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So is Brand better off going "Tanky Liandries+Rylai" than going "full-blown burst mage AP"?

5G8Nri0B54··1 votes·1,436 views

Looking at him as a burst mage Outside of his Q, his range puts him in reaming distance of all the champions better than him (a lot of champions), making a glass cannon AP build rather unnattractive His lack-luster AP ratios makes going full-blown AP not pay off nearly as well as it would in other champions

Looking at him as a tanky penetration mage... His bases aren't bad unlike his ratios His Passive inflicts % damage, which along with his bases and low ratios, encourages lots of penetration His Passive encourages you to space out your abilities, making the burst style rather conter-intuitive His range putting him within reaming distance makes building tanky a good idea

Overall, he appears to benefit a lot more from going tanky and wearing the enemy down than being a combo-heavy burst mage. Is there any reason to build Brand as a full-blown AP burst mage when he can instead go for Tanky-Liandries-Rylai's?

Ideally speaking, Brand's burst could work out if he catches exactly two enemies or an enemy next to a cannon minion and get them to stick close enough for maximum bounce. But that doesn't happen nearly often enough. On the other hand it's REALLY easy to jump on his ass, especially in mid lane. Making a tankier build more preferrable imo.

9 Comments

Mirawiel2 votes

i think best way to play brand is as that % damage tank destroyer

if both teams have a tank, but brand destroys yours, you are screwed

sometimes dealing damage to the tank and taking him out is better than taking out the adc. cuz now you have a 4v5 where enemy has no tank but you do

5G8Nri0B541 votes

My logic of going against the tank instead of ADC is that you don't have to put Mr. Zero Mobility and Effective Self-Peel too deep into the danger zone just to have a chance at killing the ADC.

Overall I find Brand's best case scenario isn't combo-bursting his targets, but rather running back and forth setting as many enemies ablaze as possible while trying to land a stun too.

Aurelius Maximus1 votes

rylais liandrys is the only way to play brand 1 Q = 3/4 hp of a squish

5G8Nri0B541 votes

That isn't exactly the main reason you'd want to play him that way as "doing tons of damage to squishies" isn't anything to brag about.

Although he will certainly do far more damage to tanky champions than glass cannon burst will in the span of a team fight.

Lord Dusteon1 votes

Well, his best combo has an AP ratio of 3.45, plus a base of 1818.75, which is extremely good. That's one reason to go full damage on him (easy to nuke any one target, plus since his W+R are AoE can nuke a second with the first).

JustMyBassCannon1 votes

I go half of both on Brand.

Early on, I work on Rylai's and Liandry's, because the slow gives him kiting strength that he desperately needs, and the %HP accentuates his strengths. It helps that, since his passive doesn't scale with AP, MPen is the best scalar for that.

Then, later, I work on CDR and Rabadon's, Void Staff if I need it, because he has insane burst damage. He actually has...I forget if it's the 3rd or 4th strongest burst potential in League, but the only ones I know for sure that surpass him are Syndra and Malzahar.

5G8Nri0B541 votes

Oh I know he has decent burst potential.

Unfortunately his potential is so rarely realized due to his circumstances :/

It's great if he can find two enemies set up so he can maximize his damage output, but boy does it not happen often enough.

JustMyBassCannon1 votes

Which is exactly why I start off building him for the kiting and tank-shredding first. Better to rylai on the sure thing.

Late-game, it's not unreasonable to tag two or three enemy champs and toss in Pyroclasm to watch the fireworks. Which is why I like Rabadon's in the late-game.

Stonington1 votes

Yeah, that build makes sense. I'd throw in hourglass too just because he's immobile. Tanky, immobile, and mage all go together fairly well.

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