand combos, there'll always be a first spell, and that first spell won't hit a target affected by Blaze, so it won't trigger its special effect.

A, together with Brand's non-spammable abilities, means each combo will be of either 3 or 4 spells. This'll often boil down to whether or not you're going to burn Pyroclasm on it, since if you're using it you'll probably want to land all 3 basic spells too.

Knowing this, you can classify each of Brand's combos by naming which ability you're going to use first and whether or not it includes Pyroclasm. Oftentimes you won't be sure if you'll burn Pyroclasm for a combo beforehand, so it can almost always be added as the last spell of any non- Pyroclasm combo

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> Combos starting with Sear focus on area of effect damage and don't care to lose a stun.

These combos focus on area of effect damage because Sear is Brand's only spell that can only deal single-target damage.

You'll also lose an stun, so it's not the best idea to use Sear-first combos against enemy champions. The damage gains are not that big and having an extra stun is always great, even if the entire enemy team is under CC.

You want to always use Conflagration second to spread as many Blaze stacks as possible before hitting Pillar of Flame and maybe Pyroclasm. In teamfights Pyroclasm would go before Pillar of Flame because it would allow you to position your Pillar of Flame according to the enemy team reaction.

Without Pyroclasm:
- To waveclear: Q > E > W

With Pyroclasm:
- When the enemy team is under CC: Q > E > R > W (the Pyroclasm-first variant is probably better)

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> Combos starting with Pillar of Flame focus on hitting the enemy from as far as possible. You should only use these after Pillar of Flame actually hits an enemy.

Since you'll be losing a damage boost on your hardest hitting spell, they may sound situational, but it's the other way around. These combos have 3 very important reasons behind them:
1- Pillar of Flame has a long range. This makes it possible to land a Sear afterwards for a pretty long range stun. You'll try to do these combos in lane most of the time, since you need to keep your distance from the enemy duo lane.
2- It's your hardest to aim/hit spell. That means that after you land it, you already have 90% of the combo done.
3- Using it first allows you to hold on to a Conflagration+ Sear stun in case you miss the pillar and the enemy jumps on you. It's very important that you hold on to both of them in case the pillar misses.

Without Pyroclasm:
- Against a single, far away enemy: W > Q > E
- When the enemy team closes in on you: W > E > Q (W to zone, E-Q to stun any priority target)

With Pyroclasm:
- Same as without it but adding R at the end.

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> Combos starting with Conflagration focus your damage and CC on one single target.

These combos focus on one single target because you'll lose the granted spread of Blaze stacks.

Since Conflagration is your shortest range spell, starting the combo with it means you can dump the entire spell pool in one go. You'll sometimes want to bait out mobility/blocking skills though, so try to have that in mind somewhat.

You'll want to bait out mobility because Conflagration is also your easiest to hit basic spell, so the enemy can and will probably try to dodge everything else.

Without Pyroclasm:
- Against low mobility targets: E > Q > W (W only if you hit Q)
- Against high mobility targets: E > W > Q (W to bait out mobility)

With Pyroclasm:
- Against low mobility targets: E > R > Q > W
- Against high mobility targets: E > W > R + Q (W to bait out mobility, R for the slow)

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> Combos starting with Pyroclasm are special cases. You'll be losing the slow on the first couple of hits and the enemy might get away after you burn your ult. Only do these either as follow up to allied CC (so the enemy doesn't get away/spread) or if you're feeling risky and know your target doesn't have mobility.

As followup to allied CC:
- R > E > W + Q (Q any carry you have in range or just a tank/assassin that may be annoying)

Catching a low mobility target:
- R > Q > W + E

Pretty standard mage support first buy.

NEVER buy Refillable Potion instead of 3x Health Potions. You'll lose a lot of early sustain that could make you lose the last fight before backing, which could lead to losing the lane and a really hard-to-stop enemy snowballing.


Your first buys should aim towards finishing the Eye of the Watchers.

- If you back with over 900 gold buy a Sightstone, a Control Ward, a couple of Health Potions if you don't have any. Also swap your Stealth Ward for a Sweeping Lens as soon as you get the Sightstone.

- If you back with less than 800 gold just buy a Frostfang, some Health Potions and a Control Ward and go back to get enough gold to compensate your lack of Sightstone.


Your first objective should be getting an Eye of the Watchers. It'll let you put one more ward and hitting enemy champions will give you gold even if you accidentaly farm a minion.

Also try to get Boots sometime after getting Sightstone, you'll need to move a lot if you want to be a proper support.


Your core build should be this.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter because it'll help you catch up to people for easier Sears or run from them even if a single Sear stun isn't enough. It also doubles as a support-ish item since it gives you some more utility that's useful both if you're behind or ahead in gold.

Sorcerer's Shoes because you'll deal a lot of magic damage, so magic penetration will increase it a lot. The alternatives are Ionian Boots of Lucidity if you want to spam more spells or Mobility Boots if you'll roam around the map a lot (YOU BETTER WARD A LOT IF YOU GET MOBIS THOUGH).


REMEMBER TO GET ORACLE ALTERATION WHEN YOU HIT LEVEL 9! IT MAKES A DIFFERENCE FOR FREE!


- Liandry's Torment is a great all around item for Brand, especially after getting a Rylai's Crystal Scepter, since it doubles the %hp burn from liandry's. The optimal build pattern is getting Haunting Guise, wait until you finish your fifth item and only then upgrade it to Liandry's Torment. The flat penetration makes it optimal as a 4th item, but the %hp burn is better as a late game item. You can finish it straight up if you want though, but do know that it may be slightly suboptimal.

- Morellonomicon is the alternative to Liandry's Torment against lots of healing in the enemy team. You'll also get a decent bunch of mana, slightly more AP and 20% CDR, which is great anyways. It's not the standard because the magic penetration is better than extra AP and since your play pattern should be "burn all basic spells then run and hope your enemy died" the mana and CDR aren't extremely useful either.


Your last two items should enhance what you have been building up in your core build. To that end, Rabadon's Deathcap and Void Staff are the prime examples in AP build.

- Void Staff because it's a must buy in all damage mages. Even against teams without a tank, it's granted that by their 5th item they'll have a good bunch of magic resistance.

- Rabadon's Deathcap is a bit more controversial, and can be swapped by other items if preferred during particular games. It's the standard because, even if you're not building lots of AP, it'll add the most damage to a build which at this point should have lots of magic penetration.


You can buy one of these items instead of Rabadon's Deathcap.

- Zhonya's Hourglass if you're often getting focused/assassinated. Especially useful against telegraphed abilities like Zed's Death Mark or Caitlyn's Ace in the Hole.

- Abyssal Mask if you tend to end up close to your enemies but you're not being assassinated too fast (e.g. if you're getting focused by divers but have decent peel from your team).

Lastly, I don't recommend Luden's Tempest because it doesn't scale as well with Brand's kit nor build. He doesn't get a lot of AP until after getting Rabadon's Deathcap and he doesn't have any mobility to proc the passive very often.


After you've finished your build remember to get an Elixir of Sorcery every time you go back to base.

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