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Braum early game help

OhOkYeah·3/3/2015, 12:34:52 AM·1 votes·840 views

I've been playing a lot of braum this past week and will probably buy him eventually. But before he goes off the free rotation, I want to get some advice for his early game. Once he gets level 6+ he starts to become amazing but before that, I feel pretty squishy and not like I'm supporting as well as other supports can pre-6. One problem is that I feel forced into buying a gold item. The tanky one doesn't seem to give as much gold if I can't take full advantage of it, and I have to focus more on last hitting instead of poking and defending the ADC. Even with that, I get poked down a lot in the first few levels which can ruin my ability to help the ADC at all. Between the gold item, and rushing the sightstone, I'm left with less than optimal tanking gear while the enemies are able to scale better with their cheap damage items. After I get my boots built and another item, I feel fine. Should I not be rushing the sightstone? If I don't, I just end up having to buy more wards which can easily get over 800 gold in costs.

Should I just skip the gold item and build tanky immediately? Or what tips do you have for me? Suffer through it and just hug turret more often till I can buy 1-2 items?

7 Comments

Champion Skin3/3/2015, 1:34:25 AM1 votes

I don't really think you should be skipping the gold item Hp is pretty good on Braum and hp regen and CDR isn't all that bad either (and the shield isn't too bad if you are good at using it) As it is pretty good... one thing that makes it good is that it enables you to give your ADC some extra sustain and it is pretty gold efficient if you are able to share around 150-200 gold (and remember to kill/share Canon or melee minions as they are worth most)

You could just try building a bit of hp after finishing your sightstone and support item as the damage reduction of the shield and the armor/mr of W should make you pretty durable with some HP (and your Q also deals more damage the more HP you have)

Lost R3/3/2015, 7:24:00 PM1 votes

Braum's a tank more geared than any other tank towards actually taking a bullet for his teammates, and the problem with his early game is that tanks in general can't do their job that soon in the game, at least not that effectively. Rushing an empty item like a Sightstone further reduces when and how effectively you can tank damage for your teammates, and no, the 150 HP the Sightstone gives doesn't count.

I always pick the support item with all supports. Tanks will get little use out of theirs, but it helps to have a bit of healing in the early game, and the shield can turn the tide of battle in a valuable spot. The first item after the first upgrade to your support item that isn't boots should be some kind of defense item, preferably a Warden's Mail or chain vest. Always pay attention to what the enemy is building and what form their damage will take, and change what you build depending on that situation. If you need to build damage with Braum, build a Wit's End. It gives a great combination of Magic Resist, attack speed (for throwing Concussive Blows stacks on enemies faster) and a decent amount of magic damage per hit. The Sunfire cape will add more needed damage onto him while providing the necessary armor and health, and as a general rule of thumb, always, ALWAYS build a Warden's Mail item on him (unless the enemy is all magic damage, in which case, disregard it).