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What are Braum's weaknesses in lane?

ShadowKnight1224·9/11/2014, 4:10:21 PM·2 votes·2,608 views

Given that I main support, I find that Braum becomes a thorn on my side no matter what type of support I'm playing. Good Braums will save their jump+shield to nullify anything that can result in a kill (Nami bubble, Nami ult, Morgana dark binding, Leona zenith blade, Thresh/Blitz pull, etc). I can work around Morgana's Black Shield. Sure, having my bubble not CC the ADC sucks, but she can't blackshield two people at once, so my Nami ult will CC at least one person. Braum just spends the use of one ability to completely nullify anything you throw at him, and a good Braum will hold on their jump and shield for when they are actually needed (whereas most bad Braums will just waste them impatiently because they can't play the waiting game).

And that's not even counting the true source of my frustration: the passive. It's a deathmark. If you are hit even once and he's in a position where the ADC can follow up, you're dead (unless you're Leona/Alistar, in which case he "merely" takes three quarters of your health). Lucian in particular is a horrendous ADC to face with Braum, as his passive lets him fill up Braum's passive faster than any other ADC and his dash means that he's more or less always in a position to follow up on Braum when he tags someone. I just don't understand how to deal with that. He doesn't really need to hit his Q, he's tanky enough to just walk up to you or your ADC and autoattack. It also doesn't seem to matter how much damage you pour on him, he seems to have Alistar-levels of tankiness, and if you back off to avoid the autoattack, he's effectively zoning you and your ADC simply with his presence.

He's also the only support with a dash to safety. Every other support with a dash is enemy-targeted (Leona, Alistar, Thresh). It doesn't matter how much harass he eats for the price of zoning you and your ADC, he can simply jump to a minion and escape retaliation, whereas any other support that attempts to do this can actually die. Even if you get him low enough to be finished off by your Cait/Ez/Jinx ult, he simply shields it off and then backs to base, having exchanged most of his health for several seconds of zoning you cannot get back. Letting his ADC freefarm while zoning off the enemy ADC is invaluable in the game. Being able to secure kills simply with an autoattack (again, he doesn't really need to land a skillshot the way Morgana, Blitz, Leona or Thresh do) is something I cannot understand.

How do you play against that? Braum can easily claim bush control simply by walking into the bush (even if it's a bush behind your own minion wave). If you attempt to fight him off, he just tags you with the passive and his ADC gets a free kill. If you back off, you are surrendering the bush to him and giving him zoning power. If any other tanky support were to do that, they would either (depending on the support I'm playing) get all-inned and have to back off or risk dying, or eat so much harass that they have to back off or risk dying. Braum doesn't operate like that. If you all-in Braum, he tags both you and the ADC with his passive and then proceeds to absorb an ungodly amount of damage (and if you turn your attention to his ADC, he just jump-shields to them and he still wins the all-in). If you try to harass him, he walks up to you and tags you with his passive, which means you must kite him backwards, which is still conceding him zoning power and presence.

I just don't understand what his weaknesses are and how to exploit them. He just seems like a hopeless, unwinnable situation whenever I face an enemy Braum that actually knows what they're doing (a Braum who doesn't know what they're doing is still annoying but way more manageable).

11 Comments

Tsunday9/11/2014, 5:08:48 PM4 votes

Actually I've never lost a game as Thresh against Braum and I'm not even a particularly good thresh. The idea is that if Braum is in front, you double Q Braum to get behind him and that's when you mess up his adc. Obviously don't Double Q if their ADC is full health or their adc is someone like Tristana and you know she has her jump up, but if they don't have an escape up double Q works really well.

Leona can also get into the backline the same way she does against a spell shield, she Es without turning on her Q, and then she goes behind the shield to Q the adc.

Honestly if Blitz pulls Braum early game and gets a pull on him under tower that Braum's still not going to have a nice day.

Braum's real weakness is his early game. 10 second CD Q, 14 second CD W, 18 second CD E. If Braum jumps or if Braum E's you have a good window to go in on him. Nami has a 14 second CD on her bubble and a 10 second CD on her Ebb and Flow, if he shields your bubble then you'll have your bubble up before he can shield again. A lot of supports have CDs lower than Braum and you have to remember that Braum isn't just trying to protect from your abilities but when he sees that full strength Varus Q running at his Ashe he's gonna want to shield that too.

Another one of his weaknesses early game is he needs all of his abilities to be able to do anything. Level 1 and 2 if you get off a little harass, Braum's going to have a hard time. Especially since he can only protect his ADC for 3 seconds early game. If Braum gets out of position, feel free to poke him. It doesn't matter if he can hit Stand Behind Me and get away because if he uses it, just move in on the ADC as soon as Braum isn't close enough to automatically shield.

When Braum hits his Q, back away a little. If Lucian dashes to follow up, your ADC should give Lucian a little hell for targeting the support and not the ADC. If Braum hits his Q on the ADC, and someone with a dash follows up, make it clear to Braum that he doesn't have instant CC like you. If someone dashes to get those AAs in you should have a clear shot for a Zenith Blade, a Aqua Prison, a Dazzle, a Sona E Power Chord, a Dark Binding, etc. If Braum tries to come in AA range to do it, CC him, put some harass on the Braum while he's CCd because yes he's gonna blow Stand Behind Me if he needs to to get away, but he can't use the jump while he's CCd.

Braum is also pretty mana hungry. If everytime you think Braum's W/E are up you hit just your Aqua Prison, or Just fake a Zenith Blade, and Braum blocks it he used at least 80 mana assuming he didn't also use his Q in retaliation (at which case he blew 135 mana) MANA 235 (+45). Yes that's a decent amount of mana, but when every time you want to block something you're soaking up at least 80 mana, and when you're Q costs a good chunk of your mana as well, a Braum who is constantly trying to avoid his ADC taking damage, isn't going to have the mana to do anything.

Not to mention that if Braum uses his W to position his shield, then he's not actually tanky after the shield ends early game because he hasn't built any tank. He's a pretty good target to harass a little at that point because he has no natural defenses.

Braum also has trouble getting to you because unlike a lot of supports he doesn't have a reliable dash in or a speed up (other than his shield which means when he gets to you his ADC is very vulnerable). So if Braum is going to proc his relic shield, beat him up. If Braum is walking your way to AA you, beat him up. Early game he won't do shit, and if you zone him out early then he's not going to have the levels or the gold to be tanky later on in the laning phase.