Wild Rift Brand build guide: Best runes, items, tips and more

Patch 2.4 of League of Legends: Wild Rift brought lots of changes around its metagame, with the introduction of its champion ban system, a new Wild Pass with exclusive rewards, and four new champions.

The first of these arrived with the Rise of the Sentinels event, with the good looking, high flying Akshan making his way into the Rift, while a mysterious character from the Shadow Isles emerged to take over the world, with the addition of the Chain Warden, Thresh.

This time, thanks to the new Frost and Flame event, players now have the chance to learn more about Brand, a champion who roams Valoran in search of other World Runes, swearing revenge for wrongs he could never possibly have suffered in a dozen mortal lifetimes.

Brand’s active and passive abilities

With his passive, Blaze, all of his spells will light his targets ablaze, dealing damage over four seconds, stacking up to three times. If Brand kills an enemy while it’s ablaze, he will regain mana.

When Blaze reaches max stacks on a Champion or large monster, it will become unstable, making it detonate two seconds later, and applying spell effects and massive damage in an area around the victim.

Let's move on to his active skills:

• Sear: Brand launches a ball of fire forward that deals magic damage. If the target is ablaze, Sear will stun the target for 1.5 seconds.
• Pillar of Flame: After a short delay, Brand creates a Pillar of Flame at a target area, dealing magic damage to enemy units within the area. Units that are ablaze will take an additional 25% damage.
• Conflagration: Brand conjures a powerful blast at his target that spreads to nearby enemies, dealing magic damage. If the target is ablaze, Conflagration's spread is doubled.
• Ultimate - Pyroclasm: Brand unleashes a devastating torrent of fire that bounces up to 5 times off of Brand and nearby enemies, dealing magic damage to enemies each time it bounces. Bounces prioritize stacking Blaze to max on Champions. If a target is ablaze, Pyroclasm will briefly slow them down.

Runes and spells recommended for Brand

Brand is mostly known for being a headache for all kinds of players, since his long-range attacks can counter many of his enemies without having to risk himself, while also poking his enemies with good combos that put them at the edge of extinction.

• Aery: This is a great resource due to its utility value, as it can damage enemies and protect allies with a shield, each time you summon an ability on any of them.
• Brutal: Grants bonus ability power and magic penetration.
• Adaptive Carapace: Grants 50 HP and if you are below 50% HP, adds a bonus of 12 AR or 12 MR, based on the damage type you took more of over the last 60 seconds.
• Manaflow Band: Increases your maximum mana by dealing damage to enemy champions.

As Brand is used mainly in the bottom or dragon lane as support, his summoner spells allow him to aid allies in combat.

• Flash: This allows you to have more entry and escape options in case your immobilization abilities are not on hand, or just if you want to make sure your opponent gets affected by your skill shots.
• Ignite: Use it as a tool to finish off enemies in case they want to escape with low health, as well as open a window of opportunity against enemies with lifesteal or healing abilities.

The best items for Brand

Brand’s item comp will be focused on exploiting his ability power, making him a hard opponent to deal with a large amount of damage he will do as the game progresses, opening the chance to become both a support and a second carry.

• Liandry's Torment: Being in combat with enemy champions generates one stack every second for the next 4 seconds, dealing extra damage for each stack. Also, this allows you to do more damage based on your enemies’ health, doubling if they are slowed or immobilized.
• Ionian Boots of Lucidity: Reduces summoner spell cooldowns by 15%, in addition to granting bonus movement speed out of combat. We recommend using them with Stasis Enchant, to make you invulnerable with its effect for a few seconds.
• Rylai's Crystal Scepter: Grants a slow effect on attacks hit on any target, plus additional health and ability power.
• Morellonomicon: Grants magic penetration, while also applies Grievous Wounds to enemy champions for 3 seconds when you attack them.
• Rabadon's Deathcap: Dramatically increases ability power by 40%.

You can complete his comp by picking either Archangel's Staff, Void Staff, or Luden's Tempest to get more AP and some other tools. You can also choose to go with a more utility-based build by buying Harmonic Echo, Ardent Censer, and Redemption.

Tips for Brand’s playstyle

As we said earlier, Brand is a ranged nuker who specializes in area of effect damage, by creating spells combinations with all of his abilities and his passive, so practising many combos with him will be more than crucial to find the victory on the Rift.

At early, you can easily clear out waves of minions with Brand by leading with his Pillar of Flame, wait for it to hit, and then strike any of the targets with Conflagration to deal extra damage in a larger area. Although if you want to take advantage of his area damage, you should try to hit a target with Sear first.

Afterwards, use his Conflagration to light all nearby enemies into Ablaze, and then top off with Pillar of Flame for a great bonus of magic damage from his passive. You can also lead with Conflagration if your target won’t be able to dodge you and your attacks.

Playing with Brand, you should be aware of your surroundings and your cooldowns, as everything you have in hand in the moment of a teamfight can drastically change the outcome of a battle. For example, you will always want the stun from Sear when fighting champions, so your best shot will be to wait until the enemies pack together to strike hard against them.

Now, the best possible use for his Pyroclasm will be when two or more enemies are standing together, as this bouncing time bomb will trigger a pandemonium once it’s summoned. Either you want to use it to kill off any opponent with Blaze stacks, or just to clean the enemy’s push, his Ultimate can create a fiery storm they won’t be able to stop once unleashed.

Be aware that since Brand is a combo-based champion, sometimes you will want to wait for cooldowns before even casting one spell, so try to use the most efficient way possible for any offensive or defensive situation, and don’t forget to practice with his aim, as this mage can be quite tricky to use, but it’s very destructive once you master him.

• Read more: Wild Rift Wild Pass Season 2: Release date, rewards, price, missions and more

Don't forget to check out more champion guides, as well as new updates through our Wild Rift dedicated section.