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Tips for playing Braum?

Cale017·12/18/2014, 8:26:53 AM·1 votes·844 views

Hey there! I just tried out my first match with Braum and it didn't go well. Aside from the jackass of a Rengar that lost us the match by powerfarming instead of ganking literally ever, I found that I had a lot of issues holding up during the early game. It seemed that I was taking insane amounts of harass from the enemy Kalista and Thresh, and my health was disappearing like crazy. It really hindered me and it felt like I couldn't do my job and protect my own Kalista. I also started having issues during teamfights with getting his W to jump to the right person, or trying to get my E to line up at the right angle and neither of those ever seemed to happen. More often than not the E was at JUUUST the wrong positioning, and when I'd try to W to allies they would be just out of range so I'd end up walking in some random direction from the autopathing mechanics and getting absolutely destroyed because that was exactly what the enemy needed to collapse in on me.

I'm not a support main, it's actually my weakest role, so outside of Thresh I'm not too good at the role in all honesty. My Thresh is pretty spot on, but he's the only one and I'd like to get better with supporting.

I took 0/21/9 masteries, and my runes were AS Quints and AD marks, which I hoped would help me get passive stuns off quicker and deal a bit extra damage to enemies, and then armor seals and MR/level quints.

Any tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated as I feel like Braum has so much potential but I just wasn't able to grasp hold of it.

5 Comments

Incognonymous12/18/2014, 1:54:34 PM1 votes

Probably want a tank setup of some kind for runes and masteries. I have two rune pages, one for %HP and one that's purely resistances, and then a 0/30/0 masteries page. Braum's one of the few tanks in the game who can actually do something akin to tanking, and his abilities reflect that. Don't go out of your way to get the passive proc yourself, remember that once you get the hit your ADC will be in a far better position to get the CC.

If the harass is constant, keep your defenses up constantly. You can W yourself, some folks don't realize that. Keep your shield up. Stay inside your minion wave so that the enemy draws aggro. If your ADC isn't retaliating then fall back and ask for ganks or communicate to your ADC that you want to be more aggressive.

The E and W problems you're having will simply come with practice, but don't give up. It's probably the best defensive combination in the game right now, short of maybe Lulu/Kayle ult + heal.

I'm a huge fan of auras. FH, Locket, etc.

Incognonymous12/18/2014, 6:49:52 PM1 votes

There's not going to be a huge difference between 0/30/0 and 4/26/0, play how you feel comfortable. Personally, CDR is incredibly easy to itemize for as a tank and 5% upfront isn't going to be gamechanging. FH/Locket/Face of the Mountain is an easy 40%.

That's a good question about health vs. resistance. On the surface, 9% health doesn't seem like much, but it really is late game. Face of the Mountain, Ruby Sightstone, Righteous Glory, Locket, all of these have health components and will add to it. Resistances are flat, or scale relatively quickly, so you're going to be pretty frontloaded with armor and MR runes. That's completely fine. Braum is unique in that he scales off both, so there is no wrong answer.

Armor Quints are better since Armor Seals were nerfed, so that IP isn't wasted. There are other good choices for Quints of course-- some folks swear by MS. I like it on jungle Tanks, but not supports. Gold Generation fell out of favor, but that was what I used until recently.

Braum can run out of mana, especially comboing, but I wouldn't say it's something you have to really worry about. Get an early Glacial Shroud, or round out your backs with mana pots if you think you'll need them.

Frozen Heart is probably one of the best tank items in the game. 20% CDR, Mana, huge armor component, heavily underrated aura. Omen's is great if you're using the active, but the recent nerf really changed the dynamic between the two items. If you're going with a traditional support build, you should end up with an intermediate level of health, so the health difference between the two isn't going to be a huge deficit. Honestly, every team should have at least one FH. Locket too.

Terraeclipse12/18/2014, 8:21:18 PM1 votes

I wish I personally had more clues for you on braum other than practice. However, I do have a suggestion.

One of the Diamond people I mod for on twitch plays braum, and she's a support main so she may be able to provide you a decent amount of advise to this question if you swing by :

http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/tips-tricks/W7KqoJiI-free-coaching-from-diamonds

-T

AMYS GRAVE12/18/2014, 9:46:53 PM1 votes

i love braum and i support a lot. my thoughts go like this:

masteries: for tanky supports in general i go 0-9-21 picking up all the relevant gold masteries along the way and i also take the inspiration mastery to catch up on exp that i lose while i'm off warding and once laning phase breaks i'll be around our mid and top laner who have been getting solo lane exp and are higher level.

runes: armor seals and MR glyphs. i go gp10 quints but AS quints certainly aren't wrong. i find that braum isn't a terribly great dualer and often my allies help a lot in procing my passive so i don't worry about the AS as much as gold generation. for the AD marks i think more damage comes from his q and his allies than his AA so i go for Magic Pen marks instead. if you are surviving long enough then AD marks can work but the MP scales into the late game a bit better. i've also seen people take armor marks on supports but i think your marks are better used with primary marks. marks are another place to put your AS runes if you are sold on that.

play: i tend to hang back a bit only going forward to land an occasional q and for some bush control. once the enemy tries to hit my carry immediately w e to them and they won't be able to hurt either of you too badly and as long as your carry hits them you will win the trade.

learning the range of his abilities helps a lot and will come with time, don't worry too much about that.

tl;dr i don't think bruam is going to dual anyone but he is a protector of carries.